LIFE IN CHRIST

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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 8/12/2017

Over 1,055,500 downloads

 

 

 

 

 

RESURRECTION OR IMMORTALITY

The Resurrection, Our Only Hope Of Life After Death

William Robert West

Table of Contents

INDEX

     At: http://www.robertwr.com/index.html

CHAPTER ONE: The nature of man–what is man?

     At: http://www.robertwr.com/soul.html

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

CHAPTERS FOUR, FIVE, SIX, AND SEVEN AT: http://www.robertwr.com/hell.html

Chapter four: From where came Hell, from man or God?

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

CHAPTERS EIGHT, NINE, TEN, AND ELEVEN AT: http://www.robertwr.com/heaven.html

Chapter eight: Figurative language, metaphors, and symbolical passage

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

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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 persons the souls had been in.

     (2). At the death of a lost person, a soul that was in that person 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 had been 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 had been 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, that souls are imprisoned in a person and freed at the death of the person; 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 the resurrection and judgment lost persons they 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 anyone believes a soul to be.

      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?

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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 the same word difference even when this word is used two or more times in the same passage the same Hebrew word is translated into two English words that definitely nothing alike; 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 many translations changed nehphesh into whatever they wanted to.

     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–all mortal beings, including all animals and mankind).

     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, immortal, 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 creature" (1) The Revised English Bible, (2) Young's Literal Translation.

o   "A living person" (1) New Century Version, (2) The Living Bible, (3) New Living 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 chapter one to three of Genesis 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 immortal soul that gives life to the body.

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 and that soul give my body life.

     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; Job                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   10:9). 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.