The book of Revelation is about the Tribulation and Israel, a tribulation which is subtitled Jacob’s Trouble. The book of Isaiah reveals some details of the Millennium. Daniel gives us insight as to events leading up to That Day of God. Matthew is End Time cautions that primarily focus on the Jews but applicable to all.

The curiosity of body, mind, and soul and end time judgment, then eternity is seldom taught as an inclusive and conclusive topic. The following narrative commentary will address End Time and the body, mind, and soul. The spirit sometimes means the soul?

Consider the body, mind, and soul by reading Genesis 1:26. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit made man in his image. The three in one. This verse is singular…make man in our IMAGE…not images. Mankind is body, mind, and soul. Once a man’s soul leaves or departs the body, s/he is then a created body and mind unable to function minus the soul/life/breath. Medically the body and mind are dead. We cannot be alive without a soul, be the individual, good or bad. Scripture does not state one way or the other. The conscious state of mankind is driven by the soul, after death it lives on, but where? Any out-of-body experience comes from a living soul that is no longer residing within the body. The soul never dies. God created man from the dust of the earth, then “breathed” life into Adam’s nostrils.

Before we move on, we use the logic of scripture in explaining this phenomenon called the soul; a word or state that mimics a certain physical form or motion. Form or motion is a living being. It is all driven when the soul is still within the body. When life departs it is the soul itself leaving the body. Regarding End Time, the soul is our conscious state. It is eternal.

When the soul leaves the body, the body is dead, meaning without a living soul. To live requires body, mind, and SOUL. The soul has left the body. The body and brain are buried, burned, who knows, but the BODY and Mind are dead; a three-in-one creation now minus life (the soul). For the true believer, absent from the body is present with the Lord. What is it that is now absent FROM THE BODY? What is present with the Lord and WHERE?

Answer: the soul is missing. Genesis specifically tells us that the soul was “breathed into man.” It was not manufactured from the dust or elements of the earth. It is God-given.  PS, Adam means “red clay”

Absent from the body is present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8). This is explaining the next phase of the true believer’s existence, now with Jesus Christ. However….

JIV: On that *resurrection day, “the souls” of believers that are absent from the body and present with the Lord God in Paradise, will accompany Christ back to earth, in the clouds, upon his second advent. Bodies will then be raised and reunited with their souls. The souls already with God/Jesus in Paradise are anxious to follow Christ to earth at the 1st resurrection to be reunited with their bodies. These are the DEAD BUT IN CHRIST (1 Thessalonians 4:16). At the end of time at the Great White Throne Judgement, the second resurrection, the rest of humanity will be raised from their graves, reunited with their souls, then judged. [https://davidjeremiah.blog/what-is-the-great-white-throne-judgment-in-revelation]

There are two different “Present with the Lord” statements: first the soul then, the body that is later reunited with the soul. This is true of all mankind. One cannot kill the soul. Our souls are created as eternal beings facing two different eternal destinations. We are created in the image (singular, not plural) of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, three in one (Genesis 1:26). God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are eternal, and so is man’s soul. 2 Corinthians 5:5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. How is it a guarantee? The Spirit/soul breathed into us cannot be destroyed.

Be careful about drawing quick conclusions. We also have those who will not physically die leading up to and into the Millennial Reign. They will be living when the 2nd advent occurs. Upon his release from the Bottomless Pit, Satan will garner a huge army of people on earth in a final attempt to be the king of kings. There are two groups living at this “yet to be observed” end of time, soon-to-be history. (cf Revelation 20:7-10).

1. The ones who come to Christ under those tribulation times
2. Those who take the mark of the beast and are eternally condemned.

The believer remaining on earth at the return of Christ and the establishing of God’s Kingdom on Earth, lives on into the 1,000-year reign of Christ but is still subject to a “Once to die” Bible clause (Hebrews 9:27). Why conclude there will be those who die during the millennial reign? Read Hebrews 9:27… “And just as it is destined for people to die once, and after this comes judgment”. It is destined for people to once die…AFTER THAT comes judgment. Which judgment is this scripture referencing? This verse points to the Great White Throne judgment. It simply tells us that after death comes a judgment. Believers will be judged just as the Greek word indicates…judged for and rewarded for accomplishments in Christ while alive on earth.

