A gracEmail subscriber writes: “I am thinking that I served God in a previous life, and that is why I am drawn to him now. I would appreciate your comment if you have time.”

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The doctrine of reincarnation is a popular but ancient explanation of why people experience both good and bad things, and why it is important for us to do good and not evil now. Thousands of years before Christ, both the Egyptians and Babylonians believed that the body is a temporary shell, housing an immortal soul or spirit that might revisit the earth later in someone else. Hinduism popularized similar ideas in India about two centuries before Christ. About 500 B.C., the fledgling Buddhist tradition incorporated an impersonal version of this general doctrine. Meanwhile, Pythagoras taught reincarnation in Samos, as Plato later did in Athens. [Read more...]

This brief address was given around the communion table by a friend of mine at a church in Hamilton, New Zealand. The picture is from a movie called “Stardust.”

God might have made man from star-dust, or some other celestial substance, but he did not. Man was made from a very earthly material.

⁷ And the Lord God formed a man’s body from the dust of the ground and breathed into it the breath of life. And the man became a living person.

Genesis 2: 7

Science agrees completely with this statement of man’s composition. A person of average weight contains enough fat for seven cakes of soap, carbon for 9,000 lead pencils, phosphorus for 2,000 match heads, magnesium for one dose of salts, iron for enough to make one medium sized nail, sufficient lime to whitewash a wooden fence, enough sulphur to rid one dog of fleas, and water enough to fill a ten-gallon can. Mankind is composed of these elements, all of which are found in the earth we live on.

But you could put all the soil elements together in the right proportions to make a man and still not have one. Only the Creator could combine all these elements and turn the inorganic into the organic. Man is a living miracle made by the all-wise God. He is the crowning work of creation on this earth, for he is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26).

After God had combined the desired elements of earth to form man, that was still not enough. His creative energy must give life to the inert form. It took something more to make that body into a living soul – and that something more was the breath of life.

⁷ And the Lord God formed a man’s body from the dust of the ground and breathed into it the breath of life. And the man became a living person (or soul).

Genesis 2: 7

Note that the Bible does not say that man received a soul; it says that man became a living soul or being. Life flowed from God into and through the complex threads of the nervous system; muscles expanded and contracted, the lungs went into action. With the “breath of life” in his nostrils, man became a “living soul”. According to Genesis 2: 7, it is possible to write a mathematical equation of man (math’s – very logical, just like Gods word):

Dust of the Earth PLUS Breath of Life EQUALS Living Soul

(Lifeless Body) + (Breath from God) = (Living Being)

Man has a body, intelligence, memory, a mid to reason, a conscience, and a will. He has one personality and one character. He is one entity, not two or more (just as is God who created him). Just so long as man continues to breathe the breath of life, he will be a human being, a living soul.

So then, what is death? Death is the cessation of life. Let’s take the equation, and reverse it:

Living Soul MINUS Breath of Life EQUALS Dust of Earth

(Living Being) – (Breath from God) = (Lifeless Body)

The Bible tells us very clearly, in plain language, that when a person dies:

⁴ When their breathing stops, they return to the earth, and in a moment all their plans come to an end.

(Psalm 146:4)

⁷ For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

(Ecclesiastes 12:7)

The same Hebrew word is translated both spirit and breath, as in Eccles 3:19.

At death, when the “spirit” or “breath of life” returns to God, and the body returns to “dust”, what happens to the soul? Does the soul continue? Is the soul an immortal entity? NO, emphatic NO! Ezekiel 18: 4, 20 tells us that the soul is not immortal; it can die.

⁴ For all people are mine to judge—both parents and children alike. And this is my rule: The soul (or person) who sins will be the one who dies.

Death then is a blackout of spirit, soul and body. He, or she, who in life was a human being, a living soul, is in death only a corpse. The body returns to dust and the breath, or spirit, goes back to god. God has taken back from man the life He gave him at creation or at birth. The soul dies.

Think of a candle. It is perfect. It stands ready to give light, but it has no light of its own. We strike a match and light the wick. Then we have a lighted candle. Blow on the flame and it goes out. Where did it go? Out – that’s all. And with the passing of the flame, the light also goes out.

Men and women are like that candle. It takes divinely given energy, the breath of life, to light him – to make him a living soul. God “strikes the match” and man becomes a living soul. Intelligence shines out of that human being. But take the breath away from that person, and he or she dies. The light is snuffed out. The living soul perishes. The person’s body decays. The brain and nervous system no longer function. Intelligence can no more be a part of that person, than can the extinguished flame be a part of the candle.

