Though many like to shove it from their minds to escape having to think about it, death is real. It is the inevitable consequence of being alive!

Religious people often picture death as the inescapable final plunge into the unknown—into the "next world" with its heaven, hell or purgatory.

The ancient philosophers taught that man is essentially an immortal spiritual "soul" housed in a temporary body of flesh—that the real man is not the body, but an invisible, immaterial "immortal soul" that thinks, hears, sees and will consciously live on forever.

At death, according to the speculation of the ancients, the soul leaves the body and journeys to a nebulous realm, possibly paradise or a place of punishment. The body, they correctly observed, goes to the grave.

Some Oriental philosophers speculated that the souls of the departed go into other bodies after death and live as animals, birds, snakes, even trees or gnats—or perhaps as human beings. This doctrine, called "transmigration of souls" or "reincarnation," is currently gaining a renewed popularity.

But what is the authority for these beliefs? Do they come from Biblical revelation? Where did they come from? Where did the Christian-professing churches acquire their present teachings about the immortality of the soul?

This same article continues: "The belief in the immortality of the soul came 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."

The doctrine of the immortality of the soul, according to this respected encyclopedia, came from pre-Christian Greek philosophers who acquired it from pagan Egypt and Babylon!

Notice what Herodotus, the famous Greek historian who lived in the fifth century before Jesus, admitted: "The Egyptians also were the first who asserted the doctrine that the soul of man is immortal...This opinion, some among the Greeks have at different periods of time adopted as their own" (Euterpe, chapter 123).

It was the Greek Socrates who traveled to Egypt and consulted the Egyptians on this very teaching. After his return to Greece, he imparted the concept to Plato, his most famous pupil. Compare the present-day doctrine of the churches with what Plato wrote in his book, The Phaedo:

"The soul whose inseparable attribute is life will never admit of life’s opposite, death. Thus the soul is shown to be immortal, and since immortal, indestructible...Do we believe there is such a thing as death? To be sure. And is this anything but the separation of the soul and body? And being dead is the attainment of this separation, when the soul exists in herself and separate from the body, and the body is parted from the soul. That is death....Death is merely the separation of soul and body."

Sounds a lot like ordinary church teaching, doesn’t it?You were probably taught that this same doctrine was totally Christian.You undoubtedly assumed it came straight from the Bible—but it did not, as you will see for yourself.

After Plato came Aristotle who perpetuated the theory. Then the poet Virgil (70-19 B.C.) popularized it throughout the Roman World.

The introduction of this popular superstition into the churches was a gradual process which took centuries. The early "church fathers" were divided on this subject. As late as 160 A.D. Justin, the philosopher-turned-professing-Christian, wrote:

"But our Jesus Christ, being crucified and dead, and having ascended to heaven, reigned, and by those things which were published in His name among all nations by the apostles, there is joy offered to those who expect the immortality promised by Him" (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. I, p. 176). Many of the early Catholics indeed knew they did not have immortality within themselves. It was something they yet expected to receive.

Origen, an early Catholic teacher in Alexandria, Egypt, joined the speculations of Plato with certain parts of the Bible and called his philosophy neo-Platonism. Here is what Origen wrote around 200 A.D.: "Souls are immortal, as God Himself is eternal and immortal"! He openly professed to be a true "Platonist, who believed in the immortality of the soul" (Ante- Nicene Fathers, vol. IV, pp. 314, 402).

Another influential teacher at the close of the second century was Tertullian of Phoenician North Africa. He wrote: "For some things are known, even by nature: the immortality of the soul, for instance, is held by many....I may use, therefore, the opinion of Plato, when he declares:

‘EVERY SOUL IS IMMORTAL’" (ibid., vol. III, p. 547).

And so the personal ideas of these influential men helped mold the thinking of the entire Christian-professing world.

But a few Catholic writers and teachers as late as the time of Constantine condemned the change in doctrine from Christ’s teachings to those of Plato. Here is the remonstration of Arnobius against those who were being "carried away by an extravagant opinion of themselves, that souls are immortal....Will you lay aside your habitual arrogance, O men, who claim God as your Father, and maintain that you are immortal just as He is?" (ibid., vol. VI, p. 440.)

