The first place to start in our rediscovering the truths is simply by displacing lies. It would be therefore fitting to start with the very first lie ever told. We will examine it thoroughly and see how that lie is still affecting the world to this very present moment in time.

Genesis 3:4King James Version (KJV)

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

Lecture Topic: What does the bible really teaches about the immortality of the soul?

Many persons including nearly all devoted Christians are uneducated about what the bible really teaches on the immortally of the soul even though they read the bible occasionally. This is so because too often the approach taken to reading the bible is one that is compromise by biases, prejudices, preconceived perceptions, culture and one’s personal beliefs. If one spends just fifteen minutes to fully investigate the scriptures they will see that what they believe or even what they think the bible says is far from the reality.

This lecture will seek to clarify the misunderstood words of scripture by examining the root and rout of the belief that the soul is immortal.

The first point to note in this discussion is that immortally alone belongs to God.

Most Christians no matter what their denomination, will all agree that God alone is: Omniscient- all knowing/wise, Omnipresent – being everywhere every time, and Omnipotent – all powerful, these three characteristics normally goes together. However another characteristic, “eternal” - having no beginning nor ending-Immortal, is the next to follow. This is our first and most important evidence (evidence in chief) that tilts the balances in their correct positions.

Just from the above it already clear that man cannot have an immortal soul, because God alone is immortal (1 Timothy 6:14-16) and if man did, then man too would be like God in terms of immortality. Note however that not even the angels in heaven (pure and sinless) are immortals so how could man who was made lower than the angels (Psalms 8:4-5) have immortality. If man had immortality then:

· Man would not need a savior as our “souls”/we would not need saving

· there would be no need for Jesus or the plan of salvation

· being a Christian and being good and moral and just would be irrelevant as there would be no “eternal” reward (since eternity is already a given).

Yes! It is true that God promises “eternal life” (John 3:15-16) to those who are faithful but this eternal life even though it is referred by some bible authors as “immortality” is not to be mistaken with the true or real immortality found only in God. To further explain, created beings cannot have immortality as they depend on God and His existence for sustenance. If God stop existing now, all things that He created would also cease to exist (John 1:3, Acts 17:28). Conversely, if a being was immortal he/she would keep on existing without God. No being, in the past, presently or in the future can live without God as God is the sustainer of all things. Satan, the bible teaches is the most powerful being that God had created and that is why within himself he sought to challenge God and even he is not immortal as God will destroy him and bring an end to sin on Judgment day (Ezekiel 28:13-19).

So where did the belief of man not dying come from?

The resilience of this rather disturbing myth of the immortality of man’s soul has survived approximately 7000 years. The same is believed by all races, cultures and tribes of man, by most pagans, agnostics, atheists and surprisingly by most Christian denominations. It is the diabolic and vitriolic belief that when a human being dies his/her ‘soul’ lives on either in heaven where God dwells or in hell where the devil reigns supreme. The latter, the daunting belief that hell is a real place that presently admits on a daily basis the wicked and that as you read or listen this lecture, persons are being tortured is another myth that must be annulled. It is sad, as the belief in these two myths is indicative that the misguided believer is not an avid reader of the bible.

I will be using only as reference the bible which ironically is the most misquoted book in the world. No other source will be used for this discourse as the bible is what we as Christians subscribe to as being the only authoritative source for reprove, reproach and guidance.

Let us start at the beginning, ‘And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Gen.2:7). The word soul used here is synonymous with the Hebrew word “ruach” and the Greek word “pneuma” which is to say spirit/life. It refers to an intelligent entity capable of a conscious existence or becoming a living being. An example of both being used interchangeably is found in (Rev. 16:3 KJV), “And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.” With the upgrade from the KJV to the NKJV the same bible verse is recorded as follows; “ Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man; and every living creature in the sea died.” Living soul and living creature are the same. Therefore, the meaning of Gen. 2:7 is better understood by saying that God breathe into the unconscious, non-living body that was formed from the dust of the ground and it (now call man) became a living being or came to life. The reason why I elaborated on this text is because some persons say that God gave man a soul, the bible did not say that, it said man became a living soul. It is clear, dust + God’s breathe = living soul/living being.

