How is it that so many have missed the plain, clear, simple FACT that the very first lie ever told of which the Bible speaks and identifies is the LIE Satan told mother Eve in the Garden of Eden: “You shall not surely die”? (See Genesis 3:4). She fell for that lie and human beings by the billions have been believing that LIE ever since. We don’t really die – the Devil said so. Death is an illusion. Just the body dies. We live on and flit off to heaven, hell, limbo, purgatory, the Elysian fields, Nirvana, Valhalla, Paradise, the land of ghosts and goblins, etc., etc., etc. (Take your pick. Everybody else does). God said, “Thou shalt SURELY DIE!” (See Genesis 2:17). Satan flatly contradicts God, saying, “No, you won’t.” And who does humanity believe for the most part? Satan! Scripture says, “the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground” (See Genesis 2:7). Satan says, via false religion, “No, He didn’t. You are an immortal soul. You aren’t just a physical being.” And who does humanity believe? Satan, of course. God says, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (See Genesis 3:19). Satan says, “No you won’t. Only your body returns to the dust. The real you, your immortal soul lives on forever either in heaven or hell.” So who do most humans believe? The Devil, of course.
The term “immortal soul” is not found in the Bible. The term “immortality” is found but five times in the Bible and refers to something God alone possesses or something brought to light by the gospel and will be “put on” by redeemed believers at the time of our resurrection! (See Romans 2:7; I Corinthians 15:53-54; I Timothy 6:16 and 2 Timothy 1:10). The term “immortal” is found but one time in the Bible and refers to Jesus Christ. (See I Timothy 1:17). Those who remain largely ignorant of the scriptures, believing the MIS-information that has been passed on to them from youth up think scripture texts that speak of Enoch, or Moses and Elijah, or the rich man and Lazarus, or Paul’s statement, “I am willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord” prove one does have an immortal soul that survives the body after death and lives on as a “spirit being” in heaven or hell, or some other such place. They ignore plain, clear, forthright scripture texts that speak otherwise and formulate their doctrines based on a false assumption. They feel certain that folks like Billy Graham and “great” theologians of the past could not possibly be mistaken or deceived in such matters. If Billy says you have an immortal soul that cannot die, then that’s good enough for them. They have no clue as to how super-intelligent Satan really is with the ability to deceive even the wisest human who ever lived – Solomon! (Read 1 Kings, Chapter 11 if you doubt the accuracy of that statement). Oh, Satan might be able to deceive Solomon, but not Billy! It never dawns on such shallow thinkers that the entire purpose of a resurrection is to BRING BACK TO LIFE THE DEAD! NOT give them back their physical bodies. They never seem to notice that when the prophets, the apostles, or even Jesus speak of the dead they ALL without exception use but one of two terms in doing so, calling the dead just that DEAD or ASLEEP! The Bible NEVER uses any other terminology in referring to dead folks. Scripture says they are either DEAD or ASLEEP! Yet refer to the dead as being asleep in most churches and they will run you out the door shouting, “Don’t bring that soul sleep doctrine in here. We don’t want to hear it!” How is it that they have missed the FACT that the Bible NEVER uses such language as this in speaking of the dead, “Gone on to glory” or “Now with the Lord” or “Now in heaven” or “Gone to be with Jesus” or any other such terminology. Nope, when speaking of them it says they’re dead or asleep.
Satan is very, very good at what he does. He is without peer in all the universe. Any human who thinks he can outwit him or evade his deceptions apart from full surrender to Christ as Lord of all and continual searching of the scriptures to really prove all things of a spiritual nature is what the Bible identifies as a “fool.” Give it some thought!
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley