These subjects are in essence intertwined. If man's soul is "immortal" then at death it still exist.  If man's soul isn't immortal then at death he is as Judge Rutherford of Jehovah's Witness fame or should I say infamy, said when he wrote that at death, "we are like the little dog Rover, we are dead all over." I deny this with all the fervor of my being!

    While it is true that "life and immortality have been brought to light through the gospel," (2 Timothy 1:10; Romans 2:7; 1 Corinthians 15:1-58). It is also true that old testament worthies held to at least some glimmer of  the immortality of the souls of men.  While Job asked a question, "If a man die shall he live again?" I believe he answered his own question in the very context in which it was asked. I may not comprehend everything he said here but I believe living after the body died was under consideration (Job 14:12-15).

    When king David committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, God punished them with the death of the child that she conceived. Before the child died David petitioned God and fasted hoping that God would spare the child. After the child died, David made a statement indicative of some knowledge of immortality when after the child died, he arose, washed his face and began living life as usual, which put his servants wondering as to why he would so conduct himself at the death of the child? He said simply, "I will go to him, but he will not return to me"(2 Samuel 12:22 NIV). That David was not thinking of going to be where the child's body was is obvious. He was already near where the body was. He was no doubt speaking of a reunion one day in the after life.

    Solomon was aware of the immortality of man's soul as well, for he wrote of what happens at death in the following language not difficult to comprehend, "Then (at death ket) shall the body return to the dust as it was, and the spirit unto God who gave it" (Ecclesiastes 12:7).

     Just here let me insert some things that agree with this idea as well as showing that there is an place where disembodied spirits go at the death of the body to await the resurrection and final pronouncement of judgement. When Jesus died He said, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit" (Luke 23:46). His body was buried in a borrowed tomb, a Roman seal was placed on the tomb and a guard posted "lest someone steal the body away." Three days later He arose victoriously from the dead and made various appearances for some 40 days after they had witnessed His crucifixion (Acts 1:3). When Mary saw her Lord she fell at His feet and clung to Him, Jesus told her "touch me not for I have not yet ascended to My Father.."(John 20:11-21). To the penitent thief Jesus said, "Today  shalt thou be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43) (also called Abraham's bosom) in other passages. When Peter preached on Pentecost, the birthday of Christ's church he spoke of the fact that the soul of Jesus was not left in Hades (called hell in the KJV) nor did his flesh see corruption (Acts 2:21).

    Question: Since Jesus commended His soul to the Father at His death:  Since He told Mary He had not yet ascended to the Father: Since Peter said "His soul was not left in Hades": Since the thief was with Jesus after His death, pray tell where was that? Hades is the realm of departed & disembodied spirits where they await the resurrection and judgment day's announcement for their eternal destiny of Heaven or Hell (Matthew 25:1-46; Jude 14b,15; 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9). That such a place exists, we will prove abundantly when we get to the story of the "Rich man and Lazarus" in (Luke 16:19-31).

    In Psalm 55:6, the Psalmist wrote, "And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for I would fly away, and be at rest." In Psalm 90:10, the Psalmist wrote: "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be forescore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away."

     Another incident is related concerning Rachael, Jacob's wife,  who died giving birth to Benjamin. It says "and it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said unto her, fear not; for thou shalt have this son also. And it came to pass, as her soul was departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin" (Genesis 35:17-18). Compare the language here with that of James 2:26 where James says that the body without the spirit is dead.

    Jesus was instructing His disciples as to what they could expect from the enemies of truth as they went about preaching the gospel. He said, "And fear not them which kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul:...If, as the Jehovah's Witnesses teach man simply is "a soul" rather than possessing a soul, when man is killed, the soul is thereby killed. Jesus says, not so! Man can kill the body but that's all he is capable of doing. We are to fear Him who has the capacity to deal with the soul after it departs the body (Matthew 10:28). Luke's account reads thus: "..I say unto you my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I forewarn you whom you shall fear: Fear Him who after He has killed hath power to cast into hell" (Luke 12:4-5). So it should be obvious that the "death" herein spoken of by our Lord is that eternal separation from God into Hell fire! Remember it well my friend that no one goes out of existence in the second death here alluded to. Jesus said in the Revelation letter of the lost "..If anyone worships the beast and his image, and received his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name" (Revelation 14:9b-11).

         Also in the new testament, we have an interesting case concerning the immortality of the soul  during the apostle's ministry. A lady named Tabitha or Dorcas had died. She had been well thought of by this band of Jesus' disciples. The widow ladies were sorrowing at her physical death and were showing the garments she had made "while she was with us" they said. The fact is Dorcas was gone (no longer with us) but the body of Dorcas was lying there in their presence. You remember the story of how Peter  by the power of Christ caused the departed spirit of this lady to return and presented her to them alive (Acts  9:36-41).  Where was Tabitha when she was no longer with them? Peter called her name, the spirit returned to the dead body and Dorcas was physically alive once again. That dead body certainly could not have heard Peter call Dorcas' name!  The body of Dorcas was there, Luke records them as saying, but she (her  spirit) was no longer there with them.

    You will remember the Lord raising Lazarus from the dead after the body was already at that point beginning to decay and stink.  He went to the tomb where they had laid him, called his name and Lazarus arose and came out of the tomb. What heard the name that Jesus called out? Was it that decaying putrefying body in which Lazarus had once lived? Certainly not! It was his departed spirit.  Marshall Keeble once said in a sermon, "do you know why Jesus called Lazarus by name? Then he continued: Why if he hadn't of call him by name every body in the cemetery would have gotten up and walked out!"  That idea agrees with Jesus' statement in (John 5:28-29), as well as the apostle's teaching about a  resurrection of the dead, they taught it will be of  "both the just and the unjust" (Acts  24:15).

    Paul spoke of immortality in no uncertain language in several places. Once when he was talking about the abundance of revelation that Christ had given him. He spoke of how "I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell;  or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) how he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is unlawful for a man to utter" (2 Corinthians 12:2-3). I use this account simply to exemplify the fact that Paul realized that it was possible and perhaps probable that he was taken in the spirit up into paradise. He wasn't for sure if his spirit left his body for this trip and so stated, but he acknowledges the possibility of such.

    When writing to the Thessalonians spoke in one passage of the triune nature of mankind when he wrote of man's "Body, Soul, and Spirit." "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:23).  I got it backwards above, but you get the point from this passage that there is more to man than his body.

    Above when I referred to Jesus' statement about the man being unable to destroy man's soul or spirit, this agrees perfectly with the fact that man, who is made in God's image, Genesis 1:27, by his very nature possesses immortality. The only death the soul may "die" is a spiritual death when separated from God by unforgiven sins (Ezekiel 18:20; Isaiah 59:1-2; Revelation 2:11; 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10; Revelation 20:12-15).  However, even though this is called "death," that term is used not of going out of existence, but of being separated. Death literally means "separation" see again (James 2:26).

    When Paul preached to the educated Greeks on Mars Hill at Athens, he spoke of a fact concerning Jesus that he said even some of their own poets had stated; this being that "we are the offspring of God" (Acts 17:28). Since God is Spirit, (John 4:24), and we are His offspring. That part of man made in God's image is his immortal soul also called spirit which is not subject to death.

    The Hebrew writer also used language indicative of the immortality of man's soul when he called God the "Father of our spirits" in Hebrews 12:9. It is a fact that is incontrovertible, that we possess an immortal spirit that will continue in a conscious state even after our bodies are dead and have returned to the dust from whence they came!  Sometimes in debates about this matter our opponents ask us to produce a passage which says, "man possesses an immortal soul." While we can't find one with those exact words, as we have clearly shown already, and I think abundantly clear, the idea is certainly there in multitudes of passages of holy writ.

    The statement of Paul about his desire to "depart and be with Christ; which is far better.."(Philippians 1:21-24), has led some to suggest that Hades no longer exists, that we go directly to heaven or to hell at death. Why is it so difficult to see that if Jesus could commend His Spirit to the Father and yet three days later admit to the fact that He had not yet ascended to the Father, that Paul could also be saying that his soul would be in the Lord's keeping in another realm just as was the Spirit of Jesus for those three days? It should pose no problem to a Bible believer in this scribe's estimation. The same points here just made likewise apply when we read Paul's remarks in 2 Corinthians 5:6-8: "Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight): we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord," meaning again "in His keeping."

    Jesus, in debate with the "modernist" and "materialist" of His day, the Sadducees, who believed in neither the resurrection angels, nor spirit  (Acts 23:8), tried to put Him on the horns of a dilemma concerning the resurrection and immortality.  They asked him about the teachings of the Law of Moses wherein if a brother died that his widow was to marry one of his brothers. In this worse case scenario they painted for Jesus a woman had due to the death of six brothers married seven of them in a row. They wished to know whose wife she would be in the resurrection??? Jesus' answer may not fully satisfy you and I may even wish He had said some more about this matter, but what He did say is sufficient. "..The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection. Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For  He is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto Him. Then the scribes answering said, Master, thou hast well said" (Luke 20:34-39). Matthew's account said to these modernist and liberals, "ye do err not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God." (Matthew 22:30-31).

    The inner man is that part of man that is incorruptible. It is that of which Peter wrote when he admonished godly women how to conduct themselves to please the Lord. "..let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quite spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price" (1 Peter 3:4).

    Paul spoke of an "outward man" and an "inward man." Read with me the words of an inspired apostle, who, although not arguing for the immortality of man's soul in this context, does indeed show this to be true. "For which cause we faint now; but though our "outward man" perish, yet the "inward man" is renewed day by day, For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal (temporary ket); but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:16- 18).
 