When man dies his body returns unto the ground (Gen. 3:19, Job 12:10 and James 2:26), and the spirit/soul/life returns to God who gave it, whether the person was good or bad. ( Ecc.12:7) The bible does not teach that human beings have a soul that lives on once a person dies.

Adam and Eve were capable of dying after they were created, they were not immortal. If when a person dies only a part of him/her dies (the physical) releasing in the process another part to continue living, that is not death but rebirth. And satan would be correct when he said “you shall not surely die.”( Gen. 3:4)

This is the first lie told to the human family and it lives on to this very day, but why is it so debilitating and carcinogenic? Spiritualism (the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living), witchcraft and obeah exist because of this belief. Adam and Eve are now dead, they learnt the hard way, they died two deaths; a spiritual one and a physical one. Both were instantaneous, more so the former while the later was more gradual in its effect, deteriorating the body slowly (aging), until death is final. The Christian who claims to believe the bible should also believe the scripture which makes it clear that the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). It is on this lie that satan has built his kingdom and the gates of hell are founded on it. (note “gates of hell” is figuratively used just as how elsewhere in the bible it speaks of the “sides and chambers of hell”) The bible teaches that life ends after death and refers only to such, when it is speaking of it in a metaphoric manner, but in such cases always before the final day or judgment day. Never in scripture does it mention life after death occurring after the judgment.

Some Christian stalwarts use the following text to say that when a good/saved person dies that they go to heaven (Luke 23:43). Before I go any further it must be noted that the English Language is a very young language when compared to the Hebrew and to a lesser extent the Greek. In addition Hebrew is written right to left and English, from left to right. As a result there will always be challenges when translating from a more complex to a less complex language as all the meaning in the former may not be conveyed. If the text is read and the comma (,) is placed at different places you will notice that the text say two complete different things. It must be noted that the original language did not use punctuation marks in the exact same way as in English as a result, the comma (,) in the verse was introduced when the scriptures were being translated into English. Let us examine the two possible meanings by placing the comma in different places.

1. Verily I say unto thee ( ,) today shalt thou be with me in paradise. ( this text is saying that Christ and the forgiven thief went to heaven that very day)
2. Verily I say unto thee today ( ,) thou shalt be with me in paradise. ( when the sentence is fix to read this way it is saying that on that day Christ said to the forgiven thief you will be with me in paradise)

You might be asking yourself why am I surgically operating on the scriptures to suit my view. The following text will help to prove that the second interpretation is the correct one as the first contradicts the rest of the bible. Christ did not go to heaven on Crucifixion Friday as # 1 implies but rather on Resurrection day the first day of the week. In his own words (John 20:17) Jesus made it clear to Mary Magdalene that she should not touch Him as He did not yet ascend to His Father. Wow! Did you want it clearer than that? He did not go to heaven that same day as the #1 interpretation would have you believe. Now what is very funny is this; if Christ, the one without sin, the Son of God, if He did not go immediately to heaven upon His death, but remained in the grave/hell until His Father sent to call Him, how do people believe that we (who have sinned and come short of the glory of God) can just go straight there without He also calling us? Peter told his congregation that not even David who died a righteous man is in heaven (Acts 2:34). But didn’t Moses who died, came to ministered to Christ whilst in the Garden of Gethsemane one might ask? It must be noted that like Jesus, he was in like manner raised from the dead (Jude1:9).

Other Christians use proudly this following section of the scriptures (Luke 16: 19-31) to say that good people go to heaven while wicked people go to hell. If they would have read the entire chapter and the ones that follow, they would have seen that Jesus used several parables consecutively that day to teach the gatherings at the various locations. Let us look at what the scripture says to prove that it must be a parable as Christ will not contradict the scriptures. (Ps. 146:4 & Eccl. 9:5-6) These make it abundantly clear that the dead knows nothing, their thoughts, love, hate, are all perished and they participate no more in anything that happens under the sun. So when Christians say that their Grandmother “dream them” not saying that they did not have dreams, but it could never be from the Grandmother (that’s if we are going to believe the bible). As Christ has set us an example, and John in ( John 5:28-29) reiterating the fact that both wicked and righteous dead remain in the grave until the Day of Judgment or the Resurrection Morning.

