A common religious belief is that man has an ‘immortal soul,’ but this is not a teaching that comes from the Bible. It is a product of Pagan religion that has been adopted by most of Christendom.

Augustine of Hippo (355-430AD), one of the Roman Catholic saints, believed the soul and the body make up a human. He reasoned and asserted that the soul is immortal because it possesses truth. Because the soul is capable of grasping scientific truth, and because truth is immortal, the soul too is immortal. But human reason alone cannot see Bible Truth (cf. 1Cor. 2:14). This false idea has been passed to Protestantism and most of the world’s religions from its Pagan sources.

The online edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia states:

“Egypt affords at a very early date the most abundant evidence of an extremely vivid and intense belief in a future life. Offerings of provisions of all sorts to the spirits of the departed, elaborate funeral ceremonies, and the wonderfully skillful mummification of the bodies of the deceased, all bear witness to the strength of the Egyptians’ convictions of the reality of the next life” (article “Immortality”).

The same article also says that in the fourth century B.C. the Greek philosopher Plato, around the time of Augustine, popularized the teaching of the immortality of the soul:

“It is, however, in the hands of his [Socrates’] great pupil Plato that the doctrine attained its most elaborate philosophical exposition and defence. … For Plato, the soul is a being quite distinct from the body, related to it as the pilot to the ship, the charioteer to the chariot. The rational soul is the proper soul of man. It is a Divine element, and it is this which is immortal.”

In ‘Phaedo’ a dialogue of Plato claimed,

“The soul, whose inseparable attribute is life, will never admit life’s opposite, death. Thus, the soul is shown to be immortal, and since immortal, indestructible” (Plato the Teacher: Being Selections from the Apology, Euthydemus, Protagoras, Symposium, Phaedrus, Republic and Phaedo of Plato, 1897, p. 449).

Then writing of death, Plato further reasoned, “Is this [death] anything but the separation of soul and body? ... Being dead is the attainment of this separation when the soul exists in [it]self, and is parted from the body” (pp. 425-426).

No source other than Plato’s own reason and logic is given for this belief. What is almost universally believed and taught is not from the Bible but based on human reasoning of the fallen mind of this pagan Greek philosopher who lived hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth.

Obviously, death is a reality of life. Death can be devastating, separating us from family and friends. We want to believe that something better awaits a loved one who has died—that he or she has gone to a so-called ‘better place.’ But is there a basis of such ideas?

We need to consult the Scripture in order to know “the truth.”

Most Christians and non-Christians alike assume that when a ‘relatively good’ person dies, his or her ‘SOUL’ immediately departs for heaven, and when an evil person dies, he or she immediately goes to the burning fires of hell (or some place of eternal punishment) to be live and be tormented for eternity. Not a word of this is Bible Truth as we shall explain.

Sadly, what occurs after death is widely misunderstood, being complicated by the predominant false belief that most people hold to… that death really does NOT mean the End of Life. Rather, they believe the Serpent’s Lying Words to Eve saying … “… thou shalt surely NOT DIE.” (Genesis 3:5). We might ask such folks; “What part of DEAD don’t you understand?”

The fact is that dead people are really and totally dead in body and soul. They immediately go “hades,” which is New Testament Greek word for “the grave.” They do NOT continue to LIVE anywhere in any form.

Jesus here below says the alternate to “everlasting life” is to “perish” (Greek. apollymi, be destroyed)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever Believeth In Him should not PERISH, but have EVERLASTING LIFE.” (John 3:16 (KJV)

These false religious beliefs are based on the false premise that each of us is an ‘immortal soul’ living in a physical body, and when the body DIES the soul supposedly continues to LIVE.

The term ‘immortal soul’ does NOT appear anywhere in Scripture.

If a dead SOUL still lives, then the soul would need some place to go when the body dies—which leads us to the common misconceptions of heaven and hell. The truth is a completely different scenario.

Thankfully, when we do understand what life and death are all about, we can know that Something Much Better Does Await Those BELIEVERS In Jesus Who Have Died, but it probably isn’t what you thought. The Bible reveals that the Soul is NOT IMMORTAL. The Bible fact is that after death a person goes neither to heaven nor to hell immediately.

Here we have the Bible’s clear explanation of the source for the very real soul-life of man.

“And the LORD God formed man [his body] of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath [Heb, ruach, spirit] of Life; and man BECAME a Living Soul [Heb. nephesh.]” (Genesis 2:7 (KJV)

“The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him [within his body]. (Zech. 12:1 (KJV)

Genesis 2:7 (above) does not say Adam was ‘given’ a soul, nor that some form of life called a “soul” was put within him. It says that he became a living ‘creature’ (a nephesh in Hebrew) when the ‘spirit of man’ entered Adam’s body. The “spirit” in man animates man’s spirit and body as a soul-being. Note that apart from the simultaneous presence of BOTH the ‘body’ and the “spirit of man” the soul will NOT be present.

In place of the word soul, we could say people are specially created living beings, one miraculously made possible by the gift of spirit-life that was dispensed with God’s “breath [Spirit]” when He formed “the spirit of man” (Zechariah 12:1).

“… there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding [in soul].” (Job 32:8 (KJV)

The Bible further tells us that upon death “the spirit shall Return To God Who Gave It.” Thus, when a man is DEAD, then lacking his ‘spirit,’ he is dead physically and … his soul-being ‘sleeps.’ This is as if you were to shut off the electricity (the invisible power source) at the switch and the ‘light goes out.’

“Then shall the dust [of the body] return to the earth as it was: and The Spirit Shall Return Unto God Who Gave It. Ecclesiastes 12:7 (KJV)

Thus, Jesus referred to death as “sleep.” Notice the exchange between Jesus and his disciples.

“‘Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.’ Then His disciples said, ‘Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.’ However, Jesus Spoke of His Death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus said to them plainly, ‘Lazarus Is Dead.’” (Jn. 11:11-14 (KJV)

Sleep is used to describe death because a person in the grave” is like a person who is who is sleeping soundly: unconscious, unproductive and unaware of the passing of time. In fact, when we believers are awakened at the Rapture it will seem as we were asleep only for a moment.

Shortly after he was created, Adam was warned that his life would be taken away if he disobeyed the words of God by eating the fruit of “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” in the Garden of Eden:

“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt NOT eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof Thou Shalt Surely DIE.” (Genesis 2:17 (KJV)

It was not long after being warned of God that Adam and Eve rebelled against God’s words and did eat of that tree. As a result of this they had the sentence of ultimate death.

“¹⁹ In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Genesis 3:19 (KJV)

This does not say that just Adam and Eve’s bodies would die. In spite of modern beliefs, there is no indication in the Bible that “they” (as spiritual soul-beings) would continue to live in some other form, place or dimension.

As we’ve seen, every person’s life totally ends when dead. But then what?

In Part 2 we will answer that question.

(You may want to read the truth about "The Rich Man and Lazarus" at: http://www.artlicursi.com/articles/real-meaning-%E2%80%98-rich-man-and-lazarus%E2%80%99-0 )