Is The Soul Immortal?
Questions Of Eternal Consequence • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Over the years most of mankind has believed that after one dies there is some sort of afterlife, in one form or another.
Hindus call it “Svarga Ioka.”
Islam calls it “Jannah.”
Buddhism seeks for “Nirvana.”
Scientists have sought to get involved as well through the years, such as Dr. Duncan MacDougall have attempted to prove the soul scientifically.
In 1907, he conducted a famous study where he weighed six dying patients before and after death wherein he discovered on average a loss of 21 grams happened after death.
He concluded, that the soul left the body after death, but his methodology is shaky at best considering all the variables and lack of controls that were in place.
Others, in the more recent years, have held a much more dim view of death.
Stephen Hawking once said…
“I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”
Richard Dawkins has stated…
“After we die, the atoms of our bodies will go back to being atoms of the universe, and that’s it—no soul, no consciousness, nothing.”
Mark Twain infamously made his thoughts on the matter clear when he wrote…
“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.”
Unfortunately, this view of death has grown in our world and as such we must have an answer to the question “Is The Soul Immortal?”
So, with that in mind let’s begin by first looking at…
The Facts
The Facts
What We Know Without The Bible
What We Know Without The Bible
First, only man is capable of “rational thought.”
Though there is no doubt that animals have intelligence it does not achieve that of mankind.
Yes, birds can make nests, beavers can make dams, and bees can make hives, but they all do this based on instinct not rational thought.
We know this because a beaver never rationalizes whether or not to build a nest high in the tree or not, nor does a bee ever rationalize whether or not building a dam would benefit it.
Man is the only living creation known to make rational decisions i.e., decisions not based on instinct but logical reasoning.
Second, only man can “invent.”
Jane Goodall spent a large portion of her life striving to prove that African chimpanzees “tool users” and therefore establish a link between them and humans, i.e., the “missing link.”
There is no doubt that chimpanzees use sticks “like tools” to find insects to eat but no chimpanzee has ever invented a drill or “insect harvester.”
Only man as the ability to invent.
Third, only man is capable of “communicating thought.”
Certainly animals communicate, as we see dogs play with each other, mother birds chirp at danger to their young, or rats it the right colored light for food, however they do not communicate thought.
A mother bird cannot tell its baby bird what exact danger to watch out for.
A rat cannot tell the one it is hitting the button for food the food it is its favorite.
Only man is capable to “communicating thought.”
Fourth, man is the only creature with “historical development.”
As brother Wayne Jackson put it…
“We humans differ from all other biological organisms in that we accumulate knowledge with the passage of each generation. We can accomplish things today (e.g., space travel, transplant surgery, computer technology) that our ancestors never dreamed of centuries ago.”
A dog today has the same knowledge it had thousands of years ago.
A cow, donkey, cat, lion, etc., are the same intellectually today as they were when they were created.
Only man is capable of “historical development.”
Only man has the capacity for esthetics.
Only man is capable of writing poetry, composing music, and producing dramatic performances.
Lower forms of life have zero interests in such things as they operate strictly on the level of instinct and survival.
Only man has the capacity for esthetics.
Lastly, though not exhaustively, only man has the inclination to be religious.
As one man so powerfully put it…
“no race or tribe of men, however degraded and apparently atheistic, lacks that spark of religious capacity which may be fanned and fed into a mighty flame.”
As I have said before all men worship something, even if it is the worship of supposed science.
Only man has the inclination to be religious.
Summary
Summary
As I said this is just a few facts that clearly demonstrate that mankind is very much different than all other lower creature.
We stand “above” those others and from a biblical point of view this makes perfect sense.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
No wonder David declared in Psalm 139:14-16…
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
The fact that man is a spiritual entity sets him apart from all other creatures.
But what does the bible teach regarding…
The Nature Of Man
The Nature Of Man
Man Is Made Up Of Three Parts
Man Is Made Up Of Three Parts
The bible is very clear on the nature of man being made up of three distinct aspects.
Paul would declare it in most clearly in 1 Thessalonians 5:23.
23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
However, the Hebrew writer certainly explains the same thing but from a different perspective.
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
The Physical Body:
Our physical body is completely different from our spiritual body.
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
This “outward man” or “physical body” is what God has given us to live here on earth and prepare for life eternal.
14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
We also have…
The Spirit or Life of the Body:
This is “life itself.”
This is what God gives us a conception and is what goes back to God when we die.
7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit [breath of life] returns to God who gave it.
Lastly, we have…
The Soul:
This is the our eternal conscience.
Now before we look at this I want to point out that because the soul is spiritual in nature it is often found in scripture being described as “man’s spirit.”
This has led to a lot of confusion over the years but shouldn’t if we keep in context the three.
Our soul is who we are eternally, and what will spend eternity in heaven or hell.
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Summary
Summary
The question of “is the soul immortal” is first proven by the fact that we have a soul.
This is obviously the only logical conclusion as no other evidence points to anything different.
Man is certainly rationally different from all other physically living creatures with out dispute.
Even atheists concede this point though they will give credit to happenstance by way of evolution.
The bible clearly points to man not only having a soul, but it being eternal as well.
Conclusion
Conclusion
So, “Is The Soul Immortal”…most certainly YES!!!
And because it is immortal we must prepare in this life for the inevitable afterlife.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
32 Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