After the time of Emperor Constantine—who forced the Roman Empire to accept one universal faith—Augustine, another writer of North African extraction, "sanctified" the doctrine of the immortality of the soul in his book, The City of God. Along came other writers—all under the influence of Plato, Aristotle and Virgil—who dominated the philosophy of Western "Christian" theology during the early Middle Ages.

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 A.D.), Italian scholastic teacher and theologian, stamped the doctrine of the immortality of the soul permanently on the Christian-professing world. Fifty years later, Dante Alighieri wrote the immensely famous poem, The Divine Comedy, in which he pictured for thecommon people his imaginary concepts of hell, purgatory and paradise—which have been widely believed since that time.

Just before the Protestant Reformation, the Lateran Council of 1513 issued this decree:

"Whereas some have dared to assert concerning the nature of the reasonable soul that it is mortal, we, with the approbation of the sacred council, do condemn and reprobate all those who assert that the intellectual soul is mortal, seeing, according to the canon of Pope Clement V, that the soul is...immortal...and we decree that all who adhere to like erroneous assertions shall be shunned and punished as heretics."

During the Reformation, some early Protestants tried to cast off the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Martin Luther declared that the Bible did not teach the immortality of the soul (Defense, Proposition No. 27). "Luther held that the soul died with the body, and that God would hereafter raise both the one and the other" (Historical View, p. 344).

How different were Luther’s first teachings from Protestant doctrine today! Here are Luther’s own words, expressed about the year 1522:

"It is probable, in my opinion, that, with very few exceptions, indeed, the dead sleep in utter insensibility till the day of judgment...On what authority can it be said that the souls of the dead may not sleep...in the same way that the living pass in profound slumber the interval between their downlying at night and their uprising in the morning?" (From Michelet’s Life of Luther, Bohn’s edition, p. 133.)

Luther’s original teachings have never ceased to embarrass Protestant theologians who have since readopted the teachings of ancient Egypt and Greece.

William Tyndale, the printer of the first New Testament in English and another of the Reformers, wrote: "In putting departed souls in heaven, hell, or purgatory you destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove the resurrection....The true faith putteth the resurrection; the heathen philosophers, denying that, did put that souls did ever live....If the soul be in heaven, tell me what cause is there for the resurrection?"

That’s a very good question!  The Protestant Reformers found the people unwilling to change their doctrines. Gradually, the Reformers themselves gave in to popular tradition --tradition which has its roots in pagan philosophy and speculation! And so many churchgoers today believe the doctrine of the immortality of the soul simply because they have unquestioningly embraced the speculations that have been passed down from ancient pagan philosophers!

The Apostle Paul wrote about this very kind of speculation: "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments"—fundamental concepts—"of the world, and not after Christ" (Col. 2:8).

The Bible, as we shall soon see, is NOT the source of the common belief in the immortality of the soul. Surprising as it may seem to some, the Bible plainly teaches that man is mortal—physical—fleshly—of the dust. And when he dies, he turns to dust. Let’s look into the Bible and PROVE what it really says!

Is man an immortal soul in a material body? What does science have to say about it?

Absolutely nothing to support the concept! Science simply has no evidence for the existence of an immortal soul.

Science deals only with physical, material substances and behavior— physical matter and energy. Modern science is limited entirely to the Material world that can be weighed and measured—to that which can be perceived by the five senses.

The spiritual is completely outside the realm of physical science and is therefore not subject to the "scientific method." Science cannot measure—hence cannot reveal—any life apart from matter. And so all that man can know (apart from divine revelation) is material. But what science has learned can nevertheless help immensely in understanding the composition of man.

Science has discovered that all living matter, in its simplest form, is protoplasm—a substance that composes the "living stuff"’ of the cells of both plants and animals, as well as man.

This much also is definitely known: Individuals who "died" on the operating table and then were revived through heart massage or other means, usually remember absolutely nothing about the intervening time! They "went" nowhere! They were simply unconscious. However, some who were declared "clinically dead" have described sights and/or sounds that caused them to jump to the erroneous conclusion that they had glimpsed something of the "after-life." Just as some dreaming is compressed into a very brief time-span, so also these people were merely dreaming or "hallucinating."

These facts would surely indicate that an "immortal soul," if there is one, is completely unable to think, remember or reason apart from the body!

Science, therefore, has no evidence of an "immortal soul" in man. Even the experiences of people on the operating table who "died" temporarily provide no evidence of an immortal soul.

