Do YOU Have an IMMORTAL SOUL?
Is it true that we human beings go
either to heaven or to hell when we die? Hundreds of millions say YES! One
of the fundamental beliefs of the mainstream "Christian " religions is
that of the immortality of the soul! On this belief is based the concept
of an ever-burning hell fire as punishment for the wicked, and heaven as
the reward for the saved. Belief in an "immortal soul " in some form or
another was commonplace among heathen nations long prior to Christianity.
The pagan Greek and Roman philosophers speculated about the "soul, " as
did ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, Persians and Chinese.
The Catholic Encyclopedia admits that the doctrine has its origins
in antiquity that the concept of an "immortal soul" in man long antedates
Christ and the apostles.
But is this doctrine TRUE? Did it come from the Bible? Did Christ
and the apostles teach the immortality of the soul?
By Garner Ted Armstrong
Do you have a soul? Are you a soul?
Is there something about you that is immortal that will never
die? If so, when, and how did that "soul" get into your body? Was it
imparted to you at the moment of conception? Did it come into your body at
some time during your fetal development? Were you given an "immortal soul"
at the moment you took your first breath, shortly after birth?
If you have a "soul" can you touch it, taste it, feel it,
hear it, or smell it? Can you take it out and look at it? Can you see
the "souls" of others? Are You, you the real person, the innermost,
private, human being with all of your thoughts, inclinations, perceptions,
concepts and beliefs, hidden longings, doubts and fears, beliefs and
convictions, sensory perceptions and feelings, going to SURVIVE this
human flesh, and live forever?
According to the so-called "Christian" religions the real
PERSON is dwelling within the temporal body. The body is seen as a
temporary suit of clothes. The real person dwells within that
temporary suit of clothes; and at the time of death, the now useless "suit
of clothes" (the body) is discarded, buried in the ground or cremated,
while the real person wafts away either to heaven or to
ever-burning hell fire! (In the Catholic tradition, there are
allegedly various intermediary stages called "purgatory.")
How can you KNOW, one way or the others What is your
ultimate authority for determining the truth on any subject
which has to do with life and death, judgment, and the hereafter?
For the purposes of this article, the absolute, final and
divine AUTHORITY is the Bible, the inspired, written Word of God, as it
appears in its earliest manuscripts, and in its original languages!
If your "authority" for your beliefs is myth, superstition,
fables, stories of alleged death-bed visions or conversations with
"departed souls"; if your "authority" is mysticism, oriental religions,
heathen superstitions or esoterica, then you should read no further—for
this article accepts as the only and FINAL authority on the subject of the
so-called "immortality of the Soul" THE BIBLE, the written Word of God!
WHY, then, if so many hundreds of millions of human beings
in so many nations are absolutely convinced they possess an
immortal soul are the words "immortal soul" FOUND NOWHERE in Scripture?
What Is Man?
Obviously, the question concerning
whether you have an "immortal soul" is really the question, what are
you?
To atheists and evolutionists, man is merely a "hairless ape."
God-rejecting atheists view man as the end result of aeons of blind
chance; the final outcome of millennia of randomness; "natural selection,"
and the "survival of the fittest. " Of course, those who reject the word
of God are cultists; they have a blind FAITH in the theories of
the evolutionary "fathers, " and nothing is more UNscientific
than the theory of evolution!
Those who believe in creation—who know and understand
that life can only come from preexisting life, and preexisting life of the
same kind, who understand that laws can only come from a great
lawgiver; that perfection, symmetry, interdependency and fabulous
design can only come from a Supreme Designer—know better.
They know that the human family began with one man, and that a
wife, miraculously taken from his own body and as much a unique and
original creation as was Adam himself, formed the first family.
In any event, even if for the sake of argument alone, those who
profess the Christian religion and believe in the inspiration of the Bible
must explain what is man from the perspective of the
creation account revealed in the Bible!
When God created our first parent He said, "In the sweat of thy
face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for
out of it wast thou taken: for DUST THOU ART, and unto dust
shalt thou return! "(Genesis 3:19).
God was talking to Adam. He was talking to the
conscious man! He did not tell Adam that only his body
was composed of the elements of the earth; but that "Adam" was really a
"soul" locked within a temporal, physical body! No, He said Adam WAS "red
clay" or, "red mud" (for that is the real meaning of the Hebrew
word translated "dust").
