Looking For Jesus Through The Eyes of My Soul
The Christian Soul
Do any of you have questions about the Christian Doctrine of the “Immortal Soul?” Can you back up what you believe with the Word of God? I have a stirring in my spirit to double check what I have been taught regarding the creation, life, death and resurrection of our souls. I want to know that I know, what I believe lines up with the Bible and my Saviour, Jesus. (Yahshua)
My Question Is? Does the Bible confirm the doctrine in which we have an immortal soul and when we accept Jesus we are born again? Upon the death of our body, our soul is set free and immediately goes to heaven or hell?
Or, does the Bible confirm we are a soul and when we accept Christ, the Holy Ghost seals our spirit, our soul goes through a process of sanctification and when our soul dies, it goes to the grave and waits for the resurrection to be “born again?”
What do you think? Is this important?
I think it is very important and maybe even dangerous if one of these beliefs rejects or by passes Jesus.
Any doctrine, which leads us to remove our focus from “looking” for Jesus, “believing” in what He says and putting our “faith in Him”, does not come from Him. Paul warns us of different gospels coming forth, which pervert the gospel of Christ in Galatians 1:5-6:
6 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
10 For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
In the Prophetic Ministry we know a prophetic word will NEVER go against the Word of God. In the same manner, we should be able to back up our beliefs through the Word of God and be wary of different doctrines, which seek to lead us away from Jesus and His Gospel.
In the Bible, the Berean people were eager to learn, just like us, but they examined the Scriptures daily to see whether the things they “heard” were true, according to the gospel. (Acts 17:11)
So that’s what I am doing, checking to see if what I was told, lines up with the Scriptures, but some folks do not agree. They don’t want to listen to anything except what they believe or have been taught, much less bring forth Scriptures to confirm their beliefs. They get mad and take offense, but is it wrong to make sure what we believe lines up with the Word of God? Can we witness truth to others, if we don’t truly understand what the Bible says, is really what it means?
Isn’t it time for us to understand what the Scriptures say and be able to explain to new converts without having to say, “Well, we won’t really understand how everything works till we get to heaven, you just have to believe.” Would it not
be better to have the revelation and have it make sense?
Pastor Jeff told me in searching out a truth in the Bible we are suppose to use “biblical hermeneutics.”
I didn’t know how to pronounce that word much less understand what it meant until he shared, “It is the study of the principles and methods of interpreting the text of the Bible.
2 Timothy 2:15 commands “believers” (that’s us) to be involved in hermeneutics: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who correctly handles the word of truth.”
The most important law of biblical hermeneutics is the Bible should be interpreted “literally.” We are to understand the Bible in it’s normal or plain meaning, unless the passage is obviously intended to be symbolic or if figures of speech are used.
For instance, when Jesus said He fed “the five thousand” in Mark 8:19, the law of hermeneutics says we should understand there really were 5,000 hungry people who were fed with REAL bread and fish by a REAL miracle done by our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Any attempt to “spiritualize” the number or to deny this literal miracle is to do an “injustice” to the text and ignore the purpose of language, which is to communicate.
Some people interpret Scripture and make a mistake of trying to “read between the lines,” to come up with esoteric meanings that are not truly in the text, as if every passage has a hidden spiritual truth that we should seek to decrypt to confirm their opinion.
I have also been told to seek the law of the first mentioned when I have biblical questions. According to the Biblical Research Studies Group, the Law of First Mention is “principle that requires one to go to that portion of the Scriptures where a doctrine is mentioned for the first time and to study the first occurrence of the same in order to get the fundamental inherent meaning of that doctrine.
So, that’s what I am going to do. I’m going to do the hermeneutics stuff and find out where the word “soul” is first mentioned and see what the Scripture actually says.
I don’t know if I have all the answers, but you are more than welcome to come along with me on my study, as I dig to find out more about what the Scriptures say about our souls.
I pray for revelation and understanding to come and be my guide and I pray you will know my heart as I step out to bring forth information, which I believe is important to all of us who seek to be truly “born again” into the Kingdom of Heaven.
The First Mention of the Soul
The Creation of the Soul – Adam Genesis 2:7
And the LORD God (Yahweh) formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath (neshemmah) of life; and man became a living soul (nephesh).
In looking at this Scripture remember the law of biblical hermeneutics (literal translation)
There is nothing hidden in this Scripture. Man became a living soul when God did two things:
He formed the Body out of the dust of the ground and, He Breathed into his body the breath of life
The recipe in the Bible to make a soul is:
Body + Breath of Life = The Living Soul
The Scripture does not say God gave Adam a body and a soul. He gave Adam a body and His Breath and then = Adam became a living soul.
The Scripture does not say man has a soul, it says man IS a soul.
The body without the breath is not a soul, likewise the breath without a body is not a soul.
It is the combination of the two, which “produce,” a “living” soul.
Take another look “carefully” at the verse, it does not say man has a soul, or that God gave man a soul, but rather – man IS a soul.
We don’t need to interpret or draw any reference to other passages; we are simply to believe what God said: Body + Breath = Soul
So, do you believe what the Scripture said? Are you already thinking I am crazy because, this is not what you were taught? Well, it is not what I was taught either.
