The soul’s immortality |
The Word
of God teaches that the human being is a living soul, for it is written that
God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7). However, the Word
of God teaches also that man has a soul, which is immortal (and not mortal as
his body), which after death – depending upon the spiritual state of the
individual at death – goes either to heaven or to Hades (which is better
known as hell). Therefore man continues to exist spiritually after death. We
can say that the soul is the inward man which is in every human being; whereas
the body is the outward man, in which the human soul dwells. |
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Some verses of the Scripture which call the human
being ‘soul’
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Now, the Holy
Scripture calls people ‘souls,’ and the following verses confirm it: |
● “For
whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit
them shall be cut off from among their people” (Leviticus |
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“And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword,
utterly destroying them: there was not any left to breathe: and he burnt
Hazor with fire” (Joshua |
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“And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the
apostles” (Acts |
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“Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred,
threescore and fifteen souls” (Acts |
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“Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited
in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is,
eight souls were saved by water” (1 Peter 3:20). |
However
the Scripture – as I said before – teaches also that the soul is not the
body, and the body is not the soul; and that when a person dies his soul
departs from the body, and if he who dies is a son of God his soul goes to
heaven to be with the Lord, while if he is a son of the devil his soul is
brought down to Hades, that is, the abode of the wicked (the place of the
departed wicked), where there is a fire unfanned and weeping and gnashing of
teeth. |
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Some verses of the Scripture which distinguish
between body and soul
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First of
all, let us see some verses which affirm that the soul (in Hebrew ‘nephesh’,
while in Greek ‘psuche’) is not the human body and at death it departs from
the body. |
● In
the book of Genesis it is written: “And they journeyed from |
● In
the book of Lamentations it is written: “They say to their mothers, Where is
corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in
the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers'
bosom” (Lamentations |
●
When the prophet Elijah prayed to God that He might raise the child of the
widow with whom he lodged, he said to God: “O Lord my God, I pray, let this
child’s soul come back to him” (1 Kings |
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When the prophet Elijah prayed that he might die, he said to God: “Take my
soul, for I am not better than my fathers (1 Kings 19:4 - YLT). So Elijah
believed that he had a soul in his own body which at his death would depart
from it. |
●
David spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, saying: “For You will not
leave my soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption”
(Acts |
●
Luke says: “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came
together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the
morrow; and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights
in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together. And there sat in a
window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep:
and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from
the third loft, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for
his life [soul] is in him. When he therefore was come up again, and had
broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so
he departed. And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little
comforted” (Acts 20:7-12). As you can see, that young man was taken up dead,
yet his soul remained in him by the will of God and did not depart from him, for
Paul said to the brethren that the soul of Eutychus was in him. So Paul
believed that the soul is not the body, but a part of the human being which
is inside the body. |
● In
the book of Job it is written: “For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though
he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?” (Job 27:8). As you can see,
these words also confirm that the soul is not the body because it is inside
the body. Furthermore, they are confirmed by the story of the rich man and
Lazarus told by Jesus, for Jesus said that the rich man died and was buried,
and being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar
off, and Lazarus in his bosom (Luke 16:19-31), but he had no hope of salvation,
he was lost forever. And on the day of judgement he will rise in order to be
judged and cast into the lake of fire. |
●
Jesus said to the repentant thief on the cross: “Assuredly, I say to you,
today you will be with Me in |
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Jesus said to the Sadducees, who denied both the resurrection of the body and
the immortality of the soul (Josephus Flavius, a Jewish historian who was
born in 37 A.D. and died after the year 100, tells us that the Sadducees
denied also the immortality of the soul for they said that souls die with the
bodies - Jewish Antiquities, XVIII,
1 § 4): “But even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are
raised, when he called the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob’. For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for
all live to Him” (Luke |
Therefore,
according to Jesus, all those who die in the faith die in the flesh but they continue
to live to God, therefore they are actually living. For God is not the God of
the dead but of the living. Therefore when we say that the God whom we serve
is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, we say a right
thing for God Himself said to Moses: “This is My name forever, and this is My
memorial to all generations” (Exodus 3:15 – NKJV), however, it is clear that
the patriarchs must live somewhere so that God may be called the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now, we can say that at their
death, which took place many centuries ago, their bodies returned to dust;
but we can by no means affirm that after their death they ceased to exist because
God is not ashamed to be called their God (Hebrews 11:16). Now, since their
bodies saw corruption, how can we affirm that they are living now? Well, we
can affirm this because the souls of the patriarchs are living, for the
Living God is the God of the living. And where are they living? They are
living in the kingdom of heaven. While the patriarchs lived on the earth they
confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, showing thus
that they sought a homeland, that is, a heavenly country which is far better
than the country from which they had come out. |
● Paul
says to the Romans: “Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8
– NKJV). |
That means
that we belong to Christ and are in His hand while we are at home in the body
and even after we depart from the body because not even death will be able to
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ; no, not even death. Didn’t
