Death, Hell and Immortality
What the Bible teaches on the subject of what happens to us at death.
by Basil Atkinson PhD
Part 2A
Hebrew N'shamah - breath, wind, air
[This Hebrew word appears 25 times in the OT (see The
Englishman's Hebrew Concordance) and is number 5397 in Strong's
Concordance. It first occurs in Genesis 2:7 where we read that
God, "...breathed into his nostrils the BREATH of life." In the
KJV it is rendered as "breath" "breathed" most of the time,
with a few times with such words as "blast" "spirit" and once
as "inspiration" and once even as "the souls." Its first and
primary meaning is "breath" - the wind or air that we breath in
each day as human beings. It corresponds, but only in part to
the Hebrew word RUAGH, which can also mean "breath" but
which is used in much broader ways also, as we shall see later
when we look at that specific word. A study of all 25 places where
N'SHAMAH is used will show that it has no connection with any
inherent IMMORTALITY within the word itself - Keith Hunt]
Here is what Basil Atkinson has written on this word
n'shamah (all capital lettering is mine throughout this entire
study):
"If we turn again to Ge.2: 7, we shall see that '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.' We
have already seem what it means to become a living soul. This
great verse shows us the process. First, we have MAN made of
the dust of the ground. We notice in the texts of our Bibles that
the word 'of' on the first occasion on which it occurs in the verse
is in italics. This means of course that it is absent from the
original. Our margins confirm this. They say, 'formed man dust
of the ground.' Man is not some composition made of dust. He
actually CONSISTS of dust, and we are reminded of this humble
position of this, several times in the Bible (see Gen.3: 19; 18:
27; Ps. 103: 14; 104: 29; Job 34: 15; Ecc. 3: 20; 12: 7).
We notice there is no hint of the 'soul' being the REAL man,
and the 'body' being a temporary habitation for him. The man is
there before ever he becomes a soul by the inbreathing into his
nostrils of the breath of life.
The BREATH of life in Gen. 2: 7 represents the Hebrew
n'shamah, which is a life principle issuing from the Lord God.
The word occurs twenty-five times in the OT. In one instance
(Job 37: 10) it is said to produce FROST and ICE, and in four it is
used of the BLAST of the wrath of God. In the remaining 20 it is
used of the life principle breathed into man by God.
We notice that it was breathed into his NOSTRILS, and such
passages as Deut.20: 16; Josh. 10: 40; 11: 11, 14 show that it
relates to his actual PHYSICAL BREATHING by the inhalation of
AIR. We remember that man's soul is in his BLOOD and indeed his
blood is his soul. Thus he is kept in being as a LIVING SOUL by
the inhalation of OXYGEN out of the AIR, and medical science
today knows of course a great deal about the connection between
this intake of oxygen and the blood.
In TWO of the passages in which n'shamah is referred to, we
find the ANIMALS included as well as man (Gen. 7: 22; Ps. 150:
6). This agrees with the fact that, as we have seen, they are
souls just as man is a soul. "
The Breath of the Spirit
This word n'shamah is sometimes used WITH and as a PARALLEL
with the Hebrew word ruagh, a kind of a repeat to give emphasis.
[This is often done in the Hebrew language, and we in English may
do the same, using slightly different words in two phrases to say
the same thing such as, "What he told me BLEW me away, I mean
it just BASTED my mind-set, it was so revealing" - Keith Hunt]
Continuing with the words of Atkinson:
"If we look in our margins at Gen.7: 22, we shall see that
for 'the breath of life' the Hebrew says, 'the breath of the
spirit of life.' While we know that the Holy Spirit to be the
Divine Spirit of life, it is probable that this passage here does
not refer to Him, but to the PRINCIPLE of life, which is the SAME
as n'shamah, but on a wider scale. The word for 'spirit' is ruagh
and we shall shortly be dealing with it. This passage then
teaches that the n'shamah is the SAME THING as the ruagh of life,
but derives from it as a limited portion of it.
The probability that this is the meaning of this passage
arises from the fact that there are FIVE passages in which
n'shamah and ruagh appear as PARALLELS.....Isaiah 42: 5, 'he
giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that
walk therein; Job 27: 3, 'All the while my breath is in me, and
the spirit of God is in my nostrils'.....Job 33: 4, 'The Spirit
of God has given me life.' In spite of the capital letter in our
version it remains probable that the 'spirit' here is again the
principle of life PARALLEL with n'shamah....."
[So there may be times when both Hebrew words (n'shamah and
ruagh) are used as a double emphasis or a repeat to say the same
thing, but with different words that carry within themselves the
same meaning when used under certain contexts - Keith Hunt]
Now we move to the great Hebrew word RUAGH and what Basil
Atkinson writes concerning it with its various meanings and
usages in the OT Scriptures.
The Spirit of God
"There is one more great word that we need to study in
order to grasp all that the Bible reveals to us about the nature
of man. This is the word RUAGH, usually translated 'spirit' and
its NT equivalent PNEUMA, which we will leave until we reach the
NT as in the case of nephesh and psychee.
This word has a GREATER VARIETY of meaning than does
nephesh, but it is not dissimilar to it in its range.
There are a LARGE number of occurrences of ruagh in the
sense of 'wind,' which is probably its elementary meaning. There
are about a HUNDRED AND NINETEEN of these, including TWO
Aramaic occurrences in the book of Daniel. There are also a large
number of cases in which the word is used to describe a PERSON
BEING.
There are about EIGHTY-TWO references to the SPIRIT (Ruagh)
or HOLY SPIRIT of God......There are about SEVENTEEN references
to created PERSONAL BEINGS described as ruagh, either good or
evil It is important to notice that no HUMAN being is among them.
A human being is NEVER called a spirit in the Bible. He possesses
a spirit, but he IS not a spirit. As we have seen, he is a nephesh or soul.
Ruagh as Life Principle
We are not concerned with the two senses of the word ruagh
which have just been mentioned, as they do not touch our argument
or effect the subject we are treating.
We next find ruagh used WIDELY in the sense of LIFE
PRINCIPLE, and here it concerns us deeply. In Gen.2:7 we saw that
man was made of the dust and that he became a LIVING SOUL by
the inbreathing into his NOSTRILS of the n'shamah of life.
In Gen.7: 22 we find this n'shamah referred to (margin) as
the breath of the spirit (ruagh) of life. The n'shamah seems to
be a property or PORTION of the ruagh and to be concerned with
what we today should call the PHYSICAL life. The ruagh which is
also a principle of life is much WIDER. It produces and sustains
the INNER as well as the OUTER life in man, his intellect,
abstract thoughts, emotions and desires as well as covering the
whole action of the n'shamah on the physical life.
We find ruagh occurring in this sense IN PLACE OF n'shamah
FIRST in Gen.6: 17, 'to destroy all flesh, wherein is the BREATH
(ruagh) of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in
the earth shall die.' This applies to BOTH men and animals, so
that the latter share this ruagh or life principle with man.
Though attempts have been made to show that animals do NOT have
ruagh but only n'shamah, they fail in the face of this passage
and of Gen. 7: 15 and 22 or Ecc. 3: 21, which plainly state that
animals posses the ruagh of life.
There are FORTY-NINE passages in the OT in which ruagh
refers to the life principle.....we will not take up space by listing them
all, but will select a few illustrative examples.
Numbers 16: 22, 'O God, the God of the spirits of all
flesh.' Here and in the parallel passage in Num. 27: 16 the word
ruagh seems to include its sense of spirit as a disposition of
the MIND as well as the principle of life. Judges 15: 19, 'and
when he had drunk, his spirit came again and he revived.' This
revival is not from death, but from EXHAUSTION, the use of ruagh
here being exactly PARALLEL to that of n'shamah in Daniel 10: 17.
We find exactly the same use in 1 Samuel 30: 12. In Isaiah 38:
16 we find Hezekiah saying, 'in all these things (that is, in
the mercies of God) is the life of my spirit.' Hezekiah is
probably referring to the recovery of his HEALTH and his
deliverance from DEATH....Then in Jeremiah 10: 4 we find, 'for
his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath (spirit) in
them.' This means that the image, though a god to the
idolator, is not ALIVE.
In Lamentations 4: 20 we have an interesting and intelligible
figure of speech, 'The breath (ruagh) of our nostrils, the anointed
of the Lord, was taken in their pits.' The reference is to King Zedekiah,
who is thought of as the nations very life.
In Ezekiel we have TEN instances of ruagh as life principle
(1: 20, 21; 10: 17; 37: 5, 6, 8, 9, 10), ONE relating to
exhaustion (21: 7) in the same sense as Judges 15: 9 and
1 Samuel 30: 12. In the book of the same prophet we find ruagh
used THREE times for the NEW REGENERATE principle of life
which is put within the believer when he is converted....(11: 19; 18:
31 and 36: 26).
In Habakkuk 2: 19 there is another statement that the IDOL
has no ruagh, that is to say, is not alive.
A very interesting examples occurs in Malachi 2: 15. The
prophet is arguing for faithfulness in marriage and reminds his
readers that God created only one woman at the beginning, though
He could have created as many as He wished. 'And did He not make
one? Yet He had the residue of the spirit.' God had at His disposal as
much spirit as He wished to breathe life into as many women as He
wished.
In Psalm 31: 5 we have in prophecy the words of the Lord
Jesus on the cross as He was dying, 'Into thine hand I commit my
spirit.' He entrusted to God the human spirit....He possessed as
a man, so it could be restored to Him in resurrection."
(We shall study that special part of that special spirit of
the human that God the Father can keep and restore in
resurrection later, at the end of this second part, after we
have given more from Basil Atkinson - Keith Hunt)
Back to the words of Atkinson:
"Death again is the theme of Ps.76: 12, 'He shall cut off
the spirit of princes,' that is, take away their lives.
Death and creation are the theme in Ps.104: 29, 30, 'You
take away their breath (ruagh), they die, and return to the dust.
You send forth your spirit (ruagh), they are created.'.....
In Ps.146: 4 we have an important passage dealing with
death.....'His (that is man's) breath (ruagh) goes forth, he
returns to the earth.' Man's spirit, the principle that makes
him a living soul and keeps him alive, is taken from him at
death.
There are SEVEN references in the book of Job. Job.6: 4,
'For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison thereof
drinks up my spirit.' The arrows are a poetical figure for the
wrath and chastisement of the Almighty. To drink up his spirit
(ruagh) means to drain his life. Job. 9: 18, to take his breath
(ruagh) probably means simply to live. Job 10: 12, the spirit
(ruagh) is the principle that keeps him alive. Job 12: 10,
breath here is ruagh. The text teaches that the Lord's hand
controls and maintains every man's life. Job 17: 1, My breath
(ruagh) is corrupt.' See the margin, 'My spirit is spent.' Job
thinks his life is failing. Job 27: 3, the spirit (ruagh) of God
is the spirit of life breathed into man at his creation. Job 34:
14, 15, Elihu speaks here of the power of God to destroy man by
taking back the spirit (ruagh) which He gave him.
There are SIX important references in Ecclesiastes. As they
all deal with death.....Ecc. 3: 19, 21 (twice); 8: 8 (twice);
12: 7. On each occasion the Hebrew word is ruagh......"
