Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
Soul that Sins Shall Die
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Genesis 3:1-4
In the Garden of Eden, the serpent told Eve that she could disobey God, and she would not die. Even as that initial deception of mankind concerned death, modern conceptions about death and the afterlife commonly contradict the Bible. Most professing Christians believe in an immortal soul that lives on beyond death. They believe that if one professed Christ then his soul goes to heaven, but if the dearly-departed did not “get saved” before dying, then his soul goes to an ever-burning hell to be tortured for eternity. This belief, rooted in Gnosticism and even further back in Egyptian and Babylonian mystery religions, proclaims that death really is not death but just part of a mystical journey. What the Bible teaches is different. The Bible shows that man does not have a soul, but that man is a soul. Man has a spirit, and has a body, but only when God breathed life into Adam did he become a living soul (nephesh; Genesis 2:7, KJV). Moreover, the Bible states clearly that the soul who sins will die (Ezekiel 18:4, 20). It says that God alone has immortality (I Timothy 6:16), unlike man who must seek it because he does not have it (Romans 2:7). Scripture asserts that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Death is not a shedding of the body and a freeing of the soul, as is commonly held, but a complete cessation of existence.
David C. Grabbe
What Is the Second Death?
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Genesis 3:4-5
We must acknowledge a foundational truth: Contrary to conventional wisdom, the human soul is not immortal. This is a false teaching that was implanted into human religion when Satan convinced Eve of it in the Garden of Eden. Essentially, the Devil tells her that God is a liar, she will not die, and in fact, eating of the Tree of Knowledge would make her like God, a goddess with the same abilities as the Creator Himself. Satan's deceptive assurance that she would not die—taking the sting out of God's command—was central to her decision to eat of the fruit. Elsewhere, the Bible flatly asserts that humans are physical, mortal beings. First, of course, is God's own warning in Genesis 2:17 that, upon eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, "you shall surely die"—in other words, sin ultimately ends in death, both the physical death of the human body and in due course the destruction of man's spiritual component in the judgment (see Revelation 20:14-15; John 5:29). The apostle writes in Hebrews 9:27, "It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment." Twice in Ezekiel 18, God declares that souls die: "The soul who sins shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4, 20), which the apostle Paul echoes in Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death." Finally, Jesus warns in Matthew 10:28 that God can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. In fact, the Bible says only God has true immortality (I Timothy 6:15-16). Human beings can have immortality only through Christ and only through the resurrection from the dead, according to the pattern set by Jesus in His resurrection to eternal life (I Corinthians 15:22, 45-52). So, while true Christians have eternal life in them through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, it is only an earnest, down payment, or guarantee of the fullness of eternal life that will be given at the resurrection (see II Corinthians 5:1-5; Ephesians 1:13-14). As Job 32:8 says, man has a spirit that provides him with understanding, and Paul explains in I Corinthians 2:11 that it endows humanity with intellect. This spirit in man comes from God (Zechariah 12:1) and returns to Him when we die (Ecclesiastes 12:7; Acts 7:59). It records the events of our lives, our characters, and our personalities, which God somehow stores until the resurrection, when it will be returned, restoring each person's full memory and characteristics. However, the Bible never describes this human spirit as immortal or eternal; in fact, John 6:63 and Romans 8:10-11 explains that man needs that other spirit, God's Holy Spirit, to achieve eternal life. So, what happens when a person dies? Again, the early chapters of Genesis provide a fundamental answer: "In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:19). Humans, then, die and their bodies naturally decompose, breaking down into the elemental components of which they are made. The biblical usage of the Hebrew word Sheol and the Greek Hades—which some, following pagan thought, contend is a place where the spirits of the dead live on after death—actually means "the grave" or "the pit," describing the place of burial. Every human that has died, with the exception of Jesus Christ, remains in his grave, whether it is in the earth or in the sea. Even David, righteous and beloved of God, awaits the resurrection in his grave. In Acts 2:29, Peter says to the crowd on the day of Pentecost, "Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. . . ." Scripture also explains that in death, life and consciousness are absent. Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 9:5, "The dead know nothing," and he later adds, "There is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going" (verse 10). The psalmist writes in Psalm 146:4 about a person's death, "His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; in that very day his plans perish." Thus, while God retrieves our human spirit for safekeeping, it has no inherent life, self-awareness, or any kind of functionality. It requires a living body to work, so once the body dies, it is inanimate, a mere record of a life but without life in itself. In addition, while it is a record of a person's life, it is not the person himself. The Bible declares that people do not go to heaven (or to hell, for that matter) after death. In the same Pentecost sermon in Acts 2, Peter asserts, "For David did not ascend into the heavens" (Acts 2:34). Jesus Himself confirms this in John 3:13: "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven." These direct statements confirm that all the dead, rather than going to heaven or hell or some sort of purgatory, await the resurrection in the sleep of death. They all await this call, which Paul bases on Isaiah 26:19: "Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light" (Ephesians 5:14). It is encouraging to see what Isaiah 26:19 says: "Your dead shall live; together with my dead body they shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust; . . . and the earth shall cast out the dead." In that great resurrection, just as in the first resurrection, God will give "eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality" (Romans 2:7). Thus, not only a Christian's hope of life after death rests in the resurrection of the dead, but even though they do not realize it, it is also the hope of all those who have never had the opportunity for salvation. When that occurs, it will be clear that, indeed, "Death is swallowed up in victory" (I Corinthians 15:54)!
