Dear Ted,

     I see the spirit and soul as being practically indistinguishable.   "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."  Hebrews 4:12.   It’s like when people blur the Holy Spirit into the Father.  The spirit and the soul are like one entity.   I guess I see the soul as the mind or will of a person.  The thing that makes you Ted and me Lisa.  And I see the spirit as the embodiment for the soul.   I have no scripture for that, but that is how I picture them.  I also see them as being eternal because the essence of God is somehow in them.   God cannot stop being eternal and neither can the spirit or soul.

     I think that one of our differences is how we translate the word "death."   I don’t see God killing the spirit or the soul in the sense that they stop existing.   I would not even use the word "kill." Rather, if God is life, then being separated from Him is death.   So the death of the spirit, which occurs when we first sin, means that we are not in communion with God.   Our sin separates our spirit from His.   Our spirit continues to exist, however.

     I believe there is support for the contention that death is separation from the description of the Second Death in Revelation.   The unsaved dead are resurrected and eternally removed from the presence of God.   They do not cease to exist – but they continue to exist outside of His presence.  Death, therefore, is a state of separation.

     I believe that the only part of man that is mortal is the body.   The body experiences death when the spirit and soul separate from the body.   I am sure you are aware of scripture that talks about human existence outside of the body.   You already mentioned Sheol and we see the unsaved existing in hell or Hades before they are resurrected and transferred into the Lake of Fire.   Revelation 20:11-15.   And, of course, the story of the rich man and Lazarus shows the existence of consciousness outside of the body for both the righteous and the unrighteous dead.  (Luke 16:19-31.)  So, there is a part of man that continues to exist after the death of the body.   Therefore, some part of man is not mortal.

     I do not believe that the unsaved will cease to exist because they have eternal parts.   Also, their bodies are going to be resurrected.   "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt."  Daniel 12:2.   Why would God bother to resurrect the unsaved and judge them if they are just going to cease to exist?   Judgment only serves a purpose if there are going to be different degrees of punishment (and rewards).   Different degrees of punishment only make sense if people are actually going to suffer differently.   If Hitler and let’s say Mother Theresa are unsaved, and they are both just going to cease to exist, what is the point of judging them?  Judgment also infers that the sentence is going to be served – and in this instance, eternally.

     I guess our other difference is when (or if) a person receives that, for lack of a better term, "God essence."  I believe that it was given the moment God breathed into Adam’s nostrils and that it passes on to each of us at conception.   And I think that you believe that it is when the Holy Spirit indwells a believer.

     This has been an extremely interesting and thought provoking discussion.   I don’t think that we changed each others minds, but it allowed me to connect a few dots that were not connected before. Thank you.

     Maranatha.

               – Lisa Taylor