(Those important passages Basil Atkinson treats fully and
in-depth later - Keith Hunt)
Ruagh as the Disposition and Seat of Emotions
Mr. Basil Atkinson continues:
" As well as having the sense of the life principle in man
the word ruagh can also mean a man's INNER DISPOSITION as the
seat of his THOUGHTS and EMOTIONS. This is similar to the sense
of nephesh when it refers to the INNER man as well as to the
WHOLE man as a person or living being.....We shall NOT FIND a
single reference that would lead us to look upon man's ruagh as
CONSCIOUSLY surviving his death.....
There are about TWENTY-SEVEN instances where the spirit
(ruagh) is the seat of GRIEF, generally referred to in Hebrew as
'bitterness of spirit.' Examples are Gen. 26: 35, 'Which were a
grief of mind (ruagh) unto Isaac and Rebekah.' Exodus 6: 9, 'but
they harkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit (ruagh) and
for cruel bondage.' 1 Samuel 1: 15, 'I am a woman of a sorrowful
spirit (ruagh)'.....Nine times in Ecclesiastes we find the words
'vanity and vexation of spirit (ruagh)'.
An Aramaic instance in Daniel 7: 15 is, 'I Daniel was grieved in
my spirit (ruagh) in the midst of my body.' This passage is interesting
because it speaks of the relationship between 'ruagh' and 'body.'
The word translated 'body' means 'sheath' in Aramaic. Thus what we
should call the physical body is regarded in this passage as the sheath
or covering of the inner man or spirit. The MIND or PERSONALITY
is WITHIN but there is nothing here or elsewhere from which we may
infer that the ruagh CONSCIOUSLY survives the breaking of the sheath.
The most we can say is that the passage is consistent with such an idea
IF we were able to find it revealed anywhere in Scripture.
There are about NINE passages in which WISDOM is spoken of
in connection with the ruagh. Thus we have in Exodus 28: 3, 'And
you shall speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have
filled with the spirit (ruagh) of wisdom.'....Deuteronomy 34: 9,
'And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit (ruagh) of
wisdom.'......we find FIVE times in the book of Daniel the
heathen kings declaring that in Daniel was 'the spirit (ruagh) of
the gods'....by this they mean a spirit of wisdom.....
There are TWO instances in which we find the ruagh governing
the WILL, 'every one whom his spirit (ruagh) made willing' (Ex.
35: 21) and in an opposite sense, 'for the Lord your God hardened
his spirit (ruagh)' (Deut. 2: 30).
In Numbers 5 we find THREE times 'the spirit (ruagh) of
JEALOUSY' (verse 14 (twice) and 30), where we can possibly
understand this to be a feeling or disposition that temporarily
came upon a man.
The spirit is the seat of COURAGE , as we find in Joshua 2:
11 (where ruagh is translated 'courage'); Joshua 5: 1; 1 Kings
10: 5; Isaiah 19: 3; 29: 10; Jeremiah 51: 11; Haggai 1: 4
(three times); Proverbs 18: 14 and 2 Chronicles 9: 4.
There are SIX passages in which ruagh appears as the seat of
ANGER. They are Judges 8: 3, where ruagh is translated 'anger' ;
Ezekiel 3: 14; Proverbs 14: 29; 16: 32; Ecclesiastes 7: 9 and
10: 4.
It is interesting to find about FOURTEEN passages in which
the ruagh is the seat of PERVERSENESS, EVIL or REBELLION.
Thus we find Isaiah 19: 14, 'a perverse ruagh,' - Hosea 4: 12 and
5: 4, 'the ruagh of whoredoms,' - Zechariah 13: 2, 'the unclean
ruagh.' This seems to be a national spirit.
Malachi 2: 15, 16 shows us TREACHERY or UNFAITHFULNESS
in the ruagh.
In Psalm 32: 2 we see the possibility of 'GUILE' or DECEIT
in the ruagh.
Psalm 78: 8 speaks of 'a generation....whose spirit (ruagh)
was not steadfast with God.' Proverbs 15: 4 tells us that
PERVERSENESS in the TONGUE is a breach or wound in the ruagh.
Proverbs 25: 28 we find the man who cannot control his own ruagh.
In Job 15: 13 we find the charge, 'you turn your spirit
against God.' Ecclesiastes 7: 8 speaks of 'the proud in spirit
(ruagh).' Finally we have in the Aramaic passage Daniel 5: 20
the statement that King Nebuchadnezzar's mind (ruagh) was
hardened in pride.
There are TWO interesting passages which show the ruagh
seeking and searching after God. They are Isaiah 26: 9 and Psalm
77: 6. As the speaker in each case is a godly man, the reference
may perhaps be to the regenerate spirit.....
In about SEVEN passages the ruagh is seen as the seat of
CONTRITION or HUMILITY, Thus we have the famous and
beautiful passage in Isaiah 57: 15, 'I dwell in the high and holy
place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive
the spirit of the humble.' Again in Isaiah 66: 2, 'but to this man will
I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit.'.....
In Proverbs 11: 3 there is a reference to a 'FAITHFUL
spirit' (ruagh). This shows the ruagh as a disposition or the
fount of character.
In addition to these there are about FIFTEEN references to
ruagh in a more GENERAL sense.......
There are about TEN passages in which the word ruagh is
specially connected with PROPHECY. In the seven passages
Numbers 11: 17, 25 (twice), 26, 29; 2 Kings 2: 9, 15 it might be
possible to interpret the word of the Holy Spirit of God. In any
case it is a special gift of inspiration and not the normal human
spirit. In three cases the ruagh is a false or lying one (Ezek.