The Bible is the FOUNDATION of knowledge. In it the Creator God has revealed much knowledge that is totally beyond man’s capability to discover for himself—including the knowledge and understanding of what man is, as well as what he is to be.

God created the first man. And He tells us what He made him from so there would be no doubt as to what we really are. Here is that account as revealed in the Bible:

1. Out of what did God form man? Gen. 2:7. Notice that it was the man—not only the body—that was formed.

2. Was it the whole man—"thou"—that was composed of dust? Gen. 3:19.

COMMENT: Adam was made from and therefore composed of earth!

3. What would eventually happen to the conscious man? Gen. 3:19, last part.

4. After God had formed the man and made every cell in his body, what did He do to give him life? Gen. 2:7.

COMMENT: God blew air—"the breath of life" containing oxygen—into the man’s lungs through his nostrils, and the man began to live! The verse does not say that God breathed an immortal soul into the man.

5. Is the "breath of life" the same thing which passes through the nostrils of animals? Gen. 7:21-22. Is it the breath of life that is cut off when a human being or an animal drowns? Verse 23. Then the source of life in man and animals is the same, isn’t it?

Man IS a living, breathing MORTAL creature—a nephesh, or living soul in whose nostrils is air. What happens to the breath of air that goes into our lungs?

When you take a breath of air, it passes through your trachea, into the lungs and into little pockets or sacs called alveoli. There oxygen is absorbed from the air and goes into the bloodstream. As the blood flows through the blood vessels from the lungs on the way back to the heart, and then is pumped again throughout the body, the oxygen is carried by the red blood cells throughout the body to the individual cells. Each of your 60 trillion cells uses oxygen to "burn" your food to create the energy needed to power your organs and muscles and to maintain body heat. The life of man clearly depends on the blood, and the blood needs the breath of life to keep the body active and alive.

4. According to Matthew 10:28, is the "soul" something which can be destroyed? Then didn’t Jesus plainly show that the soul is not immortal? Let’s understand exactly what Jesus was talking about.

COMMENT: Although wome people use this text to support their belief of the immortality of the soul, it plainly says the soul is something that can be destroyed in hell! Thus, whatever this "soul" is, it could NOT be immortal!

The Greek word here translated "soul" is psuche. It refers to the same thing as the Hebrew word nephesh. It simply means life, existence.

In Matthew 10:28, Christ obviously used this word to refer to "life" that man cannot destroy—but which God can. What kind of life could this be? Obviously life which God RESTORES by a resurrection!

Man cannot "destroy" a life that God turns right around and renews. But GOD can destroy it—permanently—by casting the resurrected physical person into the "lake of fire," never to be resurrected again!

Luke makes this scripture plainer: "But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which AFTER he hath killed hath power to cast into hell..." (Luke 12:5). God not only has the power to take our present physical life, but also has the power to resurrect us and—if we have proved disobedient and incorrigible—to cast us into the lake of fire from which there will be NO future resurrection! (Rev. 20:14-15; 21:8).

Since man does not have an immortal soul, does this mean he is just an animal—here today and gone tomorrow? Not at all!

What is it that makes man different from the animals? Let’s understand the amazing truth!

1. Were animals created in God’s image—or were they created each after its own kind? Gen. 1:21, 24, 25. But was man created in the "image" and "likeness" of GOD? Gen. 26-27. Was man to rule over all other creatures? Verse 26.

COMMENT: The Hebrew words of Genesis 1:26-27 reveal God’s great plan and ultimate purpose for mankind! When God molded Adam of the dust, he was shaped in the "likeness"—the outward form and shape—of God Himself. God didn’t form any of the other creatures to be an exact clay replica of Himself. This unique form and shape was given to man alone!

Notice again that God said "Let us make man in our image...." The Hebrew here indicates far more than merely the outward form and shape of God—His likeness. "Image" refers to mind and character! God intended for man—to whom He gave the gift of a thinking, reasoning mind—to develop the very mind and character of GOD!

Each animal was created with a brain suited for each animal kind. Butanimals do not have the potential of MIND and CHARACTER which God gave only to man. No animal was ever given the gift of mind power!

It is this very SPECIAL ATTRIBUTE OF MIND AND CHARACTER that separates men from animals!

