When Adam transgressed, he affected and infected all that would come after him. When God created man, He did so after His own likeness (Genesis 1:26; Genesis 5:1), but when Adam bore a son after the fall, the Bible says that Adam “begat a son in his own likeness” (Genesis 5:3). Adam’s sin came with dire consequences experienced by all. All those born of Adam’s seed bear Adam’s image (1 Corinthians 15:47-49) and the Bible points out that “in Adam all die” (1 Corinthians 15:22). At the same time, no man faces the eternal judgment of God for bearing Adam’s image, but he does so based upon his own practice of sin and refusal to accept God’s free gift of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ.
God created man without sin. In his infancy, man had no knowledge of evil but knew only the joys of fellowship with God. The first man had a perfect environment, a perfect spouse, and an uncorrupted mind. He had little in the way of commandments as God only gave one “thou shalt not” (Genesis 2:16-17). Of all the things man could have done within the will of God, man chose to violate God’s one restriction by partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Immediately man’s eyes were opened to good and evil, and he died spiritually just as God had promised. In order to rescue man, God sacrificed an animal, providing coats of skin to cover man’s nakedness, and removed him from the garden.
As already discussed, the word salvation is used throughout the word of God, but depending upon the context, the intended meaning varies. Failure to understand the different usages has led many to espouse some of the most egregious false doctrines. It is important to understand that the foundational meaning of the word salvation refers to deliverance. The vast majority of occurrences in the word of God actually refer to physical deliverance rather than a soul’s salvation. The word salvation can often be found within the context to describe the time when someone received deliverance from a specific trial or a threatening enemy. The most common usage today among believers relates to spiritual deliverance offered through the finished work of Jesus Christ.
When a loved one passes away, mourning serves as an important part of the healing process. However, believers should never sorrow in the same fashion as the world (1 Thessalonians 4:13), yet mourning is acceptable and proper when grieving the death of someone. In Bible times, people seemed to take mourning very seriously. In fact, the initial mourning period at times was quite lengthy (Genesis 50:3; Numbers 20:29; Deuteronomy 34:8). There were even people whose purpose it was to assist in the mourning of those departed (Jeremiah 9:17). Grieving is a natural part of man’s process in dealing with the loss of loved ones. Failure to give time to properly mourn often prolongs the process and hinders the individual from dealing with the loss.
Man is made up of three parts: spirit, soul, and body. Death takes place when the soul (Genesis 35:18) and the spirit (Genesis 25:8) leave the body. This event happens to everyone regardless of the individual’s spiritual state at death. Saved or lost, a person’s spirit returns to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 3:21; Ecclesiastes 12:7). However, the soul’s destination is based upon whether or not a person has trusted Jesus Christ as Saviour during this life. There exists no midpoint between earth and heaven (or hell) to purge one’s sins, including places invented by religions to do so. For a saved person, the Bible declares that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). Unfortunately for the lost, this same outcome is not true. Following death, the Bible reveals that the lost man’s soul immediately goes to hell (Luke 16:23).
