The Doctrine of the Immortal Soul

Had a great week. We are really gearing up now for the Feast of Tabernacles over in Hawaii. I brought the front cover of the the brochure over there, and I wanted to have Mr. Caramidje take a look at. It is very, very millennial, and we're looking for a very special feast for the brethren. We expect about 300 to 350 over there in Lahaita this year. So, it should be a very special feast. I'm sure wherever you may be going for the feast is going to be very special as well. I want to talk to you today about a very widely held idea that is embraced by many religions. In fact, around the globe, of course, it's embraced by Christianity. Without a doubt, it's a very big part of Christianity. It's embraced by Buddhists. It's embraced by Muslims. And most take, in fact, it's regretted, but it's true. They don't know really, a lot of times, where the idea even came from. And that idea that I'm talking about, brethren, is an idea that, no doubt, before you came to the church, you also believed. And that concept is that we're immortal. You know, that we really don't ever die. You know, that even though you die, whenever your spirit goes on, there is an immortality, in other words, of the soul. But what is the soul? People talk about the soul. And is our soul immortal? Is your soul separate from your physical body that you have? Well, we have a physical, chemical existence. And oftentimes, when somebody dies, you know, they will talk about how, well, soul is not here. That's just a shell, you know, that is laying there in a casket or wherever, you know, there may be. These things, a lot of people get cremated. Well, they're not here, obviously. They've made an ash of themselves, you know. So, there's not nothing there.

But, brethren, many Christians also have an emotional attachment to being more tolerant to the soul. They don't want to be told. They don't have an immortal soul. You know, they don't want to be told that at all. They think, again, that this soul that they have, that goes on and on, is housed in a fleshly body. And when they die, well, it's just released. You know, it's finally, you're free. And basically, by the way, philosophy defines it this way. That's what philosophy does. I don't know if you've looked into some of the, you know, experiments that people have done about what happens after death. But they actually talk about how you weigh less after you die.

And so, something happens, you know. Something leaves the body. I mean, it's very, very small. It's smaller than, in fact, the Kennedy's divinity, in terms of grams. Smaller than that. But it's incremental. And so, you weigh less. You know, I guess it's, the concept that they're driving at when they do these experiments is when your soul leaves you, you're a little bit less.

That is there. That's the concept. But I don't know if you've seen those scientific studies about that. But, you know, they, most people, of course, too, matter how they live their lives, believe that when they die, you know, their soul, the parts, and they go to either heaven. Most people think they go to heaven. They're either the most wicked person on the face of the earth, thinks that when they die, they're going to go to heaven. They're the gangster, the murderer, whatever they are, you know, I'm going to go to heaven. And a few actually think that when they die, because they were wicked, they're going to go the other place.

Then, you know, they're going to hell, as it's described, where they're punished forever and ever. But if they go to heaven, the idea that many people have is that you go up there, and you find your cloud, and you just lay on that cloud, and I guess God issues a part to you, and you just strum on that heart. And you just float around on that cloud, and you look at the face of God forever and ever. So that's their idea now. I'm not sure whether hell would be worse than that, or not. But many assume all this, by the way, is in the Bible. They think it's, well, it's in the book. I don't know. Everybody believed these things if it wasn't in this book, but it is not.

Well, do you know that the word, the phrase, your mortal soul, is not in this book? You can read it from cover to cover, but it's not in this book.

Now, most people are not aware that the prophets and apostles never taught the immortality of the soul. So where did this concept, this idea, come from? Do you know that the ancient Jewish historian Josephus, he writes about Nimrod and Simulamus, of course, going back to the old time when they were a part of that old Sumerian time and the Akkadian time, going back anciently. And Nimrod, of course, was this great hunger, as he's described in the book of Genesis, but Simulamus was, in fact, his mother. And then he married his mother. They had this kind of incestuous relationship. And after Nimrod died, by the way, she claimed that a full-grown furor tree grew up on a dead tree stump. And by the way, that fur tree, you know, was to symbolize, and it has ever since, symbolize Nimrod being resurrected because he's immortal. Didn't Nimrod never die? And actually, Jeremiah 10 condemns the pagan custom of erecting an idol of the fur tree. Well, you can go over there to Jeremiah chapter 10 and find that that idol was decked with silver and with gold. And, you know, Jeremiah says, don't be afraid of it because it's not, you know, it's nothing more than an idol. But we are not, the Bible says, to learn the customs of the pagans. But that tree, by the way, since the time of St. Ramis has been accustomed, frankly, of worshiping Nimrod. It's come into Christianity and tied him to, in fact, Christ. He's been expropriated, by the way, and brought him to Christianity. And so it came into Christianity, and that way in men, of course. And there is no doubt, by the way, historically, that the Roman Catholic Church incorporated this into the Church to attract those who were formerly following the pagan practices.

Alexander Hislop, in his book, the monumental book, The Two Babylons, he writes in his book that the Egyptian counterpart to Nimrod and Samarannus were Osiris and Isis.

