The World of Computer Software/World_Of_Computer_Software-02-386-Vol-2of3.iso/m/mortalsl.zip/SOUL.TXT

Text File | 1993-02-26 | 15KB | 274 lines

                           Is The Soul Immortal?


     If you are a member of any of the main stay Christian Churches, you have
been taught that the soul of man is immortal.  Is it?  Or, is it capable of
death?  The only way we can find a reliable answer to this question, is to
seek the words of the One who created man -- God Almighty.  If we look in the
bible which is God's word, we will find much on this subject.  It is not
cloaked in mystery or riddle.  Rather it is straight forward and easy to
understand.

     In the beginning, God created man from two parts, the dust of the earth,
and the breath of life.  When these two came together, man became a living
soul. (Ge 2:7)  Man was given plenty of leeway.  The only restriction was
that he was not to eat from the tree of "Good and Bad".  God was saying that
decisions about what is good and what is bad would be made by Him alone.  At
that point, in no uncertain terms, the penalty for disobedience was given.
God said "...in the day you eat from it, you will positively die." (Ge 2:9)

     Adam knew what death was.  He was to be master over the animal kingdom,
and animals die.  If he was to eat from the Tree of Good and Bad, then he was
to die.  Eccl 3:19,20 makes a point about death that Adam well knew.

          ECCLESIASTES -- nwt
          3:19 For there is an eventuality as respects the sons of
          mankind and an eventuality as respects the beast, and
          they have the same eventuality. As the one dies, so the
          other dies; and they all have but one spirit, so that
          there is no superiority of the man over the beast, for
          everything is vanity.
          3:20 All are going to one place. They have all come to be
          from the dust, and they are all returning to the dust.

     Further in the book of Eccl more insight is given to the state of death.

          ECCLESIASTES -- nwt
          9:4 For as respects whoever is joined to all the living
          there exists confidence, because a live dog is better off
          than a dead lion.
          9:5 For the living are conscious that they will die; but
          as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all,
          neither do they anymore have wages, because the
          remembrance of them has been forgotten.
          9:10 All that your hand finds to do, do with your very
          power, for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge
          nor wisdom in Sheol, the place to which you are going.

     "Sheol" is often translated "Hell".  In the vernacular of the Old
English that the King James Version was written, the farmers would "bury
their potatoes in `hell` for the winter".  Literally, sheol is the ground--
the dust of the earth.

     Psalms 146:3,4 hit the nail on the head.

          PSALMS -- nwt
          146:3 Do not put your trust in nobles, Nor in the son of
          earthling man, to whom no salvation belongs.
          146:4 His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground; In
          that day his thoughts do perish.


     At this point, someone might object.  They might say "the soul is
different than the man", that it is some magical portion of the man that goes
on after the man dies.  Is that true?  The answer is NO.  Lets see what words
the Bible uses for soul and how the Bible defines soul.

SOUL (Quoted from "Reasoning from The Scriptures" Watchtower Bible and Tract
          Society 1985 P.375-380)

Definition: In the Bible, "SOUL" is translated from the Hebrew
ne'phesh and the Greek psy.khe'. Bible usage shows the SOUL to
be a person or an animal or the life that a person or an animal
enjoys. To many persons, however, "SOUL" means the immaterial or
spirit part of a human being that survives the death of the
physical body. Others understand it to be the principle of life.
But these latter views are not Bible teachings.

What does the Bible say that helps us to understand what the
SOUL is?

     Gen 2:7: "Jehovah God proceeded to form the man out of
dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath
of life, and the man came to be a living SOUL." (Notice that
this does not say that man was given a SOUL but that he be-
came a SOUL, a living person.) (The part of the Hebrew word here
rendered "SOUL" is ne'phesh. KJ, AS, and Dy agree with that
rendering. RS, JB, NAB read "being." NE says "creature." Kx
reads "person.")

     1 Cor 15:45: "It is even so written: `The first man Adam
became a living SOUL.' The last Adam became a life-giving
spirit." (So the Christian Greek Scriptures agree with the
Hebrew Scriptures as to what the SOUL is.) (The Greek word here
translated "SOUL" is the accusative case of psy.khe'. KJ, AS,
Dy, JB, NAB and Kx also read "SOUL." RS, NE, and TEV say
"being.")
     1 Pet 3:20: "In Noah's days ... a few people, that is,
eight souls, were carried safely through the water." (The Greek
word here translated "souls" is psy.khai, the plural form of
psy.khe'. KJ, AS, Dy, and Kx also read "souls." JB and TEV say
"people"; RS, NE, and NAB use "persons.")
     Gen 9:5: "Besides that, your blood of your souls [or,
"lives"; Hebrew, from ne'phesh] shall I ask back." (Here the
SOUL is said to have blood.)
     Josh 11:11: "They went striking every SOUL [Hebrew,
ne'phesh] that was in it with the edge of the sword." (The SOUL
is here shown to be something that can be touched by the sword,
so these souls could not have been spirits.)

