MY RESPONSE: Indeed, salvation is by grace and through faith; and the Spirit o God bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
But, as to having an "eternal soul" that has its own body, brain, senses, etc, that can experience something after literal death, I have yet to find it in Scripture. In fact, many scriptures tell us the soul, which involves our senses and our ability to experience life, dies when
the person dies.
Many times man is called a "soul" inthe scriptures:
Gen.12:5 "Abram took his wife....and the souls they had gotten in Haran;" 46:26 "All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt.." AV
Acts 2:41 "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added....about three thousand souls."
See also Acts 2:43, 7:14, 27:37; Rom.2:9, 13:1; 1 Cor.15:45; James 5:20; 1 Pet.3:20; 2 Pet.2:14; Rev.6:9, 18:13, 20:4.
The soul is said to die, be destroyed, or be dead:
Num.23:10 "Let me ("my soul' in Hebrew) die the death of the righteous."
Josh. 10:28 "And that day Joshua....smote it with the edge of the sword and the king thereof....and all the souls therein."
see also: Josh,10:30,32,35,39; 11:11; Jer.2:34; Eze.13:19; 22:25-27.
Eze. 18:4 "....the soul that sinneth, it shall die."
Paul tells us in 1 Cor.15:51-58, that at the trumpet sound the dead (in Christ) will be raised imperishable, and we (the living) shall be changed: the mortal putting on immortality.
Untill then, only Christ hath immortality; ref. 1 Tim. 6:16.
The cure for death is resurrection.
On the contrary, Scripture tells us that the soul lives on after our physical death. The soul is that part of man that contains our memories and personality, without which, we would cease to be who we are. The Bible says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. You can't get any more clear than that.
2Co 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
Php 1:21 ¶ For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
22 But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. 23 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: 24 Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
Death=Separation. When it says that a sinning soul shall die, it means that it will be separated from God. Hell is the place where dead souls dwell after physical death.
Re 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Christians Do go to heaven:
Mr 16:19 So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.
2Co 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
(KJV)
Php 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
22 But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.
23 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
24 Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
People in heaven:
Re 19:1 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God:
(KJV)
Jesus Christ is going to rule and reign on the earth. The believers will be with Him on the earth at that time. Right now believer's go to heaven to be with the Lord Jesus Christ because that is where He is.