And Isis apparently claimed Osiris lived on. So this custom sort of continued in Egypt. And, you know, she taught that Osiris, who was Nimrod in ancient Babylonian, the Sumerian times, lived on, and their son, that came through this incestuous relationship, to their son Horace, who was a child. And she claimed that Horace was a manifestation of Nimrod, basically, Osiris in Egypt. So the idea of the immortality of the soul, it was emanated, we know, from Babylon, ancient Babylon and Sumerian, and it emanated definitely from Egypt. So it came from Egypt. Now, there's a reason why I'm mentioning this to you here today.

Because the ancient Greek historian, Herodotus, who is about fifth century BC, says the Egyptians were the first to teach the soul as separate from the body.

So that's good to remember, brethren, to mark that in your notes, if you're taking notes on this, that they were the first to believe that the soul was separate from the body. And they predate, by the way, all religions. All religions. And so the idea of the immortality of the soul existed before Christianity came along. It, in fact, was around prior to the time when God established Israel. They were at Sinai. They gave the commandments to them before He made the covenant with them. Of course, others may have been around at the same time. Abraham was around during the time of Nimrod, by the way. And some say, actually, that Nimrod, you know, wanted to kill Abraham. So that's why, well, the other reasons why Abraham had to depart and go to this land of Canaan that God was going to show him. But anyway, they were the first to teach that. The philosopher Plato, by the way, and I'm trying to work up to show you how it got into Christianity here. The philosopher Plato, who came along between 428 to 348 B.C., in other words, after or during the same period of time when Herodotus was on the scene, Plato got it from Egypt, this concept of the immortality of the soul. And he was the greatest advocate of it. Of course, he was a Greek philosopher.

But in Plato's book called The Republic, in book number 10, which was one of his great major works, he wrote this. This is what he wrote, quote, So the idea, again, goes back at least to, again, the fifth century. Somewhere in there, 5th century B.C. But let me read you what he said. You're in The Republic. He says, The belief that the soul contains its existence after the dissolution of the body is nowhere, no, no, this is, I'm sorry, this is not from the Republic. But, you know, of course, it's not expressed of the Scriptures. But the belief in the mortality of the soul came to the Jews from contact with Greek thought. And she flew through the philosophy of Plato. I'm just trying to, again, show that the Jewish ideas regarding, again, the mortality so came from Plato, who was its principal exponent, who was led to it through orthic and Aleutian mysteries and Babylonian Egyptian views, were strangely blended. That's from the, I'm quoting from the Jewish Encyclopedia under the captioning mortality of the soul. So in the Jewish Encyclopedia, it says that the Jews got it from Plato. And so this is where it came from, where it remained from. Well, it came under to Christianity, by the way. So you have this leapfrog effect in history. So you have it appearing in Egypt during the time of Osiris and Isis. You have Plato espousing it. Then you have the Jews coming in contact with the Greeks, who would have been enamored with Plato. Maybe they were masters of wisdom and reason, human reason. Well, it came into Christianity through the so-called Church Fathers. Where the Fathers were, or the Church, of course, what they mean by that is what became the Catholic Church. Unless we be confused to think that it's the true Church of God. But the Church Fathers were individuals like Origen, Terturian, and Augustine. You know, Augustine, by the way, was a basket case. What a basket case you read about his life. But he was heavily, heavily influenced by Plato. And so this is how it ended up in the Roman Catholic Church. It influenced the teachings of what became the Roman Catholic Church. This is what Terturian, by the way, says. And by the way, Terturian was around A.D. 155 to 220. So in that neighborhood, so we're looking at after the time of the Apostles here.

You know, looking at a time when people like Polycract and Polycrates and others were around. But Terturian was around as well, but he cites Plato as authority for believing, you know, in the immortality of the soul. He says, "... for some things are known even by nature." In other words, you can figure these things out by human reasoning. The immortality of the soul, for instance, is held by many. I may use, therefore, the opinion of Plato.

He declares, every soul is immortal. So it was Terturian who was talking about this. And this is from the Anti-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, by the way. And so, Terturian, who was talking about this immortality of the soul and slowly bled into the Roman Catholic Church as it became, and eventually the Holy Roman Catholic Church as it evolved over time. Then it got further and further away from the truth. And in Colossians, Paul writes this. He says, "...beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men." And indeed, brother Matt, is what has happened.

The Scripture goes on to say, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. In other words, human reasoning for the so-called wisdom that is in the world today is what is behind it and what is behind many of the false ideas they have crept in to Christianity. It didn't come from the inspiration of the Bible.

Well, brother, we in the Church of God must rely on the Bible, and what the Bible says about things like this. The Bible gives us clear answers.

