SOUL OR SPIRIT
Which One?
William Robert West
Foreword
What do you believe about souls? There are many very different doctrines taught in the world today concerning souls that are believed to be in all humans. By most a soul is believed to be something that is wholly apart from the person it is in; it is viewed as something that is complete in its self without the person; it will live after the person it is in is dead; it is believed that a soul will exist forever without the person; it will never be dead and therefore a soul cannot be resurrected from the dead. It is believed that a soul must live someplace forever, and it will live either in Heaven or Hell even if there is no resurrection. The doctrine of unconditional immortality of a deathless soul being in a person and leaving that person at the death of the person makes it impossible for Christ to give life to that soul; if it had immortality it would already have life and could never not have life. All Christ could do is give it a reward or punish it.
Many believe:
(1). At the death of the person that bodiless, deathless soul that had been in a saved person will fly immediately to Heaven to the very presents of Jesus and God. Many believe souls of the dead are looking down on us, they watch over their loved ones on earth and can sometimes be seen by living persons.
(2). At the death of a lost person, a soul that was in him or her will immediately be carried to Hell where it will forever be alive, suffering and screaming, while it is being eternally tormented by God with no hope that God will ever stop tormenting it.
(3). At the death of most persons that are Catholic, souls that were in them goes immediately to Purgatory where souls will suffer unto souls have suffered enough to pay for the sins of the persons they were in, then these souls will be saved by their own suffering.
(4). In the Abraham’s bosom version souls that had been in the saved go immediately at death to be rewarded in Abraham’s bosom, the good side of hades, unto the coming of Christ while souls that were in the lost are tormented in the bad side of hades unto the coming of Christ; after the judgment these souls will be endlessly tormented by God in an endless burning Hell.
(5). A view of a soul now believe by some Protestants, called Rephaim, is that after the death of the person, a soul leaves the person and it is a shadowy something that has no substance, it is nothing more than mental thoughts without any kind of substance or body.
(6). Spiritualism. After the death of the person, the spirit becomes a ghost that sometimes haunt the house it was in, it is a ghastly spook that can sometimes be seen at night among the graves and tombstones in a cemetery. According to Spiritualism, these ghosts or spooks roam the earth and can and are seen by people, and even live in the house with people. The ghost that have left the persons they were dwelling in can come back and these ghost can do both good and evil to living persons that still have ghosts (souls) dwelling in them. Many who do not think of themselves as being a Spiritualist and even deny that they are a Spiritualist believe much of the Spiritualist belief; most funerals that I have I have attended the preacher has a soul that had been dwelling in the dead person dwelling in Heaven and it was looking down on the funeral of the dead person it had been freed from; have you ever been to a funeral where the preacher said a soul that had been in the dead person was alive in Hell and looking up from Hell at the person it had been in?
(7). The person, not a soul that had been in a person, sleeps from death unto the resurrection, the person is resurrected and judged, the person is given endless life or eternal punishment of death.
(8). There are many other beliefs about what a soul is and what a soul can and cannot do, far too many to list here.
Two of the views that are commonly believed about what will happen to souls that leave mankind after death are the subject of this book.
VIEW ONE: The belief that all have a “soul” that W. E. Vine says is nothing but “the immaterial, invisible part of man,” (“Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary Of Old And New Testament Words,” page 588) and Robert A. Morey says, that after the death of the body a soul will be nothing but “mental thoughts” (“Death And The Afterlife,” page 79). According to those that believe as he does, this nothing but thoughts is the only part of a person that will have eternal life in Heaven. This immaterial something that is nothing but mental thoughts is all of you that will be in Heaven or Hell; will the person (you) be gone and nothing but thoughts will be all that is left, then all of the “you” that you now know anything about will be forever be gone. Most that believe all are born with an immortal “soul” that is dwelling in them have only a vague unclear understanding or even no idea of what they believe this unknown immaterial something they believe to be in them really is, but “it” (not themselves) is what they believe must be saved, and only “it” will be in Heaven if they save “it,” or in Hell if they do not. The belief that everyone has an immaterial something in them and this something, whatever this nothing but “mental thoughts” could be, will live forever and cannot die makes it not possible for death to be the wages of sin. If a person has something in them that is deathless, it would not be subject to the wages of sin, which is death, and this deathless nothing could never ever be destroyed; this, whatever it is would be, is born with eternal life, and it could never die; therefore, it could not be resurrected from the dead.
