STUDY 17- MAN AND HIS NATURE

INTRODUCTION

Human beings are born, live and know that they will die,
but what happens after death, where do the dead go, do
they experience heavenly bliss, do they suffer the tortures
of hell? Only God reveals this in His Holy Word and thanks
to them we can know what happens after death.

THE CREATION OF MAN AND HIS FALL

1- ¿How was man created?

Genesis 2:7
“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.”

God created man from the dust of the ground, breathed

into

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his nostrils the breath of life, and man was ‘a living being’.
The soul is generally misconceived as a spiritual, intangible
‘something’ that dwells in the body. This is not the teaching
of Scripture. Adam was made from the dust of the ground.
God made him a body, but that body was not his soul. He
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, which was not
the soul either. The conjunction of the dust of the earth,
which is the body, and the vital breath of God, resulted in
the whole being or ‘living soul.’ Every living human being is
a soul. When someone dies, the breath of life returns to
God, the body disintegrates into dust and the soul, the
whole being, is extinguished until the day of resurrection.

2- What condition did the man have to fulfil in order to

keep his life?

Genesis 2:17

“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou

shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof
thou shalt surely die.”

He had to obey God's requirements.

3- What sentence fell on man when he sinned?

Genesis 3:19

“ In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou
return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for
dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

The sentence of death fell on him. God is the Source of life.

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The day man sinned, he willingly separated himself from

that Source. He did not die the same day he sinned as God
told him to, because in later studies we will see that the 6-
day creation week and the 7th day rest also represented
prophetic periods of 1 day equal to 1,000 years. Therefore
Adam did not die on the same day but he did not complete
the millennium as he died at 930 years of age. His physical
life after his transgression began to decline from that very
moment. Death was nothing more than the result of his sin.

THE PROCESS OF DEATH

4- What happens when someone dies?

Ecclesiastes 12:7 and Psalms 104:29

7. “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and

the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”

29. “Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest
away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.”
The body, which is ‘dust’, disintegrates and returns to the
earth, and the breath of life, the ‘spirit’, returns to God, its
giver. Therefore, the one who dies ceases to exist.

5- What happens to the intellectual functions of the person

who dies?

Psalms 146:4

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“His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that

very day his thoughts perish.”

They disappear, i.e. their memory is permanently forgotten.

6- What about feelings?

Ecclesiastes 9:5

“ Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now
perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in
any thing that is done under the sun.”

Those who die have no feelings: they neither love nor hate.

7- How much of a relationship can they maintain with their

living relatives?

Job 14:21

“His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and

they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.”

They can have no relation, for as they have no more

knowledge, nor can they see, they are ignorant of what is
happening to their relatives. They cannot appear to anyone
or give them orders as in seances. It is not the deceased
who appear, but other spiritual beings who imitate them
perfectly in likeness and voice; we shall see in a later study
who these imitating beings are.

DEATH RESEMBLES A SLEEP

8- To what does David compare death?

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Psalms 13:3

“ Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine

eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;”

David compares death with sleep.

9- What similar comparison did Jesus Christ do?

John 11:11

“These things said he: and after that he saith unto them,
Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake
him out of sleep.”

Jesus also compared death to a sleep from which one does

not awake until the day of resurrection of all believers who
have died throughout the ages since Adam and Eve.

UNCONSCIOUS UNTIL THE RESURRECTION

10- Where, according to Jesus Christ, will those who will be

resurrected be found when He returns?
John 5:28 and 29

28 “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which

all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,

29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto
the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto
the resurrection of damnation.”

Those who are dead will be neither in heaven nor in

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purgatory, but will have remained in their graves, sleeping

the sleep of death, until the voice of Jesus will awaken
them and they will return to life, but this time eternal.

11- On the occasion of what great event will the dead

awake from their sleep?

1 Thessalonians 4:16 and 17

16 “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a

shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump
of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up

together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the
air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
They will awake on the occasion of the second coming of
Jesus.

12- What will those who are resurrected receive on that

occasion?

1 Corinthians 15:51 to 53

51 “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep,

but we shall all be changed,

52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last

trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be
raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this

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mortal must put on immortality.”

They will receive immortality

13- How can we know that the heroes of faith, of old, have
not yet received the prize of immortality?

Hebrews 11:39 and 40

39 “And these all, having obtained a good report through

faith, received not the promise:

40 God having provided some better thing for us, that

they without us should not be made perfect.”
For the Scripture says that they have not yet received the
promise, awaiting the rest of the redeemed. All will be
resurrected at the same time: both those who died in
ancient times and those who died in modern days.

IMMORTALITY IS OFFERED TO US

14- Who gives us immortality?

2 TImothy 1:10

“But is now made manifest by the appearing of our

Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:”

Our Lord Jesus Christ will give us immortality.

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15- What should we look for? What conclusion does this

search lead to?

Romans 2:7

“To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek

for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:”

We must seek immortality and if we are to seek it, it is not

inherent to the human species, but is a gift of God given by
faith in Jesus Christ that only God can give us.

16- What did Jesus Christ come for?

John 10:10
 “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to
destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that
they might have it more abundantly.”

Jesus Christ came that we might have life in abundance,

namely the eternal and immortal life that He will give us.

CONCLUSION

Man is not immortal by nature, we were created to live

forever, but the entrance of sin made us mortal and we
died, we can only receive immortality through Christ.