Adam became a living being or a living person. You see, a living soul is a living person.

Suppose you went to the supermarket, and when you came home you said to your spouse, "There wasn't a soul there." And your spouse jokingly replies, "Oh, I'm glad there wasn't any soul there, because that would have scared me!" He knows, when you say "soul," you mean "There wasn't a person there."

Let's review it once again. The Bible never says a person "has" a soul-as if it were a separate entity we possess. I don't have a soul, I am a soul, a living creature, a person-and so are you.

But someone says, "Wait a minute-I don't want to get caught up in mere words! Just answer me one thing: Our physical bodies die, but our souls can never, ever die, can they?" God says quite plainly that they can and do: "The soul who sins shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4, 20).

The ancient Egyptians believed in an immortal soul. They explained it in elaborate detail. The pagan Greeks-especially the philosopher Plato-asserted that the soul of man is "imperishable." If that pagan idea were true, why did the Holy Spirit inspire Ezekiel to write those words-twice in one chapter? A soul is a person, and if a person sins, he or she will die. Modern Bible versions render Ezekiel 18:4 as follows:

"The person who sins is the one who will die." (Today's English Version)

"It is for a man's own sins that he will die." (The Living Bible)

"The soul who sins will die." (New American Standard Bible. A footnote on the word soul says "person.")

The Bible word "soul" may also mean "life." For instance, Jesus taught that:

"Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul" (Matthew 16:25, 26, similarly translated in Mark 8:35-37)?

In this passage, Matthew wrote the same Greek word "psyche" four times, but the King James translators twice rendered it "life" and twice "soul." You can see for yourself that the two words are interchangeable. And you can see, further, that "life" is not something naturally and irrevocably ours-we can lose it, for we're not inherently immortal.

Only God is Immortal
The word mortal means "subject to death," and immortal means the opposite-imperishable. You don't find the term "immortal soul" or "immortality of the soul" even once in the entire Bible! The Word of God doesn't teach such a concept. The King James Version uses the expressions "soul" and "spirit" but never once attaches the term "immortal" to either word. If human beings really had an immortal soul or immortal spirit, don't you think the Bible would use that term at lease once? Mankind has the promise of immortality-to be given to the faithful as a gift when Jesus returns. Paul writes:

"Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: for the trumpet will sound . . . and this mortal must put on immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:51-53).

We mortals, who are subject to death and decay, have to "put on" immortality at Christ's second coming. But man is not inherently or naturally immortal now. In fact, the very word immortal is used only once in scripture, and in that sole instance-1 Timothy 1:17-the word applies not to man but to "the only wise God." To clinch this point, Paul explicitly declares that:

"The King of kings and Lord of lords . . . only has immortality" (1Timothy 6:15,16).

When the Bible plainly declares that God alone is immortal, that "He] only has immortality," we don't need to waste our time trying to find verses that say man is immortal or has an immortal soul-because we won't find them. The Holy Spirit and inspiration do not contradict themselves. Furthermore, the Bible never says a person "has" a soul that leaves the body at death-a conscious, feeling, thinking kind of an ethereal thing that floats away-that's man's idea. Psalm 22:20 prays, "Deliver my soul from the sword." But if a soul were our non-material "essence," a sword couldn't hurt it.

" Spirit " is a Key Word
Now, what happens when we die? When Adam was created, God formed his body from the dust of the ground, breathed the breath of life or spirit into his nostrils, and he became a living person. According to the Bible the opposite occurs at death:

"Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it." (Ecclesiastes 12:7).

So the body goes to the earth and the spirit returns to God who gave it. What goes back to God? The spirit. The Bible never once says the soul goes back to God. Here's where people get confused: They don't understand what the "spirit" is. Is the spirit something that thinks? Is it something that's conscious? The word "spirit" itself comes from the same root as other words pertaining to "breath" or "breathing," such as inspire or respiration.

The New Testament Greek word for "spirit" is pneuma, which gives us words like pneumonia, the respiratory disease, and pneumatic, a description of tires we blow up with air. But let's listen to the Bible define what the spirit is that goes back to God. In the Hebrew language of the Old Testament there's a literary device called parallelism in which the first phrase says something and the second phrase defines it. Job tells us what that spirit of God is:

"As long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God in my nostrils." (Job 27:3).

