Yes, I agree with Maxximiliann that "the personality, memories, etc. are retained in God’s Mind when the body dies." And let me make it clear that it is not mere theory but is based upon scripture. Recall what Job stated when he begged the Almighty to end his life, due to his terrible suffering at Satan's hand. Notice below what he ask God to do:
"If only you would hide me in the grave and conceal me till your anger has passed! If only you would set me a time and then remember me!" (Job 14:13 -- New International Version)
QUESTION #3 TO JAYCEEII: Job asked God to not leave him in the grave but to instead remember him (resurrection). Upon being resurrected back to life, how do you expect anyone (including Job) would be recognizable to friends and family if God did not have the ability to retain memory of each of our personality and appearance, in order to resurrect an accurate depiction of the person who had died?
I look forward to your response to my questions.
Alter2Ego
ae: Yes, I agree with Maxximiliann that "the personality, memories, etc. are retained in God’s Mind when the body dies."
jc: Strangely, you are in a position fit to destroy Christianity utterly, having traced the logic of the Bible to its ugly roots. Instead you staunchly defend it, unable to rise above words you have seen and the big movements among ignorant creatures these spawned. Think about it this way, why isn’t your theory trumpeted by every preacher to attract new converts? Think about a Christianity consistent with your observations. The new convert comes. The preacher greets him gladly, saying, “Welcome to the religion of annihilation in God’s Mind. He’s going to suck you up and spit you back out, like irrigation for His sinuses. Don’t think about immortality, God is all. He’ll tuck you back in His underarm.”
ae: And let me make it clear that it is not mere theory but is based upon scripture.
jc: Finally someone found the Bad News in the Bible, although it’s been touted as “Good News for Modern Man.” You can ask this question too, if God is going to retain people in His memory, and restore them but without their negative tendencies, why did He not bestow them without negative tendencies to begin with? And how could God endure the negative tendencies of people in Himself? And if these negative tendencies are stripped away, how can you say it is the same person? Men would die if they did not have their greed.
ae: Recall what Job stated when he begged the Almighty to end his life, due to his terrible suffering at Satan's hand.
jc: Ha, the major point of the Book of Job is that Job needed to beg from God since any possible friends denied him. That book sets forth the whole ugly scene of capitalism, that you’d better pray to God for help since the neighbor never will, even Christians sitting in the same pews. All the help Job needed was beside him, in these friends that denied him.
ae: Notice below what he ask God to do:
"If only you would hide me in the grave and conceal me till your anger has passed! If only you would set me a time and then remember me!" (Job 14:13 -- New International Version)
jc: I’ve thought about this too, for instance it would be a lot easier for me simply to appear after the Judgment, rather than to wait tediously monitoring it. If Job wanted to wait, it does not imply he was wanting to be absorbed. He wanted just to be set aside.
ae: QUESTION #3 TO JAYCEEII: Job asked God to not leave him in the grave but to instead remember him (resurrection).
jc: Ha, this is a shallow interpretation of this word “remember,” whereas among living persons this merely means to look at a person again, as they continue their existence. In general blissful persons wish to remain dead as short a time as possible, since they have so much fun in embodiment. Job was in a dark era, and seems to have asked for a break.
ae: Upon being resurrected back to life, how do you expect anyone (including Job) would be recognizable to friends and family if God did not have the ability to retain memory of each of our personality and appearance, in order to resurrect an accurate depiction of the person who had died?
jc: There’s another simple system, not in the Bible or anywhere else, God created the souls separate from Himself and grants them eternal existence. Unfortunately this means the rising souls who have negative traits, retain these traits. If all the people were wise, they would not want to see these unwise people again, and if those unwise people were wise they wouldn’t want to see themselves again. Generally this is called weakness and corruption in the souls, the Original Sin from the Bible. Yet I think the wise have good traits, and these abide with them eternally, their friends grateful to meet them any time.
Your argument has one other flaw I could mention, that you’re forgetting the friends would also need God to restore their ability to recognize you. Your argument presumes your friends retain an ability to recognize you while you have sacrificed your entire being to be enfolded in God again. Instead God reigns over all, your friends as well as yourself.
ae: I look forward to your response to my questions.
jc: As you remain a staunch defender of the shoddy Bible, you do not really look forward to my responses. Instead, you give God the credit, that as He enfolds you entirely into Himself as you crave, He will restore you to a state where you feel as if you look forward to the responses to my questions. In other words, I interact only with God, not with you.