So what does the Bible say? We're going to talk about that today. You have a handout, if you don't have a handout, about the immodals. So I'm going to be talking about some Hebrew and Greek words. And a lot of times you hear these things. And I realize, brethren, that when sometimes you hear something, what maybe the minister said is not necessarily what you heard. So I wanted to give you at least a little bit of a leg up on that so that you would be able to know at least the basic Hebrew and Greek words. I think all of God's people, by the way, need to be able to be able to give an answer in the hope that lies within you. Why do you believe the things that you believe? The world doesn't tend to think about that, does it? The world doesn't seem to, oftentimes at least, to take much time to go through these things. They'll think about the fact that many religions actually have proven from the Bible, you know, they say this at least, they've proven that you should keep Sunday enough Saturday as a Sabbath. And of course that's ludicrous in this experience. Even the Catholic Church will tell you that you can search the Bible from cover to cover. It upholds the Sabbath.

And they will openly say, we changed the Sabbath to Sunday. I mean, they're very clear about that. Then you have the Protestants come along and try to prove it from the Bible. And you have people, of course, that say you can prove anything by the Bible. Well, you can't if you know what it says. And many people have, haven't they? Ignored what the Bible says. So what does the Bible say, brethren? As I said, the Bible doesn't have the phrase, you know, mortal soul or immortality of the soul. It doesn't have it. You can search it yourself. Now, you will find the word soul. You will find the word immortal, but never together as a phrase. But people take that for granted, don't they? They believe that. And they read it in. They see the word immortal and they, instantly, they put the word soul afterward, don't they? They read it in. And that is dangerous when it comes to the Bible. Who is the true originator, you know, of the mortal soul idea? It's not Plato. It's not Semiramis. But it is Satan, the devil. None other than Satan, the devil. And he pulled it off on our first two parents, Adam and Eve.

When, you know, he basically suddenly cajoled Eve into eating with the tree of the large of good removal, and Adam did the same thing, telling them that they would not surely die. And so he perpetrated this idea of immortality of the soul, that you won't die and can't die. And, you know, the fact of the matter is, Satan is immortal. He cannot die. The fact of the matter is too, brethren, that Satan, the devil, wants to go to heaven. But you know what happened to the last time that Satan tried to go up to heaven? Uninvited? Well, you know, you know the story about how God kicked him out of heaven. And Christ said, you know, I'd be held in all his light room, you know, from the sky. He fell to the earth. And the Bible says that Satan's demons are, this is their first estate, and they left that. And so they've been in Tariur, or they've been imprisoned here upon the earth ever since. I guess there are times when God does summon the devil, as we see an example of Job. But, you know, he doesn't go there, like I say, uninvited. He doesn't have that. But what he's done is, he's called off a mankind, the idea, why you don't matter. And the idea that you go when you die, you go to heaven.

And he's deceived man again into believing that, that after you die, you go to heaven. Well, brother, let's look at this again, be more tactical about it. And I think you can use your handouts to sort of follow along a little better. Let's go over to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2, here is the beginning, the seminal beginning of mankind over here. But in Genesis chapter 2, verse 7, very short verse over here, but it sure sounds says a lot. But it says, And the word God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. If you have a King James version, it says, good man became a living what? Soul, right? And so it uses a living being, you know, in the new King James, and it uses the word soul in the King James version. This is what the, you know, King James translators translated it as. But in the word soul is fine, if you understand what it means. The word being is probably better. But what has happened, though, is from the earliest of times, even like I say, dealing with Adam and Eve, Satan has been trying to cover up the truth of what man really is. It started right there in the Garden of Eden. So man became a living being, or a living soul, as it's again in the King James. In other words, what does that tell you, brother? That man does not have a soul, he is a soul. That's the difference. He is a being, a living being.

We have our physical, chemical existence, don't we? You know, and sometimes that physical, chemical existence comes through it. But God formed Adam from dirt, and He gave him breath that made all the difference in the world.

And here, by the way, in verse 7, the word for being, in the King James, and the word soul, comes from the Hebrew word, nayfesh. You have that again on your handout.

In some translations, it is translated soul.

But basically, if you look up the word, in Hebrew word nayfesh, by the way, it merely means a living, breathing creature.

Whether you're talking about an animal, or whether you're talking about human life. Whether you're talking about something that is infatestally small, as long as it's growing breath, it is a nayfesh. It is a soul. Now, let's go over to Joseph chapter 1, and verse 20 of it. We'll quickly look at some of these. But in Joseph 1 and verse 20, it says, Then God said, Let the waters abound with abundance of living nayfesh. The word creatures, by the way, is nayfesh. And let birds fly above the earth, across the face of the firm and of the heavens. And so God created great sea nayfesh, creatures.

And every living thing, here the word thing is translated by the way nayfesh. That those with which the waters abounded according to their kind, and every wound bird according to their kind, and God saw that it was good. So the word nayfesh is used for creatures. It's used for fame as well.

But we need to again understand that, about what the Scripture says. And you can read more in Genesis. You'll see the word nayfesh. You go look it up in scrawls, or which is easily done. If you have an e-sword, you can just go to the e-sword. And if you have it on the scrawls, it'll show you nayfesh, nayfesh, nayfesh. Very simple. Over in chapter 2. Let's look at chapter 2. And it says, Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the land, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called every living nayfesh, that was his name.

