Soul

The word "soul" is translated from the Hebrew word "nephesh" 473 times in our English Bibles.

The word "nephesh" occurs 745 times.
Besides the 473 times it's translated as "soul" it is also translated as
life or lives -- 120 times
person -- 30 times
mind -- 16 times
heart -- 15 times
creature -- 9 times
will -- 4 times
as well as other words in one or two places like "fish" "thing" "beast" "desire"

It is never said to be immortal in any of these hundreds of uses. Nor is there any indication that a soul is disembodied living identity.
In the Old Testament a mortal is a living soul rather than having a soul. Instead of splitting a person into two or three parts, Hebrew thought sees a unified being, but one that is profoundly complex.

The New Testament has the word Greek word "psuche"
It occurs 105 times
Translated as
soul -- 58 times
life or lives -- 40 times
also translated a few times as "mind" "heart" "us" "you"

Again the concept of immortality is lacking from all these occurrences of the word "soul".

Yes, the book of Job has quite a bit to say about death. Thanks for sharing these verses.

Here are some more:


Job 17
17:13 If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
17:14 I have said to corruption, Thou [art] my father: to the worm, [Thou art] my mother, and my sister.
17:15 And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
17:16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together [is] in the dust.



Job 14:12 "So man lies down, and rises not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep."

Job 14:21 "His sons come to honour, and he knows it not; and they are brought low, but he perceives it not of them."


Job also believed in the resurrection at the end of the world.

Job
19:25 For I know [that] my redeemer liveth, and [that] he shall stand at the latter [day] upon the earth:
19:26 And [though] after my skin [worms] destroy this [body], yet in my flesh shall I see God:
19:27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; [though] my reins be consumed within me.

The Catholic Church announced that keeping the cremated remains of loved ones in one's home, or spreading the ashes somewhere in nature, is not allowed.
The ashes of cremated dead must be buried in a sacred place -- as in a cemetery.

Among other reasons --
the Vatican links this to the general Christian belief of the resurrection of the body. (A belief quite different from our belief in the resurrection of the person unto life)
In that belief -- the spirits of the dead, who are "with the Lord" will someday -- at the great judgment day, return with Christ and be rejoined with their resurrected bodies.

The document states:
"To rise with Christ, we must die with Christ: we must “be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor 5:8)....
By death the soul is separated from the body, but in the resurrection God will give incorruptible life to our body, transformed by reunion with our soul....
The Church who, as Mother, has accompanied the Christian during his earthly pilgrimage, offers to the Father, in Christ, the child of her grace, and she commits to the earth, in hope, the seed of the body that will rise in glory....
When the deceased notoriously has requested cremation and the scattering of their ashes for reasons contrary to the Christian faith, a Christian funeral must be denied to that person according to the norms of the law."


Well there you have it.

The false theory of separation of the soul from the body.
The great glorious hope of the resurrection, it is said, isn't really an awakening from the dead unto life, but a mere rejoining of the soul that has already rejoiced for countless years in the presence of the Lord, just coming back to enter a resurrected body.

Titus 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
Why would this be such a glorious hope????
Why look forward to Christ's glorious appearing in hope, shouldn't it say -- looking forward to dying so we can be with Christ?
But no -- our glorious hope of life after death is intimately connected with Christ's glorious appearing.

Our hope of life is in Christ raising us unto life at the last day!

John 6:39 And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
6:40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which sees the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

When Jesus says something three times -- it is important! In His discourse of eternal life for believers there in John chapter six, He makes it very clear that He will raise them up at the last day -- and Paul explains its,when the trumpet shall sound and the dead in Christ will be raised incorruptible! (1 Cor 15:52)



Also is our resurrection subject to where or how we are buried?
I think not. Our resurrection is subject to our relationship with Christ --
It is not the same molecules that went into the grave that will rise.

1 Corinthians 15:42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

So the whole theory that souls are in heaven with the Lord, waiting to come back to earth to re-inhabit their earthly bodies is false.

At the resurrection the PERSON is raised from the dead in a NEW incorruptible, spiritual body!




In the document there is also mention of praying for the dead and to the dead saints. Yet scripture says:

Ecclesiastes 9:5,6 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.

If the Bible is saying the dead can't affect anything that happens here on earth. Why are people still praying to these dead saints when the dead can't hear them?

Why is it important to understand that death is a sleep --
body and soul utterly unconscious awaiting the resurrection?



