It is our position that, the scriptures clearly teach that the dead are unconscious between the moment of death and the moment of awakening to the resurrection.

If this proposition is not affirmatively true, as stated, then we must conclude:

1. That man, after death, continues mentally active; that is to say — possesses knowledge and continues to exercise his mental functions, therefore conscious.
2. We must find that there can be no awakening, for the reason that a conscious person must of necessity be awake. Sleep means a temporary loss of mental control, unconsciousness, and the opposite of sleep is to be awake and
3. We must find that there is no actual or real death, because persons actually dead are not conscious.

DEFINITIONS

The word ‘Dead‘ is used in two senses: (a) Legal death, and (b) Actual death.

The proposition we are here discussing is treated from the standpoint of actual death.

Legal death means to be utterly cut off from certain or fixed rights and privileges.

Actual death means destitute of life, inanimate, the state in which the vital organs have ceased to perform their functions.

These are the definitions given by Webster and others — and are the Bible definitions as well.

To be conscious means to have or possess the faculty of knowing one’s own thoughts or mental operations; possessing knowledge, unconscious means, of course, the opposite of conscious; that is to say, having no power of mental perception, having no knowledge, not knowing or regarding anything.

WHAT IS MAN?

Man is the subject of this discussion.

Is man conscious or unconscious when dead?

That is the real issue joined here. Pertinent, then, is the question,

What is man? Is man a divine being, or a human being? Is he mortal, or immortal?

Some believe that man is a composite creature of three parts — body, spirit and soul; that the spirit and soul mean practically the same thing; that man is begotten and born like other animals, but at the time of conception God intervenes in some mysterious way and implants in that body a spirit or soul; that that soul is immortal, can never die, lives on forever, and is always conscious.

The Bible declares, ‘Man is of the earth earthly.’ He is NOT spiritual. (1 Cor 15:45-47) Man is a human being. He is NOT a spirit being. A spirit hath not flesh and bones. (Luke 24:39.) Spirit beings have spiritual bodies. Human, or natural beings, have human or natural bodies. (1 Cor 15:44) Adam the first man was not spiritual. ‘That was not first which is spiritual.’ (1 Cor 15:46)

Man is the highest order of animal life, the crowning glory of God’s earthly creation. He is composed of body and breath of life, like other animals. The word ‘breath‘ of life is some-times spoken of as ‘spirit‘ of life, meaning life principle, or that which animates. The uniting of the breath of life with the body produces the soul, or being. The word ‘soul‘ is synonymous to the word ‘being.’

Would any contend that the body of man (the organism) is conscious aside from the breath of life, or that the breath of life itself is conscious? How foolish would that be?

THE SOUL

What is the soul?

The Scriptures answer: ‘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.’ (Gen 2:7)

Was the dust of the earth conscious before formed into a body?

No!

Was the body (the organism) conscious when formed before it received the breath of life?

It was not!

Did the breath of life possess consciousness?

Certainly not!

What, then, is conscious?

We answer, the soul, or being; the creature, the man.

Every creature that breathes is a soul. God applied the words ‘living soul‘ to the lower order of animals long before the creation of man. (Gen 1:20 and 30 – margin.) The word ‘soul‘ is applied to both men and beasts in Numbers 31:28. “And levy a tribute for the Lord on the men of war who went out to battle: one of every five hundred of the persons, the cattle, the donkeys, and the sheep.” God, in his word, declares that all die alike and all go to the same place, “For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust.” (Eccl 3:19, 20)

Can any, in the face of this, deny that the ox is a soul, when the Bible says it is?

Will such for one moment contend that an ox is conscious after death?

“A soul is a moving; breathing, sentient being that has senses and exercises the same. No man HAS a soul, but every man IS a soul. Mark the distinction between having a thing and being that thing!

Continued with next post.