Do Ghosts Really
Wear Clothes & Smoke Cigars?

Have you ever pondered the amazing amount of sensory input that enters your brain each day? Every moment of your life is a “learning experience” with the senses of smell, touch, taste, hearing, and sight, filling your mind with a continual stream of information. Your emotions rise and fall through a fantastic array of bodily manufactured chemical hormones. These simple observations give powerful evidence that the intelligent human soul is not dualistic. The human soul is a wholistic being, the whole person. The human mind cannot function consciously apart from a living breathing body with a living organic brain.

“The whole person is involved in every phase of the learning process.”¹As you read this book, there are numerous sights, sounds, smells, and tactile perceptions affecting your reading experience. A pleasant aroma wafts from the kitchen while a bird sings outside your window as you put a glass of cool refreshing spring-water to your lips, and then the telephone rings — all this sensory input while you are reading. The word pictures painted here, the ideas that you are reading about, are causing internal chemical reactions affecting your emotions in a variety of ways. All of this amazing mental input would be wholly unavailable to you if you were nothing more than a disembodied “soul.”

It is scientifically impossible for your mind to function apart from your body. Your mind depends on your body, wired for sensory feeling, which God has so lovingly given you. You cannot think without a living physical brain. Why did God give you a brain if you could think without it? You must have your living, breathing body in order to be conscious.

“Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul. While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. Put not your trust in princes, [nor] in the son of man, in whom [there is] no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” (Psalm 146:1-4)

“So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens [be] no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man die, shall he live [again]? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. . . . His sons come to honour, and he knoweth [it] not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth [it] not of them.”(Job 14:12 -14, 21)

“For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any [thing] that is done under the sun. . . . Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do [it] with thy might; for [there is] no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”(Ecclesiastes 9:5-6, 10)

Have no fear. God keeps a perfect blueprint record of every person that has ever lived on planet earth. Those personal detailed records are mentioned in Scripture several times. (See Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27; 22:19; Exodus 32:32; Daniel 12:1-2; Psalm 56:8; 139:14-17) Since temporal death is an unconscious sleep there is no awareness of the passing of time while in the grave. One moment we go to sleep and even though many years may pass before the resurrection of the body at the second coming of Jesus it will only seem like a split-second for us. For me that is a wonderful comfort; I have peace of mind and no fear of death.

There is a permanent, irrevocable “second death” that the Bible says unrepentant people will suffer. If you are not obedient from the heart to Christ and God you should be very fearful of that horrific, final “second death.”(See Revelation 2:11; 20:6, 14; 21:8) We explore the sobering subject of the “second death” in other Bite-a-Books in this series.

Okay, back to our description of the wholistic human soul. What a dry bland existence “life” would be if you really were nothing more than a ghost with a conscious, disembodied mind. Unable to see, smell, touch, taste, and hear and without any internal chemistry, “life” itself would be a fate worse than death. If it were possible to transport your bodiless mind to heaven’s paradise, the wonderful attractions dangling there just out of your reach would mock and torment you mercilessly. In such a state of existence, even “paradise” would not, indeed could not, be paradise for you! For the disembodied mind, paradise would be a bleak and lonely mental hell!

Some of the notions about human souls popularized by psychic mediums are downright laughable. Have you ever read a book by one of these spirit mediums in which they describe the ghosts with whom they claim to come in contact? If so, have you noticed that these so-called ghosts of dead humans are described fully clothed with “ghost clothes,” “ghost jewelry,” “ghost watches,” etc. Some of them even smoke “ghost cigarettes” and “ghost cigars” with “ghost smoke” with a “real” smell.²Do immortal, bodiless, souls really wear immaterial clothes that look as though they came out of the period-costume warehouse of some Hollywood studio? Why do so many people fail to give the “ghost-clothes” and “ghost-cigars” a scrutinizing thought?

These fully dressed apparitions do not agree with rational scientific observation. They donot agree with the Bible either. Spirit mediums may talk a lot about God and Jesus and the Bible, but virtually all they say is in complete disagreement with what God, Jesus, and the Bible teach on the subject of the human soul’s condition in death.³

Some of the apparitions that modern spirit mediums describe are very real and very supernatural, but they are not human ghosts. According to the Bible, they are deceptive demons in disguise, which have a very sinister agenda despite the fact that some of them “appear” to be loving and caring. (See 2^nd Corinthians 11:14; 1^stTimothy 4:1; Ephesians 6:12; Revelation 12:7-9; 16:14a) Surely, the deceiving demons must split their sides with spine-chilling laughter over the gullibility of intelligent, educated people who never question the “ghost clothes” worn by the “ghosts” conjured up at séances.

Most preachers and theologians teach absolute nonsense concerning the nature of the human soul. Most of them aren’t doing this maliciously; they may assume that they are teaching truth because that is what they were taught in Seminary. Or they may think it is not a very important issue. But that doesn’t excuse them in the fullest sense. They have taken a huge sacred responsibility to safeguard the souls of the people they minister to and God will hold them to a stricter accountability than their followers in the judgment — a sobering thought indeed.

Most theologians and preachers claim that once God creates a human soul, He will never destroy that soul, no matter how decadent it becomes. Theologians try to redefine the word die to mean separated from the body but still conscious. Such mind-bending distortions of reality are one of the root causes of confusion when reading plain statements of Scripture that clearly refute such ideas. Is the human soul an eternally conscious ghost passing from an embodied existence to a disembodied existence at death? There is not a single statement in all of Scripture that teaches such a thing — no, not even one.

The theory of a conscious soul that separates from the body at death is a pagan Hellenic idea. The Hebrew Scriptures disagree with Hellenic notions. Instead, the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) teach “Body and spirit are united in a single person, designated ‘mortal man.’”⁴The New Testament continues the Old Testament thought.

You are a soul, a whole, living soul. You are not a dichotomy. You are a whole, undividable person — an inter dependent mind and body. There is an inter-reliant relationship of mind and body involved in every moment of life. That inter-reliant relationship between mind and body cannot be broken without losing consciousness. “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.”(Psalm 146:4)

Let’s restate our basic premise: A living soul is a whole, complete person including personality and body. And the human soul is capable of dying. According to the Bible, a living human body isa vital component of the living human soul. When the body dies, the soul is dead. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:20). I urge you to look that text up so you can see it for yourself in the Bible. I ask you my friend, how much more clearly could the Bible state it? “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” “ Thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:17)

A conscious, living human soul does not emerge from a dead human body. If you believe the superstition that a conscious living human soul emerges from each human body at death you will get terribly confused when trying to understand many Bible subjects. Dead people are not living souls. Dead people are dead souls.

