Does Belief in an Immortal Soul Come From the Bible?

What Is a Human Being?

Is it a spiritual soul temporarily encased in a physical material body... is the spiritual soul good while the flesh and blood material body is bad?...  What happens at death? ... The material body obviously disintegrate into atoms and molecules... But does a spiritual/soul live on? Does it suffer consequences for what was done in the flesh... can it experience bliss... where does it live?

What does the bible say? Do you know?   

What do most people think the bible says about these questions? Does what people teach about what they assume the bible says match the actual words of scripture? The answer is no, and its a serious problem... false teaching leads to doubt, which leads to disobedience, which leads to missing out on the good things God has prepared for us.

Many people boldly proclaim that the bible teaches that each human being possesses an immortal soul that lives on after death. But, the bible doesn't say that.

My purpose today is to review how the false teaching of the immortal soul came to be accepted as biblical truth.

Genesis 3:3-5 the lie [like the liar] is tricky, cunning, crafty… a smooth operator.

John 8:44 teaching human beings that they will not really die but live on is the beginning of deception. 

Traditions of Human Religion & Philosophy

Traditional human thinking is that human beings are a soul, or a spirit, or a mind, housed in a body. The body can be seen, touched, smelled, heard... but the soul [or spirit, or mind if you prefer] is not visible or measurable. Furthermore, that soul is the real you.

At death these components part. The body dissolves and the soul lives on but in a different realm... heaven, Valhalla, nirvana, or sometimes reincarnation.

All this is a mixture of truth and error... wh8ich is what makes it so crafty, subtle, and plausible.

But, the idea of an immortal soul does not leap off the pages of the bible… it is not the obvious conclusion drawn from reading scripture.  It is an ancient idea, embedded in the traditions we pass down from generation to generation. Furthermore, it is an assumption people have before they ever read scripture... It is a false assumption which lead to false interpretations, false conclusions, and false teaching. [leads to doubt, disillusionment, disobedience]

Before we go any further let's summarize what the bible does tells us: humans are mortal/material...  we have a spirit component added by God which lets us understand the things of God... the material body dies and dissolves... the spirit component returns to God... that spirit component without a body is not alive... we can be raised to new life... that spirit can be put together with a new body... those in Christ receive a new body composed of spirit no longer subject to death. In between the death of our body and our resurrection there is nothing.

Some of what human tradition says is compatible with scripture. Trying to harmonize the two brings about great error and misunderstanding.

The Big Switcheroo

If the idea of an immortal spiritual essence living on after death does not begin with the bible where does it come from?

The first to talk about it as a matter of history rather than myth was Herodotus (484-425 BC). He wrote "The Egyptians were also the first that asserted that the soul of man is immortal… This opinion some among the Greeks have at different periods of time adopted as their own" (Euterpé, chapter 123).

The Greek philosopher best known for promoting the idea as a matter of rational thought or logic is Plato (427-347 BC). He mentioned it in several of his books, for example, The Phaedo: "The soul whose inseparable attribute is life will never admit of life's opposite, death. Thus the soul is shown to be immortal, and since immortal, indestructible... Do we believe there is such a thing as death? To be sure. And is this anything but the separation of the soul and body? And being dead is the attainment of this separation, when the soul exists in herself and separate from the body, and the body is parted from the soul. That is death… Death is merely the separation of soul and body"

The idea entered the Jewish world through their interaction with Greek philosophy. Jewish philosophers [for example Philo] worked extensively to mesh the ideas of men like Plato with Jewish thinking and teaching.

Then the Christian Church burst on to the scene… Men like Paul were tasked with taking the truth of scripture beyond the Jewish world into the all the world.... starting with Greece and Rome. This meant rubbing shoulders with, and butting heads with, the philosophies and traditions of the Greeks.

Acts 17:17-21 this is the world they lived in ... Colossians 2:8 human philosophy was a constant threat to the church of God.

Mixing Human Traditions With The Bible

How did the belief in an immortal soul... born of accepting a big fat lie... come to the point where people not only accepted it... but assumed it was a truth taught by God's word.

The transition from biblical statements about life, death, and human beings to acceptance of an immortal soul was a long slow process which took centuries. Lets take a look at how some of the big names in "traditional Christianity" changed over time:

160 A.D. Justin (philosopher turned Christian) quote ~ "But our Jesus Christ, being crucified, and dead, and having ascended to heaven, reigned, and by those things which were published in His name among all nations by the apostles, there is joy offered to those who expect the immortality promised by Him" (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. I, p. 176).... sounds like he understood he did not have immortality as a built-in feature.

200 A.D. Origen (neo-platonist Christian) "Souls are immortal, as God Himself is eternal and immortal"! He openly professed to be a true "Platonist, who believed in the immortality of the soul" (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. IV, pp. 314, 402)... Origen was quite open about his agenda of mixing and harmonizing Plato and Christ. So, now we see the game is on!

