Expert: Marilyn - 5/8/2007

Question
Dear Marilyn, thank you for your take on life after death...it is great. My question is on the soul and the spirit. I am meant to understand that all spirits will go back to their maker (according to Ecclesiastis)and it will be the souls that will be in hell or in heaven. What is the truth?

Thank you

Answer
Hello Joshua;

The revelation on the spirit realm found in the Old Testament is through a dark glass compared to that found in the New Testament.  Ecclesiastes 12:7 lumps all humanity into one group saying "the spirit returns to God who gave it" making no distinction between the believer and the unbeliever.  Going back to the Maker would mean going to Heaven.

However, a careful read of the biblical teaching reveals that those who lived before Jesus' time were saved by faith when they sacrificed animals as substitutes.  The book of Hebrews deals extensively with this subject.

Hebrews 7:25, "Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him..."  The whole person is saved, body, soul and spirit, no part of a believer will suffer in hell.  Though the body must wait for the time when the Lord will resurrect it, I Corinthians 15, the spirit and soul will be with the Lord.

If you were reading a past answer I said, "Might some residual elements of the soul "sleep" with the body waiting for resurrection?  I don't know.  But it can definitely be said that now the essence, the spirit of a person, goes to either Heaven or hell."  

To clarify that statement let me add:  I was referring to ghostly manifestations here on earth as perhaps being some residual element of the soul that has remained here with the body.  IF some element of the soul were here with the body, it would not be in hell.  

No part of a saved person will ever be in hell, not his spirit, soul or body.  Also, I want to add that this idea, that some element of the soul might remain here on earth with the body, is pure speculation on my part in light of my research into how the body, spirit and soul are intimately linked while we live here in this material universe.  

Hebrews 4:12 & 13 speaks of the Word of God being able to divide the soul and spirit in the context that nothing is hidden from God.  God can separate the various elements of a human being into its constituent parts, but even so, He does not send part of a human to heaven and another part to hell.

Allow me to restate my answer.  Jesus is able to save to the uttermost, completely, perfectly, finally and for all time and eternity the person who believes He was raised from the dead and says aloud, "Jesus is Lord," Romans 10:9.  No part of a saved person will be in hell.

Thank you! I am glad you enjoyed my "take on life after death."  

Marilyn