The Immortal Soul?
We should let the scriptures speak:
KJV Ezekiel 18:4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. (Eze 18:4 KJV)
KJV Matthew 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Mat 10:28 KJV)
Clearly the soul can die. Indeed the soul with the body can be destroyed in “hell”.
What is the Soul?
We will look for its first occurrence in the Bible —
KJV Genesis 2:7 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.1 (Gen 2:7 KJV)
Man was formed of the dust of the ground — this was his body essentially fashioned from the ground, the LORD God put the breath of life into man’s nostrils and man became a living soul
BODY + Breath of Life = living SOUL
What is Death?
Surely it must be the disolution of the above. If the breath of life leaves then there can be no soul. The soul “dies” – death then is what Adam was before the breath of life animated his body as a human being. The dead sleep in the dust of the earth Dan. 12:2. David died and is still in the grave Acts 2:29, 34; 13:36,37. There is no consciousness in the grave, no knowledge Ecc. 9:10. The wicked also die and are silent in the grave Psa. 31:17. There is no memory in the grave and no one gives thanks in the grave see Ps. 6:5. David trusted God would redeem his soul from the power of the grave, Psa. 49:15 — the soul then must have been over powered by the grave — how can something immortal be over powered in this way?