200s A.D. Tertullian (influential Christian teacher and apologist) "For some things are known, even by nature: the immortality of the soul, for instance, is held by many… I may use, therefore, the opinion of Plato, when he declares: 'EVERY SOUL IS IMMORTAL' " (Ante-Nicean Fathers., vol. III, p. 547)... another person who was not only open about, but proud about, his efforts to bring together the best of human philosophy with Christian truth. Clearly states that the source of the concept was human reason and the writings of Plato.

On the flip side some bible teachers condemned this change, or drift away from the faith once delivered as late as the Council of Nicea 325 A.D. Os the matter was undecided for almost 300 years after Jesus death.

280- 337 A.D. Arnobius (Church teacher and writer) who tried to correct those who were being "carried away with an extravagant opinion of themselves that souls are immortal... Will you lay aside your habitual arrogance, O men, who claim God as your Father, and maintain that you are immortal just as He is?" (Ante-Nicean Fathers., vol. VI, p. 440.)

The teaching of the immortal soul was a subject of debate. Now lets look at how it came to be an authorized teaching of "traditional Christianity".

From Discussion to Dogma

After the historic Council of Nicea in 325 AD. the power of the Roman state now became entwined with a certain form of Christianity. Now the muscle of the state would enforce standardized doctrine. HOWEVER, The teaching of an immortal soul was not adopted in an official sense at this time… but the power of Church officials to determine the true interpretation of God's word was now in place.

Augustine 354 -430 AD (philosophy teacher turned Christian) Writing and teaching just after the time of the great Council of Nicea, Augustine promoted the idea of the immortality of the soul with great success. He was so effective and convincing that most adopted the theory as Christian and biblical. Augustine was also very candid about his goal to harmonize Plato with Christ.

Thomas Aquinas 1225 -1274 - added the finishing touches to the teaching and drew in many of the ideas of Aristotle as well.

Basically, all these men did was accept the big lie that "human beings have an immortal soul". Then searched the scriptures to find verses that seemed to support their view. Plato never proved the idea, he just accepted it, the church never proved the idea from scripture, they just accepted it.

Ecclesiastes 3:20 if we limit limit our belief to what the human mind can reason out, or if we base our conclusion on what we can see with our eyes there is no evidence of a soul that lives on after death.

Anything that can be known about life beyond this present material state is based on revelation from the Creator. And the revelation we DO HAVE is very different from human tradition and philosophy.

Dogma Imposed by Force

Just before the Protestant Reformation, the Lateran Council of 1513 issued this decree:

"Whereas some have dared to assert concerning the nature of the reasonable soul that it is mortal, we, with the approbation of the sacred council, do condemn and reprobate all those who assert that the intellectual soul is mortal, seeing, according to the canon of Pope Clement V, that the soul is… immortal… and we decree that all who adhere to like erroneous assertions shall be shunned and punished as heretics."

Now, any who taught that the soul was subject to death was to be turned over to the civil authorities for punishment. And the punishment was usually severe!

What Do The Scriptures Say?

Around the time of the 5^th Lateran Council there was a strong social movement to translate the bible into languages the average person could actually understand, for example English and German. The two men most responsible for creating these translations are Martin Luther and William Tyndale.

I believe it is highly significant that two men intimate with the actual words of scripture… because of their work translating it… both these men could see the true biblical statements about the nature of humans, death, and resurrection.

Martin Luther - In defending (his 95 Theses) in 1520 he listed the idea “that the soul is immortal” as among “all these endless monstrosities in the Roman dunghill of decretals” (Assertion of All the Articles of M. Luther Condemned by the Latest Bull of Leo X, Art. 27

Luther later pointed out: “Solomon judges that the dead are asleep, and feel nothing at all. For the dead lie there accounting neither days nor years, but when are awaked, they shall seem to have slept scarce one minute” (An Exposition of Solomon’s Book, Called Ecclesiastes or the Preacher, 1553, folio 151v).

William Tyndale - "In putting departed souls in heaven, hell, or purgatory you destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove the resurrection... The true faith puts forth the resurrection; the heathen philosophers, denying that, did put forth that souls did ever live... If the soul be in heaven, tell me what cause is there for the resurrection?"

The Truth is Refused

However, the Protestant reformers [who supposedly founded their teaching Sola Scriptura] found the general population unwilling to give up their belief in the immortality of the soul.  And so, the "big lie" remains in place of the biblical truth. It is a deception that has won the hearts and minds of human beings since Genesis 3:4... you will not surely die.

Matthew 24:5 the bible is not the source of the popular belief in a spiritual you that lives on after the death of your body. It is a tradition based on a lie.

The bible tells us: humans are mortal/material...  we have a spirit component added by God... the material body dies and dissolves... the spirit component returns to God... it is not alive and does not experience suffering or bliss... we can be raised to new life with a new body... those who are raised in this way are no longer subject to death.

Confusion on this matter leads to doubt, leads to disobedience, which ironically can lead to missing out on eternal life.