Notice! "And the Eternal 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).
Remember, the Bible was not written in the English language.
Mostly, the Bible was written in Greek and Hebrew; Hebrew being used
predominately in the Old Testament, and Greek in the New.
There was no such word in existence at the time the Bible was
written as "soul. " It is an English word, with an almost exclusively
ecclesiastical connotation!
Actually, as you will see, the English word "soul" should be
virtually expunged from the English language, and replaced with
many possible synonyms which connote the real meaning of
the Hebrew word nephesh.
For the Hebrew word nephesh is the word from which the
English word "soul" is translated!
Naturally, then, our quest for knowledge and understanding centers
around the meaning of the word nephesh!
What is the meaning, then, of the HEBREW word
nephesh?
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance says, "(5315) nephesh; 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 jeopardy), 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."
What a list! You see, the Hebrew word nephesh has
to do with "being"! As such, it has a wide usage,
concerning the physical, animal, breathing LIFE of flesh and
blood creatures! Notice that it can be translated "dead" or even "beast"
or "creature" as well as "lust," "mortally," or "person."
Did you know that the Hebrew word nephesh is used
several times of lower life forms PRIOR to ever being used concerning
man in the Bible?
Notice Genesis 1:20 where nephesh is rendered, "moving
creature," verse 21 where the same word is rendered, "living creature,"
verse 24 where nephesh is rendered, "living creature; and beast,
" verse 25 where it is rendered "beast," referring to whales, fish,
crustaceans and lower life forms inhabiting the sea!
In this graphic description of the creation of all of the animals
and sea-dwelling creatures, the word nephesh is used
again and again!
Naturally even the superstitious translators who were
heavily affected by Roman Catholic and Anglican doctrines in the sixteen
hundreds did not dare render the word nephesh as
"soul" in these passages!
Now, turn to and read Numbers 19:11: "He that toucheth the dead
body of any man shall be unclean seven days. " In this scripture,
the laws of purification under the Levites are discussed. A person would
be considered "unclean" if he touched the decaying corpse or body of an
animal or another man!
Notice verse 22. "And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall
be unclean; and the soul [nephesh!] that toucheth it shall be
unclean until even. "
The very same word rendered "soul" in verse 22 (which should
be translated "individual," or "person") is rendered "DEAD BODY"
in verse 11! Get it into your mind; firmly fixed once and for
all! The SAME WORD which is translated "soul" in literally dozens
of places in the Old Testament is here translated "dead body"!
Now turn to and read Ezekiel 18, verses 4 and 20. "Behold, all
souls [nephesh] are mine; as the soul [nephesh] of the
father, so also the soul [nephesh] of the son is mine: the soul.
[nephesh] that sinneth IT [that 'soul' or nepheshq shall DIE!
" Here, it would be far clearer if the English were rendered "Behold all
persons are mine; as the person of the father, so the person of
the son; the individual that sins HE shall die!"
The thrust of the scripture is individual, personal
responsibility before God! What God is saying through Ezekiel is that
no one can render excuses for sin; that we cannot "pass the buck" by
pointing to others as a causal factor of our sins!
This scripture is not given as a lesson in whether or not souls
are "immortal" or mortal; yet, because the scripture very plainly says
that "the soul that sinneth, IT SHALL DIE, " it represents a
further, powerfully conclusive PROOF that the Hebrew word for
"soul" (nephesh) means physical, mortal, temporal life, and has
nothing whatsoever to do with immortality!
So, ask yourself "does the Bible say, whatever the Bible means
by the word 'soul,' that souls can DIE?" Your obvious answer is
YES!
Then, with your own eyes, you are beholding the absolute proof
that the word translated into English "soul" has nothing whatsoever to
do with immortality or spirituality; but has to do with physical,
carnal, flesh-and-blood human and animal existence!
The word nephesh is found in 243 different Bible passages, and
translated in 11 different ways. Notice that the expression "the dead" is
translated directly from the Hebrew word nephesh in the following
passages: Leviticus 19:22; 21:1, 22:4; Numbers 5:2; Numbers 6:11.
The same word (nephesh) which is translated "soul" in
most cases is rendered "dead body" in Numbers 9:6, 7, 10.
