So, what is A LIVING SOUL?---it's the product of the BODY plus the SPIRIT OF  
GOD breathed into Adam's nostrils.  We can say it this way.....(read it  again)
.....the 'elements of the earth' plus the 'breath' equals a 'living  creature.'  So, in 
the Bible,when it talks about a living soul, it's also  talking about a living creature, 
a living being.  Don't we sometimes use that  expression?  You say, 'I went 
shopping and there was not a soul there'---and  what does your husband say---
'Good thing, or you really would have been  frightened!'?---not at all.  In fact, 
Paul talks about a boat having 276 souls  on board.  Did he mean some kind of 
conscious 'entities?'  No---we use that  for the word 'people.'

The Bible uses the word 'soul' in two ways---first, as something we are'.
....(you ARE A LIVING SOUL, a living creature, a living being.)  Second,  the 
Bible sometimes talks about us as 'HAVING A SOUL,' which simply means that 
we 'have life'.....(we have a soul, we have life.)  Death is creation in  reverse.  
When God created us, he made our bodies out of the dust, breathed  into our 
nostrils the breath of life, and we became living souls, living  beings, living 
personalities, living individuals. 

Now, what happens when we  die?  
Ecclesiastes 12:7 tells us, "Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, 
And the spirit will return to God who gave it."  God breathed His  spirit into us.  
When we die, the body goes back to the dust, and the spirit  goes back to God.  

Now, does the Bible say the 'soul' goes back to God?  Is that what it says?   Not 
at all, because when we die, the living soul no longer exists.  Now, many  people 
are confused---they have the idea that the spirit and the soul are the  same thing, 
and that confuses them.  Let's look at what the Bible says.....  

Job 27:3 says, "All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in  my 
nostrils....." (in Hebrew poetry, often the poet mentions something in the  first 
verse and explains it in the second---the Bible talks about 'the breath  in me' and 
the 'spirit of God in my nostrils,' so the breath and the spirit  are the same thing.)  
God breathes His 'breath' into a human being and that  person lives; God 
breathes His 'spirit' into people, and they live.

The person dies, the body goes into the grave, and the spirit or power of life  
goes back to God who gave it.  The body goes to the earth and the spirit to  
God.  Notice Psalm 146:3,4: "Put not your trust in princes, Nor in a son of  man, 
in whom there is no help.  His breath goes forth....." (now remember that  
Ecclesiastes 12:7 said that 'the spirit went forth'---the breath and the  spirit are 
the same) ".....His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth; In  that very day his 
thoughts perish."  

So, is this spirit that goes forth something conscious, yes or no?  No.....the  
Bible says, "his thoughts perish."  So, when a person dies, his body goes to  
the dust, then the spirit of God (not his spirit, but the spirit of God, the  life-giving 
force of God) goes back to God who gave it.....and his thoughts  perish.  So, 
according to the Bible, when a person dies, the elements of the  earth go back 
to the earth and the breath or spirit goes to God, and the  person is dead.  So, in 
the Bible, there is no such thing as an immortal soul  that lives on.  

There is no such thing in the Bible as a spirit that has conscious existence.   
Now, maybe I can illustrate it this way, so you can understand the term  "spirit" 
and "body" in the Bible---let's suppose that we say that to have  illumination, I 
need two things.  I need power running through the filaments,  and I need a light 
bulb---so that when the light is plugged in, and power runs  through the filament, 
it will go into the light bulb and there will be  illumination.  So, the 'power' plus the 
'light bulb' equals 'illumination.'   So the power of God (the breath of God or the 
spirit of God) coming into my  body produces life.  But when the light bulb is 
unplugged, the light goes  out---so when I die, just as the power goes back to 
the power house and the  bulb is left but there is no illumination, so when I die, 
the power of God  goes back to God.  My body goes into the tomb, but God 
records my identity.....God has a record of my individuality. 

And in the Bible, death is  but a sleep---it is but a rest.  I am simply resting, 
secure in the arms of  God.  When I die, there is no more temptation.  When 
I die, there is no more  harassment from the devil.  It is perfect rest and perfect 
peace.  But God  preserves my personality, God preserves my identity, God 
preserves my individuality.....and on the resurrection day, when Christ comes, 
I will be  resurrected to serve Him forever.

