LIFE IN CHRIST
- - - - - - - - - - -
RESURRECTION
OR
IMMORTALITY
Subtitled: The Resurrection, Our Only Hope Of Life
After Death
William
Robert West
Author
of The Rapture And Israel
Is
"The Wages Of Sin Death"
Or Is
"The Wages Of Sin Eternal Life
With Torment In Hell"
An Immortal Soul And The
Doctrine Of Hell
Is There A Soul In You That Will
Live After You Are Dead?
Updated 7/15/2017
Over 1,055,500 downloads
LIFE IS ONLY
IN CHRIST
RESURRECTION
OR IMMORTALITY
The Resurrection, Our Only Hope Of Life After Death
William Robert West
Table
of Contents
Chapter
one: The nature of man–what is man?
Chapter two: Life or Death
At: http://www.robertwr.com/life.html
Chapter
three: The reinterpretations of the great
doctrines of the Bible
At: http://www.robertwr.com/immortal.html
Chapter
four: From where came Hell,
from man or God?
Chapters four, five,
six, and seven at: http://www.robertwr.com/hell.html
o Unquenchable fire, weeping, gnashing of
teeth
o Old Testament history of Gehenna
o Gehenna used by Christ on four occasions
o The vanishing Hell
o Twenty-nine plus version of Hell
o Three Catholic versions of Hell
o Seventeen plus Protestant versions of Hell
o Nine other versions of Hell
Chapter five: Sheol, Hades,
and Tartarus
Chapter six: The thirty-one
Hell passages
Chapter
seven: A strange and unexplainable silence of the
Old Testament on punishment and life after death, life, death, torment,
destruction, destroy, perish, die, and end
Chapter
eight: Figurative language, metaphors, and symbolical
passage
Chapters eight, nine,
ten, and eleven at: http://www.robertwr.com/heaven.html
o Part one: The rich man
o Part two: The destruction of Israel, Matthew 24
o
A. D. 70 doctrine
o
Day of the Lord
o Part three: The symbolic pictures in Revelation
o Part four: The forever and ever of the King James Version
Chapter
nine: Universalist: The "age lasting"
Hell
Chapter
ten: The results of attributing evil Pagan
teachings to God
Chapter eleven: Historical proof
of the changing of the teaching of the Bible
Appendix one
All eleven chapters on one
web site at: http://www.robertwr.com/resurrection.pdf
-————————————————-—————————————————-———
Foreword
What do you believe about souls? There are many
very different doctrines taught in the world today concerning souls that are
believed to be in all humans. By most a soul is believed to be something that
is wholly apart from the person that a soul is in; that a soul is something
that is believed to be complete in its self without the person; it will live
after the person it is in is dead; it is believed that a soul will exist
forever without the person; it will never be dead; therefore, a soul cannot be
resurrected from the dead. It is believed that a soul must live someplace
forever, and it will live either in Heaven or Hell even if there is no
resurrection. The doctrine of unconditional immortality of a deathless soul
being in a person, and that soul leaving that person at the death of the person
makes it impossible for Christ to have give His life to save that soul from
death; if a soul had immortality it would already have life and could never not
have life; all Christ could do is give it a reward or punish it.
MANY BELIEVE
(1). At the death of a
saved person a bodiless, deathless soul that had been in a person will fly
immediately to Heaven to the very presents of Jesus and God. Many believe souls
are looking down on loved ones of the dead person the soul had been in.
(2). At the death of a lost
person, a soul that was in him or her will immediately be carried to Hell where
it will forever be alive, suffering and screaming, while it is being eternally
tormented by God with no hope that God will ever stop tormenting it.
(3). At the death of most
persons that are Catholic, souls that were in them goes immediately to
Purgatory where souls will suffer unto souls have suffered enough to pay for
the sins of the persons they were in, then these souls will be saved by their
own suffering, or by money given by others.
(4). In the Abrahams bosom
version souls that had been in the saved will go immediately at death to be
rewarded in Abrahams bosom, the good side of hades, unto the coming of Christ
while souls that were in the lost are tormented in the bad side of hades unto
the coming of Christ; after the judgment the souls that were in the lost
persons will be endlessly tormented by God in an endless burning Hell.
(5). A view of a soul now
believed by some Protestants, called Rephaim, is that after the death of the
person, a soul leaves the person and it is a shadowy something that has no
substance, it is nothing more than mental thoughts without any kind of
substance or body.