The Bible teaches that the living human soul is a whole, living, breathing person possessing an individual identity. A living human soul is a combination of physical elements + vital life force+ individual identity:

Let’s look at a key passage in Genesis. “And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground [human body], and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life [vital life force]; and man became a living soul[possessing an individual character identity].”(Genesis 2:7)

Notice that God did not give the first man a soul rather he became a soul. That first man was more than body and breath. God created him with a mind that functioned within his organic brain. Without a mind, the first man, Adam would simply have been a breathing organic machine with no intelligence, no distinct personality. Without the uniquely human brain created in the divine image, you and I would have essentially no higher intelligence than a dog or monkey.

The mind is not the brain. The mind is the essence of personality, while the brain is a biological organ. Nevertheless, the mind, in order to function, must reside within a living brain. When the brain dies, the mind sleeps, unconscious until the resurrection of the body.

I once heard a humorous anecdote that goes as follows: “Hit a man on the head hard enough and he will lose consciousness. Hit him a little harder and he will regain consciousness and retain it forever.” Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? Yet billions of Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and others believe this very thing, although they might never have thought of it quite this way. The Bible says, “The dead don’t know anything.”(Ecclesiastes 9:5b HCSB)

Advocates for innate immortality admit that the body dies but argue that the real man, his mind and personality — his soul — can never die. Yet this verse [“The dead don’t know anything”] speaks of a man’s mind, not his body. A man’s BRAIN dies with the rest of his body. Intellectually, “the dead know not anything.”Emotionally, their love, hatred, and envy are now “perished.”⁵

Today’s English Version Bible, published by the American Bible Society, translates Ecclesiastes 9:6 very clearly: “Their loves, their hates, their passions, all died with them.” Yes, the Bible is crystal clear that when a person dies, “all his thinking ends.”(Psalm 146:4)

Your mind needs your body in order for you to function as a living soul. Your brain is an organ of your body, the residence of your mind. Your brain operates with chemical and electrical impulses providing the necessary environment for your mind to function with sensibility.

Genesis 2:7 states that the first man (Adam) became a living soul when the breath of life entered his body. When Adam died, his whole soul slept. At the moment of death, his mind, his unique personality, ceased to function. Nevertheless, his unique personal identity did not cease to exist. I repeat:At death, the human mind ceases to function, but it does not cease to exist! The Bible implies that God keeps the “name” of every person that has ever lived on record in heavenly “books.” This indicates that God has a detailed “blueprint” record of Adam’s identity. (See Revelation 20:12-15; 3:5)

Even though Adam’s mind does not presently function with sensibility, he will begin thinking again when Jesus reconstitutes the three essential components of his living soul at the Resurrection. (See 1^st Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1st Corinthians 15:52-55) Remember, those three components are physical elements + vital life force+ individual identity.

When the Bible speaks of being a soul, it is referring to the whole, living person — body, vital life force, and individual identity or personality. When the Bible speaks of a person having a soul, it is only referring to his or her individual character or personality. But when doing so, the Bible always speaks of the functioning personality or character asa constituent part of the person’s living, animated body! The Bible is simply viewing the whole person from the perspective of his or her personality. When the body dies, the personality loses consciousness — God holds that sleeping personality in safekeeping till the resurrection.

The Bible first mentions man receiving the “breath of life” from God in Genesis 2:7a. “And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”

The Hebrew word translated “life” in this passage is chay. Chay exactly corresponds to the New Testament Greek word zoe and its verb cousin zao, and closely corresponds to other relatives such as zoopoieo (made alive). Chay and zoe mean vitality, and not only the vitality of a human, but also of animals and even plants.

“And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils [was] the breath of life-[ chay], of all that [was] in the dry [land], died.”(Genesis 7:21, 22) “Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive-[zoopoieo], unless it dies. And what you sow . . . [is]but mere grain — perhaps wheat or some other grain.”(1^stCorinthians 15:36, 37 NKJV)

You could look up the following verses in an Interlinear Bible, noting the words live, alive, living, and quickeneth, all translated from Greek-zoe or Hebrew-chay. (Ezekiel 47:7-12; Genesis 8:21; Psalm 145:16; Zechariah 14:8; 1^stTimothy 6:13a)

Based on these Bible texts, we must conclude that the vitality (Hebrew chay or Greek zoe) that God breathed into man’s nostrils at creation, certainly was not an immortal, conscious soul, unless we want to give such a soul to animals and even plants. Does each grain of wheat in farmer Brown’s field have an immortal soul? What about the petunias in your neighbor’s back yard — does each petunia have an immortal soul? If chay-zoe is an immortal soul, then your neighbor’s petunias all have immortal souls that will survive consciously when the petunias’ little vegetable bodies fade and wither. I don’t think each alligator and mosquito in the Louisiana swamps has an immortal soul — does my thinking here seem somewhat reasonable to you? Clearly, from the Bible’s perspective the breath of life (chay/zoe) that God breathed into Adam’s nostrils was simply a vital force common to all terrestrial life.

According to the official web site for the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service at North Carolina State University, “Human DNA is composed of the same substances as the DNA in trees, grass, birds, horses, and bacteria.”⁶You may find this fact to be quite amusing in light of the following anecdote.

An article in USA Today July 15, 2008, reported that the Spanish Parliament was working on legislation that would extend some of the same legal rights that humans have to apes. The major argument seems to be the assertion that apes share approximately 98.5% DNA compatibility with humans. Actually, one blogger on the web-site Yahoo! Answers wrote that we humans share 93% DNA compatibility with cauliflower. Speak for yourself, buddy! In all seriousness though, 98.5% isn’t 100%, which is what would be required to make a human; so — a miss is as good as a mile.

A court case from Austria could go farther, if it declares a chimp a person. . . . The European Court of Human Rights is considering an appeal in the case of Matthew Hiasl Pan, a 28-year-old chimp from Austria. . . . If Matthew should win, the case would set a legal precedent across Europe to treat apes with some of the same legal rights as humans, says his lawyer, Eberhart Theuer of Vienna. . . . Theuer wants [Matthew] declared a person and granted . . . the right to life, limited freedom of movement, personal safety and the right to claim property.⁷

Have these activists and politicians considered the numerous tax loopholes (for guardians) and other legal entanglements that would emerge from the recognition of human status for apes? Surely they have. For example, would apes have to be housed in penitentiary at taxpayer expense if convicted of a crime? And frankly, the notion of an ape with the “right to claim property” is hilarious; obviously, it is the intelligent human guardian who would gain all of the property benefits. The ape would be totally oblivious to his own so-called property rights. What a messy little legal morass this conjures up. I’m going to try to regain my composure now so I can finish my thought.

Nothing really surprises me anymore, but I did find the story about Mr. Matthew Hiasl Pan the 28-year-old “human” chimpanzee to be not only humorous but ominous as well. It is a bald-faced example of the legal extremes that some elements of secular society will go to when it ignores the clear-cut difference between humans and apes. As such, it is provocative! Might the religious interests in Europe, when their hand becomes strengthened by the inevitable swing of the politico/social pendulum, respond with equally extreme restrictive legislation? I believe so, absolutely!

