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the source that can make the
answer plain?
What People Belíeve
Said one young man, when asked if
he believed in an afterlife,
"1
believe my inner being will be
transmitted to different planes of
existence as
1
approach perfec–
tion."
A Latín mother ' s quick re–
sponse when asked the same ques–
tion was, "Of course there's an
afterlife. It's in heaven- otherwise
what's the senseof living?"
Answered a young black man
in bis early twenties, "I don't
think there is any life after death
because you don't really die–
your body dies, but your soul
lives on."
Said another man, "l believe in
a spiritual afterlife, that you have
a soul and that the soul goes to a
hereafter. But as to where the
hereafter is, I'm not sure."
The fact is, most people in the
non-communist world believe in
sorne kind of life after death.
But-how do they know?
fsn ' t it time to understand the
truth about death and what hap–
pens after death. There is only
one reliable source available for
discovering the truth about death.
That source is the Creator's reve–
lation to man of essential knowl–
edge without which man cannot
know why he is here, or where he
is going. We call that revelation
the Holy Bible. But what it says
probably is not what you think it
says. Most people would be sur–
prised to discover what the Bible
reveals about life after death!
An lmmortal Soul?
Contrary to popular belief, the
Bible nowhere mentions an "im–
mortal soul"! Astounding, but
true! From the very first word in
Genesis
1:
1, to the last word in
Revelation 22:21, you will not
find the words
immortal soul
applied to man, or that man has
an immortal soul.
The Bible says man
is
a living
soul, "And the Lord God formed
man of the dust of the ground, and .
breathed into bis nostrils the
32
breath of life; and man became a
living soul" (Genesis 2:7)- not an
immortal soul! Did you carefully
notice it? Manis a living soul.
Nowhere does the Bible say
man has an immortal soul. The
very Hebrew word for soul–
nephesh- is
the same word used
of lower life forros, beasts and
creeping things.
It
is even used to
express the thought of a dead
body-a dead
nephesh.
But, you ask, is there a verse in
the Bible that says the soul can
die? Absolutely! Read it: "The
soul that sinneth, it shall die"
(Ezekiel 18:4, 20), not live on!
Man is a soul. Man sins. So man,
a living soul, dies.
The immortal soul idea carne
right out of ancient Egypt, and
Babylonia.
It
was enshrined in
philosophy by Greek thought,
especially by Plato.
Notice what the
Jewish Ency–
clopedia
says about it: "The
belief that the soul continues its
existence after the dissolution of
the body is ... speculation
... nowhere expressly taught in
Holy Scripture.... The belief in
the immortality of the soul carne
to the Jews from contact with
Greek thought and chiefly
through the philosophy of Plato,
its principal exponent , who was
led to it through Orphic and
Eleusinian mysteries in which
Babylonian and Egyptian views
were strangely blended" ("lm–
mortality of the Soul," Vol. VI,
pp. 564, 566).
Does Death Mean Death?
You have heard tbe argument–
death does not mean death but
life in another state. The Bible
reveals .that when you die, you are
dead-dead all over! You don' t
waft up to heaven if you've been
good. You don't sink down to
hell, or sorne intermediate place,
if you've been bad. The supposed
heaven and hell for immortal
souls is another one of man's pic–
tured fantasies. According to the
Bible, the dead don't hear any–
thing, see anything, think any–
thing o-r know ánything. The dead
have absolutely no awareness, no
anxieties of any kind. Read it for
yourself: "For the living know
that they shall die: but the
dead
know not any thing,
neither have
they any more a reward; for the
memory of them is forgotten.
Also their !ove, and their hatred,
and their envy, is now per–
ished ... " (Ecclesiastes 9:5-6).
At the moment of death, life
ceases, along with thinking pro–
cesses, and thought. "His breath
goeth forth," s ays God about
man, "he returneth to bis earth;
in that very day his thoughts per–
ish" (Psalms 146:4).
The Bible's message · is un–
clouded. Death is death beyond
any shadow of a doubt. We' re
even warned to make the most of
life while we have the opportuni–
ty: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth
to do, do it with thy might; for
there is no work, nor device, nor
knowledge, nor wisdom, in the
grave, whither thou goest" (Ec–
clesiastes 9:
lO).
When we die we go the way of all
flesh, and in that respect there is no
ditference between man and ani–
mals: "For that which befalleth the
sons of men befalleth beasts; even
one thing befalleth them: as the
one dieth, so dieth the other; yea,
they have all one breath; so that a
man hath no preeminence above a
beast: for a11 is vanity. All go unto
one place; all are of the dust, and all
turn to dust again" (Ecclesiastes
3:19~20).
Of course, man, com–
posed of the dust of the ground,
returns to dust. The man that
returns to dust
is
the soul that once
lived. lt is therefore the soul that
disintegrates into dust! So says
your Bible.
For those who want to cling to
the cherished belief in floating off
to heaven after death, listen to the
apostle Peter's response. If any–
one deserved to go to heaven, it
would certainly be someone after
God's own heart. David was such
a man (Acts 13:22). But Peter
was inspired to say, David "is
both dead and buried, and bis
sepulchre is with us unto this
day" (Acts 2:29), and that fur–
ther, "David is not ascended into
the heavens" (Acts 2:34).
The
PLAIN TRUTH