WHAT IS THE SOUL?

Special Edition

“He spared not their soul from death.” (Psa.78:50)

Everyone knows that the body dies and that it needs continual nourishment to maintain life. Accordingly, the body cannot be immortal. But the Scrip­tures speak of souls. Can it be that the soul is indestructible – that God having made a soul cannot destroy it?

Absent absolute proof to the contrary, reason tells us that the life of every creature is subject to the will of the Creator. The Scriptures nowhere speak of the immortality of the soul, as some suppose – neither in the translations nor in the original text. Take a Bible concordance and try to find the expression “immortal soul” and you will quickly satisfy your­self that no such expression is found in the Scriptures. On the contrary, the Scriptures declare: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Ezek. 18:4, 20) Our Lord was clear in stating that God can destroy the soul as well as the body. (Matt. 10:28)

That which can die, which can be destroyed, is not immortal; it is not death-proof. Hence the Scriptures cited prove that neither souls nor bodies are immortal.

What, then, is the soul? The prevalent idea is that the soul is an indefinable something in us, but what it is or where it is located few attempt to explain. This unknown something is claimed to be the real, intelligent being, while the body is merely its house or tool. Others affirm that the body is the soul but this is disproved by our Lord’s statement that God is able to destroy both soul and body.

We can learn something further on this subject from the inspired record of man’s creation. There we read: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed [Hebrew ‘blew’] into his nostrils the breath [Hebrew ‘wind’] of life; and man became a living soul.” (Gen. 2:7) This breath of life is common to all living ani­mals.

From this account it appears that the body was formed first, but it was not a being until it was animated. It was not a man but an inanimate body, basically a corpse. The second step in the process of man’s creation was to give vitality to the properly “formed” and prepared body, and this is described as blowing “the breath of life” into his nostrils. When a healthy person has been nearly drowned and animation wholly suspended, resuscitation can sometimes be effected by blowing air into the lungs and reestablishing the breath. In Adam’s case it required no labored effort on the part of the Creator to cause the perfect organism He had created to breathe the life-giving oxygen of the atmosphere. As the vitalizing breath entered the body, energy reached the brain; thought and reasoning commenced; the senses of touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste were activated. That which was a lifeless form had become a man, a living soul, a sentient being, i.e., a being capable of sensation and perception.

In the case of the person who is nearly drowned and then resuscitated, where has the soul been during this time of suspended animation? If the soul and the physical organism are separate and distinct there should be an answer for such a reasonable question. Consider the case of Lazarus, who was dead and in the tomb for four days, his body already in a state of decomposition. (John 11:39) Where was his soul for those four days if his soul and his body were two separate parts?

Even though Adam was perfect in his organism, it was necessary for him to sustain life, his soul or sentient being, by consuming the fruits of the trees of life. When he sinned, God drove him from the garden: “And the Lord God said . . . lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree [plural – ‘trees’ or ‘grove’] of life, and eat, and live for ever [i.e., by eating repeatedly]: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.” (Gen. 3:22) How the mystery and fog scatter before the light of truth shining from God’s Word!

Now we see why the Scriptures also speak of “souls” in connection with the lower animals. Like man they are sentient beings, only of lower orders – they can see, hear, feel, taste and smell. Like man, animals possess the soul-qualities of intelligence, consciousness and thought. They have varying reasoning powers depending on their species, though none can reason as deeply or as abstractly as man. This difference is not because man has a different kind of life from that possessed by the lower animals, for all have similar vital forces coming from the same source, the same Creator. Although they differ in form and in mental capacities, all sustain life in the same manner using food, water, and oxygen to produce blood, muscles and bones, etc., each according to his kind or nature. Each propagates its species similarly, bestowing upon its posterity the life which origi­nally came from God.

HOW IS MAN DIFFERENT?

The distinction between man and the lower animals is in the fact that God has provided for man’s future, while making no such provision for the lower creation. Being more highly endowed with mental capacity, man possesses moral and intellectual powers and qualities in the image or likeness of the Creator, who has a still higher organism – of spirit, not of flesh. Man is capable of understanding concepts of mortality and the future; he is able to discern right and wrong; he has the desire to worship a higher being. Beasts lack the mental capacity to understand such things because the Creator did not give them such brain capacity. Even for the most intelligent animal, the highest conception of right and wrong is the will of its master, man.

