Um...you need lungs to breathe. The base meaning of the word "soul" in Hebrew is a "breather". Animals are also called "souls" in Genesis. God created man as superior to the animals. He alone was given God's qualities and attributes....but it was Solomon who commented on the fact that animals and humans breathe the same air, have the same spirit and yet all die the same death....where was the human superiority over animals then, he wondered? (
Ecclesiastes 3:19-20)
The soul allows the body to breathe because the soul is what gives life, and that is why the soul comes into being at the moment of conception.
Read the creation account in Genesis and tell me where God mentions death except as a punishment? Why is death referred to as an enemy? Why has God promised to eliminate death among mankind? (
Revelation 21:3-4)
Eliminating death refers to eliminating spiritual death, not physical death, as I explained to URAVIP2ME:
#421
It is not possible to eliminate physical death because physical bodies were not created by God to be immortal.
If death takes us to a better place then why do we grieve?
Simply put, because most people do not realize that the spiritual world is a better place and people fear the unknown. It takes faith to believe in something that is mostly unknown but that is what God has called us to do.
Again read the creation account and see that there was a means to preserve human life eternally in the garden. Humans had free access to this "tree of life" until they chose their course of disobedience.
Genesis 3:22-24...
"Then the Lord God said, “See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life."
Then you have to ask what the tree of life stands for.
“The tree of life is the highest degree of the world of existence: the position of the Word of God, and the supreme Manifestation. Therefore, that position has been preserved; and, at the appearance of the most noble supreme Manifestation, it became apparent and clear. For the position of Adam, with regard to the appearance and manifestation of the divine perfections, was in the embryonic condition; the position of Christ was the condition of maturity and the age of reason; and the rising of the Greatest Luminary 4 was the condition of the perfection of the essence and of the qualities. This is why in the supreme Paradise the tree of life is the expression for the center of absolutely pure sanctity—that is to say, of the divine supreme Manifestation. From the days of Adam until the days of Christ, They spoke little of eternal life and the heavenly universal perfections. This tree of life was the position of the Reality of Christ; through His manifestation it was planted and adorned with everlasting fruits.” Some Answered Questions, p. 124
We live forever (gain eternal life) through Jesus, as He said. Never did Jesus say that the body lives forever. Jesus was always referring to eternal life of the soul.
John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
1 John 5:13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.
John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
All souls continue to exist in the spiritual world after the body dies but not all souls have eternal life (everlasting life).
Eternal life refers to a “quality” of life,
nearness to God, which according to Jesus comes from believing in Him. One can have eternal life in this earth world as well as in the spiritual world (afterlife).
“The immortality of the spirit is mentioned in the Holy Books; it is the fundamental basis of the divine religions. Now punishments and rewards are said to be of two kinds: first, the rewards and punishments of this life; second, those of the other world. But the paradise and hell of existence are found in all the worlds of God, whether in this world or in the spiritual heavenly worlds. Gaining these rewards is the gaining of eternal life. That is why Christ said, “Act in such a way that you may find eternal life, and that you may be born of water and the spirit, so that you may enter into the Kingdom.” 2”
Some Answered Questions, p. 223
“Entrance into the Kingdom is through the love of God, through detachment, through holiness and chastity, through truthfulness, purity, steadfastness, faithfulness and the sacrifice of life.” Some Answered Questions, p. 242
Living forever on earth in mortal flesh was God's first purpose. We were never supposed to die...which is why we cling to erroneous doctrines that suggest that we don't really die at all....we just go on living in some invisible realm. God told Adam that he would simply die and return to the dust from which he was made. There is no mention of an afterlife of any kind.
When humans disobeyed they lost access to the one thing that guaranteed that their physical, mortal life would not end.
I hope you realize that is
impossible, because if nobody ever died no more people could ever be born, because the Earth could not accommodate birth without physical death. This is a belief that is based upon nothing but Christians believing that life and death referred to physical life and death when in fact it referred to spiritual life and death.
We do not die, only our physical body dies, but after we die physically we go to the other realm (which is really not separate from this realm, we just cannot see it) we get a new body composed of spiritual elements that exist in the spiritual realm, which is not a realm of time and space, so there are no limits on souls who can exist there. When God told Adam that he would simply die and return to the dust from which he was made, God was referring to Adam’s physical body.
Spiritual life and death was not spoken of in the Old Testament because that did not enter the picture until Jesus Christ entered the picture and conferred spiritual life upon humanity, the chance for eternal life in a heavenly realm. I do not know why Christians refer back to the Old Testament and try to make it FIT with the New Testament; Jesus changed everything, so there is no need to look at what happened in the days of Moses. That was a different Dispensation.
This is not what the Bible teaches. Why would God created mortal physical beings if he was just going to take them somewhere else after a rough life here on earth? The angels already existed in heaven long before the universe was created.....millions of them.....and they did not have to start their life as humans on earth.
Everyone started on earth. Angels got to be angels by living a pure spiritual life on Earth. We have to live on earth to acquire the spiritual virtues we will need to enter the spiritual world, and then we can become angels. That is the whole purpose for our life on earth. We have to earn our wings so to speak. After a rough life on Earth, then we are freed from this material world, which is what causes all the pain and sorrow. Why would we want to continue to live forever in a world like this? I know you are thinking it will be recreated into a New Earth, but the New Earth refers to the Kingdom of God humans will build for future generations who will also have to live here before they too go to heavenly realm. Paradise by contrast refers to the spiritual realm.
Earth was designed to be our permanent home, where we could enjoy everlasting life...whilst taking care of the planet, its myriad lifeforms and each other. We fell short in our assignment...but God never changed his plans for us. (
Isaiah 55:11) He had to fix what was wrong and then take us back to that original plan.
I see nothing in the Bible that says that was God’s original plan that physical bodies would live forever on earth. That was simply how some Christians interpreted the Bible. Many other Christians believe in a heaven people go to after they die, but Christians do not have a clue what that will be like. Baha’is are not told that much about the afterlife but we have a better conception because of what Baha’u’llah wrote about the soul. Here is a long article written by a Baha’i scholar:
Death and Dying in the Bahá'í Faith
There is no "hell". The Bible speaks of "sheol" and "hades" both of which mean the common grave of mankind. It is a place of rest, not torment. (
Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10) When humans invented the idea of an immortal soul, they had to invent places for those souls to go. The Bible makes no mention of them.
There is no place called hell. Hell is simply eternal separation from God. It is a state of the soul who failed in its allegiance to its Creator and became a victim to self and passion.
“Thou hast asked Me concerning the nature of the soul. Know, verily, that the soul is a sign of God, a heavenly gem whose reality the most learned of men hath failed to grasp, and whose mystery no mind, however acute, can ever hope to unravel. It is the first among all created things to declare the excellence of its Creator, the first to recognize His glory, to cleave to His truth, and to bow down in adoration before Him. If it be faithful to God, it will reflect His light, and will, eventually, return unto Him. If it fail, however, in its allegiance to its Creator, it will become a victim to self and passion, and will, in the end, sink in their depths.” Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 158-159
