Eternal Life (Immortality of Body and Spirit)

The world has long been deluged with the notion that human beings are immortal in their souls. The word soul is also used interchangeably with the word spirit. Neither of these is scripturally based, nor are they true.

If you research the Hebrew word translated as "soul" (or "being" in the NIV) where it applies to man, the same word is translated "creature" where it applies to all of the other animal life created by God during the creation. This means that man is a living creature. The difference is that this creature was created in the image and likeness of the God that created him. The spirit within the creature is what scripture names the "breath of life" that all creatures have. The Law of Moses, when forbidding the consumption of blood, states, "the life is in the blood". This means that the life spirit of the creature is contained in the blood. Blood is physical. It carries the food and oxygen that our bodies need to sustain life. The spirit is the energy of life that is generated by this function of the body. It is what powers our mind as well.

When Adam and Eve sinned, God told them that they would return to the dust from which they came. He also put a flaming sword that turned back and forth to bar the way to the tree of life that would have given Adam and Eve the immortality that so many today wish they had.

Jesus, and the apostles after him, said that eternal life is the gift of God given to those who believe in him, and accept him as Messiah, Lord, King, and the only Son fathered (begotten means fathered) by God.

Nowhere in the Bible does it state that man is an immortal spirit. Nowhere does it state that the human spirit will never die. In fact, it states that those who do not believe, and all those whose names are not found in the Book of Life, will die the second death from which there is no returning to life. That death is NOT "eternal life in separation from God" because there IS NO LIFE apart from God. All that does not enter into life in the Kingdom of God will die the second death and "become ashes under the soles of your feet" (of the saints).

I issue a challenge to anyone who disagrees with these statements to produce scripture that proves otherwise.

Below are the scriptures that state these things. (All scriptures taken from the New International Version-NIV.)

Genesis 1:20 And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky."

Genesis 1:24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind."

Genesis 2:7 The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." (KJV says soul.)

Genesis 2:16-17 "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

Genesis 3:19 "By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

Genesis 3:22-24 And the Lord God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After He drove the man out, He placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Leviticus 17:11 "For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life."

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 6:47 "I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life."

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Malachi 4:1-3 "Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire," says the Lord Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet when I do these things," says the Lord Almighty.