That is the teaching of the Bible.  In fact, the Bible says in Ecclesiastes  
9:5, "For the living know that they shall die; But the dead know not  anything."  
How much do the dead know, everybody?  How much do the dead know?   
Nothing.  Can the dead communicate with the living?  Can they?  No, but can  
Satan, through an evil angel, try to impersonate a dead loved one?  Can you  
see why the devil wants the church to misunderstand death?---so he can 
deceive people through a false idea of spiritualism.  But my Bible says, 
"The living  know that they shall die; But the dead know not anything."  
Psalm 115:17 says,  "The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down 
into silence."  

The dead praise not the Lord.  Somebody said, 'But, wait a minute, I thought  
when you die, you immediately went to heaven!---and I love the idea of my  
mother up in heaven, the idea of my momma looking down at me, seeing me 
from  up there in Heaven.'  Friend, let's suppose that what some people believe 
is  true.  Let's suppose that momma died and for purpose of discussion, let's  
suppose she was up in heaven.  Let's suppose that your marriage went sour,  
that you had an alcoholic husband, and that he came into the room and put his  
hands on your throat and began choking you.  Would momma be up in heaven  
saying, 'Stop, stop, stop!'  Or let's suppose that momma died and supposedly  
went to heaven, leaving behind a little 7-year-old girl, and suppose that  7-year-
old is running out into the street---would momma in heaven see the car  coming, 
with its tires screeching?  Or what about the boy flying the fighter  plane in war---
does momma see, as he is shot down with machine gun bullets through his 
chest and his hands burned?  Or does momma see her son suffering  with 
cancer, week after week, and dying in agony?  Oh, God's way is so much  better, 
friend!  

The living know that they shall die, but the dead know nothing.  When a person  
dies, the power of life goes back to God, and his body goes back to dust.   
When a person dies, it's like resting peacefully in the hands of Jesus.  It's  
secure---He records our identity, our individuality---but there is no  conscious 
existence at that point.  And all the sorrow and heartache of life,  we know 
nothing about it, until Jesus resurrects us and makes us all new!   Isn't God's 
way so much better, friend?

The Bible says, in Psalm 6:5, "For in death there is no remembrance of You; 
In  the grave who will give You thanks?"  See, if we went to heaven when we died,
  we'd certainly be praising God, but the Bible says, "The dead praise not the  
Lord."  The Bible says that in death there is no remembrance of God in the  
grave.  "Who will give You thanks?"  The Bible is clear.  You know, some  
people say, "Well, don't we have an immortal soul?'  Ezekiel 18:4 says, 
"The  soul that sinneth it shall die."  If the soul were immortal, could it die?  

No.  So the Bible says, "The soul that sinneth it shall die."  So, can the  soul die, 
according to the Bible?  Sure.  What is the soul?  It's a living  creature.  And 
when the person's breath goes back to God, and the body goes to  the earth, 
they're no longer a living creature or a living soul.  

It's  important in the Bible to look at two words: mortal and immortal.  The word  
'mortal' means subject to death.  The word 'immortal' means not subject to  
death.  The word 'mortal' means subject to disease and decay.  The word  
'immortal' means not subject to death, disease and decay. 

In the Bible, human beings are always mortal.  Job 4:17 says, "Shall mortal  
man be more just than his Maker?"  We are mortal.  Romans 6:12.....Romans  
8:11.....2 Corinthians 4:11.....all talk about us as being mortal.  We are  subject 
to death and disease.  Human beings always seek immortality, but we  will only 
receive it at the Second Coming of Christ.  Romans 2:7 says we are  seeking 
for immortality.  So, we are mortal, subject to death, but at the  Second Coming 
of Christ, we shall receive immortality---then we're not subject  to death.  Now 
notice, the King James version of the Bible uses the word  'soul' 1600 times 
but never once does it use the term "immortal soul."   Wouldn't you think that 
that which people talk about so freely, if it were  true, would be in the Bible?  
Never  once does the Bible use the term 'immortal soul' in 1600 times when 
it uses  'soul,' because in the Bible, there is no immortal soul---only God is  
immortal.  The Bible says, in 1 Timothy 6:16, that God "only has immortality." 