To the degree that sin has degraded man from his original likeness of his Creator, he is said to be brutish, destitute of the higher and finer sensibilities. Because of man’s fall into sin and death, his condi­tion is far from what it was in its original perfection when the highest Judge pronounced it “very good.” Man has cultivated his lower inclinations and faculties and has failed to use his higher and nobler faculties, resulting in his higher faculties being dwarfed. Yet these higher faculties are still there and are capable of being developed, which is not the case with the most nearly perfect specimens of the animal creation.

While man’s physical and mental qualities and his inclination to worship a higher being make him much superior to any of the brute creation, these things in themselves do not endow him with a soul separate from his physical organism. He is animated by the same “breath of life” that animates the entire creation of “souls” that inhabit this earth.

This is in full accord with King Solomon’s state­ment: “For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.” (Eccl. 3:19-20) The wise man then issues a challenge: “Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?” (Eccl. 19:21) He challenges anyone to produce proof supporting the idea already surfacing in his time that man has some inherent quality that prevents his death – the idea that he is not really dead even when he seems to die.

Man’s hope for a future life lies not in his inherent powers, but in his Creator’s gracious provision for the re­demption of every human soul from death through the great Redeemer, and the subsequent opportunity for whoever is willing to have ever­lasting life by resurrection, subject to the terms of the New Cove­nant. Our Redeemer made “his soul an offering for sin,” and He “poured out his soul unto death.” (Isa. 53:10, 12) It was the soul or being of Adam and the souls of his posterity that the Redeemer thus bought with His precious blood. Souls were redeemed, and souls are to be awakened – resurrected. (Psa. 49:15)

Many suppose that the bodies buried will be restored atom for atom, but the Apostle declares the contrary: “And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be . . . But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him.” To the Church, the “Bride” selected in the Gospel Age, God will give spirit bodies; to the restitution class He will give human bodies, but not the same ones lost in death. (1 Cor. 15:37-38)

In Adam’s creation the bringing together of an organism and the breath of life produced a sentient being or soul. Likewise, the dissolution of organism and breath from any cause puts an end to sentient being – stopping all sensations, thoughts and feelings of every kind. The soul (the sentient being) ceases. The body returns to dust as it was, while the spirit or breath of life returns to God, who imparted it to Adam and to his race through him. (Eccl. 12:7) It returns to God in the sense that it is no longer subject to human control, as in procreation, and can never be recovered except by divine power. Rec­ognizing this fact, the Lord instructs us to commit to God and to Christ, His repre­sentative, our hope for a future life by resurrection. (Luke 23:46; Acts 7:59) Had God made no provision for man’s future life by a Ransom and a promised resurrection, death would have been the end of all hope for hu­manity. (1 Cor. 15:14-18)

MAN WILL LIVE AGAIN

But God has indeed provided for us to live again. Ever since He made His gracious plan known, all those who have spoken and written intelligently about the subject (for instance, the inspired Scripture writers) have described the interim of un­consciousness between death and the resurrection morning as “sleep.” The illus­tration is an excellent one; for the dead will be totally unconscious of the lapse of time, and the moment of awakening will seem to them like the next moment after the moment of their dissolution. When speaking of Lazarus’ death our Lord said, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.” Afterward, because the disciples were slow to com­prehend, He said plainly, “Lazarus is dead.” (John 11:11, 14)

If the theory that the dead are conscious is correct, it is remarkable that Lazarus gave no account of his experience during those four days. No one would suggest that he was in a “hell” of torment, for our Lord called him “friend.” If he had been in Heavenly bliss our Lord would not have called him from it, for that would have been an unfriendly act. But as our Lord explained, Lazarus was sleeping and the Lord awakened him to life – his consciousness, his sentient be­ing or soul was returned or revived.

