When a man passes away his soul also dies. Our only hope is a resurrection.

What the Bible teaches us about the soul and the death of the soul.

Practically all people, including practically all Christians, think that the Bible teaches us that people have a soul which is immortal and which lives on after death in heaven, in hell or in purgatory. This notion is completely unbiblical and wrong. The idea that every person has a soul which is immaterial, not discernable for the senses and immortal does not come from the Bible, but from Greek philosophy, particularly the philosophy of Plato. In the second and third centuries Christianity adopted the Platonic view of the soul and abandoned the Biblical view. This is very bad: the Biblical view of the notion behind the word soul comes from God and is therefore correct. The meaning which Plato attached to the notion behind the word soul is based on fallible human reasoning power and totally wrong. Body and soul are one. Man does not have a soul, but is a soul. A soul cannot exist without a body, which means that the body and the soul of every human come into being at the same time and die at the same time.

From the fact that Greek philosophy teaches us that the essence of man, his soul, is immortal naturally follows the Platonic view that death does not really exist: for Plato death is the passing on of the human soul to another life. The Bible teaches us that the human soul is mortal and that at a person’s death his existence ends. The dead person just does not exist any more. There is nothing left of him or her.

Read Genesis 2:17. In this verse God tells Adam that disobedience will result in his death. God does not say anything about Adam’s soul or the passing on of Adam’s soul to another way of life. And see Genesis 3:19. Here God says to Adam who has just been condemned to death: for you are dust and to dust you will return.

Nowhere does the Bible teach us that after their death the deceased live on in heaven, where they are perfectly happy, or in hell, where they are tortured. The Bible teaches us that the dead cannot think, feel, or be aware of anything. Read Ecclesiastes 9:5 ………the dead are not conscious of anything. Or Psalm 146:4………the dead have no thoughts. The Bible tells us very plainly that the punishment for sin is death and with these words the Bible clearly means total death: see Ezekiel 18:4………the soul which sins must die.

In the Bible there is only one passage in which someone says that the man who sins will not die and with those words expresses the opinion that the essence of man is immortal: Genesis 3:4. Mind: the one talking here is Satan, who tells Eve that God was lying when He warned her and her husband that disobedience on their side would result in their death.

The fact that in the entire Bible only Satan asserts that man is immortal proves beyond any doubt that in the final analysis the doctrine of the immortality of man as taught by Plato and all the people that agree with him on this point stems from God’s adversary Satan.

What the Bible teaches us about hell.

Practically all people, including practically all Christians, think that the Bible teaches us that people have a soul which is immortal and that the souls of people who have rejected God during their lifetime will for ever be tortured in hell. This notion is completely unbiblical and wrong. It is true that the word hell is often used in Bible translations, but in the Bible the word hell does not refer to a place where the souls of deceased people are tortured, but in the Bible the word hell refers to: being dead, buried, and not existing any more. Where in modern Bible translations the word hell is used, you find in the corresponding Hebrew text she-ol and in the corresponding Greek text haides. These two words do not refer to a place where deceased souls are perpetually punished and tortured. As we have explained before: when people die their souls cease to exist, they know nothing, feel nothing, think nothing and consequently cannot suffer. They just do not exist any more.

That the Bible uses the word hell with the meaning described above can clearly be seen in the Apostles’ Creed, which is still used by all Christian Churches these days. The Apostles’ Creed consists of twelve articles. The fourth article says about Jesus Christ: He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. It will be clear that these words do not suggest that after Jesus’ death His soul went to a place where it would be tortured, but that the words want to say that after His death Christ was buried and ceased to exist.

For that matter the Bible does not only call humans souls but also animals. And the Bible teaches us that there is no difference between humans and animals as regards the end of their lives. See Ecclesiastes 3:19………the way the one dies is the way the other dies.

Within this context it is good to look at what Paul says about punishment for sin and death. See Romans 6:23………The wages paid by sin is death. And Romans 6:7……… he who has died has been acquitted of his sins. Both in Paul’s letter to the Romans and in many other places the Bible teaches us that God knows only one punishment for sin: death. The notion of punishment for sin in the form of torture simply does not occur in the Bible. People who have died have received all the punishment for their sins they will ever get. There will be no more. Neither in hell nor in purgatory.

What the Bible teaches us about heaven.

Practically all people, including practically all Christians, think that the Bible teaches us that people have a soul which is immortal and that the souls of people who in their lifetime have served God well go to heaven to be for ever perfectly happy. This notion is completely unbiblical and wrong. The Bible teaches us that after death all souls go to hell. But the word hell must be understood in the Biblical sense described above: the souls die and cease to exist

Our only hope: a resurrection to life in the Kingdom of God.

If the Bible teaches us that human souls die and then cease to exist, does that mean that the Bible also tells us that the lives of all people, after a short period on earth, end with their total destruction? Yes and no. Yes, in the sense that the death of a human soul means the absolute end of the existence of that soul. No, in the sense that the Bible tells us that God can give dead human souls a resurrection. A completely new life. In God’s Kingdom which will be established at the end of the history of mankind which is taking place now. This hope of a resurrection, this hope of eternal life in perfect happiness in the Kingdom of God which is to be established is by far the most important theme of the Bible. When God created the earth and man He had in mind a paradise-like earth, inhabited by perfect people who would live on that earth in perfect happiness for ever. God always achieves what He wants to achieve: that paradise-like earth with those perfect people on it will be a reality one day! Look at John 6:40………where Jesus says: This is the will of my Father that everyone who looks at the Son and believes in Him has eternal life and I will resurrect him on the final day.

