You have probably heard of it. It is called the domino effect. The domino effect is when one event triggers another event, which in turn triggers even yet another event, and so on. Satan is well aware of this phenomenon. He knows that if he can dupe someone into believing one lie, especially concerning a very basic doctrine of scripture, then there will be a rippling, or cascading effect, and will lead that person so duped into accepting another lie and another and another. For instance, when God informed Adam and Eve that they were mortal and subject to death, Satan immediately contradicted God, informing Eve, “You will not surely die.” He convinced her only her body would die and that she would live on forever and ever. It was the introduction of that lie to mankind that allowed Satan then to perpetrate a host of other lies, for if death didn’t end all apart from a resurrection of the dead, then Satan could introduce belief in ghosts, seances, communication with the dead through mediums, the soul going to heaven when one dies, or to hell, or limbo, or purgatory. He could then introduce prayers both to and for the dead. The domino effect took hold and allowed Satan to introduce many other false beliefs.
God, their Creator, told Adam and Eve in no uncertain terms, “Thou shalt surely die!” (See Genesis 2;17). Satan flatly contradicts the Creator, informing Eve, “You shall not surely die” (See Genesis 3:4). He further informed her, “You shall be as gods” – immortal, eternal, just like your Creator! (See Genesis 3:5). God informs Adam and Eve, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (See Genesis 3:19). Satan lies to Adam and Eve informing them that they possess an immortal soul. Yet scripture plainly says, “And the Lord God formed man OF THE DUST OF THE GROUND (purely physical elements), and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (not immortal spirit), and man BECAME a living soul” (See Genesis 2:7). Note well, scripture says we ARE living souls, not that we have immortal souls residing somewhere within us that survive us and live on somewhere after we die. The term “soul” in the Genesis text is a translation of the Hebrew word “nephesh,” that word meaning simply a living, breathing creature! That term, nephesh, is used for lower life forms. Genesis 1:21 and 24 contain this same Hebrew word nephesh and is there translated as “living creatures” found in the sea and various other land creatures. The King James translators would have gone a long way in stopping error had they correctly translated the Hebrew nephesh in Genesis 2:7, “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 creature” – no longer a lifeless, inanimate body lying on the ground!
Nowhere does the Bible ever use the term “immortal soul.” Such is a contradiction in terms such as “a living corpse,” or a “singing mute.” The Bible uses the term “immortal” only one time, speaking of God being “immortal, eternal, invisible” (See 1 Timothy 1:17). In 1 Timothy 6:16, we are told that of all born human Jesus alone has immortality. (See I Timothy 6:16). The term “immortality” is found only four more times in the Bible, all instances in the New Testament, and states clearly that immortality is something that has been brought to light by the gospel, something to be sought for by submission to Jesus Christ, or something that we will inherit at the time of the resurrection of faithful believers from the dead. (See Romans 2:7; 2 Timothy 1:10 and I Corinthians 15:53-54).
Belief in the immortality of the soul has also caused men to believe that there are billions and billions of “souls” in hell right now, writhing and suffering in indescribable torment. If one dies “without Christ” they can’t go to heaven. There is but one other destination for their “souls.” They must immediately go to hell. At least that is the common belief of many professing Christians. Of course, if they die as infants or as little children, boy, are they lucky. All such go immediately to heaven and are safe in the arms of Jesus. Live but a few years longer and die in their teens or later and, you got it, they go to hell and burn forever and ever.
Satan is a master at his craft – the art of deception. Your Bible warns that he deceives “the whole world.” (See Revelation 12:9). He is assisted in his work of deception by many “preachers” who themselves are woefully ignorant of God’s Word, many of them spurning the revelation given by God in the Hebrew scriptures, proclaiming loudly, “I don’t get my doctrine out of the Old Testament” with emphasis on the word “old” as though the Hebrew scriptures belong on the dust pile of history. Satan is further assisted in his work of deception by Christians who fail to really “prove” all their beliefs, but instead simply gullibly accept and swallow whatever they are spoon-fed from the pulpit of their respective churches. “If the preacher said it, I believe it” seems to be their mindset.
But didn’t Enoch and Elijah both go to heaven without dying? Isn’t Moses there, too? Didn’t Lazarus go to heaven when he died, and didn’t the “rich man” go immediately to hell to be forever tormented in its flames? And how about the prophet Samuel, wasn’t he brought up from the dead by the Witch of Endor? And how about the “souls under the altar” spoken of in Revelation 6:9? Aren’t they stuffed under there right now, crying out to God for vengeance? Folks, if you don’t read your Bibles and allow the Holy Spirit to guide you into putting it all together, comparing scripture with scripture, looking at the context carefully, and even examining the original Hebrew and Greek in some instances, you are going to have some of the weirdest beliefs human mind can entertain. And, by the way, don’t try to get it right while continuing to walk in disobedience to God and His commandments. It ain’t happening. You will be as confused on your deathbed as you are right now. God made it very clear through His prophet Daniel that one must turn from their sins in order to understand the great truths of God. (See Daniel 9:13). Then one must search the scriptures diligently – all of them, Hebrew and Greek scriptures – and allow those inspired scriptures to sweep all error from the mind and memory, replacing the same with divine truth. Precious few follow that course. Hence, precious few really have and know the truth.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley