HAT is the nature of man? Is he
\ A mortal? Is heimmortal? Does he,
“when he comes into the world,
possess an inherent, never-dying nature?
Because we are so vitally concerned with
the matter of life and death, such ques-
tions must interest the mind of every
+ thinking person. But what is the an-
swer, and where may it be found?
There is an answer to these natural
inquiries of the human heart. God, who
is responsible for man’s existence, is able
‘to tell him what sort of nature he pos-
sesses. He has done so in the Bible, and
so clearly that none can fail to under-
stand.
In plain language God tells us that we
are mortal beings. Job so characterizes
man. ‘Shall mortal man be more just
than God?’ Job 4:17.
And Paul, writing to the Romans more
than 1,500 years after Job, said: ‘“‘Let
not sin therefore reign in your mortal
body.” Romans 6: 12. To have a mor-
tal body is to have a perishable body.
Thus the Bible gives us to understand
throughout that man has never been
given an enduring nature.
Again Job tells us: “Man that is born
of a woman is of few days, and full of
trouble. He cometh forth like a flower,
and is cut down: he fleeth also as a
shadow, and continueth not.” Job
14:1, 2.
The prophet Isaiah, speaking by the
inspiration of God, said the same thing:
“The voice said, Cry. And he said,
What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and
all the goodliness thereof is as the flower
of the field: the grass withereth, the
flower fadeth: because the spirit of the
Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is
grass.” Isaiah 40:6, 7.
Neither does man possess an immortal
soul within a mortal, corruptible body,
that at death goes on living somewhere
and somehow in bliss or torment. In
His Infallible Word God says: “Behold,
all souls are Mine; as the soul of the
father, so also the soul of the son is Mine:
the soul that sinneth it shall die.” Ezekiel
18: 4. God is no respecter of persons.
The ‘soul that sinneth it shall die,”
whether rich or poor, learned or un-
learned, minister or layman. It is sin,
the transgression of the law (1 John 3: 4),
that brought death to the human family.
“The wages of sin is death.” Romans
6: 23.
The best way to learn about the nature
of man is to read about how God created
him. “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 made man of the earth, of the ele-
ments of the soil, but he was lifeless,
PAGE 10
His body, including his brain, was per-
fectly formed, yet it manifested no
physical action and thought of mind.
God wanted him to have life. So the
record is that God ‘breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man be-
came a living soul.” Thus God united
the breath of life to Adam’s lifeless body,
and he lived, that is, became a living soul.
The organs of his body began to function,
in his brain the faculties of thought began
to operate, and thus he became a living
creature with the power to. think, to
reason, to love, and to appreciate.
The idea may be illustrated by an
electric light. I hold in my hand a light
bulb. Itis a good one, capable of giving
light. It is lightless, being just so much
inanimate matter. In other words, it is
just like Adam’s body was before God
breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life. But now I take the bulb and screw
it into a socket, and the instant the bulb
Are You an
thought of any kind in the death state.
At his creation God did not put within
man an immortal something that would
continue to live on after the body should
die. God made the continuance of the
life of Adam and Eve conditional upon
obedience: “And the Lord God com-
manded the man, saying, Of every tr
of the garden thou mayest freely eat: b.
of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the
day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die.” Genesis 2:16, 17. Thus
God told them plainly that if they should
eat of the forbidden tree, they would die.
But Satan came into the garden and,
using the serpent as a medium, told the
first recorded lie, saying: “Ye shall not
surely die.” Genesis 3: 4. He assured =
Eve that if she should but eat of the tree
she would become as God and never die.
The claim that man has a never-dying
soul is thus seen to be based on Satan’s
IMMORTAL BEING?
~ The Answer to Several Questions
about the Nature of Man
By Dallas Youngs
and the electric current contact each
other, the bulb becomes glowing with
light. The light is the result of joining
together the bulb with the current. Just
so the living soul of Adam was the result
‘of the joining together of the body with
the “breath of life.” When this union
was effected, Adam lived, and thus he
became a living soul.
When we break the contact between
the bulb and the electric current, the
light goes out. Where does it go? It
doesn’t go anywhere. It just becomes
non-existent. So also in the death of man
the process of giving him life is reversed.
This is made clear to us in these words:
‘““Put not your trust in princes, nor in the
son of man, in whom there is no help.
His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth;
in that very day his thoughts perish.” Psalm
146: 3, 4. When the breath leaves the
body, all of its physical and mental
functions cease,
There is no life or
falsehood; for God’s word was that the
sinning pair were debarred from the tree
of life and should die.
The inhabitants of the sea are called
living souls. “And the second angel
poured out his vial upon the sea; and it
became as the blood of a dead man: and
every living soul died in the sea.”
Revelation 16: 3. And in the story of the
creation we read: “And to every beast of
the earth, and to every fowl of the air,
and to every thing that creepeth upon
the earth, wherein there is a living soul,
I have given every green herb for meat:
and it was so.” Genesis 1: 30, margr
God made the animals, as he had mac
man, of the dust of the earth (Genesis
2:19), and put within their nostrils the
breath of life (Genesis 7: 14, 15; Ecclesi-
astes 3: 18-20), and they also are called
“living souls.” However, in the case of
man God endowed him with reason and a
higher degree of intelligence, and gave to
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