Restoration of Truth Series: The State of the Dead

by Nathan Lawrence
Hoshana Rabbah Biblical Resources at www.HoshanaRabbah.org

Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Yeshua the Messiah, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which Elohim has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. (Acts 3:19–21, emphasis added)

It has been the common belief among nearly all Christians universally for nineteen hundred years that upon physical death a person’s soul immediately separates from their body and lives immortally either in heaven or in hellfire. In this brief study we will show incontrovertible proof that this cornerstone of Christian orthodoxy needs to be reexamined, and that the idea of the soul being immortal is of non-biblical (even Satanic) origination. Admittedly, this is not a salvational issue, but this belief is detrimental to one’s biblical understanding, since it leads to a skewed view of several other key biblical truths. This belief also hinders the advancement of YHVH’s kingdom as we will also demonstrate below. If you are a bold truth seeker, and not timid about questioning sacred cow beliefs then read on.

Does Man Possess an Immortal Soul?

This question of the immortality of the human soul should not be passed over quickly. Why? Because nearly all of the world’s false, non-biblical religions believe that each person possesses an immortal soul that lives on after death. To the questioning mind, shouldn’t the universality of this idea be suspect? Therefore, shouldn’t it behoove the assiduous truth-seeker to know the origination of this belief? Is it biblical or from some other source? These are excellent questions that we will answer below. The answers affects everyone! 

The Source Is Not Elohim!

The first place in the Bible that the immortality of the soul concept is mentioned is in Genesis chapter three—literally at the beginning of man’s existence on earth, and the source of this idea was not YHVH Elohim, the Creator of man. Rather it was from the spiritual entity Yeshua the Messiah labeled as “the father of all lies” (John 8:44), Satan the devil, the serpent (Rev 12:9). 

We pick up the story of how the immortal soul idea come into man’s initial awareness way back in the Garden of Eden at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, where the serpent (i.e., Satan the devil; Rev 12:9), in enticing the woman to eat from the forbidden tree, told her that “you shall not surely die” even though YHVH had told Adam and Eve that they would die if they ate of it (Gen 2:8–9; 3:1–6). Was the serpent the originator of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, According to the Bible, the answer is yes! As we shall now discover, this concept was not even an aspect of Old Testament theology.

An Analysis of the Hebrew Word Nephesh

Upon a careful analysis of all the Bible scriptures on this subject from both the Tanakh (i.e., Old Testament or OT) and Testimony of Yeshua (i.e., New Testament or NT), a truth becomes clear. Man possesses a soul, but nowhere does Scripture state that his soul is immortal. An understanding of how Scripture uses the Hebrew word nephesh (in the OT) and the Greek word psuche (in the nT)—both translated as “soul” in our Bibles—reveals that notion that the soul of man is immortal is to overlay the Word of Elohim with a concept that is foreign to biblical truth. This is because neither the OT nor the NT indicate that the soul is immortal, but rather that it is simply that part of a human that defines who one is. That is, it is merely one’s personality, character, emotional make-up, mental capabilities and the volitional or will part of a person.

Let’s now examine the actual meanings of the words nephesh and psuche. According to The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (volume 9, p. 617ff), Scripture equated nephesh with the breath of man, the blood of man and the person of man. In the latter, it is used as a term for the total nature of man, for what he is, not just what he has. The same cannot be said of the spirit, heart or flesh part of man. The classical text in Genesis 2:7 clearly expresses this truth when it calls man in his totality a nephesh hai-yah or “a living being” (NKJV) or “a living soul” (KJV). The nephesh has no existence apart from the body. Hence the best translation in many instances is “person”comprised in corporeal (relating to the physical body, as opposed to one’s spirit) reality. Nephsesh can denote what is most individual in human nature, namely, the ego (ibid. p. 620).

Nephesh as used in the OT can also be an expression of the will. The nepheshis manifest in orientation to an object, whether this be the elemental realities of hunger and thirst on the one side (Deut 12:15,20; 1 Sam 2:16, etc.) or the lofty aspiration of yearning for Elohim on the other (Ps 103:1). Nephesh can refer to the sex drive (Gen 34:3; Jer 2:24), to hatred (Ps 27:12), to pain and sorrow (1 Sam 1:10; 30:6), to the will (Gen 23:8), and the supreme striving of man for Elohim (Isa 26:9; Ps 63:1; 84:2, etc.) (ibid., pp. 621–622).