(6). Spiritualism: After the
death of the person, the spirit becomes a ghost that sometimes haunts the house
of the person it was in, it is a ghostly spook that can sometimes be seen at
night among the graves and tombstones in a cemetery. According to Spiritualism,
some people can and do call them back, but usually only after they are paid to
do the calling; Spiritualist say these ghosts or spooks roam the earth and are
seen by people, and even live in the house with people; that the ghost that
have left the persons they were dwelling in can come back, and these ghost can
do both good and evil to living persons that still have ghosts (souls) dwelling
in them. Many who do not think of themselves as being a Spiritualist and even
deny that they are a Spiritualist believe much of the Spiritualist belief; most
funerals that I have attended the preacher has a soul that had been dwelling in
the dead person dwelling in Heaven, and that soul was looking down on the
funeral of the dead person it had been freed from; have you ever been to a
funeral where the preacher said a soul that had been in the dead person was
alive in Hell and looking up from Hell at the person it had been in? The teaching of souls going to Heaven or
Hell at death without a resurrection is from Greek philosophy, and in no way
can it be call Christian; it is a complete denial of Christianly.
(7). The whole person, not a
soul that had been in a person, sleeps from death unto the resurrection, the
whole person is resurrected and judged, the person is given endless life, or
endless death.
(8). There are many other
beliefs about what a soul is and what a soul can and cannot do, far too many to
list here.
Two of the views that are commonly believed about what will happen
to souls that leave mankind after death are the subject of this book.
VIEW ONE: The belief that the you (the person you now are) will put on
immortality at the resurrection, and it is you (not just some immaterial
something that had been in you) that will live forever in Heaven; we, not an immaterial soul, is now in
the image of Adam, we, not an
immaterial soul, will have the image of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:49). The wages
of sin is death, and after there resurrection and judgment the lost person will
die the second death, they do not now have immortality and never will be immortal; those who do not belong to Christ will forever be destroyed
after their judgment. Only saved persons
will be changed from mortal to immortal persons at the resurrection (1
Corinthians 15:42-46); it will be you, the person, that will be immortal in the
place Christ has gone to prepare for you, not whatever a soul is.
VIEW TWO:
The belief that there is a soul in all persons that W. E. Vine says is
nothing but the immaterial, invisible
part of man, (Vines Complete Expository Dictionary Of Old And New
Testament Words, page 588) and Robert A. Morey says, that after the death of
the body a soul will be nothing but
mental thoughts (Death And The Afterlife, page 79). According to those
that believe as Vine does, this nothing but thoughts is the only thing that
will have eternal life in Heaven. This immaterial something that is nothing but
mental thoughts is all of you that will be in Heaven or Hell; the person (you)
will be gone and there will be nothing but a soul that had been in you that is
nothing but thoughts, then all of the you that you now know anything about
will be forever be gone. Most that believe all persons are born with an
immortal soul that is dwelling in them have only a vague unclear
understanding, or even no idea of what they believe this unknown immaterial
something they believe to be in them really is, but it (not themselves) is
what they believe must be saved, and only it will be in Heaven if they save it,
or in Hell if they do not. The belief that everyone has an immaterial something
in them and this something, whatever this nothing but mental thoughts could
be, will live forever and cannot die makes it not possible for death to be the
wages of sin; if a person has something in them that is deathless, it would not be subject to the
wages of sin, which is death, and this deathless nothing
could never be destroyed; this, whatever
it is would be, is born with eternal life, and it could never die; therefore,
it could not be resurrected from the dead.
VIEW TWO HAS TWO MAJOR DIVISIONS
(1). That there is a "soul" in each person that cannot ever
die or be destroyed, but most of these immaterial nothing but mental thoughts
beings will forever be tormented by God after the death of the person. I know
of no one that believes there is a soul that is in a person that knows what a
soul is. They tell me what a soul is not, but not what they believe a soul to
be; in the many books I have read, the nearest anyone has came is to say that
after a soul departs from the person it was in is Vines definitions that a
soul is nothing but thoughts without any kind of substance or body.
(2). Universalism: that all mankind has a "soul" that cannot
ever die or be destroyed; everyone has this something in them that will live
forever, but it will be saved. If it (a immaterial bodiless beings) is not
saved by the person it is in this lifetime, then that soul will be saved after the
death of the person it had been in.
Protestant
Premillennialists:
Many Protestant Premillennialists believe the lost
will be totally destroyed, but there are three, probably more, Premillennial
views that are common in Protestant churches on how or where the lost will be
destroyed.
(1). A
common Protestant Premillennialists belief is that the complete destruction of
the lost will be on this earth and the saved will forever live on this earth;
no person will ever be in Heaven. Many believe the Valley of Gehenna will be
restored and the lost will literally be burn to ashes in it.
