The free-will choice for every person while alive is to either… just live out their temporal life and days on earth for 60, 70, 80, 90 years however they want to, or… receive and enjoy the fruit of the “eternal life” of God that is freely offered to everyone through placing their faith and trust “in Christ” as their Savior.

Many people erroneously believe the Bible says we as humans have an ‘immortal soul’ destined, at death, either for heaven or eternal suffering in hell. But the idea of and ‘immortal soul’ and eternal suffering of souls in hell is a pagan and Greek belief that became Church tradition without any Biblical basis. The fact is that the only immortal souls are those of believers who in the course of their lifetime on earth came to trust in Jesus as their Savior. They therefore have received and forever possess His resurrected eternal “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:2a) to be their new and “everlasting life.”

As discussed earlier, the “spirit of man” is temporarily given to every born human. The deposit of God’s “breath (spirit)” gives a man his temporary human spirit-life that we might say as “life on loan.” The Bible likens this human life to “a vapor.” - “… For what is your life (Zoë, spirit)? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” (James 4:14b). The word “life” here is the Greek “Zoë,” for the “spirit-breath of life” that is given ‘on loan’ to every child of Adam by physical birth.

The word “Gehenna” is associated with “the Lake of Fire” (cf. Mark 9:43; Rev. 19:20; 20:14). Note here that a “living soul,” can die and be utterly Destroyed. Thus souls are temporal and can die.

“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him (the Lord) which is able to DESTROY (Gk. apollymi, utterly destroy) both SOUL and BODY in hell (Gk. Gehenna, note that this is the hell of “the lake of fire”) (Matt. 10:28). “all souls are mine (Heb. nephesh, all ‘soul-life’ is mine); as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sins shall DIE.” (Eze. 18:4)

Man is a temporal soul-life being with ‘life on loan’ for his time alive on earth. The phrase ‘life on loan’ is from my good friend, Bill Landon, in his book, “Life After death” (www.iUniverse.com). Our time on earth allows us opportunity to hear of and receive the good news that the eternal, resurrected, “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” can be received to become our new and permanent eternal “life.”

Jesus here below is saying men must choose to give up their self-ruled, Adamic, sinful, temporary soul-life, that came to them via their earthly parents, in order to gain the joy of His Eternal Spirit of life in their spirit and soul. Jesus said anyone who will freely choose to entrust and give-up his ‘old self soul-life’ to Christ will then gain His eternal life and thereby… live eternally as a reborn soul-self!

“And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. ³⁹He that findeth (sees only) his life (Gk. psuche, soul-self) shall lose it: and he that loseth his life (Gk. psuche, soul-self) for my sake shall find it (find his new Christ-self). (Matt. 10:39)

Note what occurs to “the spirit of man” when he dies physically. “… the dust (body) return to the earth as it was: and the spirit (of man) shall return unto God who gave it.” (Eccl 12:7). The word “perish,” appears in the so-called New Testament a total of forty times. It’s transliterated from the Greek “apollymi,” to mean “to be utterly destroyed.” The Bible words perish, perished, and perisheth are used as the only alternative to… eternal life.

The Father “gave His only begotten Son” at the cross to remedy sin and eternal death that is latent within the physical bodies of all mankind. Jesus came, died and rose, in order to give us His everlasting resurrection life - to all who will trust in Him alone as Savior. Note in John 3:16 that the alternative to having “everlasting life” is to “perish,” that is to “be utterly destroyed, permanently.”

“God… gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

The “dead” are “asleep” until the resurrection of their bodies, unto either; 1) Eternal life in the “presence of the Lord” (a. on earth, for O.T. believers, or b. in heaven, for members of “His body” (2Cor 5:1b))

2) Or, everlasting destruction (1Thes 1:9) in “the lake of fire” (not eternal torment) that will be assigned to all the lost unbelievers of all ages at the “Great White Throne” Judgment” (read Rev 20:11-15).