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Death Is Not the End (Part Seven)
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Ezekiel 18:1-4
During Ezekiel's time, Israel made a grave mistake in their reasoning, concluding that God was judging the present generation harshly because of the wickedness of their forefathers. They wrongly believed that it made no difference what they did, blaming their parents for all their woes. These people reasoned that they were the unfortunate victims of the ancient law in Exodus 20:5: "I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me." These Israelites obviously misunderstood the message of this verse, which teaches that descendants are affected by their fathers' sins, not that the children are predestined to make the same mistakes or are punished for what their forbears did. Sadly, because of their upbringing, children frequently find themselves practicing the same sinful acts as their fathers, and therefore, they receive the same just punishment. However, each person is still individually responsible for his or her own actions. The Israelites' misunderstanding, leading to irresponsibility and fatalism, is expressed by the proverb, "The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." Jeremiah 31:29 records that this proverb was being repeated throughout Judah. The discourse that follows in Ezekiel 18 confounds the flawed reasoning behind this proverb, showing that responsibility equals accountability for one's own actions. God's response to their misconception is flatly summarized in verse 3: "You shall no longer use this proverb in Israel." The people had come to believe that righteousness and wickedness were hereditary, so there was no reason to change one's ways. God argues, however, that they were free to decide to walk in His ways or not; they were not bound by what their fathers had done. God states the basic principle of judgment for irresponsibility in Ezekiel 18:4: "The soul who sins shall die." His judgment is personal and individual. Three illustrations of this principle are found in Ezekiel 18:5-18: Verses 5-9 describe a righteous father; verses 10-13, 18 describe an unrighteous son; and verses 14-17 describe a righteous grandson. In the first illustration (Ezekiel 18:5-9), God differentiates righteousness from unrighteousness by stating five areas of His law: In the first, the righteous man refrains from involvement in pagan sacrificial meals at the high places and from the idolatry prevalent in Israel. In the second, the righteous man refuses to defile his neighbor's wife (adultery) or to have relations with a woman during her menstrual period (sexual perversion). In the third, the righteous man does not oppress people through maltreatment and extortion but restores the pledge of a poor person's debt. In the fourth, the righteous man does not steal but feeds and clothes the destitute. In the fifth, the righteous man practices justice among his fellow Israelites and refuses to take interest from them. This list shows that a person's attitude and acts toward others provide a true indication of his faith toward God. In the second illustration (Ezekiel 18:10-13, 18), the unrighteous son of the righteous father demonstrates his unrighteousness and lack of faith in a lifestyle opposite that of his father. Whatever his father did in righteousness, the son does not do, and whatever his father refrained from in righteousness, the unrighteous son does. Verse 18 summarizes his wicked deeds: "he cruelly oppressed, robbed his brother by violence, and did what is not good among his people." The third illustration (Ezekiel 18:14-17) shows that a righteous son can descend from an unrighteous father. If the son does all the righteous acts of God's law, as his righteous grandfather did, and refuses to follow his wicked father's unrighteous acts, he would not die because of his father's wickedness but would live. God repeats and expands the basic principle regarding judgment in Ezekiel 18:20: "The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself." In other words, responsibility equals accountability for our own actions. This principle is also taught in the New Testament, as, for instance, in Romans 14:12, the apostle Paul writes, "So then each of us shall give account of himself to God." Likewise, the resurrected Jesus says in Revelation 2:23, "I will give to each one of you according to his works." If we sin as individuals, we will be judged as individuals. It is a fact that we suffer from the effects of the sins of our ancestors. Look at the poor health and degenerative diseases around us, as well as what has been done to the earth by those who have gone before us. We can easily see and feel the effects of our forefathers' sins. However, their sins do not predestine or condemn us to repeat what they did. Each individual is responsible for his own actions and will receive personal judgment: "The soul who sins shall die," not the righteous person.
Martin G. Collins
Responsibility Equals Accountability
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Ezekiel 18:4
The church of God does not accept the Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul, instead believing God's Word, which says indisputably, “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4, 20). One of the very first things God taught Adam in the Garden of Eden was the consequence of sin: “you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17), a truth the serpent hastened to contradict (Genesis 3:4). In the New Testament, Jesus teaches in Matthew 10:28: “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell [Gehenna, a symbol of the Lake of Fire (see Revelation 20:11-15)].” Paul writes, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Humans are mortal, and God must give eternal life; we do not have it inherently (see Romans 2:7; I Corinthians 15:53-54; I Timothy 6:16). We believe that man indeed has a spirit (Job 32:8), “the breath of the Almighty [that] gives him understanding,” but that it is not his soul. When combined with a human brain, the human spirit allows a person to have the powers of mind. When he dies, the body returns to the dust, but his spirit returns to God (Ecclesiastes 12:7), who safeguards it as a record of his life. Solomon also informs us that “the dead know nothing” (Ecclesiastes 9:5), and “there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave” (verse 10), meaning that there is no consciousness in death. The person knows nothing, learns nothing, communicates nothing, does nothing—until the resurrection from the dead when God will unite that spirit with a new body, either a spiritual body or another physical body, depending on the resurrection (see Ezekiel 37:1-14; John 5:24-29; I Corinthians 15; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 20).
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
What Happened at En Dor?
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