If you are immortal, why does the Bible talk about souls that die?
Transcript
[Steve Myers] Do you have a soul or are you a soul? That was the topic of our last BT Daily and it's such an important question for you to answer because it will guide your whole view of what God thinks about you and what His plan is for you as well. We recognized the other day in Genesis 1:20 that living creatures were created by God. Nephesh, nephesh were created - living creatures. And we found that that same word was used in Genesis 2:7 for people. When God created Adam and Eve they were living beings, they were living souls. So they didn't possess immortality. They weren't eternal to begin with.
We talked about Romans 6:23 where it says eternity, eternal life is the gift of God. It's not something that we possess already. And here's something that's very startling if you've never thought about this in the past.
There is a remarkable passage that's over in Ezekiel. It's in Ezekiel 18:4. This is a passage you should look up and really study because it will probably rattle your bones right down to the very core if you believe you already have eternal life, if you believe you are an immortal soul because you're going to run into a problem with that belief when you read Ezekiel 18:4. Let's notice what it says.
It says, "Behold, all souls are Mine." That's what God is saying - all souls, all nephesh. Now we know that's a living being. "All living beings are Mine," says God, "The soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine." So each time that word soul is being used there, that is the word nephesh that we know is a living being. Now, here's the startling part - the end of verse 4, God says, "The soul who sins shall die."
So, obviously, you don't have an immortal soul because God says it can die. It's not immortal. It will die and so God points out very clearly enteral life is something that God gives us. It's not something that we already possess.
So, if you begin to really think about that that has to change your idea of what heaven and what hell is all about because it's not biblical to believe that you already have immortality. There is hope in the future that God can give us eternal life. It's a bit subject. There's a lot to it so I encourage you to look into it and find out for yourself what the true Bible teaching is on immorality.
