| In order to understand death, we need to understand
life. What are we? What is man? "But one in a certain place testified, saying, what is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? "Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands; "Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet ... We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man" (Hebrews 2:6-9). God's Word shows humanity is the absolute apex of the material creation, only a step beneath the creation of angels, which are spirit beings. God says, "The Lord Eternal 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). A soul is what man is—it is what Adam became. The Bible does not say Adam had a "soul"; it say Adam was a soul! The word used in Genesis for "soul" is the Hebrew nephesh. This word is used in many forms, including "body," "being," "that one," "beast," "life," "soul," "creature," etc. It is used five times of lower life forms, including the creatures of the sea floors, before it is ever used of man! In Numbers 19: 11, it is used in connection with the word dead, explaining that a person would be ceremonially unclean if he touched a dead nephesh (soul), or body. Nephesh has a wide application in Hebrew, including the life, appetite, emotion—the whole being and personality—of the creature or thing being described. But it never means anything immortal, spiritual or separate from the temporal creature! In the article "Immortality of the Soul" in the Jewish Encyclopedia (Vol. VI, pages 564, 566), we read, "The belief that the soul continues its existence after the dissolution of the body is ... speculation ... nowhere expressly taught in Holy Scripture.... "The belief in the immortality of the soul came to the Jews from contact with Greek thought and chiefly through the philosophy of Plato, its principal exponent, who was led to it through Orphic and Eleusinian mysteries in which Babylonian and Egyptian views were strangely blended." Even during the days of David, the ancient Israelites obviously believed in the resurrection of the whole body and not in the "immortality of the soul." Proof is found in the account of Saul's mysterious visit to the famous "Witch of Endor" and his demand that the witch produce Samuel. The witch knew she could not deceive Saul by producing a "disembodied spirit," or performing a seance in which a "departed soul,, was alleged to have spoken. Instead, she created an apparition through an evil power of the whole body and person of Samuel, making it appear as if he had been bodily resurrected. It was the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians who originated the idea of the immortality of the soul. Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian, wrote, "The Egyptians were also the first that asserted that the soul of man is immortal." Plato said, "The soul whose inseparable attitude is life will never admit of life's opposite, death. The soul is shown to be immortal and, since immortal, indestructible ... Do we believe there is such a thing as death? To be sure. And is this anything but the separation of the soul from the body?" Tertulian said, "For some things are known, even by nature: the immortality of the soul, for instance, is held by many ... I may use, therefore, the opinion of a Plato when he declares 'every soul is immortal."' Thus one darkened, pagan and perverted mind builds upon the supposed "authority" of another darkened, pagan and perverted mind, the one so-called "authority" quoting the other "authority" until the gullible masses begin to believe. But there is no place in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, where the words "immortal soul" are ever found! For twenty-five years I have offered aloud, over the airwaves, a $10,000 certified cashier's check to anyone who could show me the words "immortal soul" linked together in the King James Bible! The Bible does say this about the soul: "Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of a son is mine: the soul that sinneth it shall die " (Ezekiel 18:4,20). In this scripture Ezekiel is showing the intense individuality of responsibility toward God. He is showing each creature, each individual, is responsible for his own deeds and actions. The Hebrew word is nephesh and should more appropriately be translated: "Behold, all individuals are mine—as the being of the father, so also the being [life] of the son; the person that sins, he shall die!" No matter whether you agree with the literal meaning of the Hebrew word or not (and it would be ridiculous to disagree, since every biblical authority could corroborate it), and even if you decided to cling tenaciously to a totally false belief (i.e., that the soul is "immortal"), you are faced with an incredible dilemma! For the Bible says, "The soul that sinneth it [that soul!] shall die!" Therefore, the Bible says souls die. |