It is translated as "body" in Leviticus 21:U, Numbers 6:6; 19:11,
13, and also in Haggai 2:1, 3.
What About the New Testament?
The Greek word psuche is the
only word that is translated "soul" in the New Testament. You will
find the word 105 times in the New Testament, of which it is
translated "soul" only 58 times, but can also be rendered "life" (40
times), "mind" (three times), and "heart," "heartily," "us" and "you" (one
time each).
The Greek word psuche is the exact Greek
rendering of the Hebrew word nephesh and is used in the same way
throughout the New Testament.
For example, psuche is used of the lower animals,
just as you have seen nephesh used of lower life forms in the
first chapter of the book of Genesis! In Revelation 8:9, the Greek word
psuche (remember this is the ONLY word which is ever used for the word
"soul" in the English language) is rendered "life. " Notice also
Revelation 16:3, where lower life forms are spoken of, yet the word "soul"
is used. Read that last scripture carefully! It describes one of the
horrible plagues yet to fall upon the land and the sea, and says "every
living soul DIED"! Here is one more New Testament proof that the
word "soul" as it found its way into the English language means a
being, or living thing, which can DIE! In this case, it is used of various
forms of life (of which there are thousands) in the sea!
The Greek word psuche is also used for an
individual On many occasions, in making out a flight plan when I was
piloting a jet airplane, we would have to include the information of how
many persons were aboard that flight. All airlines dispatchers do
the same things. Oftentimes, many pilots calling in their flight plans
would say they had so many "souls" on board, using the word
interchangeably for individuals, or persons. When a newspaper
headline speaks of so many "souls" being lost in the sinking of a ship, it
is using the word in much the same way as it occurs 14 different times in
the Bible! For proof, read Acts 2:41-43; 3:23; 7:14; 27:37; Romans 2:9;
13: 1; 1 Corinthians 15:45; James 5:20; 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:14;
Revelation 6:9; 18:13; 20:4.
In those passages, the Greek word psuche is used for
the life of man, which can be destroyed, or lost.
A classic example of where the translators have tampered
with the English in translating from the Greek is found
in Matthew 16:25 and 26.
Notice the way it is rendered in the King James Version:
"For whosoever will save his life [psuche] shall lose it; and
whosoever will lose his life [psuche] for my sake shall find it.
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole
world, and lose his own soul [psuche]? or what shall a man give in
exchange for his soul [psuche]?"
Obviously, since the identical Greek word is used in
both passages; and since it is rendered differently in verse 26
(soul) from the way it is used in verse 25 (life), it was a
translator's decision as to changing the way he rendered
this Greek word psuche in the two verses!
To be honest, and to be fair with the word,
it should have been rendered the same in both passages! Here, it is
obvious the word should better be rendered "life, " just as it
was rendered in verse 25! For, after all, it is your life
you can lose—and what can you give in exchange for your LIFE?
The point is, the Greek word psuche is capable of
nearly as many applications as is the Hebrew word nephesh, and can
even be used of man's moods, passions and feelings!
The word psuche, for example, is translated "mind,"
"us," "you" "heart" and "heartily."
By no stretch of the imagination can this Greek word EVER
connote anything which is immortal, or "extraphysical, " in the
sense of being spiritual.
The English word "soul" in the Old Testament is always taken
from the Hebrew nephesh and does NOT mean anything immortal; just
as the English word "soul" in the New Testament is taken from the Greek
word psuche, and only means mortal, temporal, human physical
MAN, who is subject to death.
What Happens at Death?
It is clear from both the Hebrew
and the Greek, the original languages of the Bible, that man
dies in exactly the same fashion as does a beast. "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!" (Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20).
Notice how the inspired Bible writers described the
condition of death: Job wrote, "Man that is born of a woman is of few
days, and full of trouble.
"He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: He fleeth—also
as a shadow, and continueth not" (Job 14:1, 2).
In the same chapter, Job said, "So man lieth down, and
riseth not: TILL the heavens be no more, [obviously, reference to the
resurrection and the 'new heavens and new earth'] they shall not
awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.
"Oh that thou wouldst hide me in the grave, that
thou wouldest keep me in secret, until thy wrath be passed, that thou
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! [Obvious reference
to the change at the resurrection; 1 Corinthians 15:50-52.]
"Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou will have a
desire to the work of thine hands!" (Job 14:12-15).
