Body,
Soul, and Spirit
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1
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
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
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: «basar»; in Greek: «soma»).
- The spirit (in Hebrew: «ruach»; in Greek: «pneuma»).
- The soul (in Hebrew: «nephesh»; in Greek: «psuche»).
Now, let's see what each one of these three distinct elements consists of.
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1 Corinthians 15:47
The first man was of the earth, made of dust.
Psalm 10:18
(...) that the man of the earth may oppress no more.
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!
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Genesis 3:19
For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.
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.
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.
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Numbers 16:22
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 «pneuma», a root which means «breath», as in the word
«pneumatic» 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
And they went into the ark of Noah, two by two, of all
flesh in which is the breath of life.
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.
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.
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Job 33:4
The Spirit of God has made me, the breath of the Almighty
gives me 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:
«Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.»
When an inanimate body receives God's breath (or spirit), it comes to life.
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Genesis 2:7 (KJV)
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.
1 Corinthians 15:45 (KJV)
And so it is written,
«The first man Adam was made 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.
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Psalm 130:5
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits.
Psalm 124:7
Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the
fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped.
As we can see, the word «soul» is used to describe a living being.
The verses above show how the word «I» can be replaced by «my soul», and how the word
«we» can be replaced by «our soul».
Now, if it is true that body plus spirit gives a living soul, let us see the reverse
process...
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Job 34:14,15
If [God] should gather to Himself His Spirit and His
breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.
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.
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?
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Ecclesiastes 12:7
Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the
spirit will return to God who gave it.
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
«Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit.»
And He breathed His last.
At the moment of death, the spirit, the breath, simply returns to God who had
given it in the beginning to grant us life.
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Luke 8:55
Then [the girl's] spirit returned, and she arose
immediately.
Psalm 146:4
His spirit departs, he returns to his earth.
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.
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Hebrews 7:8
Here mortal men receive tithes.
Isaiah 51:12
Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will
die?
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?
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Ezekiel 18:20
The soul who sins shall die.
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.
The Bible is clear on this point: the soul is mortal.
No man bears in himself, by birth, a seed of immortality.
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Psalm 78:50
[God] did not spare their soul from death.
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?
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...
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Genesis 3:1-4
[The serpent] said to the woman, «Has God indeed said,
"You shall not eat of every tree of the garden"?»
And the woman said to the serpent, «We 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."»
And the serpent said to the woman, «You will not surely die.»
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
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.
Revelation 12:9
(...) that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan,
who deceives the whole world.
From the beginning until today, Satan has managed to deceive men, making them
believe that they bear immortality in themselves.
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1 Timothy 6:15,16
(...) 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
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.
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 (...).
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.
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Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is
eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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.
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.
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1 John 5:11-13
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
(...) our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death
and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
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.
Let us remember: immortality dwells only in Jesus Christ.
Without Him, we remain subject to mortality, and thus to eternal extinction.
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Deuteronomy 30:19
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.
Source of the Pictures of this Lesson
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CD #4, NATOT386.JPG. Screen 2: In: «Questionnaire Adulte de l'Ecole du
Sabbat», Pacific Press Publishing Association, Second Quarter, 1999, front cover.
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Press Publishing Association, 1953, p.38. Table of Screen 14: McGARY,
Norman. «The I AM Project», 1996. Picture from the Web site:
http://www.webservants.com/story/2.html. Screen 15: In:
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Screen 16: In: «The Watchtower» magazine (August 15, 1998), Watch Tower Bible
and Tract Society, p.16. Screen 17: LE CARAVAGGIO. In: «The Wonder of
the Miracles» (SOMMER, Robin Langley), Saraband, 1998, p.73. Screen 18: MOLAN,
Chris. In: «Forever Stories, volume 1» (BYERS, Carolyn), Review and Herald Publishing
Association, 1990, p.54,55. Screen 19: VERLEYE, J. In: «The Catholic
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BARTOLOMEO. «God the Father» (1509), Museo e Pinacoteca Nazionale di Palazzo Mansi,
Lucques. In: «La Peinture de la Renaissance Italienne» (BECK, James H.), Editions
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Screen 22: GRACE, Robert. In: «Signs of the Times» magazine (August 1989),
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«The Invitation». In: «Inspirational Fine Art», Hart Classic Editions
(www.hartclassics.com), p.2. Screen 24: REMMEY, Paul. In: «The Bible
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Ellen G.), Pacific Press Publishing Association and Review and Herald Publishing
Association, 1950, p.322. Screen 26: Picture collection «ClickArt
65,000» by Broderbund, CD #4, NATOT137.JPG.
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The test of Lesson 14 is waiting for you!