Certainly, society should treat animals compassionately, but to accord an animal the same legal rights as a human is both unscientific and unbiblical. Furthermore, such legislation is dangerous in that it could actually lead to a situation in which “an animal’s rights could conflict or supersede a human’s rights in future court rulings.”⁸

Apes do not experience complex introspective thoughts, do not possess a moral conscience with consequent senses of guilt or honor, and according to Scripture they do not hold a position of value equal to humans in the eyes of the Creator.

This idea of according human rights to a monkey is nonsense in the extreme. If society is to go this far, what is to hinder us from eventually granting some human rights to genetically altered pigs which have a high rate of DNA and organ transplant compatibility with humans? The following may not be a particularly clever remark, but I can’t resist. Yes, just imagine, Mr. Matthew Hiasl and Miss Piggy Oinker someday deciding to tie the knot in the cute little ecu-animenical chapel on the corner of licepicker street and slopyard lane. Hmm — do you think their DNA might be compatible enough to hatch out some cute little Monkgys or Pigkys?

Scripture does not say anywhere that God breathed life into plants or animals. He simply gave them life without any special ritual in the act. (See Genesis 1:20-25) But when it came to humans made in His own image, God drew very near and in a highly symbolic act breathed life into the first man. That extraordinarily affectionate act showed the special place that human beings have in God’s creation; He wants a special, bonded relationship with us.

Let’s briefly look at two statements Jesus made about the life He came to give. In both of these statements, the word life in the Greek is zoe, which refers to physical vitality, not disembodied consciousness.

“I have come that they may have life-[Greek, zoe, i.e. basic life force or vitality], and that they may have it more abundantly.”(John 10:10b NKJV) “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life - [Greek, zoe]: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live - [zao]: And whosoever liveth - [zao] and believeth in me shall never die.”(John 11:25b-26a)

We’ve already established that the word zoe refers only to physical vitality common to all terrestrial life. These passages refer specifically to physical vitality. Jesus knew there was no such thing as a naturally immortal soul. Therefore, He said that He came to bring salvation from death. And when He said, “whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die,” He was obviously referring to the whole person, not to a bodiless soul. That’s why the Bible uses the word zoe in this passage; it refers only to physical vitality. His statement is made in the context of the resurrection, indicating that to “never die” means that once resurrected, the glorified human soul will never lose life vitality again. Jesus offers never-ending life only to those who have faith in Him.

Now that we have established that the breath of life (chay/zoe) is not the soul, we need to find the Hebrew and Greek words translated in English Bibles as soul. The New Testament Greek word for soul is psuche, which corresponds with the Old Testament Hebrew word nephesh. For example, in the New Testament passage of Acts 7:14, Stephen mentions that “threescore and fifteen souls-[psuche]” of Jacob’s family went down to Egypt. The corresponding Old Testament Hebrew word for souls, when referring to this same event, is nephesh. “All the souls-[nephesh] that came with Jacob into Egypt . . .” (Genesis 46:26a; See also Genesis 46:26b-27; Exodus 1:5; Deuteronomy 10:22).

In Bible usage, psuche and nephesh refer to the animate, sentient, flesh and blood nature of both human and animal life. Plainly stated: the soul is the whole, living, thinking, breathing, feeling person or animal.

Sometimes Bible authors used psuche and nephesh when referring to the vitality or vital-life principle of humans or animals, but never when referring to plants. So Nephesh and psuche refer only to animated forms of life that have sensory feeling, such as people and animals, and not to inanimate, stationary plant life.

Hebrew nephesh and Greek psuche are not only translated “soul” in our English Bibles, but they are also often translated “life”or “breath” — clear references to physical life.

“Your blood of your lives-[nephesh] will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life-[nephesh ] of man.”(Genesis 9:5)

The King James Bible describes Rachel’s death as follows: “And it came to pass, as her soul-[nephesh]was in departing . . .” (Genesis 35:18) Holman’s Christian Standard Bible and The New English Bible both render this passage “with her last breath-[nephesh].” So Rachel’s parting nephesh was her vitality, her breath, not a conscious ghost. That text helps us understand the Old Testament Hebrew nephesh; now let’s look at a New Testament example of Greek psuche as life:

“And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing [him] said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life-[psuche ] is in him.” (Acts 20: 9,10)

This text is clearly referring to the young man’s life or vitality and not a conscious separable ghost. Is that clear to you? If not, let’s keep building our case — there is an overwhelming amount of Bible evidence as you are about to see.

The Bible often uses psuche and nephesh to represent a broader concept of humanity than basic life or breath. To be a living nephesh/psuche, is to have sentience — the capacity to feel such things as mental weariness or restfulness. “My soul-[nephesh]is wearied.” (Jeremiah 4:31) “lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds-[psuche].” (Hebrews 12:3) “Ye shall find rest unto your souls-[psuche].” (Matthew 11:29b) Oh! — so a soul can become wearied, faint and in need of rest — Hmm. . . .

We humans feel such things as hunger, lust, and desire. These feelings involve interaction between the physical and mental aspects of our wholistic (whole) soul. This wholistic interaction involves the brain’s limbic system. Therefore, it is impossible to relegate any experience to merely mental without physical; the body and mind are interrelated.⁹ This is a powerful evidence for the undividable nature of the soul. The soul is the whole person. The following Bible passages make it clear that human souls hunger, thirst, lust, eat, and experience physical satisfaction.

“Because thy soul-[nephesh ] longeth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul-[nephesh] lusteth after.(Deuteronomy 12:20) to satisfy his soul-[nephesh] when he is hungry.”(Proverbs 6:30) The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul-[nephesh].(Proverbs 13:25) [As] cold waters to a thirsty soul-[nephesh](Proverbs 25:25) All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul-[nephesh ].”(Lamentations 1:11)

We have clearly seen that a soul (psuche/nephesh) experiences physical feelings and mental weariness. Now we shall see that a soul (psuche/nephesh) also experiences emotional feelings.

“My beloved, in whom my soul-[psuche] is well pleased.(Matthew 12:18b; compare with Isaiah 42:1) My soul-[psuche] is exceeding sorrowful. (Mark 14:34b) The soul-[ nephesh] of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter.(Genesis 34:8b) The soul-[nephesh]of the people was much discouraged.(Numbers 21:4b) His soul-[nephesh]was grieved for the misery of Israel.(Judges 10:16b) And she [was] in bitterness of soul-[ nephesh], and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore.(1^stSamuel 1:10) And my soul-[nephesh], shall be joyful in the LORD: it shall rejoice in his salvation.(Psalm 35:9) [There is] nothing better for a man, [than] that he should eat and drink, and [that] he should make his soul-[nephesh ] enjoy good in his labour.”(Ecclesiastes 2:24a)

Scripture does not relegate psuche and nephesh merely as a reference to humans. The Bible also uses these words to denote the animating sentient principle in animals. “A righteous [man] regardeth the life-[nephesh] of his beast.” (Proverbs 12:10a) “And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life-[psuche], died.” (Revelation 8:9a) Nephesh and psuche in those passages could just as easily have been translated “soul” instead of “life”.

