Most of the major religions, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Traditional Christianity believe in the survival of a conscious spirit or soul immediately after death. During this life, they say that the soul is the real person dwelling in a temporary physical body. They believe that when the body dies, the soul of the person continues to live on consciously just like before death. Traditional Christianity believes that when a person dies, his conscious soul is judged immediately to go to either heaven or hell.
The Bible says that Satan deceives the whole world (Revelation 12:9). In the Garden of Eden, Satan deceived our first parents, Adam and Eve, and they believed the lie of Satan, which was ‘You will not surely die’, before they ate the forbidden fruit.
Genesis 3:4
Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die“.
This is similar to saying, ‘You have an immortal soul’. The same lie has been universally believed throughout the history of humanity that when a person dies, his soul continues to live on and he remains conscious in the same way as before his physical death. However, Scripture tells us differently. The key question is: ‘Are dead people conscious or not?’
Let us consider what the Bible has to say in answer to this question.
Psalm 6:5
For in death there is no remembrance of You; In the grave who will give You thanks?
Ecclesiastes 9:10
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.
Isaiah 38:18
For Sheol (the grave) cannot thank You, Death cannot praise You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth.
Psalm 115:17
The dead do not praise the LORD, Nor any who go down into silence.
Why do Christians not believe these clear scriptures, which categorically disprove the doctrine of the immortality of the soul? Notice, the Bible says that when a person dies his memory ceases, he cannot praise God and he has no knowledge or wisdom. In other words, the ‘soul’ of a person without a body is not conscious.
The concept of the immortal soul was the result of pagan beliefs developed by Greek poets and philosophers. The Greek philosopher Plato fully developed the concept of the immortal soul, and this belief infiltrated the Roman Catholic Church and subsequently the Protestant churches.
The Bible teaches resurrection, which is a rising from the dead. This is in direct opposition to the pagan belief in an immortal soul. Resurrection is the glorious central truth of the Bible. The Bible says that Jesus Christ accomplished resurrection (immortal life) for each and every person through His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead.
1 Corinthians 15:21-22
21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
This proves that the dead will live again in a conscious state, but only when they are resurrected in their immortal bodies and not a second before that. Death is an enemy, which Jesus Christ destroyed through His death and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:26). The victory, which Christ has won for Adam and Eve and all of their descendants, is the resurrected life, which God will give to everyone in the future; first to God’s Elect, the 144,000 Firstfruits, in the First Resurrection and then to the rest of humanity, the Great Harvest, in the Second Resurrection.
The false teaching of the immortal soul undermines the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It makes redundant the need for the resurrection of the dead and makes redundant the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. If a dead person remains conscious after his death and he is judged immediately to go to either heaven or hell, then why would there be a need for God to resurrect him later on or a reason for God’s Great White Throne Judgement?
Let us now go on to understand what the Bible means by the term ‘a living soul’.
Genesis 2:7 (KJV)
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (nephesh).
Notice, this verse tells us that Adam became a living soul, and not that Adam had a soul. A living soul simply means a living being as translated in other versions of the Bible, like the NKJV. Adam became a living soul after God breathed the breath of life into his body. The breath of life is the spirit in man, the human spirit, which Apostle Paul says all human beings possess.
1 Corinthians 2:11
For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?
A person becomes a living soul when he is conceived. It is when his human spirit sent from God unites with his embryonic body, the zygote, at conception. The Bible says that an animal is also a living soul. The Hebrew word in Genesis 2:7 for the ‘living soul’ of human beings is nephesh. This same Hebrew word is also used for animals and translated as ‘living creatures’, for example, in Genesis 1:21.
Genesis 1:21 (KJV)
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.
People and animals are all living souls. A person becomes a living soul, a human being, at conception. Likewise, an animal becomes a living soul, a living creature, when its animal spirit unites with its embryonic animal body at conception. So, both a man and an animal are living souls each comprising of a spirit united with a body. It is the human spirit that makes us human beings made in the image of God, giving us our unique individual characteristics, body form and personalities. It is the animal spirit that makes animals unique to their species with their individual characteristics, body forms and behaviours.
