The Moment of Truth - Lesson 14

Body, Soul, and Spirit

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Let us pray together:

Our Father,

We thank You for having guided us during our previous searches in Your Word, leading us on the path of the truth.

We also want to thank You for helping us to put into practice what You teach us in Your Holy Book.

Today, we would like to study the nature of Man. Do we have an immortal soul? What is the difference between soul and spirit?

Please accompany us by the presence of Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus Christ we pray.

Amen.

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Psalm 144:3	Comments
Lord, what is man, that You take knowledge of him?	What is man? What is he made of? Is there a part of him that is immortal? These are questions that have mystified men for many centuries. However, the Bible can answer them in a precise and satisfying way. This first lesson is essential in order to understand the next one which will speak about the state of the dead.

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1 Thessalonians 5:23	Comments
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.	Let's first note that we are made up of three essential elements: - The body (in Hebrew: Ťbasarť; in Greek: Ťsomať). - The spirit (in Hebrew: Ťruachť; in Greek: Ťpneumať). - The soul (in Hebrew: Ťnepheshť; in Greek: Ťpsucheť). Now, let's see what each one of these three distinct elements consists of.

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1 Corinthians 15:47	Comments
The first man was of the earth, made of dust.	First of all, let's talk about the body. The Bible often describes it as taken from the earth. Indeed, our body is made up of the very same materials that we find in the earth: oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, iron, phosphorus, etc. This amazing combination, endowed with the capacity of loving and reasoning, is definitely the masterpiece of Creation!
Psalm 10:18
(...) that the man of the earth may oppress no more.

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Genesis 3:19	Comments
For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.	Dust and ashes are others terms used by the Bible to describe the body, reminding us that, at the beginning, it has been taken from the earth.
Psalm 103:14
For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.
Genesis 18:27
I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord.

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Numbers 16:22

Comments

O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh (...).

The second element of our being is the spirit, also called the breath (in fact, the Greek term for spirit is Ťpneumať, a root which means Ťbreathť, as in the word Ťpneumaticť for example).

The spirit is the breath of life given by God. When the inanimate body receives this breath, it comes to life; conversely, at the time of death, the spirit leaves the body and returns to God.

So the spirit is the source of life and energy of all living beings.

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Genesis 7:15	Comments
And they went into the ark of Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life.	The spirit, that is, the breath of life, animates all living creatures. It is the same source of life for men and for animals. We could compare the spirit with an electric current feeding a whole city.
Ecclesiastes 3:19
What happens to the sons of men also happens to beasts; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath.

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Job 33:4	Comments
The Spirit of God has made me, the breath of the Almighty gives me life.	When an inanimate body receives God's breath (or spirit), it comes to life.
Revelation 11:11
Now after the three and a half days the breath of life from God entered [the two witnesses], and they stood on their feet.
Ezekiel 37:5
Thus says the Lord God to these bones: ŤSurely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.ť

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Genesis 2:7 (KJV)	Comments
And 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.	The combination of body and spirit gives a living soul. Therefore, the soul is not an entity separate from the body. The soul is the living being itself. A living soul is created when God's breath of life enters a body.
1 Corinthians 15:45 (KJV)
And so it is written, ŤThe first man Adam was made a living soul.ť

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Psalm 130:5	Comments
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits.	As we can see, the word Ťsoulť is used to describe a living being. The verses above show how the word ŤIť can be replaced by Ťmy soulť, and how the word Ťweť can be replaced by Ťour soulť. Now, if it is true that body plus spirit gives a living soul, let us see the reverse process...
Psalm 124:7
Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped.

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Job 34:14,15	Comments
If [God] should gather to Himself His Spirit and His breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.	So when the living soul loses the breath of life, the body alone remains, deprived of life, and returns to dust. Now, where does God's breath, the spirit of life, go?
Psalm 104:29,30
You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the earth.

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Ecclesiastes 12:7	Comments
Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.	At the moment of death, the spirit, the breath, simply returns to God who had given it in the beginning to grant us life.
Ecclesiastes 8:8
No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit, and no one has power in the day of death.
Luke 23:46
ŤFather, into Your hands I commend My spirit.ť And He breathed His last.