So the spirit is equal to, or the same as the breath. God breathed into man the breath of life-God breathed into man His life-giving spirit. When a man dies, what goes back to God? The breath of God, or the power of God-that spark of life-returns to God. James 2:26 says: "The body without the spirit is dead."
That's how we describe death even today. We say, "He died" or "He expired" or "He breathed his last." So the body without God's breath is dead, because at death God's spirit or His breath goes back to Him.

The Unconscious Dead Cannot Think
This leads us to another question: Is there a consciousness after death? Let's return to Ecclesiastes 12:7. The Bible says the dust returns to earth "as it was," so does the spirit. The Spirit returns to God the same "as it was." Adam's breath was not conscious before God created him by breathing into his nostrils, so why should we assume that it's conscious after death? No Bible student should believe in the pre-existence of the human soul or person before life on earth. That's a pagan concept. What happens to us when our breath goes back to God? The Psalmist wrote:

"His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; in that very day his plans perish." (Psalm 146:4).

So is a dead man able to think? No! The Bible says that on the day he dies, his thoughts perish. Solomon says plainly:

"The living know that they will die: but the dead know nothing. . . . and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten" (Ecclesiastes 9:5).

Friends, no matter what we've been taught in the past, no matter what the devil said to Eve in that first lie, the dead know not anything!

Death is compared to Sleep
The Bible teaches that death is but a sleep that lasts until Christ's second coming. More than fifty times, Bible writers consistently describe death as a sleep. Writing under inspiration, the Psalmist David prayed to God lest he "sleep the sleep of death" Psalm 13:3. Later, the writer of 1 Kings says:

"Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die . . . So David slept with his fathers, and was buried" (1 Kings 2:1, 10).

Jesus Himself spoke of death as a sleep. When His beloved friend Lazarus grew very sick in a nearby town, the Master said:

"Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up. Then disciples said to Him, 'Lord if he sleeps, he will get well.' However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus said to them plainly, 'Lazarus is dead'" (John 11:11-14).

When people die it is an unconscious state like sleep. They wait for the Voice of Jesus the Life giver. No more pain, no more suffering, no more heartache, no more sorrow. It's as if we rest in Jesus' arms until He taps us on the shoulder and says, "Wake up, My child, it's time to go home!"

My best friend, Roland, and his bride Karen were married at a very exclusive hotel just outside NYC in 1990. The groom and all the groomsman were in a upstairs room getting ready when Roland's uncle came in. He hugged Roland and said to him with all his heart, "Roland, your father is very proud of you today. He's watching you from heaven." There was an awkward silence that followed. After the uncle left, Roland asked me, "Is that true? Is my father watching everything?" I'll never forget that moment. I leaned over and said softly, "This may not be the time for us to talk about that, but if that's true, it means he gets to watch the whole thing, even what happens on your honeymoon night!"

Would any of us want our parents watching us on our honeymoon night?! Listen folks, this isn't a new way of looking at death, it's an old one. Notice what Martin Luther said"

Friends, I know how ingrained our traditions can be. We've been taught to think about death in a certain way all our lives, but it's going to take a conscious effort on our part to say to Jesus, "Dear Lord, I just want to know Your will, Your truth. Teach me the truth about death."

Job helps us to understand that the dead do not know what's happening to their friends:

"If his sons are honored, he does not know it; if they are brought low, he does not see it" (Job 14:21, NIV).

The Bible describes death as an unconscious state like sleep 53 times and never once refers to the soul as immortal.

God's Way is the Best Way
If we think it through, we'll realize that God's way is the best way. Let's suppose that a mother died and that she does have a conscious, immortal soul in heaven. Let's suppose she can look down and see everything that happens on earth. She sees her son in the Vietnam War flying a combat mission. The enemy turn their guns on him, blow his helicopter apart, and he goes down. He's taken prisoner of war and is tortured. Do you think that mother in heaven would be happy?

