Can I ask you where that is written? I cannot find those two words “immortal soul” side by side in any passage of scripture….it seems to be an almost universal assumption…..yet the Jews were NEVER taught that their soul was immortal. They believed that living breathing creatures, (both humans and animals) ARE “souls”….and in both cases they die the same death (Eccl 3:19-20)…..breathing stops and the soul dies along with the body (Ezekiel 18:4).……the Bible does not teach that humans were “given” a soul when they were conceived.….but that they (like Adam) “became“ a soul with “the breath (spirit) of life”. (Genesis 2:7)
what is important, is where that soul will spend eternity.
All living, breathing “souls” were created to live on earth. Only spirit beings inhabit the spirit realm, and God had already created his angelic sons to dwell there……millions of them. Earth was never supposed to be a training ground for heaven.
“Everlasting life” was supposed to be lived right here, and the “tree of life” was there in the garden to guarantee that humans who obeyed God could live forever. We know that they did not obey their God and lost that prospect, having access denied by God to the only means to keep them alive forever….this is not immortality or the command containing the death penalty would have been meaningless. An immortal cannot die. Nowhere did God tell his people that they could be immortal after death. He taught them that there could be a restoration of life by means of a resurrection, but this was a return to life, not a continuation of it in another form, in another realm.
God sent Jesus to pay the debt that Adam left for all his children…..he gave his life in exchange for ours so that God’s first purpose could be restored….it was impossible for it to fail. (Isaiah 55:11)
do they have eternal life, or eternal death (also called the second death)
There is only one who has lived eternally, and that is the Father, Yahweh. He alone was immortal and is the Creator of all living things. His first creation was his “only begotten son”….the only “son” to be created directly by his Father, (Rev 3:14) who was used thereafter in the creation of all other things in heaven and on earth. ( Col 1:15-17; John 1:2-3)
Those saved by the sacrifice of Christ, have two different destinies……there are those chosen as God’s “elect” were to be transformed into spirit beings in order to rule with Jesus as “kings and priests” in heaven, (Rev 20:6) these alone are granted immortal spirit life for the purpose of ruling redeemed mankind who will be resurrected back to the earth, and will be granted everlasting life if they have proved faithful. (John 5:28-29) Many of those resurrected will not have known God or his Christ in the past and will be given opportunity to become citizens of God’s kingdom, ruled by its hand picked “kings and priests”.
There seems to be this blanket belief that if you declare yourself a Christian, it automatically means that you are of the elect…..but that is not true. God chooses his elect, (a little flock. Luke 12:32) but the majority of Jesus’ disciples will live on earth, where God put us in the first place. We had an assignment from God that we have never had an opportunity to fulfill…..that of taking care of all that God created….the planet…its many creatures….and each other….the devil was permitted to introduce his rulership over the human race to prove that only those who obey God will succeed. Just look at the mess the earth is in…..only God’s kingdom will bring the earth back to paradise and remove those who are presently ruining it. (Rev 11:18)
Jesus came so that we can finally be what God intended us to be…his stewards here on this beautifully prepared earth, designed to bring us nothing but delight….living forever in paradise on earth…..not heaven.