Whether we believe this or not, it does not change the truth that Dr. Walter Martins and Dr. James white have said that the image of God in us is our spiritual nature. It is the entity that gives us the awareness of the inner self, and it remains alive at death. The spirit body is this essence and person that Yeshua said he would give eternal life in heaven and that spirit person will never be destroyed.
Therefore, when he told the man at the cross (the repentant criminal) that he would be in paradise, Jeshua was not joking because our Lord knew what he was saying. The Messiah was aware this man had a soul-spirit and personality besides physical matter. This entity or spirit person will be with the saints on that very day of the crucifixion, not after the future resurrection on the last day.
Somehow, so many people are unaware of their inner spiritual nature and how it functions within each of us. The problem is that the moment we are born into this world, we only relate to the material world through our five physical senses. We hardly use the inner spiritual ones to access the spiritual realm. The fact is, we all have a spirit body that decodes both the spiritual and physical dimensions. The classic Book, our volume three of the soul trilogy series, explains this topic in detail and gives you the physics of soul immortality. In addition, it answers many questions on the nature of the soul, the afterlife experiences of humankind, consciousness and eternal life.