Or a little boy six or seven years old is playing ball, and the ball goes into the street. He runs to get it as a car speeds down the street, ready to hit the child. If his mother were consciously aware of all this in heaven, she'd scream, "Oh, please stop!"

Or think of the dead mother whose kid is on drugs and she sees him lying in a back alley. He's destroyed his whole body. Wouldn't that mother weep and cry to see this?

Or a dead husband looks down from heaven and sees his beloved wife suffering terribly from cancer, yet there's nothing he can do. What kind of heaven is that? God's is best.

God's way is-that when you die, you sleep. You sleep soundly. It's a quiet rest in the arms of Jesus. You're secure, and when Jesus comes again to wake you up, earth's heartache and suffering will be all over. Our loved-ones who have gone to their rest are conscious of nothing-not even the passage of time. They don't see that child abused. They don't see the drunk driver who hit those kids. They don't see that man who comes home and beats his wife. Jesus' way is so much better!

Let's come back to the story of Lazarus rising from the dead. Martha, his sister, met Jesus on the road to Bethany. She's distraught and tells Jesus her brother wouldn't have died if he was there:

"Jesus said to her, 'Your brother will rise again'" (John 11:23).

Now notice what Martha believed about death: John 11:24. Jesus follows up on her answer by pointing out how a believer lives after death:

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live" (Verse 25).

Friends, how did Lazarus live after he died? He rose from the dead in a bodily resurrection! And it's interesting that rose from the dead without any stories of what it was like to be in heaven for three days. You would think that he would be full of stories, but he is silent in the gospel stories. Why?

"The living know that they will die, but the dead know not nothing" (Ecclesiastes 9:5).

"The dead do not praise the Lord, nor any that go down into silence" (Psalm 115:17).

Yet you know that if you died and immediately went to heaven, you'd praise the Lord, wouldn't you? The Bible says, "The dead know not anything." The Bible says, "The dead praise not the Lord." Lazarus was in the unconscious state of death, that's why he is silent about it.

Death and Life May Be Likened to a Box
Forrest Gump said, "Life is like a box of chocolates." Let's suppose life is like building a box. I need nails and boards to construct the box just as I need God's spirit (the nails) breathed into my body (the boards) to construct the box. What happens to the box if I pull the nails out. The box no longer exists because a box is nails and boards.

So when we die, the soul or person does not go anywhere. We simply cease to exist as a conscious personality until the resurrection. God has preserved a record of our lives. We are His. Paul puts it this way in a letter to the Colossians:

"For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory" (Colossians 3:3, 4).

People who place their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord are given a new identity. They die to the old life and they find a new life "hidden in Christ in God." Their identity is hidden away, tucked securely away, with Christ in God. Here Paul is giving us an essential principle. This is why hope is possible. This is what it's based on-our life being "hidden with Christ in God."

In the New Testament all kinds of good things happen to human beings because they are "in Christ." And one of those good things is "eternal life." Paul could not be clearer:

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23).

Eternal life comes to us in Christ Jesus. It comes to us because our life is hidden with God in Christ. Life is not death, and death is not life. One is a gift from God, the other is the wages of sin. They are opposites, but somehow they've gotten confused with each other.

Natural Immortality is a Pagan Concept
Where did the teaching of natural immortality come from? We can go back to ancient Babylon, we can go back to ancient Egypt, and we can go back to Greek philosophers. They believed the soul lived on outside the body as a separate, conscious entity-an idea popularized by Plato and other philosophers.

When pagan scholars became Christians and joined the church, they carried with them many of their former heathen beliefs and practices. They brought the images and idols of their pagan gods into the church. They brought Sunday in as a holy day. And they brought the pagan idea of the natural immortality of the soul into the church as well.

In the catacombs under the city of Rome are found the burial places of early Christianity. Inscriptions read: "Good bye until we meet again," "Good-bye until the morning." As you can see, the focus of Scripture and the understanding of early Christianity was the hope of the resurrection, not the immortality of the soul.

But the devil has his propaganda machine that cranks out the same old lie: "You shall not surely die." Today we have two very strong expressions of spiritualism: