Pagan Roots
The origin of Halloween and its customs likely had their origins in an ancient pagan Celtic festival called Samhain, which celebrated “summer’s end.” It marked the conclusion of the harvest and the beginning of the colder, darker season.
It was at this time that the pagan Celts saw an opportunity to commune with the dead believing the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was at its thinnest.
Catholic Church’s Adoption
In the 11th century, at the height of the suppression of God’s word and the control of people by the Roman church, the papacy sought to adopt or claim the pagan tradition of celebrating Samhain and turn it into a Christian festival called “All Hallow’s Eve.” The papacy sought to make a purse out of a sow’s ear through the modified inclusion of pagan philosophies in Christian rituals. Many of Samhain’s traditions continue in the Catholic church to this day.
According to Encylopedia Britannica, Pope Gregory III pronounced November 1 as ‘All Saints Day.” aka “All Hallow’s Day,” a day to honor all the saints of the church who have attained heaven. The papacy proclaimed it to be a holy day. Thus the religious side of the annual event mixed in with a pagan holiday.
Combining church traditions with the ancient philosophers such as Hermes, Socrates, and Plato, who believed the souls wandered in a disembodied world, gave a path to communication with the “dead” for both the pagans and Christians.
These spooky activities only work if there is a soul separate from the body, and that soul is immortal. This is a trick hidden in a treat of Satan that goes back to the beginning of creation and the fall of Adam and Eve. Satan contradicted God and said,
“You will not surely *die.”
Genesis 3:4
This lie continues to this day…no one ever dies. Their souls live forever in one of two places.
Death now comes with a footnote in many people’s beliefs:
*except for the soul, which is immortal.
But let’s go to the source and only reliable authority on the soul and life after death, God’s Word, to discover what a soul is. Is the soul immortal? Who are the spirits people talk to when Mediums call up the “dead” spirits of people to converse?”
What is a soul?
Soul’s Origin
The soul originated with God, as shown in this passage in Genesis
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.
Genesis 2:7 KJV
Notice the formula here. It is simple addition:
Dust of the ground + breath of life = soul
Noticed what it doesn’t say, “Man has a soul. ” No! he is a soul. Before he was created, there was no incorporeal soul in Adam.
Death is also a formula. This time it is subtraction:
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
Ecclesiastes 12:7
Death= Dust -(minus) the spirit (God’s breath).
The person is dead, their body turns to dust, and their thoughts and plans cease that very day.
His spirit departs, and he returns to his earth; In that very day, his plans perish. Psalm 146:4
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going. Ecclesiastes 9:10
So unlike the pagan philosophers, death is not a promotion to a world of knowledge and existence. It is compared to sleeping more than 70 times in the Bible, including Jesus.
The Hebrew word for the soul, as shown in Genesis 2:7 KJV above, is nep̄eš. It literally means “that which breaths.” This is our identity. We are a creation of God “that breathes.” Most of the other translations use the phrase “living being” as opposed to the often confusing word “soul.” “Living being” makes more sense and is in the context of the Word of God about death.
We can see many examples of how the Bible uses the word “soul” for people who are living beings instead of separated, wispy entities. Here are just a couple:
And we were in all in the ship two hundred threescore and sixteen souls. Acts 27:27
This simply means “living beings” or people were on the ship.
Which sometimes were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. 1 Peter 3:20
Noah and his family were comprised of eight souls or people that were saved from the drowning waters of the flood. They were living beings who were walking around in the flesh but called souls.
The term soul has been used this way in modern society. When the Titanic made its maiden voyage, it was said to have 2,240 souls or people on board, of which more than 1,500 souls lost their lives.
This leads us to the final question of the day.
Are Souls Immortal?
Let’s start with this easy question. If a soul can die, then is it immortal (i.e. not subject to death)? Of course not! You can’t die and then, at the same time, be no longer subject to death or immortal. They are opposing conditions.
Remember the lie of Satan, “You will not die,” but God says, “you will die.” Paul said that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). An asterisk is not used here to say, “except for your soul. ” In fact, the Bible writers say things to indicate that the soul is not immortal. No place in the Bible does it say that the soul is immortal. However, the opposite is true, as shown here:
“…The soul who sins shall die.” Ezekial 18:4
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Matthew 10:28
If God can kill the soul, can it then still be immortal? Of course not! it is impossible to be both dead and immortal!
God can (and does) destroy completely forever the entire living being for some, but not the redeemed! At this time, only God has immortality:
He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality,
1 Timothy 6:15b, 16a
But there is good news! No! Great unimaginable news! God gives immortality at the second coming! Let’s end with Paul explaining the mystery of death and resurrection:
Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 1 Corinthians 15: 51-53
Praise God! When Jesus comes, He will change the redeemed (both those who are sleeping (dead) and those living. What is included in this package of change?
Corruptible to incorrpution (Subject to decay to no longer slowly decaying with the passing of time)
*Mortal to immortality (Subject to death, but then no longer subject to death)
Eternity will Be Real for the Redeemed
Until that time, death is like taking a nap (sleeping), where the passage of time is a microsecond. You lay down on the bed of death, and in the twinkling of an eye, you rise to see Jesus and receive your package of eternal life. There is no pain, no conscience waiting room while you are sleeping. This new life on new earth is real! It includes eating, building homes, and talking with real bodies that have been glorified just as Jesus was when He appeared to the disciples after He arose. He had skin and bones and even ate some food! He was not a disembodied whispy spirit.
Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”
Luke 24:39
Jesus must have been a little hungry. He asked for food and ate!
“Have you any food here?” So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence.
Luke 24: 42-43
Our bodies will be like Jesus’ resurrected body! Real and not wispy.
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body,
Philippians 3:20-21
We will have access to the tree of life that was forfeited at the time of sin. It will perpetuate eternal life.
“To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. …In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. ” Rev. 2:7, 22:2
We will be doing things we enjoy for six days, then every month and every Sabbath, the redeemed will join in a universal church service of worship together on the new earth without denominational differences.
Our existence will not be incorporeal and wispy. We will be using our mouths, hands, and all the other things of a glorified “living being.”
They shall build houses and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit…And My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.. Isaiah 65: 21, 22b
“For as the new heavens and the new earth
Which I will make shall remain before Me,” says the Lord,
“So shall your descendants and your name remain.
And it shall come to pass.
That from one New Moon to another,
And from one Sabbath to another,
All flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the Lord.
Isaiah 66: 22-23
What a life God has planned for those who love Him and keep His commandments! But even so, we cannot imagine. It is impossible until we actually experience it!
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
1 Corinthians 2:9
But what about those who were not redeemed? Are they given immortality to be tortured forever? This we explore next time.