When a person dies, his fleshly human body goes back to the dust, but his unconscious human spirit, with all of his individual characteristics and personality intact, returns to God who gave it for safe keeping until the person’s resurrection.
Ecclesiastes 12:7
Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.
The Bible clearly says that the body without the spirit is dead.
James 2:26
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
The human spirit is not conscious without a body. Therefore, after death, a person will only become conscious again when his spirit is united with a body, but this time it is his new immortal body, at the resurrection. Once again, the person will become a conscious living soul, but with an immortal body that will never die. Yes, all people are destined to have an immortal soul but not before they are resurrected. Christ destroyed the last enemy, which is death for all people, through His death and resurrection.
There is no indication in the Bible that a dead animal will be resurrected, so it appears that animals cease to exist at death.
Spirit, Soul and Body
Apostle Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 that a believer’s whole spirit, soul and body are preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:23
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul (psychē), and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This scripture is misused and misunderstood by many Christians to preach that man is a tri-partite being composed of three different parts, which are spirit, soul and body. Based on this misconception, an unbiblical theology of spirit, soul and body has been developed and believed by many Christians.
Apostle Paul was well versed in the Word of God, which categorically teaches that man is a living soul consisting of spirit and body only. So, we can be sure that Apostle Paul did not preach that man is a tri-partite being, contrary to the Word of God.
In the verse above, Paul was writing to a group of believers in Thessalonica. By referring to the ‘whole spirit, soul and body’, Paul was simply emphasising the fact that God will preserve these believers as blameless (righteous) in all aspects of their life. Please note that the Greek word for ‘soul’ is psychē, which means life. This confirms that Paul was emphasising the preservation of their life in Christ, which believers have now by faith. All believers will be counted as blameless (righteous) to rise in their new immortal glorified bodies at Christ’s Second Coming.
Our soul is not immortal because the Bible is clear that ‘the soul who sins shall die’.
Ezekiel 18:4
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.
The whole of the Bible consistently teaches that when a person dies he ‘sleeps’. The phrase ‘slept with his fathers’ occurs 36 times in the Old Testament as in 1 Kings 2:10.
1 Kings 2:10 (KJV)
So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.
A person who is ‘sleeping’ in the grave is not conscious of his surroundings, and he has not ascended into either heaven or entered a so-called ‘hell’.
John 3:13 (KJV)
And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
Acts 2:34
For David did not ascend into the heavens…
Can we believe what these clear scriptures say? They say that no man has ascended to heaven (except Jesus) and that the dead patriarchs, like David, have not gone to heaven, but are sleeping with their ancestors. The only Person who has ascended to heaven is God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and heaven is where He came from in the first place. The spirits of all dead people, both believers and unbelievers, are in God’s safe keeping in a state of peaceful slumber until their resurrection.
Our Christian hope and focus must be on the resurrection, and not on the unbiblical pagan belief of the immortal soul. This is very important. We must get rid of this erroneous thinking of the satanic lie of the immortal soul. Job believed in the resurrection from the dead and not in the immortality of the soul.
Job 14:13-15
13 Oh, that You would hide me in the grave, That You would conceal me until Your wrath is past, That You would appoint me a set time, and remember me! 14 If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, Till my change comes. 15 You shall call, and I will answer You; You shall desire the work of Your hands.
Job, who died long ago, is still ‘sleeping’ in his grave waiting to receive his change into his new immortal, glorified, resurrected body. For Job and all true believers, who are the Firstfruits, this change will occur when they rise in the First Resurrection at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
Resurrection from the dead is described as the victory over death, which Christ has won for Adam and Eve and all of their descendants.
