emphasis added). Years later, “seventy souls”
went to Egypt (see Exodus 1:5, KJV). The context
shows that this wasn’t talking about seventy
ghosts, but seventy living human beings who
went to Egypt. Got it? A soul is a person.
Next fact: fallen human beings are not
immortal. If you look up the word “immortality”
in any Bible concordance, you will discover
that it applies only to God now. God “alone has
immortality” (1 Timothy 6:16), and it is only after
His saints are resurrected at the Second Coming
of Jesus Christ that “this mortal” will “put on
immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:54). Obviously,
His saints wouldn’t “put on” an immortal
existence if they previously had one.
Next point: in the Bible, death is called
“sleep.” In Old Testament times, King David
prayed for protection lest he “sleep the sleep
of death” (Psalm 13:3). At the end of the world,
those who “sleep in the dust of the earth shall
awake” (Daniel 12:2). Thus dead people lie
peacefully sleeping “in the dust of the earth”
until Resurrection Day.
Now here’s the kicker. In the meantime, the
Bible is emphatic that “the dead know nothing”
(Ecclesiastes 9:5). “Nothing” means nothing.
Zero. Five verses later Solomon clarified that