Bible Words & Terms

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Hello; and welcome to a work-in-progress homespun collection of
expressions frequently tossed about in Christian circles.

Buen Camino (Pleasant Journey)
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His Rest

● Ex 31:16-17 . .The children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe
the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a
sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days The Lord
made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was
refreshed.

The Jews' weekly routine day of rest is a liturgical day. As such it is no more
than twenty-four hours in length, whereas the creator's day of rest is very
different.

Six of the creation days were bounded by an evening and a morning;
whereas the seventh day wasn't bounded at all, viz: God has yet to
terminate His rest and pick up where He left off making things. In other
words; God's rest has thus far been a perpetual, never-ending day, viz: it's
an on-going rest primarily because the entire work of creation, from
beginning to end, was completed and God left no unfinished business
awaiting His return to work. (Gen 2:1)

● Heb 4:10 . . For all who enter into God's rest will find rest from their
labors, just as God rested after creating the world.

"their labors" are relative to the covenant that Moses' people entered into
with God by means of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy--
a.k.a. the Law -- which rewards compliance with blessings, while at the
same time penalizes non compliance with retribution, e.g. Lev 26:3-38, Deut
27:15-26, and Deut 28:1-69.

So then, the people can never relax because the law-- with its requirements
and its consequences --is constantly hanging over their heads like a sword of
Damocles, suspended by a slender thread easily severed by the slightest
infraction.

By no stretch of the imagination is the Law comparable to God's rest wherein
He ceased from His labors when He was all done and there was nothing else
to do; whereas the Law doesn't permit the people to cease from their labors
because the Law's sacrificial system is never satisfied. In other words; every
year starts them off from square one all over again because they can't get
by on only one Yom Kippur.

● Heb 4:11 . . Let us do our best to enter that place of rest.
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Abba

● Eph 1:4-5 . . He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus
Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will

There are important differences between adopted kids and foster kids.

The latter have no inheritance rights, they have no right to be known by a
foster family's name, they have no right to address their foster parents by
means of family relations like mom and/or dad, and they have no right to a
place in the family's genealogy.

Plus, foster care is temporary. Older kids eventually age out of the foster
system and the State ceases to assist foster parents to continue providing
for them. At 18 the older kids are legally adults in my country, and the
responsibility for their providence is upon themselves. Ouch!

Adopted kids' circumstances are so, so much better. They are legally just as
much an adopted family's children as their natural offspring. Ergo: adopted
kids have inheritance rights, they have a right to be known by their adopted
family's name, they have a right to address their adopted parents as family
relations like mom and/or dad, and they have a right to a place in the
family's genealogy.

Plus, adoption is permanent. Older kids don't age out of their adopted homes
so they always have a family support base to fall back on should their
circumstances become difficult.

Not every Christian is related to God as His kin by adoption. Fortunately
those in His family circle aren't left to guess whether they are or not.

● Rom 8:15-16 . . For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to
fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we
cry out: Abba! Father! The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that
we are children of God.

Abba is neither English nor Greek; it's Aramaic. The word means father, but
not as an ordinary noun. Grammatically, it's a filial vocative.

When my son points me out to one of his friends at the mall and says:
"That's my dad over there" then his use of dad simply indicates how he and I
are related. But when he shouts: Hey dad, I'm over here! Then his use of
dad is a filial vocative because he's addressing me personally to get my
attention-- same noun; different sense.

* I was raised a Catholic boy and trained to address the supreme being as
"our Father" but that came to an end when the spirit of adoption began
compelling me to address God as "my Father" which is quite a bit closer to
home than I ever imagined possible.
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The Grave

The Hebrew word sheol (sheh-ole') first appears in the Bible at Gen 37:35
where some versions translate it "grave" but although sheol includes the
grave, there's a bit more to it than that.

Jonah spent some time in sheol (Jonah 2:1-2). According to the information
given in his book, sheol for him included not only the tummy of a big fish,
but also a netherworld region located at the roots of the mountains. (Jonah
2:6) In other words: at some point in his adventure, Jonah and his body
parted company and went their separate ways. (This is not impossible
because according to Matt 10:28, the death of the soul and the body aren't
necessarily simultaneous.)

Jesus likened his own afterlife experience to Jonah's.

● Matt 12:40 . . For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of
a big fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth.

Now when you think about it, Jesus' remains weren't interred in the heart of
the earth. In point of fact they weren't even interred in the earth's soil
rather, above the soil, in a rock-hewn tomb.

According to Ps 16:8-11 & Acts 2:25-31, Jesus' soul spent some time
confined in sheol which we know from Jonah's adventure wasn't limited to
the tomb but also included a netherworld region located at the roots of the
mountains. So at some point in his afterlife adventure, Jesus and his body
parted company and went their separate ways in a manner similar to
Jonah's.
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Soul

● Gen 2:7 . .The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living
soul.

