The Immortal Soul

Piggy-backing off of my last post, I address the myth of the immortal soul. The “immortality” of the soul is a beautiful concept. And it’s a lie. It was people like Plato, the Greek philosopher, that taught that souls always existed. Didn’t the Apostle Paul warn us about misleading philosophies (1Cor 1:20)? I find it ironic that it is the learned scholars that complicate the simple truth. I’m beginning to see why Paul boasted so much about the “foolishness” of God, and how that is superior to the highly regarded “intelligence” of man (Rom 1:22). Let’s refute this notion of an immortal soul.

Ezekiel 18:4 says that “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (KJV).

Psalm 146:4 states that “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” (KJV).

In Ecclesiastes 9:5, Solomon noted, “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. 6Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun” (KJV, underline mine).

The soul is not something we have, but rather something that we are. When He created man, God breathed into Adam’s nostrils and he “became a living soul” (Gen 2:7, KJV, italics mine). Someone had told me that Adam died spiritually in Genesis 3. However, in 1Cor 15:45, we read - “So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam (Jesus) became a life-giving spirit” (NASB, italics and underline mine). Adam lived and died way before Jesus was on earth and wasn’t given a spirit. He was not a “spiritual being” to begin with so how could he have died a “spiritual” death? The answer is that he couldn’t.

In Genesis 3:19, the Lord tells the man, “For you are dust, And to dust you shall return” (NASB). Death can be defined as a return to the state that you were in before you were born. It is NOT life in a better (or worse) place!

In Ecclesiastes 9:10, Solomon also says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going” (NKJV, underline mine).

Read the truth in these Psalms: - “For in death there is no remembrance of You; In the grave who will give You thanks?” (Ps 6:5,NKJV). The tongues of the dead are silenced. No one remembers anything of their past life. “Let the wicked be ashamed; Let them be silent in the grave” (Ps 31:17, NKJV, underline mine). There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of talking with the dead. “But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol” (Ps 49:15, NASB).

Dan 12:2 - “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake” (NASB). Daniel referred to the dead as “those who sleep.”

Acts 2:29 - “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day” (NKJV, underline mine). King David is not in Heaven. He is “dead and buried.” Again, just a few verses over, in Acts 2:34 - “For David did not ascend into the heavens” (NKJV, underline mine). It cannot get any clearer than that!

Man is not immortal. Paul said to Timothy that only God alone “possesses immortality” (1Tim 6:16, NASB). God alone possesses immortality. That’s the truth. This myth of man being immortal actually predates Plato. It was found in Egypt but predates them, too. It originates in man’s original religion, in Sumer, with the desire to keep himself alive and immortal. The Egyptian pyramids, as an example, are gigantic burial mounds. They wanted to make them as big and powerful as possible, and fill them with treasures for the afterlife, to give the illusion that the pharaoh was going to a better place.

The popular teaching today is that when you die, you immediately either go to Heaven or Hell. Isn’t that even found on secular TV and movies? The Disney movie ‘Soul’ tells of a man that dies and his “soul” goes to the afterlife, in which he attempts to defy his fate. However, this is just not so. No human being, aside from Jesus Christ, is in Heaven right now. And no human being is in “hell” right now, either. Not the people that burned in Sodom and Gomorrah. Not the religious leaders that got Jesus nailed to the cross. Not Hitler. No one.

Here’s another thing to consider: why is no one angry when they get resurrected? Examples would be Lazarus, the young girl whom Jesus said was asleep, the poor fellow who fell asleep by a window and fell to his death in the book of Acts. What if you were having a great time up in Heaven when you were ripped out of it to come back here? Wouldn’t they have testified of the wonders that they saw? For example, Lazarus was dead for three days. He should have had many stories to tell! Yet, nothing was ever recorded. Or...what about people that went to “hell” and came back? Wouldn’t they have been panicking and immediately testifying of the horrors they witnessed there, pleading with people not to go there?