On this earth, death comes to all forms of life. Animals and birds die just as man dies. Because of this, the atheist would have us believe that death is the end for eternity, that man is no better than the dumb animal. Other people would prefer to misinterpret the word of God, and have a vague wishful hope that somehow they live on after death.

The Bible denies any such teaching. Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten son, announced in John 11:25

²⁵ …. “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die like everyone else, will live again. ²⁶ They are given eternal life for believing in me and will never perish.

When death comes to a human being, that person goes to sleep in the grave. But in the records of the infinite God there is a complete picture – a Photostat – of the individual. God does not forget a single one of his created beings.

Job had confidence in God’s unerring memory and love for the people of his creation. Job expected to live again, the same Job as before his sleep of death began.

¹⁴ If mortals die, can they live again? This thought would give me hope, and through my struggle I would eagerly wait for release. ¹⁵ You would call and I would answer, and you would yearn for me, your handiwork.

Job 14: 15, 15

Job looked for the time when God would bring him back to life in the resurrection:

²⁵ “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he will stand upon the earth at last. ²⁶ And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! ²⁷ I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!

Job 19: 25-27

When Jesus comes again, the righteous will be raised. Man will breathe and live again. Those who have chosen Gods son as their Saviour, will rise to live again for eternity, for the promise of everlasting life.

How simple the story is. How simple the choice is – life or death. Not life on earth, then some other sort of existence. Quite simply, the theme of the Bible is Life or Death.

This morning we consider these emblems, and they remind us of this fact. But they also remind us of the one, God’s only son, who died in our place, but who rose as the first fruits from death, so that we might have everlasting life.

Bread / Cup

1 Corinthians 15:

²⁰ But the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead. He has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again.

²¹ So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, Adam, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man, Christ. ²² Everyone dies because all of us are related to Adam, the first man. But all who are related to Christ, the other man, will be given new life. ²³ But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised first; then when Christ comes back, all his people will be raised.

Matthew Henry commenting on Genesis 35:16-20 (where Rachel died giving birth to a son) wrongly says, “The death of the body is but the departure of the soul to the world of spirits.”

George Wisbrock however is right on the mark when he commented with regard to the International Bible Dictionary quote about the departure of the nephesh being a figure of speech, “I don’t believe that’s always if ever actually true.”  Technically, I think George is right.

No one will deny that many times in  Scripture the word nephesh (“soul”) simply refers to the whole being (Gen. 2:7), whether human being or animal.  A secondary meaning, derived from the primary meaning would be that of the life of that organism. Some Old Testament examples of this secondary use of the word “soul” relevant to the matter at hand would be Genesis 35:18 and 1 Kings 17:21-22. The former text describes the death of Racheland there we learn that “as her soul was departing she died. “.” In the latter text it is recorded that a young boy became so severely sick that there was “no breath left to him” (1Kings 17:17). The Bible states that Elijah asked “… let the soul of this boy return to him.” (v. 21). God graciously heard Elijah’s pray and the soul of the boy returned to him.” (v. 22).

In both these instances I feel it is more accurate to say that the word “soul” is being used in it’s secondary sense: it carries the meaning “life”. In the case of Rachel, “her life was departing and she died”. In the case of the widows son “life” departed from him when there was ”no breath left to him” – and his “life” returned to him in answer to Elijah’s prayer.

We could throw into the mix Jonah 4:3 where Jonah prays God, “Please take my soul from me.” There the meaning, “Please take my life from me” makes perfect sense.

Despite all of the above, there are those within the Conditionalist camp who speak of the soul as a real, spiritual, and separable part of the human being (though not, of course, capable of surviving the death of the body in a conscious state). With this in mind I am happy to quote various sources that while not saying things exactly as i would say them do provide support for Conditional Immortality in one form or another.

The celebrated Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words discusses the New Testament useage of the word psuche or “soul”. My comments are in bold within the text.

Psuche denotes “the breath, the breath of life,” then “the soul,” in its various meanings. The NT uses “may be analyzed approximately as follows:

(a) the natural life of the body, Mat. 2:20; Luke 12:22; Acts 20:10; Rev. 8:9; Rev. 12:11; cp. Lev. 17:11; 2Sam. 14:7; Est. 8:11;
(b) the immaterial, invisible part of man, Mat. 10:28; Acts 2:27; cp. 1Kgs 17:21;
(c) the disembodied (or “unclothed” or “naked,” 2Cor. 5:3,4) man, Rev. 6:9;

(a) and (b) carry no connotations of inherent immortality. Under (c) where it is implied that the soul survives the death of the body it must be noted that 2Cor. 5:3,4 does not even mention the soul and Rev. 6:9 is part of an “apocalyptic vision”. Such imagery is difficult to interpret at the best of times. The former text is explained in our article Absent From the Body to Be With Christ?. The latter text is explained in our article, The Souls Under The Altar.