13: 3; Hosea 9: 7; Micah 2: 11). However we interpret these
passages our argument is not affected. "
[The passage in Ecclesiastes 12: 7 that talks about the
spirit returning to God at death, as well as the passages of 1
Corinthians 2: 11 and Hebrews 12: 23, I shall give special
attention to shortly, after we have seen what Mr. Atkinson says
about the corresponding Greek word for ruagh. There is a special
spirit within the human that is not a part of any animal in the
sense and for the reason that it is in man, which makes him
unique in all of God's physical creation - Keith Hunt]
Spirit in the New Testament
We continue with the words of Basil Atkinson:
"We saw that the Greek word psychee corresponded in the NT
to Hebrew nephesh. In the same way the corresponding word to
Hebrew ruagh is pneuma. This word has not so long a known history
in the Greek language as has psychee. It does not occur in the
Homeric poems. In literature it first appears in the historian
Herodotus. Its meaning is 'wind' or 'breath' breathed in or out.
Thence it came to mean life principle and occasionally a living
person, rather in the sense of psychee. Thus it had a few of the
senses of ruagh, but it does not seem to have carried others till
it came to represent it in the NT.
Pneuma as a Person
There are about TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FOUR
instances in the NT of the use of pneuma with or without the adjective
hagion, 'holy' - to denote the HOLY SPIRIT of God......The references
in some of these is a matter of judgment owing to the well-known
difficulty of distinguishing in some cases whether a given
reference is to the Holy Spirit or to the new nature in believers.
In addition to the references to the Holy Spirit there are
some FIFTY-SIX passages in which pneuma denotes a PERSON.
Most of these are references to evil spirits and most occur in the
synoptic Gospels and Acts. We need not dwell on them, but there
are TWO instances which we ought to look at.
Speaking to the Samaritan woman in John 4: 24 the Lord Jesus
said, 'God is a Spirit (Pneuma)'.......Then again in 1 Cor. 15:
45, a text we have already touched on when dealing with psychee,
the apostle says, 'The first man Adam was made a living soul; the
last Adam was made a quickening spirit.' This is, as all agree,
a reference to the risen Christ.....Father in John 4: 24, the Son
in 1 Cor. 15: 45....This bears sufficiently on our theme by
showing that God as Spirit is the source of all life. "
[Let me say here that what these above verses are clearly
showing and what they are teaching us is that God the Father and
Jesus the Son, in their glorified state are composed of Spirit
not physical matter. They live in a different world than us
humans live in. Their realm, is a spirit world not a physical
matter world. And the spirit world is un-seen by the human eye,
unless God chooses to manifest that spirit world to the human
eye, or in the minds-eye through visions. The Bible also clearly
shows that God and/or an angel of the Lord can manifest
themselves in the form of flesh and bone if it is the will
of God to do so. Jesus was able, after His resurrection, to
appear to His disciples as flesh and bone, so they could touch
Him, then vanish before their eyes. I have covered that
truth in another study. God created this whole physical universe
it is written, out of NOTHING, turning spirit into physical
matter, what we would say as creating matter out of nothing, so
it is very easy for the Lord who is then Spirit, to manifest
Himself as matter if He should so wish to do so, in order that
mankind could talk, walk, have a meal with, even touch and
handle, as did take place a number of times since the creation of
mankind - Keith Hunt]
Pneuma as Wind
Continuing with the words of Atkinson:
"Pneuma only ONCE means 'wind' or 'blast' in the NT. We
shall find the occurrence in 2 Thessalonians 2: 8 in a quotation
from Isaiah 11: 4 and Job 4: 9, 'And then shall that Wicked be
revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His
mouth.'
Pneuma as Life Principle
There are NINE instances in the NT in which pneuma means
'life principle' just as does ruagh in the OT.....In Luke 8: 55
the spirit (pneuma) returns to the dead child, daughter of
Jairus. We ought not to suppose that what returned was CONSCIOUS
in itself APART FROM the body. The usages of ruagh in the OT
show that this means that God gave back to the child the life
principle which He had taken at death......James 2: 26 gives us
a very clear view of the relationship of spirit (pneuma) and
body. revelation 11:11 shows us the spirit (pneuma) of life
entering into the dead bodies of the witnesses, so that they
revived and stood up. In Revelation 13: 15 we find the false
prophet empowered to give pneuma to the image of the beast, so
that it could speak like a living person....we have the significant
word, 'For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy'
(Rev.19:10). The vital principle of prophecy, that which gives it
meaning and life, is its testimony of Jesus. This is a figurative use
of pneuma on the analogy of its literal use in connection with
human life. "
The verses in the Gospels where Jesus released His spirit to
the Father at His death, will come under the last section I will
cover when I explain the "spirit of man that is in him" - that
which is unique to mankind - Keith Hunt]
TO BE CONTINUED
Death, Hell and Immortality
What the Bible teaches on the subject of what happens to us at death
Part 2B
Pneuma as the Regenerate Nature
Basil Atkinson writes:
"There are about TWENTY-NINE occurrences in the NT of
pneuma used in reference to the NEW REGENERATE NATURE.
In this sense it sometimes unites and combines the sense of pneuma
as life principle with that of disposition or character. The new nature
is certainly a new life principle, but it is an essentially moral life
principle. It is in itself a holy disposition or character.
In Matthew 26: 41 and Mark 14: 38 we find the spirit
(pneuma) opposed to the flesh, as so often in the apostle Paul's
epistles......In 1 Peter 3: 18 'spirit' (pneuma) is again
contrasted with 'flesh.' Here 'spirit' means the glorified
nature of Christ in resurrection. We may compare Romans 1:4 and
1 Corinthians 15: 45. The glorified resurrection nature, this
time of the saints, is again the meaning of pneuma in 1 Peter 4:6.
Believers now dead will one day live again in a glorified
nature with a spiritual body as a result of hearing and believing
the Gospel when they were alive on earth before their death.
