The Nature of Man and State of the Dead

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The Nature of Man and State of the Dead

In this study, we’re going to simply list certain facts related to the “Nature of Man,” “Death,” and the “State of the Dead” and supply the Scripture references. These three topics are very closely related, and if we don’t understand them from a scriptural perspective, then we’re not going to understand them at all. 


There’s a lot of confusion about this topic. I know from personal experience. About two years ago, I was challenged to really study these issues more in-depth than I had before, and my conclusions were the opposite of what I’d believed for many years prior. The truth is simple, not confusing, because God isn’t the author of confusion. I pray the Father can use this study to open your eyes.


Nature of man and beast

  • Men are souls - Gen 2:7; Acts 27:37
  • Animals are souls - Num 31:28; Rev 16:3
  • “Life” is “Soul” - Mar 8:35,36
  • Man (Soul) dies - Eze 18:4; Isa 53:12; Job 11:20
  • “Breath” is “Spirit” - Gen 2:7; Psa 104:29; Psa 146:4; Job 27:3; Ecc 12:7

Death and the dead


Causes of Death

  • Disobedience/ Sin[1] - Gen 3:17-19; Rom 3:23; 6:23; 5:12-14
  • “Gave up the Ghost” - Ecc 12:7; Luk 23:46; Acts 5:5; Jas 2:26

Condition of the Dead

  • Unconscious/ “Know nothing” - Ecc 9:5,10; Psa 146:3,4
  • Asleep/ Await resurrection - Joh 11:11-14, 23-26; Acts 2:29,34; Acts 7:59,60
  • “Spirit” or “Breath” of man returns to God - Ecc 3:19-21
Place of the dead[2]
  • Common state/ grave - Gen 37:35; Psa 9:7; Psa 16:10; Jon 5:28; Acts 2:27,31; Rev 20:13,14

"The Soul"

So what is "the Soul"? Is it a third part of a human? Many claim that Humans are "Body, Soul, Spirit." This isn't true. We can discover the formula by looking at 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 soul."

God formed a clay vessel (body) and put in it breath (spirit), the result of which was animation, consciousness. Man became a living soul, i.e. became alive. We will see that the Lexicons demonstrate this. In short, we see that the Formula is the following: Body + Spirit = Living Soul (conscious human); it is not the following: Body + Spirit + Soul = Living Soul 
 
Let's briefly revisit what happens at death according to the Hebrew Scriptures and then take into account a fourth fact in light of the Genesis formula.
 
A. Unconscious/ “Know nothing” - Ecc 9:5,10; Psa 146:3,4
 
B. Asleep/ Await resurrection - Joh 11:11-14, 23-26; Acts 2:29,34; Acts 7:59,60
 
C. “Spirit” or “Breath” of man returns to God - Ecc 3:19-21
 
D. The soul (living person) who sins shall perish. The soul perishes - Eze 18:20; Matt 10:28
 
The definition of soul is the following in Strong's:
 
"Soul" - H5315 (Strong's) - Nephesh: nephesh, neh'-fesh; from H5314; properly, a breathing creature, i.e. animal of (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental):—any, appetite, beast, body, breath, creature, × dead(-ly), desire, × (dis-) contented, × fish, ghost, greedy, he, heart(-y), (hath, × jeopardy of) life (× in jeopardy), lust, man, me, mind, mortally, one, own, person, pleasure, (her-, him-, my-, thy-) self, them (your) -selves, slay, soul, tablet, they, thing, (× she) will, × would have it.
 
The Definition of "Soul" in the Brown-Driver-Brings Lexicon is the following:
 
"Soul" - H5315 (Strong's) - Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon - Nephesh: 756 noun feminineGenesis 49:6 (so even Genesis 2:19; Numbers 31:28; 1 Kings 19:2 see AlbrZAW xvi (1896), 42 SS) soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, appetite, emotion, and passion (Ecclesiasticus 3:18; 4:1 (twice in verse); Ecclesiasticus 4:2 (twice in verse); Ecclesiasticus 13:12; Ecclesiasticus 14:11); — × ׳ Genesis 1:20
 
D.d. Ezekiel 18:20 means the following: "The 'breathing creature' that sins shall die." Jesus said in Matthew 10:28 that God can destroy the vessel (body) and "the soul" (the living creature) in Gehenna fire. This simply means that the entirety of the living person is vanquished.
 
Conclusion
 
When a soul (breathing creature: human/ animal) dies, the spirit (breath) of that creature returns to God (or in the case of an animal, according to Ecclesiastes, it returns to the Earth), and the body (clay vessel) disintegrates into the Earth and becomes dust. There is no life at that point. NO CONSCIOUSNESS. DEAD. "ASLEEP."
 
That's the entire purpose for a resurrection: revivification for judgment whereupon we are reward with either everlasting life or everlasting destruction (SECOND DEATH, i.e. annihilation--returned to dust forever).

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[1] “Sin” is the “transgression” or “breaking of” the law: 1 John 3:4


[2] The words used in these references have relatively the same definitions and are as follows: sheol - “the world of the dead (as if a subterranean retreat)…- grave, hell, pit”; hades - “properly unseen, that is, ‘Hades’ or the place (state) of departed souls: - grave, hell.”; mnay-mi’-on -“a remembrance, that is, cenotaph (place of interment): - grave, sepulcher, tomb.”