(d) the seat of personality, Luke 9:24, explained as “own self,” Luke 9:25; Heb 6:19; Heb 10:39; cp. Isa. 53:10 with 1Tim. 2:6;
(e) the seat of the sentient element in man, that by which he perceives, reflects, feels, desires, Matt. 11:29; Luke 1:46; Luke 2:35; Acts 14:2,22; cp. Psa. 84:2; Psa. 139:14; Isa. 26:9;
(f) the seat of will and purpose, Mat. 22:37; Acts 4:32; Eph. 6:6; Php. 1:27; Heb. 12:3; cp. Num. 21:4; Deut. 11:13;
(g) the seat of appetite, Rev. 18:14; cp. Psa. 107:9; Prov. 6:30; Isa. 5:14 (“desire”); Isa. 29:8;
(h) persons, individuals, Acts 2:41,43; Rom. 2:9; James 5:20; 1Pet. 3:20; 2Pet. 2:14; cp. Gen. 12:5; Gen. 14:21 (“persons”); Lev. 4:2 (‘any one’); Ezek. 27:13; of dead bodies, Num. 6:6, lit., “dead soul;” and of animals, Lev. 24:18, lit., “soul for soul;”
(i) the equivalent of the personal pronoun, used for emphasis and effect:, 1st person, John 10:24 (“us”); Heb. 10:38; cp. Gen. 12:13; Num. 23:10; Judg. 16:30; Psa. 120:2 (“me”); 2nd person, 2Cor. 12:15; Heb. 13:17; James 1:21; 1Pet. 1:9; 1Pet. 2:25; cp. Lev. 17:11; Lev. 26:15; 1Sam. 1:26; 3rd person, 1Pet. 4:19; 2Pet. 2:8; cp. Ex. 30:12; Job 32:2, Heb. “soul,” Sept. “self;”
(j) an animate creature, human or other, 1Cor. 15:45; Rev. 16:3; cp. Gen. 1:24; Gen. 2:7,19;
(k) “the inward man,” the seat of the new life, Luke 21:19 (cp. Mat. 10:39); 1Pet. 2:11; 3John  1:2.

Nothing in (d) through to (k) immplies that the soul is in anyway immortal. In fact, the reverese is the case. It is specifically pointed out that the word “soul” can be used of dead bodies!

“With (i) compare a-psuchos, “soulless, inanimate,” 1Cor. 14:7.

“With (f) compare di-psuchos, “two-souled,” James 1:8; James 4:8; oligo-psuchos, “feeble-souled,” 1Thess. 5:14; iso-psuchos, “like-souled,” Php. 2:20; sum-psuchos, “joint-souled” (with one accord”), Php. 2:2.

To be “two souled” is simply to be unable to settle one’s mind will or purpose.

“The language of Heb. 4:12 suggests the extreme difficulty of distinguishing between the soul and the spirit, alike in their nature and in their activities. Generally speaking the spirit is the higher, the soul the lower element. The spirit may be recognized as the life principle bestowed on man by God, the soul as the resulting life constituted in the individual, the body being the material organism animated by soul and spirit. …”

The first two sentances above, obscure the truth pronounced in the third sentance: “The spirit may be recognized as the life principle bestowed on man by God, the soul as the resulting life constituted in the individual”. Notions of immortality, or the notion that the soul may exist apart from the material creature must be read into the text. It cannot be read out of the text.

“Body and soul are the constituents of the man according to Mat. 6:25; Mat. 10:28; Luke 12:20; Acts 20:10; body and spirit according to Luke 8:55; 1Cor. 5:3; 1Cor. 7:34; James 2:26. In Mat. 26:38 the emotions are associated with the soul, in John 13:21 with the spirit; cp. also Psa. 42:11 with 1Kgs 21:5. In Psa 35:9 the soul rejoices in God, in Luke 1:47 the spirit.

“Apparently, then, the relationships may be thus summed up ‘Soma, body, and pneuma, spirit, may be separated, pneuma and psuche, soul, can only be distinguished’ (Cremer).”[ From notes on Thessalonians, by Hogg and Vine, pp. 205-207.]

In truth, no “part” of any human being can be separated from any other without the dissolution of the whole human being. The best scholarship now suggests that body, soul and spirit most often refer to the whole person seen from different perspectives.

This is an outline of the second in a series of sermons I am preaching at my church on “Advent Christian distinctives” (Yes, I belong to the AC family of churches) focusing on biblical anthropology. This is probably the least distinctive of the AC distinctives, something around which there is a growing consensus in Christianity: that human beings are thoroughly mortal, though made in the image of God.