So the Bible says that a living animal is a living nephesh/ psuche, a living soul. Surely, we don’t believe that cows and fish have immortal souls. Clearly a living nephesh/ psuche is not an immortal soul. It is a living breathing animated person or animal.

Actually, I once knew a man named Butch, who did believe that every fish, every insect, every animated creature that had ever lived has an eternal soul.¹⁰ Butch actually believed that someday God would resurrect the bodies of all these bazillions and gazillions of creatures and stick their separated “souls” back into their bodies. Hmm . . . I guess he figured that God was going to create a rather large planet somewhere to put all of those mosquitoes, roaches, Pterodactyls, Tyrannosaurus, sperm whales and viruses in. Whew! Butch’s wacky religious notion is what we might refer to as Macro-Universalism.

I observed that Butch had worked as a butcher and had slaughtered many animals over the years. I suspect that he adopted his peculiar religious notions as a way of appeasing his conscience over all the animals he has butchered and eaten. Be that as it may, there is no Bible foundation for such absurd ideas. Actually, Butch was dining on big red Alaskan Salmon steaks while we conversed, so I asked him if he thought God would someday resurrect the Salmon that was currently digesting in his stomach and grant it eternal life. Well, to put it mildly I was, uh, somewhat “amused” at his answer. . . . Ah, well, maybe flabbergasted is a better way to describe my response. I didn’t want to insult him or hurt his feelings but it was all I could do to refrain from cracking up with hysterical laughter. In all seriousness though, it is very sad, the lengths people will go to in order to tranquilize an accusing conscience.

A few pages back we looked at Genesis 2:7a, which concluded with the word “life” (chay). Now let us look at the whole verse, including part b, which ends with the word “soul” (nephesh). Let’s also include the Hebrew words for “breath” and “breathed.”

“And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed-[ neshamah]into his nostrils the breath-[ ruwach]of life-[chay]; and man became a living soul-[nephesh hayyah].”

This might seem complicated but don’t worry, we are going to thin this down quickly. Neshamah and ruwach both have to do with breathing. Breathing, of course, is not unique to humans — all animals have breath and breathe. A similar text which refers to all animal life is Genesis 7:22 which reads, “All in whose nostrils [was] the breath-[neshamah] of life-[chay], of all that [was] in the dry [land], died.” Obviously, the neshamah cannot be an immortal soul unless we want to give that immortal soul to all animal life on earth. As we have already shown, animals also have ruwach. Ecclesiastes, speaking of both humans and animals says, “they have all one breath-[ruwach].” Obviously, ruwach is not an immortal soul either. Neshamah occurs only a few times in the Hebrew Scriptures and basically means a blast of air, so we won’t spend any more time on it. We will explore ruwach more later, because it is used with broader meaning in many passages of Scripture.

Now let’s focus on the phrase living soul that we read in Genesis 2:7. This is the first occurrence of the phrase living soul in the King James Bible. However, Genesis 2:7 is not the first place in the Bible where the phrase nephesh hayyah occurs! In the original Hebrew, the phrase nephesh hayyah has already occurred four times in the first chapter of Genesis! Those occurrences are verses 20, 21, 24 and 30. Why then are those occurrences of nephesh hayyah not translated “living soul” as in Genesis 2:7, which occurs only a few verses later? Samuel Bacchiocchi rightly observes:

In all four of these verses “living soul – nephesh hayyah” refers to animals, but translators of most English versions have chosen to translate it “living creature” rather than “living soul.” Why? Simply because they are conditioned by the belief that animals do not have a soul – only human beings have an immaterial, immortal soul.¹¹When you and I read their biased translation we can become subliminally conditioned to accept their flawed presuppositions.¹²

Of course, the average reader has no way of knowing that Genesis, chapters one and two are not translated consistently with one another in most English translations. This inconsistent translating of an identical phrase obscures the original, straightforward message God intended to convey when He inspired Moses to record the creation story of Genesis. Such muddying of the original pristine message of Scripture can be misleading. The original Hebrew makes no differentiation in the way it delivers these five passages! Why then should we? Wouldn’t it be more consistent to translate all five of these phrases as living soul or living being, or even living creature? And wouldn’t consistent translating in these passages make it easier for the average reader to understand the truth about what a living soul or living being really is — and is not?

Now let’s consider a very intriguing question. Is it possible that Jesus, at the second coming, will resurrect our dearest pets that have died and give them back to us to love and enjoy forever?

Steve Wohlberg’s book, Will My Pet Go to Heaven? (Winepress Publishing, 2002), treats the subject of pets in a sensitive manner and raises some interesting thoughts. Steve loved his dog Jax very much and when Jax was killed by an automobile Steve suffered a lot of grief. Will Jax be in heaven? Maybe! God certainly loves Steve and if there is any way a carnal earthly dog can be transformed into a “sanctified” heavenly dog I personally think Jax might just be there.

My own childhood experience with my dog Milky was heart wrenching. I was visiting my grandparents out of state as a boy along with my cousin Greg. Greg and I were born two days apart and had a special bond as boys. For a couple of days I bragged and bragged constantly to Greg about my dog Milky. Finally my grandfather couldn’t take it anymore and told me that he had gotten a phone call from my mother telling him that Milky had been run over by a car and had to be shot to end his suffering. I was devastated. I cried and cried and refused to eat for three days until my grandfather finally gave me a spanking and ordered me to eat. It took me many years to got over Milky’s death.

Sometime later I got another puppy that was born to the same mother dog that Milky had been born to. My new puppy looked almost identical to Milky with all the same markings. I named him Lucky! Well, Lucky wasn’t so lucky — I watched horrified one day as Lucky was chasing a car and got caught by one of the tires. He was torn up very badly and after a few agonizing minutes writhing in a pool of blood in the middle of the road he died. All of the neighborhood boys were laughing and carrying on like it was a party but I was once again devastated. The callousness and insensitivity of the other boys made my pain even more acute. God saw it all and I’m certain that His heart was moved with compassion. Someday He will make it all up to us for the suffering and grief we have endured in this vale of tears.