In fact, the Bible declares that death is a sleep 53 times.  But you say, where 
did the idea of the immortal soul ever come from?  Do you remember that,  in 
those early years of Christianity, there was a mixing of pagan doctrine  with truth?  That is how Sunday worship came into the church, in 321AD, on the day of the sun.  The Roman empire was falling apart, so the church and state united,  and pagan practices and Sunday worship came in.

William Gladstone, the historian, said this: "The pagan doctrine of the immortality 
of the human soul crept into the back door of the church."  See,  the immortality 
of the soul---that is, the notion that we have a part of us  that lives on, that's 
immortal, that never dies---this is nothing new.  You  are looking at a Babylonian 
column of ancestor worship.....  Ancestor worship  is based on the false doctrine 
of the immortality of the soul---the  Babylonians believed that when you die, you 
have this immortal soul that lives  on, so they worshipped those souls.  And in 
Egypt for example, when a pharaoh  died, the ancient Egyptians also believed 
in the pagan doctrine of the  immortality of the soul.....in fact, here is a grave 
drawing of an Egyptian  physician operating, preparing a pharaoh for death.....
they believed in the Ba  and Ca, immortal parts of us that live on.  See, this comes
from Egypt and  Babylon---it doesn't come from the Bible.

Egyptians, Babylonians and the ancient pagan Romans all believed in the  
immortality of the soul.  They all believed there is this part that lives on,  and 
in harmony with that, so do Satanism and spiritualism.  Satanists believe  in the 
pagan doctrine of the immortality of the soul.  So this whole idea of  the 
immortality, that there is a soul that lives on, comes from Egypt,  Babylon---
from paganism.  But the Bible says, 'No!  When you die, it's not the  immortality 
of the soul, but it's sleep!  We sleep---that is what the Bible  says.'  In fact, the 
Bible has a very interesting expression: In the Old  Testament, you have all these
 pagans---the Babylonians, the Egyptians---who  believe in the immortality of the 
soul, but the Bible writers use the phrase 

 "He slept" or "He rested with his fathers
" as their expression for death.  You  know, they used to bury their dead in multiple
 graves.  Somebody said, 'Give  me evidence that in the Bible, it  teaches that 
death is a sleep.'  Well, if you want some evidence that death is a sleep, here 
it goes!  Get ready.....!

David, the king shall sleep with his fathers.....1Kings 1:21
David slept with his fathers.....1Kings 2:10 
David slept with his fathers.....1Kings 11:21
Solomon slept with his fathers.....
Jeroboam slept.....
Rehoboam slept.....
Abijah slept.....
Asa slept.....

Do you want more evidence?  Here it is:
Baasha slept.....
Omri slept.....
Ahab slept.....
Jehoshaphat slept.....

What does the Bible teach about death?  Back to it:
Jehoram slept.....
Jehu slept.....
Jehoash slept.....
Joash slept.....

All this on death.....so clear.
Amaziah slept.....
Jeroboam II slept with his fathers.....
Azariah slept.....
Menahem slept.....
Jotham slept.....

Whew!
Ahaz slept.....
Hezekiah slept.....

Do you want more evidence?
Manasseh slept.....
Jehoiakim slept.....
Solomon slept.....
Rehoboam slept.....
Abijah slept.....
Asa slept.....
Jehoshaphat slept.....
Amaziah slept.....
Uzziah slept.....

Death is a sleep, friend. 
Jotham slept.....
Ahaz slept.....
Hezekiah slept.....
Manasseh slept.....

Do you want more evidence?  I'm not going to give you any more! 