(2). Some
Protestant Premillennialists believe that the saved will be with Christ in
Heaven, not on earth after the thousand years, the second death will be the end
of the lost, but there death will not be by literally being burned to ashes on
this earth in the restored Valley of Gehenna.
(3). Some
Protestant Premillennialists believe the wages of sin is eternal life with
torment for souls that cannot die, which puts them in the camp of those that
believe that souls now have endless life and will be tormented by God because
they had been in unsaved persons, they do not believe death is the wages of
sin.
If there is a soul in
us that is now immortal and it can never die or be dead, how could there be a
resurrection of the dead? Do you believe in the resurrection of the dead? If
yes, what do you believe will be resurrected; will you be raised from the dead,
or do you believe as many that only a soul that can never be dead but this
deathless soul is the only thing that will be raised from the dead? When I
first begin this study I was surprised and made to tremble at how few really believed
in the resurrection, and how many there are that do not really know what they
believe about it. Many believe some deathless something that they believe to be
in themselves will instantly be translated from this world to Heaven or Hell at
death without a resurrection, before the resurrection, before the Judgment Day,
and before the second coming of Christ, but when they are asked what is the
reason for the resurrection, many not only do not know, but have never really
thought about it. Death is looked at as being a doorway to life in another
form, that death is not really death, and there is nowhere in their thoughts or
in their faith for a resurrection for their theology says no soul is really
dead. The resurrection has been removed from the faith of many by today's
theology that says some immortal something that is believed to be in a person
will go to Heaven at the moment of death.
But is there any life after death before the second coming of Christ and the
resurrection of the dead? Paul said it will be at the resurrection when, "This mortal must put on
immortality," but if there is a soul that is now immortal in us, then
what is it that is now mortal that will put on immortality at the resurrection
(1 Corinthians 15:53)? It is the mortal person, not a soul that will be raised
from the dead; the mortal person will put on immortality.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY
ABOUT AN IMMORTAL SOUL AND/OR SPIRIT?
Together soul and
spirit are used about 1,600 times in the Bible, but not one time is immortal
ever used in the same verse with either one; immortal soul, or an immortal
spirit, deathless or never dying soul or a never dying spirit is not in the
Bible, not even in the King James Version. Immortal and immortality is not in
the Old Testament, the promise of immortality is given to no one. In the New
Testament, immortal is used only one time, immortality is used five times, all
six by Paul. What does he say?
1. "Now unto the King
eternal, immortal" (1 Timothy 1:17).
2.
Only God has immortality (1 Timothy 6:16).
3.
Christ "abolished death and brought
life and immortality to light through the gospel" (2 Timothy 1:10).
4. "To them (Christians persons, not
souls) that...seek for glory and honor
and immortality" (Romans 2:7).
5. "This mortal must put on
immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:53) at the resurrection.
6. "This mortal shall have put on
immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:54) after the resurrection. This mortal
person must put on immortality at the resurrection, not this soul that is
already immortal must put on immortality.
Why are we to "seek for immortality" if we are born immortal? Why will we "put on immortality" if the
only part of us that will ever be immortal has been immortal from birth (or as
some believe–before birth)? The fact that a person must "seek for...immortality," and
immortality must be "put on"
at the resurrection is conclusive proof that a person does not now have
immortality, nor does a person have some immaterial, immortal something in them
that cannot die. If Romans 2:7 and 1 Corinthians 15:53 teaches nothing
more, it teaches that no part of a person now possess immortality. Not one passage in the Bible says anyone
is now immortal. The immortal soul theology is from pagan philosophy and
was brought into the church by a few of the so-called church fathers and Roman
Catholicism in the Dark Age. If all have a deathless soul, and we are told that
this deathless soul is the only thing that will ever be immortal, and it is
already immortal, the resurrection is made to be useless. The question is,
resurrection or immortality? Will YOU be saved from the dead, or is there a
deathless soul in you that cannot be dead, and it cannot be resurrected from
the dead, and only that soul, not you, will live in Heaven? Are will it be you
that will be in Heaven?
==============================================================
CHAPTER ONE
What Is Man?
What is a man? Are all
persons born with immortal souls in them, or do only the saved put on
immortality at the resurrection? Is a person a three part being, an animal body
with both a soul and a spirit that will live after the body is dead? This is
one of the most important questions of all time. It has more influence on our
conception of our nature, our view of life in this world, and our view of life
after death than any other question.