My dear friends Ed and Linda Kennedy are the masters of a gentle GIANT named Chewy. Chewy has the personality of a sweet innocent two year old child. Chewy is so expressive, so winsome — he’s personality plus! That BIG EATER has no idea that when he tries to sit on a visitor’s lap he’s WAY OVERSIZED for that kind of affection. But just like Jax, Milky, and Lucky, Chewy has a penchant for chasing automobiles. Fortunately the Kennedys live on a quiet country road. Be that as it may, eventually, at best, Chewy will grow old and die. Will Chewy be in heaven? Will I see Milky and Lucky again in heaven?

The Bible does not say anywhere that animals of any kind will be resurrected, but that does not necessarily mean that some won’t. We simply don’t know. We can be sure however, that God dearly loves our children and us. He will not withhold “any good thing” from us that is necessary for our complete happiness. “Those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing .”(Psalm 34:10b) Therefore, if it is our heart’s desire to have our pet once again in heaven, and if having that pet will contribute to our happiness and our highest good, and if a carnal pet can be sanctified, we can rest assured that God will not withhold it from us. “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”(Psalm 37:4)

But what about the plight of the animal kingdom in general? Let’s take a few moments now and see what the Bible has to say.

Individual animals have unique personalities just as individual humans do. While animals do not have the capacity for cognitive worship of God as humans do, they do have feelings, emotions, and the lower forms of affection, love, and loyalty. Many animals are ardently loyal by nature but, because of the effects of sin, they are also fundamentally selfish just as humans are. Have you ever watched songbirds fighting over position at a feeder, or the big dog on the block strutting around and exerting his dominance over smaller dogs? Even your loving little Pomeranian might behave in the selfishly if there is a bowl of food to be “shared.”

One afternoon in November 2008, I tuned in as National Public Radio featured an intriguing interview with animal cognition researcher Irene Pepperberg. Dr. Pepperberg has authored a book entitled Alex and Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence — and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process.

In her radio interview, Pepperberg described incredible experiences she had communicating on an “intelligent” level with a parrot named Alex. She described one scene in which Alex repeatedly said he was sorry for something he had done that displeased her. Apparently, Alex had learned that the phrase “I’m sorry” would gain him sympathy and reprieve for his “confessed fault.”

The amazing communication experiences that Dr. Pepperberg described in her radio interview highlight the mysterious similarities between human and animal intelligence. Animals do experience fear and contentment, anxiety and peace, love and hate much as humans do. But Alex’s statement “I’m sorry” was not an act of true repentance or remorse, even though it did indicate an amazing level of intelligent communication for self-serving purposes. Alex the parrot was not truly sorry for his “indiscretion,” even though he obviously understood on some rudimentary level what “I’m sorry” means. I’m reminded of an observation made more than a century ago by Ellen White, a remarkably insightful nineteenth and early twentieth century writer.

The intelligence displayed by many dumb animals approaches so closely to human intelligence that it is a mystery. The animals see and hear and love and fear and suffer. . . . They manifest sympathy and tenderness toward their companions in suffering. Many animals show an affection for those who have charge of them, far superior to the affection shown by some of the human race. They form attachments for man, which are not broken without great suffering to them.¹³

White’s use of the word “dumb” was not a reference to lack of “intelligence,” but rather to the fact that animals can’t communicate in human language. She obviously wasn’t thinking of parrots when she wrote that line. While parrots don’t have lips and tongues like humans, they are very adept at mimicking human speech, an uncanny ability that Irene Pepperberg must have explored and guided brilliantly as she trained Alex to communicate “intelligently” with her.

Without the higher frontal brain (introspective conscience and moral will), animals areincapable of choosing spiritual regeneration. There is no credible evidence that parrots or any other animals experience the spiritual regeneration described in such Bible passages as 2^nd Corinthians 5:17; Ezekiel 18:31-32; Ezekiel 36:26-27; John 3:1-16; and-so-forth. The Bible does not teach that animals are subjects of salvation. The apparently hopeless plight of animals is one of the tragic consequences of man’s experiment with sin. Frankly, there wouldn’t be room enough on the new earth for all the mammals, birds, fishes, and insects that have lived throughout history if God were to resurrect them.

As far as the general animal kingdom is concerned, God does not receive the “spirit” (individual identity) of animals for safekeeping when they die, but simply allows the animal’s identity to cease to exist. Scripture makes clear the contrast between how God deals with the identity of dead people and dead animals.

“That which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all [is] vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?” (Ecclesiastes 3:19-21).

Here we see that in one sense the same thing happens to both animal and man — they both die. Man has no advantage over a monkey at the municipal zoo, a dog in your neighbor’s back yard, or any other animal — all are subject to death. Nevertheless, this passage strongly indicates that while God receives the unique character identity of each person as it returns “upward” to Him, He does not receive the identity of the dead animal but allows that identity to go “downward” and simply rot away with its carcass. The dead animal’s identity will not be revived in a resurrected new body (except possibly in special cases of pets).

Of course, there is no guarantee that God will resurrect our pets; we will have to wait and see. If special pets are raised, it will not be for the sake of the pet, but for the sake of the person who loved the pet in this life and wants to continue that loving relationship throughout eternity.

Our pets are God’s creatures and we are to take care of them and treat them with the same kind of care that we would appreciate if we were to exchange places with them. Nevertheless, they are not of equal value with a human being “made in the image of God.” There is something very, very special about you as a human being.

The Hebrew word translated “spirit” in the King James Bible is ruwach. The Old Testament uses this word to denote wind, breath, mental disposition, or rational mind. Your basic mental disposition can be defined as the qualities that characterize you as an individual — your individual character. “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit-[ruwach]shall return unto God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:7)Your ruwach, your vital breath, “returns to God” when you die. At that point, your identity or personality ceases to function, and yet God holds it in safekeeping to return it at the resurrection of your body. “There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.”(Acts 24:15b)

The passage we just read from Ecclesiastes 12 affirms the statement from Ecclesiastes 3:21 we read earlier, which says that man’s ruwach returns to God. Some believe that Ecclesiastes 3:21 best interprets as a question rather than a statement: “Who knows whether the spirit of a man goes upward and whether the spirit of a beast goes downward to the earth?” But even if the verse is a question, Ecclesiastes 12:7 answers that question regarding man; man’s spirit returns upward to God! “The spirit-[ruwach]shall return unto God who gave it.”

Both men and animals have God-given ruwach — breath and identity; Ecclesiastes 3:19 makes that clear:“they all have one breath-[ruwach].” Please note: The word translated “breath” in verse 19 is also ruwach, the same word translated “spirit” twice in verse 21 and once in 12:7. Solomon doesn’t indicate any distinction between breath and spirit in his writing, but simply consistently uses the word ruwach.