This view has two major divisions.
(1). That there is a "soul" in each person that cannot ever die or be destroyed, but most of these immaterial, nothing but mental thoughts beings God will forever torment after the death of the person, It is strange to me that I can find no one that believes there is a soul that is in a person that knows what a soul is. They tell me what a soul is not, but not what they believe a soul to be; in the many books I have read, the nearest anyone has came is to say that after a soul departs from the person it was in is Vine’s definitions that it will be nothing but thoughts without any kind of substance or body.
(2). Universalism: that all mankind has a "soul" that cannot ever die or be destroyed, everyone has this something in them that will live forever, but it will be saved. If it (a immaterial bodiless beings) is not saved in this lifetime it will be saved after death.
VIEW TWO: The belief that the you (person you now are) will put on immortality at the resurrection, and it is you (not just some immaterial something that had been in you) that will live forever in Heaven; we, not an immaterial soul, is now in the image of Adam, we, not an immaterial soul, will have the image of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:49). The wages of sin is death, and after there resurrection and judgment the lost will die the second death, they do not now have immortality and never will be immortal; those who do not belong to Christ will forever be destroyed after their judgment.
Protestant Premillennialist
Most Protestant Premillennialist believe the lost will be totally destroyed, but there are three Premillennial views that are common in Protestant churches on how or where the lost will be destroyed.
(1). A common Protestant Premillennialist belief is that the destruction of the lost will be on this earth and the saved will forever live on this earth; no person will ever be in Heaven. Many believe the Valley of Gehenna will be restored and the lost will literally be burn to ashes in it.
(2). Some Protestant Premillennialist believe that the saved will be with Christ in Heaven, not on earth after the thousand years, the second death will be the end of the lost, but they are not literally burned to ashes on this earth in the restored Valley of Gehenna.
(3). Some Protestant Premillennialist believe the wages of sin is eternal life with torment for souls that cannot die, which puts them in the camp of those that believe there will be endless life being torment for deathless souls that had been in unsaved persons, they do not believe death is the wages of sin.
If there is either a soul or a spirit in us that is now immortal and it can never die or be dead, how could there be a resurrection of the dead? Do you believe in the resurrection of the dead? If yes, what do you believe will be resurrected; will your dead body be raised from the dead, or do you believe as many that only a soul that they do not believe can ever be dead, but it is the only part of a person that will be raised from the dead? When I first begin this study I was surprised and made to tremble at how few believed in the resurrection, and how many there are that do not really know what they believe about it. Many believe some deathless something that they believe to be in themselves will instantly be transited from this world to Heaven or Hell at death without a resurrection, before the resurrection, before the Judgment Day, and before the second coming of Christ, but when they are asked what is the reason for the resurrection, they not only do not know, but have never really thought about it. Death is looked at as being a doorway to life in another form, that death is not really death, and there is nowhere in their thoughts or in their faith for a resurrection for their theology says no one is really dead. The resurrection has been removed from the faith of many by today's theology that says some immortal something that is believed to be in a person will go to Heaven at the moment of death. But is there any life after death before the second coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead? Paul said it will be at the resurrection when, "This mortal must put on immortality," but if we have a soul that is now immortal, then what is it that is now mortal that will put on immortality at the resurrection?
What does the Bible say about an immortal soul and/or spirit? Together soul and spirit are used about 1,600 times in the Bible, but not one time is immortal ever used in the same verse with either one, “immortal soul or an immortal spirit,” “deathless or never dying soul or a never dying spirit” is not in the Bible, not even in the King James Version. Immortal and immortality is not in the Old Testament, the promise of immortality is given to no one. In the New Testament, immortal is used only one time, immortality is used six times, all six by Paul. What does he say?
