BobRyan said:
There is no text saying we have an immortal soul or spirit -- and I think we all agree.
No we don't all agree. Most of us agree that you fail to believe the Bible on this point. Christ promises us eternal life, not eternal, and then lose eternal by putting us into a dormant state, and then once again give us eternal life. What foolishness is this! What a denial of Scripture is this! It denies the very words of Christ "eternal life," and makes Christ a liar, saying that he gives us only temporary life and not eternal. Eternal means forever and ever, not just temporary. I suggest you look the word up in the dictionary.
But we do find that the person is in a sleeping state during the first death - where the person's body is dust and the soul is dormant or the spirit has gone back to God who gave it - it is in a dormant state waiting to be once again united to a body.
More doctrinal error. Sleep, when connected to death, always refers to the physcial body and never the soul.
1Cor. 11:30--"and many of you sleep." Many of them were dead--physically dead. That was God's judgement upon them. God did not send their souls to purgatory as Bob would have us to believe. He reads into Scripture things that are not there. There is no mention of purgatory, just as there is no mention of soul sleep. We must take the Scripture at face value. It says sleep--physical, death, just as the other judgements were physical: weakly, sick--These do not involve the soul but only the body. "Some of you sleep." Some of you are dead; not the soul, but the body.
John 11--Jesus said Lazarus is dead. Jesus said Lazarus sleeps. He said both. He did not say a word about his soul. He was speaking of his physcial death. Sleep means physical death. Martha knew he was speaking of physical death when she replied "I know that he (his body) shall rise again in the last day." It wasn't his soul she was referring to, but his body. Lazarus slept. He was dead physically. That is what the term sleep refers to.
Now consider what it means in 1Cor.15:
1 Corinthians 15:51-54 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
This entire passage is speaking of the resurrection. But the resurrection always refers to the body (not the soul), unless you don't believe in the resurrection, like the J.W.'s and simply call it a "spirit resurrection." Was it a bodily resurrection or a spirit resurrection that happened with Jesus? There is no such thing as a "spirit resurrection." The concept doesn't even make sense. It is a plain denial of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But here it refers to our resurrection, and our resurrection bodies. We shall all be changed. What will the change be? The change will be in our bodies, of course. Our spirits are already alive, living, and immortal. At the last trump the dead (bodies) shall be raised and mortality shall put on immortality. Our immortal spirit will final receive its immortal body, which was before that time mortal. That mortal body will now become immortal as our spirit. We are immortal beings, only now clothed in an earthly mortal body (see 2Cor.5:1-8).
The resurrection always refers to the body. It never refers to the soul or spirit.
The spirit is how the PERSON is preserved in death - the SOUL is not destroyed in truth until the spirit does perish.
You are very much confused. As David Cloud pointed out, the cults use a keyhole method of interpretation. They take one definiton and force it into every context where the word is used. But this is not the case. The context itself often determines the meaning of a word, as a word may have more than one meaning. the word "soul" is one such word. In Genesis one, the Hebrew word "nephesh" usually translated "soul" is used twice to define animals. Thus we learn that animals have souls. Will there be animals in heaven, therefore? Is the soul of an animal dormant awaiting the resurrection according to your theology. But animals do have souls according to Genesis one.
Nephesh also means "breath."
Context alone determines the meaning of the word.
The soul that sinneth it shall die. Will the soul die, and the body live? I think not! The soul here refers to the entire person.
We find soul and spirit sometimes used interchangeably in the NT. just as in this conversation some of us use the words interchangeably.
In Ezek 18:4 we are told "The SOUL that sin it shall DIE" speaking of the SECOND death where "both body AND SOUL are DESTROYED in hell fire".
Your interpretation is way off base. Ezekiel is speaking of the consequence of sin in this life. The consequence of sin is death. The wages of sin is death. The person who sins shall die. You are reading into that verse something that isn't there. There is that "keyhole" method of interpretation again.
Basically I agree with your statements about what is happening - I just dont label the soul or spirit as "immortal soul" or "immortal spirit" since thse terms are never used in scripture and to the contrary we have texts saying the "SOUL that sins it shall die".
They are never used as immortal in Scripture according to you, only because you don't want to see them used in Scripture that way. When a person calls green grass, purple; that doesn't change the color of the grass just because he says it is purple. The grass is still green. You can rant and rave that the immortality of the soul or spirit is not in the Bible. But the teaching is there, no matter how much you choose to disbelieve it. That is your choice.
But as you have pointed out - the death mentioned there is no the FIRST death -- in that case the soul is dormant waiting for the resurrection.
When one is absent from the body he is present with the Lord. You are confused and brainwashed with a false doctrine. There is no such thing as a dormant soul (or spirit). We (at death) await either Hell or heaven, pending our decision to trust Christ or reject him.