God does not grant eternal Life
God does not grant eternal Life
This is the OP of my new thread in the ECT forum that I hope "my friends" will read and participate.. I fully realize that words mean something and all too often require insight for accurate/complete understanding. I have endeavored to be as succinct as is possosile, given my education. I pray much can be gleaned for it. For this reason I ask for all to tread lightly because this is NOT an exhausted paper. Thank you:
God does not grant eternal life to anyone reconciled to Him anymore than He does not grant eternal death to those who die not reconciled to Him. It is what it is. Heaven is the is the only place a reconciled soul can go upon departing his flesh.
The soul of man is a completely independent entity apart from the body, desired by God to be in complete union with Him. No flesh can please God. When the soul of a man refuses to grant God His desire, God has no choice but separate Himself from it which leaves it in eternal despair. (cf Gen 3:21 KJV) God is bound by the demand laid upon Him by His own Holiness, i.e., no sin; unreconciled soul, can stand in His Presence (Ex 33:20-23 KJV).
So now the issue becomes, what happens to the 'everliving unreconciled soul of man that when separated from its 'counterpart body' that was joined with it by God’s gifted "breath of Life"; human spirit, which upon the death of the body, is returned to God Who gave it? "Then shall the dust [body] return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." Ecclesiastes 12:7 (KJV)
Leaving the soul of man that cannot die to be atoned for lest it remain eternally separated from the presence of God to aimlessly ‘drift’ in the blackest darkness downward as being in “bottomless pit” with complete sensation as to what is happening to it. “And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the “bottomless pit”. Revelation 9:1ff (KJV)
I believe it is bottomless because God has made no place on earth to abide ”falling” man, either in this life or the next. Hence, no contact, no remembrance of them in the new Heaven and Earth. (cf1Sam28:7)
"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you". Romans 8:9-11 (KJV)
In this is the word death never to be misunderstood to be a biological death where it ends in a sudden fashion but, a spiritual one that cannot ever end because of make up of man’s existence decreed to be in the likeness of God and we know, God cannot die. Therefore, when speaking of death in man it is meant to be understood as a departure away from the presence of God not unlike Lucifer who was cast out of Heaven; away from the Holy presence of God.
Question: Did Lucifer actually die? Did his soul die? Yes. Does he still exist? Again, yes. But for Satan, there will no resurrection but eternal chains.
Same as man. How come because his soul can't die and his body subjected to decay, resides in dust in the earth.
Why not ask yourself the question why God prevented Adam from eating of the tree of Life after he transgressed?
If I said that had he eaten of it would have placed none redeemable chains upon him and all his progeny; chains that could never be removed be God because he would have become as God . . . . but, without Holiness. Who is greater than God? Who could have redeemed him? Now re-read, “If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. Hebrews 6:6 (KJV)
Where could repentance have stemmed when there would have been not even the desire for it? “Vanity”, the law of the flesh, now being their eternal god. Reconciliation with God would have been impossible.
Now, bring this all up to the NT to understand what Jesus was attempting to convey to Nicodemus re new birth, for him to understand in his desire to know, to also understand the responsibility that would have been laid upon him in the matter upon receiving it, Paul was attempting the convey in Heb.6:1-6 KJV.