And YHWH Elohim formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

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Esmond Rice
5 years ago
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1 Five Shocking Bible Verses that Prove the Immortal Soul Teaching is False Do you have an immortal soul? Does this soul live on after you die? Do the soul of the dead people still roam around on the earth and some are in heaven? Most Christians profess that they know the answers to these questions. They assume that what they believe are rooted in the Bible, and the immortal soul really exists. But is this true? Does the Bible support the claim that there is an immortal soul? The truth may shock you. No single verse in the Bible puts the words immortal and soul next to each other. As a matter of fact, from Genesis to Revelation, you will never find the term immortal soul. On the contrary, there are Bible verses that refute the teaching of the immortality of the soul. The Bible reveals that the soul is mortal and can actually die. Let me share just five of the Bible verses that disprove the immortal soul doctrine. I hope that you have an open mind to receive these new truths. Verse no. 1: Genesis 2:7 And YHWH Elohim formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Comment: The English word soul came from the Hebrew word nephesh. clearly defined as a breathing creature in the lexicon, which also tells us that nephesh can be used to refer to humans and animals. Notice in Genesis 1:21. We read, And Elohim created great whales, and every living CREATURE that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind The word creature here is derived from the word nephesh. Nephesh is also applied to birds (verse 30), land animals, reptiles, insects, and creeping creatures (verse 24). As you can see, the term soul can be used both for humans, animals, and any other living creatures. Time and again, the Bible uses the term the living soul or living creature. Now, think about this: if there s a living soul, then there must be a DEAD soul! Verse no. 2: Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Comment: Elohim said that Adam and Eve shall surely die when they eat of the forbidden fruit. We know that Adam and Eve were both referred to as living souls as what we can read in Genesis 2:7. If the soul is immortal, then obviously Elohim made a mistake with what He said. We have a

2 problem here then. Of course, there is no problem at all for those who believe that the soul is not immortal and can actually die. Verse no. 3: Ezekiel 18:4, 20 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. The soul that sinneth, it shall DIE. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. Comment: It can t get clearer than that! These verses PLAINLY tell us that the soul shall die. The Bible shows us that sin leads to death (Romans 6:23). Everyone who sinned will die. The Hebrew word translated as soul from these verses is nephesh. If you look into Leviticus 22:4, Numbers 5:2; 6:11; and 9:6-10, you will see that the term nephesh is even used to refer to dead bodies. Verse no. 4: Ecclesiastes 9:5 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. Part of the teaching of immortal soul is that humans have a separate spirit entity that exists independently from its physical body. When a person dies, his soul or that spirit will continue to exist and be conscious. However, we can see from Ecclesiastes 9:5 that the dead does not know anything. They are COMPLETELY unconscious, not knowing what is happening in the world of the living. In fact, the Bible consistently describes that the state of death is like sleeping (Daniel 12:2; job 3:11, 13, 17; John 11:11, Acts 13:36; I Corinthians 11:30; 15:51; and I Thessalonians 4:14). Just like in death, when you are asleep, you are not aware of your surroundings. Verse no. 5: Matthew 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Most proponents of the immortal soul teaching use this verse to support their belief. However, if you look closely, the verse is actually telling us that the soul can be destroyed! So, what does Messiah mean when He mentioned Matthew 10:28? Looking at the Greek words used here can shed great light to Messiah s real message.

3 Yahshua was warning His listeners that there will come a judgment of Elohim. He was teaching them that we need not fear those people who can only kill the body, but not the soul. The physical human body is derived from the Greek word soma. The soul here is derived from the Greek word psuche, which denotes the person s physical being with its consciousness. It is only Elohim whom we must fear with reverence because He alone can destroy both soma and psuche, body and soul. Matthew 10:28 is telling us that men can only destroy the body because Elohim can raise anyone to conscious life again just like what Messiah did to Lazarus. Elohim will also resurrect people during the second coming of Yahshua. When a person dies, he is not ultimately gone forever because Elohim has the power to raise that person again. Yahshua is telling us that we need to fear Elohim because He also has the power to remove any possibility for a person to be resurrected. When Elohim destroys a person in hell, that person will ultimately be forgotten with no chance of any later resurrection. Final words From these verses, we can prove that the teaching of immortal soul is utterly false. The idea of the soul possessing immortality came from pagan beliefs and superstitious views. The Greek Philosophers are known to be the number one proponent of the immortal soul doctrine, which sadly modern Christianity adopted. So what does this mean? Does it really matter whether we accept this false teaching or not? Of course, it matters. We need to stand on the ground of truth. Yahshua claimed that if we are to worship Elohim, we must do it in truth (John 4:24). When we accept the immortal soul teaching, we are rejecting Elohim s truth. We can t believe Elohim and wrong pagan beliefs at the same time. It is either you call Elohim a liar or you worship Him as the Elohim of truth and of all wisdom. So, let us not be deceived with the teaching of immortal soul. The Bible clearly tells us that such teaching is false, unbiblical, and deceitful. It obscures Elohim s true plan of salvation for all mankind. It is the time that we start believing what the Bible says and only then, we can really see and grasp the real meaning of life. How to Love the Lord Your God Part 2, Soul A while ago I explained why I don t think heart is an accurate translation in Love the Lord your God with all your heart [and] all your soul, from Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, and Luke 10:27, quoting Deuteronomy 6:5. The reason was that the original referred to both emotion and intellect, while heart in English is generally only the former. I think that soul is an even worse translation. Here s why.