The Bible is so plain, isn't it, folks?  Death is but a sleep until Jesus 
comes!  The Bible is plain.  In fact, even Jesus said that in John 11:11.   
Lazarus was dying.  He was sick, and then he died.  Jesus, on His way to see  
Lazarus, said, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may wake him out  
of sleep....." (now you know, if somebody is sick and he's sleeping, he's  doing 
well)  ".....Then said His disciples, 'Lord, if he sleep, he shall do  well.'  Howbeit 
Jesus spake of his death: but they thought he had spoken of  taking of rest in 
sleep....." (they thought if Lazarus indeed is sleeping,  he's doing very well, so 
they said, 'Lord, if he is sleeping, he must be doing well,' but Jesus said, 'No, 
that's not the problem---he's not sleeping as you  think')  ".....Then said Jesus 
unto them plainly, 'Lazarus is dead.' "  So  Jesus said in John 11:12-14 that death 
is a sleep, and if Jesus says death is  a sleep, I believe it, don't you?

Now notice in John 11:21, when Jesus sees Mary and Martha, the sisters of  
Lazarus, they speak to him sorrowfully.  Martha says, "Lord, if Thou hadst  been 
here, my brother had not died."  Lord, if You were here---You are the  Lifegiver---
my brother would not have died!  And Jesus replied in John 11:23,  "Thy brother 
shall rise again."  Jesus did not say to Martha, 'Martha, your  brother Lazarus is 
up in heaven right now, so don't cry.'  (Some preachers  comfort the loved ones 
of those who have died by saying that their loved one is up in heaven.)  Jesus didn't do that.  He said that Lazarus was sleeping,  
awaiting the resurrection.  Then Jesus said to Martha, "Thy brother shall rise  
again."  Your brother is going to rise!  And Martha, because she got her  religion 
directly from Jesus, said in John 11:24, "I know that he shall rise  again in the 
resurrection at the last day."  Martha knew that there would be a  resurrection at 
the end, at the last day---she was looking for the coming of  Christ.  

As a token that Jesus would raise men and women at the last day, as a token  
that Jesus has the keys to the grave, He went to Lazarus's grave and said (in  
John 11:39), "Take ye away the stone.  But Martha, the sister of him that was  
dead, saith unto Him, 'Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead  four 
days....."  There is a bad odor---he's been in there four days.  What are  You 
doing at the tomb?  ".....And Jesus cried with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come forth.' 
"  Now, Jesus didn't say, 'Lazarus, come down.'  Now let's  suppose that what 
some people believe is true---that Lazarus died and went to  heaven---and Jesus 
says, 'Lazarus, come down.'  And Lazarus, up in heaven (now  if it were me, 
I would have done this) says, 'Lord, I've been up here four  days, and I'm not 
coming back.  I am not coming back to that sinful world.  I  am in Gloryland, Lord,
and you think I'm coming back?'  

If anybody could have had a near-death experience, it would have been 
Lazarus!  If anybody could have had an experience to report to us what it's like 
(not  for so many seconds but for four days!) after death, it would have been  
Lazarus, but Lazarus said nothing about life after death.  Why not?  Because  
he was sleeping, awaiting the final resurrection.  

But Christ woke him up after four days, not in the final resurrection --- to  take 
the fear of death out of your heart.  You need not fear death, you need  not worry 
about death, because Christ is the Lifegiver, and in the presence of  Christ, death
 trembles.  At the presence of Christ, death flees.  The Bible  says, "For the Lord 
Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the  voice of an archangel, 
and with the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ  will rise first."  Death, where 
is your sting?  Grave, you can't hold your  victims!  At the name of Jesus, death 
trembles.  At the coming of Christ, the  earth shakes and the graves open, and 
the dead in Christ rise!  

"Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the  
clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And thus we shall always be with the  Lord" 
(1Thessalonians 4:16,17).  When Jesus comes, the dead in Christ rise,  the 
living are changed, and together they are caught up to meet Christ.  Death  is 
but a sleep.  'In a moment',' the Bible says---in an instant, in the  twinkling of an 
eye, you die and the next thing you know, Jesus is coming!   You've slept, you've
rested---there seems to be no passing of time in sleep!  

There is no consciousness in sleep.  When you die, the body goes to the earth,  
and the breath goes back to God.  When you die, it's like resting in the arms  of 
Jesus---you're secure---He preserves your identity, and one day he'll come  and 
take you home.  

