Secrets from Beyond The Grave

dead as his spirit returned into his body and he revived. There are various beliefs related to the soul and the spirit, including the belief (called soul sleep) that at death the soul and spirit remain in the place where the body is laid to rest. For example, if you have loved ones who have passed and they are buried in the community cemetery, the soul sleep doctrine teaches that the soul and spirit do not depart from the body at death and do not go either to heaven or hell, but they remain in the body "sleeping" until the time of the resurrection and the judgment. However, there are far too many scriptures that teach the departing of the soul and spirit into another afterlife at death. Two examples of the soul departing the body are in the life of Rachel and the son of the Shunamite woman. In Genesis chapter 35, Rachel was pregnant and entered into hard labor. We read: Then they journeyed from Bethel. And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had hard labor. Now it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, "Do not fear; you will have this son also." And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin. --Genesis 35:16-18 The departing of her soul indicated she was dying. The soul was the force that gave her life, yet the soul could depart . Another example is when a young boy had passed away and Elijah was called upon to raise him from the dead. And he stretched himself out on the child three times, and cried out to the LORD and said, "O LORD my God, I pray, let this child's soul come back to him." Then the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived. --1 Kings 17:21-22 The child had died, and the prophet prayed the life back into the little fellow. Some "soul sleepers" suggest that the terms her soul was departing and the soul came again simply mean Rachel felt herself dying and that the boy's life returned to him. Yet notice the scriptures that teach God will preserve your soul and keep you from the "pit" (Job 33:18, 28, 30). When David wrote about the Messiah's resurrection, he said, "For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption" (Ps. 16:10). In the New Testament, Peter quotes this verse when he speaks about the resurrection of Christ when He came forth from the chambers of hell after three days (Acts 2:27, 31). The word hell in these passages is hades and refers to the underworld where the souls of men were carried prior to the resurrection of Christ. The soul departing is the same as when Lazarus died and the angels carried him (his soul) to Abraham's bosom. One more example is found in Genesis 37. Jacob was handed the bloodied coat of his young son Joseph with the word that a wild beast had killed him. The father was being deceived, as Joseph's brothers had sold Joseph to a band of nomads (Gen. 37:28). After many days of mourning, Jacob told his sons: "For I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning." Thus his father wept for him. --Genesis 37:35

To a casual reader, the father seems to be saying that he was going to die and be buried