What Is A Soul

A “living soul” in the biblical context, is a living person and not a disincarnated spirit. The Bible clearly teaches that the human being began to live the moment the dust of the ground came together with the breath of life: “And the Lord God turned the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).

The thinking and living human being only appeared when the dust and the divine breath came together. Upon death, God collects his breath of life that the Bible calls the spirit, and his body returns to the ground, decomposed, and finally becomes dust. A live and thinking spirit does not exist after a man dies: “For the living knows that they will die but the dead know nothing… even the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have part in anything that happens under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom “(Ecclesiastes 9: 5, 6, 10).

The teaching of the Bible is clear as it affirms that when a man dies, he is only asleep until the day of resurrection. As the Apostle Paul declared, “Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope…For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with a trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first “(1 Thessalonians 4:13, 16).

This is the blessed hope of the Christian. If death has taken a loved one, they are certain that they are only sleeping. His body just returns to earth and the breath of life to God. He no longer has consciousness of anything. He does not feel pain or happiness or coldness or hunger. He just rest in Christ.