It has been apparent to all that the human body dies. Satan knew that there was no possible way he could deceive the people with respect to this, so he began to spread the notion that there is something within the human body which is separate from the body, an entity which escapes from the body when it dies, and continues to live. In professed Christian circles, this indefinable something is designated the “immortal soul.”

The ancient Egyptians held to this view. It was later adopted by Grecian philosophers, and after the apostles fell asleep in death it was introduced into the Christian church by pagan philosophers. While described in various ways, this theory that there is something within man that cannot die, hence that there is no death, has been the com- mon belief of all heathen religionists.

The Bible indicates that it was prevalent among the heathen in the days of King Solomon, and we find him combating this error with the truth. He wrote, “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. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth [or who can prove] the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?”—Eccles. 3:19-21

How clearly Solomon states the truth of God, affirming that in death man and beast are alike, that they have all one breath, or “spirit,” as the same Hebrew word is translated in verse 21. After thus setting forth the truth, he asks, who can prove otherwise? He evidently knew that the surrounding heathen nations believed otherwise, that they held to Satan’s lie that there is no death, that while the body dies, there is a “spirit” which goes “upward” and continues to live. But this, Solomon shows, is not true. He says, rather, that in death, man and beast are alike. Man’s preeminence over the beast is in the fact that God has promised to restore dead humans to life in the resurrection, but has not promised to do this for the lower animals.