The English translators however, by translating ruwach two different ways in the same passage, are showing an unconscious bias here, not maliciously, but confusing and misleading nonetheless. Solomon is lamenting the futility of life and the nothingness of death. That comes through loud and clear when you read all of Ecclesiastes 12. So verse 19 says, “they [man and animals]all have one breath-[ruwach].” Verse 21 says,“spirit-[ruwach]of man” and“spirit-[ruwach]of beast.” So breath and spirit are the same word in the original Hebrew (ruwach).

John 3:16 is probably the most famous verse in the New Testament. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The word “perish” in that passage indicates a complete end of existence. That passage does not indicate never-ending torment. The Old Testament passage Psalm 49:20 supports this understanding. According to that passage, “Man [that is] in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts [that] perish.” Holman Christian Standard Bible uses clear modern words, “A man . . . without understanding is like the animals that perish.” Certainly, we do not want to claim that “perish” in that passage indicates that dumb animals are going to spend never-ending ages in hell. No, they will perish just as an unrepentant person will ultimately perish and cease to exist forever.

Each monkey at a municipal zoo is a soul and each backyard dog is a soul just as each human is a soul. Both humans and animals are subject to death with complete cessation of cognition and thought. Even so, except perhaps in special cases of pets, when an animal dies, his identity as a unique individual is extinguished with his body. He is not “sleeping” — he is extinct. Is there a record-book in heaven containing the names of dead animals? The Bible does not mention any such book, and the Bible never describes the death of an animal as sleep. Therefore, we must be cautious about speculating on general resurrection for animals.¹⁴ Nevertheless, when a person dies, God holds her unique one-of-a-kind identity in safekeeping in a peaceful sleep-state until the resurrection. Her character identity will be “reprogrammed” into her new, revitalized body when she is resurrected back to life.

Okay, let’s diverge for a few minutes and look at this from a spiritual/moral perspective. Higher animals have a brain resembling our midbrain but they don’t have a forebrain “created in the image of God.” The trivial forebrain that exists in some higher animals is very small and does not have capacity for introspective thought. Only humans have the intelligent, governing forebrain capable of introspective thought.

If we remove the cerebral cortex [containing the prefrontal or forebrain] . . . we essentially eliminate our humanity. Beneath the cortex is a brain that is not far removed from that of a Bengal tiger, a French poodle, or an Arctic fox. We could, if we wish, remove even more to approximate the brain of a salamander or rattlesnake.¹⁵

The “animal nature” parts of the human brain (primarily the midbrain’s hypothalamus) have to do with appetite and sexual passion. Your digestive system affects your brain, including your hypothalamus, by transmitting chemical/electrical information to your brain through intricate nerve connections.¹⁶Consequently, what you put into your stomach has a definite influence on your brain and therefore on the spiritual sensitivities of your mind.¹⁷Temptation comes through the conduit of your body. Eating too much and too frequently strengthens selfish tendencies of the brain. These out-of-control habits degenerate both mind and body. This point has tremendous relevancy to your spiritual life and therefore your salvation, and yet is rarely if ever mentioned from the pulpit.

“Belief that the physical affects the spiritual and moral behavior has not found wide acceptance, but neither has science well explored it empirically.”¹⁸Obviously, alcohol and hard drugs do affect the moral and spiritual life, but lesser vices such as nicotine and gluttony also affect our spiritual and moral life. Why then, are Gospel ministers so silent on the subject of appetite, a subject that definitely affects your moral choices and your salvation?

Scripture alludes to the relationship between spiritual and physical life in many passages of which the following are examples. (See Romans 7:18-8:13; 1^stCorinthians 3:16-17; 6:20; Galatians 5:17; Philippians 3:12-21; Hebrews 12:1-17; Proverbs 23:2, 3)

What you put into your stomach determines the impulses your gut sends to your brain. You can engage your will in this process as a responsible governor of your actions. You don’t have to be a slave to bad habits. Created in the image of God you are not merely a creature of uncontrollable routines and passions as a dog or a monkey. You can choose to put only healthful things into your stomach.

Your physical nature with its nervous system and appetites is common to all higher animals. Your animal nature does influence your spiritual nature for good or evil depending on how you educate and employ it. By God’s original design, your moral nature is to rule your physical nature. Sin has turned that around with the physical or animal usually overruling the moral. Your forebrain, the control center of your will, when strengthened by God’s spirit, will govern your animal nature.

You are a wholistic being. God implanted the moral principles of His law in the whole nature of mankind at the original creation. There was originally no conflict between the moral and physical nature. The forebrain and midbrain harmonized, they agreed. The flesh nature obeyed the moral dictates of the will without the least displeasure. When Adam and Eve surrendered their will to selfishness and indulged their lower nature in violation of conscience, they knocked their internal moral compass out-of-balance. They then passed their fallen, corrupted nature on to their posterity (including you and me) through the law of heredity.

Self-control allows plenty of God-designed pleasure — enjoyable music, good food, friendship, marital sex (between one man and one woman), outdoor recreation, and much more. Think of it this way: “I’m going to live forever, eternity without end; I don’t have to cram extreme pleasure into every moment’s existence in this brief mortal life. I have an eternity of pleasures ahead of me. I will enjoy my pleasure experiences in a responsible manner, which brings no harm to me or anyone else.”

The choice is before you. You can enjoy an abundance of pleasures now in a temperate manner. If so, God can trust you not to abuse the gifts He has given and will reward you with everlasting pleasures of the most exquisite kind. (See Psalm 16:11; 36:8) Or you can indulge in a roller-coaster ride of extreme pleasure in a brief burnout phase here and now. Consequently, you will lose eternity as an untrustworthy steward of the moral and physical gifts God has so wonderfully built into you.

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and [that] the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye are.”(1^stCorinthians 3:16-17)

Many Christians confidently proclaim, “I am saved,” while in practice they are unrestrained gluttons, “enemies of the cross of Christ.” God is merciful and patient with us as we seek to overcome old, compulsive, addictive habits, but we must not presume upon His mercy and use it as a license to make gods of food, sex, and amusements.

“(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, [that they are] the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end [is] destruction, whose God [is their] belly, and [whose] glory [is] in their shame, who mind earthly things.) For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” (Philippians 3:18-21a; See also Luke 8:14; 2^ndTimothy 3:4; Titus 3:3; Hebrews 11:25)

The apostle Paul uses the ancient Greco-Roman footraces and the preparation necessary to be successful in them as an example of our Christian warfare against the tendencies to overindulge the flesh.