Jesus say about His sheep: “They shall never perish; neither shall anyone
snatch them out of My hand” (John |
● In
the book of Revelation it is written that John saw the souls of those who had
been killed for the Word of God and they lived and reigned with Christ for a
thousand years. Here are the words of the apostle: “And I saw thrones, and
they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of
them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God,
and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had
received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and
reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not
again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection”
(Revelation 20:4-5). As you can see, the souls of those who had been killed for
the Word of God lived, that is, they returned to live within immortal bodies,
for John saw the resurrection of those who had been killed for the Word of
God. However, in the meanwhile, that is, between their death and their
resurrection, they had continued to live with their souls only, for John saw
their souls. These words of John confirm the existence of a soul inside the
human body and the soul’s immortality. |
● In
the Gospel according to Matthew we read that Jesus took Peter, James, and
John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves, and He was
transfigured before them; His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became
as white as the light “and behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking
with Him” (Matthew 17:3 - NKJV). Now, the Scripture says about Moses that he
died and was buried by God, as it is written in the law: “So Moses the
servant of the LORD died there in the |
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Jesus said: “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 [Greek:
geenna]” (Matthew |
As you can
see, the soul is not the body and vice versa because Jesus said that the body
can be killed whereas the soul cannot be killed. So, unlike the body, the
soul of a man cannot be killed but it can be destroyed in Geenna (the fire
that will never be quenched) together with the body. |
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Some verses of the Scripture which indicate the
places in the hereafter where the souls of men go
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Let us see
now some passages of the Scripture which affirm that the souls of the wicked
go to Hades, while the souls of the righteous go to heaven. |
● Jesus
said: “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine
linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named
Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed
with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came
and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was
carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was
buried; And in hell [Greek: Hades] he lift up his eyes, being in torments,
and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said,
Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip
of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame”
(Luke 16:19-24). As you can see, that rich man, after death, found himself in
Hades, in torments, because he had refused to listen to Moses and the
prophets. |
● In
the book of Revelation it is written: “And when he had opened the fifth seal,
I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God,
and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice,
saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our
blood on them that dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:9-10). |
John saw
under the altar (which is in heaven before God) the souls of those who had
been slain for the word of God. Note that those souls were able to cry out
with a loud voice and to remember that they had been killed and also the
persons by whom they had been killed. As you can see, the expression “the
souls of them that were slain” shows that the soul of a person is not the
person himself, that is, the body of a person, but something which is
different from his body; and it shows also that, unlike the body, the soul
cannot be killed. |
In the
light of the above mentioned verses, therefore, we affirm that man has a soul
inside his body, and after death his soul lives on; either in Hades (or Hell)
in the midst of awful torments, if he dies in his sins; or in heaven
(Paradise) before God and Jesus Christ joyfully, if he dies in Christ. |
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A word of exhortation
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Brother in
the Lord, you are among those who have eternal life because you believed in
the Lord. Therefore you have the assurance that when you die you will
immediately go to heaven to be with the Lord, in the glory where peace reigns
and where there will be no more sorrow nor crying,
and where you will rest from your labors awaiting the resurrection. Therefore,
rejoice greatly because your soul is saved, and see that you stand firm till
the end because – as Jesus said - : “By standing firm you will save
yourselves” (Luke |
However,
perhaps you attend a church where you never hear about hell as if it did not
exist, or you hear about it rarely for every now and then someone mentions it
yet without putting the right emphasis on it and thus you are persuaded that
Christians should not speak of the fire of hell to sinners. You are greatly
mistaken, because Jesus Himself, the Son of God who came down from heaven,
spoke about hell in His teachings warning people of it. Read carefully the
teachings of Jesus and you will realize this. So do not be afraid to warn the
wicked of hell. |
Surely, on
hearing you speaking about hell to the wicked or even to some brothers, some
believers will consider you a ‘terrorist’ and not someone who brings the Good
News. They will say to you: ‘These words of yours were good in the Middle
Ages, but they are not good today!’ or ‘Who do you want to frighten with this
kind of sermon?’ Brother, do not surrender to these obstacles. Know this,
that it is a normal thing to meet with opposition when one tells men the
truth, and sometimes one meets with opposition even on the part of some
brethren. |
Why do
some believers are against warning people about hell? Because many churches
think that the preaching of the Gospel must not contain any warning of the
terrible and dreadful destiny awaiting those who do not accept the Gospel. However
this is not true, because the Gospel is the Good News because it saves those
who accept it from sin, whose wages is death and which leads (those who are
slaves of it) to hell. Therefore when we say that we have been saved from sin
and from this evil present age we mean that we have been saved from hell,
where all of us were going to while we were children of wrath. I ask you:
‘How can a sinner be induced to tremble when he hears a preacher preaching repentance
and remission of sins in the name of the Lord Jesus unless the preaching
includes the solemn warning of the destiny awaiting the sinner after death if
he refuses to repent of his sins? How can a sinner realize that if he rejects
the Gospel he will spend eternity in the fire, weeping and gnashing his
teeth, while if he accepts the Gospel he will spend eternity with the Lord in
a wonderful place? I think that he can’t. In addition to this, how can the
message of the Gospel be appreciated fully by those
who have accepted it unless they hear or know that the Lord has saved them
from an awful destiny full of torments which human words cannot describe adequately?
