Counsels on Future Life

Counsel #5 — Body + Spirit = Living Soul

Picture: Counsel #5 — Body + Spirit = Living Soul CFL 7.1

The words “immortal soul” do not occur in scripture because only God has immortality. He gives it to the righteous AT THE SECOND COMING, not at death! Human life requires two things: a body and the breath of God (sometimes called the spirit of God in Scripture). Though the breath of God returns to Him when we die, that breath is not a soul that can speak, hear or think independently of the body. CFL 7.2

When we die, the body returns to dust, and the spirit, or breath of God, returns to God. Note that it is the spirit that returns to God, not the soul.^[5] CFL 7.3

“Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.” Ecclesiastes 12:7 NKJV CFL 7.4

“The ministration of holy angels, as presented in the Scriptures, is a truth most comforting and precious to every follower of Christ. But the Bible teaching upon this point has been obscured and perverted by the errors of popular theology. The doctrine of natural immortality, first borrowed from the pagan philosophy, and in the darkness of the great apostasy incorporated into the Christian faith, has supplanted the truth, so plainly taught in Scripture, that ‘the dead know not anything.’” Ellen G. White in The Great Controversy, p. 551 CFL 7.5

Reflect: If a living soul requires a body + the spirit (God’s breath), how could a soul continue living after death?? CFL 7.6