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"The Soul That Sinneth, It Shall Die." 
 
                          
 Few Bible doctrines have been more perverted with pagan beliefs than the question of “What happens when you die?” The belief in an immortal, undying, disembodied soul going straight to heaven at death, or straight to hell at death, is found ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE in the Bible. This is a purely occultic teaching which was slowly brought into the early church by the Roman Catholic power. 
 The idea of an ethereal hell located in another dimension, with Satan overseeing all of it’s operations, is no more than the “Hades” of pagan Greek mythology. As I will absolutely prove here, with clear and direct Bible verses, the soul of a man is not immortal. It dies at physical death, and must be ressurected with a new body in order to be alive again. The concept of a soul, in the Bible, is absolutely inseparable from a living body. The concept of a “disembodied soul” is found nowhere in the Bible, and the concept of a person receiving ANY kind of reward or punishment at the moment of death is completely unbiblical. 
 When a soul dies, it simply ceases to be. For some reason people are able to imagine a time before they were born when they did not exist, but very few people are able to conceptualize a day in the FUTURE when they will not exist. As I, or, I should say, the Bible, shall clearly demonstrate, this is what happens to the soul of a man at his death.
 Let us first begin way back in Genesis. Now, let me ask you, what was the very first lie that was ever told? This is very important, because men have been mistaken about this concept ever since. The very first lie, spoken by the serpent to Eve, was: “Thou shalt NOT SURELY DIE.” (Gen. 3:4) 
 God had told Adam and Eve that if they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that THEY WOULD DIE! Now, what do you think they took that to mean at the time? God did not tell them that they would live forever in some other form, THIS IS THE VERY LIE THE SERPENT TOLD! Think about this; Satan has convinced Christians that everybody, EVEN THE LOST, has eternal life! You’ll either live forever in heaven, or live forever in hell. 1John 3:15 says clearly: “Ye know that NO MURDERER HATH ETERNAL LIFE ABIDING IN HIM.” As we shall see, this is a very dangerous teaching.
 The Bible tells us, in Ezekiel 18:20: “The SOUL that sinneth, it shall die.” Hear we read very clearly that a soul can, and will, die. We read again, in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death; but the GIFT of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” This states very clearly that the ONLY way to receive eternal life is through Jesus Christ. But when do we receive this? 
 Paul writes: “The King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who ONLY hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.” (1Tim. 6:15,16) The Bible tells us that God, manifested as Jesus, is the ONLY one who has immortality. This means not only that it belongs to him, to give to those who serve him, but that, at the time Paul was writing this, no one had yet received that immortality! Paul states directly that Christ ONLY has immortality; that none of the dead in Christ had yet received immortality, and that Christ, the first fruits, was the only one immortal at this time. 
 Now that we have established that no one is immortal at the moment, what does the Bible tell us happens when a man dies? You may be surprised to learn that it states this quite plainly, in language a child can understand: “The living know that they shall: but THE DEAD KNOW NOT ANYTHING, neither have they any more REWARD [this word “reward” would apply both to good rewards and bad rewards]; for the memory of them is FORGOTTEN.” (Eccl. 9:5) [Brackets added] This states clearly that, even if the dead were alive somewhere, which is impossible, because they have not yet received immortality, but, if they were, THEY KNOW NOT ANYTHING! They are not conscious of anything that is happening. 
 We read further in the next verse: “Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now PERISHED; neither have they any more portion for ever in ANY THING that is done under the sun.” The dead DO NOT have any dealings in the affairs of the living. Job tells us VERY clearly: “As the cloud vanisheth away: SO HE THAT GOETH DOWN TO THE GRAVE SHALL COME UP NO MORE. HE SHALL RETURN NO MORE TO HIS HOUSE, NEITHER SHALL HIS PLACE KNOW HIM ANY MORE.” (Job 7:9,10) Job seems to be specifically clarifying the issue for us of whether the dead return to “haunt” their houses. The Bible says “He shall return no more to his house.”  
 Notice how it speaks of the death of a man: “As the cloud vanisheth away...” yet at the same time it says: “so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.” It tells us that a man “vanishes away”, and yet, that man is “in his grave.” This would seem to indicate very clearly that the soul dies with the body. At death, the soul simply ceases to be, and the body decays. This is confirmed absolutely in the book of Psalms: “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; IN THAT VERY DAY HIS THOUGHTS PERISH.” (Psalm 146:4)