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Luke 8:55	Comments
Then [the girl's] spirit returned, and she arose immediately.	To illustrate, let us compare the body to a light bulb being out, the spirit to electricity, and the soul to the light bulb turned on by electricity. When we cut off the power, the lighted bulb (the soul) ceases to exist, because electricity (the spirit) has left it. Only a light bulb switched off remains, that is, the body without life.
Psalm 146:4
His spirit departs, he returns to his earth.

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Hebrews 7:8	Comments
Here mortal men receive tithes.	At the moment of death, the living soul ceases to exist, the body returns to dust, and the spirit, the energy of life, returns to God. But is there a part of man that is immortal? For a long time it has been taught that the soul was immortal, that it was surviving after death and going to heaven, to hell, or elsewhere... Does the Bible agree with that teaching?
Isaiah 51:12
Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die?

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Ezekiel 18:20	Comments
The soul who sins shall die.	The Bible is clear on this point: the soul is mortal. No man bears in himself, by birth, a seed of immortality.
Matthew 10:28
But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body.
James 5:20
He who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death.

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Psalm 78:50	Comments
[God] did not spare their soul from death.	Let us note, in the second verse, how the soul's mortality is applied to all men, good or wicked. But then, where does this great lie, teaching that the soul is immortal, come from? The answer given by the Bible could surprise you...
Ezekiel 13:19 (KJV)
And will ye pollute Me (...) to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live?

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Genesis 3:1-4

Comments

[The serpent] said to the woman, ŤHas God indeed said, "You shall not eat of every tree of the garden"?ť

And the woman said to the serpent, ŤWe may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, "You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die."ť

And the serpent said to the woman, ŤYou will not surely die.ť

God had warned Adam and Eve that disobeying would make them subject to mortality.

But the serpent deceived them, making them believe that they were immortal !

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2 Corinthians 11:3	Comments
But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.	From the beginning until today, Satan has managed to deceive men, making them believe that they bear immortality in themselves.
Revelation 12:9
(...) that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.

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1 Timothy 6:15,16	Comments
(...) the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality.	Let's always remember: God alone has immortality. Therefore man is not immortal by birth. But the greatest desire of God is to share His immortality with us!

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Genesis 2:17	Comments
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.	God had created man as a candidate for immortality. But by his disobedience, man broke his connection with God, the unique source of life, and lost his access to immortality. He thus became a mortal being.
Romans 5:12
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned (...).

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Romans 6:23	Comments
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.	By giving His life for us, Jesus Christ offers us the possibility to grab immortality by faith. Therefore, immortality is conditional to salvation in Jesus Christ.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

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1 John 5:11-13	Comments
And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.	Immortality is therefore God's gift to those who repent of their sins, and accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord of their life.

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2 Timothy 1:10	Comments
(...) our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.	Let us remember: immortality dwells only in Jesus Christ. Without Him, we remain subject to mortality, and thus to eternal extinction.
Romans 2:6,7
[God] will render to each one according to his deeds: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor and immortality.

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Deuteronomy 30:19	Comments
I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life.	This is God's invitation to each one of us. We are not immortal by nature. But it depends entirely upon us whether we will inherit immortality. We can seize by faith eternal life that is in Jesus Christ. Why not do it right now, as we pray?

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Let us ask God to grant us this eternal life:

Our Lord and our God,

Satan would like so much to deceive us, to make us believe that we are already immortal, so that we may not feel our need to be saved by Jesus Christ.

Fortunately, You have given us Your Word to guide us and teach us that only You have immortality.

This is why we turn to You, Father, to ask You to grant us eternal life, which is in Jesus Christ, for we accept Him from now on as our personal Savior and Lord of our life.

We ask this in His name.

Amen.

The test of Lesson 14 is waiting for you!