There are nine references in the Epistle to the
Romans.....The regenerate nature is represented by pneuma in
Romans 2: 29, where the apostle says it effects circumcision
of the heart. In Romans 8: 1 and 4 we have the contrast between
flesh, the old nature, and spirit, the new. We have the same in
Romans 8: 5, where pneuma in this sense occurs twice.....The
child of God carries a life principle within him, which is the
dwelling place of the Holy Spirit and insures his resurrection to
life immortal on the glorious day of resurrection at the second
coming of the Lord (Rom.8: 11)......
Further references to the regenerate nature occur in 1 Cor.
5: 5; 6: 17, 20; Gal.3: 3; 6: 18; Phil. 4: 23; I Thes. 5:
23. where it is contrasted with psychee; Heb. 4: 12, where, the
same contrast occurs; .......We also have references to the
regenerate nature in 2 Tim. 4: 22 and Philemon 25.
Pneuma in 2 Corinthians 7: 1
There is a strange use of pneuma in 2 Cor. 7: 1, which seems
to be unique in the NT, 'Let us cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness
in the fear of God.' We have here, as so often, the contrast
between flesh and spirit, but neither is used in the exact sense
of the old and new natures.....Pneuma here cannot mean the new
nature because filthiness cannot be thought of as affecting the
new nature.....Flesh and spirit are put here for CARNAL
THINGS.....The apostle is exhorting to holiness and to the
avoidance of all defilement in things of the flesh, by which he
means IMMORALITY, and in things of the spirit, by which he
means false religion....."
[I would add that the defilement of the spirit can be much
more than false religions. It can be any defilement of the mind,
such as hate, lust, jealousy, coveting, revenge, all and
everything that is against the laws and holiness of God.
Certainly defilement of the body would be using the physical body
in ways of sexual immorality, and today it would also include
defilement of the body through drug abuse and the like, which has
the effect of destroying the body, which is the temple of God,
note 1 Cor. 3: 16-17 - Keith Hunt]
Pneuma as Man's Disposition and Character
Mr. Atkinson continues:
"There are rather under FORTY passages in the NT in which
pneuma appears as a disposition of man and the source of his
character in the same general sense as does ruagh in the OT. An
examination of these passages will show however that some are on
the borderline and it is a matter of judgment whether to class
them in this division of the sense of the word or to place them
among the instances which refer to the regenerate spirit.
The following passages show the pneuma as the source of
HUMILITY: Mat.5: 3; 1 Cor. 4: 21 and Gal. 6: 1.
In the following it is the seat of KNOWLEDGE and WISDOM:
Mark 2: 8; Luke 2: 40; Acts 6: 10; Eph. 1: 17 and 4: 23.
In the following it is the seat of GRIEF: Mark 8: 12; John
11: 33; 13: 21 and Acts 17: 16.
'The Spirit and power of Elias' (Luke 1: 17) is a passage
probably best placed among those instances which refer specially
to the spirit of prophecy.
In four passages the pneuma is the seat of JOY: Luke 1: 47;
1 Cor. 16: 18; 2 Cor. 2: 13; 7: 13.
In Luke 9: 55 is an instance of PERVERSE spirit.
There are four instances of the spirit being the seat of
COURAGE or STRENGTH: Acts 18: 5, 25; Romans 12: 11 and
2 Timothy 1: 7.
In Acts 19: 21 and 20: 22 the pneuma is the source of
PURPOSE or RESOLVE.
There are several Pauline passages in which the pneuma is
seen as the seat of WORSHIP and the SERVICE of God. In these
we are probably intended to think of the regenerate spirit. They
are: Rom. 1: 9; 8: 16; 1 Cor. 5: 3, 4; 7: 34; 14: 2, 14; 16:
18; 2 Cor. 4: 13; Phil. 1: 27; Col. 2: 5......In John 4: 23,
24 worship in spirit and truth means inner worship, the lifting
of the heart to God in faith, prayer and obedience, as opposed
to ritual or legal or any other form of outward worship. The
regenerate spirit is seen as the instrument and channel of
worship because its nature is in some sense akin to that of God,
Who is Spirit (verse 24).
In 1 Corinthians 2: 11 the pneuma is seen as the seat of
SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS. This is a unique use in the NT. Only a
man himself knows the depths, and the motives of his own heart,
and the apostle says that this knowledge of himself lies in his
spirit (pneuma). We should almost expect to read the word 'heart'
here and we may well think that the use of the word pneuma is
influenced by its use for the Spirit of God in the next sentence.
It would be very unwise to read into this unique use of the word
the idea that the pneuma is the seat of a CONSCIOUSNESS that can
SURVIVE AFTER the spirit leaves the body at death. Such an idea
is not found in the verse itself.
The Pneuma of the Prophets
Apart from possibly Luke 1: 17 the NT adds ONE instance to
the TEN to be found in the OT where ruagh relates specially to
the prophets. This is to be found in Revelation 22: 6, 'the Lord
God of the spirits of the prophets.' The meaning is the same as
that of ruagh when it is connected with the prophets.
Ruagh and Pneuma
We have now examined carefully the meaning of these Hebrew
and Greek words and so far as space will allow provided examples
of every sense that could possibly bear on our argument. The only
places in which the idea of the spirit surviving the body might
be deduced from them are the instances in Ecclesiastes
(especially 12: 7) where the spirit is said to go back at death
to God who gave it, and such passages as Luke 23: 46 and Acts 7:
59 where the spirit at death is commended into the hands of
God.......