4 Soul in English there are two parts to being human, our internal processes and our physical stuff. Most people don t agree on what exactly a soul is in English. For some, it s what lives on after death. For others, it has more to do with lifeforce. Nonetheless, most people do agree on certain aspects: the soul is intangible, for example, and there s something mystical or unworldly about it. And in this regard, it s worthwhile to point out that even those who don t think people have souls know what soul means. (I m reminded of J.-E. Renan: O Seigneur, s il y a un Seigneur ; sauvez mon ame, si j ai une ame O Lord, if there is a Lord, save my soul, if I have a soul. ) So in spite of disagreement about some things, soul does have a core meaning common to most English speakers. We do have a few expressions in English that veer off in other directions, most notably the metonymic use of soul for person, as in, 17 souls were lost at sea. (Also, it s been widely observed that bless her soul in certain dialects really just means, I m about to say something nasty about her. ) But these are exceptions. The soul in English is intangible, amorphous, and perhaps eternal. Soul in the Bible: Hebrew The English soul is supposed to translate the Hebrew word nefesh (also commonly spelled nephesh) but the Hebrew nefesh isn t at all what we would call a soul. The first sign that things have gone wrong comes from Leviticus. In 7:18, for example, we see that the nefesh does the eating. We see the same thing in 7:27, which warns about any nefesh that eats blood. Certainly it s the body, not the soul, in English that does the eating and drinking. But in Hebrew it s the nefesh. Additionally, we read in Leviticus 17:11 that the nefesh of flesh is in the blood it is blood that atones for the nefesh. Though opinions differ about where the soul in English might be located, it s pretty clearly not in the blood. Yet that s exactly where the nefesh lies in Hebrew. Furthermore, we actually see a close connection here between nefesh and blood. Leviticus 24:17-18 gives us more information. There, we read that anyone who wounds the nefesh of a person will be put to death, and anyone who wounds the nefesh of an animal will pay for it, a nefesh for a nefesh. These passages are clearly not about what we would call souls in English. They are about the physical body. The parallelism in Psalm 63:1 ( my nefesh thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, NRSV) helps us further. There nefesh is in parallel with basar, flesh. So in addition to having something to do with the blood, we learn specifically that nefesh is related to the flesh.

5 Finally, in I Kings 17:19-22, we learn that the nefesh is related to the breath. Elijah revives a dead boy by laying him down (17:19), stretching himself over the boy (17:21) and then the nefesh of the child came into him again, and he revived (NRSV). The passage is almost certainly about mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. (Elijah s disciple, Elisha, also knew how to perform mouth-to-mouth, as we read in II Kings 4:8, where Elisha puts his mouth on the mouth of a dead child to revive him.) So the nefesh is related to the blood, to the flesh, and we now see to the breath. In short, nefesh was the tangible aspects of life, that is, everything that could be touched: the blood, the flesh, and the physical breath. This is why soul is such a disasterous translation for nefesh. Soul in English is precisely that which is intangible, while nefesh is the opposite. Greek The situation in Greek where we find psuche (also commonly transliterated psyche) for the Hebrew nefesh is more complicated. Like its Hebrew counterpart, the Greek psuche can refer to the physical aspects of life. In Matthew 6:25, for example, the psuche does the eating and drinking. But in Matthew 10:28, we see psuche used in contrast to the phsycial body. So the Greek word is used both in the Hebrew sense of nefesh and in the English sense of soul. (Actually, the English word is probably used in the Greek sense, but it works out the same.) Still, we can be fairly certain that in the context of kardia ( heart, but not really), psuche in Greek matches what nefesh means in Hebrew, both because the quote is from Hebrew, and for a more fundamental reason: Love with All Your Heart and Soul We ve already seen that the word translated as heart really refers to emotions and intellect together. Now we see that the word translated as soul refers to the physical aspects of life. Taken together, they form a nice pair: the first word refers to the intangible aspects of being human, and the second word to the tangible aspects. The concepts are just like software ( heart ) and hardware ( soul ) for computers, but applied to people. We don t have words like these in English, but I think it s fascinating that they did in antiquity, as if to say that there are two parts to being human, our internal processes and our physical stuff. The commandment is to love God with both. Thanks to and the UCGRestored.

State of the Dead. Church. Living

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