SOUL AND SPIRIT by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 6, 1879

SOUL AND SPIRIT.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

THERE is an abundance of evidence from Scripture and reason to show that the dead are asleep; yet some people will never be satisfied, however plain the subject is made, until we have answered certain objections which they have in their minds. Hence we most gladly take up the prominent passages which are always relied upon as proving the conscious state of the dead. We call the reader’s attention to the following, which are urged among the first objections on this subject:—

Rachel’s soul.—“And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni.” Gen. 35:18. It is claimed that this passage shows that the soul is conscious after the death of the body. Her soul departed. The answer to this is short and easy. Granting that the soul lives after the death of the body, this does not say that it was conscious, that it knew anything, that it went to Heaven, or anything of the kind. But what was it that departed? Her soul departed. Turning to the original Hebrew, we find that the word for soul is nephesh. It is thus defined by Hebrew Lexicons: “1. Breath; 2. life; 3. the vital principle in animal bodies.” Thus it will be seen that it was simply her life that was departing. The original Greek term is psuche, and is thus defined by Greenfield: “Breath; life, i. e., the animal soul, principle of life; life, i. e., state of being alive, existence, spoken of natural life.” In dying, her life departed. Thus a proper understanding of these terms removes all difficulty in this case.

Elijah and the child.—“And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.” 1 Kings 17:22. It is claimed from this again that the soul lives separate from the body. It departed from the body, and came back to it. The answer to the previous passage is the answer to this also, for the case is similar. A child died; his life departed from him. The prophet of God prayed, and his life came into him, he revived and lived. The meaning of the word soul here is life, the same as in the chapter previously examined.

The spirit returns to God.—“Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” Eccl. 12:7.

This is one of the texts most frequently quoted by our opponents. From this they assume that the spirit immediately goes to Heaven, where it lives like an angel in all the bliss of paradise. But let us look carefully. If this proves that the spirits of the righteous go to Heaven, it proves the same for those of the wicked, for the declaration stands true for both. So this would prove universal salvation. But look carefully. The dust returns to the earth as it was. To return is to go back to a previous condition or place; to go where it was before. At death the body returns to the dust, as it was, and “the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” Now the declaration is that at death both elements of man, dust and the spirit, return to where they were before the man lived. The dust returns to dust, and the spirit goes to God. Then the spirit at death goes back to the place from which it came at the birth of man. We ask therefore, Did the spirit of man exist in Heaven as a conscious being before it came into this body? We appeal to our readers: Did your spirits live in Heaven as angels before you were born on this earth? You smile at the idea. You know that it is not so. Not one of you believes it. Then you see that this text proves—what? simply that the spirit returns to the very

condition in which it was before birth. That was an unconscious condition, it is sure. Hence our opponents have chosen the wrong text this time to prove their theory. It says nothing about the spirit’s going to Heaven. It simply says that it returns to God who gave it. Where is it proved that God brought the spirit down from Heaven, when he put it into the body? He made man of the earth. The original Hebrew term here used for spirit is roo-agh, the very same that is used in Eccl. 3:19, and there translated breath: “Yea, they have all one breath;” and also in scores of other places it is translated breath. When a man dies, his body returns to dust, and the breath, or life, which God gave, returns to the source from whence God took it, the vital air.

These are the passages in the Old Testament claimed by our opponents as proving the conscious state of the dead. The reader will see that they are very easily explained. No one of them says that the dead are conscious, or that any go to Heaven at death, or anything of the kind.

D. M. CANRIGHT.