The Heart
....it would be useful to glance at the Hebrew and Greek
words translated 'heart.' We might not have found it necessary to
do so, as these words are not used in connection with the
creation of man, as are nephesh and ruagh. Yet a well-known
evangelist recently quoted in a public address Psalm 22: 26,
'Your heart shall live for ever,' to prove NATURAL IMMORTALITY
for all men, righteous or wicked, and elaborated the theme that
the 'heart' would survive the body at death and go on living to
all eternity either in heaven or hell. A glance at the text will
show the impossibility of rightly extracting such a notion from
it. The context makes quite clear that the wicked are not in view
in the passage at all. It is concerned with 'the meek' and 'they
that seek the Lord.' The eternal life that is promised is
promised to them alone. Nor does this life consist of survival
after death as if the 'heart' lived but not the body. The
expression 'your heart' (or whatever the appropriate pronoun may
be) is frequently used for 'you,' just as we have seen to be the
case in the 'weak' use of nephesh. The promise is thus a promise
of eternal life to the people of God, which comes, as we shall
later see, in the only way known to Scripture, by a glorious
resurrection.....We appreciate his difficulties....but should he
not have been warned by the words that occur in verse 29 of the
same psalm, only three verses lower down, 'None can keep alive
his own soul.' We may compare Psalm 69: 32.
The Hebrew words for 'heart' are LEV, LEVAV, and LIBBAH,
the Aramaic words occurring in Daniel are LEV and L'VAV, and the
Greek word is KARDIA. These words have certain parallels with
ruagh and pneuma. They are sometimes used in a strict parallelism
with ruagh. They are used in much the same sense as ruagh in its
references to the disposition and the seat of the emotions, but
they cover a wider ground. There is a regenerate heart, which is
the same as a regenerate spirit. The heart is the deepest
part of man, the seat of the will and conscience. One or other of
the words is sometimes used to express the centre or midst of
something, e.g. the sea (Ex.15: 8). 1 Peter 3: 4 has something
of this sense.
In the case of Nabal we read of the death of his heart (1
Samuel 25: 37). This probably means that he became unconscious.
He seems to have had some sort of stroke. As in the case of
nephesh the Scripture speaks in several places of the heart of
God (2 Sam. 7: 21, etc.). In Job 1: 8 and 2: 3 we read of Satan's
heart and in Daniel 4: 16 and 5: 21 of 'the heart of a beast,'
meaning the nature of a beast. This is sufficient proof that the
heart never expresses an IMMORTAL part of a man which has the
property of surviving death and living forever.
Several times in the book of Proverbs we find the expression
'to lack understanding' (e.g. 6: 32, etc.). In Hebrew this is
always 'to lack heart.' Similarly we find 'to get heart' (e.g.
15: 32). The occupation of the heart with material things (as we
should call them) as well as spiritual seems proved by Proverbs
27: 9, where we find that it enjoys ointment and perfume.
There is an interesting passage in Song of Solomon 5: 2, 'I
sleep, but my heart waketh.' This looks like the heart could be
conscious while its owner asleep, but the context is best suited
by the R.V. rendering, 'I was asleep, but my heart waked,' that
is, she woke up when she heard her beloved knocking.
In 1 Thessalonians 3: 13 we find the heart, put for the
person himself, appearing before God at the coming of our Lord
Jesus.
In addition to Psalm 22: 26 which we have already examined,
there is only ONE passage from which it has been found possible
to deduce the IMMORTALITY of the HEART. This is Ecclesiastes
3:11, 'He has made everything beautiful in His time: also He has
set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the
work that God makes from the beginning to the end.' 'The world'
translates in Hebrew olam, which usually means 'eternity' or 'the
world to come.' Most commentators (though not all) and modern
translators read 'eternity,' and it has been concluded that
because eternity is in man's heart, his heart is eternal or
immortal.
This would by no means follow, especially when based upon
a single obscure and difficult passage without ANY SUPPORT
elsewhere in Scripture at all. But is not the heart, the heart
(or midst) of the beautiful things ('everything beautiful')? The
beautiful creation that God has made is all related to eternity,
so that man cannot find out the meaning of God's work 'from the
beginning to the end,' that is, in time."
[The Hebrew/English Interlinear by J.P. Green translates this
verse as: "Everything He has made beautiful in its time. Also
eternity He has set in their heart, without which man can not
find out the work that God makes from the beginning even to the
end."
Notice, God has set in the heart of man "eternity" - man
has a mind that desires to know and understand the WHY about the
beautiful works of God from the beginning to the end. He has that
eternity seeking mind WITHOUT WHICH he cannot find out, search
into, examine, and seek to discover the meaning and reason as to
why God created the beautiful works that He did create. A heart
that wants to know the answers as to why God created the physical
works of the universe and what is to be the end or destination of
all God's beautiful works, the plan of God for the universe and
for mankind.
This in part is answered in my study called "A Christian's
Destiny." And the book of Revelation, the last number of chapters
give us an over-view of the plan of God for this earth and the works
thereupon - Keith Hunt]
The Great and Wonderful "spirit" in Man
I personally, Keith Hunt, will finish this second study on
this subject with the verses that tell us about the spirit of man
that does go back to God in heaven upon our death. There are a
number of passages in the OT and in the NT that when put together
would show that man has a "spirit" in him that does return to God
upon his death. Some have seen this, in fact they have seen that
the soul of man is NOT immortal, but because of the Scriptures we
shall now look at, they proclaim, it is the "spirit" within man
that goes on consciously living, thinking, talking, walking, etc.
after man dies.
We need to look at these verses, admit what they do say, try
not to fancy foot around them, yet at the same time we need to
use common human logic as we meditate on this "spirit in man" or
"spirit of man" in relation to the physical facts pertaining to
this human life on earth, as well as the other revealed
Scriptures that state clearly what happens to the actions, works,
and thoughts of the human person when they die this physical
death, that we have been experiencing for thousands of years.
In Psalm 31; 5 a foreshadowing of the Lord's words on the
cross, we have, "Into thine hands I commit my spirit." At the
point of death the Lord Jesus committed the spirit which was
leaving Him into the safe hands of the Father.