Based on these definitions of the word nephesh as used in the OT, we see that the Bible refers to the soul of man as the mind, the will and emotions. It refers to who one is as a person or one’s personality. It is in this Hebraic sense that the writers of the NT would be using the term soul (e.g., 1 Thess 5:23). There is no reason to assume that the apostolic writers referred to man’s soul in anything other than Hebraic terms to the exclusion of any Hellenistic (pagan Greek) concepts of the immortal soul.

Further Study of the Hebrew word Nephesh/Soul from Various Lexicons

The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament is not the only expert lexical source that reveals the meaning of the word soul as used in the Scriptures and debunks the notion that it is immortal. The following is a list of several other notable lexicons that contain similar information.

• The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (or TWOT) offers an extensive definition of the word nephesh that can be summarized as follows:In the TWOT’s comprehensive discussion of how the word nephesh is employed by the OT writers, nowhere does it indicate that the soul is anything but mortal. In fact, the twot states that the OT contains many passages referring to the “saving” of a man’s nephesh, and the need to have a man’s nephesh delivered from death. Clearly, these biblical passages would be meaningless if the nephesh were immortal. At the end of its article on the nephesh, the twot feels the need to give the Christian teaching of the immortality of the soul a nod when it states, “It must not be concluded from this study of nephesh that the OT presents man as physical only. There are other OT ideas to be considered in this connection: (1) the OT teaching concerning the “spirit” of man; (2) the OT teaching concerning the heart (lev) of man; (3) the subject of the image of Elohim (see selm) in man; and (4) the picture as given of man’s relation to Elohim” (p. 1395).

• Wilson’s Old Testament Word Studies in its terse study of nesphesh’s in the OT gives no indication that is immortal. It is merely the inner being or personality of man.
• Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon (BDB) under the word nephesh lists ten subsections of meaning, but not one of them even suggests that the soul is anything more than a person’s self life including their “person, desire, appetite, emotion and passion.”
• Gesinius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament defines nephesh and provides corresponding OT passages, as does BDB, and like the latter, gives no examples or hints of its being immortal.

The Idea of an Immortal Soul Came from the Pagans, Not the Bible

In his book, Judaism, by a Harvard professor, George Foot Moore, the author asserts that in ancient Israel there was no concept of the afterlife. The abode of the dead was the grave (sheol). The only hope of life after death was expressed in the notion of the resurrection of the righteous sometime in the future (vol. 2, pp 287–292).

The pagan Greek philosophers postulated the man was dualistic being and that his true self was an imperishable soul, which during what we call life is the inmate of the mortal body. At death the soul then leaves this tenement, while the body dissolves into its material elements and perishes. The soul flits off to the realm of spiritual or noumenal existence to which by its essential nature it belongs. The ideas of immortal souls and of the happy lot to which the souls of the good go at death seemed to some Jews to fit in so well with their own religious conceptions as to belong to them (ibid., pp. 292–293).

The Wisdom of Solomon or Pseudo Solomon (an apocryphal writing probably written in Alexandria Egypt in the first or second century b.c. (ibid., 3:1–6; 5:5,15–16) makes reference to the immortal soul. In these passages, we see Hebraic thought of the rewards for the righteous dead wedded with the Hellenistic concept of the immortal soul. (ibid., pp. 293–295)

The Jewish-Greek philosopher Philo, who lived in Alexandria Egypt during the intertestamental period, also discusses the philosophical implications of the immortality of the soul in his writings (ibid., p. 295).

The apochryphal book of Four Maccabees (written in the first century a.d.) also talks about the immortality of the soul. All of these writings are examples of Hellenistic thought making inroads into Judaism, which was prevalent among Greek-speaking Jews (Moore, p. 295).