1 Corinthians 15:54
So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
As mentioned previously, the only Person who has risen from the dead is the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:20
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Notice that Christ, being the First of the Firstfruits, is the only Person to have risen from the dead, and He will be followed by all true believers, the 144,000 Firstfruits, in the First Resurrection. Also, notice that this scripture confirms that when people die, they ‘fall asleep’.
Apostle Paul powerfully preached resurrection and not the false doctrine of the immortal soul, which nullifies the victory over death and the new resurrected life, which Jesus Christ won for everyone on the cross. On the cross, Jesus Christ took away the curse of death, for all of humanity, brought about by the sin of Adam, so that all of humanity will be blessed with resurrection from the dead.
Why does Traditional Christianity, against all of the clear scriptures given in the Bible, still believe in the survival of a conscious self after death? It interprets this as an ‘intermediate state’. What biblical support does it use to justify its belief in an immortal soul? The most quoted scriptures used by Traditional Christianity to support its belief in the immortal soul are those written by Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians and Philippians. So, let us look at these scriptures.
2 Corinthians 5:6-9
6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. 9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.
Philippians 1:21-23
21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.
In these scriptures, Paul says that when he is absent from the body or when he departs (dies), he will be with the Lord. A dead person who is ‘sleeping’ in his grave is not aware of any time gap between the time when he dies (sleeps) and when he wakens up from his sleep, which is when he is resurrected. So, for Paul his first conscious waking moment, after death, will be with Christ, when he is resurrected together with all of the Saints, the 144,000 Firstfruits, to meet Jesus Christ in the air at Christ’s Second Coming.
Notice, in the verse given below, Paul understood that all believers will be presented together, as a group, to Christ at His Second Coming, and no believer is ever consciously present with Christ before that time.
2 Corinthians 4:14
knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you.
In this verse, notice that Paul understood that all believers will be presented together, as a group, to Christ at His Second Coming, and no believer is ever consciously present with Christ before that time.
Throughout his writings, Paul consistently emphasises resurrection and he has nothing whatsoever to say about the immortality of the soul. Notice again, what Paul has to say in the scripture below.
2 Timothy 4:6-8
6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.
When will Paul and all of God’s Elect Saints receive their crowns of righteousness? They will receive them on the Day of Christ’s appearing, which is the Day of Christ’s Second Coming when all of God’s Elect Saints will rise as the Firstfruits in the First Resurrection.
Traditional Christianity also depends on a few other scriptures to prop up its false belief in the immortal soul, which we shall now discuss.
The thief on the cross
Luke 23:42-43
42 Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom“. 43 And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Did the thief on the cross go to Paradise, to be with Jesus Christ, immediately after his death? We know from scripture that Jesus did not go to Paradise immediately after His death. The body of Jesus was in His tomb for three days and three nights until His resurrection. So, the scripture above cannot be saying that the thief went to Paradise on the same day that Jesus and he were crucified. This scripture makes a lot more sense if the punctuation mark of a comma after the second ‘you’ is altered to read as follows:
Luke 23:42-43
42 Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom”. 43 And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you today, you will be with Me in Paradise”.
Please note that there were no commas, verses, paragraphs or even chapter breaks in the ancient Hebrew and Greek Manuscripts, from which the versions of the Bible have been translated. These were added at a later date, and do not form part of the inspired writings. Sometimes the commas, verses, paragraphs and chapter breaks are placed inappropriately as in this case.
The thief on the cross was converted on the cross because he was pre-destined to believe in the Son of God in this life before he died, before Christ’s Second Coming. He was indeed one of God’s Elect, one of the 144,000 Firstfruits. Currently, the thief is dead and in a state of ‘sleep’. His next conscious waking moment will be when he rises in his new immortal, glorified, body in the First Resurrection with the rest of God’s Elect to meet Jesus Christ in the air at His Second Coming. This is when Jesus Christ will establish His Millennial Kingdom, the Paradise on earth. It will only be at that time, when the thief together with all of God’s Elect Saints will, in actuality, be ‘in Paradise’ with Christ.
Elijah and Enoch – are they currently in heaven?
