| Author | Message | ||
| David_lucas Registered user Username: David_lucas Post Number: 4 Registered: 5-2016 |
Can anyone point me to teaching on Genesis 2:7 that unpacks it in the context of the Adventist 'Soul Sleep' doctrine. I watched the YouTube video of J Mark Martin in the 2011 FAF Conference (Can belief in the human spirit be supported by the Bible) which was excellent, but this verse is not specifically addressed. I'd love to explore that text in greater depth, but specifically from this 'soul sleep' perspective. Can anyone help ? | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 15512 Registered: 12-2003  |
David, God told Adam that the day they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, IF they ate, that on that day they would die. Genesis 2:7 says that God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being." We KNOW that Adam and Eve did not physically die on the day they ate the fruit, but something happened. They knew shame; they hid; they began to blame and outsource their guilt. They DIED, just as God said they would. We know from Genesis 1:27 that God created man in His own image...something He did not do with any other creature. Only man. but in John 4:24 we hear from Jesus' own lips, as He addressed the Samaritan woman, that "God is spirit, and true worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." God does not have a body, yet He made man in His own image. Man is a spirit-being within a physical body, and to be human, a person must have both a spirit and a body. Yet Adam died that day he ate. Ephesians 2:1-3 explains that we are born dead in sin, "by nature children of wrath", subject to the prince of the air. Then Paul goes on to say that God raised us up with Jesus and seated us in heavenly places. Adam and Eve's spirits died that day they ate. Spiritual death is their legacy to all the human race. Jesus came, the only human ever born with a living spirit--he was a singularity: conceived by the Holy Spirit, Jesus was born with a LIVING spirit, not a dead one. He was the only human ever born who did not have to be born again, or made spiritually alive after being conceived. It is that spiritual life that He gives us. Nevertheless, a dead spirit does not mean a non-existing spirit. Clearly Adam and Eve did NOT die physically, yet they did die, according to God's words. Their dead spirits could be brought to life through belief in God's word and promises, and God has opened that door to all who believe—now all those who put their faith and trust in Jesus. But people who are spiritually dead still have human spirits. "DEATH" is not non-existence. Spiritual death means our spirits are disconnected from the life of God, from His righteousness and perfection. Those dead spirits do not cease to exist when we die anymore than the spirits of the living cease to exist. They just go different places. We know spirits are actual "things", although immaterial, because God is spirit. Furthermore, Hebrews 1:14 says angels are "ministering spirits". Spirits exist, either as living spirits with God or as evil, dead spirits disconnected from God. Evil angels are spirits, and Jude explains that some are bound while awaiting judgment. Here are a couple of links that might help explain this further: http://www.lifeassuranceministries.org/proclamation/2012/1/hewasraisedsoyou.html http://www.lifeassuranceministries.org/proclamation/2008/4/humanslivingbodies.html Colleen | ||
| David_lucas Registered user Username: David_lucas Post Number: 5 Registered: 5-2016 |
Thanks Colleen. Much appreciated. David | ||
| Anewman Registered user Username: Anewman Post Number: 132 Registered: 5-2011 |
Great stuff, Colleen! | ||
| Grace_alone Registered user Username: Grace_alone Post Number: 2202 Registered: 6-2006  |
Something we "never-beens" take for granted, but I absolutely love the way you articulated that, Colleen. Thank you! Short, to the point and easy to understand.  |
