Immortal Soul vs Spirit in God

God has promised to resurrect every person who has ever lived and died. In the book of Revelation, there's a seventh trumpet that sounds. At that seventh trumpet, the resurrection takes place. Christ returns. His government is set up on this earth. There will be a thousand years of peace and blessing for mankind. Many religions all over this earth have different ideas as to what happens to the dead. What goes on after people die? Most of these false doctrines are beliefs.

Go back to a fundamental assumption that people make. That fundamental assumption is something that almost everyone assumes. It rises out of the belief in the immortality of the soul. You and I have an immortal soul. If the teaching of the immortality of the soul is true, then what do you do with the soul when the body dies? That explains what all of these religions do and thank when they come up with their teachings concerning it. This has led many philosophers, many religious leaders and theologians to come up with a number of doctrines and beliefs. Some of them really weigh out that are based upon the belief in the immortality of the soul.

We need to clearly understand what the Bible teaches on this topic. We've heard sermons over the years on this. We need to understand that the immortality of the soul is a counterfeit of a truth in the Scriptures. We want to see what that is. We want to find out how this clouds, how it hides the true purpose of life.

That people who believe in the immortality of the soul cannot possibly, as long as they believe that, understand God's plan and God's purpose. So it is one of those deceptions that Satan the devil has used to blind and cloud the minds of other human beings.

What do the theologians mean when they talk about an immortal soul? If you had to give a definition right now, what would you say an immortal soul is? Let me give you one definition here. It is the belief that man is essentially a spiritual being, some kind of vague, immortal, soul that is housed in a body of flesh. So the real you, your consciousness, everything about you, is an immortal soul. You just happen to be dwelling in a house of flesh. That the human body is merely the house we dwell in, or the cloak put on around us temporarily.

If I could use a physical analogy, it would be like having an overcoat that you cover yourself with, you take the overcoat off, the overcoat is gone, but there you are. That's the idea with the immortality of the soul. The real man is not the body, but an invisible, immaterial, immortal soul that thinks, that hears, that sees, that will live on consciously forever.

That's the idea behind the immortality of the soul. Now, is that true? Is that correct? At death, the soul, the real you, leaves the body and journeys. It no longer has a lodging place to live in, so it's got to take the journey. This is where all of the false teachings and assumptions come from.

Where does it go? What do you do with it? The soul at death travels. Where does it go? Well, let me articulate some of the ideas that have been postulated, put out there. One is that the dead go immediately to heaven or hell. And this is one reason why they believe in an ever-burning hell fire, because if you've got an immortal soul, it's evil, it's going to be punished, then it's forever because it's immortal.

If you're good, you go to heaven, or you go to purgatory. Now the Catholics believe in purgatory. The soul, the real you, leaves the body, journeys to heaven, hell, or purgatory. Now, this has also led to the belief in limbo. We're not talking about a dance here, but we're talking about limbus patrum and limbus infantium. Now, most of you, if you're not a Catholic, you've never heard of limbus patrum or limbus infantium.

There is a scripture in the Bible that said only Jesus Christ had ascended to heaven. And in reading that, there's no way of getting around that. So what they had to come up with is what happened to all of the patriarchs after they died in the Old Testament.

Well, they didn't go to heaven, but they went to purgatory. But they're not in purgatory in the sense of people having to go there and struggle to get out. They are in a special compartment called limbus patrum. And limbus patrum, after Christ was resurrected and went to heaven, was emptied. All of these fellows are now up in heaven.

But before he died and was resurrected, none of them were there. And then what do you do with all the little babies? The itty bitty babies. Everybody who's died prematurely, aborted, all of these type of things. Where do they go? They haven't consciously made a decision.

So there's a compartment of purgatory called lymphontium, limbus lymphontium. It's a gigantic place to look after children, little cradles. Back in the day, I don't know exactly how they tried to explain this, but babies are there forever. They don't go out of limbus and phontium. And right now, there's an empty sign of limbus patrum. What about reincarnation?

Reincarnation is one of the ideas concerning the immortal soul or the transmigration of the soul, that when you die, you come back. You're reincarnated as another human being or as an animal or as a bug. And the idea is for you to eventually go away to nothing.