Moore argues that although the Hellenistic philosophy of dualism, which espoused the immortality of the soul, held great sway over the Jewish philosophers of Alexandria Egypt such as Philo and some of the authors of the intertestamental writings, orthodox Judaism, especially as exemplified by the sect of the Pharisees, remained uninfluenced by Hellenism. The prominence of Greek thinking in the ancient pre-Christian world did, however, bring to the forefront the debate as to the state of the dead and retribution as it pertains to the afterlife of man. As a result, the concept of the bodily resurrection as pondered and prophesied about by some of the OT writers, which had laid latent, if not been scorned by mainstream Judaism, became a cardinal doctrine of Judaism. This led to the bitter debate between the two prominent sects of Judaism—the Pharisees and Sadducees—as to the state of man after his death. (Moore, p. 295ff)

According to Neil Gillman, a leading Jewish religious thinker and educator, “For much of the past two millennia, the Western world, Jews included, has characterized death as the soul’s separation from the body. This view stems originally from Greek philosophy, certainly from Plato and possibly from the earlier mid-sixth century [b.c.] Orphic religion” (The Death of Death, p. 75). It was not until the intertestamental period (several centuries before the birth of Yeshua), when the Jews were being forcibly hellenized by their Greek conquerors, that the concept of an immortal soul began to make its way into Jewish literature. Gillman sees this in a reference to the immortal soul in the apocryphal book The Wisdom of Solomon (2:22–24), which was written toward the middle of the first century a.d.

Oxford scholar Philip S. Johnston in his book Shades of Sheol—Death and the Afterlife in the Old Testament writes that non-canonical intertestamental Jewish literature testifies to an increased interest and speculation concerning the fate of the wicked as well as the righteous, but that the Old Testament Scriptures stop short of this (p. 237).

We find a synopsis of how the belief of the soul’s immortality began to creep into Jewish thought in an article entitled, “Immortality of the Soul,” in the Jewish Encyclopedia (published by the Funk and Wagnalls Company in 1901–1906). The article states that the idea that the soul continues its existence after the dissolution of the body is a matter of philosophical or theological speculation rather than of simple faith, and is accordingly nowhere expressly taught in Holy Scripture. As long as the soul was conceived to be merely a breath (“nefesh”; “neshamah”; comp. “anima”), and inseparably connected, if not identified, with the life-blood (Gen 9:4, comp. 4:11; Lev 17:11), no real substance could be ascribed to it. As soon as the spirit or breath of Elohim, which was believed to keep body and soul together, both in man and in beast (Gen 2:7; 6:17; 7:22; Job 27:3), is taken away (Ps 146:4) or returns to Elohim (Eccl 12:7; Job 34:14), the soul goes down to sheol or hades, there to lead a shadowy existence without life and consciousness (Job 14:21; Pss 6:6 [A.V. 5]; 115:17; Isa 38:18; Eccl 9:5,10).

This all proves that the notion of the soul’s immortality originated from Hellenistic and not Hebraic thought. This change in Jewish thought occurred over time due to the imposition of Hellenistic Greek influences upon Jewish religious thought (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 5, p. 768a). Confirming this, The Jewish Encyclopedia continues, the notion of the soul’s immortality came to the Jews from contact with Greek thought and chiefly through the philosophy of Plato, its principal exponent, who was led to it through Orphic and Eleusinian mysteries in which Babylonian and Egyptian views were strangely blended, as the Semitic name Minos, and the Egyptian Rhadamanthys (Ra of Ament or “Ruler of Hades”) with others, sufficiently prove. A blessed immortality awaiting the spirit while the bones rest in the earth is mentioned in the apocryphal books of Jubilees 23:31 and Enoch 3:4. Immortality, the “dwelling near Elohim’s throne” and “free from the load of the body,” is “the fruit of righteousness,” says the Book of Wisdom (1:15; 3: 4; 4:1; 8:13,17; 15:3). In Four Maccabees, also (9:8, 22; 10:15; 14:5; 15:2; 16:13; 17:5,18), immortality of the soul is represented as life with Elohim in heaven, and declared to be the reward for righteousness and martyrdom. The souls of the righteous are transplanted into heaven and transformed into holy souls (ibid. 13:17; 28:23). According to Philo, the soul exists before it enters the body, a prison-house from which death liberates it. It then returns to Elohim to live in constant contemplation of Him. This is man’s highest destiny (Philo, De Opificio Mundi, §§ 46, 47; idem, “De Allegoriis Legum,” i., §§ 33, 65; iii., §§ 14, 37; idem, “Quis Rerum Divinarum Hæres Sit,” §§ 38, 57).

Does the New Testament Teach the Immortality of the Soul?