In referring to these races as a figure of the Christian warfare, Paul emphasized the preparation necessary to the success of the contestants in the race — the preliminary discipline, the abstemious diet, the necessity for temperance. “Every man that striveth for the mastery,”he declared, “is temperate in all things.”(1^stCorinthians 9:25) The runners put aside every indulgence that would tend to weaken the physical powers. . . . How much more important that the Christian, whose eternal interests are at stake, bring appetite and passion under subjection to reason and the will of God! . . . Reason, enlightened by the teachings of God’s word and guided by His Spirit, must hold the reins of control.¹⁹

Paul makes it clear in his first letter to the church at Corinth that even he, a prophet and Apostle, could be “disqualified” in his race for the Christian crown of immortality if he became lax and intemperate. “I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”(1^stCorinthians 9:27 HCSB) That word disqualified is adŏkimŏs in the Greek. In the King James Bible, adŏkimŏs is translated “castaway” in this passage and translated “reprobate” in six other places in the New Testament. In each case, reprobate is a reference to someone in an unsaved condition. (See Romans 1:28; 2^ndCorinthians 13:5-7; 2^nd Timothy 3:8; Titus 1:16) Adŏkimŏs is translated “rejected” in Hebrews 6:8, where it metaphorically speaks of things “whose end [is] to be burned.” That passage in its context is a clear reference to people who profess Christianity, but in the end “fall away” and are fit only “to be burned.”(See, Hebrews 6:1-12)

Now let’s finish unlocking the mystery of the human soul. As we have already pointed out, sometimes the Bible uses psuche or nephesh to observe man from the perspective of his physical feelings, and at other times from the perspective of his emotional feelings. When the Bible uses nephesh or psuche in regards to emotions, we should not understand it as dichotomizing man but merely viewing the whole man from the perspective of his emotions. After all, it is your physical being that manifests your feelings. Your emotions are linked with physical, chemical-electrical functions of your brain. Your emotions affect your physical breathing, heart rate, body temperature, adrenaline flow, and so on. You are a wholistic living soul, an inseparable mind and body.

Blood Is Called Nephesh in the Bible

The following passages make it clear that the soul (nephesh) is not immortal. “For the life (nephesh) of the flesh [is] in the blood.” (Leviticus 17:11a) “The blood [is] the life (nephesh); and thou mayest not eat the life (nephesh) with the flesh.” (Deuteronomy 12:23b) Please notice that the original Hebrew is nephesh, which is translated “life” here twice, but it could just as easily be translated “soul.” Life here is even defined as blood. Surely, we don’t think the patrons down at Joe’s Steakhouse are eating an animal’s immortal soul as they dine on beefsteak-rare!

The Old Testament writers often describe nephesh as man in various situations of desperate need. If you take your concordance and begin looking up passages with the word “soul” (nephesh), you will find numerous references to people pleading that God will deliver their nephesh from dangerous circumstances in life. The nephesh is subject to harm, physical pain, or even destruction by such things as starvation or wicked enemies. These passages clearly refute the idea that nephesh is immortal and indestructible. The English translations of the following verses render nephesh “soul” in some places and “life” or “lives” in others. Please look up these passages and notice how much clearer the wholistic nature of man becomes if you read them all with “soul” or “souls” in the place of “life” or “lives.” Here are a few of those texts that you might want to look up. (Ezekiel 18:4, 20a; Joshua 2:13; 9:24; 10:28-39; Exodus 4:19; 1^st Samuel 23:15; 2^nd Kings 7:7) This is only a sample of many similar passages you can find in Scripture. These passages are a powerful witness to the truth that the human soul is not immaterial and immortal but rather the whole person, who is subject to death.

The survival of the soul in the Old Testament is linked to the survival of the body since the body is an outward manifestation of the soul. This explains why the death of a person is often described as the death of the soul. . . . Death cannot strike the body or any other parts of the soul without striking the entirety of the soul.²⁰

The New Testament often uses psuche, the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew nephesh, as a synonym for the whole person. During the Genesis flood, “eight souls-[psuche] were saved” in the ark. (1^st Peter 3:20) At Pentecost, “three thousand souls-[psuche]” were baptized and “fear came upon every soul-[psuche].” (Acts 2:41b, 43a) “Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to [him], and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls-[psuche].” (Acts 7:14) “And we were in all in the ship two hundred threescore and sixteen souls-[psuche].” (Acts 27:37)

Let’s briefly review: Like nephesh in the Old Testament,psuche in the New Testament is not always translated “soul.” Psuche is translated “life” numerous times in the New Testament. The life - (psuche) can be placed in mortal danger, which would be impossible if psuche were an immortal soul. For example, an angel told Joseph: “Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child'slife-[psuche] are dead.” (Matthew 2:20) Paul promises the members of a storm-tossed ship, “there will be no loss of life- [psuche] among you, but only of the ship.” (Acts 27:22) These texts clearly indicate that a soul - (psuche) can be killed or saved from death. Psuche in these texts is obviously not an immortal part of human nature, but is the whole person that can be in danger of dying.

Now we will progress to even stronger Biblical language. In the following passage, the Bible teaches that nephesh can be murdered . “Whoso killeth any person - [nephesh] , the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person-[nephesh] [to cause him] to die.” (Numbers 35:30; See also Numbers 31:19; 35:15; Joshua 20:3, 9; Ezekiel 22:25, 27)

Obviously, nephesh is the whole person including his or her body. In fact, nephesh is translated “body” in several Bible passages. But not only is the nephesh a body in the following passage, it is a dead body! “He that toucheth the dead body-[nephesh]of any man shall be unclean seven days.” (Numbers 19:11) So according to the Bible, the human soul is tangible and physical even when dead, not ghostly and intangible.

Here are several more passages proving that when the body dies the soul (the whole person) is dead. In each case, “body” is translated from nephesh. (See Numbers 6:6; 9:6, 7, 10; 19:13; Haggai 2:13)

People who see man as a mortal, material body that can die plus an immaterial, immortal soul that does not die are at a loss to explain Bible passages like the ones you have just read that speak of a dead person as being a deadnephesh (soul). For them, it can be mind-blowing to learn that the Bible presents dead people as dead nephesh (souls). I encourage you to turn from any unbiblical speculations about the soul you may have heretofore believed and replace them with the liberating truths of the Bible. Never be afraid of what the Bible says. “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)

When Job 11:20b speaks of “the giving up of the ghost,” it can be confusing for the Bible student who does not know that the word translated “ghost” in some English Bibles is actually nephesh — the same nephesh that dies and is killed and destroyed. It would be much clearer for the English-reading Bible student if that passage were translated “the giving up of the life.” Holman Christian Standard Bible comes close to this clarity with its rendering “to die.” The New King James Bible also brings some clarity with its translation “loss of life”!But the margin in my New King James Bible scores a direct bulls-eye when it indicates the literal reading as “the breathing out of life.” Life is gone — the man has breathed out the last breath of zoe (vitality) which Genesis 2:7 says God breathed into man when he became a living soul-nephesh. The moment the breath of vital life force (zoe) is gone, the living soul-nephesh becomes a dead soul-nephesh.

