Immortal Soul

Dear Brethren,

Does man have an immortal soul?  Nearly every religious person living in Western society has a belief in the immortal soul of man.  The Church of God recognizes the hope of eternal life, but not the doctrine of the immortal soul.  What is the difference between the concepts of "Immortal Soul" and "Eternal Life"?  The answer to that question is the difference in the doctrine of Satan and the doctrine of Jesus Christ.

What is the difference between the teaching of Satan and the teaching of Jesus Christ?  Satan is the author of the doctrine of the immortal soul.  Jesus is the author of eternal life.  He said  "This is the will of Him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son [Jesus Christ], and believes in Him, may have everlasting life."  (John 6:40)

Every Pagan religion has a life after death belief similar to that of the immortal soul.  How did the entire world come to believe the opposite of what Christ, the Bible, and Christianity teach?  After all, the term “immortal soul” appears nowhere in the Bible.

Basically, those who accept the concept of the immortal soul believe that immediately after they die, their soul which cannot die, departs from their mortal body and that they remain conscious and cognizant in their alternate plane of existence in heaven, hell, or some other reward of the dead.  The Catholics believe that heaven includes the beatific vision and supreme happiness in recompense for a good life, while those who are “bad,” go to an ever-burning hell fire administered by the devil.  The after-life reward for those of Islamic belief is seventy-two virgins in paradise, and the expectations of other religious systems are as varied as their beliefs.

Where and how did this false teaching of the immortal soul originate?  It began at the very beginning with the first man and woman.  God told Adam and Eve that the penalty of sin was death.  That is the truth because God cannot lie.  “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die [die the death].”  (Genesis 2:17)

But Satan contradicted what God had told Adam and Eve when he said unto the woman, “Ye shall not surely die [die the death].”   (Genesis 3:4)  In other words, Satan told Eve that if she died physically, she would not really be dead.  He told her that in effect, there was within her inherent life - you have a soul that cannot die, and God has withheld that knowledge from you.  Satan did not appear to Eve in the form of a talking snake in a bush, but as a bright character of superior powers and higher intelligence.  “I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ… And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed intoan angel of light.”  (2Corinthians 11:3,14)

That was the origin of the false doctrine of the immortal soul.  Eve wanted to believe it.  Adam chose to believe it.  The entire world has whole-heartedly embraced the belief of the immortal soul.  Even the so-called “Christian Church” adopted this pagan philosophy and made it a part of their orthodox belief system.  Only the true Church of God continues to believe the Biblical teaching and belief of the early Church.  "The soul that sins, it shall die." (Ezekiel 18:20)

You might ask, “But, the Bible has so much to say about eternal life?”  Absolutely, it does, but we do not have eternal life inherent within us as the doctrine of the immortal soul teaches.  Eternal life is a gift of God.  “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  (Romans 6:23)

The conventional “Christian” wisdom of the world goes something like this:  (You will not find this written in their theology books or catechisms, but this is the thinking and practice.)  “God is so good and merciful that He will overlook all my faults and send my soul to heaven.”   The doctrine of the immortal soul allows people to believe that they can lead sinful lives with impunity, that is, exempt from punishment or loss.  The idea that everyone is born with an immortal soul is taken for granted by the vast majority of mankind.  Do not believe it!

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Sermon:	"Immortal Soul #1"
Sermon:	"Immortal Soul #2"