So get this weapon. A nayfesh named a nayfesh. And help us remember that Adam of the nayfesh, he named the creatures. They were nayfesh as well.

So every living thing is a nayfesh if it draws breath. And Adam named it, as it passed before him.

Well, over in Leviticus, let's go to Leviticus and we'll quickly show this over here. In Leviticus, like I said, a word nayfesh is used for thing as well.

But in chapter 23... No, I'm sorry. Chapter 11. That's where I wanted to go here. Getting ahead of myself there. But in Leviticus 11 verse 10, it says, But all in the seas or in the rivers that do not have fences, because all it moves in the water, or any living thing. Here the word is translated thing. nayfesh is a thing. But sometimes it's really hard to know what they call it, isn't it? They call it a thing.

Living thing, which is in the water. They are an abomination to you. Talking about certain creatures that they would not eat, would not to partake of. So again, the word nayfesh can be translated thing.

I'm not ready to go to chapter 17 of Leviticus verse 11.

But it talks about how that, you know, that God makes an atonement for your souls.

There the word soul is translated, again, from the Hebrew word nayfesh.

So, Paul, brethren, is God makes no difference between the soul of man, that man is his soul, or that animals are his soul. Same word. Same Hebrew word than other words. So the word nayfesh, again, means a breathing creature, a breathing thing. So not only does the word soul not imply immortality, if you were to take the word soul, by the way, it doesn't even imply that it makes us superior to the animals.

Kind of interesting, isn't it? When you look again at the Hebrew. In fact, I'm going to let me go one further, one step further for you, brethren. Do you know, brethren, that the word nayfesh can also refer to something dead?

Might be shocking to some people. We don't know if they've studied nayfesh. Well, it's going to do a Leviticus 20.1 over here. Like I say, it can refer to something dead. But let's just, again, show in the Scriptures don't take my word for it. But in verse 1, it says, And the Lord said to Moses, speak to the priests, Leviticus 21 verse 1, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, none should affile himself for the dead among his people.

In the New King James version, brethren, the word bread is translated, and we'll look it up. It's from nayfesh.

So nayfesh can also be a dead body. But let's go on down here to verse 11.

Then verse 11 says, But where shall he go near any dead body?

So he's talking about the dead body. Nayfesh body here. Now, there's a reason why I mention this to you. You know that by pulling these things out, so we can see the word nayfesh is translated soul.

It's translated dead.

Then here, by the way, the word body is actually translated nayfesh as well.

And I'm not going to go over here to numbers 6 verse 6 and 11.

But here, you know, God instructed Moses about those who were taking a Nazarite vow that they could not touch a dead. Now, over there, the word dead is from a different Hebrew word. It's from the word moot, by the way, spelled M-U-T-H.

The Nazarite could not touch a dead body. There, the word body is translated nayfesh. And they're together.

So we see in one place, the word dead is used for nayfesh, from the Hebrew word nayfesh. In another place, another Hebrew word is used. And the word body is used. So that body can essentially be called nayfesh, if you want it to, I guess.

Although one is perhaps, you know, now the other is an adjective. But anyway, grammatically, it probably would not be correct. But don't quote me on that. So, we're looking at it this way.

We see the word nayfesh can be translated soul. It can be translated body. It can be translated living creature.

Or it can be translated, as we've seen, dead.

The word dead.

Now, let's go over here, just to show you again, that nayfesh can be dead. It can be like a rover that's dead all over, you know.

But let's go over to Ezekiel. There's a reason I mention this to you, because a lot of people, again, have this concept in their minds. They, you know, don't ever die, you know.

You just go on and on.

You hear these people that talk about how they're having these near-death experiences.

You notice, by the way, they're called near-death experiences. You know, the other one that I've ever known that got resurrected, and I'm sure there were others in history, was Lazarus when Jesus Christ called him. For a fact, he'd been dead for four days.

But, you know, again, let's look at what it says here. Over in Ezekiel 18, where in ancient Israel, they had a saying that was embraced by many people, and the other saying they were talking about how their fathers ate sour grapes, and their children's teeth were set on edge.

We've heard sort of the wisdom of the world, and it is certainly true that when a father and mother make mistakes, their children do pay for it. There's no question about that. In some way, for fashion.

But God will not, and promises he will not, condemn a son. If a son wants to live a righteous way of life, or a daughter wants to live a righteous way of life, I don't care if your dad or your mom are the most wicked people on the face of the earth. So God's not going to condemn you for what your parents did, in other words. And somehow, I guess, you know, God wanted to knock on the idea, that concept that was among Israel, the people of Israel. Well, let's read here. It says, In the Word of God came to me again, saying, What do you mean when you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel? So, the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge. As I live, says the Lord God, You shall no longer use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine. There isn't again a Hebrew word, nofesh.

The son or father, as well as the nofesh of the son, is mine.