This also has led to the belief that you can talk to the dead, that you can contact the dead, and the dead can contact you because, after all, they're still alive. And so, hovering around us are all of these people. And if they haven't as yet ascended to you, they are sent to heaven. And they have the idea that they're still around somewhere, and you can talk to them. It's led to the belief that some people have special powers to contact the dead. What the Bible refers to is mediums and says not to have anything to do with them. In the Old Testament, God said, take them out and stone them, kill them. John Nesbitt in his book, Megatrends, for 2000, mentions that the New Age movement is sprinkled with channel mediums, individuals who say they permit their bodies and voices to be used as a vehicle for teachers and messengers from the great beyond. In 1987, the number of channelers in the LA area was over a thousand. And so, a lot of what goes on in the New Age movement is the belief, and it's based upon Eastern religions, that you can communicate with the dead. This idea has also led to dualism. Dualism is that the body, the physical, is evil. The soul is good. So the soul is automatically good. Everything else is evil. This also led to the Gnostic teaching of asceticism. It didn't matter if you denied the flesh, because it's evil. It's the soul that's good. So punish the flesh, go without, and God will bless you. It also led to the Gnostic idea that at death, the soul goes back to the stars.

It goes through the eight steps and returns finally back to a star. The idea is that the immortal soul, you look up in the heavens and you see the stars, each one of them houses an immortal soul. So when a baby is born, one of them comes down. When the baby grows up and dies, or whatever happens, then that soul is released and has to make its way back to heaven. And in so doing, it goes through the moon, back to Mars, over to Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Pluto. There's an eight-step process before they can get back. It's also the basis of killing heretics. You might destroy the body. You might take somebody and try to get them to confess or recant, except your religion, and you boil them in oil, you skin them alive, you do all kinds of things. So that doesn't matter. You can destroy the body. It's the soul that's important. So it has led to that type of belief. And back in the Middle Ages, you had Catholic Church persecuting and killing people, Spanish Inquisition. If you've ever read Fox's book, A Martyr, you know about thousands of people who've been martyred down through the years because they refuse to accept that religion. So does the Bible teach that you have an immortal soul? Or does it teach that man is a soul? Are we immortal souls? Well, John 3, verse 6, will probably read a few more scriptures today than normal, because this is something that we need to understand. John 3, verse 6, we read, That which is born of flesh is flesh. That which is born of spirit is spirit. So unless you are born of the resurrection, you're not spirit, but man is born of flesh, he is flesh.

Now, in Genesis 2, verse 7, we find what that flesh is made out of. Genesis 2, we'll read in verse 7, The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living being. The word living being is a nafesh. So man was created out of the dust, and he became a living being. God breathed into man's nostrils air. It's called the breath of life. And air went into his lungs, and he lived. I don't know how many of you have ever seen the birth of a child, but when a child is first born, they don't necessarily always come out screaming. Some do. We've had some of our children born, they just automatically, they're crying. But sometimes, we've all seen the picture, the doctor picks the baby up, slaps him on the behind, slaps him on the back, and you'll see a baby take a breath of air. And it's an amazing miracle, because for nine months, his fetus is in a bag of water. It doesn't drown in the bag of water.

