DEATH

*  Genesis 2:16-17 (SLV) - "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden, you may freely eat:  but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof, you will surely die."

Did God lie?  No!  God cannot lie (Ti. 1:2). So, how did Adam die "the day" he sinned?   I can think of two possible explanations for this apparent contradiction.  First, Adam lived to be 930 years old (Gen. 5:5), and to God, a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as a day (Ps. 90:4; 2 Pet. 3:8).  Or, since humans were created as triune creatures, having a body, a soul, and a spirit (1 Th. 5:23), and since it is obvious that neither his body nor his soul died, he must have died spiritually (Rom. 5:10)! After all, Adam had fellowship with God prior to his sin, and after he sinned, he hid himself from God (Gen. 3:8).  We, sinners like Adam (Rom. 3:23), are spiritually dead, until we are born again by believing the Gospel (Jn. 3:5-8; 1 Cor. 15:22; 1 Cor. 15:1-4)!

*  Matthew 10:28 (SLV) - "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."

In other words, Satan has the ability to kill the body, but only God can destroy both the body and the soul (1 Cor. 5:5)!  I would not be dogmatic about this, but I believe that the only person who can kill me spiritually, is ME!  We are dead in OUR trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1)!  When we sin, we die spiritually;  if we remain in that condition, when we die physically (and we all do - Heb. 9:27), we will experience the "second death." 

*  Revelation 20:10-15; 21:8 (SLV) - "...the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.  And I saw a great white throne, and He that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened:  and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them:  and they were judged every man according to his works.  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.  This is the second death.  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire....But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone:  which is the second death. "

 

BORN ONCE, DIE TWICE; BORN TWICE, DIE ONCE!