2 Kings 2:1 and Genesis 5:24 are interpreted by Traditional Christianity to mean that God took Elijah and Enoch straight from earth to heaven without them dying a physical death. This is not true. God did not take Elijah and Enoch to heaven, the dwelling place of God, where God’s throne is presently located somewhere in the universe.
Let us remind ourselves that there are three distinct meanings of heaven/heavens in the Bible, depending on the context.
Firstly, heaven means earth‘s atmosphere, or the visible sky. Secondly, heavens mean the Universe. Thirdly, heaven means the dwelling place of God, where God’s throne is presently located somewhere in the Universe.
The Bible is clear that no man has ascended to heaven, the dwelling place of God (John 3:13). Therefore, we can be sure that Elijah and Enoch are not presently there. God lifted Elijah and Enoch from the earth into its heaven (earth’s atmosphere/the sky) and He must have placed them at another location on earth where they later died a natural death.
The Bible says that all men of faith have died in faith (Hebrews 11:13). Like all men of faith who have died, Elijah and Enoch are presently sleeping, awaiting the promise of their resurrection from the dead at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. None of the dead men of faith have ascended to heaven, God’s dwelling place. Although spiritually speaking, in this life, all believers are seated together with Christ in heavenly places by faith and not in person (Ephesians 2:6).
Jesus’s transfiguration when Moses and Elijah appeared with Him
Matthew 17:2-3
2 He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. 3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.
This was a vision given to Peter, James and John in fulfilment of Matthew 16:28, when Jesus said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom’.
Moses and Elijah are currently ‘sleeping’, and they will be awoken from their ‘sleep’ in their new immortal, glorified, bodies at the First Resurrection, with the rest of the 144,000 Firstfruits, when Jesus returns. Peter, James and John were given a vision on the Mount of Transfiguration to see what the returning Jesus Christ, in His radiant and glorified immortal body, will look like. Also, they saw Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus. This is a vision of Jesus Christ in all His glory together with the Saints (represented by Moses and Elijah) when they rise, in their new and glorified immortal bodies, at the First Resurrection to be with Jesus at His return to set up the Millennial Kingdom on earth.
The rich man and Lazarus
The story of the rich and Lazarus is a parable and not a true account, and it does not in any way support the belief in an immortal soul. In Chapter 19, we give the true meaning of this parable in detail.
What about Near Death Experiences (NDEs)?
Many Christians also rely on accounts of people’s Near Death Experiences as further proof for their false belief in an immortal soul. So, let us also discuss this subject before we conclude the chapter.
Thousands and some say even millions of people have experienced a Near Death Experience (NDE). Many NDEs have been reported by people who were pronounced clinically dead i.e. their hearts had stopped functioning and they had stopped breathing.
An NDE is an amazing phenomenon whereby some people experience themselves floating in the air looking down on their lifeless bodies. They remember many vivid details such as the hospital room, and the doctors and nurses. Most NDEs last for only a few minutes. In some cases, the person experiences leaving the location of their lifeless body and visiting other places and people, remembering details of conversations and places visited. These are known as Out-of-Body experiences (OBEs).
Does an NDE with an Out-of-Body experience prove that we are born with an immortal soul? The empathic answer is no. It does not prove the immortality of the soul. In order to appreciate this answer, we need to remind ourselves of how the Bible defines death.
Ecclesiastes 12:7
Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.
Death occurs when the body goes back to the dust and the human spirit returns to God who gave it. In other words, we can be sure that death has occurred only when the body begins to decompose, which is when the human spirit leaves the body to return to God. The Bible’s clear definition of death is when the spirit has left the body.
James 2:26
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
People who experience an NDE do not die as the Bible defines death. These people may clinically die for a short time, but their human spirit does not leave their seemingly ‘dead’ bodies to return to God. This is why they can be revived back to life. So, an Out-of-Body NDE does not prove that a person’s soul remains conscious after death; it only shows that the seemingly unconscious person has experienced a special state of consciousness.
