As they walked into the door the Hostess came up to them. "Excuse me folks, I am real sorry but we are closed for today. Please come back tomorrow." Anny, "it is okay", as she looked at her name tag , "It is okay Minuet, Joel is expecting us." Minuet, "He is? Okay, um, is he expecting you for dinner, because I do know that he may have forgotten because he has already turned of the grills and put away all the food stuff." Anny, "That's okay, really, we didn't come here to eat or anything like that. I guess we are going to have a meeting." Minuet, "A meeting? At this time of night. I don't mean to sound harsh, but Joel is always running out that door to go home to see his wife. He never stays. I always have to lock up."  Joel then makes his way to the door and sees Dan. Joel, "hello again Dan, this must be your wife, very nice to meet you. My name is Joel Callabrander." Shaking his hand, Anny says, "Oh Mr. Callabrander it is good of you to take out the time to talk to us. I appreciate it so." As water starts to race down her firery cheeks. Dan notices quickly and hands here a tissue. Dan, "She is really having a tough time today. And I am really surprised that she came." Joel, "That is very much to be expected, I'm very sorry for you loss Anny. But I am very glad that you came. Minuet, I am going to close up so why don't you take off early tonight." Minuet, "Wow, this must be important. I will then. I appreciate this. After that gentlemen in the booth leaves, I'll clean up his table and I will leave then." Joel, "Okay. I thought everyone had left. The waitresses and waiters have all left. Hm. Minuet, how come the one taking care of that table didn't stay? I know " Minuet, "Because I told her it was okay, go home. It has been a long shift. Lots of people in and out." Joel, "That was nice of you."

Minuet, "Shall I seat your guests? Joel, "Sure. I am sorry. Sometimes I forget what I am doing. Please seat them anywhere they would like." Minuet, "You heard the man, sit anywhere you would like." Dan, "Anny, I think I want to sit where we sat this afternoon. It was out of the way. Besides I think it is better to be out of the view of any passer-by ers that might walk bye out in front." Anny nodded. Minuet,"Go right ahead then, and I will be over to get you something to drink."

As they walked over toward the corner they heard a voice say, "Hey, where you going. Walk by and don't even stop to say hello." They both turned around, and Anny looked, and she thought to herself, "do I know you?" But Dan spoke up, "Hey, Tommy, I was just wondering if you were going to make it back. Its was a quarter passed and I thought you were a no show." Tommy, "Me? A no show, ha ha ha, never." Dan, "It is good to see you again. This is my girl friday. She is a doll. Anny meet Sir Tommy." Anny, ''Sir Tommy is it, that is funny. Are you a gallent knight Sir Tommy." Tommy, "For the distressed, maybe. Or is it that I am the distressed." Anny, "Your quite charming." Tommy, "Thank you, that was really nice. Please have a seat. As soon as the waitress comes over and cleans up we will be ready to embark." Dan, " I think that the waitress left." Tommy, "Really? Hmm, now how is she going to make a living by leaving? I will have to leave the tip with Joel."

As soon as he said that, Minuet came over and took the dirty dishes from the table. Swabbed up the floor around them. And made sure everything was clean for them. She turned and and nodded to Joel that she was done. And waved good night, and left out the front door. Joel turned down all the inside lights and locked the door behind her. Picked up a pot of Joel's famous java been coffee, at least it was famous to him, and brought it over to the table and sat down next to Tommy.

Anny, "I have to ask this. The name of your restaurant is Joel Ra`eb Dabars, which is an elegant name. But it doesn't match your last name, which if I remember right is Callabrander. Is there a significance behind it."

Joel,"Well, there is, but not like your might expect. It isn't that I went to Paris, or Monaco or something. It really is something a little deeper. So deep that sometimes I think that no one will ever get it. It is really between me and My Father."

Anny, "That is nice. Your Father must be really happy every time he sees it."

Joel, "Oh yes, It is my hope that He is."

Anny, "Is he gone then, from what you just said I take that you have never talked to him about it."