It is a safe guard against the spiritualism that is to take the world captive.

Spiritualism is receiving communications from the realms of the fallen angels, whose chief purpose is to defeat God in saving you and me.

We are in perilous times. God, in love for us has marked out the pitfalls that we need not be snared by them! One of the warnings concerns a great danger of being deceived by the
work of Satan now manifested in Spiritualism.

The facts of the physical manifestations are real. Thousands have been convinced by the manifestations of power alone. Apparitions appear, be they departed saints, departed loved ones, or some departed person who lived thousands of years ago. Some will dictate whole messages to their human "slave", some will apparently heal the sick.
The Scriptures say that in the latter times some will depart from
the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils; and many even among those who believed that the Bible is the word of God, end up rejecting the doctrines of the Bible for the teachings of these deceptive spirits.

Look at the crowds flocking to see "mary" appear in various places. Not just Catholics, but also protestants, Muslims and others who seek a human "mother" goddess. Mary, supposed "queen of heaven", the one that claims to "sign people" with her special seal, and be the channel by which people can reach her "son", bringing countless messages to people. Who is she? No, this is not the "Mary" of scripture. This is the blaspheming spirits of demons claiming the position of Christ.

There are numerous other spirits whose messages have been recorded -- spirits claiming to be some departed person.

These spirits will use the pain of loosing a loved one, to insert themselves into the grieving person's life by appearing as their lost loved one.

Also, be not deceived by their use of scripture. These spirits know the scripture -- but they twist them for their own use.
For example, we have the 'gifts of the spirit" in 1 Cor.12, we know this is talking about the Holy Spirit giving gifts for the furtherance of God's message. But the spirits claim that Paul is talking about them --the spirit of faith brings faith, the spirit of healing brings healing -- totally twisting the scripture.

Neither are angels, departed loved ones.
The angels were there before mankind was created.

There's much spiritualistic material being taught and changing the whole paradigm of human thought, we need to be anchored in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, and His Word, it is the only place of safety!

Are anchored?
If some apparition claiming to Paul, or Peter appeared in our society and started preaching, telling us what they actually meant in scripture and that it was different from what we believe -- what would we believe?

If some apparition claiming to be Ellen White showed up at the GC or at our campmeetings or other large gatherings and started preaching with power -- again redefining the meaning of her written words, what would we believe?

Spiritualism is based upon the first doctrine that the devil
ever taught to man, "Ye shall not surely die." Since that time the immortality of mankind, or endless life in sin, has been his favorite doctrine.

One thing is certain -- those fallen angels -- the spirits of devils do not have people's best interest in mind. They will lure people with promises only to destroy. They are still in the business of destroying God's creation -- and preventing Christ's redemption to reach as many people as possible.

In Job 34:14-15, a passage that reads much like Eccl. 12:7, we don't see any mention of the dead "spirits" living with God in Heaven or paradise. All the dead, "all flesh", return to the dust.

I find this a very comforting message. Rest from our labors.

Amen dedication.

Spiritualism is always about destroying God's creation and God alone is about saving fallen mankind. We all need to gird up our minds with the truths of God's Word.

Didn't notice this discussion before on this..

So what is this wrong doctrine concerning "spirits"? Where did it come from?

The implications of "psukhe";, meaning "spirit" or "life" has long fascinated humanity. People studying ancient Greek's philosophy to see how they related to concepts of "spirit" and "life", can see an evolving tapestry of thought leading to this idea, that the "psukhe" or spirit does not die but lives even when separated from the body.

Those ideas surrounding the spirit/soul emerged from ancient Greek thought and they played a huge influential role on future development of thought within the realm of Christianity and Western European philosophy. To this day the legacy of the Greek understanding of the "psukhe" persists, shaping the people's beliefs on this subject. Greek philosophy has shaped the existing beliefs we find in most Christian (and other) religions.
It's the Idea that the "psukhe" lives on, and is still "you" somehow, on its own, away from the body.

This of course, opens the door for any spiritualistic being (Satan's evil spirits, are fallen angels, who follow satan, they are not satan himself) to pretend to be a departed loved one's "spirit".