The biblical record is clear. The New Testament apostolic writers where strict, Torah-observant Jews in their thinking and lifestyle. To be sure, their belief and faith in Messiah Yeshua was intelligible in the light of the Hebrew Scriptures. It is inconceivable that the apostles of Yeshua integrated pagan concepts, such as the immortality of the soul, into their otherwise very true-to-Scripture theological paradigm. If one is to find what appears to be references to the immortality of the soul in the Testimony of Yeshua, it is because one is viewing those passages through a lens that presuppose the immortality of the soul. We will now evaluate several scriptures where this is the case.

There are several passages that mainstream Christian teachers use to “prove” the immortality of the soul. One of these is Yeshua’s Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16). To understand this parable correctly, on must view it through the lens of Jewish literary styles of the time. This, and the other parables of Yeshua, are known as aggadah (also haggadah)—a very popular literary form during the Second Temple period by which Jewish teachers taught moralistic principles. It was similar to our modern Aesop’s fables. This genre of literature included ethical and moral teaching, theological speculation, legends, folklore, poetry, prayers, historical information, interpreting of dreams, and expressions of messianic faith and longings. Aggadicteachings were nonbinding legally in the theological arena and they are to be contrasted with the legally binding halachic writings of the same period. Aggadic literature made use of parable, satire, metaphor, personification, and poetry. Aggadah has not systematic philosophy, but dealt in its own way with basic theological and moral problems.The purpose of aggadic literature was not to convey point-by-point doctrinal truths, but to teach a moral.

Most Christian teachers have used the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man as a theological basis for the doctrine of the immortality of the soul (an exegetical leap that cannot be substantiated when one understands the nature of aggadic literature), and thus they have missed the true meaning of Yeshua’s teaching. Yeshua is not making a ­theological statement or halachicdeclaration on the state of the dead. Rather, he is teaching that there will be many who self assuredly think that their position in the kingdom of Elohim is secure because it appears that heaven has blessed them during their physical lives (e.g., the rich man), but in reality, the flaming mouth of the lake of fire awaits these hypocrites, while many who are poor, disparaged and disdained in this physical life (e.g., Lazarus) will enjoy eternal life (after the resurrection of the dead) in the company of the patriarchs such as Abraham. This is the real message of this parable.

Another New Testament passage that seems to “prove” the immortality of the soul doctrine is Revelation 6:9. Here there is a reference to the souls of martyred saints “under the altar.” What is the meaning of this oblique, poetic and metaphorical phrase? This passage is an example of how easy it is to read our own extra-biblical understanding into a scripture before fully studying all that Scripture reveals on a subject. Often what we think a biblical passage means is based more on our past religious indoctrination than on the full counsel of Scripture itself.

In the case of Revelation 6:9, since John the apostle does not say where the altar is, and, therefore, we cannot assume that it is in heaven. It could be a reference to the earth, which Scripture calls the footstool of Elohim (Isa 66:1). The altar upon which the sacrifices of ancient Israel were sacrificed was called an altar of earth (Exod 20:24), and the blood of the levitical sacrifices was spilled on the ground around the base of the altar. Furthermore, Scripture teaches that the soul or the essence of one’s life is in one’s blood (Lev 17:11). For example, when Yeshua as the Lamb of Elohim who came to take away the sins of the world, spilled his blood on the ground during his crucifixion, his soul was poured out onto the ground (Isa 53:10). His soul then went into the deepest sheol or grave to make an offering for our sins (Pss 86:13; 88: 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 15, 16). His soul did not go to heaven, although his spirit did (Luke 23:46). 

Many other Scriptures could be cited here that are plucked out of context and used in an attempt prove the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. But caution is urged. Often it is difficult to understand the biblical author’s intent behind certain Bible verses since allegorical, metaphorical and poetic language is used. When this occurs, the honest reader must resist the urge to impose their personal understanding (or pre-informed bias) on the Bible verse. Rather, one should put the unclear passage on the proverbial shelf, then search the Bible for scriptures that are clear and definitive. Once done, one then pulls the unclear scripture off the shelf and interprets it in light of the clearer verses. This a basic principle of correct biblical interpretation using logic (called exegesis) where one lets the Bible interpret itself instead of reading one’s own understanding into it (called eisegesis). Scripture calls this “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15).

The Death of Man and the Hope of the Resurrection of the Dead

Scripture clearly states that when a person dies he is totally dead; no part of him lives on. For example, on the day of one’s death, one’s very thoughts cease (Pss 6:5; 146:4). Moreover, Yeshua said that no man has seen the Father in his glory (John 5:37). Furthermore, King David, a righteous man after YHVH’s own heart, was still dead and in his tomb at the time of Stephen, which was after the resurrection of Yeshua (Acts 2:29).

