Peg, Sorry but your “logic” is incorrect. Adam did not cease to exist when his flesh died. Just the flesh man Adam died. His soul and spirit returned to God. He is not sleeping either. His was one of the spirits that Christ preached to during the days Christ was in the tomb. Now I realize you will not understand this but it is the way it is. Period! The ultimate punishment for sin is eternal death. The soul is blotted out; ceases to exist. But God is fair and just, He will not condemn a soul to eternal death without that soul having had a chance to hear and except or reject the Good News. Every one, every one that goes through this flesh age will make that decision on their own. That is why He went to those that had died before His death and resurrection. That is the reason we are in this 2nd earth and heaven age, and there is a third heaven and earth age coming.
Animals do not have that chance. They are living creatures but they do not have a soul like ours.
you can tell me my logic is incorrect, but i'd much prefer you show me from the scriptures that my logic is incorrect. What is really being debated here is not 'theology' but rather what the scritpures mean and say about death. What happens to us when we die is the question....not what the current theology is about death and the soul.
I have provided scritpures that explain the state of mankind when they die which is what the thread is asking.
Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10
Psalm 115:17
Psalm 146:4
Isaiah 38:18
Job 7:9-10
Psalm 78:39
I have also provided the meaning of the hebrew words for soul and spirit and examples of how they are used in the bible.
Strongs hebrew Dictionary says of Nephesh/Soul= a soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite, emotion
Ruwach/Spirit= a primitive root; properly, to blow, i.e. breathe;
The Dictionary of Bible and Religion says, it “usually refers to the entire living being, to the whole individual.”
Genesis 2:7 says the man became a 'living soul' when the breath of life (spirit) was put into him. The king James version says that Adam became a 'living soul' as do many others.
In the Darby translation they use 'living soul' in Gen 1:20 about the animals
The Darby Translation: Gen 1: 20 "And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living souls,
The Hebrew Interlinear shows that the word in the original language is in fact 'soul' in this verse
Gen 1:20 and·he-is-saying Elohim they-shall-roam the·waters roamer-of soul living (nphsh) and·flyer,
Even in the New testament we see the same ideas carried over. When Jesus went to the young girl who had died he said 'she is only sleeping' Matt. 9:18, 23-25 this shows that jesus view of the dead is that they are in a sleeplike condition just as the hebrew scriptures state. He said that same thing about Lazarus in John 11:11
Then we have the example of how 'Psyche/Soul' is used by the apostles. 1 Pet. 3:20 KJV "...in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is,
eight souls (psy‧khai) were saved by water."
So Peter says that the living family were the 'eight souls' who survived....IOW they were souls because they were alive just as Genesis states 'Adam came to be a living soul'.
And the NT gives us another line of evidence that when we die we go back to the ground and remain there in the words of Peter and John. John says that 'no man has ascended into heaven' John 3:13 & Peter says specifically that King David did not ascend to heaven but that he is still in his tomb Acts 2:29, 34.
So i think the bible does provide more then enough evidence that when we die, we cease to exist in any sort of form.
the punishment for adam, as with all mankind IS death. adam DID die, physically but not spiiritually. at adam's death, his body returned to the dust from which it came but his spirit returned to heaven from which it came. adam's spirit is still alive with god as will mine be when i die.
what YOU say is NOT what the bible says, but rather how YOU interpret or comprehend it.
i perceive that you have MISSED the true meaning of god's word.
Can you provide any evidence from the scriptures that Adam was given a heavenly reward for his disobedience?