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THE SOUL AND DEATH

By B.A. Livingstone

The single most important question one can ask is, "What happens to me when I die?" When we die, is that it? Or do we float in some ethereal world of limbo. Or as others would suggest, do we have a soul that goes to heaven when we die if we were good, or possibly conscious everlasting torment in flame if were bad. Still others suggest reincarnation. But which are we to believe? 

Let us consider for a moment who might know best. Who better than the one who created us! It matters not in the end what we or anyone else may think. In the end, what matters is what has God said.

 Let us take a look at the very verse of the creation of man.

"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
Genesis 2:7

Note that man became a living soul, NOT that he was 'GIVEN A SOUL'. This is a far cry from the universal belief that man is in possession of an immortal soul. In fact, the expression "immortal soul' does not occur in the scriptures even once! God told Adam that in the day he should eat of the forbidden tree he would surely die, Gen 2:17. And if Adam could die, then he was not immortal. 

Some argue in error that when Adam did die, he died a 'spiritual death' for, they say, he was a spiritual being. But Paul tells us:

"And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was NOT first which is SPIRITUAL, but that which IS NATURAL, and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man (Adam) is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven." 1 Corinthians 15:45-47

Adam then WAS NOT A SPIRITUAL BEING, but an earthly one. Even as God had said;

"For dust thou art, and unto DUST SHALT THOU RETURN." Genesis 3:19

Here then was the beginning of the idea that we are more than mere mortals, that we could somehow live forever and ever without a body. Satan implied that death, did not really mean death, as is being taught today. This is the first and foremost doctrine of spiritism, an occult belief that we are gods that cannot die, even as Satan told Eve,  

"Ye shall be as gods" (Heb. Elohim)
So we ask the question, where did the idea that man would never die come from? 

 From none other than the father of the LIE, Satan himself. When he met Eve in the garden as an angel of light, not a serpent, for the Hebrew word translated is 'Nachash' means a shinning one', he met her as the Father of the LIE. 

"And the serpent (nachash - shinning one) said unto the women, YE SHALL NOT SURELY DIE." Genesis 3:4


This was Satan's second lie, "The immanence of God in man." This idea of an immortal soul is in complete contradiction to the truth of the word of God.

"THE SOUL THAT SINNETH, IT SHALL DIE."
Ezekiel 18:4

So a SOUL CAN DIE. Why? Because we do not have 'a soul', but rather we do 'have soul'. What then does the word 'soul' mean? The word soul in Hebrew is the word translated 'nephesh', and it's meaning according to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance is:

"A breathing creature, i.e. animal or (abstr.) vitality: used very widely in a
literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental); appetite, beast, body,
breath, creature, dead, desire, contented, fish, ghost, greedy, he, heart, (jeopardy of
life; in jeporady), lust, man, me, mind, mortally, one, own. person, pleasure,
(her, him, my, thy) self, them. (your) selves, slay, soul, tablet, they, thing, will, would 
have it."

That's quite a list to choose from! Note that soul can be translated "animal, ""dead, " "beast," "mortally,". In fact the word Nephesh is used several times of lower life forms prior to ever being used of man! In Gen 1:20, 21, 24, and 25, the word nephesh is rendered "moving creature," "living creature," and "beast" in verse 25 referring to the whales, fish, and lower forms of life found in the oceans!

In Numbers 19:1 it states, 

"He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days."

The same word translated soul in many passages of the O.T. is here translated  "DEAD BODY"! 

It is the breath that animates and gives our flesh or body life or soul, and without this breath or spirit, we die. 

"For the body without the spirit is dead." 
James 2:26

This is nothing new, for everyone who has ever died, has died because they stopped breathing! This is no different from the animal and is so stated:

"For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as one dieth, so dieth the other; yea they all have ONE BREATH; so that 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." 
Ecclesiastes 3:19-20

And again we read in Psalms 104:29;

"Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away THEIR BREATH, THEY DIE, AND RETURN TO THEIR DUST."

Here then is the supreme penalty.

"Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and DEATH by sin:
and so DEATH PASSED UPON ALL MEN, for all have sinned.
Romans 5:12

"For the wages of sin is DEATH, but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Romans 6:23

Here in this verse is set forth Life's greatest: 
Life's greatest reality -- SIN
Life's greatest certainty -- DEATH
Life's greatest offer -- LIFE
Life's greatest issues -- LIFE and DEATH 
 

God has given you a FREE CHOICE in the matter and states it plainly.

"He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life."
1 John 5:12

Let us take note how Job describes the condition of death in chapter 14;

"He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: He fleeth also as a shadow, and CONTINUETH NOT." 
"So man lieth down, and riseth not: TILL the heavens be no more (Ref. to the new heaven and earth of Rev.)
they SHALL NOT AWAKE, NOR BE RAISED OUT OF THEIR SLEEP." 
"Oh that thou wouldest hide me in the GRAVE, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past , that wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!"
"If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my CHANGE come." 

Here in verse 14 we have an obvious reference to 1 Corinthian 15:51 and we see that there is NO in between state. When you die, you go to the ground or dust. So if we have no immortal soul, for Christ "only hath immortality," 1 Tim 6:16, and we are a dying creature, what hope to we have? Our hope lies in resurrection, the CHANGE that Job was awaiting in  his grave asleep, or what Christ called, being BORN AGAIN. When Christ spoke to Nicodemus in John 3, he told him;

"You MUST BE BORN AGAIN." John 3:7

What he was trying to tell Nicodemus is that we are all born by a natural birth, but what is needed is a second birth, a birth after you die called the resurrection. After Christ died we are told that he was;

"The first born of the dead." Colossians 1:18
and again 

"The first begotten of the dead." Revelation 1:5

Also read Acts 13:29-33. It is believers who are said to sleep at death,
see John 11:11-14 and no one else. 

"Behold I shew you a mystery; We shall not all SLEEP, but we shall all be changed." 
1 Corinthians 15:51

This change comes at the resurrection according to verse 53;

"For this CORRUPTIBLE must put on incorruption, and this MORTAL MUST PUT ONE IMMORTALITY."

This is the ONLY ESCAPE FROM DEATH, there is no other way, but by and through our Saviour Jesus Christ who has;

"ABOLISHED DEATH, and hath brought LIFE and IMMORTALITY
to light THROUGH THE GOSPEL."
2 Tim. 1:10