Revelation 22 came across my reading again today looking at what Henk and I was talking about in another post. This chapter is talking of the new heaven and the new earth.
I got stuck on verses 14+15:
14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. 15 Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers, and the immoral persons, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.
- There is an inside and outside of the city.
- There are those with washed robes who may enter the city.
- There are those sinner outside the city.
I have so many questions which I hope you can help me with.
1. Who are these sinners
2. How can people still be sinning on the new earth if Yeshua is reigning?
3. Can they die?
4. Can those who washed their robes die?
5. If they can die and do so, what happens to them as death and hades has already been cast into the lake of fire?
#newearth #sin #sinners #death #hades #eternallife
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Rhy Bezuidenhout
The first reference is in Gen 2:7 where H5315 (nephesh) is translated as soul. But that same word is used for all living creatures during Noah's flood. The word is translated as soul (475x), life (117x), person (29x), mind(15x), heart (15x), and 12 other words for a total of 753 occurrences.
It is a very wide use of the word nephesh, so is it correctly interpret if we say that animals don't have a soul? Or do they?? I know that a dog definitely looks like it has a soul and only some cats, but goat and sheep, no way; they just have a blank stare. ?
I looked at a large set of the verses and replacing all the occurrences with "life force" makes sense in the vast majority of verses.
If that is the case then the word nephesh is no indication that a soul was blown into Adam at creation, but that he was given life through a breath. That is like doing CPR on someone and giving them the "breath of life" while doing it.
So, where does the doctrine of a soul come from? Origen is a writer whom had a big influence at his time during the second century until he was rejected as a heretic. He introduced the concept of a soul from a pagan aspect, but strangely enough the church writings also started introducing the concept of a soul during that time.
It is one thing to use a word in a translation, but was the original meaning of the word understood to be that same translated word?
Does anyone have any understanding of where the concept of a soul originates from?
This looks to be an important part of the faith as if we are only body and spirit and our bodies are given a life force so that it becomes "moving reasoning clay" then the spirit is like the electricity in a copper wire (the wire being the body) that causes the spirit (the light coming from the light bulb) to emanate. The electricity/soul is only there fore a time to energize the body while alive and then no longer after death.
My thinking is, what use is it to torment a soul for ever and ever if it has no body to feel through? That is no torment at all, so a body has to be incarnated for the soul to be tormented. Therefore even the tormented souls would need a body and therefore eternal life...
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raphaelmalachi
6 The angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God who inspires the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.”
7 “Look, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy written in this scroll.”
"I am coming soon," implies that it hasn't taken place yet, so I think this passage is describing an entire process that happens when the New Jerusalem makes an appearance. (In some sense being an eternal city, this is all ready true and always was, even though we don't see it from our perspective)
I think this idea helps explain some of the discrepancies you are trying to decipher here. Some assumptions that might help:
There is a description of the ultimate outcome, but then it flashes back to when the New Jerusalem appears due to the listener to whom the angel is telling that the return is coming soon. Hence, there is a culmination that finally leads to the ultimate outcome of the New Earth. When the New Jerusalem first appears, however, it is perhaps more like a satellite during the millennial reign. Therefore, people will still be doing the stuff mentioned in the narrative.
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