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[Special--2] THE end OF our THINKING capability

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Does the thinking capability perish at death? Or, on the contrary, does it survive the dead physical body? We have by now settled on the fact that thinking originated independently from the physical body. Therefore, it appears to be eternal (as opposed to the perishable body) and would never die. Is this true?

To answer this question, we need to look at what we usually refer to as “spirit.” Since thoughts are non-physical (we cannot touch them), they belong to the spirit part, clearly distinguishable from the physical body. So, to find out whether spirit survives at death (and logically whether the thinking capability survives) we need to know what truly happens at death.

There are two known views. A popular one holds that spirit never dies and would leave the body and continues on into the spirit realm although the physical body does perish. This belief is the very foundation of many religions where worshiping the dead is widely practiced because people either fear harm that the dead can cause, or need some help from the dead in some way. The spirit of the dead, according to them, still functions and is powerful. Is this a reliable belief? The second view, however, preaches that spirit is extinguished at death. The dead have no knowledge whatsoever since the source of knowledge (the living part, the living soul) has disappeared. This second view compares the disappearance of the spirit to the fire that disappears from the fireplace when the woods have been fully consumed. Did that fire go to the bathroom or the kitchen instead? Absolutely not. It went nowhere, it simply disappeared.

Now, as for the view which holds that life came from non-life materials, the spirit must have self-originated with the fleshy body and should likewise perish with it when the body perishes (because scientists cannot believe that spirit formed outside of the body by some supernatural force, for otherwise, they would have to acknowledge the existence of God). Spirit, therefore, completely disappears at death, making any incarnation theory unrealistic. Now, what about the second and Bible-based view that says that spirit (although initiated and given by God) also perishes at death (therefore, also no incarnation)? At a first look, since spirit was born independently from the body (God put the spirit/the breath of life into the body after the body had already been formed), it seems that spirit should not perish together with the body if God decides to keep it alive somewhere else. The Almighty God certainly has the power to do so. But the question is, Does God keep a person’s spirit alive somewhere else outside of his dead body so that the spirit lives on in the air?

As shown above, the Bible is plainly clear on this point. The dead knows nothing because the spirit disappears at death (example of the fire that disappears from the fireplace). But things change when God acts. The first account regarding the resurrection of the dead into the spirit realm is the case of Jesus following three days of spirit-less death. During this death period, Jesus knew nothing and did nothing because he had no spirit. However, upon being resurrected by God, he became again alive, marched with his disciples and later was taken back to heaven. This is one example of heavenly resurrections. It’s important to note that it’s only through resurrection that the spirit gets restored by God, the original spirit-giver. Without resurrection, death is eternal. The Bible furthermore shows that there are earthly resurrections too. This was shown, for instance, in the well-known resurrection of a man named Lazarus. Again, the true fact is that upon his return from death, Lazarus said nothing regarding what happened to him during his death. He did not come back and tell of awesome stories of places he had been. Why couldn’t he? This is simply because during the days he was dead he went nowhere. His spirit had simply disappeared (the same case for Jesus during the time he was dead).

Therefore, the Bible clearly teaches that spirit (hence, the thinking capability) does not survive death. It automatically disappears at death and can only be restored when the spirit-giver (God) so decides.

To conclude, both views held by science and the Bible do agree on one important truth: that our thinking capability perishes at death for lack of the spirit (“functional brain” so to speak). Therefore, we should neither fear the dead nor hope that the dead can be of any help because they know nothing. The stark difference between so-called "science" and the Bible, though, lies in the shocking fact that the Bible gives hope to those who have died that they can be brought back to life again at the proper time by acts of resurrection because not only can God resurrect the spirit, He is also capable of re-creating the fleshy body from simple dust (remember that Adam’s body was formed out of dust, therefore, anyone can be re-created from dust).

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