So, how do we explain ‘the special state of consciousness’ people experience during NDEs? There is no doubt that NDEs can be very real and life transforming for the people who experience them. One researcher on NDEs wrote, “You will find that the Near Death Experience is an interactive communication between the experiencer and the spirit world.”
We believe that this is exactly what happens during an NDE. The experiencer is impacted by the reality of the spirit world. The Bible abundantly confirms that there is a real spirit world and we are surrounded by it. There is the good, benevolent spirit world of God and His holy angels. However, God has also temporarily allowed the bad, malevolent spirit world of Satan and his fallen angels to exist and operate on earth. It appears that during an NDE, the spirit world communicates with the person in a dramatic way and they are influenced by either the good spirit world of God or the bad spirit world of Satan.
If a person’s NDE transforms them to be a loving, forgiving, humble God fearing person, then praise God that they have been impacted by the good spirit world of God. We can be sure that all NDEs, which are in line with the Word of God, impacting people’s lives in a godly way, are visions from God.
Apostle Paul experienced a vision from God when he was ‘caught up to the third heaven’ as he explains in 2 Corinthians 12:1-4, which we cover in Chapter 14. Apostle Paul had a wonderful godly experience, which seems to have been an Out-of-Body NDE. This was a glorious vision, which Paul was privileged to receive from God.
It is very important to note that God did not permit Apostle Paul to utter any details of what he saw in his vision of the third heaven, which is the new heaven, yet to be established in the Eternal Kingdom of God. Therefore, we need to be very careful about people who describe heaven or a so-called ‘hell’ in graphic detail because of their NDEs. Such experiences are contrary to the Word of God and they are deceptions and lies from Satan. The Bible says that Satan deceives the whole world, and that he masquerades himself as an angel of light. So, there is a real possibility that the experiencer has been influenced by the bad spirit world of Satan and his sinful fallen angels.
Revelation 12:9
So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world: he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
In John Chapter 11, the Bible records the powerful account of Jesus’s friend Lazarus, who died, lay in his tomb for four days, and then was resurrected by Jesus to live an earthly life in the flesh again. Lazarus truly died, as the Bible defines death, because His body was already in an advanced stage of decomposition. However, Jesus Christ was able to command Lazarus’s ‘sleeping’ spirit to return to his dead body so that Lazarus was restored to a healthy living soul once again.
Surely, if Lazarus’s ‘soul’ had remained conscious after death, then this would have presented a great opportunity for Lazarus to tell the world about his after-death experience: the things he saw in heaven during the four days of his death. However, there is not even a single word written in the Bible to indicate that Lazarus remained conscious during the four days of his death.
The truth of the Bible is that when a person dies, he is not conscious. He ‘sleeps’ until his resurrection. The Bible says that a dead person cannot thank God, the dead cannot praise Him and the dead cannot hope to find any truth.
Isaiah 38:18
For Sheol (the grave) cannot thank You, Death cannot praise You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth.
The Bible does not support any teaching of an intermediate conscious state between death and resurrection. Traditional Christianity believes that immediately after death, disembodied souls are judged by God to receive either reward in heaven or punishment in ‘hell’. It believes that later on in future, God will resurrect all disembodied souls for further judgement, only for them to receive the same repeated reward of going to heaven or the same repeated punishment of going to ‘hell’. This belief does not make any sense at all and it is totally unbiblical.
Conclusion
Our Christian hope is firmly based on the resurrection of the dead, through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and not on the pagan teaching of the immortality of the soul. It cannot be over emphasised that the teaching of the immortality of the soul is a lie, an outright deception from Satan.
The Bible teaches resurrection, which is a rising from the dead. This is in direct opposition to the pagan belief in an immortal soul. Resurrection is the glorious central truth of the Bible. The Bible says that Jesus Christ accomplished resurrection (immortal life) for each and every person through His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead.
1 Corinthians 15:21-22
21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.