Do you know what an oxymoron is? The dictionary definition of an oxymoron is “a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction.” Immortal soul is an oxymoron. Souls are not immortal. Your Bible says, “the soul that sinneth, it shall die!” (See Ezekiel 18:20-24). The movie title “The Night of the Living Dead” contains an oxymoron as living and dead are two opposite terms.
Socrates, and his student Plato, popularized the immortal soul belief in the Greek world 350 years prior to Jesus Christ’s birth. By the time of Jesus’ day, Greek thought, including the belief in the immortality of the soul, had penetrated deeply into Jewish thought and beliefs. The Pharisees especially embraced this teaching while the Sadducees rejected it completely. It was to the Pharisees Jesus was speaking when he introduced the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. He wanted them to see how ridiculous was their belief, and kept insisting that they pay heed to what God had said through the writings of Moses and the prophets. Had they done so, and believed what God had said about death, the soul, and the spirit in those writings, they would never have been susceptible to Greek philosophy
So many preachers have used the term “immortal soul” for so long that those not well grounded in the scriptures have come to believe that they are using Bible terminology when they speak of the immortality of the soul. They are not. They are using an oxymoron and they are presenting an idea that is completely foreign to the scriptures. Your Bible clearly says that “only God has immortality!” (See I Timothy 6:16). The apostle Paul says that immortality is something believers will “put on” at the resurrection and not before. (See I Corinthians 15:53). All born human are mortal and death is appointed us.
Jesus told His disciples, “Where I go you cannot come” (See John 8:21). The thief on the cross could not go there either. One would need to be immortal to go from earth to heaven, that’s why, when caught up to the third heaven, Paul said, “Whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell.” In his many travels Paul had traversed several mountain ranges and he realized the higher in elevation one went the thinner the air and the harder it was to breathe. He knew it got a lot colder, too. So he doubted whether he could have still been in his physical body when being transported to the third heaven – the abode of God.
The immortal soul error was spawned in Greek paganism. Satan then blended it into Jewish tradition and later into deceived Christianity. A deceived person is not an evil person. A deceived person can be a very good and utterly moral person. They are just deceived. They don’t know the truth. But Jesus said that those who believe in Him need not abide in darkness, that He had come to be a light to the world. So listen to Him and learn the truth. OK?
Christ’s Aged Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley