SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

MAN, MORTAL OR IMMORTAL?

I'll give a million dollars for each year you can add to my life," a noted American is reported to have said to his medical advisers when he was eighty years old.

Most people, if in good health and circumstances, wish to keep right on living, Days of mental depression have overtaken .. the majority even as in the experience of the great Elijah when he said, "It is enough; now, 0 Lord, take away my life," 1 Kings 19:4, Yet, when the time of departure comes, men tend to prefer life.

As Dr. William W. Booth has paraphrased the old poem, "Lives there a man with soul so dead, who never to himself has said, 'I wish I could live forever'?"

The word mortal is defined "subject to death; destined to die,"

The word immortal means "not mortal; exempt from liability to die; imperishable; everlasting."-Webster's New International Dictionary.

Did God purpose that sinless man, created in the image of God, should die? We think all will agree that He did not. God created man to live, But God did not purpose that man should live if he sinned. This is the way it was presented to Adam: "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," Genesis 2:17, The marginal reading is, "dying thou shalt die,"

The sentence of death would be pronounced the day man sinned, and the process of dying would begin.

Satan, in the form of a serpent, said to Eve, "Ye shall not surely die." Genesis 3:4. (Christ said that the devil is a liar. John 8:44.) This more pleasing promise of Satan, Eve believed, then disobeyed God. Adam followed in her footsteps of sin, though he Was not deceived (1 Timothy 2:14), God closed His conversation with them over the incident in these words: "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return," Genesis 3:19,

What would happen now if Adam and Eve, having sinned, should continue to eat of the tree of life?

This tree was planted in the midst of the Garden, as was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:9), To partake of the latter meant death, To partake regularly of the tree of life would perpetuate life.

What now?

We read: "The Lord God said, , , , Lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life," Genesis 3:22,24, God did not propose that sinners should live forever.

From this clear Biblical picture of the matter we conclude two things: (1) Man was created with the possibility of immortality before him on condition that he meet the test of obedience. (2) Man was not created with inherent immortality, He was "subject unto death" if he should sin.

Thus we are not shocked to find the Bible reference to man as "mortal." We quote, "Shall mortal man be more just than God? Job 4:17. Nor are we surprised to find this very sweeping statement regarding God, "who only hath immortality," 1 Timothy 6:16.

In other words, God is immortal and man is mortal, In fact, the word immortal is found but once in the Bible and is applied to God. "Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God," 1 Timothy 1:17,

DID GOD GIVE MAN AN IMMORTAL SOUL?

Once upon a time King Charles II stood before a group of scientists and scholars at a meeting of the Royal Society of England. He said something like this, "Suppose I take a pail of water, set it on a scale, and it tips the beam at ten pounds. Then I drop into the water five pounds of live fish, This would make, we would suppose, a total weight of fifteen pounds. Why is it that after I add the five pounds of fish, the scale still stands at ten pounds?"

Various wise men rose and made deep and sometimes inexplicable explanations--everything from air-filled fish sacs to theoretical vacuum and ungravitating gravitation,

Finally the king closed the discussion, Said he, "You are all wrong, and for this reason: when you take a pail of water weighing ten pounds and add to it five pounds of fish, the pail, water, and fish will weigh fifteen pounds, as you learned gentlemen should all right well know." These men had been misled by trusting too much to a prominent man.

The Bible presents the following:

1. Man is mortal (Job 4:17).

2. God is immortal (I Timothy 1:17).

3. God only has immortality (I Timothy 6:16).

4. Man must seek for immortality (Romans 2:7).

5. Immortality is brought to light in the gospel (2 Timothy 1:10).

6. It will be bestowed upon redeemed man at Christ's second coming (I Corinthians 15:51-55). 

Is it not strange, with this array of Bible teaching, that some should believe that man has something immortal about him that even God cannot destroy? This is more strange than the reasoning of the king's scientists, who would have ten plus five equal ten.

With this background we may examine the record of man's creation in Genesis 2:7: "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."

Let us follow the steps:

First. God made Adam's body from the dust of the ground. The substantial part of man's body is composed of dust, as the Bible says. As a matter of interest and fact, he is almost 80 percent gas, most of which is. Oxygen, some 10 per cent hydrogen, with a trifle of nitrogen. Of the heavier elements, carbon leads, then calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, chlorine, sulphur, magnesium, iron, and traces of iodine and other elements. In this respect men and animals are alike.

Second. God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of Life.

Here is no indication of any "immortal soul" being put into Adam. No such "spirit" Adam had ever existed. None was here created. God simply breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath Ii life. Do we have any reasonable right to assume anything more? The third point is thus stated, "Man became a living soul." Body plus breath of life equals a living soul. Note carefully that God, did not breathe into man a living soul, but He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

An electric light bulb of itself gives no light. But when an electric current is sent through its inner wiring, light is produced. Thus Adam's body, perfect as it was, could not perform any function or fulfill any purpose. So God switched on the current of life, and Adam then became a living, active, functioning soul.

The living soul did not have an existence before Adam was made, and it was not breathed into Adam, but came as a result of the union of his body and the breath of life, or the breath of the "spirit of life," as it is called in one place.