At the end of the history of mankind Jesus Christ will return to the earth, establish His Kingdom there and then give all dead souls who deserve it a new life within this Kingdom. This is the great theme of the Bible, to which the Bible constantly refers. This is the Kingdom which all Christians of all times ask for when they pray the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come. This is the Kingdom that Isaiah is talking about when he says: They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. (Isaiah 2:4). This is the Kingdom which Psalm 37: 11 refers to with the words: the meek will possess the earth and they will delight in abounding peace.

In many places the Bible promises us the resurrection of the dead. A good example: John 5:28, 29 ………the hour is coming in which all those who are in their tombs will hear His voice (the voice of Christ) and come forth. Another text which is perfectly clear: Acts 24:15………I have set my hope on God that there will be a resurrection of both the good and the wicked.

That starting from the first centuries of its existence Christianity has taught its followers that the only hope of mankind is a resurrection is clearly to be seen in the Apostles” Creed, which is still used today in all Christian Churches. It has twelve articles. The eleventh article says: I believe in the resurrection of the body. Within the Christian faith there exist a number of creeds. They all date back to the first centuries. They all teach the resurrection of the dead. None of them teaches us that human souls are immortal or that a soul can exist without a body.

Some dead souls will not get a resurrection.

After the return of Christ and after the establishing of God’s Kingdom not all souls will get a resurrection and be admitted into the Kingdom. The Greek Scriptures also use the word gehenna, which is translated as hell in modern Bible Translation but has a different meaning compared to the Greek word haides. Gehenna refers to a kind of death from which no resurrection is possible. In the Bible this is also called the second death or definitive death. Or the lake of fire. The Bible tells us that there are people who will not be given a resurrection and admittance into God’s Kingdom because it is absolutely certain that they will never be willing to obey God’s laws, not even in God’s Kingdom. These are people who will never repent of their sins. About this kind of people we read in Matthew 25:46………These will go off to eternal punishment, but the just will go to eternal life. And in 2 Thessalonians 1:9………These will be punished with an eternal destruction. And see what the Bible says about godless people in Revelation 21:8………their lot is in the fiery lake of burning sulpher: this is the second death.

The purpose for which God made the earth and man

The certainty that God will achieve His purposes.

The Bible certainly does not tell us that God created the earth because He needed a place where He could test if individual humans deserved a place in heaven or not. Neither does the Bible tell us that God created humans because He needed beings with whom He could populate heaven. The Bible tells us that God made the earth to be for ever the perfect dwelling place for humans. And the purpose for which He created humans is that He wanted to have beings who could for ever live in perfect happiness on His perfect earth. In short: the earth was made for man and man was made for the earth. See Psalm 37: 29………The just will possess the earth and dwell in it for ever. Or Matthew 5:5………blessed are the humble for they will inherit the earth.

Because God is omnipotent and always achieves the ends He wants to achieve, it is certain that the perfect earth that He had in mind when He created it and the perfect, eternally living people He had in mind when He created Adam and Eve will one day be there. They will come into being when Christ returns to the earth to establish God’s Kingdom here.

All the books of the Holy Hebrew and Greek Scriptures deal with this great theme: how will God eventually see to it that He will achieve the kind of earth which He had in mind when He created it, inhabited by the kind of people He had in mind when He created man. This is the theme of the Biblical history from Genesis to Revelation. This is the sole theme that all the many promises that God has made towards mankind deal with.

Imagine that the great theme of the Bible would be: humans have an immortal soul which, after their death, lives on in heaven or in hell. And people must see to it that their soul will go to heaven by doing what is good and not doing what is bad. In that case the Bible would have the same theme as all the religions which arose long before Christianity came into being, like the religions of Babylonia, Egypt, Assyria, Greece and Rome. Such a completely universal theme would make the Bible and Christianity superfluous. Such a theme would mean that the Bible and Christianity teach people something that they have known all the time and that other religions can teach them just as well.

Such a theme would make the Bible a book which needs tens of thousands of sentences to tell us something that can also be said in one sentence: people, see to it that after your death your immortal soul will go to heaven and not to hell.

Such a theme would make all the thousands of things that God, Christ and the Bible-writers have said to mankind superfluous, just like all the actions which God and Jesus have done for us in the course of human history. In addition: with all immortal souls in heaven or in hell there will eventually be no souls left to live in God’s future Kingdom.

In reality the message of the Bible completely contradicts the message of all other religions. The Bible tells us that when in paradise God told Adam and Eve that after eating of the forbidden apple they would die and Satan said that they would not die, God spoke the truth and Satan was lying. According to the word of God the base on which the hope of all humans is founded is not formed by their immortal soul, but by a resurrection from the dead and after this resurrection eternal life in the Kingdom that God is going to establish.