Do We Have an Immortal Soul?

I'd like to start off today's message with an illustration from www.moreillustration.com. But I'd like you to listen very carefully because we're going to come back to this illustration in just a moment. There's something I want you to draw out from this to determine if it's accurate. The illustration begins, an unsaved man who had been neglecting his soul and sinning against it went one night to a theater in England to enjoy himself. At the end of the play, one of the characters, a British sailor about to mount the gallows to pay the penalty of his crimes, lifted a glass and exclaimed, Here's to the prosperity of the British nation and to the salvation of my immortal soul. When the curtain fell and the crowd in the theater dispersed, the phrase, My immortal soul, remained with the man to impress him and to trouble him until he had made his peace with God and found Christ as the Savior of his soul. Your immortal soul, what about that soul? Is it well with thy soul? Now I hope the illustration I just shared with you made you a little bit uncomfortable. Maybe it even bothered you quite a bit because this illustration I just read references a spiritual aspect about the life of man that is scripturally and doctrinally inaccurate. It is flat out wrong. The illustration I shared expressed a common thought, a common message that is shared in a lot of Christian denominations surrounding us in our communities. The illustration I shared expressed that we as humans have an immortal soul, but in God's holy and inspired word, the immortal soul is not something that Scripture supports. Many Christian religions teach that a man has an immortal soul, but are they right? So, some questions for today. Does Scripture support the teaching of the immortal soul? Are the words, immortal soul, found together in the Bible? If it isn't found in the Bible, where did this teaching originate? And what do we do as Christians in the Church of God? What do we do as we believe as it relates to the immortal soul? So today, let's answer the question, does man have an immortal soul? Knowing what this Hebrew word means and what the word soul means in ancient Hebrew is critical for us to understand as we begin diving into the subject. When we look at the word soul in the Old Testament, it does not mean immortal soul. It never means immortal soul. The interpreter's Bible dictionary says this, it says, in the King James Version of the Old Testament, soul represents almost exclusively the Hebrew word, nafesh. In the Old Testament, nafesh never means the immortal soul. It is essentially the life principle or living being. Ultimately, it's what makes you and me alive today. Let's open our Bibles to Genesis 2 in verse 7 and we'll see this word nafesh used in Scripture. Genesis 2 in verse 7. We're at the beginning of God's Word when this word soul is referenced, Hebrew, Nafesh. And so we go all the way back to the beginning of the Bible to begin to look at how this word is used and the meaning behind it. It's important that we do this. Genesis 2 in verse 7 and we go all the way back to the beginning of mankind. Genesis 2 verse 7, And the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living being. That word being in Hebrew is nafesh, became living nafesh. From Brown, Driver, and Briggs' Hebrew definitions, nafesh can mean self or life or a person or a living being. It means that which breathes. The breathing substance or being can also again mean a living being or the man himself, a person or an individual.

Whenever you read soul in the Old Testament, again the word nafesh, it never means immortal soul. And we as a church, we're not just making this up. This isn't just some idea that the Church of God has created. This is the prominent view of those who know ancient Hebrew, the experts, the historians. This is the commonly held view that it never means immortal soul.

