Djeggnog,
The Lie Satan Told Adam
The lie Satan told Adam (which Eve bought into) was twofold, that if they ate of the forbidden fruit (1) they would not surely die and (2) that they would become like God, knowing good and evil.
OF COURSE they died. But that begs the question. What is death? Is it the total annihilation of the personality as well as the body? Jehovah told Adam he would die on the day he ate of the fruit, but his body didn't die for over 900 years. The part of Adam that died on the day he ate the fruit was his spirit, an incorporeal part of him that connected him to Jehovah. This is why all descendants of Adam need to be reborn spiritually (John 3:3)
Paul says that man has a spirit within him that knows the man's thoughts. (1 Cor. 2:11) Obviously, this is not an "impersonal life force" because impersonal forces don't "know" anything.
Rich Man and Lazarus
Contrary to what you wrote in paragraph 2, the rich man never asks Abraham to have Lazarus tone down his message when speaking to the 5 brothers. Instead, he begs Abraham to send Lazarus to give his brothers A THOROUGH WITNESS (Luke 16:28, NWT) so they don't end up in the same place of torment where he is.
If it was Lazarus' thorough witness and fiery message that was causing the torment in the first place, an unrepentant rich man wouldn't ask Abraham to let Lazarus go TO his brothers to warn them with a thorough witness (Luke 16:28). If anything, he'd be begging Abraham to have Lazarus leave his brothers ALONE or to STOP warning them because the message was causing so much torment.
The rich man realizes the error of his ways. He wants his 5 brothers WARNED by Lazarus with a THOROUGH WITNESS so they don't END UP in torment like the rich man is experiencing. Given that, if he's still alive, why doesn't the rich man himself just go to his brothers and warn them himself?
On the other hand, if the story really is about what happens to people after physical death, the whole thing makes sense. The rich man learns that he is condemned and separated from God's paradise forever (the "great chasm"). He can't go back to his brothers and warn them because he is dead. He asks Abraham to send the righteous Lazarus to them to warn them, but Abraham tells him that if the brothers won't listen to Moses and the prophets they won't believe the truth even if Lazarus did go back from the dead and warn them.
The idea that some part of a man survives physical death does not contradict what God told Adam. It would only do so if "death" meant the total annihilation of everything the person is, and that's the very issue over which we're disagreeing. Jehovah told Adam that in the day he ate of the fruit he would die. But his body didn't die that day. The warning of an immediate death was not the warning of a total annihilation of Adam as a living being, either on the day he ate the fruit or later. In other words, that's not what death is.
The Terms Jesus Used
You probably think the interpretation I proposed is nonsense at best and a satanic lie at worst. So let's look at Jesus' story in its historical context.
At the time of Jesus, the Pharisees were teaching the following about what happens to a person after death (source: the first century Jewish historian, Josephus, in his discourse to the Greeks regarding Hades):
1. When a righteous Jew died, he had a soul that survived death and went to a paradise called "The Bosom of Abraham."
2. When an unrighteous Jew died, he had a soul that survived death and went to a place of conscious torment.
3. There was a great chasm between them so that the unrighteous could not get to Abraham's bosom and the righteous, no matter how compassionate, could not get to the other side to show mercy on the person in torment.
4. This was the state of the dead until the resurrection of their bodies, at which time God would pronounce his final judgment.
Let's assume for the moment that this teaching was the lie Eve bought into.
In that case, wouldn't Jesus denounce these phrases and teachings as heresy? "The teachers of the law say... but I say to you..."
Instead of denouncing this story as heresy, Jesus USES it almost word for word (Jesus did add the name "Lazarus" to the story)!
He doesn't explain to the Jews or to his disciples what the story "really means."
Why would Jesus talk about one person "dying" and going to "Abraham's bosom," knowing what that phrase already meant to the Jews?
Why would he talk about another man "dying" and going to be "in torment", knowing what those phrases already meant to the Jews?
Why would he talk about a "great chasm" separating them so no one could cross over to the other side, knowing what that phrase already meant to the Jews?
Why would he have Abraham answer the rich man's request to send Lazarus to his brothers to warn them of the torment with a statement that they wouldn't believe the truth even if someone rose from the dead? Wouldn't these Jews think he was talking about Lazarus coming back from the dead to witness to the brothers?