Just in a bag of water, we drown, because the lungs are collapsed, and they don't function in the same way they do. But once a breath of air enters, it is literally the breath of life. And so every time a child is born, what the Bible talks about here is actually being replicated in that child's life. But I want you to notice what the theologians think about this Scripture. I'll quote from Matthew Henry's commentary of the Bible. Man's consisting of body and soul, a body made out of the earth, an irrational immortal soul, the breath of heaven. We have in these verses, the provision was made for the happiness of both. So many theologians, when they read this and they see the breath of life, a man became a living being, they say, well, that's talking about God breathed into him the immortal soul, and he started living. Now, if that's true, then let's notice in chapter 7 of the book of Genesis in verse 21, verse 21 here in chapter 7, we find that all flesh died, talking here about the flood, that moved on the earth, birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing creeps on the earth and every man. All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land died. So I want you to notice animals have the breath of the spirit of life dwelling in them. I don't know of anyone who believes that animals have immortal souls, but the same thing that applies to man, the breath of life, applies also to the animals, the breath of life. And so you find that we are like the animals in that regard. As we know, animals are like animals, and animals are like animals. How do they live? How do they have life? Well, they breathe air in, just like we do. Back in chapter 2, verse 19, in the book of Genesis, chapter 2, verse 19, out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast. Adam was formed out of the ground, if you remember. And of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam, you see what he would call them and whatever Adam called every living creature that was its name. So you'll notice that all of the animals were made out of the ground, Adam was made out of the ground, we all have the breath of life, and we have the same thing. Again, the living creature here is the word nafesh. The word nafesh. The word nafesh in the Hebrew simply means a living, breathing creature, that which breathes the breathing substance of the being, the soul, the inner being of the man, the living being. So the word for nafesh means a breathing, living creature. And so man, nafesh refers to man being a living creature or living soul, it also refers to animals in the same way. It has nothing to do with an immortal soul. Let's notice in chapter 1 verse 21, chapter 1 verse 21, here are the book of Genesis. So God created every great sea creature. Creature here is nafesh.

So God created every living creature, every living thing that moves with which the waters abound according to their kind. Then in verse 24, same thing mentioned here. God said, let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind, cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth, everything according to its kind. And it was so. So we find all of the animals are nafecious. In fact, I would encourage all of you, if you haven't looked this up in a while, get your concordance out, look the word soul up. And find every place where nafesh is mentioned and you will find that quite often it refers not only to man, but to the animals and the creatures. It also refers to dead bodies.

In Leviticus 19 verse 28, Leviticus 19 verse 28 says, It says, You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead. The word dead here is nafesh.

The words dead people are those who once had for living creatures or living beings and they're no longer breathing. They're dead now. Nor are tattoos any marks on you. I am the Lord. Right over in chapter 21 and verse 1.

The Lord God said, The Moses speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, None of them shall defile himself for the dead, for the nafesh. These are bodies without the breath of life that are no longer assimilating oxygen. So there are all kinds of scriptures. In fact, I had written a whole list of them down and I marked most of them out because one or two scriptures should be able to substantiate what the Bible says.

The soul, then, is a physical life of man or animal and it's subject to decay and death. It is not immortal. Back in chapter 3 of the book of Genesis, in verse 19, we read chapter 2 before, but chapter 3 in verse 19, God speaking to the man said this, In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you shall return. Now God was speaking to the conscious man here, to Adam, and he said, speaking to the conscious man, You shall return to the dust.

So you'll find that... Well, let's read the one scripture back here. I was just going to skip over this, but Psalm 146 and verse 4, because the New King James translates us a little different than the King James does. 146, the book of Psalm, verse 4, His spirit departs, He returns to the earth, and in that very day His plans perish.

Now the word plans here in the Hebrew means literally, false. This is the only place that this word is translated this way, and you find that it is false. And the King James version says, in that day His thoughts perish. And that is a correct translation of this verse. Now, can a soul die?

If it's immortal, it can't. But can it die? Well, Ezekiel 18 and verse 4 tell us something about that. This is one of those scriptures that probably many of you memorized very early on when you had your stack of cards. We're memorizing scriptures. In verse 4 it says, Behold, all souls are mine. The soul of the Father, as well as the soul of the Son, is mine. The soul who sins shall die. Now, let's read the other scripture here. Now, what does the New Testament say?

The wages of sin is the release of the immortal soul to go off and live happily ever after. No, it doesn't say that. The wages of sin is death. And in verse 20, the same thing you've mentioned, the soul who sins shall die. Back in the book of Genesis, what did God tell Adam? He said, Look, I've given you two trees here. Tree of life, tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of this wrong tree in the day you eat of it, you shall die, God said.

So God promised that he would not go on living forever, but that his life would cease. In Ecclesiastes 3, verse 19, man is the same as the beast. What happens to the sons of man also happens to animals. We're just like the animals. One thing befalls them as one dies, so dies the other. Surely they all have one breath, so we breathe in the same air, same oxygen.