Now a scoffer might say, yeah, but you're just going to grab a scripture here and a scripture there to support your belief. You're going to ignore a whole bunch of other scriptures. And you know what? They're right. Because I'm only going to grab a few scriptures because we don't have time to turn to 753 times nafesh is used in the Old Testament. 753 times. We don't have time to look to every single one of those. But we will look at some as we continue to go through this passage. I verified that number 753 times. I didn't count them all myself. I verified it from blueletterbible.org and the complete word study dictionary both referenced nafesh 753 times in the Old Testament. It's throughout scripture that we see. But let's go ahead and look at a few of these scriptures because it's important. We're not going to have time to look through them all, but we'll look at a few because this is not something that we've just drawn from a couple scriptures. It's not something that we have not studied and gone into in depth. And it's not that this is not the commonly held understanding of most historians. Genesis, let's turn back to a little bit closer to the beginning. Genesis 1 and verse 21. Genesis 1 and verse 21. And consider how the word nafesh is used in this passage. So God created great sea creatures and every living thing. That word thing in the King James Version is creature. New King James, it's thing. This is the word nafesh. So God created great sea creatures and every living nafesh that moves with which the waters abounded according to their kind and every winged bird according to its kind and God saw that it was good. This is obviously not speaking of man in this account and this verse. Speaking of animals. God created all the animals which live around us and those in the sea and the sea creatures and they're called nafesh. So obviously most religious people would not say that animals around us have immortality in their souls. But if you believed that word here says immortal, it means immortal soul, then we would have to then believe that animals have immortality as well. Obviously, we do not believe that. It's not a teaching in the Bible. So nafesh, as used and defined in the Old Testament, does not mean immortal soul. We see this just three verses forward. Genesis 1 verse 24. Again, we'll see nafesh used to reference animals. Then God said, let the earth bring forth the living creature, again nafesh, according to its kind, cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind, and it was so.

Let's take a couple minutes and go through some other passages, kind of in a rapid fashion. Leviticus 21 and verse 10, because we'll see another way that the word nafesh is used here in Scripture. Leviticus 21 and verse 10.

This passage here were instructions or regulations that were given to the priests on how they were to handle themselves, what they could and could not do. And here in Leviticus 21, verse 10, we see part of that instruction listed here. He who is the high priest among his brethren on whose head the anointing oil was poured and who was consecrated to wear the garments shall not uncover his head nor tear his clothes, nor shall he go near any dead body, again nafesh, nor shall he go near any dead body, nor defile himself for his father or his mother. So nafesh can represent a dead human being, one without life in them any longer. And if immortality was part of that person's life, nafesh would not fit in this description. So it's another reference to how the word is used. Let's look at another in Ezekiel 18, verse 4. Ezekiel 18 and verse 4.

Here in Ezekiel 18, verse 4, actually in verse 1, it starts out saying, the word of the Lord came to me again, saying, so this is God's inspired word. And then we get to verse 4. He says, behold, all souls are mine. Capital M. God says, these are my souls. The soul of the Father, as well as the soul of the Son, is mine. The soul who sins shall die. All through this passage, this verse here, soul is the Hebrew word nafesh. And ultimately, if nafesh is immortal, it can't die. But yet God says, the soul who sins, the nafesh who sins, shall die.

It's not adding up. It's not fitting. The teaching of the immortal soul is not fitting with Scripture, as we're seeing already so far. This is cessation of life completely when one dies. Otherwise, you would have to read this passage as, the immortal soul who sins shall die. It doesn't fit. It's not logical. This is the concept and understanding that we see throughout the Old Testament.

We see it again in Ecclesiastes verse 9. Remember, this is King Solomon's inspired wisdom from God, the wisest man whoever lived as he configured and considered his life that he lived, the wealth that he had gained, the prosperity, the building of God's temple, and then reflecting back on his life, the vanity that was in his heart and the vanity of man, and the desires that we have to go and live forever and do all these great things.

He writes this in Ecclesiastes 9 and verse 5. We often share this passage in funerals because of what it means and the truth in these words. Ecclesiastes 9 verse 5, King Solomon said, For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. There is no knowledge, as he's saying in the grave. There is no knowledge after we die.

We're not still conscious. We're not still thinking. We're not still able to converse or to look or to travel. For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward. For the memory of them is forgotten. Also, their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished. Never more will they have a share in anything done under the sun.

Sometimes when we attend funerals outside of the Church of God, we'll hear a minister or a preacher say that the person who's died is now looking down on us sitting here today. They're looking down on the family. They're going to be with you. They're going to continue to look after you. And while the intentions, I'm sure, of that person are well, they want to offer encouragement to the family, it's not scriptural.