1. "Now unto the King eternal, immortal" (1 Timothy 1:17).
2. Only God has immortality (1 Timothy 6:16).
3. Christ "abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (2 Timothy 1:10).
4. "To them (Christians) that...seek for glory and honor and immortality" (Romans 2:7).
5. "This mortal must put on immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:53) at the resurrection.
6. "This mortal shall have put on immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:54) after the resurrection. This mortal person must put on immortality, not this soul that is already immortal must put on immortality.
Why are we to "seek for immortality" if we are born immortal? Why will we "put on immortality" if the only part of us that will ever be immortal has been immortal from birth (or as some believe - before birth)? The fact that a person must "seek for...immortality" and immortality must be "put on" at the resurrection is conclusive proof that a person does not now have immortality, nor does a person have some immaterial, immortal something in them that cannot die. If Romans 2:7 and 1 Corinthians 15:53 teaches nothing more, it teaches that no part of a person now possess immortality. Not one passage in the Bible says anyone is now immortal. The immortal soul theology is from pagan philosophy, if all have a deathless soul, and we are told that this deathless soul is the only thing that will ever be immortal, and it is already immortal, the resurrection is made to be useless.
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Table of Contents
AN IMMORTAL SOUL
OR RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
The Resurrection, Our Only Hope Of Life After Death
By William West
Chapter one: The nature of man - what is man?
Chapter two: Life or Death
Chapter three: The reinterpretations of the great doctrines of the Bible
Chapter four: From where came Hell, from man or God?
o Unquenchable fire
o Old Testament history of Gehenna
o Gehenna used by Christ on four occasions
o The vanishing Hell
o Twenty-nine plus version of Hell
o Seventeen plus Protestant versions of Hell
o Eight other versions of Hell
o Three Catholic versions of Hell
Chapter five: Sheol, Hades, and Tartarus
Chapter six: The thirty-one Hell passages
Chapter seven: A strange and unexplainable silence of the Old Testament on punishment and life after death, life, death, torment, destruction, destroy, perish, die, and end
Chapter eight: Figurative language, metaphors, and symbolical passage
o Part one: The rich man
o Part two: The destruction of Israel, Matthew 24
o A. D. 70 doctrine
o Day of the Lord
o Part three: The symbolic pictures in Revelation
o Part four: The forever and ever of the King James Version
Chapter nine: Universalist: The "age lasting" Hell
Chapter ten: The results of attributing evil Pagan teachings to God
Chapter eleven: Historical proof of the changing of the teaching of the Bible
Appendix one
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CHAPTER ONE
What Is Man?
What is a man? Are all persons born with immortal souls in them, or do only the saved put on immortality at the resurrection? Is a person a three part being, an animal body with both a soul and a spirit that will live without the body? This is one of the most important questions of all time. It has more influence on our conception of our nature, our view of life in this world, and our view of life after death than any other question.
Soul in the Old Testament is translated from nehphesh, Strong’s Hebrew word #5315—“a breathing creature” A study of the way it is translated in the King James and how other translation differ greatly from the King James reveals facts that are far different that the belief of most about what a soul is, and facts that most will find upsetting. Nehphesh is used in the Old Testament about 870 times and is translated soul only about 473 times in the King James, but in the New International Version (2010 updated version) only 72 out about 870 times it is used.
Of the 870 times Nehphesh is in the Bible, in the New International Version:
o Nehphesh is translated soul only 72 times.
o Nehphesh is not translated soul 798 times.
o Of the 473 times nehphesh is translated “soul” in the King James Version, it was removed 401 times in the New International Version.