Man has no advantage over animals for all his vanity. All go to one place, all the way to the other. He's a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who has no advantage over animals for him for him. Who knows? I notice verse 21. Who knows the spirit of the sons of man which goes upward and the spirit of the animal which goes down to the earth.

It Now, this is an interesting scripture, which we will come back to later on or comment on later on. So, you'll find that man dies in the same way that the beasts do. Both are dusts. Both return to the dusts. They have one breath. In the Hebrew, the word is ruach, and it means air, or breath.

Now, there is an interesting scripture, though, in Leviticus 17 and verse 11, that we're all acquainted with. Chapter 17 and verse 11 says, For the life of the flesh is in the blood. Our life is in our blood. Why is the air called the breath of life? If the life is in the blood, I have given it to you upon the altar, you shall make atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. Man is a living, breathing, mortal creature, or a nayfish, or a living soul in whose nostrils is there. Sometimes it's mistranslated as spirit. Let me explain, because I think we all understand basic anatomy. Understanding the function of the breath of air that goes into your lungs. The blood flows through the walls of the lungs on the way back to the heart. In the heart, it's pumped throughout the veins and arteries of the body. The breath of air, upon contact with the surface of the lungs, gives up oxygen. The lungs absorb oxygen into the blood. The oxygen is absorbed into the blood stream and is quickly burned up and creating the energy needed to keep the body heat and other functions of the internal organs and muscles going. So the life of man is in the blood and the blood needs the breath of life to keep the body active and alive. Now, you may know that if you were to hold your breath for five minutes, you're probably going to pass out. Have you ever been in a position where somehow your breath was restricted and you will struggle like crazy to get a breath? Because we all innately understand that if you stop breathing, you're dead. And that air conveys to the blood oxygen that absorbs that oxygen. The oxygen fires the systems in the body and you are able to live as carried by the blood. Now, I'm sure that there are many of us in here who've been able to do this. I think about the longest I've ever held my breath is two, two and a half minutes. I used to be able to swim an Olympic-sized swimming pool up and down twice without surfacing or taking a breath. And I can't do that today. You've got to be in a little better shape than I am right now to be able to accomplish that. This is why the Bible says life is in the blood and that the air that you breathe in is the spirit of the breath of life. So we understand that the nayfish is life. Let's notice in Deuteronomy chapter 12 here, verse 23. Deuteronomy 12.23 says, Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life. It is the life. You may not eat the life with the meat, so we have to pour the blood out, God says. It is a vehicle for conveying oxygen and carrying nutrients and so on, carrying poisons back out of the body. Because not only does it give oxygen, but through carbon dioxide and breathing out, you find that you eliminate a lot of things out of your body and out of your system. Isaiah 53, verse 10 tells us that Jesus Christ gave his soul as an offering for sin. We know that Christ died when the Roman soldier took a spear and rammed it into his side, ripped his belly open, and he bled to death at that point. Ecclesiastes 9, verse 5 says that the dead know nothing. So when you're dead, you don't know anything. It doesn't say your immortal soul floats off with knowing everything.

The words immortal soul are never found in the Bible. This is one of those arguments if you wanted to win. You could bet somebody $10,000 and they won't find immortal soul in the Bible. Where did the teaching come from? How did it originate?

The belief in the immortality of the soul came to the Jews through contact with the Greeks through and chiefly through the philosophies of Plato.

Now, you remember Plato, he's the ancient patriarch, not in the Bible, but in the Greek world. It says, its principal exponent, who was led to it through orphic mysteries in which the Babylonians and Egyptian views were strangely blended.

He got it from Egypt and from Babylon. They came from the Greek philosophers who acquired it from Egypt and Babylon, not from the Bible. Herodotus, the famous Greek historian who lived in the fifth century before Jesus, admitted, quote, The Egyptians were also the first that asserted the soul or man is immortal. This opinion, some among the Greeks, have at different periods of time adopted as their own. I've got a sneaky opinion that not only the Egyptians but also the Babylonians, probably from two individuals known as Hemrod and Semiramis, perpetuated this teaching. The Greeks adopted their doctrine from the Egyptians. It was Socrates, the Greek philosopher, who traveled to Egypt, consulted with the Egyptians on this very teaching. After he came back from Greece, he taught his star pupil Plato. Plato wrote in the phyto, quote, The soul whose inseparable attribute is life will never admit of life's opposite of death. Now, what is he basing that on? Well, on the Egyptians. Thus, the soul is shown to be immortal. How? Well, he just makes a flat statement. Thus, it shows to be immortal. And since immortal, it is indestructible. You can't destroy it. Do we believe there's such a thing as death? Well, to be sure.