In fact, I submit that's exactly what Jesus WAS talking about. Abraham is telling the rich man that even if Lazarus rose from the dead to witness to those brothers, they still wouldn't believe. Is it just a coincidence that a short time later, Jesus raised a man named LAZARUS from the dead, and these very religious leaders didn't believe his witness? Granted, that Lazarus wasn't a poor beggar, but he was a man the religious leaders rejected because of his faith in Jesus. He literally came back from the dead and they didn't believe him.
The only difference Jesus makes in the story from what the Pharisees taught (besides the name "Lazarus") is who ends up where! And, of course, this is the key difference.
The rich Pharisees would have considered the poor beggar to be under Jehovah's curse, but he's the one who ends up in paradise in Abraham's bosom!
The rich Pharisees would have considered the rich man to be blessed by Jehovah, but he's the one who ends up in torment, separated from Abraham!
Jesus is warning the Pharisees that the very thing they taught about Hades was going to happen to them unless they repented before they died. After they die, there's no chance to repent even though they are conscious, realize their horrible fate, and beg to be relieved of it! That's why Jesus said, "in your life you received [past tense]", etc. The rich man's life on earth had ended; his body was dead!
What I Believe
You asked what I believe so I'll tell you.
No, I don't agree with the Mormons that a person can progress to godhood. I have spent hours talking with Mormons to show them from both the Bible and their Book of Mormon that such an idea is satanic heresy, part of the lie the serpent told to Adam.
I believe that when a Christian dies, his body dies, but his soul and spirit go to be with Christ in heaven. This is why Paul says he would rather "become absent from the body and to make our home with the Lord." (2 Cor. 5:8, NWT). I would ask you, how can a person "become absent from the body"? According to Watchtower teaching, there is NO separate part of a man that COULD be "absent from the body" and "home with the Lord."
In Philippians 1:21-24, Paul writes that for him to die is gain! He says would rather release and be with Christ, that that is far better. What part of a man "releases" at death and ends up "with Christ"?
Moses appeared with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Luke 9:30). He even talked with Jesus about Jesus' upcoming death. How could this happen? How could Moses carry on a conversation with Jesus if at Moses' death Moses went completely out of existence and won't come to life again until the resurrection of his body, which still hasn't taken place?
Jesus told the religious leaders they should listen to Moses and the prophets.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's bodies had been long dead when Moses encounted Jehovah at the burning bush. Yet Jehovah told Moses, "I AM the God of Abraham and God of Isaac and God of Jacob." He didn't say, "I was..." or "I will be..." He said, "I am" their God.
Jesus said this very statement of Jehovah about his relationship to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob proved that"He is the God, not of the dead, but of the living, for they are all living to them." (Luke 20:38). All living [present tense]. That can't just mean that Jehovah remembers them. We remember a lot of people who have died but by no means can it be said that these people are "all living to us."
With regard to unbelievers who die, I believe that they are conscious and separated from Jehovah's paradise forever. Knowing their fate is the torment Jesus spoke of in the story of the rich man and Lazarus. He adopted that very teaching of the Pharisees and used it. On the issue of life after death, he sided with the Pharisees against the Sadducees.
Ezekiel 18
You mentioned Ezekiel 18. Just as Ezekiel 18:4 and 18:20 talk about a soul that sins dying, so Ezekiel 18:27-28 says that a person who turns from his wickedness will "save his soul alive" and "not die." Clearly, this does not mean that a person who turns from wickedness will never physically die. What is this soul that will stay alive and not die?
Ecclesiastes 9:5
I don't remember you citing this verse, but I know the Watchtower uses it frequently, so I'll mention it in order to tell you what I believe.
I think we need to be extremely careful not to take everything that's stated in Ecclesiastes by the king as being Jehovah's revelation of reality. If we did, we'd believe that Jehovah is telling us that everything is meaningless (1:2) and a striving after wind (4:4). Obviously, that's not the correct way to understand this book.
Let's look all of Ecclesiates 9:5-6. If this passage is Jehovah's revelation that the "dead are conscious of nothing at all," then Jehovah is also telling us that the once a person is dead he has "no more reward [wages]" and "no portion any more to time indefinite in anything that has to be done under the sun." So much for a resurrection to a paradise earth! This cannot be Jehovah's declaration of the effect of death.
We see nothing about a resurrection in Ecclesiastes. Why not? I believe it's because the book is written from the perspective of a man who is only looking at this life, at life "under the sun," a phrase he uses 29 times in the book. The book is a wisdom book which shows us the utter bankruptcy of the humanistic view that this life is all there is and that when we die it is all over.