Soul in the Old
Testament is translated from nehphesh, Strongs Hebrew word #5315–a breathing creature. A
study of the way it is translated in the King James Version, and how other
translations differ greatly from the King James reveals facts that are far
different than the belief of most about what a soul is, and facts that many
will find upsetting. The Hebrew word nehphesh is used in the Old Testament
about 870 times and is translated soul only about 473 times in the King James
Version, but in the New International Version (2010-2011 updated
version) only 72 out about 870 times nehphesh
is used.
Of the 870 times Nehphesh is in the Bible, in the New
International Version:
o
Nehphesh is translated soul only 72
times.
o
Nehphesh is not translated soul 798
times.
o Of the
473 times nehphesh is translated soul in the King James Version, it was translated
soul 401 less times in the New International Version.
Nehphesh is translated in the King James Version into about 40 words;
one Hebrew word is translated (or mistranslated) into nouns, pronouns, verbs,
adjectives, adverbs, etc. Of 870 times nehphesh is used in
the Hebrew it was changed into many words by the translators of many versions, changed
as they chose to, and all choosing many times to translate it difference even when
it is used two or more times in the same passage. By todays meaning of soul
and life they means two completely difference things; soul and life are
not synonymous.
IN THE KING
JAMES VERSION NEHPHESH IS TRANSLATED
1. NOUNS: Soul about
473 times;
Life about 122 times; Person
about 26 times; Mind about 15 times;
Heart about 15 times.
2. PERSONAL PRONOUNS: 44 plus
times–yourselves,
themselves, her, me, he, his, himself
3. ALL OTHERS:
(verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc.) about 200 times–man,
creature, living being, fish, own, any, living thing, living creatures, lives, the dead, dead body,
kills, slays, slay him, mortally, discontented, ghost, breath, will, appetite,
hearty desire, desire, pleasure, lust, and deadly.
Can
any word have this many totally difference meaning; can one word be a noun,
pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc.? If it did could anyone know which one
was being used; it is evidence that the translators of the many translations
did not.
In all 870 times that nehphesh
is used it is always associated with the activity of a living being, including
dying, and it never implies anything about life after the death of the living
being. In none of the 870 times, nehphesh is
not an immortal, immaterial, inter something in a person that has no substance (W. E. Vine, Expository
Dictionary Of Old And New Testament Words); souls
(nehpheshs) are the living beings (persons, animals, or any living thing) that
can die, be killed, or is already dead; although its use is often hid from the English readers by the way
it was translated or mistranslated.
SOUL (NEHPHESH) AS IT IS
USED IN THE BIBLE
(1) Genesis 1:20 "THE MOVING CREATURE THAT HAS LIFE" (nehpheshs–mortal beings, used referring to animals, Strongs Hebrew word #5315–a breathing creature). Footnote in the King James Version–"The moving creature that has soul." American Standard
Version–"Let the waters swarm
with swarms of living creatures"
(nehpheshs–mortal beings).
If soul were an immortal "immaterial, invisible part of
man" (W. E. Vine, Expository Dictionary Of Old And New Testament
Words), why is this Hebrew word that is translated soul also translated "living creature" when it is
speaking of animals in Genesis 1:21; 1:24; 2:19; 9:10; 9:12; 9:15; 9:16 when
the same Hebrew word (nehphesh) is translated "living soul" in Genesis 2:7 when it is speaking of a
person? According to those that believe there is an immortal soul in a person a
living creature and a living soul are two completely
difference beings. If this Hebrew word (nehphesh) were an immaterial, immortal
living something that is in a person, it would also be the same immaterial,
immortal living something that is in animals.
(2) Genesis 1:21 "LIVING
CREATURE" (nehpheshs–mortal living beings, used
referring to all life in the water), "And
God created the great sea-monsters, and every living
creature (nehpheshs–mortal living beings) that
moves wherewith the water swarmed.
(3) Genesis 1:24 "LIVING
CREATURE" (nehpheshs–mortal living beings), used
referring to animals, all life on the
land), "And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures (soul–nehphesh) after their kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the
earth." In Genesis 1:21-24 every living thing on earth, whether in the
water or on land, every thing that has life is a nehphesh, a living being.
o
All
sea life are nehpheshs, are living beings
o
All
land life are nehpheshs, are living beings
o
And
mankind are nehpheshs, are living beings
None of the three are
inherent indestructible immortality beings; none have an immortal deathless
soul dwelling in them.
(4) Genesis 1:30 "LIFE"
(nehpheshs–mortal living beings, used
referring to animals), "And to every beast of the earth, and to
every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps upon the earth,
wherein there is life"
(nehpheshs–mortal living beings); animals are "a living soul."