Scripture does teach, however, that there is a time coming when the righteous dead will be resurrected from their graves in the last day to receive their immortal or imperishable and glorified bodies. This event will occur at the second coming of Yeshua the Messiah (Dan 12:,4,9; 1 Cor 15:35–58; 1 Thess 4:16; 1 John 3:2; Rev 11:15–18.)

The NT also affirms that upon receiving redemption from sin, one receives salvation and can be assured of immortal life. But the NT also teaches that, although the names of the righteous are written in the heavenly Book of Life and are therefore spiritually alive in the mind of YHVH Elohim, they will not receive their immortal and glorified bodies until the resurrection of the dead at the second coming of Yeshua. Therefore, it is correct to say that when the saint dies, their next waking moment will be at the of the resurrection of their soul and body, when Yeshua the Messiah returns to this earth, even as Paul writes,

We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Messiah, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. (2 Cor 5:8–10)

What About the Spirit That Is Within Man?

Every human has a spirit, which YHVH gives at the time of one’s creation which occurred at conception (Zech 12:1), which is separate from his soul (1 Thess 5:23; Heb 4:12). It is the spirit that gives life to the human body, not one’s soul (Jas 2:26) which ceases to exist upon physical death. Moreover, one’s spirit is the spiritual essence that lives deep inside each person and is how one connects to YHVH Elohim, who is a Spirit (John 4:24; Eph 3:16). Through one’s spirit, one understands spiritual things (Job 32:8; 1 Cor 2:10–14; 2 Cor 4:6). Divine revelation comes to man through his spirit (Prov 20:27 cp. Rom 8:16; 1 Cor 1:16; John 4:24). Upon one’s death, their spirit or spiritual essence returns to YHVH in heaven (Eccl 12:7; Luke 23:46; Acts 7:59; Heb 12:23).

So upon death, when the spirit of man returns to the Father who initially gave it, is the spirit conscious? The psalmist answers this question:

For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks? (Ps 6:4 cp. Ps 115:17; 118:17; Isa 38:18–19)

Thus, the spirit remains unconscious in heaven awaiting its reuniting with the body and soul at the future resurrection of the dead.

The Earliest Second Century Church Fathers on the Immortality of the Soul

In second century church after the death of the last apostle, several of the earliest church fathers expressed their thoughts about the state of the righteous dead. It is noteworthy to examine how the early Greek Christian church gradually moved away from a biblical and Hebraic understanding of the soul of man and little-by-little adapted the Greek concept of the immortality of the soul.

The First Epistle of Clement (chapters 4 and 9; written ca. A.D. 90–100), for example, the author says of Paul, “he was removed from the world, and went into the holy place, having proved himself a striking example of patience,” (chap. 4). It is unclear what Clement is trying to say here about Paul’s afterlife condition. A little later, in chapter 9, of Enoch, Clement states, “being found righteous in obedience, was translated, and death was never known to happen to him.” Of course, this is a reference to Hebrews 11:15 which says, “By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” (NKJV). This verse, of course, is not proof that Enoch went to heaven without seeing death, for it does not say such. All we can deduce from the wording thereof is that Elohim took him somewhere else whether some to place on earth or in heaven we are not told. Thus it is an assumption to assume that Enoch went to heaven without seeing death.

A little later in the early church’s ultimate march to accepting the Greek concept of the immortality of the soul, Diognetus (A.D. 130) talks about “the invisible soul” being “imprisoned in the body”, (a Greek philosophical concept), and then goes on to assert that “the immortal soul dwells in the mortal tabernacle,” but says nothing more than that other than extolling the virtues of a Christian form of Greek dualism as a way to better the soul to the detriment of the body—an apparent nod to another Greek philosophy, namely that of asceticism (Epistle to Diognetus, chap 6). 

