Do You Have an Immortal Soul?


People Are Souls

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.

Other Creatures Also Souls

Genesis 1:21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good.

  • The word “creature” is the same Hebrew word (nep̄eš) for “soul” in Genesis 2:7.

Man is Mortal

Romans 6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

  • Mortal means, “liable to death.”

Job 4:17 Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?

Life is Contained Within the Blood

Genesis 9:4 But flesh with the life thereof, [which is] the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

Leviticus 17:11 For the life of the flesh [is] in the blood…

Deuteronomy 12:23 Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood [is] the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh.

Souls Can Die

Ezekiel 18:4, 20 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. … (20) The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

  • The definition of sin:
    • 1 John 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
    • Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Ecclesiastes 3:19-21 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. (20) All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. (21) Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

  • There is a spirit in man but notice that “man has no preeminence above a beast.”

Psalms 49:12 Nevertheless man [being] in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts [that] perish.

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

Psalms 146:4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

Ecclesiastes 9:5 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.

Acts 2:29 Men [and] brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.

What Did Jesus Christ Teach?

Matthew 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell gehenna.

  • “Hell” mistranslated
    • The Outline of Biblical Usage states, “Hell is the place of the future punishment called ‘Gehenna’ or ‘Gehenna of fire.’ This was originally the valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem, where the filth and dead animals of the city were cast out and burned; a fit symbol of the wicked and their future destruction.”
    • The Strong’s definition of this word includes the term “everlasting punishment,” however, we have already seen in this study that “the soul that sins dies” (Ezek 18:4) and when we die, in that “very day” our “thoughts perish” (Ps 146:4). We cannot build doctrines based on Bible commentaries.

Matthew 19:16-17 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? (17) And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is], God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

  • Jesus Christ did not tell that man that he already had eternal life.

The Most Quoted Verse in the Bible!

  • John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Man’s Incredible Potential

Genesis 1:26-27 And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea…” (27) So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

1 Corinthians 2:11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

  • The “spirit of man” that distinguishes mankind from the animals.

Zechariah 12:1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.

  • It’s this “spirit of man” that has lead to the false doctrine that man has an immortal soul.