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myst e r y o f th e ag e s
T h e S ou l Is Morta l But God made man of matter! This was necessary for the supreme accomplishment God willed. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath [air] of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). Man, formed from material dust of the ground, upon breathing air, became a living soul. It does not say man is, or has, an immortal soul. What was formed from material ground became a soul. The word “soul” is translated from the Hebrew in which Moses wrote, from the word nephesh. The Hebrew nephesh merely means a breathing animal. Three times in the first chapter of Genesis animals are called nephesh: Genesis 1:20, “moving creature” (Hebrew, nephesh); Genesis 1:21, “great whales, and every living creature” (Hebrew, nephesh); Genesis 1:24, “living creature” (Hebrew, nephesh). The translators in translating into the English language used the English word “crea ture,” but in Genesis 2:7 they translated the same nephesh into the English word “soul”—man became a “living soul” (nephesh). Therefore the soul is physical, composed of matter, and can die. This is a truth believed by very few denominations, and probably by no other religions—another proof that identifies the one true Church of God! H o w H u m a n M i n d F u n ct i o n s Now we come to another truth, so far as I know, exclusive to the one true Church. Did you ever wonder about the vast difference between human mind and animal brain? This incidentally, is another proof of the falsity of the theory of evolution! The physical brain of the higher vertebrates in the animal kingdom is essentially the same in physical form, design, constituency, as human brain. The brains of whales, elephants, dolphins are larger—and chimp almost as large. Yet the output of the human brain is indescribably greater. Few indeed know why! Many passages of Scripture show that there is a spirit in man. Spirit is not matter, and man is matter. To distinguish it from God’s Holy Spirit, I designate it as the “human” spirit. Nevertheless, it is spirit and not matter.