But somebody says, 'Mark, wait a minute!  I'm confused, because didn't Jesus  
say to the thief on the cross that they would be together in paradise that  day?'  
You know, it's amazing to me, you can read that 'the living know that  they will die,
' and that 'the dead don't know anything' in Ecclesiastes 9:5.   You can read in 
Psalm 115:17 that 'the dead praise not the Lord.'  You can  show folks that the 
doctrine of immortality is a doctrine of spiritualism and  paganism that came into 
the church.  You can read text after text---they  slept, they slept, they slept.  You 
can even get out of breath doing it!  And  some folks take one Bible text and 
throw all the rest of the Bible out,  because they want to believe a certain way.  

But let's look at that thief on the cross.....do you remember that story?  The  Bible
 describes Jesus dying on the cross, when the thief looked at Jesus "and  he 
said unto Jesus, 'Lord, remember me when thou comest into Thy kingdom.' "  
Nobody has ever uttered that request and Jesus remained silent!  'Lord,  
remember me when you come into your kingdom'---Jesus remembers when 
you 

remember to call on Him.  And here, Jesus said to the thief, "Verily I say  
unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise."  There it is!  You say  Jesus 
said that He's going to be with him today!  Well, not so fast---it all  depends on 
where that little comma is, you see.  It either reads, "Verily I  say unto thee, today 
shalt thou be with me in paradise," meaning that the  thief and Jesus would be 
there that day---or---if the comma were after the  word 'day,' it would read like this:
 "And Jesus said unto him, 'Verily I say  unto you today....." (this day that I'm dying
 on the cross, this day with the  crown of thorns upon My head, this day with blood
 running down My face, this  day when I'm saving humanity, this day that it looks 
like I'm a criminal)  ".....verily I say unto you today, shalt thou be with me in 
paradise.' "  It  all depends where you put that comma!  

But somebody says, 'How do you, Mr. Finley, know where to put it?"  That's a  
good question, and there are three ways we know.....First, the Bible was not 
written with punctuation marks.  The punctuation  was added centuries later, in 
the 12th, 13th, or 14th century by the medieval  church.  No punctuation in the 
Bible, in the original manuscripts, is Point  One.  

.....Point Two, do you think Jesus is going to tell something to the thief  that 
contradicts the rest of the Bible?  Is He going to do that?  Not at all.  

.....Point Three, how could Jesus have meant to the thief that they would be  
together in paradise on Friday when Christ died, if Jesus didn't go there  until 
Sunday?  How could that have happened?  Lets look at that, friends.....  

Jesus did not ascend to heaven on the day of His crucifixion.  The Bible is  very 
plain on that.  Mary came to the tomb on Sunday morning, she fell at the  feet of 
Jesus, because she wanted to worship and embrace Jesus---and what did  
Jesus say?  "Jesus saith unto her, 'Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to  
My Father: but go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father,  
and your Father; and to My God, and your  God.' "  How could Jesus have meant 
that He and the thief would be together in  paradise on Friday, if He hadn't gone 
there until Sunday?  What did Jesus  mean?  He said, 'This day when I'm dying 
on the cross, this day when it looks  as though men have stripped Me of my 
dignity, this day when it looks as though  My body is crushed and broken, 
bruised and bleeding, this day when it looks as  though I'm going into the tomb, 
this day I am the Son of God!  This day I  offer you forgiveness.  This day I offer 
you eternal life, and this day, I  promise you that you will be with Me in paradise.'  
Why?  Because Jesus says,  in Revelation 1:18, "I am He that liveth, and was 
dead; and behold, I am alive  for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell 
and of death."  Jesus Christ has the keys of death.  Jesus Christ has the keys 
to the tomb.

