Eila
Senior Veteran
Eila,
While we are made in the image of God, we do not have immortality, which is what this discussion had started out to be about.
How were you made in the image of God?
We arent really born again until we are resurrected at the return of Jesus. Then we will be changed from corruptible (mortal) to incorruptible (immortal). (15th chapter of 1 Corinthians). We dont have immortality now and arent given immortality until that time.
1 Peter 1 "
22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit[d] in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,[e] 24 because
All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man[f] as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
25 But the word of the LORD endures forever.[g]
Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you."
1 JOhn 5 " 1EVERYONE WHO believes (adheres to, trusts, and relies on the fact) that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah) is a born-again child of God; and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of Him (His offspring)."
Born-again is not referring to anything in the future for a Christian, but an event in the past. When Jesus mentions being born again he is not talking about the body.
John 3 "3 Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4 Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mothers womb and be born?
5 Jesus answered, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. "
What is born of flesh is flesh. The flesh is born of water (i.e. bag of waters) and the spirit is born from above. The spirit is clearly what is reborn here and not the body.
Your heart would be where you feel emotions and right from wrong.
What you are describing is considered a soul.
What do you believe the spirit is?
Man is a triune being - spirit, soul and body. Man worships God with his spirit and it is that part of man that contacts God. The soul is the mind, emotions, and will of man. The body is the way man connects to this world..
How would this be incorrect if it were a parable? You say that this is not about their bodies, and that their bodies were buried. If this is about their spirits or souls, which you say is an immaterial part of man that exists apart from the body beyond death, how could Lazarus have had a finger to dip in water, and how could the rich man have had a tongue to have the water cool off. How could a spirit be tormented by physical flames? None of this could happen if their "spirit" or "soul" was immaterial.
I looks like we could go back and forth on what a soul is, but the thing to remember is that nowhere in the Scriptures does it say that we have immortality. We will be given it at the resurrection when Christ returns.
In the Bible we find God described as having an eye, hand, etc yet we know God is Spirit. John 4 "24God is a Spirit (a spiritual Being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (reality)."
The disciples thought they saw a ghost on two separate occasions. Each time they were looking at the image of a man with fingers, etc. Who is to say what a spirit looks like?
The Bible does say that we have already passed from death to life. 1 John 3 "14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother[c] abides in death."
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