MEMORY VERSE: ‘The soul that sinneth, it shall die.’ Ezekiel 18:20, first part.
LESSON AIM: To study what the Bible means by the words translated “soul” and “spirit” in English translations.
‘The word “soul” or rather the Hebrew and Greek from which it is translated, occurs in the word of God eight hundred and seventy-three times, seven hundred and sixty-eight times in the Old Testament, and one hundred and five times in the New. Also the word rendered “spirit” occurs in both Testaments eight hundred and twenty-seven times, four hundred and forty-two in the Old Testament and three-hundred and eighty-five in the New. Their aggregate use is seventeen hundred times. But notwithstanding the Bible speaks to us eight hundred and seventy-three times of the soul, it never once calls it an “immortal soul;” and though it tells us eight hundred and seven times of the spirit, it never once tells us of a “deathless spirit.”’ Uriah Smith: Review & Herald, May 28, 1857.
1. Does the Bible ever state that souls can die? Ezekiel 18:4; Ezekiel 18:20.
NOTE: ‘Webster [Webster’s Dictionary] defines immortal, “exempt from liability to die.” “One exempt from death.” The unconditional immortality of man therefore is the doctrine that man is not liable to die, that man is exempt from death. But every person who has ever read the Bible at all knows full well that such an idea is in direct opposition to that book from beginning to end. “All have sinned.” “The wages of sin is death.” “Death passed upon all men.” “In Adam all die.” It is not necessary to multiply passages to sustain a truth that is so plain. The force of the Scriptures is evaded, however, by the subterfuge that these statements refer to the body, and not to the soul at all; but that this is only a subterfuge, and a very poor one, appears instantly by the fact that the Scriptures speak thus emphatically of the soul, whatever may be claimed for it. “The soul that sinneth it shall die.” Ezekiel 18:4. “He hath poured out His soul unto death.” Isaiah 53:12. “All they that go down to the dust shall bow before Him; and none can keep alive his own soul.” Psalm 22:29. Again, so far is the Bible from attributing immortality to man that it states directly the contrary. “Shall mortal man be more just than God.” Job 4:17. “O Lord Thou art our God; let not mortal man prevail against Thee.” 2 Chronicles 14:11, margin. So that in whatever form the unconditional immortality of man may be held, it is equally contradictory to the word of God.’ A. T. Jones: Signs of the Times, February 5, 1885.
2. How does the Bible describe the creation of Adam? Genesis 2:7.
NOTE ‘“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.” Grave doctors of divinity (as they are called) assert that what God breathed into man was a part of Himself. This, say they, is what became a living soul. It must be immortal; for God cannot die, neither will He destroy a part of Himself. But the text says, “man became a living soul.” Man was made of dust; then the dust became a living soul after being inspired with the breath of life. If it is a fact, that because God breathed into man the breath of life, that breath is immortal, then beasts must have immortal souls. Moses, in giving, the account of the flood, [Genesis 7:21, 22,] says, “And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowls, and of cattle, and of beasts and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man. All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.”’ J. N. Loughborough: Man’s Present Condition and Future Reward, page 32.