The soul who sins shall die. The nofesh that sins shall die. So the concept of soul goes on and on and on, not true. And we again, very clearly see here. But if a man is just in this, what is lawful and right, you know, again, God is not going to hold him accountable for what his father or mother has done. Now, you look, by the way, here in verse 3 and 4 times, God uses the word, you know, the word nofesh is used here. And very clearly, God says, the soul that sins, it shall die.

So it's important for us to, again, understand these basic things.

If a soul can die, it'll be like Rover dead all over, no wonder that the apostle Paul roared in Philippians 2 verse 12. He said, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. And no wonder, you know, Bill Simon, in his wisdom, was talking about how that, you know, that basically we need to do what we do with our might because there is no device. There are no rewards in the grave where you're going, he said.

So we better work out our salvation with fear and trembling, our opportunity here now. Now, I'm not saying, brother, this is the only day of salvation, but it's your time and my time, and I believe that God is holding me accountable now. We better be very careful about what we do or what we do not do.

So let's talk now, brethren, about some Greek words, you know, some New Testament words.

Better tighten the soul concept.

What would be a Greek equivalent to the Hebrew word, meritesh?

Somebody ask you that question.

What would be, you know, Greek equivalent to it? Would it come to your mind right away what you have in front of you here? So I'm making it pretty easy for you that way, but let's do this over here. 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians chapter 15 over here.

God's people were taught the truth, and Paul instructed these things. We're a very wise and erudite man, a great educational background. The being of Pharisees, he was the cream of the crop of his day.

And it was necessary to have that kind of a mind, by the way, dealing with some of the Greeks and other people that had this human reasoning that deceived so many people. But in verse 45, it says, So it is written, the first man Adam became a living being. And we read that, didn't we, over in Genesis 2, verse 7. The last man Adam became a life-giving spirit, a living being. What word does he use here in the Greek, by the way? He uses the Greek word sukei here. Sukei. I don't know if you can see that on the handout there. And I have a strong definition of it here. There, if you want to look at that. More closely, a little bit later on. But man became a living being.

And the word living, by the way, comes from the Greek word zaou. Z-A-O. Well, it's zaou. And so man became a zaou sukei, a living being. And Vines expositor's dictionary says it is the natural body, or the natural life of the body.

No way of saying that is man's physical, chemical existence. And so the Scripture says that Adam became a living sukei.

A zaou sukei, as I mentioned before. But Christ, by the way, what was he? He was the second Adam.

He was a life-giving spirit. But where there is Numa. And by the way, Numa is actually a word that is similar to the word ruach in the Hebrew.

And both are translated wind or air.

And so those are the words that are used with regard to the difference between the second Adam and the first Adam. Now, Christ was a life-giving Numa.

Now, let's go through one of the most difficult Scriptures in the New Testament that people stumble over and have a problem with. I dare say that many of us have probably been asked this question, you know, about this particular verse. It's always good, again, to know what the Greek words are. You don't have to be a Greek scholar. I know I'm not a Greek scholar. I'm not a Hebrew scholar.

And, you know, I couldn't typically read anything, no end of Greek or the Hebrew. I have to rely on sources and references like you do. And they're regularly available on the Internet if you want to check those out. Like I said, I'd encourage you to get a e-sword. It's free. Don't cost anything. And there are many, many aspects that are really beneficial for Bible study. Well, Matthew 10, verse 28 here, hear Jesus was telling one of his disciples, that do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Okay, let's check the Bible, brother. This discussion's over.

But then, if you're not a soul, you can't kill it.

Keep killing him, but he keeps coming back, you know. But he says, but rather, he goes on to say, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Sometimes people are confused about what the word hell means here.

Well, the word Hades is for grave. It's not the word used here. Condor is a place of restraint. Not the Greek word that's used here. But the word behena is used. You know, about the fire that's going to be for the future that's going to judge the wicked. That's what Jesus was talking about. And there was a type of that, you know, outside of the roles of Jerusalem where they had a fire that they kept stoked up and they would throw, you know, the carcasses of dead animals and criminals to burn them up. They would, you know, be burnt up. And Christ likened that, you know, to the hena. Of course, that was in the valley of himnem, as you know, the history behind that. But let's break this down a little bit further here. But fear not those who kill the body. The Greek word here is soma. Soma.

And if you look in, in scrawns, it means the sound hole. There was a physical, chemical existence that we human beings have.

But he goes on to say, but cannot kill the soul.

Now, the word for soul here is that Greek word sukei.

Remember, Christ was a quick-hitting moolah. Adam was a living sukei. He very god over that and ensured that.

And the strong says this, that sukei is the breath, or by implication, the spirit either abstractly or concretely. It can mean it in an abstract way or a concrete way.

Now, when somebody dies, what do we often say? Well, he breathes his last, and he dies. So it can refer to breath, that a person has. Now, some people again think that this verse proves that the soul is immortal.

