The idea that man has an immortal soul was taught by the Greeks, but not the Bible.

"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  So you do not have a soul. You are a soul.

The Hebrew word for soul is Nephesh which means a living being. So man does not possess a soul. When the breath of life enters him,

he is a living being. He is alive.

Preachers tell you your soul is immortal but   Rom.2:7 says  that we do not have immortality yet, but we must seek it.

"God, will render every man according to his works: to those who by patient endurance of a good work seek for glory and honor and

 immortality" (Rom. 2:6-7).   So if we must seek immortality, then no part of us is immortal yet.

 

 

"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit (breath) shall return unto God who gave it." (Ecclesiastes 12:7)

The word spirit in Hebrew is Ruach and means breath. So when the breath goes back to Yah, the body goes back to dust.

 

 

Only Yah is immortal. He the "only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality". (1Tim.6:15)

When the Last trumpet  blows it will be the Judgment day and we believers will:

"all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be

raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." (1 Cor.15:52)

So prior to the Judgment day, there is no part of us that is immortal. When we die our bodies turn to dust and our breath goes back to Yah.

 

 

"For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing." (Ecclesiastes 9:5

"There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave"; and the dead are described as those who "go down into

silence." (Eccl. 9:10`; Psa. 115:17`)

"For that which befalls the sons of men befalls beasts; even one thing befalls them: as the one dies, so dies the other; yea, they have

all one breath; and man hath no preeminence above the beasts: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn

to dust again." (Eccles.3:19-20)

 

The English word hell comes from Hel the norse goddess of the underworld. She has a body that is black and half covered with flesh.

The prevailing Christian concept of hell comes from Greek mythology not from the Scriptures. The contemporary Christian view of hell

is a place where the majority of souls go at death to be punished in flames. In this hell apostate Christians, and all non-Christians, are

chained in a dark, fiery place of torment where they are punished by Satan and his demons for all eternity.

 

 

 

There are 3 words in Greek that have clumsily been translated into English as hell 1) Hadas, 2) Geenna, and 3) Tartaroo.

Hadas

Hadas means the grave, this is what the Hebrew word "Sheol" means. Unfortunately this Greek word for the grave is pre-loaded

 with fables. Hadas is an underworld that is populated with conscious souls. To the Greeks Hadas,(the abode of the god Hades),

was an Underworld with a complete mythology. It had the River Styx, Charon the boatman, Cerberus the 3-headed dog and various

 levels and degrees of torment. Hades (to the Romans  it was associated with the god Pluto -the rich one). Human sacrifices were

made to Pluto, and he was hated and feared by all. This is where we get our ideas about the devil. Pluto even carries a pitchfork.

 

 

To the biblical mind Sheol was nothing more than the grave where the dead know nothing, and the body decomposes to dust. For

 nearly 2,000 years the Greeks have soiled the Gospel with superstitions and teach for doctrines the traditions and mythologies of

men. I say it's time we throw these myths into Geenna.

 

Geenna was a garbage dump where trash was always burning near Jerusalem. The corpses of Capital offenders were burned there.

 Geenna became a metaphor for the fate of those who died estranged from Yah.

 

 

Tartaroo in Greek Mythology was the official name of the Underworld, We do not know the exact location that Peter had in mind,

but we can be sure it was not the Greek Underworld.

" God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to Tartaroo, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved

unto judgment." ( 2 Peter 2:4)

"And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness

unto the judgment of the great day." (Jude 1:6)

 

 

When Yahshuah died, some  people who had recently died, were seen walking around the streets of Jerusalem for he had released

 them from Sheol.

"And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and

went into the holy city, and appeared unto many". (Mt.27:52)

This initial resurrection was a preview of coming attractions. It doesn't say how many arose, or where they went at the end of the day.

 It doesn't say they went to paradise. They must have been recently departed saints because apparently they appeared to people

who recognized them. Did they return to their normal lives or go back to thier graves? The text doesn't tell us.

 

 

Those who argue that Yahshuah took them up to heaven  use Ephesians 4:7 to say he led the captives from hell up to heaven

"When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive." (Ephesian 4:7-10)

The expression comes from Judges 5:12, "arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive."