Remember: This is not my teaching; it is the Word of God.
This is a foundational Scripture and if we miss this, it will be like building a house where the footer is off in the foundation. Even if it is only off by a half an inch, by the time we get to the first level of the house, there will be major issues and struggles as doors may not shut, walls may crack and counters may be un-level, all because we didn’t build upon a solid foundation.
The same thing applies in the spirit realm. The Scripture we are building our foundation on is Genesis 2:7:
Body + Breath of Life = The Living Soul
If we begin to alter this foundation by seeking other definitions or opinions, instead of holding onto that which is written, we can be sure there will be structural damage later when other Scriptures refer to our soul/life.
The original Hebrew word for “soul” is nephesh. Bagster’s Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon define it as “breath,” and “anything that breathes, an animal.” It can also refer to a “person,” or even “one dead, a dead body.”
Did you notice the same “breath of life” also passes through the nostrils of animals according to the Hebrew definition above and look at what is said in
Genesis 7:21-22:
21 And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:
22) All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.
So, is it the breath of life that is cut off when a human being or an animal drowns?
Verse 22: Then the source of life in man and animals would be the same right?
If the “breath of life” was what people refer to as an “immortal soul,” then animals, birds and even insects, gnats, fleas, mosquitoes, etc. would all have souls!
In Genesis 1:21, 24; 2:19; 9:10; 12, 15-16 and Leviticus 11:46, the same word nephesh is translated “creature” when referring to animals.
21 And God created great whales and every living creature (nephesh) that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature (nephesh) after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
After God had formed the man Adam and made every cell in his body, what did He do to give him life? He blew air – “the breath of life” containing oxygen into the man’s lungs through his nostrils, and the man began to live! The verse does not say God breathed an immortal soul into the man.
In order to separate animals from man, some people use the Scripture Gen 1:27 to argue man is immortal;
Gen 1:27: So, God (Yahweh) created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created He them.
If we go against the law of hermeneutics and begin to try and change the meaning of what Genesis 2:7 stated by using the words “Image of God,” we begin a slippery slope journey, which can take us down several rabbit trails. For Example:
God also made animals and called them souls because they have a body and the breath too, however though they can be called souls, they were not made in God’s Image and so, because God is immortal and man is made in His Image, then naturally man is immortal too.
But, there are no Scriptures to back this up and there is no reason to “assume,” because God is immortal, He must have imparted some kind of immortality to man as a characteristic attribute that just naturally went along. Do we have a Scripture on that? No, but we have this Scripture in Romans 2:7 which tells us to “seek immortality.
6 who “will render to each one according to his deeds”:[a] 7 eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality;
There are many places in the Scriptures where God calls us “mortal man.” New Testament and Old!
‘Can a mortal be innocent before God? Can anyone be pure before the Creator?’
Job 4:17
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Romans 1:21-23
God calls us mortals, but He alone is called immortal.
I Timothy 6:13-16
13 I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, 15 which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
16 who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.
Even if we said OK, lets go with this view of Adam being immortal and start to mess with our foundation in Gen 2:7, what do we do with Gen 5:3 where we read of the generations of Adam.
And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
Whatever the “image of God” Adam had, after the fall into sin and disobedience in eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, his kids didn’t get it.
And after the fall of Adam, there is no mention of the Image of God,
all of us born into the Family of Adam, were made in Adam’s image,
Mortal Men, humans, homo sapiens.
Check out Ezekiel Chapter 2 and 3 as God repeatedly calls Ezekiel, “Mortal man….”Here are just two of the Scriptures where God calls Ezekiel Mortal Man.
“Mortal man, stand up. I want to talk to you.” Eze 2:1
“But you, mortal man, must not be afraid of them or of anything they say. Eze 2:6 GWT
To make the “image of God” into a doctrine, in which it is interpreted as “an immortal soul, or any other kind of a soul for that matter, is impossible without making another assumption, which clearly contradicts the way Gen 2:7 clearly defines what the soul is:
Body + Breath of Life = Soul
Another argument which people use to justify man has an immortal soul comes from Gen 2:17:
But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
I wonder if anyone else ever pondered over what God said to Adam and Eve about being able to eat from the trees in the garden.
No doubt Adam was told NOT to eat of the tree of knowledge, before Eve was created, however, does anyone remember if God said, they could not eat of the tree of life?
The answer is no. They could have chosen the tree of life, but they went after the one (only one) tree they were commanded not to eat of and our enemy, Satan, was right there.
Eve is talking with Satan as the Snake and he is more than happy to egg her on to eat of the tree of knowledge.
Since Satan is a celestial being, he is of the spirit and had the knowledge, Adam and Eve did not as they are terrestrial beings. But, why didn’t they choose the tree of life (eternal life)?
I don’t know either, but for sure they made a bad choice in what they did and Satan pushed them along.
God, Jesus, the Angels and all the heavenly beings, are called celestial beings, they are as the wind.
We here on earth are called earthy or terrestrial.
That which of spirit was born of the spirit (heavens), That which is of the flesh is born of the flesh (earth)
The Family of God = celestial beings – heavenly
The Family of Adam/Man = terrestrial beings – earthly
That which is born of the flesh is of the Family of Adam
That which is born of the spirit is of the God Family