Animals do not have reasoning, self-conscious minds. Animals follow instinctive habit patterns in their feeding, nesting, migration, and reproduction. God has "programmed" their brains, so to speak, with particular instinctive aptitudes. Thus beavers build dams, birds build nests, etc. These aptitudes are inherited—they are not the result of logical cognitive processes.

For example, thousands of birds flock south each year as winter approaches in the Northern Hemisphere. They don’t stop to "reason" why, they don’t ask themselves whether they should, they don’t "plan ahead" an itinerary for the trip. At a given signal—like the pre-set alarm of a clock—they leave their summer feeding grounds in the north and travel thousands of miles south. Scientists don’t fully understand why—they merely observe the operation of this animal instinct.

Each species or kind of bird builds different nests, feeds on different foods, and migrates in different ways at different times to different places. But none of these actions is planned by the birds. They are merely the capability and proclivity which Almighty God built into the instinct of each kind at creation.

But man is vastly different. Man is able to perceive and understand various ways to do any one thing. Man can reason from memorized facts and knowledge, draw conclusions, make decisions, will to act according to a thought-out plan.

Each man may build a different house, eat different foods—live an entirely different way of life—from every other man. If a man wants to change his way of life—he can! Man is not subject to instinct. He is not governed by a set of pre-determined habit patterns as animals are.

Man can choose—he has free moral agency. He can devise codes of conduct and exercise self-discipline. Man can originate ideas and evaluate scientific knowledge because he has a MIND which is patterned after God’s own mind! Man can devise, plan, and bring his plans to fruition because he has been given some of the very creative powers of God!

Man alone can wonder, "Why was I born? What is life? What is death? Is there a purpose in human existence?" Man, unlike the animals, not only "knows" how to do certain things, but he also KNOWS he knows—that is, he is aware that he has "knowledge." He is conscious of the fact. He is self-conscious, aware of his own existence as a unique being.

Many animals have physical brains as large, or even larger than man’s brain, and with similar cerebral cortex complexity—but none has the powers of intellect, logic, self-consciousness and creativity.

What gives man’s brain these unique abilities? And what will God use, after the death and complete dissolution of the physical body and brain, to reproduce each individual at the resurrection?

The truth about the "spirit in man" is so important that Satan tried to twist and warp and pervert it long ago. He clouded the minds of men and got them to believing his "big lie" as far back as the time of Adam and Eve.

We have clearly seen that the Bible does not teach the immortality of the soul. But what, then, does the Bible teach about immortality?

If man were an immortal soul in a material body—and if the death of the body released the soul—then there would be no need for a resurrection to immortal life. Man would merely continue living after death. But the very fact that the Bible teaches the resurrection from the dead is further proof that man does not have an immortal soul!

1. If Christ had not risen from the dead, would faith in a future life by a resurrection be all in vain? I Cor. 15:14-17. If there will be no resurrection, have those who are dead in their graves perished forever? Verse 18.

2. However, did Christ Himself warn that the unregenerate—unrepentant—man is to perish? John 3:16 and Luke 13:3, 5. If man were an immortal soul, could he actually "perish"? (See in your dictionary that the word "perish" means to CEASE living.)

3. Who will hear the voice of the Son of God at the resurrection? John 5:25. Do they then "rise"? I Thess. 4:16.

COMMENT: The dead cannot "hear" unless they are first restored to life! The dead are pictured throughout the Bible as being asleep in their graves, awaiting the day of the resurrection. Notice Jesus’ words when describing the death of Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha:

"’Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.’ Then said his disciples, ‘Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.’ Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, ‘Lazarus isdead’" (John 11:11-14).

Death is pictured as a sleep. Death, like sleep, is a condition in which people are not conscious and from which they shall be "awakened"!

Notice the plain evidence of Scripture:

"And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake" (Dan. 12:2). "And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose" (Matt. 27:52). "And when thy days be fulfilled," said God to David, "and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers..." (II Sam. 7:12).

Death is described as a sleep dozens of times in the Bible when referring to the kings of Israel and Judah! "David slept with his fathers..." (I Kings 2:10). Notice that it does not say "the body slept while the soul was conscious." It plainly says, "David slept." It was the conscious person who fell "asleep" in death!