All four times that
soul
(nehphesh) is used in Genesis one it is
used referring to animals Strongs Hebrew word #5315 a breathing creature,
i. e., animal; not to a person. Animals
were souls, living beings, before any man existed; why did the translators
deliberately hide the fact that it is the same word that they sometimes
translated soul?
o
They translated it souls when it is speaking of
people.
o
They translated it living creatures when the
same word is speaking of animals. How could the translators possibly know when the same word is
speaking of mortal being and when it is speaking of immortal soul that is in a
mortal person? Just as up cannot mean down, Mortal cannot mean
Immortal.
o
Although
it is clear that the translators attempted to hide this from their readers,
every breathing creature has the same soul (nehphesh) that persons have.
"Then God said,
'Let the waters teem with swarms of living
souls (nehpheshs–mortal living beings), and
let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.' And God
created the great sea monsters, and every living
soul (nehphesh–mortal living beings) that moves, with which the waters swarmed
after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was
good. And God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the
waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.' And there was evening
and there was morning, a fifth day. Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth living souls (nehpheshs–mortal living beings) after
their kind: cattle and creeping thing and beasts of the earth after their
kind'; and it was so...and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of
the air, and to everything that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is life (nehpheshs–mortal living beings) I have given every green herb for meat"
(Genesis 1:20-30). Living creatures" (nehpheshs–mortal living beings) is
used to describe all living things on earth, people, animals, birds, and fish, not some immaterial invisible living
something that is in a person that is now eternal. If a person being a soul
(nehphesh–a living being) makes that
person be either immortal or in the image of God, then it makes animals, birds,
and fish have an immortal soul in them.
HENRY CONSTABLE, A.
M.: The Hebrew scholars knows that when Moses, in Genesis I. 20, 29, speaks of
the nature of the lower order of animals, and when in Genesis ii, 7, he speaks
of the nature of man, the inspired writer
used the very same Hebrew terms of both one and the other. Each fish, and
fowl, and creeping thing, and beast is called in the Hebrew a nephesh chajah as much as man who was
given the rule over them. But this was
in its apparent bearing wholly inconsistent with the philosophical ideas of the
translators. They considered it
dangerous that the similarity of description should appear in the English
version, which Moses did not consider it dangerous to exhibit in the Hebrew
original. Hence they must guard Gods Word from its supposed dangerous language
by translating nephesh chajah very
differently in the first chapter of Genesis, where it is applied to the lower
creatures, from what they translated it in the second chapter, where it is
applied to manA gross, through unintentional fraud has been committed against
the English reader. He is mislead in his searching of the Scriptures He is put
on a false scentOur English translators have supplied us with a commentary of
their own instead of a translation, a comment we will here add, utterly alien
to truth. But the result of this
mistranslation is to lead astray the English reader who trusts in it. This
is not the only instance, which occurs of the thing in reference to this
question. The same Hebrew word is throughout the Old Testament translated
according as the Platonic notions of the translator led him to think it ought
to be translated. Plato had a considerable hand in the translation of King
James Bible. The Hebrew word nephesh
is translated creature, soul life &c., just as squared with the
notions of men who carried Platos philosophy into their noble work of the
translation of Scripture. We affirm that a grave injury has been done to the
English reader, and a gross wrong to Gods word. Hades or The
Intermediate State of Man, page 31–32, 1873, pubic
domain.
(5) Genesis 2:7 "A
LIVING SOUL" (nehphesh–a
living being, used referring to a person, Strongs Hebrew word #5315–a breathing creature) The
first time the King James Version translated nehphesh into "soul," most other translations did not agree with it,
not even the New King James Version. "Man
became a living being," Genesis 2:7, New King James Version.
o Living creatures" (nehpheshs–mortal
beings) Genesis 1:20
o Living things" (nehpheshs–mortal
beings) Genesis 1:21
o Living creature" (nehpheshs–a mortal
being) Genesis 1:24
o In which there is life" (nehpheshs–mortal
beings) Genesis 1:30
o "Man became a living being"
(nehphesh–a mortal being) Genesis 2:7.
o
It was the man
that became a living being, not the man
that had a never dying living being put into him. Nothing is said about the
creation of two being, a living man, and then the creation of another immortal
living soul that was put in the first mortal living being.
It is obvious that the
translators of the King James Version translated according to a preconceived
opinion in an attempt make persons have an immortal soul dwelling in them, but
keeps animals from also having souls that are dwelling in them; they made a
distinction in animals and men, a distinction that dose not exist in the Hebrew
Bible.
