Dust

Gen 3:19  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Before man was created- he did NOT exist. Before the dust was formed into man- he did NOT exist! The dust was formed and then the BREATH of God was given to man so he would live, the dust would come to life.  Man would return to dust, the breath would go back to God.  

God did NOT take a spirit being and put it inside a body.  No spirit body will live after the body returns to dust. No intelligent being was put into the body made of dust. The body was given the ability to live and it is that life that gives it the intelligence. Once dead the intelligence is gone.

Psa 146:4  His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

Psa 104:29  Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.

Gen 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.

Job 14:10  But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?

gâva‛

gaw-vah'

A primitive root; to breathe out, that is, (by implication) expire: - die, be dead, give up the ghost, perish.

NOT GHOST as we imagine ghost to be- but BREATH -  giving UP our breath.

Job 17:1  My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.

Job 27:3  All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils

Ecc 12:7  Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Job 7:21  And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.

So much points to there being a finality of thought, of communication, of living in any way remotely as we do now- able to speak, to know, to do anything at all after we die.  The spirit part of us is the spirit God gives to us and Jesus living in us through that spirit, it isn't us stripped of our flesh and filled with knowledge able to communicate and live on and on and on without end ever.

We fool ourselves when we choose to believe our intelligence lives on after death when so much tells us otherwise.  We know evil spirits (angels) can portray human beings to others. We know evil people will try to bring these evil spirits (angels) to convince others that their dead loved ones are alive just in another form.

Where is the penalty in sin if disobeying God simply means being stripped of our flesh and living as a spirit being? How many people would prefer that life to this?  How many would think God only blessing us when He allows us to die as young as possible? Death is a punishment, it is that way throughout the Bible. Death is something Job begged for to be released from his suffering because he knew he would be fleshless and without all ability to think and know anything in death. The solace death offers is an end to our thoughts entirely on every level there is. Death is a SLEEP.  By the grace of God, death is just a sleep!  God is able to restore to the dead their bodies made incorruptible and their ability to know things, their intelligence, their spirit the part of Him He has given them restored but ONLY in the last day, after the last trump sounds then and ONLY then will the dead in Christ rise and be given new bodies, new flesh unable to deteriorate. 

Death is a punishment because as soon as we die any opportunity we have for eternal life has been decided and we've NO more opportunity to choose to be saved by the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Death is a punishment because we leave behind all those who love us to keep on living but without us.

Death is a punishment because there are two deaths.

Rev_2:11  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Rev_20:6  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.

Rev_20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

The second death is the death that all the wicked who have died in sin, who have died unrepentant, who have died without God, who had died unforgiven because they sought no forgiveness, these all will die the final death from which there is no resurrection because it will be as if they never ever existed.

Sin and all sorrow will be wiped away after the second death.

What harm is believing we shed our flesh and go on to live intelligently with all our memories and the supernatural ability to view our relatives and friends still in their flesh on? It lulls us into believing the first lie ever told to mankind- 'you shall not surely die'

Gen_3:4  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die

Did she die?

Yes.

Did she die right then?

No.

Satan would have us believe that because Eve did not die instantaneously that what he said was true.  And Satan goes a step further and wants us to believe that death is no punishment at all, but simply a new way of living. 

I've talked about it before but I cannot stop talking about it, not ever, because people are deceived. People are caught up in the lies that are far from harmless.

Our loved ones are sleeping and they will awake either to life everlasting or death forever, to non-existence.  Their sleep is peaceful because we know all their thoughts cease. 

Their ultimate fate is in God's hands and we who remain can only hope and pray they are God's, that they've chosen to be His and God has saved them through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen.