THE LIVING SOUL by John Nevins Andrews

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 8, 1880

THE LIVING SOUL.

By John Nevins Andrews

IN the last number of our journal we called attention to some of the consequences that follow from the doctrine that man possesses an immortal nature. The first grand consequence is that every member of the human family must live to all eternity. But the greater part of mankind live and die in sin. If therefore men are now immortal one of three things must be true: 1. All men will be saved without respect to character; or, 2. God has some method of saving men from their sins after death; or, 3. All who die in sin enter at death upon a life of misery and wickedness that will never end.

But we well know that wicked men will never enter the holy city, and we also know that there is no purgatory in which to purify those who die in sin. We must therefore say that if man is immortal by nature the greater part of all the dead have entered upon an endless life of misery and sin. The foundation of this doctrine of endless misery is the theory that God gave to Adam at his creation an immortal soul, and that all who are descended from him inherit this immortal nature. Moses gives us the record of the creation of Adam in these words:—

"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." Gen. 2:7.

This passage is very remarkable. Moses does not say that the breath of life became a living soul in the body of the man, but he says that the man formed of the dust of the ground became a living soul. The living soul was the entire man. The breath of life was not an immortal being sent from God to dwell in the body of Adam, but it was the principle of life by which God made man a living being.

But does not the term living soul (Hebrew, neh-phesh khay-yah) which is here applied to man indicate that God gave to Adam an immortal nature? Those who think thus are not aware that this Hebrew term is used by Moses three times with respect to all the lower creatures before he applies it to man. In the first two cases it is used with respect to all creatures that live in the water. In the third it is applied to every beast, bird, and reptile that lives upon the dry land. In the fourth case it is applied to man when he became a living being. Here are the four instances in which this term is used.

1. "And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life." (Hebrew neh-phesh khay-yah.) Gen. 1:20.

2. "And God created great whales, and every living creature [neh-phesh khay-yah] that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly." Gen. 1:21.

3. "And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air and to everything that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life, [Hebrew neh-phesh khay-yah] I have given every green herb for meat." Gen. 1:30.

4. "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." Gen. 2:7. Neh-phesh khay-yah.

Thus it is seen that the term neh-phesh khay-yah is applied to every creature that lives upon the earth. It cannot therefore be said that man possesses an immortal nature merely because the term neh-phesh khay-yah is applied to him. In this respect he has no pre-eminence above the other creatures that God has made. God made man capable of loving and fearing him and withheld this power from all other creatures upon earth. Man therefore has the high pre-eminence of being alone accountable to God. But God did not give to him immortal life. On the contrary he said to him at his creation that he should live if he obeyed and that he must die if he transgressed. Gen. 2:15-17. And when he had transgressed God said to him, Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return. Gen. 3:19.

This shows that God gave life to Adam which he might preserve or might destroy as he himself chose. If he walked in obedience his life would be perpetuated, and death would never have power over him, but if he transgressed, the sentence of death must be passed upon him at once and the penalty of death inflicted in due time. He had what may be termed conditional immortality. He had no reason to fear death as long as he walked in his uprightness.

If he had been faithful to God during the whole period of his probation he would then have received unconditional immortality even as all the people of God will receive it at the sound of the last trumpet.

The words spoken by God when he bade the angel drive Adam out of Paradise make this subject very clear. "And now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden." Gen. 3:22-24. Adam would have lived forever had he not lost access to the tree of life. He certainly could not live forever when shut away from that tree if the judgment of his Creator is worthy of our acceptance. When man had rebelled against God he was shut away from the tree of life lest he should live forever, and now man in his pride believes that he can live forever without ever tasting of that tree, because, as he asserts, he possesses an immortal nature. Those who overcome will have access to the tree of life. Rev. 2:7; 22:14. Those whose names are not written in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire which is the second death. Rev. 20:14, 15.

J. N. A.