We read in Job 34: 14, 15 these words, "If He (God) set His
heart upon man, if He gather unto Himself his spirit and his
breath; All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again
unto the dust." It would seem from this verse that clearly man
not only has breath that God can reclaim, but there is also his
"spirit" in him that He can also reclaim. When God does claim
them both, the man is dead. Let us not be too swift to say the
spirit here is the man's mind, thoughts, emotions. That is also
true that these stop functioning at death, as other Scriptures
plainly teach (and as we shall see in our third section on this
study) , but when we have finished looking at all the verses we
must under this section, it may well be we shall have to admit
mankind does have something very unique within them, that is
part of the mind but yet not the physical mind or brain itself.
Job 32: 8, "But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration
of the Almighty gives them understanding."
Again, we must not be too quick to answer that this is referring
to the human brain or mind in its purely physical state only. For
modern science has studied the human brain with all its modern
space age technology and with all its marvellous machines, and
cannot find WHY the human brain can think and reason the way
it does over and above some of the other brains of animals that it
has also studied with its same high-tech equipment. Modern
science has no answer as to why mankind has this inspiration
that gives them understanding, far out classing the rest of created
things. Some of the animals can do wonderful things in their
sphere of life, but none of them can type research and read the
Bible and type what I am typing in this study, and come to
understand some of the truths and wonders of the Almighty.
It would seem then that there is something within man, given
to man by God, that is not material or physical. A something that
works WITH the human brain to give man inspiration and
understanding that is then unique in all of God's physical creation.
We shall now turn our attention to Ecclesiastes 3: 19-21.
"For that which befalls the sons of men befalls beasts; even one
thing befalls them; as the one dies so dies the other; yes, they
all have one breath; all are of dust, and all return to dust again.
Who knows the spirit of man that goes upward, and the spirit
of the beast that goes downward to the earth?"
Better sense is made of verse 21 by the rendering not only
from the Hebrew, but from the Greek Septuagint, the Targum on
the passage, the Syriac Peshito and the Latin Vulgate, which say,
"WHETHER it goes upward...WHETHER it goes downward."
It is really a QUESTION that Solomon is asking. The spirit of men
and animals, does it go upward or downward at death, is that spirit
reclaimed by God?
Solomon answers his own question later in the same book he
wrote, and that answer we shall look at presently. but in passing
we see from this passage that death in all its basic elements is
exactly the SAME for BOTH man and the beast. This teaching
of sameness for both in death we shall investigate more closely
in part three of this study.
Now to Solomon's answer to his question. He gives his answer
in chapter 12 and verse 7. "Then shall the dust return to the earth
as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."
It is true that we could say that the ruagh here is the breath
of life that God gave to man by breathing into his nostrils that
air or breath of life that must come into a man and be part of man,
to be mixed with his blood, in order for him to survive as a human
being on this earth. We could say that at death that air or breath
leaves the person (as it surely indeed does) and in that sense returns
back to God who first gave it.
In a figure of speech, and the Bible is full of figures of speech
(so much so that Bullinger wrote a large 1000 page book on the
subject), we could here say that God reclaims the breath of life
on death that He gave to man in order for him to live. Yet,
because of the other Scriptures we have already seen and ones
we shall yet see in the NT, there is really more to this verse than
God just taking away the literal air or breath from a person on
death. God is accepting and keeping safe something other than
air, something that is a part of man, given to him by God, that
makes mankind very unique in all of god's physical creation. It
is something we can hand over, ask God the Father to keep safe
until the resurrection, just as Jesus said upon His death, "into
thy hands I commit my spirit."
We do need to notice here in this passage in Ecclesiastes
that God receiving the spirit of humans is NOT talking just about
godly or Christian persons, that if a Christian your spirit lives
on in heaven, but if not a Christian, it does not, but as some
would teach, goes to hell-fire and is tormented for all eternity.
This verse here in chapter 12 is talking about ALL people! As
we saw in chapter 3, so dies one so dies the other, all people have
a spirit, all people do die, all people do return to dust, so the
spirit of ALL PEOPLE shall return unto God who gave it.
I suppose some would argue that is indeed the case but after
the spirit has returned or been reclaimed by God, then God
decides if that spirit will live in heaven or live in ever-burning
hell-fire. They would say God judges them at that time. that could
be a valid argument if it was not for the Scriptural teaching that
judgment comes for the Christian at the visible coming of Christ
in glory and power.
Then we could add that if judgment for everyone comes at
death, when the spirit of man goes back to God, to either be
judged to live in full consciousness in heaven or in hell-fire,
then why BOTHER, why the NEED, of a future RESURRECTION?
To be sure some come up with a few fancy ideas as to why a
resurrection is still needed, but common logic and as we are seeing,
and shall see, such ideas and theories are merely the imagination of
the mind of men who must try to reconcile the teaching of the
immortal soul or spirit with the clear teaching of a resurrection
to life, as taught throughout the word of God.
We must now turn our attention to a few important verses in
the NT as to the spirit of man that returns, upon his death, to
God.
The Christian upon earth is a child of God, as shown by
numerous passages in the NT. As a child of God that Christian
can come before God's throne as clearly taught in Hebrews 4:
15-16.
Picking up that same teaching the apostle Paul elaborates
on coming before that throne in Hebrews chapter 12, starting
in verse 18. He takes us in the mind's eye to many of the things
both in the literal and in symbolic "written" in heaven, in the
verses that follow verse 18.
Notice verse 23. As we as Christians on this earth come
before the throne of heaven, we also come before the "spirits
of just men made perfect."