We don't see that that is what we see, that they have an immortal soul that has now gone up to heaven and is looking down. King Solomon goes on in Ecclesiastes 9 and now this time verse 10. This is why he says, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. For there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going. This emphasis throughout the Old Testament is that God is the originator of life, and he's also the taker of life. Again, this is not really an argued point by biblical historians or Hebrew experts.

This is the understanding. So if this is the understanding from the Hebrew and throughout the Old Testament, we have to ask ourselves a question. How did this concept enter into mainstream Christianity? From the University of Tennessee at Martin, it's a university there in Tennessee, of course, they have a website that's entitled Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which is a peer-reviewed academic resource. And on this peer-reviewed academic resource, it's a website where people can submit papers, philosophical papers about philosophy. Tim Connolly, who is from East Stroudsburg University, wrote an academic resource simply titled FEDO.

He says, the FEDO is one of the most widely read dialogues written by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. It claims to recount the events and conversations that occurred on the day that Plato's teacher, Socrates, was put to death by the state of Athens. Socrates lived from 469 to 399 BCE. It goes on to say, known to the ancient commentators by the title On the Soul, the dialogue presents no less than four arguments for the soul's immortality.

It also contains discussions of Plato's doctrine of knowledge as recollection, his account of the soul's relationship to the body. And then this is a direct quote from the FEDO, written by Plato, again one of his most famous works. He himself wrote this, the soul whose inseparable attitude of his life will never admit life's opposite, death. Thus, the soul is shown to be immortal, and since immortal, indestructible. Do we believe that there is such a thing as death? To be sure! And is this anything but the separation of the soul and the body? And being dead is the attainment of the separation when the soul exists in herself and separate from the body, and the body is parted from the soul, that is death.

Death is merely the separation of the soul and body. It's a direct quote from Plato in his writing FEDO. Death is merely the separation of the soul and body.

So, Plato's belief was that the body goes to the grave at death, and the soul continues to exist as a separate conscious entity. So, is it possible this belief by Plato and other Greek philosophers influenced religious teaching at this time? Remember, Plato lived—well, I didn't reference it—but Plato lived 400 BCE to 300 BCE. So, of course, before Jesus Christ lived as God in the flesh. Could this teaching and the belief of Plato have influenced Jewish thought before Jesus Christ lived? This may be exactly what happened. From the Jewish Encyclopedia article entitled Immortality of the Soul, this article says, the belief that the soul continues its existence after the dissolution of the body nowhere expressly taught in holy scripture. It is nowhere expressly taught in holy scripture. The belief in the mortality of the soul came to the Jews from the contact with Greek thought and chiefly through the philosophy of Plato, its principal exponent, who was led to it through Orphic and Eleusinian mysteries in which Babylonian and Egyptian views were strongly blended. Again, that is from the immortality of the soul from the Jewish Encyclopedia. But some will say, well, that's just the Old Testament that you've been looking at. The New Testament is different. But is it? A word translated in the New Testament for soul is suke, p-s-u-c-h-e, which means to breathe. It's basically the same as nayfish. From Thayer's Greek definitions of the word suke, it can mean the breath of life, the vital force which animates the body and shows itself in breathing. It can also be related to animals and of men.

It goes on to say another definition, that in which there is life, a living being.

These are all from, again, Thayer's Greek definitions for the word suke, the Greek word for soul in the New Testament. Suke is where we get the word psyche from. But the problem with the word psyche today is that there are a large range of meanings and it's used in a pretty broad way. From psychology, you see the word psyche. Psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, psychedelic, as in art or food or drugs, psychedelic, psychosis. I didn't click on it when it came up in a Google search, but psychobunny. This must be one of those crazy bunnies running around the yard that just looks out of control. Psychobunny, didn't click on it. I also didn't click on psychic, as in a psychic reader. So we can see the words suke, which is psyche in our English word, has a lot of uses that we see around us in society today, all tied to the brain, tied to emotions, tied to time's problems in our thinking. So this word, again, is used in many different ways, but if we were to look at the simple Greek meaning, it just means to breathe or to be alive. Let's turn to Acts 2 and verse 40 as we get into the New Testament now.