Joel, "This is becoming a puzzle in misunderstanding. This is between my Father, my heavenly Father and me. My given name is Joel, which means The Lord is God. The word Ra'eb is the Hebrew word for hungry. And lastly, Dabars, which many people think is a french way of saying tavern or bar, really means word. So the idea of the name of the restaurant is that this place shows that the Lord is God, and is not only for the hungry for food, but for the hungry for the word."

Tommy, "Now, what can you say about that."

Anny, "That is nice. I don't mean to be a skeptic, but I have to be true to myself here, and be totally honest with you. I am skeptical that the word is being correctly discussed here. I listened to all that Dan has told me. And it does seem to be true. But that is more likely because I am blind because of my pain. I can't see. I can't find what I am looking for. But Dan and I have not gone fully into it, or even really checked it out to see if it proves true. And I also, before we get started, have to tell you, I am in a huff right now. Vic died. He is dead. He was wonderful. He was good in every way that I can think of. And I miss him terribly. And I will be oh so angry if I hear a lie, or misspoken word that is not true. I just want you to understand that. Right now, I can't take any thing like that. I just want to understand. "

Joel, "As I breath here, I ask myself, hearing these things, can I really finish this discussion. We all have dreams. In this case, it is because someone, or even many, have died. Can I really hide what is true so that you can bury yourself and live your life in happiness. I say, sure I can. So go. Leave this place. Never come back. Let there be peace in you. But I must ask a question of you, is it better to live hidden, not knowing, than to know and understand the truth?

Anny, "How can I answer that? I will stay and atleast here you out."

Joel, "Thank you. Then lets go back to the creation of man. When God brought body and spirit together man BECAME a living being.  Body, your flesh, plus the spirit, which is breath, you became a soul, you became life, a being. By combining the two things they became something else.  So, when God combined the breath of life with the body from the dust of the earth, man became something else, he became a living being. This is the reality.

Now there is only one Greek word translated "soul" in the New Testament, it is "psuche".  "Psuche" corresponds exactly to the Hebrew word "nephesh" as can be seen by looking at  Deut. 6:5 reads, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, nephesh equaling being, person, and life, and with all your strength". In Mark 12:30, Christ quotes this passage, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, psuche, and with all your mind and with all your strength".  We have in this comparison the God-breathed translation of the Hebrew "nephesh" to the Greek "psuche".  We know from this that "psuche" is equivalent to the Hebrew word "nephesh". Once we all realize and understand that man does not have a soul, but that man IS, by combination, a soul, or being, then we can take and see the truth. That is to say, when we read for example in Ecc. 3 of man's spirit departing and the body returning to the dust of the ground, we do not have to add that the soul, which is, of course, not mentioned in these passages, goes somewhere. So then, at death, the body goes back to dust, the breath of life departs.

Anny, "Okay, okay. I will listen. I will stay. And I am sorry. I know that your just discussing this, and haven't meant me no harm. But still, It is just so very tough.

Dan, "Yes Joel. It has been very tough on the both of us. After Vic died, I think we finally decided not to run away from knowing about death anymore."

Joel, "I understand what your saying. I can't know what your going through. Only you do. I can only imagine. And Hope full that is as far as I will ever have to go. I don't want to ever know it for sure. And I think even maybe I would want to hold on to what your holding to. But do you realize that what scriptures teach does not change that point of view very much. You will see your friend again, if he belongs to Christ. Just because he may not be looking after you, does not change that fact. Nothing changes except the when. Paul, in one of his epistles, promises you that the living will not go before the dead."

Anny, "Yes, I remember that being said by Paul."

Joel, "So now that we understand soul a little better, we should see something about the spirit. According to Ecclesiastes 12:7 It goes back to God. But for some reason we want to ignore that."

Anny, "No, I am not ignoring that, I am counting on it."

Joel, "Okay, I understand, then the question becomes does that spirit have the the life or the personality of the person from whom it came? Lets turn to Scriptures for the answer to that question.

Ecclesiastes 3:18-21, "I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts : even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath: so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?" The answer to the question posed in the last sentence is answered, in part, in Ecclesiastes 12:7, "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God Who gave it" .