Those who reject Christ, those before and DURING the Millennial Reign, will have live souls but very dead bodies. After the millennial reign on the old earth, their souls, one’s conscious state, will be suffering an eternal vacation on the beaches of the Lake of Fire with Satan and his minions. Once in the Lake of Fire, their bodies will then have “once died” as appointed [Hebrews 9:27] unto man. For some this is the second death. Their living souls, fully conscious of their surroundings, will understand and anguish in what they missed. Their conscious souls will remain alive and conscious. No, one will not spend hell with his or her friends. Bodies will not exist, so they are not the good-looking guy or gal down the street, but a living soul suffering the same consequences as will all other lost souls. This includes Satan and the fallen angels.

There is no desire to debate one religion over others, but there is strong disagreement with Jehovah’s Witness folks and their fundamental understanding of scripture per end time. Here are some of the arguments a Jehovah’s Witness gives for denying that the soul is eternal and alive when the body is dead. Jehovah’s Witness: The condition of the dead is made clear in Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10, where we read: “The dead know nothing . . . There is no pursuit, no plan, no knowledge, or intelligence, within the grave.” Read the last three words again: …within the grave. The soul never goes to the grave. When it departs, the body is functionally brain and body dead but not the soul. The body goes to the grave but NOT the soul. God created man of red dirt (dust) but “breathed life” meaning the soul into Adam. Jehovah’s Witness: What does the New Catholic Encyclopedia admit regarding the soul’s surviving death? THIS quoted reference from the Catholics, however, admits that “the notion of the soul surviving after death is not readily discernible in the Bible.” Ask the question in reverse…does this Catholic quote say it is not readily discernible? Readily does not mean it argues for the absolute soul dying with the body. We at Aha Bible Moments are not Catholic. We are Bible believers. A Christian may die but only that which can be destroyed and then resurrected…the body and mind. The soul was put in man by God in Genesis 2:7. (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit = God in three parts just as he created Man in His image: body, mind, and soul). Jehovah’s Witness: The dead are unconscious and inactive. When pronouncing sentence upon Adam, God stated: “Dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:19) Before God formed him from the dust of the ground and gave him life, Adam did not exist. When he died, Adam returned to that state. The body was made from dust and will return to dust. But the life breathed into man’s nostrils, according to Genesis 2:7 did not come from the dust. The last words of this verse say…and man became a living what…a living soul. What did not come from the dust cannot return to dust. It came from the eternal himself…יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהִים [Jehovah Elohim]. In Genesis 35:18, we read: “As her soul was going out (because she, Rachel died) she called his name Benoni. ” This example often quoted by the JW ignores that the soul WENT OUT. It did not join Racheal’s body in the grave. IT (the soul) DEPARTED. It did not enter the grave with her body. Jehovah’s Witness: (their argument) Those who believe in the soul’s immortality has trouble explaining what happens to the soul between the time of death and the time of resurrection. This argument simply denies scripture like 2 Corinthians 5:8. Ask the Jehovah’s Witness for their explanation of this verse. They have trouble explaining what happens to the soul other than saying the breath-of-life breathed into Adam went to the grave with him, it must have come from the dust. It gets buried. WHAT? The Bible in Genesis does not say that God breathed life into Adam’s nostrils and then added a soul. The soul is life. It is eternal. The grave will NOT HIDE THE SOUL. The soul is eternal. What does all of this have to do with our End Time series? Perhaps one needs to read this commentary one more time.

Rev. Dr. Jstark
2022

PS; What did Jesus say to the criminal who acknowledged him at Calvary? He said, “Today will you be with me in…(?). He said PARADISE, not heaven. More on this in our next article.