“But what about the thief on the cross? Didn’t Jesus say that he would go with Him to Paradise that day?”

Does it say that? Let’s read the passage in context:

Lk 23:42 - And he (the thief) was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” 43 And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise” (NASB).

Sounds pretty straight forward, right? Well, at first glance it does. But, one always has to keep in mind that the original manuscripts were in Koine Greek, a language that, unlike English, does not have punctuation. So, the translators of the Bible had to make a determination as to where to put the commas, quotation marks, periods, question marks, exclamation points, etc. It could have also possibly been translated, “Truly I say to you today, you shall be with Me in Paradise.” Makes a big difference where the comma lands, right? And “I say to you today,” was not (still is not today) an uncommon saying. He was probably saying, “I’m telling you this day, that you will be with Me.” At least, that’s what I think. By the way, “Paradise” is not “Heaven” and it’s not “the 1,000-year Kingdom.” That man will join Jesus way in the future when the new heavens and new earth are born. That’s were Paradise will be, on the new earth! That’s right – Jesus actually denied this man’s request to join Him in the Kingdom! He, because of his crimes, will miss the 1,000-year Millenial Reign of Christ, but he will be with Christ afterwards, in eon number five.

But, it says that in the Bible, when people die, their souls go to Heaven!

No, it doesn’t. Ecc 12:7 - “...then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit (pneuma, the breath of life) will return to God who gave it” (NASB, italics mine). When God breathed into Adam’s nostrils, He gave this “breath of life.” The “spirit” then is that breath that God gave to Adam, and passed on to his descendants: us! So, at death, that “spirit” belongs to God and, just like Jesus on the cross, we also will “give up the ghost (or spirit)” (Mt 27:50) when we die. It’s a euphemism. When you have it, your soul lives; when you don’t, it dies. Simple as that.

It says that it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment!

This comes from a misunderstanding of Scripture. They don’t consider the “gap theory,” which is the thought that two phrases that appear side by side, don’t actually occur immediately one right after the other. The argument originally came from the Creation account, where people noticed a discrepancy between Gen 1:1 and 1:2, suggesting that “an unknown period of time – usually billions of years – existed between the first two verses of the Bible.1” People are divided on this, some claiming it has been “debunked.” I, as well as others, however, hold to this position. In addition, people often quote that piece of Scripture, but they don’t mention what it says afterwards (in other words, it’s not in context). “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” is how Hebrews 9:27 starts out in the NKJV. Sounds straight forward, right? However, verse 28 says, “so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many” (NKJV). This was a comparison! Being allegorical, it was not to be used by the writer to “prove” the existence of a soul after death, but rather he was making an examination of the two. The passage, since Greek had no punctuation, could also be rendered: “And as it is appointed for men to die once (but after this the judgment), so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.” The preceding parts of the passages speak of how Christ gave a sacrifice once and for all, not needing to be sacrificed over and over again.

Paul says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord!

I’m so tired of people misquoting this piece of Scripture, probably from desperation that they want it to be true. No, it does not say that! Let’s read this piece of Scripture and lay it to rest once and for all. 1Cor 5:8 says, “I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord” (NASB). In the KJV, it reads: “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” This is a totally different statement that Paul made! Don’t go changing Scripture to fit your doctrine – God has made it clear that those who do will be held accountable for their actions! Let’s take what the NASB says. I personally would be “willing rather” to be at home, kicking back, than be at work. I am not saying, “If I’m not at work, then I am home.” What if I’m at the store or at a restaurant or a number of different places I can go besides going home? Again, Paul is not saying that! So, let’s stop misquoting the Bible!

The real question is not, as so many pastors like to say, “If you died today, where would you go? Would you go to Heaven or hell?” The only question about death, according to the Bible, is found in Job 14:14 - “If a man dies, will he live again?” (NASB).

1 https://www.gaptheory.net/