Basic HTML Version
WHAT ISMAN?
(Continued from page 6)
put it on in a resurrection
(11
Tim.
1:1
0).
We are also told that we must
seek for it. You don'l seek for what
you al ready have. lt 's something we
don't naturally possess.
lt
is the gift
of God! (Rom. 2:7).
The fourth and fifth places are
found in
1
Corinthians 15:50-54.
The righteous- those who have sal–
vation- are changed from mortal
to immortal. They come under
God's grace and put on immortality
at the resurrect ion of the dead–
and
not
before!
Did Adam Have lmmortallty?
Was man created immortal in the
very beginning? Notice Genesi s
3:22. This is the story of our firs t
parents.
It
reads, "And the Lord
God
said,
Behold , the man is become
as one of us, to know good and
evi l. ..." This is
after
the man had
disobeyed God, the Supreme Ruler.
God had commanded the man,
saying: "Of every tree of the gar–
den thou mayest freely eat: but of
lhe tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for
in the day that thou eatest thereof
thou shal l surel y die" (Gen. 2: 16-
17). The man was mortal, or he
would
not
have been able to die.
Then along carne the devil in the
guise of a serpent. He beguiled the
woman into reaching out and tak–
ing the forbidden fruit and in effect
stealing what was not hers. This
was idolatry.
It
amounted to rebel–
lion, disobedience and dishonoring
her only parent. She then gave the
fruit to her husband, and he ate it
willingly and knowingly.
Then God said: " ... man is
become as one of us, to know good
and evil: and now, lest he put forth
his hand, and take also of the tree
of life [lhat is, partake of immortal
life], and eat , and live for ever
[lest
he live forever!]: therefore the Lord
God sent him forth from the gar–
den of Eden, to till the ground from
whence he was taken." So God
drove out the man from all access
to immortality. " ... And he placed
at the east of the garden of Eden
Cherubims, and a ft aming sword
which turned cvery way, to keep
the way of the tree of life" (Gen.
March 1984
3:22-24). Why?
Lest man go back
and gain eterna/ lije.
You can see very plainly from
the account in Genesis that man
had no immortality and no "im–
mortal soul " either!
No lmmortal Soul
The Hebrew word for sou l is
nephesh.
In Genesis
nephesh
applies three times to fish, fowl and
creeping things
before
it is used to
apply to man. In other words,
ani–
mals are souls,
the same as men.
They are
not
immortaJ.
Notice Ezekiel 18:4: "Behold, all
souls are mine; as the soul of the
father, so also the soul of the son is
mine:
the soul that sinneth, it shall
die."
T he soul that sins-or diso–
beys the laws that God Almighly
gave in bis great love for us- the
soul which does that shall die!
So
a sou/ is mortal.
This truth is repealed in the 20th
verse. Twice your Bible says lhat
the soul is mortal !
lt shal/ die!
Now notice I John 3:15: "Who–
soever hateth his brother is a mur–
derer...." In time of war there are
millions upon millíons of soldiers
who bate their enemies (in reali ty
their brothers) across lhe battle
lines, and mosl of lhe people back
home supporting them Jearn to do
lhe very same thing.
John continues, " ... a nd ye
know that
no murderer hath eter–
na/ lije abiding in him."
A man
that hates his brother is certainly
composed of ftesh and blood, and
John says that he does
not
have
eternal life within him. But
ij
he
had an "immortal soul," he would
have eternal Jife abiding in him.
That is why God had said, " In
the day that you eat thereof you
shall su rely die." God meant that
the man was mortal. So man mere–
ly has a temporary existence, and
no hope of future lije inherent
within himself.
God does give him that hope as
his gift, but man does
not
possess it
apart from God .
The Spirit in Man
Al this point it is well lhat we come
to understand another basic truth
about man-a truth lo which even
the miods of theologians have been
blinded.
Early in my intensive study of
the evolution versus special cre–
ation question, 1 learned what man
is! Bul
l
had not researched deeply
lhe question of the difference
between animal brain and human
mind until early in the decade of
the sixties. And then, at last,
1
found p1ainly revealed what causes
this t remendous difference.
In Job 32:8, we read, " But there
is a spirit in man: and the inspira–
tion of the Almighty giveth them
understanding."
Notice it carefully. The inspira–
tion of God gives-imparts to
man- unders tanding. But how? By
what means? The means is con–
tained in that same verse: "There is
a spirit in man." And spirit is non–
physical. Notice carefully, this
spirit is
IN
man .
lt
is not the man ,
but something that is
IN
man.
And what is man? Of what is he
composed? The man is composed
of
matter,
nol spirit! Remember, as
quoted previously, "The Lord God
formed man of the dust of the
ground." Dust is material substance.
Man is physical. Man's brain is
physical. The human braín is almost
precisely like the braín of a whale,
elephant, dolphin or chimp. But the
spirit
IN
man is nonpbysical. I t is a
nonphysical component
I N
man
that
is not present in that manner in ani–
mal brain.
Sp irl t lmpart s lntellect to
Phys ical Braln
Now notice the function of the
"spirit in man."
In his firs t letter to the Corin–
thians, the apostle Paul is explain–
ing why the world's great intel–
Jects-even though they all possess
the "spirit in man"--cannot com–
prehend the knowledge of what
God has in store for man. He goes
to great lengths to explain that it is
not because of big words or compli–
cated language that they are unable
to understand spiritual tbings. On
the contrary, he explains that he
used only plain, simple speech to
explain God's plan.
In other words, in o rder to
understand the things of God, one
must- in addition to the "spirit in
man" with which we are all born–
receive God's Holy Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, the
apos t le Paul shows it is not the
g reat intellects that are able to
41