Bible Questions Answered:
“I want to know when we die, what are
we?...”
Lorraine/ Lexington, Kentucky U.S.A.
Bible Answer:
Bible Texts:
Man is body, soul,
and spirit, fashioned after the Creator who fashioned him in His
image, the image of a triune God.
Genesis 1:26 KJV
And God said,
Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..."
Matthew 28:19 KJV
The grace of
The Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of
God, and the communion of The Holy Ghost, be
with you all. Amen.
II Corinthians 13:14 KJV
The grace of
The Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God,
and the communion of The Holy Ghost, be with you all.
Amen.
Man's Triune Essence:
I Thessalonians 5:23 KJV
And the very
God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole
spirit and soul and body be
preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
At death, the body is lifeless, but the soul, and the spirit of man,
travels off to it's eternal destiny, the one chosen and fashioned in
life.
Luke 16:22,23 KJV (Told by Jesus. The whole story verses
19-31.)
22 And it came
to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into
Abraham's bosom (Paradise): the rich man also died, and was buried;
23 And in hell
he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off,
and Lazarus in his bosom.
Hebrews 9:27 KJV
And as it is
appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
Today in heaven, there are three different forms of man.
1) Earthly, Fleshly Man, Enoch, Who Never Died (Flesh And Blood).
Genesis 5:23,24
KJV
23 And all the
days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:
24 And Enoch
walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
2) The Soul And Spirits Of Men, Who Have Died On Earth, Now In Heaven Or Hell
(They Are Spirits).
SOUL:
Genesis 2:7 KJV
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.
Hebrews 4:12 KJV
For The Word Of
God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart.
SPIRIT:
Numbers 16:22
KJV
And they fell
upon their faces, and said, O God, The God of the spirits of all
flesh..."
Romans 1:9 KJV
For God is my
witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that
without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;
Hebrews 12:9 KJV
Furthermore we
have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them
reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto The Father
Of spirits, and live?
3) The Risen
Lord Jesus Christ (Glorified Body).
Luke 24:36-43
KJV
36 And as they
thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto
them, Peace be unto you.
37 But they
were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a
spirit.
38 And he said
unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your
hearts?
39 Behold my
hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a
spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
40 And when he
had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.
41 And while
they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have
ye here any meat?
42 And they
gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
43 And he took
it, and did eat before them.
Mark 16:19 KJV
So then after
The Lord had spoken unto them, He was received up into heaven, and
sat on the right hand of God.
John
20:19,20,24-29 KJV
19 Then the
same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors
were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews,
came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto
you.
20 And when He
had so said, He shewed unto them His hands and His side. Then were
the disciples glad, when they saw The Lord.
24 But Thomas,
one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
25 The other
disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen The Lord. But he said
unto them, Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails,
and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand
into His side, I will not believe.
26 And after
eight days again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them:
then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and
said, Peace be unto you.
27 Then saith
He to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach
hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless,
but believing.
28 And Thomas
answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God.
29 Jesus saith
unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed:
blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
For The
Christian At Death, Today:
Psalm 23:1-6 KJV
1 The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside
the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for His name's sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I
will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they
comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine
enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life: and I will dwell in the house of The Lord for ever.
Ecclesiastes
12:7 KJV
Then shall the
dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto
God who gave it.
II Corinthians
5:8 KJV
We are
confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and
to be present with
The Lord.
At The Rapture:
I Corinthians
15:35-58 NLT
35 But someone
may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will
they have?”
36 What a
foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t
grow into a plant unless it dies first.
37 And what you
put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare
seed of wheat or whatever you are planting.
38 Then God
gives it the new body He wants it to have. A different plant grows
from each kind of seed. 39 Similarly there are different kinds of
flesh—one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds,
and another for fish.
40 There are
also bodies in the heavens and bodies on the earth. The glory of the
heavenly bodies is different from the glory of the earthly bodies.
41 The sun has
one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind.
And even the stars differ from each other in their glory.
42 It is the
same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are
planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live
forever.
43 Our bodies
are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are
buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength.
44 They are
buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual
bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also
spiritual bodies.
45 The
Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.”
But The Last Adam—that is, Christ—is A Life-Giving Spirit.
46 What comes
first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later.
47 Adam, the
first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, The
Second Man, came from heaven.
48 Earthly
people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like The
Heavenly Man.
49 Just as we
are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like The Heavenly
Man.
50 What I am
saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot
inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what
will last forever.
51 But let me
reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will
all be transformed!
52 It will
happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is
blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be
raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be
transformed.
53 For our
dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our
mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.
54 Then, when
our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never
die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in
victory.
55 O death,
where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
56 For sin is
the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power.
57 But thank
God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus
Christ.
58 So, my dear
brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work
enthusiastically for
The Lord, for
you know that nothing you do for The Lord is ever useless.
II Corinthians
5:1-5 NLT
1 For we know
that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when
we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven,
an eternal body made for us by God Himself and not by human hands.
2 We grow weary
in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like
new clothing.
3 For we will
put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.
4 While we live
in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we
want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we
want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be
swallowed up by life.
5 God Himself
has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee He has given us His Holy
Spirit.
I Thessalonians
4:13-18 NLT
13 And now,
dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to
the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who
have no hope.
14 For since we
believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe
that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with Him the believers
who have died.
15 We tell you
this directly from The Lord: We who are still living when The Lord
returns will not meet Him ahead of those who have died.
16 For The Lord
Himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the
voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the
believers who have died will rise from their graves.
17 Then,
together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth
will be caught up in the clouds to meet The Lord in the air. Then we
will be with The Lord forever.
18 So encourage
each other with these words.
Philippians 3:21
KJV
20 For our
conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for The Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ:
21 Who
shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His
glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able
even to subdue all things unto Himself.
I John 3:2 KJV
Beloved, now
are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be:
but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we
shall see Him as He is.