The Hebrew word translated soul isn't unique to human life. Its first
appearance is at Gen 1:20-21 in reference to aqua creatures and winged
creatures; again at Gen 1:24 as terra creatures; viz: cattle, creepy crawlies,
and wild beasts; and again in Gen 2:7 as the human creature; and yet again
at Gen 9:10 to classify every living thing aboard Noah's ark.

NOTE: I have yet to discover a passage in the Bible saying God is a soul,
however I've run across several saying He has a soul. (Lev 26:11, Lev
26:30, Judg 10:16, Isa 42:1, Jer 32:41, Zech 11:8)

Soul is somewhat ambiguous. It can be said that creatures are souls and
also that they have souls. But here in the beginning, nephesh (neh'-fesh)
simply refers to consciousness. (It's sometimes a reference to one's heart,
e.g. Gen 34:3, and to the core of one's being, e.g. Gen 27:4)

All fauna life was created conscious in the book of Genesis. However, I've
yet to discover a passage in the Bible indicating that flora life was created
conscious, viz: vegetation has no soul.

So then it's safe to say Man is a person, and it's safe to say that parakeets
and meerkats are persons (in their own way) but it would likely be unwise to
posit that turnips, saguaro cactus, and kelp are persons because it's
necessary to be a soul and/or have a soul, in order to qualify as a person.

* According to Matt 10:28, the body and the soul are perishable. However;
though the body is perishable by most any means, the soul is perishable
only by divine means. The deaths of body and soul aren't necessarily
simultaneous, viz: the soul lives on until such a time as God decides to give
it either a thumb up or a thumb down.
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Eternal Life vs Immortality

Eternal Life is often mistaken for Immortality. The two are not the same.

Immortality pertains to a body that's immune to death. Eternal Life, on the
other hand, pertains to a soul that's immune to death.

It's possible for people to obtain eternal life prior to obtaining immortality.

For example: Christ had eternal life all along (John 5:26, 1John 1:1-2) but
according to Rom 6:9 and Rev 1:18, he didn't obtain immortality till after his
crucified dead body was restored to life.

Likewise his believing followers have eternal life now (John 5:24, 1John
5:13) but according to Rom 8:23-25, 1Cor 15:51-53, and 1Thss 4:14-17
they won't obtain immortality until their resurrections.

Eternal Life and Immortality are very important benefits primarily because
they protect people from the second death depicted by Rev 20:11-15.

● Matt 10:28 . . And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to
kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body
in Hell.

FAQ: Don't people in perdition have eternal life? Wouldn't they have to in
order to be there forever?

REPLY: If they had eternal life; they wouldn't be in perdition.

● John 3:16-17 . . God so loved the world that he gave his one and only
Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For
God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save
the world through him.

● John 10:27-28 . . My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they
follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish.

The thing is: eternal life has more to do with divine qualities than it does
with longevity. Folks in perdition are there because they departed with
human nature instead departing with the divine nature mentioned in 2Pet
1:2-4.

 

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Sleep

The night was black, rain fallin' down
Looked for my baby, she's nowhere around.
Traced her footsteps down to the shore,
'fraid she's gone forever more.

I looked at the sea and it seemed to say:
I took your baby from you away.
I heard a voice cryin' in the deep:
Come join me, baby, in my endless sleep.
Endless Sleep, Jody Reynolds, 1957

A useful story, relative to the sleep of death, is told at John 11:1-44 wherein
one of Jesus' friends had passed away, and in John 11:11 Jesus said of him:

"Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up."

Now; I have read that story several times in as many years and not once
have I come away from it assuming Jesus was speaking of soul sleep; not
when the entire focus is upon Lazarus' corpse. In point of fact, Jesus
deliberately delayed his journey to Lazarus' home to make sure he was so
dead that there could not be even the slightest glimmer of sensible doubt
about it.

"But, Lord --said Martha, the sister of the dead man-- by this time there is a
bad odor, for he has been there four days." (John 11:39)

The prophet Daniel spoke of the sleep of death.

"Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to
everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt." (Dan 12:2)

Those sleepers Daniel spoke of are not soul sleepers 'cause as far as I know,
God didn't predict Adam's soul would return to the dust because his soul
didn't come from thence rather, it came from the breath of life (Gen 2:7)
viz: it was Adam's body that came from the dust and was to eventually
return there. (Gen 3:19)

Anyway, point being: Jody Reynold's best girl didn't end up in an endless
sleep like he thought because all human remains are on track to be
eventually restored to life for one reason or another. The sleep of death is
called sleep because the first time around isn't final.
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