Polycarp, the disciple of John who lived from A.D. 69–155 states in his epistle to the Philippians that the saints who have died “are in their due place in the presence of the Lord with whom also they suffered,” (The Epistle to the Philippians, chap. 11). To look to this verse as proof that Polycarp is affirming the immortality of the soul is reading something into his statement that is not there. True, the saints are in the presence the Lord, but is it their soul or their spirit to which he is referring? He does not say. In a later letter, The Martyrdom of Polycarp, the author clarifies any ambiguities. In chapter 14 entitled, “The Prayer of Polycarp,” he prays, “I give Thee thanks that Thou hast counted me worthy of this day and this hour, that I should have a part in the number of Thy martyrs, in the cup of Thy Christ, to the resurrection of eternal life, both of soul and body, through the incorruption by the Holy Ghost.” Here Polycarp clearly states that the soul is not immortal, but will be resurrected with the body to eternal life.

Next, writing in A.D. 155, Justin Martyr proffers his opinion on the state of the soul after death when he writes that “sensation remains to all who have ever lived…even after death souls are in a state of sensation,” (The First Apology of Justin, chap. 18). Strangely, Justin Martyr seems to then contradict himself in his ­Dialogue With Trypho, A Jew. There he definitively states that the soul is not only not immortal but “souls both die and are punished,” (chap. 5). As a second witness to Justin’s belief that the human soul is not immortal, in chapter 80 of same letter, of those Christians who believe that the soul is immortal he states, “do not imagine that they are Christians…..” In other words, he viewed them as heretics.

By the time we come to Irenaeus, writing between A.D. 182–188, in his treatise Against Heresies, it is settled in the mind of at least one early church father that the soul is definitely immortal. Irenaeus comes to this conclusion after having spent much time analyzing the writings of the Greek philosophers and either agreeing or disagreeing with their views on various matters . In Book Two, chapter 34.1 of Against Heresies, Irenaeus affirms the immortality of the soul when he writes, “The Lord has taught with great fullness, that soul not only continue to exist, not by passing from body to body [as in the pagan belief of the transmigration of souls], but that they preserve the same form as the body had to which they were adapted, and that they remember the deeds which they did in this state of existence, and from which they have now ceased….” As supposed proof of his belief in the immortality of the soul, he goes on to cite Yeshua’s Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man giving the traditional Christian explanation as believed to this day that this parable is a true story, not an allegory. In so doing, he confuses Jewish aggadic literature with halachic literature as we discussed above. Again, this confusion regarding genres of Jewish literature so far as this parable is concerned continues in the mainstream Christian church to this day. Although Irenaeus teaches that the soul of man is immortal, elsewhere he affirms that the immortal soul does not ascend into to heaven upon the saint’s death, but remains in the grave awaiting the resurrection (Against Heresies, Book 5, chap. 31).

The Detrimental Consequences of Believing in the Immortality of the Soul 

While believing that one’s soul is immortal is not a salvational issue, we will now show how this unbiblical belief can potentially skew one’s understanding of several key Bible truths. Not only that, it has the potential to pervert one’s ability to correctly interpret Scripture. Moreover, this belief is an acquiescence to the devil’s surreptitious plot to hinder the advancement of YHVH’s kingdom on earth. While these assertions may seem far-fetched and somewhat untenable in light of how ensconced in mainstream Christian dogma the immortality of the soul doctrine is, the following list of points chronicles the sad legacy that this destructive doctrine has left in the wake.

First, the doctrine of the immortal soul promotes a skewed view of heaven and hell. It promotes the unbiblical view of eternal torment in hellfire for the unsaved. As a result, it also proffers the idea that Elohim is a wrathful, torturing, sadistic monster who torments the unsaved in a fiery furnace forever. Down through the ages, this blasphemy against YHVH Elohim has turned countless people away from accepting the gospel message. This false doctrine also promotes the erroneous notion that the saved go immediately to heaven upon death. And what do they do there for eternity? The Bible is silent on this subject because there is nothing to say. Why? Because the Bible is clear: this is not what happens when the saints dies.

Second, the doctrine of the immortal soul overlooks the fundamental aspect of the gospel message about the kingdom of Elohim or heaven which John the Baptist, Yeshua and the disciples preached (Matt 3:2;  4:14; 10:7). As such, the church is more likely to preach about the horrors of hell, the bliss of heaven while totally overlooking the message of the kingdom of heaven which is mentioned some 250 times in the New Testament alone as a fundamental aspect of the gospel message. This is an important subject and not to be overlooked, since it reveals what the saints are to be doing on this earth to advance YHVH’s kingdom here and now, plus what they will be doing as kings and priests alongside side of King Yeshua the Messiah, when the kingdom of heaven comes to this earth during the millennium. 

