ChristRoseFromTheDead said:
That would appear not to be the case. There is no mention of anything after death but judgment.
... it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: Hebrews 9:27
Judgment is executed against what is done in this life, in a body. A dead person's soul has no body. If it doesn't have a body, how can it repent?
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things [done] in [his] body, according to that he hath done, whether [it be] good or bad. 2 Corinthians 5:10
A dead person's soul can have regrets after death, but that is not repentance. The dead rich man in Luke 16:19-31 was not offered repentance even though he wanted to keep others out of what he was in.
I was going to quote the same verse, but you did it first.
I was going to make the same statement about the after life, but you did it first.
The point of difficulty is that most folk do not understand the difference between time and eternity. Time changes. Eternity does not.
C.S. Lewis suggested that man is a spiritual amphibian - part physical body and part spiritual body. Ancient Christian theologians went to great lengths to explain and expand on the idea. Man is part spirit and part flesh. While the spirit cannot change, it can be reborn as something else and that's why Jesus said 'you must be born again'.
The problem with the spirit of man is that it has no self-identity apart from its connection to the physical body. Once the body dies, all that its has known and all that it has reference to is lost. Gone. Dead. Forever apart with no hope of reintegration. The identity - that which defines the man - is taken away by natural causes.
Hell is not a place of medieval flame. It is torment that arises from a loss of identity. It is a place of total and utter blackness.
The Bible describes the lost as stars wandering in an endless void of darkness. Nothing is worse than losing one's identity. It is a burning and a thirst greater than that caused by any fire.
The greatest single mental and spiritual question in the hearts of man today is his identity. Clothing, for example, used to have labels inside so that the wearer would know where he got it. Today labels and logos are outside the clothing so that we can show others who we are. Identity. We identify with a nation, with a sport team, with a community, with a family and for some even with a popular TV show like Star Trek or Xfiles. Identity is life and when its lost there is nothing.
Philosophers, who are the secular equivalent of speaking in tongues, wrestle with the concept of identity. More often than not, even angels don't know what philosophers are talking about. But it sounds good to some.
Human identity is lost at death - unless the human spirit merges with another spiritual identity. It's called being born-again and is only possible in Jesus Christ. At that point the spirit of God actually merges and meshes with the human spirit to create an entirely new creature, a new spirit. The pages of the NT are full of references to this new creature and it isn't simply a conviction. It is physical and spiritual reality that allows the identity to survive physical death.
One of the things that teaches man his identity is pain. Smashing one's finger proves that one has a finger. Pain proves limits and proves to the mind the extent of the body. Pleasure does the same thing although nothing draws as much attention to itself as pain. Nobody likes it, but pain proves one's identity and shows one his limits.
As soon as the honeymoon of the experience of the second birth is over - pain starts. It is evidenced in doubt, spiritual battles, mental and physical wrestling of all sorts with a special point as to the faith. One is said to grow in the faith, but what is actually happening at a very deep level is the definition of spiritual identity - an identity that cannot die.
Those that do not have the second birth do not wrestle in the spirit. They may have intellectual debates, but it never goes to the depth of spiritual pain. Ever. Nobody likes pain, physical or spiritual or otherwise yet it too is a blessing in that it defines our identity. It shows us who and what we are. It proves that part of us will live forever.
and that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...