The expression “slept with his fathers” is very common in the Old Testament and this figure of speech also frequently appears in the language of the Apostles, as when Luke said Stephen “fell asleep” and when Paul said in his speech at Antioch that David “fell on sleep.” (Acts 7:60, Acts 13:36) St. Peter used the same expression, saying “the fathers fell asleep.” (2 Pet. 3:4) St. Paul used the expression of sleep and falling asleep many times in his epistles as the following verses show:

“After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.” (1 Cor. 15:6)

“But if there be no resurrection . . . Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.  . . . But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. . . . Behold I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep . . .” (1 Cor. 15:13-20, 51)

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring [from the dead] with [by] him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming [presence – the Kingdom, the resurrection time] of the Lord shall not prevent [precede] them which are asleep.” (1 Thess. 4:13-15)

All have “fallen asleep” awaiting the Millennial Day, committing their lives into the Lord’s hands. As Paul says, “I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” (2 Tim. 1:12) Job frames the matter in very forceful language: “Oh that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!” (Job 14:13)

The present dying time is the time of God’s wrath – the curse of death upon all because of the original transgression. In due time the curse will be lifted and a blessing will come to all the families of the earth through the Redeemer; thus Job continues, “All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.” (Job 14:14-15) Our Lord’s response to this was, “The hour is coming . . . when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.” (John 5:25, 28-29) He will call the dead to awaken and come to a full knowledge of God and a full opportunity of everlasting life.

The present night of dying and sleeping as compared with the coming morning of awakening and resurrection is a prevalent theme in the Scriptures. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” (Psa. 30:5)

AN ILLUSTRATION

To illustrate the body, soul and spirit by something less complex, consider a candle. An unlighted candle would correspond to a lifeless, inanimate body. The lighting of the candle corresponds to the spark of life originally imparted by the Creator. The flame or light corresponds to sentient being or soul quality. The oxygenized atmosphere which unites with the material of the candle to create the flame corresponds to the breath of life or spirit of life which unites with the physical organism in pro­ducing soul or intelligent existence. If an accident destroys the candle, the flame ceases. If a human or animal body is destroyed by illness or accident, the soul (the life, the intelligence) likewise ceases.

If the supply of air is cut off from the candle flame, the light is extinguished even though the candle remains unimpaired. So the soul (the life, the existence) of man or animal ceases if the breath of life is cut off by drowning or asphyxiation, even though the body might be comparatively sound. Under the right circumstances, a lighted candle may be used to light other candles, but once the flame is extinguished, the candle can neither relight itself nor light other candles. So the human or animal body while alive, as a living soul or being, can by divine arrangement under the right circumstances start or propagate other souls or beings – offspring. As soon as the spark of life is gone, however, soul or being ceases, as does all power to think, feel or propagate.

In harmony with this we read of Jacob’s children: “And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls.” (Exod. 1:5) Jacob received his spark of life (as well as his physical organism) from Isaac, who received it from Abraham and thus it is traced back to Adam, to whom God alone directly imparted life. Jacob passed on the life and organism and soul to his posterity, and so it is with all humanity.

A candle might be relit by anyone having the ability, but a human body bereft of the spark of life cannot be rekindled except by divine power, a miracle. “But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost [life], and where is he?” (Job 14:10) “For dust thou are art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Gen. 3:19) The promise of resurrection is therefore a prom­ise of a relighting, a rekindling of existence or soul. Since there can be no being or soul without a body and restored life-power or spirit, it follows that a promised resurrection or res­toration of soul or being implies new bodies, new organisms. Thus the Scriptures assure us that human bodies which return to dust will not be restored, but that in the resurrection God will give new bodies such as it may please Him to give. (1 Cor. 15:37-40)

A SPECIAL CLASS

The Apostle declares that in the resurrection there will be a special class accounted worthy of a new nature – a heavenly, spiritual nature instead of a human nature. He shows that those receiving the new nature will be given a different kind of body. (1 Cor. 15:41-50) A candle may again serve to illustrate: the fleshly or human body might be illustrated by a tallow can­dle while the heavenly body might be illustrated by a wax candle of a brighter flame or by an electric light.

With any power and wisdom less than that of our Creator guar­anteeing the resurrection, we might justly fear that the identity of each individual soul would be lost, but we can securely trust this and all things to He who has numbered the very hairs of our heads. (Matt. 10:30) He who knows our very thoughts can reproduce them in the new brains so that not one valuable lesson or precious experience is lost. He is too wise to err and too good to be unkind; and all that He has promised He will fulfill abundantly better than we can ask or think.

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