What do Scriptures say about the soul? Does it die? Yes…
All of the following Scriptures in the Hebrew text use the phrase “dead soul” (or dead souls):
Leviticus 19:28; Leviticus 20:6; Leviticus 21:1; Leviticus 21:11; Leviticus 22:4; Numbers 5:2; Numbers 6:6; Numbers 6:11; Numbers 19:11; Numbers 19:13; Genesis 17:14; Exodus 12:15; Exodus 12:19…..
Et.al.
(Look it up. Use a Hebrew Lexicon for these passages…. You’ll see where it says “body”, or “man”, or corpse”, however the version you use translates it, the Hebrew word is “nepes” or “nephesh”, which means “soul”.)
Why do most translators render the Hebrew word “soul” in those verses as something different?
Because they have preconceptions as to what happens at death….
What does happen? Exactly what God told Adam at Genesis 3:19….
“YOU will return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you will return.”
Was Jehovah God talking to Adam’s body? No! God was talking to Adam, the person!
And at Genesis 2:7 God’s Word says that “Adam became a living soul.”
Adam was not ‘given’ a soul; Adam was a soul. He “became” one, when he was given life.
To further cement this concept that the person dies, look at Ecclesiastes 9:5…
Ecclesiastes 9:5 says, ”For the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing at all.”
Some like to say that “this means dead bodies.”
But who ‘knows’ things? A body, or a person? A PERSON! People know things, not their bodies!
So what this passage is saying, is:“For the living *[people]* know that they will die; but the dead
*[people]* know nothing at all”!!
So, the soul, the person, dies. -Ezekiel 18:4).
Since the Bible doesn’t contradict itself, how can we understand Jesus’ statement at Matthew 10:28?
Notice there are a couple definitions for soul (“nephesh” / “nepes” in Hebrew, “psychē” in Greek).
It can also stand for our life.
Chances for our life / our person in the future, are always in God’s hands. That’s why Ezekiel 18:4,20, while it says “ the soul that is sinning, the same will die”, Jehovah God also adds, “All the souls, TO ME they belong”!
(But if He chooses not to restore our life in the *future* Resurrection (which may apply to some humans), then our soul will effectively be ‘destroyed’. That is what the symbolic “Lake of Fire” means… complete destruction. It explains the reason why ‘death is cast into the Lake of Fire.’ [Revelation 20:14] Revelation 21:4 verifies it: “death will be no more.”
A *Future* Resurrection? Yes. (John 6:40,44…”..at the Last Day”) A resurrection for even the “unrighteous” — John 5:28,29; Acts 24:15.
This is the only hope the Bible gives, for the dead to live again. It will be wonderful!
Here’s an interesting Scripture…
Psalm 9:17, KJV, says:
“The wicked shall be turned into hell, (“Sheol”, Hebrew; “Hades”, Greek) and all the nations that forget God.”
What is Revelation 20:13,14 speaking about?
Vs13, KJV, says “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.”
This is speaking of the *future* Resurrection! These dead…. Even those in Hell, which includes the ones mentioned in Psalm 9:17…. are brought back to life!
They’ll be given an opportunity to “come to know” / “might know (KJV)” and gain eternal life. — John 17:3
God is not a cruel fiend, as many have been taught. He’s loving, as we can see when we correctly understand His Word.
At John 11:11-15, Jesus likened death to sleep.
So when we read of God killing those who hated His people the Israelites, and then read 1 John 4:8, “God is love”, we can correlate these facts….
Dead *people* are at rest… they are R.I.P’ing… until the future Resurrection arrives!