Acts 2 and verse 40. We know chapter 2 contains the sermon that Peter shared on the Feast of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out, that powerful sermon that he shared. And at the very end, we see what happened after the way that people's hearts were moved, and their belief was stirred. Acts 2 verse 40 says, And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation. Then those who gladly received his words were baptized, and that day about 3,000 souls, suke, were added to them. Would we think that immortal souls were added? No people were added. Were added to the church. Real living human beings were added to the church. 3,000 souls, 3,000 suke.

And later in the books of Acts chapter 27 verse 37, Acts 27 verse 37, we come across one of the perils of the sea that Paul references in 2 Corinthians, one of the perils of his journeys that he was on when they encountered horrible weather problems with the ship.

And at the end of it, it says how many people were on the ship, and it describes them as suke. Again, Acts 27 verse 37, it says, And in all we were 276 persons on the ship. That word persons is suke.

So Paul's going through numbering how many people were on the ship with him.

He was a Christian, others, of course, manning the ship. Most likely we weren't. And he references that in all we were 276 persons, not immortal souls, but persons on the ship.

And what's interesting is that suke is also used as a reference to animals. Again, as Nefesh was in the Old Testament, the complete word study dictionary gives the definition to breathe, to blow, a soul, an immaterial part of man held in common with animals.

So if one believes that suke means immortality in the New Testament, then again, one would have to believe in the immortality of animals as well. We see this in Revelation 8 and verse 9. It's a lot of turning to Scripture, more so than I typically do in a sermon, but we have to draw this directly from God's Word because this is a common held belief by many Christians in society around us.

But we, I hope, are seeing that it is not scriptural. It does not hold to the light of God's Word. Revelation 8 and verse 9. I'm going to read from the King James version because it adds an extra word that is translated suke in the King James.

Revelation 8 verse 9, it says, "...in the third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life," that is the word suke, died, and the third part of the ships were destroyed. So the sea creatures in the water were called suke, an animal. Flip forward to Revelation 16 and verse 3, and we'll see this again. Revelation 16 and verse 3. This time I'll read from probably the translation you have, the New King James version. Again, a referencing to the word suke being connected to animals. Revelation 16 verse 3, "...and then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood, as of a dead man, and every living creature," suke, in the sea, died." The King James version says, "...and every living soul died in the sea." So again, like the word nafesh, we see the word suke also refers to humans and animals in Scripture. So how can you have a determination that at times in Scripture one use of the word means an immortal human soul, but other times just doesn't? How can we know when the word suke or the word nafesh would mean a mortal soul in this instance, but just a breathing creature in another?

The connection just isn't there.

But if that wasn't enough, we come to an interesting statement in Matthew 10 and verse 28 that many believe teaches of the immortality of the soul of man. Matthew 10 and verse 28. Matthew 10 and verse 28. Jesus Christ shares these words, "...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." Now see, there is a difference between soul and body, some would want to say, but is this what it's saying? That there is a separation between an immortal soul and our physical human body. What Christ is saying is that someone can come along, someone can come into our lives and do something that ends up taking our life from us, where we are no longer a human, an alive human being. But then he says we need to be more fearful, though, of the person who can destroy both the physical human body that we have and the one who can also destroy our soul. From our the UCG study guide entitled Heaven and Hell on page 8, it says this about the verse we just read. Is Jesus teaching in this verse that the soul lives on after death and is immortal? Not at all. If you look at the scripture closely, you see that Jesus is actually saying that the soul can be destroyed. Jesus is here warning about the judgment of God. He says not to fear those who can destroy only the physical human body, which is soma in the Greek, but fear him, fear God, who is able to destroy the suke. Here noting the person's physical being with its consciousness simply stated Christ was showing that when one man one man kills another, the resulting death is only temporary. God can raise anyone to conscious life again either soon after death or in the age to come after Christ returns to the earth. The person who has died is not ultimately gone forever. We must have a proper fear of God and who alone can remove one's physical life and all possibility of any later resurrection to life. If there was an immortal soul in you and me, and when we died, that soul was separate from our human bodies, and it went to heaven, or went someplace to live on in eternity, how could God then destroy it as we see here in Christ's own words? It doesn't fit. So you may be thinking, why is this important for you and me? Why is this something worthy of a sermon length message or to spend time on in the Sabbath?

