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marbles," but he
is
surely not a marble
himself.
If
we are not careful, we can very
quickly begin to think that the spirit
in man possesses conscious sensation,
thought aod awareoess
independent
from the brain. This is wholly wrong!
The spirit in man, of itsel f,
raunot
sensc,
cannot
think,
cannol
reason,
cannoJ
know. The
brain
performs these
tasks. But to engender the exquisite
qualities which constitute the
hmnan
mind,
the spirit in man must be added.
How? What aod where is the
"interface" between the spirit in man
and the human braio - that is, how
does the non-physical spirit in man link
up with and interact with the physical
brain? This question of the interface
or common boundary between the
spirit in man and the human brain is
most fundamental. But at present, we
cannot even postulate - much less
isolate - the specific mechanisms by
which the spirit in man imparts hu–
man mind power to cerebro-cortical
nerve cells. But we can empirically
evaluate the results of this union aod
then reason inductively.
Perhaps an analogy will help.
An Analogy
We can liken the spirit m man to
a blank recording tape and the human
brain to a tape recorder - neither
one able to geoerate the human mind
without the other.
The tape recorder houses
alt
the re–
quired machinery and wirings for its
particular operation- which is sound
reproduction. Likewise, the human
brain contains
al/
the oecessary struc–
tures and circuits for its manifold re–
sponsibilities- which are sensation,
memory, emotion, creativity, etc.
Now, just as the tape recorder pro–
duces nothing without the recording
tape running through it, the human
brain is severely limited without the
spirit in man joined to it.
1
The recording tape imparts the ca–
pacity of auditory reproduction
lo
the
tape recorder, while at the same time,
the tape itself is recording and storing
the magnetic stamp impress
from
the
PLAIN TRUTH
Ju ne 1972
The Fallacy of
an lmmortal Soul
W H ERE
did immortal souls come
from? Much to the chagrín of
cootemporary Christianity, quite the
opposite
is propounded by the Bible.
In Genesis 2:7, "man
berame
[was
not
inherently] a living soul."
Ezekiel
twice
emphasized that "the
soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezek.
18:4,
20).
Jesus plainly stated that
both the body and
sord can be de–
sJroyed in he/1
(Matt. 10 :28). John
agreed: "... no murderer has eteroal
life abiding in him"! (1 John 3:15.)
And Paul concurred: "... the wages
of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23).
"But," traditional religionists re–
tort,
"death
means a conscious eternaJ
life
in bell"- whether that be a
literal place or just a state of miad.
Apparently they have not read - or
choose to overrulc - the PsaJmist,
who said of mao, "He returneth to
his earth; in that very day
his
tholfghts perish
(Psalm 146:4).
Solomon is also ignored - he pro–
claimed
"the dettd know
110t
any
thing"
(Eccl. 9:5).
Are we dealing with a problem of
translation? Not so. The English
word "soul" is the King James trans–
lation of the Hebrew word
nephesh
oc
the Greek word
ps11che.
Both liter–
ally mean "breath" - and both refer
to
every
breath-bearing being,
ani–
mal
as well as human.
1
The Biblical
.ro11l
is just the physi–
cal life of man and beast- mao
and beast
alike .
Solomon makes this
obvious: "For man's fate is a beast's
fate, one fate befalls them both; as
the one dies so the other dies, the
same breath is in them all" (Ecd.
3:19, Moffatt).
Nephesh
is also used to represent
"dead bodies" - "dead nepheshes"
or "dead souls"! (Lev. 21:1, ll;
Num. 6:6,
11 ,
etc.) And so, ironi–
cally cnough,
the Biblical "s01d" is
actltally the "bodi'
-
and it dies
all over.
David was a man after God's
owo heart (Acts 13:22) -he is to
be the eterna! king over Israel (Ezek.
37:24).
If
anybody deserved to have
an immortal soul in heaven - if
that's where immortal souls are sup–
posed to go - David certainly
should have had one there. However,
Peter tells guite a different story in
Acts 2:29 and 34: "David ... is both
dead
and
bm-ied
....
not
ascended
Guslttt•t
Dort
Da11te's version of Hell.
into the heavens." This was
after
the
resurrection of Christ - and over
1,000 years after David had died.
The expression "immortal soul"
net•er
appears in the Bible- neither
is there any allusion to it. True
enough, a "resurrection from the
dead" is frequently mentioned- but
a "resurrection,"
by definition,
oeces–
sitates utterly
dead
individuals, with
no room for conscious immortal souls
flitting around someplace.
1
Nrphnh
refers to onimals in Gentsis 1:20.
21.
21 ; 2 19;
etc. - whece it
is
translated
ucreat'Ureu to avoid doctrin2l contradictions
-
and also in
Gen~is
1:30:
9:4:
Leviticus 11:10.
.f6.
etc.
Ps11thr
refers to
animals
io
Revelation
8:9 and 16:3.
Nrphtsb
3nd
puuht
-
tht
"souls" of the Bible - mean
animttl liJe
as
well as human life! No immortal souls bere.
43