THE DEVIL'S LIE -3
When
God created man it was never His intention that anyone or anything would ever die. After God created Adam the Bible tells us in Genesis
l:32 that everything was not only very good, it was perfect! There was no
death, sickness or sorrow on Planet Earth before Adam and Eve’s fall.
God warned that
if they sinned; they would die but Satan told Eve at the forbidden tree: “Ye shall not surely die.” (vs.4.) This
is the first lie recorded in the Bible about death and the first sermon
on the immortality of the soul!
Eve
chose to believe the Devil and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and Adam chose to do the same. To partake of the Tree of Life
after that would mean eternal life in sin. But the sentence of disobedience was death.
“And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever; therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden . . So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” Genesis 3:22-24
What
did God tell them? “Dust
thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Genesis 3:19
Because of sin,
God has given each person a brief, probationary life to test
his choices and actions—and then comes death.
Romans
5:12—“By one man
sin entered into the world, and death by sin.”
So it is clear
that man was originally created with the possibility of becoming immortal—and living forever. But he was not created
with inherent immortality. He was subject to death, if he sinned. He did not
have “natural immortality.”
Only God has
immortality; and the word, “immortal,” is found only
once in the Bible, and refers to God: 1 Timothy 1:17—“Now unto the King eternal,
immortal, invisible, the only wise God.”
6.Immortality will be bestowed upon those who are redeemed at the second coming of Christ (1 Cor 15:51-55).
In view of all
this Bible evidence, why is it that some people believe that man has innate, or
“natural,” immortality? If that were true, he would not
die. Yet people are dying all about us.
Notice how Adam
was created by God: “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.” Genesis 2:7.
God
took the elements of the earth and made a body for man. But
man, at that point was only a corpse. It took something more to make
him a living being. God breathed into Adam’s nostrils the
breath of life and man became a living soul. Consider an
equation like this:
Body + Breath = A Living Soul
Body - Breath = Corpse.
A simple
illustration will help explain this: The creation of man is like making
a wooden box. The body is like the boards; the breath of
life is like the nails. Put the nails into the boards, and
you now have a box—which is like the living soul.
The death of man is the opposite: Remove the nails from the boards, and there is
no more box.
Creation: “God formed
man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life; and man became a living soul,” Genesis 2:7,
Death: “Then shall
the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto
God who gave it.” Ecclesiastes 12:7.
Psalm
146:4—“His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts
perish.”
Ecclesiastes 9:5—“The living
know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything.”
Ecclesiastes
9:10—“There is no
work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”
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