And is death anything but the separation of the soul and the body? In being dead is the attainment of this separation when the soul exists in herself. No, not in himself, but in herself. Separate from the body, and the body is parted from the soul.

That is, death is merely the separation of the soul and the body.

So, this is what you find in Christian theology that many of them teach today. After Plato came Aristotle, who perpetuated the theory. Then along came the Roman poet Virgil, who popularized it throughout the Roman world.

So, how did it get into the Christian Church? How did what we know as the Catholic Church had developed? How did it have this doctrine come about? The introduction of the teaching into the Church was a gradual process that evolved over a period of time. As late as 160 AD Justinian, or excuse me, Justin, the philosopher-turned-professing Christian, wrote this.

Taking from the anti-Nicene Fathers. But Jesus Christ, being crucified and dead, and sent into heaven, reigned, and by those things which were published in His name among all nations, by the apostles there is joy offered to those who expect the immortality promised by Him.

Now, I have all of the anti-Nicene Fathers, all of their volumes on my computer. You can go back and do word searches through their particular writings. And one of the things here is, by 160 AD, they were looking forward to immortality. Justin did not say that they had immortality.

The early Catholics knew that they did not have immortality. It was something that they looked forward to. However, when Origen came along, around 200 AD, this is what he said, again, taken from the anti-Nicene Fathers. Souls are immortal, he said, as God Himself is eternal and immortal. He professed to be a true Platonist who believed in the immortality of the soul. So where did he get it? Well, from good old Plato. Plato was a major influence. Another influential teacher at the close of the second century was Tertullian of the Phoenician North Africa. Here is what this professing Christian wrote. You get all of these come from the anti-Nicene Fathers. For some things are known, even by nature. So he says, nature should teach you this. The immortality of the soul, for instance, is held by many. I may use, therefore, the opinion of Plato when he declares, Every soul is immortal. So that settles the argument. Every soul is immortal. Plato says so. It's got to be true. Well, our question is, what does the Bible say? Does the Bible say that it is immortal? Notice the Jewish historian Josephus, in describing the Sadducees and the Pharisees, and what they believed concerning afterlife, said this. The Sadducees did not believe in the afterlife. He said, God does not reward or punish, and certainly not in the afterlife. That was what the Sadducees believed. The Pharisees believed in an immortal soul. And so, in the afterlife, when God rewarded the righteous and punished the wicked, it was the immortal soul that was going to be blessed. Just before the Protestant Reformation at the Laterne Council, held in 1513, the Catholic Church imposed the death penalty on all who refused to believe the pagan doctrine of the immortality of the soul. So, if you lived back at that time and you said that's a false doctrine, off with your head, you could have been taken out and murdered. Actually, this was pronounced by Pope Clement V. And when the Pope speaks, it's true, quote-unquote. So, therefore, I would tend to think that, even though it's not being practiced today, this could be resurrected here in the future. So, what we find is simply this. Satan is the master counterfeiter, is he not? He has counterfeited much of the plan of God. The immortality of the soul is a counterfeit of a true teaching and doctrine of the Church. And why is that true teaching? Well, there is a spiritual component to man. There's something spiritual about us, but it is not an immortal soul. The Bible reveals there is a spirit in man. There is a spirit in man. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 beginning in verse 9, we read this. But as it is written, I is not seen, or ear heard, nor is entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for those who love him. But God has revealed them to us through his spirit. So, God's spirit reveals spiritual things. Man cannot understand spiritual knowledge unless it is through the Spirit of God, and God reveals that.

Spiritual knowledge is on a divine plane, and it is only revealed when God's Spirit works with our mind and opens our minds. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man? Now, can you know the things of a man?