A symposium of scientific experts at the 2008 inaugural World Science Festival in New York City addressed the question: What does it mean to be human? What (if anything) sets us apart from the animals?

Answers included such things as:

• We are human from conception (we follow a human “programme”);
• We’re conscious of more than self;
• We remember;
• We transmit information;
• We reason;
• We use language and symbols;
• We appreciate our mortality;
• We recognize beauty; but
• There is little genetic difference between a human and a chimp.

Turning to the Bible for our answers we will find that the word of God tells us that human beings are thoroughly mortal creatures though made in the image of God.

1. A human being is a “living soul”, or sometimes, one who has “conscious life”.

The golden verse of biblical anthropology is Genesis 2:7. “The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being [soul]” (Gen. 2:7). The primary meaning of the word soul is that of a breather, a breathing creature. Thus a soul is something we are rather than something we have. Sometimes the word soul is used in a secondary sense and can be translated “life”. Then it is appropriate to say  that a human being has “conscious life”.

In any case, whether the word soul is used of the creature as a whole or of the “life” that the creature has, the word soul is used four times of the animal creation before it is ever used of Adam. Thus God says, “Let the water teem with living creatures`” [living creatures = living souls] (Gen. 1:20, c.f. Rev 16:3). “So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing  [“every living soul”] with which the water teems.” (Gen. 1:21). Living souls include “the livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals” (Gen. 1: 24). All ”the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground” are desribed as having “the breath [or the soul] of life” in them (Gen. 1:30).

Later we are told that “… whatever the man called each living creature [living creature = living soul], that was its name” (Gen. 2:19).

So a human being is a “living soul”, or sometimes, one who has “conscious life”, but this we share in common with the animals.

2. A human being is a creature of dust.

Again, Genesis 2:7 tells us, “The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being [soul]” (Gen. 2:7).

Adam was told, “… dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Gen. 3:19). Abraham agreed, “… I am nothing but dust and ashes …” (Gen. 18:27). David sung that “… he [God] remembers that we are dust …” (Psa. 103:14).

What is true of human beings is certainly true of the animal kingdom. “Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air.” (Gen. 2:19). “These [the animals] all look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up;  when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. When you hide your face, they are terrified;  when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust.“ (Psa. 104:27-29).

Once more Genesis 2:7 says, “The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being [soul].” (Gen. 2:7).

So Job says, “The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” (Job 33:4). “If … he withdrew his spirit and breath … man would return to the dust.” (Job 34:14-15). Speaking of the Princes of men, David says, “When their spirit departs, they return to the ground”. (Psa. 146:4). Once again there seems to be no distinction here between humanity and the animal kingdom. So when God warned Noah of the coming Flood he said, “I am going to bring flood waters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.” (Gen. 6:17). “Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark.” (Gen. 7:15). “Everything on dry land that had the breath of life [the breath of the spirit of life] in its nostrils died.” (Gen. 7:22).  And speaking again of the animals, David says, “When you send your Spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the earth.” (Psa. 104:29-30).

4. Human beings alone are the image of God.

What we have seen so far is that body, soul and spirit we are like the animals. One thing sets us apart however. Humanity alone is made in [or as] the image of God: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Gen. 1:27). Male and female, rich and poor, able or “disabled”, we are all in the image of God.

5. We are to represent him and reign with him over Creation.

Genesis 1:28 says, “God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.“ (Gen. 1:28).

Our creation as the image of God cannot be separated from our commission to rule over the earth and manage it on God’s behalf. As we shall see in future weeks humanity’s calling to rule the earth on God’s behalf has never been revoked!

So much more could be said here. For now it will suffice to say that while sin has corrupted the image of God in every human being is has not obliterated it.

In Genesis 9 God renewed his commission to Noah, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. … they [ the animals] are given into your hands …  for in the image of God has God made man.“ (Gen. 9:1-2, 5).

James tells us, “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.“  (James  3:9-10). He says that we should treat others today on the basis that they are made in the image or likeness of God.

Now Christ is the exact and uncorrupted image of God (2Cor. 4:4, Col. 1:15). With this, and all that has already been said, in mind we can better understand what is said in Hebrews 2:5-9:

“It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified:  ”What is man that you are mindful of him,  the son of man that you care for him?  You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor  and put everything under his feet. In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” (Heb. 2:5-9).

God created humanity in his image to have dominion over the earth. We do not at present, because of sin, see humanity having dominion under God. But we do see Jesus, made man for us, even tasting death for us, on the cross, now raised and ascended to heaven, “crowned with glory honour”. The good news or gospel is that through believing in Christ’s message and in his death on our behalf we are made fit to fulfil our destiny as people made in the image of God: Will will reign in the world to come!