The Hebrew and Greek words from which we translate our English words soul and spirit are found some 1,700 times in the Bible. Actually, the word soul as used in the Bible does not always have exactly the same meaning. The same holds true of the word spirit. We should therefore avoid being dogmatic on any one definition.

This much let us know of a surety, in not one of the 1,700 appearances of these original words for soul and spirit is either of them said to be immortal, never dying, imperishable, inde­structible, everlasting, eternal, or in possession of immortality. Nor are the dead represented to be capable of a conscious exist­ence apart from the body.

MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS

Man belongs to the animal kingdom. Do animals, as well as man, have the "breath of life"? The answer is given in Genesis 7: IS, where is recorded the entrance of animals into Noah's ark at the time of the Flood. "They went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life:' Therefore ani­mals also possess the breath of life ("the breath of the spirit of life," Genesis 7:22, margin). An animal may have a perfect body, but it may be perfectly dead. It must have the current of life switched on, just as man must have it.

Do animals become living souls when the breath of life enters their bodies? In Genesis 1:30 we read, "To every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life:' The marginal reading of 'life" is "a living soul:' In Revelation 16:3 the animals of the sea are called living souls. The original expression for "living soul" is nepesh hayyah. This expression is used in Genesis 1:20, 21, 24, 30, in referring to the animals as "the moving creature that hath life," "every living creature," and "the living creature." Thus an animal is called a "living soul," or nephesh hayyah. This is the identical expression used in Genesis 2:7, when man became a "living soul:'

Is man then a mere animal? No, indeed! Such a conclusion is entirely unwarranted. In your garden is a green-leafed bush bearing beautiful blushing roses. Close by is an ugly weed. They are both of the same kingdom, and receive the same kind of sunshine and rain, and grow in identical soil. But no one calls a rose a weed, or a weed a rose. The difference does not lie in the sun­shine, soil, or rain, but in the plant organism. When God put life into Adam's organism He produced different results from those that occurred when He put life into animal organisms.

A boy fills a gallon bucket two thirds full of water, solders the lid fast, sets it on two bricks, and builds a fire under it. After the steam pressure comes up he punches a small hole in the lid ad lets a jet of steam strike the paddles of a wheel attached to a small shaft. On the shaft is a pulley with a string belt running to a pulley fastened in place with a nail. The fire burns, the water boils, the steam issues forth, the paddle wheel turns, and the boy's mill runs. But what a far cry from a glorious modern steam engine with its great connecting arm, its silent slides, its gleaming oil cups, its rocking eccentric, its giant flywheel, and its surging power, fed into it from a high-pressure boiler, Yes, a great difference. But it is the same kind of fire, water, and steam that the boy uses in his play mill.

When God put the vitalizing energy of life into Adam, it was the same life as that of the animal kingdom, but how different the results!

An electric current passes into a light bulb filament, and we get light. It passes into the heavy coils of an electric heater, and heat is the chief product. The current is connected with an electric motor, and a revolving motion is the result. We get power. Whether we get light, heat, or power depends on what the currant goes into.

So when God breathed life into Adam He was putting life into the masterpiece of earthly Creation, Said the psalmist "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Psalm 139:14. Man was made only "a little lower than the angels," Psalm 8:5, As poetically expressed by one writer, "What a piece of work is man! ­Noble in reason, how infinite in faculty; in form and moving how expressive and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god!"

SIN AND SALVATION

This glorious masterpiece of God's earthly Creation sinned, and became subject to death. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever­lasting Life." John 3:16. The appearance of Jesus Christ "hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel," 2 Timothy 1:10, "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life," I John 5:12.

We may all conclude that man does not by nature possess an immortal soul. Souls so small that ten thousand of them may dance on the point of a needle are but a fancy. A soul that is the same size as the body, and which has all the senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing; and which exists apart from the body, is but a figment of man's imagination, It takes the body and the spirit of life together to make man a living soul.

Job said, “The spirit of God is in my nostrils," Job 27:3. Paul writes, "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:23. The body and the spirit of life make man a living soul.

Christ came to save all there is of man, For this to be done we must let Him sanctify all there is of us -body, soul, and spirit. "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate," Hebrews 13:12.

Seeing that the Saviour was willing to suffer in order to save us, the Bible says, "Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but seek one to come," Verses 13, 14.

About five hundred years ago there lived a great preacher by the name of Savonarola. In the city of Florence, Italy, he Spoke fearlessly against sin and evil, and lifted up the Man of Calvary. . The ruler of Florence threatened him with punishment and torture. The pope offered him a high church position if he would cease talking about the corruption in the church, But Savonarola had heard the voice of God, and would not be disobedient to the heavenly vision. They took him prisoner, tortured him, and finally burned him to death in the public square of the city.

It is the way of the cross that leads to immortality, "Be faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life," Revelation 2:10.

"Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it," Matthew 16: 25'.

Christ is trying to say to us, "You cannot save yourselves. Come to My cross, and give yourselves completely over to the will of God as I did on Calvary. Accept the sacrifice that I have made.  Choose rather to die than to sin. This is the only road to holiness, heaven, and immortality."

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