The soul dies. The thought that the soul does not die goes back a long, long time and it too is a teaching of man that is not supported by the Bible. Some may take a few scriptures out of context to try to make people believe that there is a “hell” or that the soul lives on but that is not the case. If one looks up the word “soul” in a concordance (such as for the King James Version) one will see where the word is used and that it is used hundreds of times. By examining each occurrence, one will see that the soul is mortal. A couple of examples:
- Daniel 12:2. When Michael stands up: “And there will be many of those asleep in the ground of dust who will wake up..” This will happen to those good and bad.
- John 5:28-29(WEB). Jesus prophesied, as did Daniel, that there would be a resurrection of both the righteous and unrighteous:
-  28 Don’t marvel at this, for the hour comes in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice, 29 and will come out; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.
- Ecclesiastes 9:5-10; 12:1-7 talk about growing old and then when one dies; “Then the dust returns to the earth just as it happened to be and the spirit itself returns to [the] true God who gave it.” Their thoughts perish.
- Genesis 3:19 “In the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return.”
- Isaiah 26:19 “Your dead ones will live. A corpse of mine – they will rise up. Awake and cry out joyfully, YOU residents in the dust!…”
It is interesting how Israel’s first human king Saul had a “Witch of Endor… bring up” the deceased prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 28:3-25). Is it possible for the dead to be awoken in spirit form or was it a spirit pretending to be Saul? It seems that either way is possible. Verse 15 and 19 show that this could really be Samuel, awoken from sleep in death. However, Yahweh (Jehovah) hates divination! Don’t mess with spiritism to find yourself involved with something that the Almighty hates. (Deuteronomy 18:9-12; Leviticus 19:26,31; 20:27) By the way, Saul did die the next day…
Deuteronomy 18:9-12 (WEB):
9 When you have come into the land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who tells fortunes, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, 11 or a charmer, or someone who consults with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 12 For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh. Because of these abominations, Yahweh your God drives them out from before you.
When someone ceases to live, they are asleep in death. It is permanent for us humans but God can and will resurrect those ones, in time, when his Kingdom reigns!
The Spirit:
The spirit and soul together make a living soul. The soul is “the dust.” The spirit is the active force to make the “dust” alive. This is evident with the Genesis account, regarding the creation of Adam. He was made from the dust, and because he disobeyed Yahweh, was to return to the dust from which he came. God breathed in the spirit of life. This is part of God’s active force, the spirit. Once someone dies, their living soul becomes a dead soul because the spirit of God (“life force”) has returned to God.
Interestingly, Jesus, close to death, cried out to his Father (Yahweh). He died and his spirit went back to his Father. Shortly after, he was brought back to life and appeared many times to his followers. Before he left them, he stated that he had not yet ascended to the Father.
People of the Mormon faith are taught that individuals live in heaven and then are born on earth. Depending on how good they are determines what “level” of “heaven” they go to, once they die on earth. There are so many things wrong with this teaching! The Bible makes no such claim! Remember that God told Adam where he came from and where he was going – The dust. God has a plan for all those asleep in the dust. They will be brought back to life, on Earth, when his kingdom reigns over all nations. It is no wonder that this following of Joseph Smith have their own book of Mormon. They hold it above the Bible. They use the argument that the scriptures are too old to be accurate. But that is not true! We have the Greek Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls dated to just before Jesus’ birth. We also have parts of the New Testament going back to around 100 AD. Upon comparing the differences, only minor changes are shown. Many of the changes deal with misspelling. When a con-artist faces scrutiny, he will try to discredit those looking into things, rather than welcoming scrutiny. Certainly, with their prophets by their side, the Mormon hierarchy should be confident in welcoming scrutiny. But they don’t. So who do you believe, God or man? Like a con-artist, those shepherds use the thought that God’s word is inaccurate and not to be fully trusted. Then they point to themselves as the ones to be trusted.
Do not be misled, test everything, and trust God above man!