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Launching the Kingdom GovernmentThe Watchtower—1953 | July 15
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fail. We read in the Bible that the end of his host on earth will be by fire coming down from Jehovah out of heaven, and he himself and his demons will be executed with “second death”, annihilation. (Rev. 20:7-10) That will ultimately end all rebellion and wickedness. The earth will be filled with perfect men and women who will live forever and rejoice in the vindication of that holy name JEHOVAH!
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The Human Soul, Mortal or Immortal?The Watchtower—1953 | July 15
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The Human Soul, Mortal or Immortal?
MOST religious people believe the soul to be immortal. A Catholic question and answer book replies to the question, “Is it revealed doctrine that the soul of man is immortal?” the following: “The account in Genesis of man’s formation proves it. . . . Both Old and New Testaments insist upon the immortality of the soul.” In the Roman Catholic “Old Testament” the words immortal(ity) and incorruption occur in only two apocryphal books, the Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus. Even so, these references do not once mention such a thing as an immortal soul, nor do they say that any man has immortality or ever had it.
Turn to the inspired Scriptures and scan them minutely with the help of an exhaustive concordance of the Holy Bible. Then you will demonstrate to yourself that not once in all the Holy Scriptures does the expression “immortal soul” occur, neither any other expression to say that the human soul is immortal. To the contrary, all the Scriptural expressions from Moses onward pointedly declare that the human soul is mortal and dies, ceasing to exist.
However, our religious critics speak of the human soul as immortal and say “the body is naturally mortal; the soul by its very nature immortal”. But in answer to the question, “What indications have you that the soul is immortal?” our priestly critics write six paragraphs of a total of thirty-two lengthy lines but do not produce a single inspired scripture from God’s Word. It ought to be enough, then, if we produce just one scripture to prove that the human soul is subject to death and destruction. First, we quote Ezechiel 18:4, 20 from the Catholic Douay Version:
“Behold all souls are mine: as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, the same shall die. The soul that sinneth the same shall die.” Notice that repeated statement, “the soul that sinneth the same shall die.” Showing that the soul is not the same as the spirit, the inspired Scriptures nowhere say that the spirit dies, but they repeatedly say that the soul dies.
When confronted with this plain scripture, our priestly critics say: “The word soul here does not refer exclusively to the immortal part of man’s nature.” To what part, then, does it refer? Where do the inspired Hebrew Scriptures from Moses to Ezekiel say anything about an immortal part of man’s nature? Ezekiel wrote the words, “the soul that sinneth the same shall die,” before ever Pythagoras the pagan philosopher began to write and teach immortality, and before the deuterocanonical or apocryphal books were written.
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