God inspired David to write a great deal about the subject
of life and death. David said, "Nevertheless man being in honor abideth
not: He is like the beasts that perish ... like sheep they
are laid in the grave [sheol] death shall feed upon them,
and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their
beauty shall consume in the grave [sheol] from their
dwelling. But God will redeem my soul [Hebrew nephesh—meaning
LIFE!] from the power of the grave [notice the grave has POWER over
the kind of 'life' connoted by the Hebrew word nephesh]: For
He shall receive me.
"Man that is in honor. and understandeth not, is like the
beasts that perish!" (Psalm 49:12-20).
Because Almighty God reveals we human beings—the creation
of His hands—are His children, and that we will be resurrected
FROM THE DEAD, He inspired David to write, "Precious in the sight of
the Eternal is the death of His saints! " (Psalms 116:15).
There are many examples in the Bible about what happens
at death!
There is No case in the Bible where the words "immortal
soul" appear! There is a "spirit in man" mentioned in the Bible,
which is a very profound subject, and which would demand an entire booklet
to thoroughly explain. In brief, the "spirit in man" (mentioned by Job and
the apostle Paul who talked of how God's Holy Spirit "witnesseth with
our spirit" that we are the children of God) is that spiritual
essence which lifts the mind of man to a level far above the mere
brain of animals!
The Bible clearly reveals that Almighty God is begetting
CHILDREN!
Even as human beings are not reproduced without life
begetting life; male life uniting with female life; so Almighty
God reveals that His Holy Spirit does not unite with mere flesh;
but that there is a "spirit in man," very likely in the frontal lobes of
the brain (which is why the "forehead" is mentioned so often) where our
will power; our volition, decision-making capacity and our personality
exists!
When the Bible speaks, metaphorically, of "the heart" it is
speaking of that portion of our human mind wherein our attitude;
our CHARACTER resides! Recent scientific knowledge has revealed that the
human brain is divided into many different parts. Some portions of the
brain control such things as our coordination, equilibrium; our physical
and athletic ability; other portions deal with our sensory perceptions
such as the central nervous system, the eye, etc. Other portions deal with
the memory, and the frontal lobes, behind the forehead of
the human brain control the DECISION-MAKING part of the brain.
Perhaps there is greater meaning in the symbolism of those
who receive the "mark of the beast" in their foreheads (meaning
willingly; with their own permission, acceptance and volition!) when one
understands this simple truth!
But this "spirit in man" is not "immortal"! God's
Word says clearly God ONLY hath immortality! Man is revealed as being
temporal, fleshly, carnal, physical—of the dust! He is said to
perish and waste away! Yet, think about it deeply for a moment. Even
as the pattern for all that you are was in a tiny, microscopic germ
of life from your father, uniting with an egg of life from your mother;
even as the "pattern" which was to determine your basic appearance,
height, shape, color of eyes and hair, texture of skin, talents and
abilities, was all miraculously contained in that microscopic bit of life,
so Almighty God is building in our Christian lives a pattern,
through the power of His Holy Spirit which can beget a "new creation in
Christ" when in connection with the spirit in man!
Even as your human father stamped you with his
identity—gave you his NAME—so our heavenly Father is putting His own
identity, His name, and His personality within His children!
The false doctrine of the "immortality of the soul"
CONCEALS THIS GREAT TRUTH !
If God is allowing you to understand deeper truths of His Word
through this article then to Almighty God goes the credit! If God is
revealing deeper truths to you, you should now turn to Romans the
eighth chapter and read with greater understanding than ever before
the entire chapter! Particularly, as you study this important chapter,
read verse 29! "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He [Jesus Christ!] might be the
FIRSTBORN among MANY BRETHREN! "Yes, even as Jesus Christ was the first
begotten among all human kind; He was also the first BORN from the
dead! How plain! How simple!
The greatest phenomenon we see around us is that of LIFE!
We see the miraculous fact that life comes from preexisting life of
the same kind; that life has die basic urge to perpetuate itself; that He
produces like, kind reproduces after kind, and that we human beings,
through love in marriage, reproduce after our own kind!
Almighty God is reproducing after His kind!
-End-
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The Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association
P.O. Box 747
Flint, TX 75762
Phone: (903) 561-7070 • Fax: (903) 561-4141
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