Can a soul be immortal ? ...

Your bible could explain about this common misunderstanding ... clearly

 Few people seem to trouble to understand what a soul is, or they would not even consider the idea that it could be immortal , so let us perhaps see what the scripture says a soul is ...?

Here is the creation and death of a soul :-

Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Ecclesiastes 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

The spirit enters a lifeless body to animate it as a living soul, and at death the spirit returns to God, whether good or evil was the lot of the soul in life ...

The soul then is created by the spirit in the body and ceases at death when the spirit returns to God who gave it ...

It is the spirit then which is immortal, cannot die, not the soul ... a soul is simply the life in a body animated by the spirit, life by its very nature is mortal, it ends at death... that is what death is, the end of the soul, the life, in that body...

But God can recreate the soul , even the identical soul, by His spirit being sent into another body or [as in Jesus' case for instance] ,even to re-enter the same body and give it life again , re-create the soul either in this life of in the next life ...

the soul is thus unseen in death, its continuity to resurrection of the same soul being retained by God ... the soul is said in scripture to be in the 'unseen state' , a very poorly understood and much-mistranslated meaning of 'sheol' in the OT and 'hades' in the new which are variously rendered by translators who did not understand the words as 'hell', the pit', the grave' and so on... one can see their problem, but it certainly has led over a billion men astray in their beliefs since they did not resolve the meaning before writing their translations...

life in the body then cannot be immortal , life in the body always ends ... the soul ends at death to be re-created by God sending the spirit into a new body or the same body at resurrection

BUT some men do not see death [as for instance Enoch - Heb 11:5, Gen 5:22] , it is not their soul that is immortal though, it is by translation to spirit ... thus we all must be changed to spirit in final redemption by translation,,a thing many people still confuse with resurrection to the body ...

but resurrection is always from someone that died to a living BODY , a soul restored to the BODY... to be baptised of the spirit then eventually as god has promised all will know Him, know all his truth eventually, even if not in this body, and be trialled in keeping His truth in up to three lives through even a second death as wages of continued sin in the next life in the body...

Thus redemption is by translation to the spirit, not by resurrection to the body, and men are only translated after they are considered perfect by God, that is without sin , no longer sinners :-

2 Timothy 2:19 Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

God could not have had it written in any plainer way I guess , but men still follow sinners' teachings instead of these words from the saint ... sinners will thus be rejected by Jesus at his return even though they call him 'Lord'... but he cannot be lord to anyone who disobeys him and sins any longer... thus the task of the few who find the narrow strait way of sainthood by Jesus' return is to cease from sin, not to hide behind hope in grace ... Paul explained this very common mistake in men that persists to dominate modern religion :-

Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

Jesus makes the point even more definitively :-

Matthew 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Luke 13:27 But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me,all ye workers of iniquity.

It is hard , impossible for many, then , to realise that as a sinner one is wholly unacceptable to God, and yet one cannot escape sin except by death [the broad way] or by grace [the narrow way] of the new covenant with the very few [Rev 7:3-4] who find the strait narrow way of sainthood in this life [ceasing to be sinners through spirit baptism - to know all truth [John 16:13] long enough before death to be able to perfect one's love during this life]

Jesus did not provide a licence to continue in sin and never said there was hope for sinners in this life who do not depart from sin before his return... indeed the scripture says that all are sinners [Jesus excepted, it is understood , so there is no 'original sin' else Jesus would have been a sinner too] ,but that only the FEW find the narrow way in this life...

Thus only few are given grace in this life, only few are baptised to know all truth to be ABLE to defeat Satan's wiles and so be redeemed at Jesus' return...

The hard truth of scripture is then that God never intended to save the many first, but only the few... and that the many are saved AFTERWARD as Jesus states explicitly in Rev 7:9-10

The many that go through death thus go through death to FREE them from sin, that is why death is the wages of sin, but the wages are paid in death, after resurrection one is free from sin to be able to live as a saint in the kingdom of God, and St Peter states that men WILL live righteous lives in the new earth, and so be saved in the same way as the few are in this earth , as saints perfected in love but much later than the few :-

Romans 6:7 [KJV] For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Romans 6:7 [REB]For, he that hath died, hath become righteously acquitted from his sin.

2 Peter 3:13 [KJV] Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

2 Peter 3:13 [REB] But, new heavens, and a new earth, according to his promise, are we expecting, wherein, righteousness, is to dwell.

As God explains in Ezek 18:21, if one turns to righteousness one is saved from death, even from a second death if one turns to righteousness in the new earth kingdom come to all men...

So contrary to modern popular religion, the bible shows that only few are saved at Jesus return, most are saved after death and the second resurrection, not in this life at all ...

The soul is not immortal, it is simply resurrected up to two times from death to free it from sin ... after two deaths then the soul is not allowed any more death though, it has not even then become immortal because God requires that it be redeemed to spirit even from the final trial of faith, the lake of His 'fire' , His truth rained down on men by simply removing the meek and mild on whom the evil prey in this world ... without easy prey , the evil prey only on each other and evil becomes a continual loss, not a benefit ... God's method is a true poetic justice then , a loving way to convince all men to sue for His enduring mercy once they see at last that evil doesn't really work at all., that sin doesn't benefit anyone despite its seeming attractions purveyed by Satan to the last [for which purpose God allows his release , to show that He is not censoring Satan's view, but that it really does fail in the end...

Thus God resolves all creation to spirit in FINITE time , there is no infinity of time and no eternal suffering, as Jesus states explicitly, no more tears beyond a certain time ...

All created beings then accept the dominion of Jesus ,the Lamb of God, in the end , Jesus prophesies this himself in revelation from God :-

Revelation 5:13 [REB] And, every created thing which was in heaven, and upon the earth, and under the earth, and upon the sea, and, all the things in them, heard I, saying"Unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, be the blessing, and the honour, and the glory, and the dominion, unto the ages of ages!

It is simply that God's plan is in these three phases that men do not understand that all men will accept Jesus as Lord in the end , so many think it is all over in this life, ignoring that scripture says very few will find the strait narrow way now , but many are saved afterward [Rev 7:9-10]

The soul is mortal by definition of what it is, the life in a body cannot be immortal ... the spirit is however immortal and guarantees from zero to two resurrections of the soul until the soul  accepts God's truth through Jesus Christ and becomes loving IN LIFE to all ...

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