Third, the immortality of the soul doctrine tends to cause people to overlook the biblical truth of the new heavens and the new earth. Although admittedly Scripture says very little about this subject, to be sure, the saints will be doing much more during eternity than floating on clouds and playing harps. If the Christian cartoon version of life after death in heaven is true, then why the need for the new heavens and a new earth? It appears that YHVH Elohim has big plans to keep his people occupied in the grand scheme of things here below and not “up there!”

Fourth, the immortal soul doctrine introduces a pagan (satanic) concept into Christian dogma, which opens the doors to the introduction of other pagan, unbiblical concepts as well. This is not a good thing!

Fifth, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul tends to de-emphasize the truth and reality of the judgment seat of YHVH-Yeshua. This doctrine, especially when combined with the unbiblical once-saved-always-saved concept, takes the teeth out of the gospel message and the saint’s responsibility to obey YHVH’s commandments. This is because now that one’s salvation is purportedly unalterably guaranteed, and since one has an immortal soul, there is nothing one can do to lose one’s spot in heaven when one dies. Therefore, the fact is overlooked that a person can, at the very least, obtain a lower level reward in the kingdom of Elohim (Matt 5:19), and, at the most, can even lose their salvation. Thus it paves the way for easy-believism, cheap grace, lack of holiness, a de-emphasis on obedience to YHVH’s commandments and a general lukewarmness or complacency in one’s spiritual walk.

Sixth, the doctrine of the immortal soul potentially creates in the mind of the saint false methodologies of interpreting Scripture, thus twisting the meaning of Scripture. For example, it converts Yeshua’s Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, which is an allegorical teaching, into a literal fact of history. It also takes Isaiah’s poetic reference to maggots not dying (in reference to the Hinnom Valley outside the walls of Jerusalem which was used as a garbage dump for dead animals) in Isaiah 66:24 as supposed proof of the immortality not only of worms but of humans as well. Another false methodology that the immortal soul doctrine engenders is the practice of wrongly interpreting the Bible by ignoring clear scriptures in favor of unclear ones. 

Number seven. From the tiny seed of the serpent introducing the immortal soul concept into the human psyche has come a great tree whose roots and branches have spread into all the religions of the world including mainstream Judaism and Christianity. Why has this tiny seed so poisonous? Simply for several reasons. In the non-Christian religions, this false doctrine obviates man’s need to deal with his sin in that it circumvents the cross and Yeshua the Messiah as the only means of salvation. How is this? Since man has an immortal soul, man has several methods to secure a favorable place in his supposed next life. For example, some religions (e.g., Islam and Judaism) teach that if your good deeds outweigh your bad ones, then you will have a blessed reward in eternity. The Hindus teach a similar doctrine. They have introduced the concept of reincarnation or the transmigrations of souls. If you are a good person, you will come back as a higher life form (a higher level on the caste system); if a bad person, a lower life form (e.g., as a fly or plant). Other religious systems teach that if you deny your physical self (e.g., through asceticism and similar philosophical systems), your soul will transcend to a higher level in this life and in your next life (e.g., the Greek philosophers and Buddhism). Catholic doctrine promotes a mix of this when it teaches that you can redeem your soul in purgatory. 

Finally, number eight and the big one! Another reason that the immortality of the soul is such a poisonous and nefarious doctrine is that it tends to take the attention of Christians off of the true meaning of the kingdom of Elohim including the establishment of Yeshua’s millennial kingdom on earth when he returns. After all, if you are “saved”, and you have gotten your get-out-of-hell-free card punched, then all you need to do now is wait until you die so that your immortal soul immediately and automatically flits away for a bliss-filled forever vacation in heaven. This notion also diminishes if not negates the judgment seat of Yeshua before which all humans will appear. This refocuses the Christian’s attention off of helping to expand YHVH’s kingdom here and now on this earth as well as the need to prepare one’s life for service in Yeshua’s millennial kingdom. The results? Many if not most Christians will spend less time actively advancing YHVH’s kingdom here and now and more time focusing on their supposed eternity in heaven. This is a win for the devil, since he has fewer people actively thwarting his efforts on this earth, thus allowing him to more easily expand his own antichrist kingdom with less opposition.

As we can see, the devil accomplished a major coup-de-tête when he planted the lethal seed of the immortality of the soul into the human mind at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He truly is the father of all lies, as Yeshua stated. These lies may be pleasant to look at and even sweet to the proverbial taste buds, but they produce bitter results.