But there's another belief that is being promoted that seems to come from this same Greek philosophy:
The reasoning goes something like this:
--A person has a "spirit" the Bible calls it "his spirit", that is, the person's spirit. Thus it is an integral part of that person. Yet, that coupled with the Greek philosophy is then understood that our spirit can leave the body and continue an existence that is still you.
From that it is claimed that when the Bible calls the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit, or Christ's spirit they claim it means the Holy Spirit is actually Christ, it's His Spirit in the same sense as we have "a spirit".
But the reasoning has a huge major problem. It depends on the Greek philosophy that claims a "spirit" is alive and fully functioning when apart or separated from Person it belongs to --
A philosophy which we reject.

We believe the person's "psukhe" or spirit has NO abilities to do anything when the person is dead. The human spirit cannot function outside the host (body).

Immortality of the soul --
claims people are immortal, each person has life in themselves, they are not dependent upon God for life. Whether people obey God or not, it is claimed, they will not die. Their eyes will be opened and they will become like god.
Believing that the dead are living, intelligent, conscious, though bodiless people, opens the door to a huge source of deceptions, signs and wonders.

Sunday worship --
claims humans have the authority to change, sanctify and replace God's law with a law of their own making. It stands in defiance against God's law. We've seen the extent people will go, when it is pointed out that the 7th day is the Sabbath of God's commandments -- they start claiming the law is no longer binding, that it was a burden, nailed to the cross.
People are so determined to do away with the law of God, in order that they may find a way of avoiding the observance of the Sabbath, that they array Jesus in the New Testament against Jesus in the Old Testament, presenting two different Christs..
Sunday will be used to enforce a religious law that stands against God's clear commands.

Rome, religious/political power -- claims the authority to define and enforce that which belongs to God alone. Through Rome Satan seeks to set his throne above the throne of God claiming to be the rightful owner of the world.

Here is a great explanation and well put together understanding of this topic:
Premise

Traditionally most people believe that there is a ghost-like ?spirit? inside of our bodies, and when we die, this spirit floats away somewhere, preferably heaven.

I will show that the Bible actually does not support this theory. In fact, according to the Bible there is no spirit inside of us at all. We exist only as mortal bodies, made from dust having been given the breath of life. And it is this ?breath of life? that is confused with, or interpreted as, a ?spirit?.


What Happens When We Die

Scripture says it plainly.

Genesis 3:19
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.?

Job 7:21
Why then do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I will lie down in the dust; And You will seek me, but I will not be."

Job 14:10:12
But man dies and lies prostrate man expires, and where is he? "As water evaporates from the sea, and a river becomes parched and dried up, so man lies down and does not rise. Until the heavens are no longer, he will not awake nor be aroused out of his sleep.

Psalm 115:17
The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.

Psalm 146:4
When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.

Ecclesiastes 3:19-20
For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.

Ecclesiastes 9:5
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing

Over and over again the Bible says that the dead know nothing. These are only a few examples. The dead don?t think. They don?t praise the Lord. They have no consciousness. They return to the earth, as dust. Their plans perish and they cease to exist. Ecclesiastes 3 even tells us that man has no advantage over the beasts. All go to one place, which is dust.


Death Compared to Sleep

Psalms 13:3
Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,

1 Kings 2:10
Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David.

When Lazarus died, Jesus said he was sleeping.

John 11:11-14
After he had said this, he went on to tell them, ?Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.? 12 His disciples replied, ?Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.? 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. 14 So then he told them plainly, ?Lazarus is dead".

Why would Jesus compare Lazarus? death to ?sleep? if Lazarus? spirit has ascended into heaven? And why was there no mention of his spirit leaving his body?

Matthew 9:24
He said, "Leave; for the girl has not died, but is asleep." And they began laughing at Him.

Daniel 12:2
Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.

Daniel was told he would ?rest? until the resurrection.

Daniel 12:13
As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance.?

If Daniel?s spirit was to go to heaven after death, then why was he told that he would rest? Why did the angel not say instead, I?ll see you in heaven soon, or something to that effect? It?s because Daniel wasn?t going to heaven. He was going to the dust of the earth. Daniel is now dead. He is not in heaven. He?s dead in the dust of the earth and on the day of the resurrection, he will rise, along with the rest of us.


What Happens When we are Resurrected

The resurrection, as Paul describes it, actually also proves that we have no spirit in us that goes to heaven when we die.
Imagine if we did have a spirit. We would fly up to heaven and we would do whatever we do in heaven. Praise the Lord, play Frisbee, eat BBQ chicken. No matter how you envision an existence in heaven, it would require at the very least that we have a consciousness, a thought process and a free will to continue to make decisions. All of this would contradict the old testament verses above.