Can you pick up an encyclopedia and read about China and India? Can you watch a movie? Can you see a video? Can you watch television? Do we know about man? Can we know about emotions? Can we know about war? Can we take ideas, march those, put different ideas together, come up with a philosophy or an approach to life? Well, man can know the things of a man, but as it says here, what man knows the things of a man except the Spirit of man. Now, I want you to notice how this is worded. Which is in him, the Spirit of man which is in him, even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. So, Satan has counterfeited the human spirit and is called in an immortal soul.

Is this spirit in man the man himself or is it something that is in the man? You see, the immortality of the soul says that the immortal soul is the real you. But the spirit in man is something that is in man. The spirit is not the man, it is something that is in the man.

You go out and eat food tonight and you're eating cherries and you accidentally swallow a cherry pit. We would say the cherry pit is in you. Now, are you a cherry pit? No, the cherry pit is in you and until it passes, it's there.

The same thing is true of the spirit in man. The spirit in man dwells in man. It's something that is in man. It's connected to the physical brain or the matter of the man and it helps to form the mind. It gives this gray matter the ability to think, to reason. It imparts to man the unique power of intellect and personality.

By it, you can come to know the things of a man. Through the spirit in man, you know things on a physical level. You can see, hear, smell, taste, touch the five senses. That's all physical knowledge. That's why it takes the spirit of God for a man to understand spiritual things.

Man is made of the dust of the ground. He is mortal. The human spirit is not the soul. It's something in the soul. You and I are souls. We are living, breathing creatures. So the spirit in man is something that is in the soul or inside of us, which itself is the physical man. Satan does not represent the spirit as merely something that is in the man. Satan calms it off as an immortal soul. Satan has led people to believe that the spirit is the man, not something that is in the man. Satan has led man to believe that the body is merely the house in which the man, the immortal soul, falsely dwells.

It could be like you having a house. The house burns down. The house is no longer there. You bleed out of the house. Your immortal soul is gone. Now that immortal soul has to figure out where it wants to go. So that's sort of the idea behind the immortality of the soul. Now in Zechariah chapter 12 verse 1, Zechariah 12 and verse 1, It says, It says, So the spirit of man is within the man. God forms that spirit. We think it probably begins at conception. So the spirit that is in man has no consciousness by itself. It cannot know apart from the physical brain. It cannot see of itself. Coupled with the brain, it can see, but only through the physical eyes. It cannot hear without the human ear. And without the brain, it doesn't function. Now the proof of that, if you just stop and think about it, a blind man has the spirit of man in him. But he can see nothing. There's not an immortal soul there that can see. But if you're blind, you don't see. Man can be deaf, and he cannot hear. But he still has his full mind, and he can reason and think. So since the spirit cannot see without a functioning physical eye, nor hear without a properly functioning physical ear in a living man, it certainly cannot see or hear apart from a dead man. So there really is no immortal soul. Neither can it know or think apart from the physical brain. You can take somebody who has bypass surgery, give them a drug, put them out, and for four, five, six hours, they have no consciousness of anything. They don't remember being hacked and solved and pulled and all of this. They just know that it took place. They may feel it afterwards. But the brain can be rendered unconscious, and the drug cannot affect the spirit in man. Yet the brain knows nothing because it's been rendered unconscious. Let's notice in Job 32 and verse 8. Job 32 and verse 8. There is a spirit in man, we find, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding. So there is a spirit in man again. The spirit acts, among other things, as a computer would act. Adding to the brain the psychic and intellectual power. You can have a computer, if you don't have memory in that computer, you don't have a hard drive, you're out of luck. If you've got a hard drive in there, maybe you have... It's amazing today. You can have 300 gigabytes of memory, and it'll store just about anything and everything that you put in there. Well, the same thing is true of the spirit in man. Knowledge received in the brain through the eyes, the ears, through the senses, is immediately programmed and stored in the spirit computer, in the spirit in man. All memory is stored in the spirit computer. Now, the physical gray matter also stores information, but we don't always remember everything, because of limitations on the gray matter, but it's there in the computer. Sometimes, with a computer, you might say you've lost the information. Somebody knows how to do it and retrieve everything that has ever been on that computer. It's amazing. You can delete it, you can say, go away, it's still there. You just don't find it, and somebody knows how to find it, can find it. It gives the brain instant recall, whenever millions of bits of information are to be called forth. Even though we have amazing computers, some supercomputers, lightning fast, doing six trillion bits of information per second, nothing compares to the brain that God has given to us.