Genesis 2:7 Man became:
o A living soul" (1) King James Version.
o "A living being" (1) New King James Version, (2)
American Standard Version, (3) New American Standard Version, (4) Revised
Standard Version, (5) New Revised Standard Version, (6) New International
Version, (7) Amplified Version, (8) The New American Bible
o "A living person" (1) New Century Version, (2)
The Living Bible, (3) New Living Translation
o "A living creature" (1) The Revised English Bible,
(2) Young's Literal Translation.
o "Life" (1) Contemporary English
Version
o
Of these many translations, none would go along with the
mistranslation of the King James Version, not even the New King James Version.
According to Genesis
chapter one to three man was created a mortal living being just as the animals
were. Behold, the MANlest HE stretch
out HIS hand, and take also from the
tree of life, and eat, and live forever, therefore the Lord sent HIM out from the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:22-23) is speaking of the
physical person eating of the tree of life and living forever physically, it
says nothing about an immortal something that was dwelling in a mortal person,
nothing about a soul eating that was already deathless, nothing about a soul
that was already immortal without eating of the tree of life and living
forever. It was the physical person (Adam) that would have eaten from a
physical tree, and the physical person (Adam) that would have physically lived
forever; without the tree of life Adam was not immortal, without the tree of
life Adam died.
What reason would there have been to keep Adam from eating of the tree of life
if Adam was already immortal?
(1). THREE THINGS ABOUT MAN IN GENESIS 2:7
1.
The body: God formed mans
body out of dust. God formed MAN out of the dust of the earth.
2.
God breathed into HIS nostrils
the breath of life.
o
God breathing into the
nostrils of the lifeless body give the body life; breathing into the nostrils
of the lifeless body did not put an immortal soul into the lifeless body and
then it was that soul gives the body life.
3. MAN became a living being (nehphesh).
o
MAN AND ANIMALS ARE BOTH MADE OF THE DUST OF THE EARTH. Both man and animals are a nehphesh, both are a living being; both
man and animals have the breath of
life. Neither one became a living being with another living being living
in them. There is absolutely nothing about Platos immortal soul in this
passage, not one word.
o
Job said, The breath of the Almighty gives ME life, (Job 33:4); he did not
say, The breath of the Almighty put a soul in me.
Paul quoted Genesis
2:7 showing that the natural body
of Genesis 2:7 that was given to Adam and all mankind is not the spiritual body that will be given only
to the saved by Christ at the resurrection.
So also it is written, The first man
Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual,
but that which is natural; THEN that
which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is of
heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the
heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. As we have born the image of the earthly, we SHALL also bear the
image of the heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:45-49).
In the day that YOU
eat from it YOU shall surely die (Genesis 2:17); for Adam to be told he would die is very
different from Adam being told that there was something in him that would not
die, but it would live forever in torment. In
Genesis 3:19 there is a clear statement on what dies, By the sweat of YOUR face YOU shall eat bread, till YOU return to the
ground, because from it YOU were taken; for YOU are dust, and to dust YOU shall
return, (Also Genesis 18:27; Psalms 103:14; Job10:9). It is appointed for MEN to die once and after this comes judgment
(Hebrews 9:27). It is the PERSON that will die, the PERSON that returns to
dust, and the PERSON that will be resurrected from the dead, the PERSON that
will come into judgment, the PERSON that will put on immortality, not a soul
that cannot die; therefore, it could not be resurrected from the dead.
If, as some teach,
Adam was not one being, but two being, an earthly mortal being and an immortal
being living in the earthly mortal being, which of the two being was addressed
in the singular pronoun YOU shall surely
die? We are repeatedly told that an immortal soul is deathless and cannot
die.
o It was Adam that was made from the dust.
o It was Adam that ate.
o It was Adam that was told, dying
YOU shall die.
o It was Adam that was put out and kept out of the garden away from
the tree of life.
o It was Adam that died and returned to dust.
Not one word is said
about a soul. If there were an immortal soul living in Adam, it suffered
nothing from what Adam did. To make this be spiritual death, not real death is
to change, In the day that you eat from
it YOU shall surely die to be saying, In the day you eat you will be an
immortal sinner that cannot die.
DR. BERT THOMPSON, PH.
D. says Genesis 2:7 is teaching that Adam was given physical life. Then said it is not teaching that Adam had
instilled in him an immortal nature.
The Origin, Nature, and Destiny of the Soul, page 19, Apologetics Press, Inc.
2001, Church of Christ.