It would also contradict the new testament book of 1 Corinthians, because according to Paul this life in a spiritual body, which we imagine in heaven, does not come to us until the very last day, when we are resurrected.

1 Corinthians 15:42
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

1 Corinthians 15:46
The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven.

Paul clearly states that we are created with a natural body, not a spiritual body. We will be transformed into a spiritual body upon the resurrection. ?The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual?. In other words, when God created us, we were not given spiritual bodies, only natural bodies, but we would receive spiritual bodies later, upon the resurrection.

Our bodies are sewn natural, raised spiritual. This is the point of the resurrection, to make us spiritual so that we can be immortal. So if you believe that we already have immortal spirits that leave our bodies when we die, you have a conundrum.


The Spiritual Conundrum

Imagine the traditional teaching, where we have a spirit and we go to heaven as a spirit when we die. Then please tell me, what is the point of the resurrection?

If we are already in heaven, as immortal spirits, then why would we need to be transformed into spirits on the last day? If it is so, then when our bodies on earth are transformed into spirits, do we end up with two spirits? The one in heaven and the one on earth? Would both spirits have their own separate consciousness? Do our spirits in heaven then join our old bodies which have been transformed? Would we then be a spirit within a spirit? Two spirits? What nonsense!

If we?re being transformed into spirits, then we can not already be spirits, otherwise what would be the point? The point of the resurrection is to make us immortal. To make us spirits. This would be entirely nonsensical if we are already living as spirits in heaven, and this is how Paul?s description of the resurrection proves that we do not have a spirit inside of us that continues to live after death.


Soul (Nephesh)

To add to the confusion, in addition to the obvious body and the presumed spirit, we also supposedly possess a ?soul?. What is a soul? You are a soul.

Genesis 2:7
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.

Notice in the verse above that man became a living soul. He was not given a soul. He became a soul. In other words, we do not have souls, we are souls.

The word soul in this verse was originally written in Hebrew as לְנֶ֥פֶשׁ which is transliterated as nephesh. Strong?s concordance defines nephesh as ?a soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite, emotion?. With this definition in mind, the last part of Genesis 2:7 can be paraphrased as, for example ?man became alive? or ?man became an individual?. It is in fact the very moment when man gained his self awareness and free will.

The same word occurs 754 times in the old testament, so we can?t look at all examples but let?s look at one more.

Genesis 1:20
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life (Nephesh), and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

Here the King James Bible translates it as ?creature that hath life?. Remember, this is the same word that was translated as ?soul? in Genesis 2:7. The more examples you look at the more obvious it becomes that when the word ?soul? is used in scripture it refers simply to ?a living creature?.

So keep in mind the true meaning of the word Nephesh, which can be translated as soul, living creature, person or individual, when you read verses such as?

Ezekiel 18:20
The soul who sins shall die.

The living creature who sins?

The person who sins?

The individual who sins?


The Spirit (Ruach)

On the flip side, there are a number of verses that can be used to support the notion that we all have a spirit inside of us that continues to live after the body dies. And at first glance, some of these verses are very convincing.

For example

Ecclesiastes 12:7
the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

2 Corinthians 5:8
Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

James 2:26
For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Obviously, the key to understanding such verses is understanding the meaning of ?spirit?. As it turns out, in these examples, the word spirit refers to the breath of God, which is life.

Ecclesiastes 12:7
the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

This verse seems to imply that our spirit goes up to heaven when we die, but actually ?spirit? here refers to the life that God breathed into man in Genesis 2:7. It?s the life that returns to God, because the life came from God.

Genesis 2:7
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.

The word used through the old testament for spirit is the Hebrew word Ruach ר֫וּחַ, which can also be translated as ?breath or wind?. In fact, this is how it is translated in various other verses including Genesis 7:15 and Psalm 104:29.

Genesis 7:15
15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.

Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life (ruach) in them came to Noah and entered the ark.

Psalm 104:29
29 Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.

When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath (ruach), they die and return to the dust.

When God gave man life, it was his breath/wind/spirit which God gave. The spirit of God is life. And it?s this spirit, this life, that returns to God in Ecclesiastes 12:7

Ecclesiastes 12:7
the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit (ruach ? life / breath) returns to God who gave it.

Other verses clearly explain that it is the spirit of God, or the breath of God, that has given us life.

John 6:63 says The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you--they are full of the Spirit and life.

Job 33:4 says The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.....