Actually the spirit is life. When the Bible says that our "spirit" returns to God who gave it, it means our "life" returns to God who gave it. The word for spirit in Ecclesiastes 12:7 is Ruach which means "life".
Ecclesiastes 12:7
the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit (Ruach) returns to God who gave it.
He gave us this life in Genesis 2:7.
Genesis 2:7
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.
Notice that when we received the breath of life we became a living soul. A soul is what we are, not what we have. A soul is a living creature. Any creature that has life in it, is a soul. And when the life leaves that creature it dies and is no longer a soul.
You are right, we are given a soul. Do you realize that only man was given a soul, not all other animals (creatures)?
Anyway, yes we still do have a soul after death and we will physically be with the Lord. For example:
Revelation 20:4-6 KJV
[4] And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and
I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and
they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
[5] But the
rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
[6]
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the
second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
The souls of the Saints do exist after death and they will already be with Christ in heaven. The unbelievers do have souls, however, when they are physically dead, their souls REMAIN in the grave in silence like you have quoted:
Psalm 115:17
The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.
The "rest of the dead" are the
unsaved dead who did not take part in first resurrection (born again), will remain in the grave, knowing nothing, feeling nothing, cannot know the time, etc, until the Second Resurrection at the Second Coming where they will be resurrected to stand before Son of Man.
So yes, ALL the souls of the Saints will be with the Lord in heaven upon death. As it is written:
2nd Corinthians 5:6-10
- "Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are ABSENT from the Lord:
- (For we walk by faith, not by sight: )
- We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
- Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him."
Absent means absent from the physical presence of God in heaven because we were in our bodies on Earth. Not absence from God's spiritual presence on earth. Get that straight first. But when our bodies, dead, we will absent from our bodies, to be with the Lord in heaven! Not waiting in the grave. The Saints will go right up into heaven while the unbelievers will remain in the grave until Second Coming.