It means to turn the tables. Israel was being occupied by the Canaanites and Barak was to turn the tables. Ephesians 4 is saying

 Yahshuah descended into death and turned the tables and ascended to heaven. The captives for both Barak and Yahshuah were not

 Yah's people but the enemies. On the cross Yahshuah defeated the enemies "And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made

 a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it." (Col.2:15)

 

Jesus told one thief "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." (Luke 23:39-43) Those who teach that paradise is

in heaven and the good thief went straight to heaven must deal with the following problem. Yahshuah did not go to a heavenly paradise

that day. He died and went into the grave just before sunset on Tuesday, was dead Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (72 hours),

 and he rose just before sunset just as Saturday was beginning. So the thief could not have gone to paradise on that day.

Traditionally Christians teach that one of the thieves repented. But Matthew  and Mark say  both thieves reviled him.

"The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth." (Mt.27:44).

"And those who were crucified with Him were reproaching Him." (Mark 15:32)

Allon Maxwwell, of Australia, says if we wish to understand this apparent contradiction, we must understand the second thief's

 tone of voice. He was mocking Yahshuah just like the first thief and the priests and the revilers at the foot of the cross. He was

hurling mockery into Yahshuah's teeth.

"The SECOND thief also reviled him, by directing words of (mock) "rebuke" at the first thief, but (according to Matthew), actually

 using the occasion (indirectly at first) to rail at Jesus. He said, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of

condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." (Luke 23:40-41)

"Then he turned directly to Jesus and continued his reviling ....... yes, reviling, Matthew says!! "Jesus remember me when you come

 into your Kingdom". http://home.pacific.net.au/~amaxwell/bdigest/bd57bbs.txt.

Maxwell rightly argues that Yahshuah's coronation was on the throne of the cross and his crown was a crown of thorns.

That day was the first day of his official rule in his kingdom of paradise, and when he told the thief who was mocking him

"Today you will be with me", that was his only day to be with him. He was there on the throne of the cross with Yahshuah, but before

the afternoon would be over, the thief would go into the earth and await the Judgment Day like all others. He had had a taste of paradise,

 but mocked it.

 

The early English translators inherited 1500 years of Greek theology that taught that humans have a body (soma), a soul (psyche)

 and a spirit (pneuma). Plato wrote in his book Phaedo:

"The soul is immortal...when a man dies, the visible part of him, the body...will dissolve and disappear, but the soul goes to another place."

Augustine described the soul as "a special substance, endowed with reason, adapted to rule the body".

The Greeks taught that a man's psyche lived in his body like a "ghost in a tent". Many said the body was the prison house of the soul.

 As a result of this early heresy, most Christians teach that the soul is immortal and will never die. It leaves the body at death, and will

live forever, either in heavenly delight, or hellish pain.

 

Yahshuah, like all Hebrews, taught that humans are body and breath. When the two unite, they are a psyche. When the breath leaves

the body the psyche is no more. On the Judgment day your body and breath will once again reunite and you will again be the psyche

 you are today. You will return to life either to be granted immortality, or oblivion, not eternal torment.

The Greek word for soul is psyche and 36 times in the NT is translated as life, sometimes as mind, but the English translators

following Greek thought translated it 39 times as soul. And this unfortunately has led to great confusion. I had a preacher tell me

 "I have 4 spirits in me and a soul. I have my human spirit, the father's spirit, the sons spirit and the holy Spirit's spirit and I have my soul."

 
Did Yahshuah's Soul Die on the Cross?

If my preacher friend is right and the soul never dies, then Yahshuah can't really be said to have died on the cross, only his body would

have died.

My Preacher friend is wrong. It is important to know that Yahshuah was completely dead. His body was lifeless and his breath was gone.

 He experienced mortality and death.  By inventing a story that Yahshuah went to hell, threw Satan to the ground, and took the keys from

him, implies that he was not wholly dead for his soul was still fighting against Satan. That means the cross was not the final battlefield or

 place of victory. This mythology has no basis in fact. It is a lie.

 

 

Dives wore purple, that would make him a royal ruler. Since the Greek-loving Sadducees were the ruing class, we can say that he

 was a Prince with Greek (and Roman) furniture who did not believe in an afterlife, who emulated gentile culture, but considered

gentiles as inferior half-humans akin to dogs. Lazarus (a Greek name) was a poor beggar (perhaps a gentile truth-seeker) who

died of starvation at Dive's gate. The Sadducees ruled the temple, so let's say this poor gentile was starving for the word of God,

and he laid outside the temple gates, but the rulers in that day gave only crumbs to the gentile dogs. At the end of the parable, the

poor truth-seeker ends up in the kingdom of Yah, and Dives is shocked to discover that there is a not only an afterlife, but for

people like him who live out their erroneous beliefs, the afterlife is without hope.