Where does the Bible say that animals are souls?

     Gen 1:20, 21, 24, 25: "God went on to say: `Let the waters
swarm forth a swarm of living souls* ... `And God proceeded to
create the great sea monsters and every living SOUL that moves
about, which the waters swarmed forth according to their kinds,
and every winged flying creature according to Its kind.... And
God went on to say: `Let the earth put forth living souls ac-
cording to their kinds ...' And God proceeded to make the wild
beast of the earth according to its kind and the domestic animal
according to its kind and every moving animal of the ground
according to its kind." (*In Hebrew the word here is ne'phesh.
Ro reads "SOUL." Some translations use the rendering "creature[s]."
     Lev 24:17, 18: "In case a man strikes any SOUL [Hebrew,
ne'phesh] of mankind fatally, he should be put to death without
fail. And the fatal striker of the SOUL [Hebrew, ne'phesh] of a
domestic animal should make compensation for it, SOUL for SOUL."
(Notice that the same Hebrew word for SOUL is applied to both
mankind and animals.)
     Rev 16:3: "It became blood as of a dead man, and every
living souls died, yes, the things in the sea." (Thus the
Christian Greek Scriptures also show animals to be souls.) (*In
Greek the word here is psy.khe'. KJ, AS, and Dy render it
"SOUL." Some translators use the term "creature" or "thing.")

Do other scholars who are not Jehovah's Witnesses acknowledge
that this is what the Bible says the SOUL is?

     "There is no dichotomy [division] of body and SOUL in the
O[ld] T[estament]. The Israelite saw things concretely, in their
totality, and thus he considered men as persons and not as
composites. The term nepes [ne'phesh], though translated by our
word SOUL, never means SOUL as distinct from the body or the
individual person.... The term [psy.khe'] is the N[ew]
T[estament] word corresponding with nepes. It can mean the prin-
ciple of life, life itself, or the living being." -New Catholic
Encyclopedia (1967), Vol. XIII, pp. 449, 450.
     "The Hebrew term for `SOUL' (nefesh, that which breathes)
was used by Moses ..., signifying an `animated being' and appli-
cable equally to nonhuman beings.... New Testament usage of
psyche (`SOUL') was comparable to nefesh." The New Encyclopedia
Britannica (1976), Macropaedia, Vol. 15, p. 152.
     "The belief that the SOUL continues its existence after the
dissolution of the body is a matter of philosophical or theolog-
ical speculation rather than of simple faith, and is according-
ly nowhere expressly taught in Holy Scripture. -The Jewish Ency-
clopedia (1910), Vol. VI, p. 564.

Can the human SOUL die?

     Ezek 18:4: "Look! All the souls to me they belong. As the
SOUL of the father so likewise the SOUL of the son - to me they
belong. The souls that is sinning - it itself will die."
(*Hebrew reads "the ne'phesh." KJ, AS, RS, NE, and Dy render it
"the SOUL." Some translations say "the man" or "the person.")
     Matt 10:28: "Do not become fearful of those who kill the
body but cannot kill the soul [or, "life"]; but rather be in
fear of him that can destroy both soul* and body in Gehenna."
(*Greek has the accusative case of psy.khe'. KJ, AS, RS, NE,
TEV, Dy, JB, and NAB all render it "soul.")
     Acts 3:23: "Indeed, any soul [Greek, psy.khe'] that does
not listen to that Prophet will be completely destroyed from
among the people."

Is the soul the same as the spirit?