MIKE WILLIS said
expositors have generally appealed to Genesis 2:7 to prove that all men are
born with and now have immortal spirits. However, in 1 Corinthians 15:45, Paul
has clearly expounded the meaning of the Hebrew words nehphesh, chayyah. "The living soul" of Genesis 2:7 is
the natural body of this passage. He said this corresponds with the book of
Genesis itself because the same construction is used in Genesis 1:24 to
describe animals. When Moses recorded that God breathed into man's nostrils the
breath of life and he became a living soul, what the writer of Genesis was
saying was that the dust of the earth began to have animal life and does not
prove that a person has an immortal spirit (soul); rather it states that a
person has animal life. All men possess animal life through Adam. A Commentary
On Paul's First Epistle To the Corinthians, page 578, 1979. For one who knows
the Bible as he does, and believes a person now has an immortal soul, yet says,
the living soul of Genesis 2:7 is the natural body, proves beyond doubt that a
living soul is not an immortal something that is in a person. The first man Adam became a living
soulthe first man is of the earth, earthy (1 Corinthians 15:45-49).
GUY N. WOODS said the
first time the word soul is used in Genesis 1:20 it is from the Hebrew nehphesh
where it is assigned to fish, birds, and creeping things. He said, It is clear
that the soul in these passages does not refer to anything peculiar to the
constitution of man, but it signifies, as its usage denotes, and the lexicons
affirm, any creature that breathes. "What Is The Soul Of Man,"
Gospel Advocate, 1985, Number 21.
JOHN T. WILLIS: The
last two lines of verse 7 affirm that mans life is God Given. God enables man
to breathe, and thus to be alive, as he does all other creatures (see Gen.
7:22). Some have tried to justify a threefold division of man into flesh (or
body), soul, and spirit from Genesis 2:7. They equate dust with flesh or body, breath
with spirit, and insist that the last phrase of the verse must be translated as
a living soul. However, this understanding reads much more into the biblical
text than it really says. (1) The Hebrew words for flesh or body and
spirit do not occur in this passage. (2) The Hebrew expression nephesh chayyah, which some insist on
translating a living soul, is used of fish and marine life in Genesis 1:20,
21; land animals in 1:24; beasts, birds, and reptiles in 1:30; and beasts and
birds in 2:19. If soul means the
eternal part of man or the sum total of mans body and spirit in Genesis
2:7, it must mean the eternal part of a fish or the sum total of a fishs
body and spirit in Genesis 1:20, 21; etc. (3) The flow of the context
in Genesis 2:7 indicates that the word translated being in the RSV (nephesh)
means the whole person. The authors emphasis is on the gift of life. The
Living Word Commentary, Genesis, page 103–104, 1979, Sweet
Publishing Company, Church of Christ.
ADAM CLARKE: "Nephesh chayyah; a general term to
express all creatures endued with animal life, in any of its infinitely varied
gradations, from the half reasoning elephant down to the stupid potto, or lower
still, to the polype, which seems equally to share the vegetable and animal
life."
(2). BOTH MAN AND ANIMALS
HAD THE SAME
BREATH OF LIFE (NSHAHMAH)
BREATHED INTO THEM
o Breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life (nshahmah) man (Genesis 2:7).
o And all flesh that moved on the earth
perished, birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming that the swarms upon
the earth, and all mankind; of all that was on the dry land, all in whose
nostrils was the breath of life (nshahmah) died. Both man and animals have the same breath
of life (nshahmah) both died
(Genesis 7:21-22).
o Saved alive nothing that breaths (nshahmah–breath of life) both men and animals (Deuteronomy
20:16). Breath of life and breaths are the same in the Hebrew, both are translated from nshahmah, but who knows why the translators choose to make them different in
the English Bible.
o Utterly destroyed all that
breaths (nshahmah–breath of life) both men and animals (Joshua
10:40).
o There was not any left to breaths (nshahmah–breath of life) both men and animals (Joshua
11:11).
o Neither left they any to breaths (nshahmah–breath of life) both men and animals (Joshua
11:14).
o
Does an immortal immaterial
deathless soul, or a spirit breathe or die when breathing stops?
o And the breath (nshahmah) of the Almighty gives me life (Job 33:4).
It is the breath
(nshahmah) of life that God puts into the body that gives life (Genesis 2:7);
(nshahmah–breath) is not an immortal
deathless soul that has an endless life of its own. If the breath of life
(nshahmah) gives immortality to a person, then the same breath of life
(nshahmah) would give immortality to all living being, all are given the same
nshahmah. The breath of life is as much the possession of all living
creatures as it is the possession of man. The breath of life does not make
any living creature immortal, not animals, not fish, or persons. All living
being depend on this breath from God for life and all die when the breath of
life from God returns to God, and if there were no resurrection no person
would ever again have life.