 We read again in Job, speaking of the resurrection: “O that thou wouldest hide me in THE GRAVE, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and REMEMBER ME. If a man dies, SHALL HE LIVE AGAIN? All the days of my appointed time WILL I WAIT, till my change come.” (Job 14:13,14) We also read later: “Our rest together is IN THE DUST.”(Job 17:16) What will he wait for? HE WILL WAIT IN HIS GRAVE UNTIL HE IS ALIVE AGAIN! Here we see that people at the time a of Job were fully anticipating to be DEAD AND BURIED until the VERY LAST DAY of the world when they would be called to resurrection IN A NEW BODY. Why would Jesus need to “resurrect” people who have been alive and well and living with him for thousands of years? And why would they need a new body? Have they been alive somehow, and yet completely physically incapacitated for all this time? 
 Peter goes out of his way to state very clearly that no man has yet risen accept for one; Jesus: “Men and brethren, let me speak freely unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both DEAD AND BURIED, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.”(Acts 2:29) If that doesn’t make it clear enough for you, he further states a few verses later: “For David is not yet ascended into the heavens.”(Acts 2:34) Peter states that David, someone who is obviously going to be with us at Jesus’ return, “is not yet ascended into the heavens.” We read before this, in verse 26: “moreover also MY FLESH SHALL REST in hope.” 
 There is an old analogy about the operation of a light bulb that applies very well to the concept of the death of the soul. Suppose the light bulb is a man’s “body”, and the light it emits is his soul, his life, the result of his being alive. And suppose the electricity is the spirit which makes this man alive. (Gen. 2:7) Now, if we turn off the electricity, and the bulb dies out, what happens to the light? Did the light go somewhere else? Did it fly away? No, without a light bulb and electricity there is no light. It’s like asking where the wind went when it stops blowing. Life is the result of a body being kept alive through the intake of oxygen, and a brain, a uniquely designed computer, processing thoughts as electrical information. If the brain stops working, the thoughts simply “perish.” They don’t float away somewhere, they just stop. 
 If I turn off my computer, the process of information stops. The information of these processes is still stored on magnetic discs (brain cells) in the hard drive, but this drive is dead without electricity (oxygen), so there are no “thoughts”, or more specifically “thought processes” taking place. So what would happen if I just left this computer to sit without ever turning it back on again? It would rot and rust and fall apart, and eventually it would turn to dust. This would take a VERY long time for a computer, but obviously our bodies start to decay a lot faster than a computer. Again, the exchange of information (thought) didn’t fly away somewhere, it stopped when the power was cut off. And yet, the information is still stored there. If we can get this drive supplied with energy again before it decays to the point of no return, it will come back on (resuscitation).
 At this point it must be explained that nowhere in the Bible is the “spirit” of a man spoken of as having thoughts or emotions. The very word used in genesis to describe the “spirit” of God moving upon the face of the waters is the same word used a chapter later to describe God’s “breath” which enters Adam (and then “man BECAME a living soul.” (Gen. 2:7) Before that he was a “dead soul”, a brain without juice. Job speaks of his spirit in these words: “All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is IN MY NOSTRILS.” (Job 27:3) Job says that the spirit that God gave him, the spirit that returns to God at death, is IN HIS NOSTRILS! This is obviously not referring to an emotional, thinking entity. 
 The spirit he describes is simply the fact that our breath is what sustains us, and it is God who set that breath in motion. We are a finely crafted machine. We are so well crafted that we are able to be self-conscious and assimilate information in a way that a man-made computer never will. In this way our consciousness is not simply the sum of our thoughts and thought processes, like in a computer. But, though this is a miraculous creation on the part of God, and though it is very hard for a man to comprehend just how it is that he is both “alive” and “conscious” in what is, for all intents and purposes, a sack of meat, there is no reason, and no verse in the Bible, which would lead us to the conclusion that this requires anything more than a brain, and oxygen to fuel it.  
 God tells us that man was made “from the dust of the ground.” (Gen. 2:7) God does not list any strange magic ethereal substance in the making of man’s soul. In fact, it does not say that God “made” a LIVING soul. God breathed the breath of life into man’s nose and man BECAME a living soul. That would mean that before this, man was a dead soul, and that this dead soul was created completely “from the dust of the ground.” All that was needed was for God to turn on the brain.
 Quickly now, a few more verses which give clear support and clarification to this Biblical doctrine:

“Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” (Eccl. 12:7) 

“For the body without the spirit is dead...” (James 2:26)

“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in which all that are IN THE GRAVES shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” (John 5:28,29)

“The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” (Psalm 115:17)

“So man lieth down, and RISETH NOT: TILL THE HEAVENS BE NO  MORE, THEY SHALL NOT AWAKE, NOR BE RAISED OUT OF THEIR SLEEP.” (Job 14:12)
                                               
 Do you see why God calls necromancy (speaking with the dead) a sin? These are not the spirits of the dead, they are demons! And inviting them to speak to you is a sure-fire way to invite demonic possession on oneself.
 Jesus says there is a resurrection unto life (“For thou shoult be recompensed AT THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.” (Luke 14:14), and another “resurrection unto damnation”: “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” (Dan. 12:2)  We have already previously clarified when these will happen: the former at the beginning of the thousand year reign, and the latter at the end of it. This second resurrection is unto the judgment that most Bible readers would refer to as “hell.” Most think they have a pretty good idea of what this entails, but now let us clarify exactly what the Bible states will happen when the wicked are finally judged in “hell fire.”  
           
 

           “Hell On Earth”

 Most Christians operate under the misconception that a lost person is sent straight to hell at the moment of their death. But, as we have already demonstrated, no one goes anywhere when they die, THEY’RE DEAD! Hell is NOT burning now! There is no one IN hell now: “But the heavens and the earth...are kept in store, RESERVED unto fire against THE DAY OF JUDGMENT AND PERDITION OF UNGODLY MEN.” (2Pet. 3:7) This is why Jesus speaks of a resurrection unto judgment. As we have already shown, all the wicked that remain alive at the time of Christ’s return will be “burned up” by the brightness of his coming. They remain dead until the end of the thousand year interval, and at the end of this thousand years their is a resurrection unto judgement. This is “the great white throne judgement” that is often spoken of. It is this, and not the day of Christ’s coming at the beginning of the thousand years, that is the “judgment day” that people think of. “The Lord knoweth how to...RESERVE the unjust UNTO THE DAY OF JUDGMENT to be punished.” (2Pet. 2:9) 
 We read in Revelation 20:13: “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.” Now, this should automatically cause confusion. Did we just read that “hell” is delivering up people to be judged and sent to “hell?” To understand this, we must go back to the original language of the text. 
 The word hell occurs many times in the Bible, and is used to translate four distinct words. Every single time the word hell is used in the OLD testament, it is a translation for the Hebrew word “sheol.” It must be understood that the Hebrew word “sheol” refers to nothing more than a man’s grave, or a pit in the earth. Why the translators thought it necessary to translate this as “hell” is up for debate, but as a result we have a psalm, from no less than David himself, speaking of his own eventual death and the surety of his resurrection, which reads: “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell...”(Psalm 16:10) David fully expected to one day go to this “hell.” This is the word “sheol“, and this is the same word used every time the word “hell” is translated in the old testament. Notice also that is says his SOUL is in the grave, not just his body.
 Now, in the new testament we find the words “Gehenna”, “Hades”, and “Tartarus.” The word Gehenna refers to an actual field outside the city of Jerusalem, which, in Jesus’ time, was being used as the city dump. When Christ spoke of being “cast into hell” (Matt. 5:30), or Gehenna, he was speaking of the literal dump just outside of Jerusalem. He used this example because the men with him knew that criminals or men who could not afford burial were cast into this dump to rot. In order to keep the smell down, this place was kept constantly smoldering. Notice that Christ says that your physical “body” will be cast into “hell”, or Gehenna. While this seems to imply that Jesus is talking about the time of one’s actual physical death, or “the first death” (“And it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Heb. 9:27), we will see in a moment how this also ties into the concept of the final judgment. But it must be understood that Christ was not going into an in-depth teaching about the nature of hell here. He was simply using this picture to illustrate to those who were with him what happens to those who sin: They end up on the trash heap. 
