What Happens After Death? (6)

Life is transitory

The patriarch Job contemplated the transitory nature of physical life. Man, he said, "comes forth like a flower and fades away; he flees like a shadow and does not continue" (Job:14:2). Directing his remarks to God, Job commented on the physical limitations common to all men and women, stating, "Since his days are determined, the number of his months is with You; You have appointed his limits, so that he cannot pass" (verse 5).

Job noted the stark reality of death: "So man lies down and does not rise. Till the heavens are no more, they will not awake nor be roused from their sleep" (verse 12). Job understood that death was the absolute cessation of life.

Notice that in Genesis:2:17 God told Adam and Eve that disobeying Him by taking from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would lead to death. Then, in Genesis:3:4, we read that the serpent (Satan) told Eve that if she ate from that tree, she would "not surely die." Simply put, God said that man is mortal and subject to death. Satan contradicted God and said that man would not die—that man is immortal.

Isn't it amazing that, as evidenced by the pervasive belief in the immortality of the soul, more people accept Satan's teaching than God's? Yet maybe that's not so startling after all. The Bible does say that Satan "deceives the whole world" (Revelation:12:9), and he has certainly deceived many about what happens after death.

The Hebrew Scriptures, commonly called the Old Testament, teach that, at death, the soul dies and consciousness ends. The soul does not live on in some other condition. It does not transmigrate into another form. It is not reincarnated into another creature. In dying, it ceases to live.

What does the New Testament say?

The apostle James understood the temporary nature of life. He compared life with a mist: "You do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away" (James:4:14). Another epistle also discusses this subject, stating that "it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews:9:27).

The New Testament uses a word similar in meaning to nephesh to characterize the life or vitality of our physical existence, the Greek word psyche or psuche. (We will use the latter spelling here, as the Greek y, the letter upsilon, was pronounced as a u, and the spelling psyche, now used in English, typically conveys a different sense from the word's original meaning.)

According to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, this word meant "breath" when the New Testament was written. It could be used in the same sense as the Hebrew word nephesh. Recallthat nephesh occurs in reference to the creation of Adam inGenesis:2:7, where the word is translated "soul" or "being." This verse is paraphrased in the New Testament as "The first man Adam became a living being" (1 Corinthians:15:45), and the Greek word substituted for nephesh here is psuche.

Both of these words often translated "soul" convey the concept that man is a living, breathing creature subject to death. Notice Christ's use of the word psuche: "For whoever desires to save his life [ psuche ] will lose it, but whoever loses his life [ psuche ] for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul [ psuche ]? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul [ psuche ]?" (Matthew:16:25-26
).

Notice that Jesus, as recorded by Matthew, uses psuche four times in this passage. It is translated into English as both "life" and "soul." Christ was simply saying that following Him and His message is more important than life itself. What good is it if you gain the whole world and then lose your existence? Jesus knew that the soul, one's physical being with its consciousness, was temporary and mortal. It could be lost or sacrificed for something of less value.

To be cont'd. 

God bless you all.