Source of the Pictures of this Lesson

Screen 1: Picture collection ŤClickArt 65,000ť by Broderbund, CD #4, NATOT386.JPG. Screen 2: In: ŤQuestionnaire Adulte de l'Ecole du Sabbatť, Pacific Press Publishing Association, Second Quarter, 1999, front cover. Screen 3: SHALLIS, Christian. In: ŤIl faut beaucoup de foi pour ętre athée - A la recherche de nos originesť (SHALLIS, Ralph), Editions Farel, 1983, front cover. Screen 4: ŤAnatomy of the structures of the human body.ť In: ŤDeluxe Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia CD - 1998 Editionť, Compton's Home Library, 1997. Screen 5: In: ŤThe Watchtowerť magazine (May 1, 1990), Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, p.18. Screen 6: JUSTINEN, Lars. In: ŤQuestionnaire Adulte de l'Ecole du Sabbatť, Pacific Press Publishing Association, Fourth Quarter, 1996, front cover. Screen 7: In: ŤMy Book of Bible Storiesť, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1978, p.25. Screen 8: In: ŤLa Révélation - le grand dénouement est procheť, New York, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1988, p.169. Screen 9: In: ŤUncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories, volume 3ť (MAXWELL, Arthur S.), Review and Herald Publishing Association and Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1976, p.151. Used by permission. Copyright Š 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1976 by Review and HeraldŽ Publishing Association, USA. All Rights Reserved. Screen 10: Photo by PhotoDisc. In: ŤSabbath School Leadershipť magazine (May 1999), front cover. Screen 11: In: ŤVivez éternellement heureux sur la terre!ť, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1982, picture number 15. Screen 12: WILLIAMSON, Jean et Mick SHARP. In: ŤRevelationť (LORIE, Peter), Simon & Schuster, Labyrinth Publishing Ltd, 1994, p.198. Screen 13: ŤLightbulb.ť In: ŤDeluxe Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia CD - 1998 Editionť, Compton's Home Library, 1997. Screen 14: NYE, Vernon. In: ŤThe Bible Story, volume 1ť (MAXWELL, Arthur S.), Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1953, p.38. Used by permission. Copyright Š 1953, 1981 by Review and HeraldŽ Publishing Association, USA. All Rights Reserved. Table of Screen 14: McGARY, Norman. ŤThe I AM Projectť, 1996. Picture from the Web site: http://www.webservants.com/story/2.html. Screen 15: In: ŤRéveillez-vousť magazine (January 8, 1994), Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, p.26. Screen 16: In: ŤThe Watchtowerť magazine (August 15, 1998), Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, p.16. Screen 17: LE CARAVAGGIO. In: ŤThe Wonder of the Miraclesť (SOMMER, Robin Langley), Saraband, 1998, p.73. Screen 18: MOLAN, Chris. In: ŤForever Stories, volume 1ť (BYERS, Carolyn), Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1990, p.54,55. Used by permission. Copyright Š 1990 by Review and HeraldŽ Publishing Association, USA. All Rights Reserved. Screen 19: VERLEYE, J. In: ŤThe Catholic Children's Bibleť (THEOLA, Soeur Mary), The Regina Press, 1983, p.26. Screen 20: FRA BARTOLOMEO. ŤGod the Fatherť (1509), Museo e Pinacoteca Nazionale di Palazzo Mansi, Lucques. In: ŤLa Peinture de la Renaissance Italienneť (BECK, James H.), Editions Könemann, 1999, p.348. Screen 21: In: ŤThe Bible for Children - Retold by Bridget Hadaway & Jean Atchesonť, London, Octopus Books Limited, 1973, p.12,13. Screen 22: GRACE, Robert. In: ŤSigns of the Timesť magazine (August 1989), Pacific Press Publishing Association, p.15. Screen 23: GREENE, Nathan. ŤThe Invitationť. In: ŤInspirational Fine Artť, Hart Classic Editions (www.hartclassics.com), p.2. Screen 24: REMMEY, Paul. In: ŤThe Bible Story, volume 8ť (MAXWELL, Arthur S.), Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1956, p.188. Used by permission. Copyright Š 1956, 1984 by Review and HeraldŽ Publishing Association, USA. All Rights Reserved. Screen 25: ANDERSON, Harry. In: ŤThe Triumph of God's Love, volume 1ť (WHITE, Ellen G.), Pacific Press Publishing Association and Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1950, p.322. Screen 26: Picture collection ŤClickArt 65,000ť by Broderbund, CD #4, NATOT137.JPG.

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Body, Soul, and Spirit

The test of Lesson 14 is waiting for you!

The test of Lesson 14 is waiting for you!

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