The Spirit in man only gives us a little glimpse of what it's going to be like to be in the family of God, when we're not limited by a physical brain, gray matter, but we have the Spirit in man, God's Spirit, were given a spiritual body, and when we're able to function according to lightning speed, that we can have. If a computer can function and do six trillion bits of information in a second, what can God's mind do? What will we be able to do at that time? It will be unlimited, our potential that we will have. So basically, what we're saying is the memory is recorded in the human spirit.

Whether or not it's recorded in the gray matter, it is there. In Ecclesiastes 12 and verse 7, you can just jot that down, we read that the Spirit, when a man dies, the Spirit returns to God who gave it. The Spirit returns to God. The Spirit is a spiritual component. Now, why do you say it returns to God? Well, obviously it indicates that God gave it. We've already read that God formed the Spirit in man. So we know that it comes from God. Anything spiritual has to originate with God.

So God puts it within us. Again, it's like the hard drive in a computer, or it's like a video DVD that you record on. You can destroy the recorder, but if you've got the video, you've got the DVD, or you've got the hard drive, you can stick it in another computer, or stick it in another recorder, and it functions. So when God gets ready to resurrect us, to spirit life, He provides a spirit body. He takes that spiritual character, knowledge, information, everything that's been stored, places it there, and we are spirit.

God can also put it back into the gray matter again, resurrect the person as a human being in the second resurrection. And then they can live again and have their same memory. Let's take a look at the different functions of the human spirit and the immortal soul, and how they differ from one another. I've listed seven here.

You could probably come up with a whole host of differences. Teaching about the immortal soul, number one, that it dwells in a human body. The spirit in man is a spiritual essence that imparts ability to the brain to function. Number two, about the immortal soul. The soul thinks, sees, hears, and reasons. That's what they believe about the immortal soul, that thinks, hears, and reasons.

The spirit in man cannot think, see, or reason apart from the brain. It is through the brain that it functions. Thirdly, the soul lives forever. That's why it's called immortal. The spirit essence that ceases to function without the body, is not functioning without the body.

The immortal soul believes that it's released, and it goes on. Number four, the immortal soul has consciousness without the body. They teach that it's conscious. The spirit in man does not have consciousness of itself, only through the brain, through the body. Immortal soul, number five, they believe journeys. And the Bible says the spirit in man returns to God who gave it. Number six, about the immortal soul, that it is intrinsically good. Flesh is evil, the immortal soul is good. And spirit in man does not possess morality of itself.

It is just a spirit essence. And finally, seven, the soul of itself has the power of intellect and personality. So this is what those who believe in the immortal soul believe. And the spirit in man imparts the power of intellect and personality.

So there is a big difference between the two. The Bible does not teach that man has an immortal soul. Let's go to Romans 2, verse 7. Romans chapter 2 and verse 7. We read here, talking about eternal life. To those who by patient continuance and doing good, seek. So there's something that we seek for. We seek for glory and honor and immortality. So immortality is something we seek after. It's not something we possess. 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 14, clearly explains this. Beginning here in verse 14, it says that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is a blessed and only potentate, King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in an unapproachable light.

It's only God has immortality. The Bible is very clear about that. 1 Timothy 1, verse 17, says God is immortal. So God has immortality. Now we're all familiar with the resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians 15. And in verse 53 and 54, what does it say? That in the resurrection, this mortal must put on immortality. And so it states that twice. So we don't have it now, but in the resurrection, we will put on immortality. The Bible very clearly in Romans 6.23 says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Eternal life and immortality are gifts that God gives to us.