Some say the point of this parable is to give us a true picture of hell and heaven. They are so hung up on the details in the background

 that they miss the moral of the story. If you want to take it as a literal story about what the afterlife looks like, then we will sit on

Abraham's chest and hear the voices of the damned and see them down in the fires of hell throughout eternity crying out for a drop of

water. Not my idea of heaven. Do you suppose Yahshuah was spoofing the prevalent Greek view of hell while using it as a vehicle to

drive home the point that denying food to the starving, or denying spiritual food to the hungry gentiles, and holding onto erroneous

racist beliefs, or false beliefs about Yah and the afterlife will cause you to miss the father's kingdom?

 

What About the Souls Sleeping in Heaven Under the Altar in the Book of the Revelation

 

" And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony

 which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood

on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest

yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled." (Rev.6:9)

I am fascinated by the Book of Yah's Revelation. It is my second favorite book after Matthew. But I don't think it is wise to try to build

any doctrines on it. It is poetic, symbolical, and metaphorical to the max. Yahshuah does not have 7 horns. A beast with 7 heads will

not come out of the ocean, the whore riding on the Leopard is a city not a woman etc. etc.

As the scene unfolds, the souls of martyrs under the altar in heaven,  revive and cry for vengeance, they are told to go back to sleep

(be dead again). They are given white robes. Why would souls need clothes? I thought in heaven everyone was walking around enjoying

the pleasures of heaven. These folks sound very unhappy and impatient (not to mention blood-thirsty for revenge). I thought this was a

place where all tears were wiped away.

So if you want to build your theology of souls in heaven, this is where you must build it, for this is the only place in scriptures where they

appear. Personally I would recommend you take this as a parable. Those who die as  martyrs  have nothing more to worry

if they have obeyed the teachings of Yahshuah in a spirit of love and peace, and must let go of all desires for revenge for Yah will handle

it. The parable is for the living not the dead.

 

 

Revelation 14:10,11: "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of

his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the

 Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast

and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name."

Revelation 20:10: "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false

prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever."

This is where the idea comes from that people will be tormented forever and ever. But if you look closely it is not the people,

 but the smoke that goes on and on (is never forgotten). The devil, the beast and false prophet however will be tortured forever,

 but not people. I know this makes some preachers angry, and I'm sorry if they want to see people tortured forever and ever,

and if I'm wrong, maybe I will be suffering and they can say "we told you so", and laugh at me. But if I am wrong, I'd rather be wrong

 on the side that says Yah is not a torturer.

 

"Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice." (John 5:28) This is referring to

 the Judgment day when Yahshuah's voice will be as loud and clear as that of an archangel,

For the Rabbi (Yahshuah) himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice like an archangel, and with the trumpet of

God: and those who died loving him, shall rise first. (1Thessalonians 4:16)

 

 

It matters a lot because people want to know what happens when they die? The Bible tells us what to expect, but false teachers have

 muddied it, and twisted it, and used hell as a club to beat innocent people into fear cults, and so many millions have gone to their

 graves in terror and horror (even many with great faith, but spoiled by bad mythology).

 

 

Your breath returns to Yah, your body disintegrates. You have ceased to exist. On the Judgment Day you will be reassembled with all

your parts as you. Those who loved and served Yah will be transformed into immortals, those who did not will go to a place of temporary

sorrow and eventual annihilation.

 

 

Furthermore we must not imply that when people die, they will immediately go to hell or heaven as a soul. Their breath goes to God and

 their body decomposes. They cease to be living beings (souls. They are in a state of unconsciousness. To teach otherwise causes

un-needed dread and pain. Often families feel their departed loved one is burning in hell and it grieves them unnecessarily. Tell them

 the Bible says they have ceased to exist until the Judgment Day. That's what it says.

On Judgment Day, we will all be reconstituted into our prior earthly forms of flesh and bones and breath. We will be the same living

beings we once were. For the righteous, it will be a day of resurrection to immortal life (with a new spirit body), but for the wicked, it

will be a day of humiliation when they will be cast into the lake of fire to be annihilated.

 

The idea that Yah will torture people for all eternity in a place like the Grecian hell is a terrible accusation against our loving Father,

and has had horrendous repercussions, for it portrays Yah as a wrathful, cruel being who is a merciless tormentor of the wicked.

This is a perversion of the Father. We must free ourselves from Babylonian and Greek mythology and free humans from this terrible

 bondage of fear about hell. Yah is not the author of fear, but of love and truth, mercy, and forgiveness.