Nehphesh is translated in the King James Version into about 40 words; one Hebrew word is translated (or mistranslated) into nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc. Of 870 times nehphesh is used in the Hebrew it was changed into many words by the translators of many versions as they chose to, and all choosing many times to translate it difference even in the same passage. By today’s meaning of “soul” and “life” they means two completely difference things, they are not synonymous.
In the King James Version Nehphesh is translated:
1. Soul about 473 times
2. Life about 122 times
3. Person about 26 times
4. Mind about 15 times
5. Heart about 15 times
6. Personal pronouns 44 + times - yourselves, themselves, her, me, he, his, himself
7. All others, about 200 times - man, creature, living being, fish, own, any, living thing, living creatures, lives, the dead, dead body, kills, slays, slay him, mortally, discontented, ghost, breath, will, appetite, hearty desire, desire, pleasure, lust, deadly. Can any word have this many totally difference meaning? If it did could anyone know which one was being used; it is evidence that the translators of the many translations did not.
In all 870 times that nehpheshs is used it is always associated with the activity of a living being, including dying, and it never implies anything about life after the death of the living being. None of the 870 times it is not an immortal, immaterial, inter something in a person that has no substance; souls (nehpheshs) are the living being (persons, animals, or any living thing) that can die, be killed, or is already dead; although it’s use is often hid from the English readers by the way it was translated or mistranslated.
Soul (nehphesh) as it is used in the Bible
(1) Genesis 1:20 "The moving creature that has life" (nehpheshs-mortal beings, used referring to animals, Strong’s Hebrew word #5315—“a breathing creature”). Footnote in the King James Version–"The moving creature that has soul." American Standard Version–"Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures" (nehpheshs-mortal beings).
If “soul” were an immortal "immaterial, invisible part of man" (W. E. Vine, Expository Dictionary Of Old And New Testament Words), why is this Hebrew word that is translated soul also translated "living creature" when it is speaking of animals in Genesis 1:21; 1:24; 2:19; 9:10; 9:12; 9:15; 9:16 when the same Hebrew word (nehphesh) is translated "living soul" in Genesis 2:7 when it is speaking of a person? According to those that believe there is an immortal soul in a person “living Creature” and “living soul” are completely difference beings. If this Hebrew word (nehphesh) were an immaterial, immortal part of a person, it would also be an immaterial, immortal part of animals.
(2) Genesis 1:21 "living creature" (nehpheshs-mortal beings, used referring to all life in the water), "And God created the great sea-monsters, and every living creature (nehpheshs-mortal beings) that moves wherewith the water swarmed.”
(3) Genesis 1:24 "living creature" (nehpheshs-mortal beings), used referring to animals, all life on the land), "And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures (soul–nehphesh) after their kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth." In Genesis 1:21-24 every living thing on earth, whether in the water or on land, every thing that has life is a nehphesh, a living being.
o All sea life are nehpheshs, are living beings
o All land life are nehpheshs, are living beings
o And mankind are nehpheshs, are living beings
None of the three are inherent indestructible immortality beings; none have an immortal deathless “soul” dwelling in them.
(4) Genesis 1:30 "life" (nehpheshs-mortal beings, used referring to animals), "And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is life" (nehpheshs-mortal beings); animals are "a living soul."
ALL FOUR TIMES THAT SOUL (nehphesh) IS USED IN GENESIS ONE IT IS USED REFERRING TO ANIMALS Strong’s Hebrew word #5315—“a breathing creature, i.e. animal.” NOT TO A PERSON. ANIMALS WERE SOULS, LIVING BEINGS, BEFORE ANY MAN EXISTED; WHY DID THE TRANSLATORS DELIBERATELY HIDE THE FACT THAT IT IS THE SAME WORD THAT THEY SOMETIMES TRANSLATED SOUL?
o THEY TRANSLATED IT SOULS WHEN IT IS SPEAKING OF PEOPLE.
o THEY TRANSLATED IT LIVING CREATURES WHEN THE SAME WORD IS SPEAKING OF ANIMALS. How could the translators possibly know when the same word is speaking of mortal being and when it is speaking of immortal being? Just as “up” cannot mean “down,” “Mortal” cannot mean “Immortal.”
o Although it is clear that the translators attempted to hide this from their readers, every breathing creature has the same “soul” (nehphesh) that persons have.