It's important because, again, this is a core belief of a lot of Christianity circles in society around us, and it has influenced the church over time. Not only back before Jesus Christ lived on the earth, it influenced the church after he died, it influenced the church after the apostles died. It has always influenced the church of God, and it's always been something that we've had to recognize and to battle against. It's a core of a lot of other religious beliefs, again, one of them being the Catholic Church, Catholicism. The Catholic Church believes in the immortal soul that when someone dies, they either go to heaven or they go to hell. That's why many people pray to the relatives in heaven. They pray to Mary, Jesus's mother. They pray to the saints, St. Peter, St. John, St. Paul, because they believe these people provide intercession between them and God, that they go to Jesus Christ who goes to the Father and intercedes on their behalf.

This is a common held belief by many in other churches, and if this belief was not, if this belief had changed for them, it completely changes. It fractures their foundation and everything falls apart. It would crumble because they would then realize there is no one that they've been praying to in heaven. There is no immortal soul. Their faith would be broken.

What do we have recorded in Scripture by Christ, Himself, is that we pray to the Father. We see that clearly in Scripture. We pray to the God that is alive.

This is Christianity. Let's take this a step further as well. If the immortal soul is real, then wouldn't the righteous be in heaven? What about King David? He would have to be in heaven if the immortal soul is real. But you can put in your notes Acts 2 verse 34, where it says, For David is not ascended into the heavens.

This reference here, for David has not ascended into heavens, from Acts 2 verse 34, is Peter himself on that day of Pentecost saying that David is not in heaven. This is Saint Peter. That some refer to him. So if David is not in heaven, where is he? What does the Apostle Paul say about this subject himself? Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 15 in verse 20.

1 Corinthians 15 and verse 20.

We're going to read a little bit of a lengthy passage from the Apostle Paul, but it's critical because it's one of the only places that this teaching exists in Scripture, this and in the book of Thessalonians, and some other places too. But it's very clear there's a lot of information here that Paul shares in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 20. He says, But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. If other saints existed before Jesus Christ came and was raised into the heavens, then he couldn't have been the first fruit. Others would be the firstfruits. He would be an after fruit.

But he's not. He's the first fruit of those who have fallen asleep. It says, For since by man came death, clearly not immortality. For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits afterward those who are Christ at his coming. Verse 51, same chapter, verse 51, he says, Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. Here, referencing death to sleep that we see throughout Scripture, he says, But we shall all be changed. When? At death we're changed? No, he says, In a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass. The saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

And from Jesus Christ's own words, well, let's go ahead and turn here because it's close to another passage. I'll be turning to John 3 in verse 13. John 3 in verse 13. This is critical again. All these these scriptures, these passages, build a case. We're not just cherry picking certain scriptures that we like to go to to build a case for the belief that we hold. We see that throughout scripture, the meaning, we see different authors. We see Jesus Christ himself saying these words. John 3 in verse 13. Christ says, no one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven. That is the Son of man who is in heaven. It's clear, but it also fits with the entirety of scripture that we see. Jesus himself says that no one has ascended, and we've looked at multiple places where it says that no one has ascended, no one is there. And again, in his own words, John 5 in verse 25. Two chapters forward, John 5 verse 25.