The truth is that it is written here in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 that man is no different in death than the animals. And this will be a hard fact for you. They might see that they themselves are beasts .... Reminds you of something said in Genesis. The serpent wiser than all the beast of the field. Note also that in death man hath no preeminence above a beast .... "

Tommy, "Oh yea."Oh your missing something. Because as you just pointed out Joel, we are most certainly told in chapter 12 that the spirit of man goes back to God. That is not like the animals. We are not told that of the animals."

Joel, "Oh? The entire point of 3:18-21 is that man and the beast are the same in death . Therefore, we may not assume a difference when the Holy Spirit, through Solomon, has said expressly that there is no difference between man and the animals in death.

And something else is here that is truth in death regarding to the spirit of man. The fact is that there is no distinction in Ecclesiastes 3 or 12 between the spirits of unsaved men and those of saved men. That is to say, they all go back to God. If the spirits of the unsaved are alive and have personality, then they, along with the saved, have not died. That means that there is no difference, in terms of eternal life, between the spirits of the saved and the unsaved. That goes against all the teachings concerning who will inherit eternal life. Some may say that the spirits of the unsaved go to hell. But that is not what is said in Ecclesiastes. What is said, is that they all go back to God . Surely we can not believe that hell is with God. So man's spirit does not go to some prison deep in the center of the earth. It is out right impossible. Less, perhaps the scriptures are untruthful. blah.

Dan, "So if this spirit that goes back to God does not have life or personality in itself, what is it?

Joel, "Job 34:14 will answer that question. "If He set His heart upon man, if He gather unto Himself his spirit and his breath; All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust". The Hebrew words translated "spirit" and "breath" are "ruach" and "neshamah" respectively. Nowhere in all of Scriptures do we read of man receiving a spirit. This lends credence to the suggestion that "and" should really be "even" because "rauch" and "neshamah" refer to one and the same thing, which is the breath of life. So that verse should read, "He gather unto Himself his spirit even his breath ; All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust".

We read of the creation of man in Genesis 2:7, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, life being the Hebrew word neshamah; and man became a living soul". Therefore, the spirit,ruach, is the breath of life that God breathed into the nostrils of the first man, Adam when God created him.

Isaiah 42:5 is another verse where ruach and neshamah are used of the same thing. "....He that giveth breath, neshamah in Hebrew, unto the people upon it, it being the earth, and the spirit, ruach, to them that walk therein". Again, nowhere do we read of God giving man a spirit, therefore this verse should read, "He that giveth breath....even the spirit...". The spirit is the breath of life.

Genesis 7:15 is another verse that speaks of the "ruach of life". "And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath, ruach, of life". Genesis 7:22 repeats this, "All in whose nostrils was the breath, ruach, of life, of all that was in the the dry land, died".

Job 27:3 is a verse that tells us that the spirit is the breath of life that gives life to all men. "All the while my breath, neshamah, is in me, and the spirit, ruach, of God is in my nostrils".

All this being true, and to keep to that truth, we must keep in mind that all man, saved and unsaved have the breath of life. So whatever can be said of the spirit is true of all men, there is no distinction between the spirit, the breath of life, of the saved and the spirit of the unsaved. If we say that the spirit of the saved do not die, we must say the same of the unsaved. We then perpetuate Satan's lie to Eve when he said, "ye shall not surely die" which was written for our understanding in Genesis 3:4.

We read in Genesis 7, that the animals also have the breath of life. The scriptures never implies in any way that the breath of life, the spirit, that goes back to God upon death, has life or personality in and of itself. Only when it is joined to a body does the breath of life take on life. When we read that in death the body returns to the dust of the earth and the spirit goes back to God, we may conclude only one thing, which is that death is an absence of life. There is no life in the grave, there is no life with the spirit in heaven. Death is death, not life in another form.

Tommy, "If the spirit or the breath of life, which is the same thing, does not have life or personality in itself, what is the meaning of Psalms 31:5? This is where we read, "Into Thine hand I commit my spirit, neshamah"?

Joel, "We should not assume what is not taught in God's holy Word and say that the breath of life does have life and spirit, we must seek an answer based on what is in scriptures. What the Psalmist, and Also Christ when He said this on the cross, was saying  that he was entrusting his life to God until the day of resurrection.

Tommy, "Oh. That does seem to be correct."

Ain't that life 8