nPeace
Veteran Member
I very much appreciate that you want to be clear. I believe that's very important in good conversation, and discussion.I appreciate your well thought our response. But you missed part of my question. A Catholic friend of mine was once asking me what I believe. I explained that I believe we lived as spirits before we were born. He responded that he believes a spirit enters the body near birth, but he doesn't believe that spirit existed before that moment. In his scenario a mortal person lives with a spirit "in" (for lack of a better word) the physical body. My impression from one of your posts is that you don't believe that. In your view, we right now do not have a "spirit" component to our being. We are physical only. (Paul says the physical is first). The spirit, in your view, is created at death and is what moves on after death (Paul says the spirit is second). Is that correct or do I misunderstand? Do you believe in the resurrection, meaning that at some point in time, the spirit and the physical body will be united and we will live as physical resurrected beings? I know I'm not answering your question about what I think of your quote from Paul. First, I'm trying to understand how you understand it in relation to spirits and physical bodies.
Yes, Evidently, you misunderstood me, but I believe this is due to how you are seeing spirit.
The Bible says God is a spirit. John 4:23, 24
The Bible also says, angels are spirit. Psalm 104:4; Hebrews 1:7
Paul said, ". . . there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies; but the glory of the heavenly bodies is one sort, and that of the earthly bodies is a different sort" (1 Corinthians 15:40)
The heavenly bodies are made for heaven... that goes without saying.
It goes without saying too, that they are different to earthly bodies... made for earth. Paul said that.
(1 Corinthians 15:44, 45, 47, 48)
Thus, to live in heaven, one needs a spirit body. They must become spirit - like God, and the angels.
(1 Corinthians 15:50)
On earth, they are not spirits, nor do they have spirit bodies. They are physical, or fleshly beings.
They need to eat, breath, and sleep.
So, to be clear, there are two kinds of bodies - spirit, and fleshly; spiritual and physical; heavenly and earthly.
Regarding the physical body - whether it be fish, duck, antelope, or man, unlike the spirit body, which is self-sustaining - doesn't need to breath, eat or sleep, to live, the physical body needs to be sustained. What sustains it?
(James 2:26) . . . the body without spirit is dead. . .
God provided what the physical body needs in order to keep it alive, hence all the food, water, air, and sleep will not be enough to keep one alive... if the spirit goes out.
(Psalms 104:29) ... If you take away their spirit, they die and return to the dust.
(Psalm 146:4) . . . His spirit goes out, he returns to the ground; On that very day his thoughts perish.
What is the spirit that God gave to man, to sustain his life? First off, it is not a spirit body, as mentioned earlier.
That spirit is...
Genesis 2:7; Genesis 7:15, 22; Ecclesiastes 3:19; Isaiah 42:5
...the force of life - what sustains our breath. It's also called the breath of life.
The spirit in man, therefore, is not any kind of body, or soul, that lives on after death.
Rather, it is what represents our life, because it is what gives life too the physical body.
Did you notice, the Bible says, man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7). The opposite to that, is a dead soul. (Ezekiel 18:4)
Nowhere in the Bible does it speak of man having an immortal existence.
Any prospect of life rests in God's hands during life, and after death.
(Ecclesiastes 12:7) Then the dust returns to the earth, just as it was, and the spirit returns to the true God who gave it.
If we die, and God remembers us, our life will be restored to us, by God. However, he gives it a body just as it has pleases him. (1 Corinthians 15:38)
If our hope exists in the heavens, God will give us a new body for heavenly life - a spirit body.
(Philippians 3:20, 21) 20 But our citizenship exists in the heavens, and we are eagerly waiting for a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our humble body to be like his glorious body by his great power that enables him to subject all things to himself. (2 Corinthians 5:1; Colossians 1:5)
However, millions of us - in fact billions, will not get a spirit body, since our citizenship is not heavenly. We have not been adopted as sons, but rather, we wait for the blessings that will come through the adopted sons.
(Romans 8:21-23) 21 that the creation itself will also be set free from enslavement to corruption and have the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 For we know that all creation keeps on groaning together and being in pain together until now. 23 Not only that, but we ourselves also who have the firstfruits, namely, the spirit,...
In this way, God's universal family will be made up of spirit (spiritual) bodies, and fleshly (physical) bodies - heavenly and earthly creation.
There is a lot more I can say, for clarity, but this will require more time and scripture - which I don't mind, but I don't want to overwhelm you, by making this any longer.
What I gave here are the basic, for clarity.
Please let me know if it's clear enough.