So, the spirits of these righteous ones do go back to God at
death, and they are in heaven with God at His throne. Clearly
then we can (as Jesus and Stephen did, see Acts 7: 59) commit
our spirit to the Father upon our death, and He does place it in
heaven at His throne.
We must now put all this together and make sense of it all.
To do this we need to look at one more important NT passage
on the teaching of the spirit of man. It is found in 1 Corinthians
2: 10,11.
The same one Greek word pneuma is used for "spirit" in both
verses. Verse 10 tells us that to know and understand the deep
things of God, it requires the Spirit (pneuma) of God in us to
understand such things of God (see also verse 12). It takes the
Spirit of God to know and understand God, who is, as we have
seen already, SPIRIT (John 4: 24). Notice that truth in the last
half of verse 11.
Now, notice the first half of verse 11, "For what man knows
the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him..."
Only mankind can know the things that mankind can know
about the things of mankind. The animals, some with as large a
physical brain and some with even larger, cannot know the things
of mankind. My little dog cannot know and cannot understand the
situations and circumstances in life that lead me to cry, or to
laugh, or to be angry at someone. Animals with the brain and
spirit they may have, cannot begin to figure out and to know and
to understand all the simple or complicated ways of the human
life with all of its emotions and wonders that the human being
can do, accomplish, invent, investigate, and discover, plan and
bring to pass those plans.
Science as I've already stated, can collect the physical
brains from humans and from animals, and dissect them, probe
them, scan them, use all the scientific space age machines on
them, but they still, from a physical function of knowledge,
cannot figure out why the human brain is far above the animal
brain in knowing the things of man, or as Paul put it, "what man
can know the things of a man but the spirit of man which is in
him."
There is something PUT WITHIN mankind that is unique.
The Bible calls it "spirit." It is invisible, cannot be seen by any
space age technology of any kind. It is a human "spirit" that is
united with the physical brain, to make mankind very unique in
all of God's physical creation. It then makes man, mankind, gives
them the ability to think and reason and know what only mankind
can know about the world of mankind. It enables mankind to do t
he wonders that mankind can do and is doing. That spirit which is
in man is only for man as living on this earth in his physical world.
That spirit of man, cannot understand he Spirit of God, or the mind
of God, the ways of God, the living of God as God lives, thinks,
and wills. God is Spirit. He lives in a different world dimension,
a Spirit world. Hence as Paul was inspired to tell us in this passages,
it takes the Spirit of God placed within us, to unite with our spirit
mind, to understand the mind or Spirit of God.
There is an invisible spirit essence placed within us by God
(sometime after conception, the Bible does not tell us when God
exactly gives us that spirit, it could well be at conception),
which then nites with our physical brain, much like putting gasoline
into the engine of the car to make it fire up and work. This spirit
united with our brain makes us uniquely mankind, and the two work
together human character can be formed. If the Spirit of God also
comes to unite with the spirit of man, then righteous Godly character
can be produced.
That human godly character can be likened to a cassette tape
placed within a cassette machine, or now to a CD. The character of all
that is righteously you is being recorded and reserved. All that is not
desirable in that righteous character is cleansed and washed
away by say, brushes and liquid, while and as long as the tape is
moving and progressing. The analogy in reality is this. As a
Christian the Spirit of God united with our human spirit essence
is producing Godly character, and it is being preserved. All the
unwanted and damaging specks of dirt and sin are being washed
away by the Jesus’ blood and by His advocating work as our High
Priest in heaven, because of our basic humble and repentant
attitude. All that is on the tape is holy righteous perfectness.
When the tape comes to the end of its length of life and it STOPS
in our DEATH, we have only PERFECT RIGHTEOUS character
tape in our physical body. That perfect character spirit tape is
reclaimed by the one who gave it and made it all possible. He takes
that perfected character and brings it back to Himself in heaven, to
His throne, where it is kept in safe keeping, committed safely to
His trust, until the day of RESURRECTION and LIFE, when that
perfect spirit character is given a perfect spirit body and life
for evermore, just as Paul was inspired to tell us about in that
wonderful resurrection chapter of 1 Corinthians 15.
Is this spirit within man somehow the real man that lives on
in full and complete consciousness, talking and walking, thinking
and doing, crying and sighing or laughing? Can this spirit in
man take over or carry on IF the physical brain or some part of
the physical body breaks down or is lost? NO it can not! That
should be readily seen by the daily history of the workings of
the unfortunate lives of people on this earth. If someone
looses a bodily limb in an accident, say a hand, or an arm, or
a leg, the spirit in man does NOT take over and give out an
invisible hand or leg, and work as if the physical limb was not
missing at all. If a part of the physical brain is damaged by
whatever means, the spirit of man in him does not automatically
take over and work for the part of the brain that is lost, as if
it is not lost at all.
The spirit in man that is united to his mind and that makes
mankind unique, can only work its work correctly in this human
life time, with a full and natural and orderly physical body.
As we shall see very clearly from the Scriptures in our
future studies on this subject of DEATH and IMMORTALITY, the
spirit in man is NOT the man, it is not an immortal person that
keeps on living consciously after death. It is a spirit essence
that working with the brain of man, makes mankind able to know
the things of mankind in a way that only mankind can know, which
no other physical creation of God can know or understand.
Upon the death of a Christian that perfected spirit
character returns to God in heaven who first gave it.
Actually the spirit of all persons, as we have seen, returns
to God in heaven for safe keeping until their resurrection, for
it is written that in God's plan and time, ALL will be
resurrected (John 5: 25-29).
So I, Keith Hunt end this second section of our study on
Death and Immortality.
We shall continue with a third section.
.................................
Compiled and written May 2000
All articles and studies by Keith Hunt may be copied, published,
e-mailed, and distributed as led by the Spirit. Mr. Hunt trust
nothing will be changed (except for spelling and punctuation
errors) without his consent.
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