Jesus is not saying the soul is immortal, but rather that only God can take away your potential, your right to eternal life. You know, the only one that can take away your right to eternal life is the one who gave it. And that is God.

And God, we are told in the Bible, says that eternal life is what? It's a gift, isn't it? Can't earn it? Well, it's a gift of God that God gives. When does He give this gift to us? And what does it mean? That when we have this gift, and who has this gift? Does everybody have this gift already? By the matter of fact, that they are born as human beings?

No, not everybody has the gift right now. In fact, the Bible says the wages of sin is death, doesn't it? So it goes on a little further beyond that, when you put everything together. And remember, brethren, the Bible is not a subtraction problem, it's an addition problem. You've got to add everything together from cover to cover. When you come up with the sum, you come up with the truth.

So, again, some people think this verse proves that the soul is a martyr.

For God, of course, alone has the power to resurrect us anyone who chooses. And God has the power to destroy also the sinner of the Gohinah fire forever. And God's going to punish people forever, you know, in hellfire, if they're wicked or they're evil. But they will be burned up. And like I said earlier, people will be ashes under the feet of the righteous in the future.

We're over in 1 John chapter 3. Let me show you, brethren, that not everybody has this gift in them. And over here, we find out exactly who it is that doesn't have this gift. It gives us a clue as to who doesn't have the gift, what aspect of it, at least.

But in 1 John 3 verse 15, it says, whoever hates his brother is a murderer. Notice this going on here. It says that you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. You get that? The heaven also. And no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. And over there, Revelation talks about a whole lot of other. There will not be in God's kingdom in the future. Other verses, of course, show us that as well. So John, the apostle John shows that men are not immortal because, you know, this individual he's talking about and these people do not have eternal life within them.

Like you said, the wages are set as death. But it says in Romans 6.23, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But God gives eternal life since we don't have it. If we had it, you know, he would need to give it to us as a gift, wouldn't he? And the payday, according to Romans 6.23, for sinners is death, not immortality. You know, not simmering and frying in the flames of the hell of fire forever and ever, as many people believe. The false doctrine, brethren, is the mortal soul blinds humanity. And what it does is it puts a veil over people's eyes. Like I said, people take it for granted.

It's like it will put a veil over somebody's eyes and so they don't see the truth. And the veil can only be taken away through Christ. It can only be taken away through the Holy Spirit. And through truth. Truth takes it away. It's truth that what does make us free of the false suits of man's false doctrines. Satan, though, blinds people. He hides God's purpose from the eyes of humankind. He did that from the very beginning with Adam and Eve, as we know.

So it is true, the same word nafesh is used for both animal and human. But man's purpose, brethren, it far transends that of the animal world. Thankfully, we don't have, by the way, the play of the apes, do we? Out there, and we're competing with the apes. Now, we are competing in this world that we're living in because man is cut off from God. We're competing with barbarian ideas that are out there, barbarian compared to what the Bible tells us to do. But we're not competing with animals. It's not that way. There are man's purpose far, far, transends that of animals. We read back in the book of Genesis, didn't we, that animals were created after their kind.

When God created these animals, creatures, or nafesh, as we understand, they were created after their kind. In fact, we can observe in nature that certain species of animals cannot mate with each other and produce an offspring. So they reproduce, don't they, after their kind. You can't mate, by the way, an elephant with a giraffe.

You just can't do it. They're working. So they reproduce after their kind. And when they were created, they were created after the catacal, the creeping fain kind. But if all of the creation that God made and the animals that God made and brought into existence, humans were different. It says in verse 26 of Genesis 1 that God created men after His kind, after the God kind. In His likeness, in His image, and this shows, brethren, again, the great transcendental purpose that God had for Adam and Eve.

And as we said over and over again, brethren, when God created Adam, His purpose was interrupted because what happened? Satan came along and deceived him before God was able to give them that spirit which would have passed on, the gift of eternal life. But nonetheless, man and Eve were created. When Adam and Eve were created, they were special, very special in the eyes of God.

The man was created after the God kind. Man and woman were created after God kind. But God's immense. God does live forever. And God is very powerful. You and I can bury with ourselves, I have been in the moric. We have a hard time, don't we? And so when I was baptized, I wasn't energized to be super powerful. It would be great, wouldn't it? Once you were baptized, you had the light on His hands. He would become super-an. Of course, we'd have a funny rule, wouldn't we, if that were to be the case? No, but we were created in God's lightness in His image, of much more, much more beyond that. When Adam and Eve were created with intellect, there was far above that of animals. Well, scientists have actually done comparative studies of brains.

And you know what? They can't see the difference between an animal brain and a man's brain. They just can't see the difference. Now, women have always said, well, I understand that.

But let me explain a little bit further about this.

Comparative, an animal, of course, oftentimes a study is quite interesting. So we look at the animal, the sperm whales, by the way, have a brain. You know, I can't imagine somebody hunting down sperm whales to find this out. Have a brain that roughly weighs 18 pounds.

