Man's Nature and Destiny

Public Bible Presentation

Man’s Nature& Destiny

Man’s Nature & Destiny

• Welcome• Topic Intro• Why Does It Matter?• Rundown / Overview• Summary• Conclusion

Man’s Nature & Destiny

• The Popular Belief• The True Belief• Preliminary Considerations• Mortality and Sin Nature• Redemption• Futurity of Salvation• Salvation Conditional

The Popular Belief

• God created a body out of dust• God created an immortal soul• God called the immortal soul, ‘man’• God put the immortal soul inside the body• When the body dies, the soul stays alive• The bodiless soul goes to heaven or hell• ‘Life’ means heaven, ‘death’ means hell

The Popular Belief

• Say you accept Jesus in your heart• Have a good feeling, “experience”• Attend a Church (occasionally?), Pay the Church• You are now “saved” from hell torments• You are now a “christian” - you belong to Christ• You now have eternal ‘life’ inside you• When your body dies, your immortal soul will

go ‘home’ to heaven to be with Christ

The True Belief

• God created a body out of dust and breathed air (spirit) into its lungs. The result was a living creature (soul), called ‘man.’

• Life means life. We know by experience what it means to be alive. Death means the end of life.

• Death ends all conscious thoughts, emotions, memories, ambitions, etc. There is no ‘existence’ (i.e. no LIFE) in the state of death.

• There is no such thing as an immortal soul.

The True Belief

• Salvation comes by faithfully living a life of patient and humble OBEDIENCE to the commands of God and Christ.

• Immortality is a FUTURE gift to be given by Christ at the time of resurrection and judgment, ie. his return to earth.

• Eternal life is an INHERITANCE for baptized believers who endure trial in the hope of entering the KINGDOM of God.

Preliminary Considerations

• “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return

unto the ground, for out of it was thou taken: for dust thou art, and

unto dust shalt thou return”(Genesis 3:19)


“Nephesh”• Life 117 times• Person 29 times• Creature 9 times• Body 8 times• Himself 8 times,

Yourselves 6 times• Dead 5 times• Man 3 times• number of other natural

terms such as “beast”

• Life - Genesis 9:4 “But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.”

• Person - Proverbs 28:17 “A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit; let no man stay him.”

• Creature - Genesis 1:21 “And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

• Body - Leviticus 21:11 “Neither shall he go in to any dead body, nor defile himself for his father, or for his mother;”

• Mortally - Deuteronomy 19:11 “But if any man hate his neighbour, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and smite him mortally [nephesh] that he die, and fleeth into one of these cities:


“Psuche”• Soul 58 times• Life 40 times• Mind 3 times• Heart once• Heartily once

Soul Succeptible to Death• Exodus 31:14• Psalm 7:2 • Psalm 22:29 • Psalm 30:3 • Psalm 33:19 • Psalm 35:17 • Psalm 56:13 • Psalm 78:50• Psalm 89:48 • Psalm 116:8 • Isaiah 53:12 • Ezekiel 18:4, 20 • Mark 14:34 • James 5:20 • Revelation 16:3


• “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory forever”1 Timothy 1:17

• “Which in his times he shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto…etc”1 Timothy 1:17


Biblical Times• Egyptians• Canaanites• Assyrians• Babylonians

(Chaldeans, Sumerians)

• Persians• Greeks• Romans

Modern Times• Hindus• Muslims• Buddhists• Taoists• Animists• Celtic (Druid?)• Mystics/Wiccans• Native Indians


Be Not Like The Nations

• Leviticus 18:3• Leviticus 20:23-26• Isaiah 52:11• 1 Corinthians 10:21• Revelation 18:4• …and many more!

• “Learn not the way of the heathen… For the customs of the people are vain”Jeremiah 10:2-3

Mortality and Sin Nature

• For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. 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.”Ecclesiastes 9:1-6[5-6 qtd]

• “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”Ecclesiastes 9:10


• “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.”Psalm 146:4

• “For in death there is no remembrance of thee; In the grave who shall give thee thanks?”Psalm 6:5

• “The dead praise not the Lord, Neither any that go down into silence.”Psalm 115:17


• “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.” (Romans 5:12-14)


• “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”Jeremiah 17:9

• “For I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me: but how to perform that which is good I find not… the evil which I would not, that I do.Romans 7:18-19

• “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”Mark 7:21-23


• “For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity”Ecclesiastes 3:19

• “Man that is in honour and understandeth not is like the beasts that perish”Psalm 49:20

• “Man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead”Proverbs 21:16

Redemption

What did Shakespeareteach?

“To die, to sleep;To sleep: perchance to

dream: ay, there's the rub;For in that sleep of death

what dreams may comeWhen we have shuffled off

this mortal coil,Must give us pause”

(Hamlet, III:1:72-76)

What does the Bible teach?

“For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:53,54)

Redemption

• “But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me”Psalm 49:15

• “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”Romans 7:24-25

• “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God”Job 19:25-26

Redemption

• “The meek shall inherit the earth”Psalm 37,[qtd Matt 5:5]

• “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth… etc”Matt 6:10

• “Glory to God in the Highest and on earth… peace… etc…”Luke 2:13

Redemption

• “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” Daniel 12:2

• “There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust”Luke 2:13

• And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just”Luke 14:14

Redemption

• “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he shall sit upon the throne of his glory”…“…and these [the wicked] shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal”(Matthew 25:31-46)

Redemption

• “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom…etc…”2 Timothy 4:1

• “We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ”Romans 14:10

• “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”2 Corinthians 5:10

The Futurity of Salvation and Eternal Life

• “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed”Romans 13:11

• “That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises”Hebrews 6:12

• “Are they [angels] not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them [believers] who shall be heirs of salvation?”Hebrews 1:14


• “For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end”Hebrews 3:14

• “and ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved”Matthew 10:22


• “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him”James 1:12

• “For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry”Hebrews 10:36 and onward


• “[You] Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time”...“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ”(1 Peter 1:5-7)

Salvation Connected to Zion, Jerusalem (ie. The Kingdom)

• “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved”Acts 2:21

• “…and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory”Isaiah 46:13

• “Salvation is of the Jews”John 4:22

• “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call”Joel 2:32

Salvation Conditional

• God does nothing arbitrary• God is infinitely wise and fair• God has the right to give His gift to

whoever He chooses• God has placed conditions on salvation• Available through studying the Bible


• “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14)

• This makes salvation a matter of hope• Not a single verse of scripture ever

unconditionally guarantees eternal life!

• Those who desire the free gift, must put in necessary effort to meet God’s conditions


• “But he that feareth the commandment shall be

rewarded”(Proverbs 13:13)


• “Who will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, [God will render] eternal life”Romans 2:6(read Romans 2:5-7)


• “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved”Mark 16:16

• “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us”1 Peter 3:21


• “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father

which is in heaven”(Matthew 7:21)

Summary / Review

• God created man out of DUST. Man is a living BODY.• Life means life. Soul means life. Spirit means breath. It

belongs to God, and returns to God.• Death means the END OF LIFE… no thoughts,

emotions, memories, ambitions, etc. Man decays and returns to dust.

• There is NO SUCH THING as an immortal soul.• Salvation is CONDITIONAL upon faithful obedience.• Immortality is a future gift to be given by Christ at the

time of resurrection and judgment, ie. his return to earth.• Eternal life is an INHERITANCE for baptized believers

who endure trial in the hope of entering the KINGDOM of God.

Conclusion

• “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming”

– 1Cor. 15:20-23

Conclusion

• “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all mean, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself a ransom for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” -- Titus 2:11-14

Presentations & Public Speaking

Man's Nature and Destiny