In the following verses the same expression is used to describe death. Look each one up and see for yourself that death is compared to a sleep: I Kings 11:21, 43; 14:20, 31; 15:8, 24; 16:6, 28; 22:40, 50; II Kings 8:24; 10:35; 13:9, 13; 14:16, 22, 29; 15:7, 22, 38; 16:20; 20:21; 21:18; 24:6; II Chronicles 9:31; 12:16; 14:1; 16:13; 21:1; 26:2; 27:9; 28:27; 32:33; 33:20.

COMMENT: Adam and Eve could have eventually gained eternal life and become spirit by eating of the fruit of the "tree of life." This plainly shows that Adam and Eve did not have immortality inherent in themselves!

The "tree of life" symbolized the Holy Spirit—the way to eternal life. Adam was created incomplete. He was created to need the Holy Spirit of God in order to live forever. Had Adam and Eve eaten of the fruit of that tree, rather than of the forbidden tree, they would have received God’s Spirit as a begettal. The Holy Spirit would have helped perfect the very character of God in them, and finally changed their mortal bodies into spirit-born Sons of God!

Some who believe that Christians have an immortal soul use Philippians 1:23-24 as proof. Do these verses overthrow all of the plain scriptures we have studied? Let’s understand what Paul meant.

1. Did Paul have a desire to be with Christ? Phil. 1:23.

COMMENT: All Christians should have the same desire. But does this verse state when Paul would be with Christ? Absolutely not! But people try to read certain ideas into this verse! Let’s notice when Paul expected to be with Christ.

2. Did Paul expect to receive something from Christ when he met Him? II Tim. 4:6-8. And when would that be—the time when Jesus returns and all the saints are resurrected? Verse 8. Notice the words "at that day."

3. When Christ returns, will He bring His rewards with Him? Isa. 40:10;

Rev. 22:12. When will all (both dead and living) Christians "meet the Lord"? I Thess. 4:16-17.

COMMENT: Those who are dead in their graves are not conscious; they have no knowledge of passing time. The very next moment of their consciousness will be the time of the resurrection! That is why Paul wrote in II Corinthians 5:9-10: "Wherefore we labour [while yet alive], that, whether present [alive in the flesh] or absent [dead in the grave], we may be accepted of him."

When?

Verse 10 tells—at the judgment when Christ returns! That is when Paul

There are also some who claim that man is "body, soul and spirit." But which of the two—the soul or the spirit—is immortal, even they never seem quite sure! Let’s understand this expression.

1. What does the Bible reveal about "body, soul and spirit"? I Thess. 5:23.

Does this verse really prove the "immortality of the soul"? Of course not! It does not contradict all the plain verses we have already studied (John 10:35).

COMMENT: Paul here refered to the MIND in man when he used the word "spirit." And to the PHYSICAL LIFE when he used the word "soul." And to the FLESH when he used the word "body."

What’s wrong with having your whole mind, your life, and your body preserved blameless—preserved from the penalty of sin—in anticipation of the coming of Christ? (See also II Cor. 7:1.) Nothing! That is something we should all fervently desire!

How plain the Bible really is. Man is MORTAL, corruptible flesh—organic matter with a temporary life. He has no eternal life inherent within himself—no "immortal soul"! He is a physical, fleshly creature destined to die and turn to dust and remain that way—except for the intervention of the Almighty.

But God has sent His Son to make it possible for us to receive the GIFT of immortality and eternal life at the resurrection from the dead! Will you qualify to receive that wonderful gift?

In a soon-coming lesson we will study the glorious promises, and the great rewards, that God holds out for all mankind.

This quiz is designed to help you remember the important facts you learned in the lesson. You simply circle, or underline each correct answer. After you’ve finished, check your choices with the correct answers listed at the end of the test, and then rate yourself.

16. The dead A. Immortal soul

B. Praising God

17. Life of all flesh C. Unconscious

D. Immortal

18. Christ’s "soul" E. Poured out

F. In the blood

19. Man’s uniqueness G. Not really dead

H. Eternal death

20. God’s gift I. Eternal life

ANSWERS TO QUIZ Rate Yourself

1-D 5-B 9-B 13-T 17-F 19-20 correct - - - excellent

2-A 6-D 10-B 14-T 18-E 16-18 correct - - - good

3-C 7-C 11-T 15-F 19-J 13-15 correct - - - fair