Question: What effect
did the breath of life (nshahmah)
in the nostrils of animals have on them? Most all would answer that it made
them a living being, not that it put an immortal deathless soul in them that
will live after the death of the animals. Then what effect did the same breath of life (nshahmah) have on
mankind? It made them a living being just as it did animals; the breath of life (nshahmah) did not put
an immortal deathless soul in mankind that the same breath of life (nshahmah) did not put in animals.
JAMES HERMAN WHITMORE:
What is more evident than anything else is that the Lord did not address an
unconscious body, but a conscious and
intelligent man. Whoever or whatever
was addressed, the same died.
According to the popular notion, the soul is the only part of man that
possesses intelligence. The conclusion
then is unavoidable, that it was the soul that was addressed as thou, and
sentenced to return to dust. Hence, the soul must not only be mortal, but material. It is further evident that whatever or whoever sinned,
the same died. The Doctrine Of Immortality, page 118, Kellaway and Co.
THE BREATH OF LIFE: Many have now switched from
a soul being an immortal living being in a person to a spirit being the
immortal living being that is in a person; a living being that animals do not
have in them; spirit is now the same thing that soul has been for hundreds
of years. Then the Lord God formed man
of dust from the ground, and breathe into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The phrase breath
of life that was breathed into man in Genesis 2:7 is the same Hebrew breath of life in Genesis 7:21-22 that
is in the nostrils of birds, cattle, men and beasts; the breath of life in animals is the same breath of life that is in persons. The breath of life (1) is not an immortal spirit, (2) is not an
immortal soul that men now have in
them that animals do not have it in them; it does not say that the breath of life God breathed into Adam
was an immortal deathless spirit, or an immortal deathless soul breathed into
him, and it does not say all persons now have the same deathless something in
them; the breathless body that God made from the earth is what became a living
breathing being when the breath of life
was breathed into the breathless body. God did not tell Adam he had a body that
was made from the earth, but the real Adam was made of something not from the
earth.
(3). BOTH MAN AND ANIMALS
BECAME A LIVING BEING.
The body of dust plus the
breath of life = a living being–soul
(a
living being–nehphesh), Genesis 2:7.
1. The body: The Lord God
formed man of the dust from the ground.
2. The life of the body: And
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
3.
The result: And man became a living being. The
lifeless earthly body became alive, a living breathing being.
o
Both man and animals became
a living being, when they received
the breath of life from God;
neither man nor animals had another living being put into them.
o
You take away their
breath, they die (Psalms 104:29). The breath of life gives life to the person; it
does not put a soul in the person that has the breath of life. The breath of
life that God breathed into the body gives life to the body, whither it is a
person or animal; it makes the person or animal be a living being. There is life in the body only as long as there
is breath in the body.
o
It was the lifeless body
that God made from the earth that became a living being, a living person. Most
believe as Plato did, that a living deathless soul is imprisoned in the body
unto the living soul is able to escape the body, and then the lifeless body
goes back to the earth.
Although this passage is
repeatedly used to prove that an immortal, deathless soul that was put in a
person that was not put in animals, most translations, other than the King
James, apply it to the living breathing being or person, not to an invisible, deathless,
immaterial something that was put in a person. Adam being spoken of as a "living being" (nehphesh
Strongs Hebrew word #5315–a breathing creature)
proves he was mortal, not immortal, just as all "living beings" (nehphesh) fish, birds, animals, are
mortal, not immortal. How can this be one of the most used proof texts used to
prove Adam was made with an immortal soul? If it proves Adam had an immortal
soul, then it proves that fish have an immortal soul that cannot die.
The body without the spirit
is dead
James 2:36. Just as the body when God made it had no life unto God breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life and the man became a living being (Genesis 2:7), when The dust will return to the earth as it
was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7), after
death there is no living being and will not be a living being unto the
resurrection when life will again come from God; soul with the meaning it has
today (the Greek immortal being that is in a person) is a total mistranslation.
If the breath of life that returns
to God is a conscious being that returns to God at the death of the person,
that soul could not return to God if it had not previously existed with God; it
is life that came from God and life that returns to God.
Both a living being and breath
of life are used by most that call themselves orthodox to prove mankind
has an immortal soul that no animal has. Both mankind and all animals are a living being and both have the breath of life, but both can and do
die. Having the breath of life does
not make mankind or animals immortal.