How can those who have accepted the Gospel be induced to continue in the
faith in Christ and to perfect holiness in the fear of God unless they hear
that if they draw back and are entangled again in the pollutions of the world
they will go to hell? I think that they can’t. |
That is
confirmed by the fact that today many of those who hear the Gospel think that
to accept the Gospel simply means that one’s problems will be solved. In
other words, they think that when one accepts the Gospel it happens that he
is no longer lonely, sad, and afraid of the future. That’s what it means to
accept the Gospel to these people. Of course it is true that when a person
accepts the Gospel he is no longer lonely, sad, and afraid of the future,
because the Lord is always with him, and he has the joy of salvation and the
peace of Christ in his heart; however, it is also true that after a person
turns to the Lord he will have many other problems because he will begin to
be persecuted and insulted because of the Lord and therefore he will begin to
suffer many things; from a certain point of view he will suffer more things than
before his conversion because in some cases he will be put in prison as an
evildoer and even put to death because of the Gospel. So they, that is, those
who are slaves of sin, do not know that if they reject the Gospel they will
go to hell; on the other hand nobody warns them of hell lest they be frightened!!!
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Let me say
something about believers; as far as I know there are few believers who
appreciate the Gospel, because only few believers realize that by the Gospel
they have been saved not only from sin but also from the fire of Hades and the
fire of Geenna (that is, the lake which burns with fire and brimstone). In
speaking with some believers about eternity it seems that to them after all
the salvation they have obtained by the grace of God is not so great. Their
opinion can be summed up as follows: ‘Of course, we have been saved, however,
while we were still lost we did not run the risk of going to such a tragic
and horrible place!’, that is to say, ‘Well, even if we had died in our sins our
destiny would not have been so bad!’ However, the Scripture does not teach me
that, for it tells me that if I had died in my sins I would have suffered an
everlasting torment in the everlasting fire where there is no water. That’s
why I continually thank God the Father through Christ Jesus for saving me;
that’s why whenever I proclaim the Gospel to the sinners I see that I tell
them not only that they must repent and believe in Jesus to obtain the
remission of sins, but also that unless they repent and believe in Jesus they
will go to hell when they die. And this is why I speak of hell to the
believers too, so that they may stand firm in the faith till the end and thus
escape hell. For if they deny the Gospel, they will go to perdition. And what
shall I say about holiness? I shall say that there are few believers who
really perfect holiness because many believers do not want to honour the
Gospel as they ought to. ‘On the other hand, by the Gospel we have not
escaped such a terrible punishment, why then should we say ‘no’ to so many
pleasures?!!’ That’s why the Gospel is dishonoured by many of those who
should honour it with all their strength! There is a phrase of a Christian
song which says: ‘Let us honour the word of the Gospel,’ which is a beautiful
phrase. However we must not only sing it, but we must also put it into
practice. I sang these words even when I was lost, but as a matter of fact I
did not honour the Gospel. And this is what many believers do, that is to
say, they do not honour the Gospel, and it grieves my heart to see this. The
apostles gave their life for the Gospel, they endured so many persecutions
for it, they suffered so many hardships for it, they were insulted for it, in
order to bring it to those who had not heard it and to honour it by their words
and works so that the name of the Lord might be glorified in them; yet, this
very same Gospel is so much despised among many Churches as if it were of no
value! Yes, theoretically it is of great value in the places of worship,
during the Christian conferences or during the summer camp meetings, but
practically it is of no value, for it is not honoured in the daily life. The
Word of God is trampled on, there are many compromises with the world, therefore the message of the cross is blasphemed. Many pastors
are pitchmen, they seem to have attended marketing schools, rather than
institutes where the Word of God is taught and honored. They are ready to
betray the Gospel for less than thirty silver coins. They want crowds of
people to attend their meetings, they want their name to be mentioned on this
or that newspaper, therefore they have adapted their message, they tell
believers what they want to hear (that is, smooth things) and not what God
wants them to hear. Those believers who attend their meetings conduct
themselves like the unbelieving people, their way of
life is so similar to that of the unbelieving people that the unbelievers feel
at ease among them. This is what happens when pastors avoid speaking of hell
to the believers; they do not take anything seriously, as if their life were
a wonderful holiday on the earth and when they enter into heaven they will begin
a even better holiday!! |
On the
contrary, life for a believer is a permanent war against sin, against the
devil and his invisible ministers who try to choke the word planted in him,
who try to make him become lukewarm so that he may be vomited by the Lord out
of His mouth, who try to make him become a friend of the world and thus an
enemy of God that he may be sent to hell! |
Therefore,
brothers, speak not only of heaven but also of hell; speak not only of the beauty
of Heaven and the immense joy and peace associated with it, but also of the
ugliness of hell and the unspeakable torments associated with it. This, for
the following reasons: that the wicked may be seized with fear and thus may
repent of their sins and receive eternal life, which is in Christ Jesus, and that
believers may be led to honor the Gospel. |