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alike persisted, for the most part, in
their unquestioning embrace of the
ideas passed down from the ancient
pagan philosophers. As the
Ency–
c/opaedia Britannica
summarizes:
" Traditional Western phi loso–
phy, starting with the ancien t
Greeks ... shaped the basic West–
ern concepts of the soul."
What the Blble REALLY Says!
Notice the warning of the apostle
Paul , who once personally con–
fronted Greek thinkers on Mars'
Hill in ancient Athens (Acts 17:15-
34). To the Greeks in Colosse in
Asia Minor he wrote:
" Beware
lest any man spoil you
through
phi/osophy
and vain
deceit , after the
tradition of men,
after the rudiments of the world ,
and not after Christ" (Col. 2:8).
Jesus Christ himself warned of
"making the word of God of none
effect through your
tradition"
(Mark 7: 13). " In vain they do wor–
ship me," he lamented, " teaching
for doct rines the commandments of
men" (Matt. 15:9).
So what
does
the Bible really
say?
Consider first the teaching of the
Old Testament. As we have seen,
the Jews living in the Hellenistic
world admit they took the immor tal
soul doctrine from Plato.
It
is
nowhere found
in the Hebrew
Scriptures.
Notice Genesis 2:7: "And the
Lord God formed man of the dust
of the ground, and breathed into
his nostri ls the breath of life; and
man
became a living soul."
Consider carefully: Man–
formed
of the dust of the ground,
not out of spirit- " became" a liv–
ing soul. A soul is what man
is.
It is
not something a man
has.
The Hebrew language further
proves this point. The Hebrew
word translated as "soul" in Gene–
sis 2:7 in the widely used Autho–
ri zed Version of the Bible is
nephesh. Nephesh
designates tem–
porary physical life.
It
means a liv–
ing, breathing creature. This is the
same word
used frequently in the
first chapter of Genesis and else–
where in reference to
animals.
Notice, for example, Genesis
1:24: "And God said, Let the earth
bring forth the living creature
[ne–
phesh]
after bis kind, cattle, and
12
creeping thing, and beast of the
earth after his kind: and it was
so."
Here the word
creature
is the
identical Hebrew word that is used
in Genesis 2:7 and throughout the
Old Testament for "soul. " ln bibli–
cal usage, a brute beast is also a
"soul"!
ln Leviticus 21:1 1, Numbers
6:6 , Haggai 2:13 and elsewhere, the
word
nephesh
is even used with ref–
erence to a
dead body.
Nephesh
clearly has
nothing
whatsoever
to do with any sort of
spirit essence. The soul is not a sep–
arate entity from the body.
It
is
the
body! Man
is
a
nephesh.
He
is
a
soul!
.
Many additional Old Testament
scriptures reveal clearly the
mor–
tality-not
the immortality- of
the soul. Ezekiel 18:4, 20, for
example, declares that a soul can
die!
Read it for yourself: " The soul
that sinneth, it shall
die."
If the
soul were immortal , how could it
die? It's a direct contradiction of
terms!
No wonder Jewish scholars
today have to point to Plato as the
origin of the immortal soul doc–
trine!
The New Testament Speaks
What about the New Testament?
Surely here we fi nd biblical proof
for an immortal soul. Or do we?
In the New Testament, "soul" is
a translation of the Greek word
psuche. Psuche
is the equivalent of
the Hebrew word
nephesh.
Like
nephesh, psuche
is frequently ren–
dered "life" in addition to "soul."
Psuche
is twice used in the New
Testament for the lower animals,
exactly in the same way as the
Hebrew
nephesh
can refer to the
life of animals. In these two scrip–
tures (Rev. 8:9 and 16:3),
psuche
is
rendered " life" and "soul" respec–
tively, with reference to the Jife of
sea creatures.
The word
psuche
has no conno–
tation whatsoever of "spirit es–
sence" or "immortal soul"!
Jesus Christ, in fact, declared
that God is able to
destroy
one's
soul (Greek
psuche,
or life) in
Gehenna tire (Matt. 10:28).
The words
immortal soul
are
found nowhere in the Bible-Old
Testament or New. The word
immortal
occurs.
only once
in the
entire Bible-in 1 Timothy
1:
17,
where it refers specifically to
Jesus
Christ!
The word
immortality
is found
only in the New Testament, where
it occurs fewer than half a dozen
times. One of those places- I Tim–
othy 6: 16- clearly states that, of all
hum·ans, Jesus Christ
"ONLY
hath
immortal ity"! Romans 2:7 admon–
ishes Christians to
"sEEK FOR ...
immortality."
If
man already had
immortality, he would not have to
seek
for it!
1
Corinthians 15-the " resur–
rection chapter" of the Bible–
shows that a Christian " puts on"
immortality ata future resurrection
of the dead (see verses 50-54).
As Jesus clearly stated: "That
which is born of the flesh
is
flesh;
and that which is born of the Spirit
is
spi rit" (John 3:6). Man-born of
the flesh- is flesh. He was not
created with inherent immortality.
He has only a temporary physico–
chemical existence. "For dust thou
art ,
and
unto dust
shalt thou
return ," God told Adam (Gen .
3:
19).
Only when mortal man is "boro
again" in a future resurrection will
he finally put on immortality and
be
spirit! Why would a resurrection
of the body be needed if the soul
were already in heaven? The soul
does not go to heaven! The mortal
soul- man's physical life-dies and
turns to dust.
(If
you want further
understanding, write for our free
booklet
Ju s t What Do You
Mean - Born Again?
and the
reprint " Is This the Only Day of
Salvation?" for more about this
much-misunderstood subject.)
The New Testamen t , then,
teaches
the resurrection-a
rising
from the dead-in direct opposi–
tion to the pagan Greek idea of an
immortal soul. The resurrection is
our only hope of eterna! life! Jesus
Christ's resurrection was a type or
forerunner of the resurrection God
promises to all who obey him (John
5:28-29; 11:25; Rom. 8: J I; Phil.
3:10-11 ).
Man has no hope of future life
inherent
within himself!
The " Splrlt In Man"
Now understand an additional
(Continued on page 38)
The PLAIN TRUTH