Part 5 – The “Spirit of Man” is the Source of Life for Man.

This Article is part of a multi-part Study Series called “He Led Captivity Captive”.

Today, all of the lost unbelieving dead and all the dead righteous souls are still sleeping in their gravesawaiting their bodily reawakening with soul consciousness.

  • The righteous will be resurrected at the Rapture of the church called “the body of Christ.”
  • Then, about 1,007 years later, following the Tribulation period and the Millennial reign of Christ, the lost unbelievers will be resurrected to “stand” at “the Great White Throne” judgment when “the books” are to “be opened.”

The lost will intelligently stand at the “Great White Throne” Judgment before the Lord Himself. The result of this final judgment is that most then will forever lose their life-giving “spirit of man that will then have ‘returned to the Lord who gave it’ (cf. Eccl. 12:7). Then their bodies will go to the incinerator the Bible calls the “the lake of fire” and be “consumed” by the fire. Thus, the Psalmist wrote:

But the wicked [as individual persons] shall perish [be totally destroyed], and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs: THEY SHALL CONSUME; into smoke shall they CONSUME AWAY.” (Psalm 37:20 (KJV)

“For yet a little while, and The Wicked Shall Not Be [no longer exist in any form in any place]: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and It Shall Not Be.” (Psalm 37:10 (KJV)  

“For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” (Malachi 4:1 (KJV)
“And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi 4:3 (KJV)

Thus, the unbelieving lost souls: … shall be punished with everlasting destruction (Gk. olethros, be destroyed everlastingly) from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;” (2 Thessalonians 1:9 (KJV)

The lost will go to “the lake of fire” where the bodies of ALL the wicked will go after their2nd death, which comes automatically with the departure of their “spirit of man.” Their human spirits will have left them at the very moment of death. The Holy Spirit had Solomon write: “the spirit returneth to the Lord who gave it” (Eccl. 12:7) With that their souls are simultaneously snuffed out, extinguished no longer having conscious thought, just as it is for ALL those in “the grave” after their 1st death.

“Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. 4 His breath [Heb. neshamah. spirit] goeth forth, he [as a body/soul person] returneth to his earth [as dust]; in that very day HIS THOUGHTS PERISH [because the Soul Function is Extinguished].” (Psalm 146:3-4 (KJV)

“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)

“For the living know that they shall die: but The Dead KNOW NOT ANY THING, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5 (KJV).

Gehenna’s “lake of fire” will destroy all ‘the lost unbelievers’ of humanity. The desires of the created soul-man had covered a wide range of human ideas, wants, emotions, cravings … all of which are extinguished at the loss of “the spirit/breath of man” that will have returned to the Lord at the moment of death. Thus, the created man’s death comes to man simply by the loss or departure of his “spirit of man” at death.

“The spirit of man is the candle [the light source in man which is] of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly [the inward, soul man]. (Proverbs 20:27 (KJV)

Thus, we see just how critical “the spirit of man” is. It is ranked 3rd in God’s creation. It is ranked only after the heaven and the earth in God’s creation summary seen here below.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1 (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.” (Zechariah 12:1 (KJV)

From Zech. 12:1 we see how that “the spirit of man” is central of God’s creation. Consider how that;

  • the heavens are for the earth, and
  • the earth is for man, and
  • all because God’s man was created for God.

The heavens water the earth as rain and the sunshine is the light necessary for vegetation and food, for the very life of man on earth. The earth produces man’s earthly needs. It is by man’s spirit that he is central to God’s eternal plan. Man, by his “spirit of man” was created to be spirit-union’ with the very life of “God [who Himself] is spirit (John 4:24). Paul wrote; “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” (1 Corinthians 6:17 (KJV). God planned that man would be God’s habitation, abode, or ‘dwelling place’ … for eternity... filling “the heaven and the earth” (Eph. 1:10). Paul confirms this writing that we are the Temple of God” (1Cor 3:16).

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth IN YOU? (1 Corinthians 3:16 (KJV)

Yet, all men, both the lost and the righteous are destined die at least once with the loss of their life-giving “spirt in man.”

“It is the spirit that quickeneth [makes alive]; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I [Jesus] speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63 (KJV)

“And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [Jesus] was made a quickening [life-giving] spirit.” (1 Corinthians 15:45 (KJV)

The believers of today’s age of “the dispensation of the grace of God” will die once, unless they are raptured alive at His coming in the air.

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep [dead], that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [precede] them which are asleep. 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and The Dead In Christ Shall Rise First: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up [Raptured] together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord [Jesus] in the air: and So Shall We Ever Be With The Lord. 18 Wherefore Comfort One Another With These Words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (KJV)

The departure of the “spirit of man” upon death represents the inverse of man’s life-giving creation sequence as seen here below (Gen. 2:7). Note how that Adam’s dust “body” was created first and then “the spirit of man(Zech. 12:1) was imparted from God and with that Adam was enlivened and animated as an individual soul being. Man is a “Living Soul.” Thus, man does Not have a Soul.

“1) And the LORD God formed man [physically] of the dust of the ground,

2) and breathed into his nostrils the breath [spirit] of life;

3) and MAN BECAME A LIVING SOUL [a whole person].” (Genesis 2:7 (KJV), cf. 1Thes. 5:23)

With the loss of his spirit of man,” the individual, the very person ofthe soul’ (who requires both a spirit and body in order to exist as an individual ‘soul’) … simply ‘ceases to exist.

Therefore, there is no such things as ‘eternal torment’ for the dead eternally lost souls as religion falsely teaches… those of “the 2nd death” simply cease to exist. The Bible, “rightly divided” in the light of the entire Biblical text does not support that false narrative that has been taught by manmade religion for thousands of years.

With the absence of the Lord’s Spirit/Breath in man and lacking the hope of resurrection the state of the dead is as follows;

“For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5 (KJV)
“As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.” (Job 7:9 (KJV)

“Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” (James 4:14 (KJV)

“Then shall the dust [of the decayed body] return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:7 (KJV)

The promised fate of ‘eternal torment’ is reserved only to “the devil and His angels.”

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:” (Matthew 25:41 (KJV)

“And when the thousand years [of the Millennial Kingdom] are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 8And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints [the believing remnant of Israel] about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” (Revelation 20:7-10 (KJV)

(For more detail on this subject you may want to read my Study Series: http://www.artlicursi.com/series/life-death-and-eternal-life)