An elephant has a brain that weighs 11 pounds. Dolphins have a brain that is 3.3 to 3.7 pounds.

Humans have a brain that is 2.9 to 3.3. We don't have a bigger brain than a dolphin!

And they say that it depends on the body size. Obviously it does, doesn't it? I certainly would not want to be a sperm whale, no matter how big your brain is. But they said it's not an indicator of intellect, the size of the brain, and so forth. And yet they see that man is vastly superior. He has an intellect. As I said before, cows in South Africa don't know about the cows over here in North America. They don't know about the happy cows of California.

So we have immigrants of cows come over here, I guess, if that were the case. Is it worse than it does the stand-up cows that drive cars and stuff like that? I'm glad we don't have cows on the road, you know. But why? Why, again, are these big, bald animals not more intellectual and smarter than human beings? Well, there's an answer. There's an answer to that that really shows that when Adam was created, he was created definitely different than the animals. But God imparted something that was non-physical. It was a non-physical thing. He didn't dig it from the dirt and put it in the man, but it came from God. You can't discover this in a lab or a test tube, but, you know, you can discover it in the Bible. That's where it is. Let's go to Job 32. Job 32, in verse 8 over here. Job 32, in verse 8.

In the book of Job, we begin to get an answer about basically the question, Well, what is man? David asked that question. That question didn't he? What is man? Is your mind full of him? Why do you visit him? Why do you concern yourself with mankind? Well, it's because, of course, David understood this man was special. Not like, again, other creatures you put upon the earth. Over here in Job 32, verse 8, it says in verse 8, Now, understand what he's saying here. There's a spirit in man. Now, this word spirit, by the way, is from the Hebrew word ruach I mentioned to you earlier. It's like the word that is used in conjunction with Christ, who is this life-giving being. Here is the word there, is nubah, in the New Testament.

But man has a spirit in him. Ah! Not just physical chemical, is he? The word ruach means wind or breath. It's a theory, or it's a non-physical thing, in other words. But notice what it does to the man. Notice what it does. And the breath, this ruach of God, of the Almighty gives him understanding. You see, it's the spirit in man against man understanding. His intellect makes a difference between the animals and the man. You know, people think, of course, that, you know, go back to those ancient days where Adam and Eve brought in caves. And you know, Adam carried a big club around with him. And, you know, everybody did, if they were able to get married. But, you see now, having about the cave man days, you go knock a gal in the head, and I guess you can't refuse his proposal.

But, you know, these days, women would be doing that with men, you know. Probably not humorous to everybody. But anyway, spirit in man is what imparts understanding.

Now, understanding, by the word understanding, in the Hebrew, I'm not going to give you the Hebrew word, but it means to separate, literally, or to distinguish. To separate mentally, or to distinguish. That's, again, that is, there like, being able to observe between the two. Now, over in Zechariah 12, in verse 1, I'm not going to go there, brethren, but I want to quickness you, and I want you to look at it yourself. But there it says that God, quote, forms the spirit of man within him. Like I said, he didn't take dirt to form the spirit of man, but he does form the spirit of man in man. You and I have this spirit that has been formed in us. He molds it into a form within us. Let's go over here to 1 Corinthians 2, verse 11. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 11.

There's so much of God's truth, brethren, that has been lost in this world, and that God has opened it up to us, hasn't he? He showed us the truth. He's given us the understanding, brethren. We can understand, even as David said, I understand more than the ancients. The laws of God impart to us knowledge and understanding. Not that we become scientists all of a sudden, but we understand the deep questions of life. Most people don't understand what man is. But in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 11, he says, He says, What makes man so strangely superior than to know the things of men? To know the things of humanity? What is the spirit of the man? And so we see again here that the intellect is imparted by the spirit of man, or the spirit, as it says in Job 32a, than man. But even so, no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God. Now we have said, not the spirit of the world, which is the spirit in man, or the spirit of man, but the spirit which is from God. And we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. We can understand the spiritual things. In other words, by this spirit God has given to us. So Adam and Eve were given this spirit in man that imparted intellect to them, in every human being has ever since. Now is the spirit in man immortal? Is it an immortal soul? I think some people jump to that conclusion. The other way I see is systematic semantics, isn't it? No problem, the spirit in man is not the same as the spirit of God that is in us. Two different things. The spirit of man is not, by the way, the man. If I were to give you a marble and ask you to swallow it, where does that marble go? Kind of a large inner stomach, at least for a while. And if I said, where is the marble, then you say? It's in me. It's in me. Well, brethren, the spirit in man is in us, but it's not of us. That spirit in man is non-physical. And God has put it in us, and that's what has given us the inner like. I don't know where God has attached it, but I would imagine it's probably in some way associated with our brain. Maybe it's our whole being. I don't know. But the spirit in, brethren, is in us, but it's not of us. So the spirit in man, frankly, also doesn't have a consciousness of itself after we die. Because after we die, the Bible says, when you sleep. Look over at 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 16 through there. Paul says, I don't want you to be, you know, ignorant of those who are asleep. We're dead. Talking about the science of God, that it died.

