Someone, called Anon, asked the question, "Do you believe in an eternal soul?" The question is a clear indication, that Anon is just as ignorant as Nicodemus was of the doctrine of born again. So Jesus had to expose Nicodemus's ignorance, by asking him, "Are you a master in Israel, and don't know these things?"
The Anon that asked the question, is likely to be a hireling minister of Satan, "transforming himself as a minister of righteousness..."(2Cor.11:13-15). So as Jesus exposed Nicodemus' ignorance, I will also expose Anon's ignorance.
The narrative that begins in Luke 16:19, to save space, I will summarised the details. We have a rich man, clothed in purple and fine linen, (like the hirelings). He fared sumptuously every day, (like the hirelings, with other peoples' money).
We also have Lazarus, a beggar, covered in sores from head to foot, desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, and whose sores were licked by dogs, (unlike the hirelings, who have health insurance, so they can be poisoned to death by legal drugs).
Lazarus's Death
From here, the narrative that was told by Jesus, takes on a deeper dimension. "The beggar, Lazarus, died, and was taken by the angels into Abraham's bosom. Abraham, or course, represents God, the father, into whose bosom the elect spirits are carried at death, instead of being cast into hell. That is a mystery the hirelings are too ignorant to understand.
The Rich Man's Death
The rich man also died, and was buried. As is the case with all carnal people. But note the difference in location from Lazarus and the rich man. Lazarus is in the bosom of the father, but the rich man lifted up his eyes in hell. What? When the rich man died, were his eyes not buried with his body? If the answer is yes, and it certainly is. What eyes were those, that were lifted up in hell?
Man's Eternal Spirit
God clearly revealed through Christ, that man has a spirit, which raises him above the animals. By that spirit he is able to speak, and in the right environment, learn to read and write. The spirit also makes him conscious of himself. For Paul was inspired to pose the question: "For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him(1 Cor.2:11)? The sublime teaching here is, man is inscrutable to his fellow man.
That truth is illustrated by Interrogators beating suspects to death, trying to discover what they know; and as long as the suspects keep silent, the interrogators remain frustrated. The analogy Paul is making, is that the same applies to God. Only God's spirit knows what is in the mind of God, and we can only know what is in God's mind, if he reveals it to us. And God reveals what is in his mind, by the gift of the holy spirit to his elect.
This sublime teaching will not be understood by those who studied systematic theology, and have now thrown the fourth commandment and Passover out of the window, and have replaced them with Sunday service and holy communion, two heresies of Catholicism.
However, when sinners die, including the rich man, "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return to God who gave it (Ecc.12:7). It was that spirit of the rich man, that lifted up its eyes in hell.
To be continued