Here Jesus says, most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment, also because he is the Son of man. Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice. If immortality is part of our character, or part of our nature, part of who we are, then there wouldn't be a time in the future for us to hear the voice. We would be hearing it currently right now. We'd be hearing it after we die. There would be no pause needed, but Christ is saying the hour is coming in which all who are in their grace will hear his voice. There are so many logical problems with the teaching of the immoral soul when compared against Jesus Christ's own words, and Paul's writings in 1 Corinthians verse 15. There's just so many problems. All throughout the Bible, death is compared to sleep. We see this from where a king would die in the book of Kings or Chronicles. A king would die, and it would say he's now sleeping with his father, meaning his father was in the grave. His father's father was in the grave.

But as we work towards the conclusion of this message, let's look at what the Bible does teach about immortality. What it does teach. John 3, let's go back. John 3 verse 13 again.

This time we're going to continue on. We're going to read the verse and then continue on with the passage because it says what happens. It does teach about immortality. John 3 verse 13, not the immortal soul, but it does teach about immortality.

Again, no one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is the son of man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. We do not already have immortality as part of who we are. Christ had to come to the world to give eternal life to mankind. This was not something we were born with. It was not something that was just part of all mankind's history. Christ had to come to the world to give eternal life to mankind.

We see this reference in a slightly different way in Romans 2 and verse 5.

Again from the apostle Paul.

Romans 2 and verse 5.

Paul says, But in accordance with your hardness and your impotent hearts, you are treasuring up for yourselves wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds.

But then he says, verse 7, But eternal life to those who by patient continuance and doing good, seek, notice that word. Don't just repast it. Seek those who seek for glory, honor, and immortality.

Again, verse 7, Eternal life to those who by patient continuance and doing good, seek for glory, honor, and immortality. God says he's going to grant immortality to those who seek it.

But if you and I already have it, there's nothing for us then to seek for. There's nothing for us to go after. But Paul says, eternal life to those who seek for glory, for honor, and immortality.

This is what the Bible teaches about immortality and how one can come to have eternal life with God. As we conclude, it's not really that surprising that mankind desires immortality. It should not come to any surprise to any of us because King Solomon stated in Ecclesiastes 3 and verse 11, he has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity in their hearts. Mankind has been on an endless search for the fountain of youth, right, and the books and the novels, the stories, trying to find a fountain that will allow us to live on forever.

We see it in movies about people who go back in time machines and things to correct things from the past so people in the future can continue to live.

Or even as Plato wrote, that man has an immortal soul that is separate from the body and continues to live on for eternity after one's death. Mankind has a desire for eternity, a desire for immortality. God has placed it in our hearts. It's a gift from God. That's why, as we understand his word, we understand that we want to be children of God, that he's called us to this way. He wants to give us our inheritance. He wants to make us into a completely changed being, spirit, so that we can live on forever with God. He placed that in our hearts so that we would have that goal. We want to move towards that. But without the truth of Scripture, mankind has created their own ways how we already have obtained immortality, how we already have that in our hearts.

But we saw today in Scripture that in the Old Testament and New Testament does not contain the concept of the immortal soul. Those two words are not even grouped together throughout Scripture. We also saw that the idea of the immortal soul came from Greek philosophy. We considered why this understanding is important for us as Christians, and we looked at what the Bible does say about immortality. This evidence is so overwhelming that we must lean on these inspired words of God, these teachings of Jesus himself, and not allow other interpretations or philosophies to change our thoughts.

This is a core belief that we hold to and one that we must understand. It's critical that we continue to go forward at times, looking at these type of doctrinal issues, because Satan wants to derail us. Satan wants to allow other thoughts to come in. What is it? He mixes truth with error, truth with lies. He wants us to believe things that are not Scriptural, so that he can get us off track and onto a different way of thought. But this is the truth of God. And what a glorious future again that we have with him in the future in his kingdom.