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The meaning of the term "soul" in the Bible depends on context and is not subject to a single wooden rule as if no context matters.
The same is true with words like "hell"
Matt 16:18 - "the gates of hell will not prevail against the church" uses the term as being Satan's kingdom. Satan's domain.
But in Matt 10:28 "God will destroy BOTH body and soul in fiery hell" is a reference to the Rev 20 lake of fire event that is created by God, owned by God, fully in God's control.
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So then in Gen 2:7 people are "living beings" - people are "souls".
But in Matt 10:28 you HAVE a soul such that in the first death people "kill the body but are unable to kill the soul".
The SDA teaching about the soul in death is "soul sleep" as we see in 1 Thess 4:13-18 regarding those 'WHO have fallen ASLEEP in Jesus". And also in John 11 "Lazarus sleeps - I go that I may wake him" --- (As opposed to "Lazarus no longer EXISTS I go that he may exist again)
In Ezek 18 we are told that in the second death situation "the soul that sins it shall die" Ezek 18:4 - but this does not refer to the first death since in Ezek 18 the righteous do not die -- only the wicked die. And that includes the wicked turning to God and being saved and then not dying - as the chapter points out. This is only the case in regard to the second death.
Ellen White was also very specific in saying that Ezek 18 applies to the second death just as the chapter demands it.
We have a teaching about "soul sleep" not "soul location". (and not "soul extinction" in the first death)
When someone dies their organs/cells/tissue still lives which is why we can have organ transplants. Yet their spirit/soul is gone.
Gen 35:18 And it came about, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. 19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath
So then in 2 Cor 12 Paul
can be confused "whether in the body or out of the body I don't know - the Lord knows" when he speaks of "being caught up to the 3rd heaven".
Since the body and the soul are separate things as we see in Matt 10:28 -- that confusion in 2 Cor 12 is within the bounds.
No wonder then that Ellen White says that Stephen's prayer to Jesus "into thy hands I commit my spirit" is an act of faith entrusting his SOUL to Jesus at death.
The same is true with words like "hell"
Matt 16:18 - "the gates of hell will not prevail against the church" uses the term as being Satan's kingdom. Satan's domain.
But in Matt 10:28 "God will destroy BOTH body and soul in fiery hell" is a reference to the Rev 20 lake of fire event that is created by God, owned by God, fully in God's control.
=====================
So then in Gen 2:7 people are "living beings" - people are "souls".
But in Matt 10:28 you HAVE a soul such that in the first death people "kill the body but are unable to kill the soul".
The SDA teaching about the soul in death is "soul sleep" as we see in 1 Thess 4:13-18 regarding those 'WHO have fallen ASLEEP in Jesus". And also in John 11 "Lazarus sleeps - I go that I may wake him" --- (As opposed to "Lazarus no longer EXISTS I go that he may exist again)
In Ezek 18 we are told that in the second death situation "the soul that sins it shall die" Ezek 18:4 - but this does not refer to the first death since in Ezek 18 the righteous do not die -- only the wicked die. And that includes the wicked turning to God and being saved and then not dying - as the chapter points out. This is only the case in regard to the second death.
Ellen White was also very specific in saying that Ezek 18 applies to the second death just as the chapter demands it.
We have a teaching about "soul sleep" not "soul location". (and not "soul extinction" in the first death)
When someone dies their organs/cells/tissue still lives which is why we can have organ transplants. Yet their spirit/soul is gone.
Gen 35:18 And it came about, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. 19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath
So then in 2 Cor 12 Paul
can be confused "whether in the body or out of the body I don't know - the Lord knows" when he speaks of "being caught up to the 3rd heaven".
Since the body and the soul are separate things as we see in Matt 10:28 -- that confusion in 2 Cor 12 is within the bounds.
No wonder then that Ellen White says that Stephen's prayer to Jesus "into thy hands I commit my spirit" is an act of faith entrusting his SOUL to Jesus at death.
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