 Now, many Bible “scholars” will stop at this point to point out that these verses say the “fire is not quenched” and the “worm does not die” and say that this demonstrates that the punishment of “hell” will be eternal, or everlasting. But this only says that the fire is not “quenched“. This simply means that it is not put out by anyone, not that it never dies out of it’s self.  God tells us that Sodom and Gomorrah are an example of the coming punishment, or “hell”, for those who would live ungodly. But listen to how Jude describes this destruction: “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of ETERNAL FIRE.” (Jude, verse 7) Now, clearly Sodom and Gomorrah are not still burning today. 
 When God says “eternal fire” or “eternal judgment” he simply means that it will be FINAL. There will be no going back from it. As is seen very clearly in Revelation, the wicked do NOT burn eternally in hellfire, but they are subject to the “second death” from which there is no resurrection (Rev. 20:6). The entire concept of a never-ending punishment in hell is completely manufactured by Satan, and is found absolutely NOWHERE in the Bible. This teaching is a ploy by Satan to convince naive people that God is some sort of sadist. But who does JESUS say hell is prepared for? “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, PREPARED FOR THE DEVIL AND HIS ANGELS.” (Matt. 25:41) Jesus says that the lake of fire is prepared FOR THE DEVIL AND HIS ANGELS! It’s not meant for us! That is why Christ offered himself on the cross, so that he could save us from this! “The Lord...is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2Pet 3:9) But if we die in our sin, God has no choice but to administer justice for it. God told the human race from the git-go: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” And God can’t now go back on his word.
 Suppose a man were in prison awaiting a death sentence, and Jesus came around and opened the door and said “Alright, come on out of there and I’ll take your place.” What can Jesus do if the man in the cell refuses to leave? God is not going to force salvation on anybody. 
 As we have already seen in the first few chapters, there is more than enough fulfilled prophecy to prove to any reasonable person that the Bible is the inspired word of God and that Jesus is who he says he is. The fact that these prophecies are not broadcast to unbelievers on a wide scale is another indicator of Satan’s incredible influence in the church. Also, the wonderful creation and everything in it speaks for itself. There is only one verse in the entire Bible in which atheism is spoken of: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” (Psalm 53:1) That’s it! That’s all the explanation God thinks it needs, and I’m definitely inclined to agree. So, as the Bible says: “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation? Which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and diverse miracles,” (Heb. 2:3,4)  
 As we shall demonstrate in just a moment, the Bible reiterates, over and over again, that the wicked will PERISH in hell fire; that they will burn up and turn to ashes. That is the very meaning of “the second death” (“They...shall have their part in the lake of fire...which is the SECOND DEATH (Rev. 21:8) , and, as we have already demonstrated, at death, a person’s thoughts “perish”. We shall demonstrate all of this even more clearly in a moment, but first let us clarify the meaning of these other two words: “Hades” and “Tartarus.”
 Hades is commonly known from Greek mythology as the underground world where the “god” Pluto (a Greek equivalent of Satan) punished the wicked souls of the dead. It is this, in fact, whether he realized it or not, and not the hell of the Bible, which is described in such great detail in the book “Dante’s Inferno.” However, the actual literal definition of the word in it’s common usage simply referred to “the place where people go when they die“. This  is similar to the Hebrew word “sheol” in it’s connotations. An alternate meaning is as a place of punishment for the wicked, but this definition is drawn from the Greek myth. To a Hebrew this word would mean “the grave”, and to a Greek or Roman this would evoke the imagery of mythology. The general definition can refer simply to “the pit” or “the grave.” As Hebrews, speaking Greek, there would be few other words for the apostles to use to mean “the grave” or “death” that those around them could relate to. This word is used in different instances to denote both “the grave” and “eternal destruction.”
 The word “Tartarus” means a deep, dark pit, or place of darkness. In Greek mythology this was the deepest pit of Pluto’s “Hades.” This word is only used once in the Bible, and is used to refer to the holding place of “the angel’s who sinned”: “For...God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell [Tartarus], and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgement;” (2Pet. 2:4) 
 These “angels that sinned” and their influence on the world will be described more fully in the next chapter.
 Now, what does the Bible say will be the ultimate fate of the wicked? 
“Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: This shall be the portion of their cup.” (Psalm 11:6)

“Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. Behold, they shall be as stubble; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame.” (Isaiah 47:13,14)

“For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and that day that cometh upon them shall BURN THEM UP...And ye shall tread down the wicked; FOR THEY SHALL BE ASHES UNDER THE SOLES OF YOUR FEET.” (Mal. 4:1,3)

“Them that know not the Lord...shall be punished with everlasting DESTRUCTION from the precsence of the Lord.” (2Thess. 1:8,9)

“Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to DESTROY BOTH SOUL AND BODY IN HELL.” (Matt. 10:28)

“But the wicked shall PERISH...they shall consume away; into smoke shall they consume away.” (Psalm 37:20)

“There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: FOR THE FORMER THINGS ARE PASSED AWAY.” (Rev. 21:4)
 Here we are told point blank “They shall be burned up”, “They shall be destroyed both soul and body”, “They shall consume away like smoke”, “They shall be ASHES UNDER OUR FEET.” I don’t know how anyone reading these verses could possibly come to any other conclusion: THE WICKED ARE UTTERLY DESTROYED IN THE JUDGMENT FIRE! The Bible, in a chapter speaking DIRECTLY to Lucifer, tells us that EVEN THE DEVIL HIMSELF shall perish in the fire: “I will bring forth a fire in the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee...thou shalt be a terror, AND NEVER SHALT THOU BE ANY MORE.”(Ez. 28:18,19) Now, if the devil himself does not burn in hell forever, how could we be expected to believe that anybody else would?
 But, you see, this is exactly Satan’s plan. Didn’t you, as a result of this false teaching, grow up with a distorted view of God? Didn’t you think that it was extremely unfair to send someone to hell BEFORE THE JUDGMENT EVEN TAKES PLACE? Didn’t you think God was more than a little sadistic for wanting to watch his own creations burn and writhe “for all eternity”, while the small time sinners suffered just as long as the worst mass murderers? This is Satan’s goal, to distract our attention from the salvation offered in Jesus and to direct it towards what a “mean hearted” and “unjust” being the God of the Bible supposedly is. Don’t you see that God does everything within his power to save everyone he possibly can, even to the point of DYING in our place? God is inherently just. He cannot defer one person’s sentence, because this would mean he would have to defer EVERYBODY’S, even Satan’s! And so he provided a way out for us. As we shall see in the chapter “All From Babylon”, the ENTIRE ancient world new about the coming of the Messiah. And again, Satan used this to his advantage to create all of the false religious systems of the world. As shall be demonstrated, almost every single one of these false religions is based around Satan’s false “messiah.”
 “But why,” you may ask, “Why does God allow this to continue? Why doesn’t Jesus just return right now?” This question has certainly stumped Biblical theologians down through the ages; but the answer to it is VERY simple, and is found right in the scriptures. Remember the parable of the wheat and the tares? The farmer instructs his workers: “Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, YE ROOT UP ALSO THE WHEAT WITH THEM. Let both grow together UNTIL THE HARVEST.” (Matt. 13:29,30) God wants to save AS MANY PEOPLE AS HE POSSIBLY CAN. He knows that if he ends the world now, though many people would be prevented from being born and sinning, many people also, who would have had a chance to live and to come to his salvation, will never even have a chance to be born. He’s going for the biggest harvest he can get. And don’t forget, God will not intervene until THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO CHOICE LEFT. 
 The Bible tells us that the state of human affairs in the last days of the world will literally be SO BAD, so ABSOLUTELY SELF-DESTRUCTIVE, that if God does not intervene at this exact moment: “Except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: But for the elect’s sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days.” (Mark 13:20)  God will finally intervene at LITERALLY the EXACT MOMENT when man is about to completely wipe himself out! Then God will know that he has saved everybody who he POSSIBLY could (without interfering with men’s free will), and the harvest will be complete.
  Now that those popular (and dangerous) misconceptions have been swept aside, let us delve into a set of EVEN MORE DANGEROUS false teachings. Slowly introducing these abominable practices into Christian churches was truly one of the master strokes of Satan’s plan, and I shall attempt to demonstrate exactly how insidious, calculated, and dangerous to the souls of naive believers these practices truly are.