When the Bible speaks of a dead nephesh or psuche, it presents man or animal as a dead being, devoid of cognition and feeling. That soul has ceased to exist in a conscious, sentient state. God preserves the individual identity of each dead soul in “blueprint” form in heavenly record books but not in a conscious state. (See Bite-a-Book™ chapter 6)

Let’s briefly review what happens to a person when he or she dies. When a person dies, the following things happen.

(1) His vital life spark or breath, signifying personal identity, returns to God.

(2) Her body breaks down to dust returning to the earth from which its elements were originally drawn.

(3) His physical brain, being a biodegradable part of his body, ceases to function and decays along with the rest of his body: “Then shall the earth return to the earth as it was: and the spirit-[ruwach]shall return unto God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:7). At that point, his thoughts cease. He is no longer a living soul capable of conscious cognition and thought.

I have two blank pages to fill in this booklet and I hate waste so I want to share a cheerful little story with my younger readers. I got two new kittens a few days ago. They are brothers but they are different colors. They both have beautiful deep blue-grey eyes. The smaller one is an orange longhaired Tabby, beautiful and affectionate so I named him Friendlycat. His brother is a powdery black with subtle striping and some white on his chest, very beautiful, with long hair. I named him Fraidycat because he went and hid as soon as I let him out of the box when we got home. He hid all night and was kinda skittish even after he came out and started getting used to me the next day.

Actually Friendlycat bit me when I first tried to put him in the box to bring him home. I don't blame him. He had never been put in a box before and he didn't know the GIANT that was putting him in that dark dungeon. He knows me now and we are great friends. He and Fraidycat are litter box trained and 9 weeks old. ☺

Friendlycat seemed a little wobbly so I took him and Fraideycat to the Vet to make sure they were healthy and to get them wormed. I gave them the run of the house except my bedroom is off limits. I’m not into cats sitting on my bed pillows which is equivalent to letting them sit on my face — no thanks! ☻

I'm having fun with Friendlycat and Fraidycat. We're having a great time together. The Vet said the boys are in good shape but have ear mites so I got some medicine to treat them with. He said Fraidycat's eyes will turn yellow when he grows up. That will look neat with his powder black long fur. Friendlycat's eyes will stay blue, which goes really well with his orange striped fur. His hair is also long, almost as long as Fraidycat's.

Fraidycat weighs 1 3/4 lbs and Friendlycat 1 1/4 lbs. Fraidycat has accepted me now and is calm and trusting with me. He didn't get upset at all when I put him in the box to go to the Vet and he kept his motor on the whole time. Same with Friendlycat.

Well, fast-forward a couple of days. I have a sad update. Friendlycat didn’t make it. Apparently he had some kind of genetic defect or disease. Sin does awful things to God’s creation. After a few days Friendlycat became unresponsive and appeared nearly dead. (Of course I don’t have as much confidence in the Vet now since he obviously blew his evaluation of Friendlycat.)

Friendlycat was the runt of the litter and apparently was genetically weak. He also had a habit of sleeping in the litter box. I tried repeatedly to break him of the habit but he persisted in breaking my rules. I’m not about to keep a cat in my house that sleeps in poop. I took him back and exchanged him for a big beautiful strong healthy brother from the same litter. The new kitten is orange Tabby with the same deep blue-grey eyes and long fluffy hair. I named him Fancycat. He’s quite the handsome dude!

And I have an interesting update on Fraidycat. He got over his fear and now is quite the little buddy for me. He’s very animated and constantly cutting up so I gave him a name change to better fit his real personality. He is now and forever-more Funnycat!

God changes the names of people when their characters change and when we get to heaven we will all have new names to correspond with our individual personality-character. (See Revelation 2:17; Genesis 17:5, 15; 32:28)

Funnycat and Fancycat are ideal for me. They are a wonderful replacement for Mercy, my kitten who died last summer when she got mangled by the radiator fan in my pickup truck. As long as these little guys are obedient to the laws of my dominion we’ll get along just fine.

“So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”(Genesis 1:27-28)

A Modern “Soul Sonata” Allegory

Let’s briefly review Genesis 2:7: “And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground [human body], and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life [vital life force]; and man became a living soul[possessing a unique individual character identity].”

Let’s imagine that you own a master CD on which is recorded a beautiful sonata. That composition is distinct from the music on any other CD in existence. It is unique, one of a kind.

When your precious CD is stored in its jewel case, the musical composition exists in the form of recorded information. It is arecord. The record has a name — “Soul Sonata.” The “Soul Sonata” does not make melodious sounds while stored in its jewel case. When your CD is in storage, its musical information exists, but in a“sleep state.” The music remains “asleep”until you insert the CD into a player and turn on the power, at which point, the music “awakens.”

The unique music recorded on your CD is analogous to the unique identity of an individual person. The CD player is analogous to the human body. The electrical power is analogous to vital breath or animating force.

So you have a CD player (human body). You insert your CD with its recorded information (individual human identity) into the player. You turn on the electricity (vital life force). At that point, with player, information and power combined, the unique information recorded on the CD “awakens to life and makes melody” as you hear the beautiful, vibrant music of your “Soul Sonata.”

Do you remember what we read in Genesis 2:7? “And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground [human body], and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life [vital life force]; and man became a living soul[with individuality, or personal identity].” This text is telling us that a living human soul is a wholistic being. He or she is a combination of physical elements+ vital life force+ individual identity. Upon the death of a human soul, the individual’s record of identity remains securely in God’s hands in a sleep state.

As you would store the unique, one-of-a-kind recording of your “Soul Sonata” quietly in its jewel-case, similarly God stores each individual’s record of identity safely in a “heavenly jewel case” (a heavenly “book”). At the resurrection, God rejoins all three components, human body, vital life force, and details of individual identity. At that point, the individual once again becomes a whole, living soul.

“Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard [it], and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.” (Malachi 3:16-18)

Those who come up in the first resurrection will retain their unique soul identity for all eternity in an uncorrupted, cognizant, living body. They will experience “pleasures for evermore” in a very real physical world in which disease and death cannot enter. (See Isaiah 65:17-25; Revelation 21:1-7; Psalm 16:11)

But those who come up in the second resurrection will face judgment and execution by fire. They will be cast body and soul into hell. (See Matthew 10:28) God will destroy more than the body of each lost person; He will irrevocably destroy that person’s complete identity in the cleansing fires of hell. Their “name,” the very record of their identity, will be blotted out of the heavenly “books.” God will literally blot them out of existence. (See Exodus 32:32, 33; Malachi 4:1; Revelation 3:5; 20:12, 15) In allegorical terms, God will cast any corrupted “master CDs” into the hungry, devouring flames of hell, and those unique individual records will be burned up and cease to exist forever. “This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”(Revelation 20:14b-15) The finality of such a fate should give us pause.

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