When you go to the ancient catacombs of Rome, in the heathen tombs, it says  
this goodbye from people writing inscriptions to their friends, "Goodbye for  all 
eternity."  Goodbye forever.....hopelessness and despair in those pagan  
tombs.....goodbye forever.  The tomb is a sealed door, the tomb is locked,  
there is no way out.....goodbye forever.  But you look at the Christian  tombs---
the inscriptions are different in the Christian tombs: "Goodbye until  we meet 
again, goodbye until the morning."  Christians never meet for the last  time, 
because one day, after sleeping and resting with our identity preserved  in God, 
one day Christ the Lifegiver will stream down through the skies in  dazzling glory. 
 One day He'll say, 'John, come forth.  Mary, come forth.'   One day husbands 
and wives will be reunited.  One day babies will be placed in  their mothers' arms 
again.  Have you lost your husband or wife, a son or  daughter to death? 

Some time ago, I was sitting in my study, and the telephone rang, and there  
was a nurse on the other end of the line.  She said, "Are you Pastor Mark  Finley?"
  Yes, I am.  "Do you know so-and-so?"  Yes, I do.  "A baby-sitter,  Pastor, just 
walked into the doctor's office with a dead baby in her arms.   She dropped it on 
the floor and ran out of the doctor's office screaming,  saying, 'I need help!  
I need somebody to counsel with me!  Call Pastor  Finley!"  This young teenage 
girl was baby-sitting for one of the neighbors, and the little baby suffocated and 
died.  The girl was so frightened that she  picked up the baby and took its limp 
body to a nearby doctor's office, but she  became so afraid when the baby turned 
blue that she dropped it and ran out of  the office screaming.  I got in my car and 
began to drive.....30, 40, 50 miles  an hour.  I thought, 'Where do I go first, looking 
for the girl or to the  parents' house?'  And I thought that maybe the girl had gone 
to the parents'  house---maybe she's gone home.  I didn't know where---I couldn't 
find the  girl, so finally I went to the parents' house---I wondered if the parents 
even  knew by this time that the baby was dead.  I walked from my car up those  
stairs with a heavy heart.  There were two kids playing by the side of the  stairs.  

One child looked up and said, "Preacher, the baby is dead!  The baby  is dead!"  
I knew then that the parents knew.  I walked into the living room.  

The husband was
 sitting, embracing his wife and pulling her close to his  chest.  She was sobbing.  
I walked over and put my hand on both of their  shoulders. And I said, "Folks, you 
know, I really don't know what it's like to  lose a little baby.  I have got three 
wonderful children (at that time they  were very young) and I have never experience
d your pain or your sorrow.....but  there is One who has."  And I just stood there 
for a little while as they  cried.  And they looked up at me with eyes filled with tears,
 and I said,  "There is One who has experienced sorrow like you.  There is a 
Father whose  Son died.  His Son did not die a crib death when He was just six 
months old.   His son died with cruel nails in His hands and a crown of thorns upon 
His head  with blood running down His face.  His son died, and He experienced 
pain and  suffering, so that Father's heart of love knows what it's like to lose a  
little baby---that Father knows that your son died, and that Father reaches  out in 
compassion.  We live in a wicked world.  I can't explain death to you,  but I know 
this---although I can't explain why your little baby died, one day  Jesus will come, 
and the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an 
archangel, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  Death  is but a  moment.  Your 
baby is secure.  It's just asleep, resting until Jesus comes."  

Friend of mine, what if Jesus never died on the cross?  What if Jesus never  
went into the grave?  What if Jesus never unlocked the grave, so that its  
prisoners could go free?  What if there were no God?  What if there were no  
Bible?  What if there were no Second Coming of Jesus?  Then death would 
be a dark hole in the ground, where worms would eat our bodies.  But the good 
news  is, you don't have to fear death, because Jesus Christ has the key!  
And one  day very soon, He's going to resurrect that husband, that wife, that 
son, that daughter. 

"Oh, my Father, the devil tries to deceive us with false ideas about death.   
But Your word is so plain and so simple---when we die, we simply rest, with 
no  knowledge of the passage of time, securely preserved from the heartaches 
and  sorrows and disappointments of Earth, until Jesus comes to take us home. 
 We  thank You, Lord, that we can be on Your side.  We thank You for the hope 
of it  all.  We thank You for the fact that we need not fear death, that it is but a 
rest, a sleep, a tranquility, until the coming of Jesus.  Oh, Lord, deep 
within our  hearts, we want to be there!

Also see the "second coming"  - our hope for our future.

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