Now remember some of the false teachings that springs from this belief and immortality of the soul. In John 3.13, we read this about Jesus Christ. This was one of those things that the Catholic theologians could not get around. John 3.13, No one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. So it clearly stated that prior to Christ coming down, going back to the Father, nobody had ascended to heaven. What about all the patriarchs in the Old Testament who died? We know they're going to be in the kingdom. Where were they? Well, this led to the Catholic teaching about Limbus Potrum, Limbus and Fontium. Now, they did teach that Limbus Potrum emptied after Christ ascended. So it's empty right now. Limbus and Fontium still have all the babies. However, there's one little scripture over here in Acts 2. Acts 2.25, about David. And what David said and what the Bible teaches. Beginning here in verse 25, For David said concerning him, concerning Christ, Now notice, David said, You're not going to leave me in the grave, he says, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. Now, David knew that he would die, that he would go and be in the grave. Now, when Christ was resurrected, did he go to heaven after that? Well, let's notice another scripture here, going along with this.

Verse 29, And verse 34, So you'll find here that David is dead and buried. And the Bible is very clear that when we die, we go to our grave. In 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 14, a very clear scripture says, If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty, and your faith is in vain. And going on to verse 17, If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile, you're still in your sins, then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are all men most pitiable. So if Christ were not resurrected, then you and I have perished. But what happened to the immortal soul? If you're perished, there is no immortal soul. I think these scriptures are very clear. The scriptures do not say we continue to live on in some other state after we perish.

In John 5, verses 25-28, you might remember that we read this at funerals. That the time is coming when all who are in the grave shall hear his voice. They who have done good will be resurrected to the resurrection of life. They have done evil to the resurrection of damnation or resurrection of judgment. So the dead are in the grave when they hear his voice. It doesn't say they will hear his voice in heaven, but they're in the grave when they hear his voice. The Bible compares death to a sleep that when you sleep and sleep soundly, you have no consciousness of the passing of time. And so it is with those who sleep. We sleep, the Bible says, in the dust of the ground. So that's where we are. One other scripture here in Matthew 10.28. It says, Do not fear those who kill the body. They cannot kill the soul. So is there a soul that can't be killed? Notice. But rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Only God can totally extinguish human life with no hope of the resurrection. This is what the Bible calls the second death. So man might kill you. You die. You go to the grave. But God promises to resurrect every human being who has ever lived. So we know that there will be a resurrection. So man can't take that from you. Because God has the power to bring everyone back to life. Each in his own order, each in the resurrection that he will come up with. But if a person turns his back on God, rejects God, is thrown in the lake of fire, he will be burned up, ceased to exist. And his life will be destroyed. And there is no resurrection from the second death. Again, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. That's the promise. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul does away with the plan of God. The purpose for human life is not just determining which location our immortal soul will end up for all eternity, heaven or hell or purgatory. But that eternal life is a free gift from God that God will give to us. So in other words, eternal life is not something that God... well, put it this way... Eternal life is something God gives to you. It's not already something that you possess. Why was there a tree of life in the Garden of Eden?

Well, because God said, they had to choose between these two trees. Man had to choose life. Man chose death. And so, therefore, man has died. He sins. So we become the children of God through receiving His Spirit. God's Spirit unites with the Spirit in man. There is a new creation that begins. The Bible uses the terminology that we are a new creature. It says the old man has passed away. We become a new man. So there is a new life that is created. Because there is a spiritual life. God's Spirit is there. It unites with the Spirit in man. And so we develop the character of God. We become the children of God through His Spirit that dwells in us. So, brethren, God is creating a family who possesses His character, His nature. God made man mortal, so if He rejected God's plan of salvation, a man could be destroyed. He would cease to live. He would perish. We are made immortal at the resurrection. And through the resurrection, we receive eternal life at the resurrection. We don't possess it now. And you and I, we know once God resurrects us, especially to eternal life, that we will assist Jesus Christ in ruling forever. We will be kings and priests. And we will live forever. Not because we have an immortal soul, but because God has imparted eternal life to us, and He's also given us immortality. So, brethren, let's be thankful for God's plan. Let's realize how Satan the Devil is such a clever being that by counterfeiting one doctrine, He has clouded the whole plan of God, the whole purpose of God, what God is working out, what God is a family, what God is accomplishing here below. So, let's be very thankful that we understand the truth, that we do not have an immortal soul, but we have, and we understand that God has placed in us the Spirit in man.

Thank you.