Conclusion

What we have attempted to demonstrate in this brief treatise on the subject of the soul is that the Bible does not teach that it is immortal. Neither the Jews nor the first century, Book of Acts Christians believed this pagan concept. Rather, this idea originated with the Greek philosophers, and then gradually found its way into the Jewish writings of the late second temple era. We can then track its gradual insinuation into Christianity through the writings of the non-Jewish early church fathers of the early to late second century era. The church’s acceptance of this pagan doctrine occurred simultaneously as it was spurning the Hebrew roots. Eventually, it became a part of normative, orthodox Christianity, even though it did not start out this way. To be sure, this is not the only mainstream Christian doctrine with such a dubious beginning!

From this discussion on the origination of the unbiblical teaching that the soul of man is immortal by the early Christian church fathers, we see another phenomenon occurring. After accepting an unbiblical belief, often taken from pagan sources, the church fathers do something peculiar to justify their new, non-biblical teaching. They reach back into Scripture in an attempt to find validation for their new belief. In the case of the immortality of the soul, for example, this involves wrongly interpreting Yeshua’s Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, which is exactly what Irenaeus does in his Against Heresies. 

Another example of this is the notion that the that YHVH’s Torah-law, also known as the law of Moses, has been “done way with”—a teaching that persists in mainstream Christianity to this day. Very early in the second century we see the non-Jewish early church fathers’ gradually showing an aversion for the law of Moses, and finally taking a strident and definitive stand against it and just about any else that is Jewish regardless of what the Bible teaches on the subject (see footnote 1 below). If it is Jewish, it’s gone!

How do the early church fathers justify themselves in this practice the obfuscation if not the wholesale rejection of biblical Truth? In many cases upon close examination of their writings, we see that they resort to the wholesale misinterpreting or twisting of many difficult scriptures including the writings of Paul, which was already occurring in Peter’s day (2 Pet 3:14–16). In other cases, the early church fathers cherry-picked Bible verses out of context and concocted doctrines that contradict the larger context of Scripture. Another common practice was to take unclear Bible verses that seem to support their errant teachings, while rejecting the clear and definitive passages that teach the opposite. Again, the Christian church, starting with the early church fathers, has employed these false logic methodologies to refute many clear and undeniable Bible truths. This includes the seventh day Sabbath, the dietary laws, the festivals (also known as the Jewish holidays), and YHVH’s Torah-law (or the law of Moses). Mainstream Christianity has then exchanged biblical truths for their Christian holidays, the immortality of the soul doctrine, the eating unkosher foods, and the pretribulation rapture, the Jew-Gentile paradigm, the false idea that grace in antithetical to the law, the old covenant versus the new covenant, replacement theology and dispensationalism to name a few. 

The practice of twisting Scripture to fit novel but errant and unbiblical concepts continues to this day even among some more Hebraic minded Christians. This occurs as perhaps well-meaning, but misguided Bible teachers misinterpret Scripture to come up with errant beliefs systems that validate such notions as the lunar Sabbath, polygamy, the flat earth, unbiblical calendar systems, the boker shabbat, the use of cannabis and the list goes on and on.

We point out these false constructs that form the basis for false and unbiblical teachings not to cause more division and strife within the body of saints, but hopefully to prevent it from occurring! Hopefully by shining the light of truth on the problem, we can help bring Christians into the unity of the faith that has been once and for all delivered as people read what the Bible really says instead of believing what others think the Bible means. If this is the reader’s take-away from what we have written here, then our mission has been accomplished. Amein.

Footnotes:

1— Examples of the early church fathers slow divorce from YHVH’s Torah-law, which they deemed to be of Jewish origination, include The Epistle to Diognetus (a.d. 130; chap. 4); Ignatius in his Epistle to the Magnesians (early second century; chapters 8, 9, 10). The Epistle of Ignatius to the Tralliahsn (chap. 9); Ignatius’ Epistle to the Philadelphians (chap 6); The Epistle of Ignatius to the Philippians (chap. 15); The Epistle of Barnabas (early second century; chapters 4, 15; Justin Martyr in his Dialog with Trypho a Jew (ca. a.d. 155; chapters 123, 147); Irenaeus in Against Heresies (ca. a.d. 182–188; Book 4, chap. 16.4–5).