Aunty Jane
Well-Known Member
I cannot find anything in the Bible, that is even close to what you just suggested. Who said that we are “spiritually alive eternally”? And who is “we”? The scripture quoted above tells us that the saints 'sleep in death' until Christ’s return.....so where is the evidence for the belief that the word “eternal” applies to anyone but God alone? “Eternal” means “having no beginning or end”....every living thing had a beginning......except the Creator.We are spiritually alive eternally, and after death are waiting in heaven with the Lord until the Kingdom of God in heaven is complete, then the last trump will sound and our bodies too shall be resurrected immortal, and made alive again through the spirit that shall return with Christ, and the living shall once again be complete living soul with body + spirit to inhabit the new earth forever.
Who is Solomon addressing? His own people, the Israelites. He is not speaking to those without faith...he is talking to God’s people, and his words are part of the Hebrew Scriptures which Jesus and his apostles often quoted from.Ecclesiastes 9:5 (KJV) For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
Ecclesiastes 9:6 (KJV) Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.
Of course Solomon understood when the body of those who die without faith goes into the grave there is no more life for them. They are already condemned because in life they were without faith. After death their next waking moment shall be when they are resurrected to stand before God in judgement and are judged according to what is found written in the books and the book of life. Since their names were not recorded in the book of life from the foundation of the world, they will be cast into the lake of fire that is the second death.
Ecclesiastes 9:10 (KJV) Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
That is a bit embellished IMO...and a far cry from immediate life after death.In chapter 12 of Ecclesiastes Solomon tells us to remember the Creator while we can, because the time now in this world is when our eternal fate is determined. We can live our lives without remembering God and go through life in fear, knowing that death awaits us forever, or we can cling to our Creator in faith and understand that when we die our spirit (breath of life) will return to God. If we have no memory of God, then our spirit breath of life shall return to God in darkness and unbelief, knowing nothing but silence and death. But for those who remember their Creator in life, shall be rewarded with eternal, immortal life by grace through faith in the end of these days when Christ shall return.
Do you know what the rest of that scripture is referring to?Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 (KJV) Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low; Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
All of those symbolisms are about getting old and the various bodily functions failing before we eventually die. And when we take our last breath, the spirit (breath of life) returns to God in that he is the only one who can restore the life and breath of those whom he resurrects through Jesus. All the resurrections performed by Jesus and his apostles in the Bible, were back to earthly life.
All who have died have been 'acquitted' of their former sins (Romans 6:7) because the death penalty is the highest you can pay under God’s law for the worst sins.
Jesus promises to resurrect those who did good as well as those who didn’t. (John 5:28-29) The ones who died in ignorance because they lived at a time, or in a place where the true God was not known, will get their opportunity. They will be judged during the thousand year reign of Christ and his elect. The only ones judged before then are the “sheep and the goats”.....these are the ones living now in this judgment period called “the time of the end”......the time when the message of the kingdom has been preached “in all the inhabited earth as a witness”, either for people who have accepted it, or against those who rejected it. There will be no excuses when Christ comes as judge.....he will reward the sheep with everlasting life....and punish the goats with eternal death. That’s it.