So the spirit in man, brethren, cannot see you or hear. If that was so, if you're, the spirit in man could see you and hear, then why can the death not hear? There was, what does that have to do with the physical? If you're the spirit in man, you know, it has a, in other words, it has life of its own. Now, what cannot the blind see? Why is there a deaf listen? Blindness. You know, if again the spirit in man, you know, is able to see you and is able to hear.

You know, in Ecclesiastes 9, verse 5, it says, the living know that they should die. But the dead know not anything. But they're asleep. The spirit in man, again, has no consciousness of itself after we die. But again, it's like being asleep. The Bible talks about, I'm not going to go there, but in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 51, those who sleep will be changed at an appointed time. An opponent and a quick link of the eye. Those who are in Christ. How will God do that? How's God going to resurrect the dead saints? How's He going to do that? Humanity, by the way, has already, again, the spirit of man. All people have the spirit of man. And it's not an immortal soul. But it is something very, very important. The man is created to read another spirit. And this spirit, by the way, is attached. When we are converted or we receive the Holy Spirit, it is attached to the spirit of man. To impart spiritual understanding. You can attach spirit to spirit, but you cannot attach spirit to flesh. Spirit can view the mind and impart intellect, but the Holy Spirit imparts spiritual intellect, if I can put it that way.

But again, humanity only has the spirit of man, but means another spirit. The spirit of man, rather than just an analogy or a metaphor, is like a CD or a disc.

Maybe that's not even good enough anymore to describe what it is, but it's the best part of what we can do. But it's like a disc that records everything about you. God's been collecting information about you all of your life. He knows your frabils. He knows every part of you. He's got the hairs of your head numbered.

And I don't know which one he's on with me now, because they keep falling out. So, changing things and removing targets in that way. But when the time comes for us to be resurrected, God will be able to take that recording that is in us, all of us, and He will be able to recreate you and me. Now, don't ask me how He does that, how He's able to do that, but He's going to do that. It's going to be done by the spirit of man. And man, when if you have, and I have, the Holy Spirit, we will not only be resurrected, but we will be changed to spirit. We'll be spirit composed by the fact that we have the Holy Spirit. I'm not going to go over to this, but in Ecclesiastes 3, verse 21, Solomon says, the spirit goes back to God who gave it.

And not only, by the way, does the spirit in man go back to God and gave it, you know, talks about, in fact, in... In Ecclesiastes 3, 21, and 12, 7, we talked about how the spirit of an animal goes downward, but the spirit of man goes back to God who gave it. He's got to do the spirit of man to all mankind, and it goes right back to God, and God will use that in the future. God is organized, isn't He? He knows what He's doing. He's in control. Again, God gave the spirit of man and imparts that ill to all human beings, but God created more than me a second spirit, which was symbolized by the true of life that, remember, Adam and Eve could not partake of in that garden, because they were driven from the garden of Eve. And only a few through history received that divine spirit, so that when they are resurrected, they will be spirit-meaning, spirit-composed. Let's go quickly to 2 Corinthians 5 over here. 2 Corinthians 5.

2 Corinthians 5, what Paul says here, He says, Now, get to play here, by the way. We don't go to heaven to be clothed in this house. It is from heaven. It will come from heaven.

If indeed, having been clothed spiritually speaking, we shall not be found naked. For we who are enlisted, grown, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that immortality may be swallowed up by the life, and He's talking about eternal life. Now, He who has prepared us for this very thing is God. This was the great cause of the purpose, brethren, to bring us in to the family of God, who also are given the spirit as a guarantee. The Holy Spirit has been given to you and me, brethren. In this time, we leave with Pent and we're baptized. God, by that, will allow us to be resurrected if we are clothed spiritually in the righteous garments. By that, I mean living by God's real life.

And so this mortality that you and I have is going to be swallowed up by immortality. And we will put on, you know, an entirely spiritual body at that time that cannot be destroyed. And we will again experience that at the return of Jesus Christ at the time of the first resurrection.

And when Christ comes back, He's going to possess incredible, incredible power, brethren.

But the Apostle John says this, that when Christ appears, we are going to see Him like He is. Why is that? Why is that? He says, because we will be like Him. We'll be changed! We'll be different.

So, brethren, often the great mysteries of the Bible are shrouded. The people are blinded from false ideas and concepts that they have embraced. And, frankly, the majority of people just take it for granted. The moral soul is true. Man does not have an immortal soul, but he is a soul. But man also doesn't know that the awesome truth is that we will inherit immortality, then eternal life. And that's what the calling of God is about now, in this day. He calls on all men to repent. And God is calling the church for us to live a life so that we can be properly clothed in a spiritual environment for the future.

So God has purpose, brethren, to make humankind in His image, and He is like this. And we're going to be like Jesus Christ when Christ returns. You know, why? It's because we're going to be part of the God's family. And in God's family, they live forever.