    We could lengthen this study with many other passages proving the immortality of the soul before, as well as after, physical death has taken place, but I promised to deal with "The Rich Man & Lazarus" before we closed this study and I am now ready to address this true biblical account of two men who lived and two men who died, and show that these two men were still conscious on life's other side in what is known as the Hadean realm or the realm of the unseen Sheol.

    The context where this may be found is (Luke 16:19-31). What does this account of these two men, of Abraham and of Jesus teach? What should our conclusions be in the light of what we have studied thus far, as well as this particular lesson?  Is this a parable?  If it is, what does it teach? Remember a parable was laying something along side something with which the people were familiar so they could draw some spiritual conclusions from the story.

    What does this account teach? It teaches that two actual men (one whose name is given) lived-that these two men "Lazarus and a certain rich man" died. Angels carried Lazarus into "Abraham's bosom" where he was comforted and the rich man was buried and in Hades (the realm of the unseen to human eyes) he lifted up his eyes being in torment and was allowed to see Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham. He recognized "Father Abraham" and requested that he allow Lazarus to come to where he was and dip his finger in water and cool his tongue for he was tormented in these flames. He was informed that there was a great gulf fixed, not allowing for going back and forth from either of these places. The way we die is the way we will face judgment. No Purgatory in evidence (2 Corinthians 5:10-11). Misery didn't like company sufficiently for him to want his brothers whom he remembered were back on earth, to come to this place of torment, so he made a request of Abraham that He allow Lazarus to go back to earth and warn them lest they also come to where he was in torment (Tartarus) the King James version uses the word hell for the entire after world between death, the resurrection and judgment, making no distinction between Hades which involves both Paradise or Abraham's bosom and Tartarus the foretaste of torment that will be suffered by those in the eternal abode of the lost which is Gehenna in the Greek. You will remember that Peter said of Christ who went to Paradise, "...His soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption" (Acts 2:31b). Context will show us when the word hell is used whether it is speaking of "Paradise or Tartarus" if we have sufficient interest to search out this matter.

    I deny that this is a parable in the accepted sense of the word. Why? Because an actual man's name is given in the case of Lazarus. This would not be the case if it was a parable. If, however, I should grant that this is a parable, my earlier question still stands, "What does it teach?" I have already stated that. Two men lived, two men died, and two men (although disembodied) were still alive in spirit and aware of their surroundings. They were able to be comforted or tormented as the case may be. I have often asked the Jehovah's Witnesses who call this a parable (in order to get out from under the force of its teaching about immorality as well as torment for the unrighteous) do not parables teach the truth? They have always answered yes, they do. Then what truth are we to lay along side this "parable" as the lesson for you and me? Again I say, it is two men lived-two men died-two men (out of the body) were still alive, one comforted and one tormented. What else can you make of it?  They the Jehovah's Witnesses try to make it sound ridiculous that a man is in torment just because he was rich! The record makes no such statement. The fact of his wealth wasn't what caused his spiritual torment but because he made no provision for the hereafter while the poor man, Lazarus obviously did. Period.  I have had the "Jehovah's Witnesses" so called, try to make this a parable about the Jews and Gentiles.  If so, what does it teach about Jews and Gentiles I ask? The exact same conclusions conscious existence after death  either in bliss or torment!
 
    The hardest part of the story for most to grasp is the fact that when folks reach the Hadean realm  in a disembodied state, they are aware of happiness in the case of the saved and of torment in the case of the lost.  The Lord didn't see fit to give us an explanation as to why it should be thus, but a little logic and sanctified common sense would assist one I would think. Can you imagine all of the souls both righteous and unrighteous in the same environment awaiting the resurrection and final sentencing? Even in our court system we often have folks whom we suspect of having violated the law in cells awaiting the time when they shall stand before the judge where the final sentencing will be prescribed at a later date if they are found guilty. Well, the Lord knows who is and isn't saved at death and so places them in the place that He has prepared for them as they await final sentencing to heaven or hell.

    This whole matter doesn't seem like much of a mystery to me. If the Bible says this is how it will be, that is how it will be! We dare not by-pass the day of sentencing into Gehennah from Tartarus nor  by pass Abraham's bosom and claim folks go straight to heaven who are saved at death for we have too many passages (and one would be sufficient) which say that there is a time when all nations will be gathered before Christ to hear their fate announced (Matthew 25:1- 46; 1 Corinthians 15:1-58; Jude 14-15; John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:12-15; Romans 2:6-11; Romans 14:12; James 2:11).

    The main point in this matter about which we have studied is that we be prepared for the day or our death or for the Lord's return and not get all bogged down in speculation about the interim between death and judgment! Don't you agree?
 
    The wise man said, "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it be good or bad" (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).

    Having read this tract, do you wish to study further with us?  If so, call the office at 1(309) 347-3582 or my home at 347-5645. My email address is kthomas@dpc.net