"Then God said, 'Let the waters teem with swarms of living souls (nehpheshs-mortal beings), and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.' And God created the great sea monsters, and every living soul (nehphesh-mortal beings) that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.' And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth living souls (nehpheshs-mortal beings) after their kind: cattle and creeping thing and beasts of the earth after their kind'; and it was so...and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is life (nehpheshs-mortal beings) I have given every green herb for meat" (Genesis 1:20-30). “Living creatures" (nehpheshs-mortal beings) is used to describe all living things on earth, people, animals, birds, and fish, not eternal life or some immaterial invisible something that is in a person that is now eternal. If a person being a soul (nehphesh–a living being) makes that person be either immortal or in the image of God, then it makes animals, birds, and fish have a immortal soul in them and be in the image of God.
HENRY CONSTABLE, A. M.: “The Hebrew scholar knows that when Moses, in Genesis i. 20, 2, speaks of the nature of the lower order of animals, and when in Genesis ii, 7, he speaks of the nature of man, the inspired writer used the very same Hebrew terms of both one and the other. Each fish, and fowl, and creeping thing, and beast is called in the Hebrew a nephesh chajah as much as man who was given the rule over them. But this was in its apparent bearing wholly inconsistent with the philosophical ideas of the translators. They considered it dangerous that the similarity of description should appear in the English version, which Moses did not consider it dangerous to exhibit in the Hebrew original. Hence they must guard God’s Word from its supposed dangerous language by translating nephesh chajah very differently in the first chapter of Genesis, where it is applied to the lower creatures, from what they translated it in the second chapter, where it is applied to man…A gross, through unintentional fraud has been committed against the English reader. He is mislead in his searching of the Scriptures He is put on a false scent…Our English translators have supplied us with a commentary of their own instead of a translation, a comment we will here add, utterly alien to truth. But the result of this mistranslation is to lead astray the English reader who trusts in it. This is not the only instance which occurs of the thing in reference to this question. The same Hebrew word is throughout the Old Testament translated according as the Platonic notions of the translator led him to think it ought to be translated. Plato had a considerable hand in the translation of King James’ Bible. The Hebrew word nephesh is translated ‘creature,’ ‘soul’ ‘life’ &c., just as squared with the notions of men who carried Plato’s philosophy into their noble work of the translation of Scripture. We affirm that a grave injury has been done to the English reader, and a gross wrong to God’s word,” Page 31-32, “Hades or The Intermediate State of Man,” 1873, pubic domain.
(5) Genesis 2:7 "A living soul" (nehphesh–a living being, used referring to a person, Strong’s Hebrew word #5315—“a breathing creature”) The first time the King James Version translated nehphesh into "soul," most other translations did not agree with it, not even the New King James Version. "Man became a living being" New King James Version.
o “A living creature" (nehphesh-a mortal being) Genesis 1:20
o “A living creature" (nehphesh-a mortal being) Genesis 1:21
o “A living creature" (nehphesh-a mortal being) Genesis 1:24
o “Wherein there is life" (nehphesh-mortal being) Genesis 1:30
o “A living soul" (nehphesh) Genesis 2:7 "Man became a living being" New King James Version
o It is obvious that the translators of the King James Version translated according to a preconceived opinion in an attempt make persons have an immortal soul dwelling in them but keeps animals from also having souls that are dwelling in them; they made a distinction in animals and men, a distinction that dose not exist in the Hebrew Bible.
o Genesis 2:7 Man became:
o “A living soul" King James Version
o "A living being" New King James Version, American Standard Version, New American Standard Version, Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, Amplified Version, The New American Bible.
o "A living person" New Century Version, The Living Bible, New Living Translation
o "A living creature" The Revised English Bible, Young's Literal Translation.
o