With the state of the dead now put “to rest”, let us examine whether or not the bible teaches that hell is presently in operation burning the souls of the wicked from the moment of admission on through the ceaseless ages of eternity. Firstly, the bible declares in (Eze. 18:4, 20-21) that all soul/life belongs to God and that the soul that sinneth shall die. Did you hear that? “the soul that sinneth shall die” so therefore it would not be ludicrous to say that a soul can die and therefore is not immortal. If one therefore believes that the soul of the wicked goes to hell and lives forever in eternal punishment, it is obvious that they believe satan’s lie (you shall not surely die) and disbelieve the word of God which say that the wages of sin is death. (life in hell is not death my friend) Rom. 6:23

Where is hell, what is hell, when is hell?

The reader must realize that many times in the bible the word hell is used as a substitute for death, grave or a bad situation and in other places when it is talking about “judgment day hell” it is used metaphorically or figuratively. Also in many other case the word hell is used in the correct context when it refers to the final day when God will burn all sinners with fire. The Hebrew word Sheol and the Greek word Hades which both can be used to mean grave was translated into the English as hell in a number of places in the bible. In the book of Acts , (Act 2:27, 31-34) it mentions and refers to Jesus being in hell, yes! The proper translation in this case is grave. Other examples can be seen in (2 Sam. 22:6, Job 11:8, Ps. 86:13, Is. 14:15, Amos 9:2, John 2:2, Mark 9:43, Matt. 16:18 and Rev. 20:13-14). If one does not understand that in many cases the word hell is used metaphorically it will cause them to believe in an existing physical place with gates, walls, sides, chambers, compartments and of course fire. Where is this supposedly hell? The bible mentioned that God cast out the angels that sinned into hell (2 Peter 2:4) it is clear that they are in hell right, but where is this hell? The answer can be found in (Rev. 12:9), it state that the wicked angels and satan where cast to the earth. So hell will be an event that will take place on earth sometime in the future. In some way (Rev 12:12) indicate when hell will be held: … Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.” It can be concluded that hell will be on earth and the devil knows that is time in existence is short.

The sequence of events are unequivocally described in the bible as follows; there are four groups of persons that will exist when Christ returns. They are; the righteous dead and the wicked dead, the righteous living and the wicked living (Rev. 22: 12). When He comes, His brightness and Glory will slay the wicked that are alive (2 Thes. 2:8), as a result only the righteous living will see Him and will be changed (1 Cor. 15:52) in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Thes. 4:13-17) then we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord (1 Cor.15:51-54 & 2 Cor. 5:10). The wicked are all now dead as those that we alive at His coming were slain. The devil and his angels have no one to tempt and is left on a desolate world for a thousand years to reflect on all that they have done and to contemplate their coming faith. This is referred to as being in the bottomless pit and the time frame is referred to as the millennium.

Upon the return of Christ and the saints after the millennium in heaven all the wicked will be resurrected and satan will now be “loosed” as he will once again tempt the wicked to try and take the new Jerusalem, that is when fire and brimstone will fall from heaven and consume them all (2 Peter 2:9, John 5:28-29 & Rev. 20). The effects will be everlasting that is why it is called an eternal fire and no one can put it out until it has totally destroyed all sin and all man made infrastructures, and that is why it is called unquenchable. The bible does not teach that the fire will burn forever (Jude 1:6-7 & 2 Peter 2:6). When the fire has accomplished its assigned work, God will recreate or redesign the earth (Rev.20:7-15 & Rev. 21:1-6), sin will be no more and all things will be made new.

And finally to disprove both myths with one verse proving that a soul can die and therefore does not keep on living in an eternal hell, Jesus Christ makes it all so plain and clear “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matt. 10:28)

Amen.

I hope that you were enlightened and will be drawn closer to Him as you study His words.