     Eccl 12:7: "Then the dust returns to the earth just as it
happened to be and the spirit [or, life-force; Hebrew, ru'ach]
itself returns to the true God who gave it." (Notice that the
Hebrew word for spirit is ru'ach; but the word translated soul
is ne'phesh. The text does not mean that at death the spirit
travels all the way to the personal presence of God; rather, any
prospect for the person to live again rests with God. In similar
usage, we may say that, if required payments are not made by the
buyer of a piece of property, the property "returns" to its
owner.) (KJ, AS, RS, NE, and Dy all here render ru'ach as
"spirit." NAB reads "life breath.")
     Eccl 3:19: "There is an eventuality as respects the sons of
mankind and an eventuality as respects the beast, and they have
the same eventuality. As the ones dies, so the other dies; and
they all have but one spirit [Hebrew, ru'ach]." (Thus both
mankind and beasts are shown to have the same ru'ach, or spirit.
For comments on verses 20, 21, see page 383.)
     Heb 4:12: "The word of God is alive and exerts power and
is sharper than any two-edged sword and pierces even to the
dividing of soul [Greek, psy.khes'; "life", NE] and spirit
[Greek, pneu'ma.tos], and of joints and their marrow, and is
able to discern thoughts and intentions of the heart." (Observe
that the Greek word for "spirit" is not the same as the word for
"soul.")

Does conscious life continue for a person after the spirit
leaves the body?

     Ps 146:4: "His spirit [Hebrew, from ru'ach] goes out, he
goes back to his ground; in that day his thoughts do perish."
(NAB, Ro, Yg, and Dy [145:4] here render ru'ach as "spirit."
Some translations say "breath.") (Also Psalm 104:29)

What is the origin of Christendom's belief in an immaterial,
immortal soul?

     "The Christian concept of a spiritual soul created by God
and infused into the body at conception to make man a living
whole is the fruit of a long development in Christian philoso-
phy. Only with Origen [died c. 254 C.E.] in the East and St.
Augustine [died 430 C.E.] in the West was the soul established
as a spiritual substance and a philosophical concept formed of
its nature.... His [Augustine's] doctrine ... owed much (in-
cluding some shortcomings) to Neoplatonism." -New Catholic
Encyclopedia (1967), Vol. XIII, pp. 452, 454.
     "The concept of immortality is a product of Greek thinking,
whereas the hope of a resurrection belongs to Jewish thought.
... Following Alexander's conquests Judaism gradually absorbed
Greek concepts." -Dictionnaire Encyclopedique de la Bible
(Valence, France; 1935), edited by Alexandre Westphal, Vol. 2,
p. 557.
     "Immortality of the soul is a Greek notion formed in an-
cient mystery cults and elaborated by the philosopher Plato."
-Presbyterian Life, May 1, 1970, p. 35.
     "Do we believe that there is such a thing as death? ... Is
it not the separation of soul and body? And to be dead is the
completion of this; when the soul exists in herself, and is re-
leased from the body and the body is released from the soul,
what is this but death? ... And does the soul admit of death?
No. Then the soul is immortal? Yes. -Plato's "Phaedo," Secs. 64,
105, as published in Great Books of the Western World (1952),
edited by R. M. Hutchins, Vol. 7, pp. 223, 245, 246.
     "The problem of immortality, we have seen, engaged the
serious attention of the Babylonian theologians.... Neither
the people nor the leaders of religious thought ever faced the
possibility of the total annihilation of what once was called
into existence. Death was a passage to another kind of life."
-The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria (Boston, 1898), M.
Jastrow, Jr., p. 556.
          (End of quote from "Reasoning from the Scriptures")

     Did you notice in the above mentioned material that animals are spoken
of as souls? (Lev 24:17,18 & Rev 16:3)  Did you notice that souls that sin
die? (Ezk 18:4 & Acts 3:23)

     Lets reason further.  If the soul is immortal, why does it need a
resurrection?  Immortal means incapable of dying.  Resurrection means to
bring back from death.  If you have immortality, you don't need to have a
resurrection. Yet, the only hope we have is through the salvation offered
through the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  Through that salvation comes
the resurrection hope, the raising of dead souls back to life.

     Two resurrections are spoken of.  (see "Insight on the Scriptures" Vol-2
P783-793)  Those who have a part in the first resurrection, will be granted
immortality.  Those who take part in the second resurrection will not be
given immortality, they will be given everlasting life. (There is a
difference)  These things take place after they are resurrected, not because
they were immortal to begin with.

     The first lie ever told is recorded at Ge 3:4.  The Serpent said "you
positively will not die" if you eat of the fruit.  The lie was effective. Eve
was deceived, and ate the fruit.  The lie was effective then, as it is
effective now.  Somehow Satan the Devil has gotten people to believe that
there was no penalty, that because man is immortal he really doesn't die.

     Hopefully, the above mentioned thoughts and reasonings will help you to
see that the soul is not immortal.  Our hope is through the Ransom Sacrifice
of Jesus, and the Resurrection hope that it brings.