Why Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe in an immortal soul

Because the earth is capable of producing plenty of food for everyone.  The only reason people don't get enough is economics -- greed.



No not quite.  While the soul cannot operate without a body, the body is not itself the soul.  Here God told Adam what would happen to him at death.  "in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" -- Genesis 3:19.  In similar manner Ecclesiastes says, "All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again" -- Ecc 3:20.  Adam did not exist before he was created from dust.  After death he would return to that same state of dust.  That is why Solomon said, "For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything" -- Ecc 9:5.  It's why the psalmist said, "Consider and answer me, O Jehovah my God: Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the'sleep of death" -- Psalm 13:31.

It's not the body that's resurrected, it's the soul that is resurrected, but without a body the soul is dead and unconscious.  It will sleep in death until it is awakened by a resurrection.  The same soul that died is the one that will be resurrected. JWs do believe however it will be the same body that died, although not necessarily made up of the exact same particles of dust. You're old body will be recreated and the same soul will live again.

Of course those that are resurrected into heaven will not have flesh and blood bodies.  They will have spiritual bodies so theirs will be new -- 1 Cor 15:35-54.

I did not mean to present it as an add-on. It is not like some ghostly figure or anything like that. But the body is not itself the soul. That's why the Bible says God can destroy "both body and soul in gehenna". A soul is what we are. A soul doesn't inhabit our bodies, our bodies are part of that soul. But the soul also includes things like our thoughts, our memories, our love, our hate, our personality, etc. If God resurrected our bodies but didn't give us all these things back then we wouldn't be the same soul that died.



No I don't think it is a full stop. Yes there are promises of going to heaven. But there are also promises of an earthly inheritance and of the kingdom coming down and God dwelling "with mankind". I think a lot of believers take what the Bible says about the earthly kingdom and place it in heaven. For example, when Jesus told the criminal. "Truly I tell you today you will be with me in Paradise". A lot of Christians think that means that the criminal went to heaven on that day and where some Bible translations place a comma it seems to support this. There was no comma at all in the original. They read, "truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise".

But if the Christian stops and asks a few questions he might derive at a different conclusion. Did Christ go to paradise that day? Where did Christ go that day? Didn't Christ go to hades for three days? Now I believe that means he was dead and unconscious for three days, but many Christians believe he was preaching to spirits in hell. Regardless, even after his resurrection Jesus told Mary Magddalene, "...I have not yet ascended to the father". (John 20:17) Clearly, Christ did not go to paradise that day. That is why some other translations insert the comma in a different place. "Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in Paradise." And where did God create paradise? He created it on this earth. Why would he create an earthlike paradise in heaven when he has the actual earth? The earth was created for man and man was created for the earth.



Okay stop and think for a moment. Have not angels come to earth in the past and become flesh and blood and reproduced with human? And after his resurrection there were times when he made unexplained appearances, or wasn't even recognized by his disciples, but that probably is better left to another thread on JW beliefs. But the important thing to remember is that Christ sacrificed more than his flesh and blood, he sacrifed a perfect human life to buy back what Adam lost, that is perfect human life. That is the law of justice, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life. Adam didn't just lose a body, he lost perfect human life and a perfect human life was required to ransom it. Christ may visit the earth but I do not think he will ever live on the earth as a man.

But on the other hand there are promises to Christians going to heaven and being "kings and priests" of God and promies of them ruling the earth. Many people ask what people in heaven will be doing. They will be ruling and serving as priests for God. But who will they be ruling and serving as priests to? It will be for the earth as Gods kingdom "comes down" to it, that is, it takes over full rulership of the earth through "princes". Basically the Church is going to be ruling the earth, if you will. Christ and some Christians with him serving as "kings and priests", and making up a heavenly "Israel of God" (Gal 6:16) will rule from heaven. And those that live in heaven will have heavenly bodies, whatever that may be like. Those on earth will have earthly bodies.

Will they materialize and come to the earth? I like to think they will. Even God is said to have walked in Eden with Adam, likely through Christ. I don't see why a future paradise would be any different. However the throne of the kindom, belonging ultimately to God, is where God has his throne, in heaven. Christ will not sit on an earthly throne, that is what the Israelites also failed to understand, but he will rule the earth, exactly as was promised. They did not mistake the promise, they mistook the place for the seat of government and the type of rulership it would be. Christ said, "My kingdom is not from this source." The source is in heaven. "God is my throne" I believe is what the psalmist said.

I agree with you, QM. I do think it would repay us to look at the scriptures more closely and think all this through. It is an important topic.

JST,
The eternality of life is the same word as the eternality of the punishment. Yes it may mean lopping off (not looking at my greek at the moment) but that wouldn't change anything. Would you like to be lopped off over and over again for eternity? That's how Jesus spoke of the torment, the fire does not go out, the worm does not consume. Jehovah's Witnesses ENTIRELY ignore the passages that speak of the detailed torment the reprobate will experience. Please do not say they get their doctrine right!

The Bible does not clearly show that the soul dies. It shows nowhere that the soul dies. It also doesn't speak of a life force, it speaks of the breath of life also known as the spirit. It says some have fallen asleep but it says they are with the Lord in heaven, and he is obviously not asleep. It's called paradise. To us the dead are asleep, to the dead we are asleep (seeing as in a mirror darkly).

If I consider the death of Lazarus and speculate as you are then I find perfect agreement with Paul. It is better to be with the Lord than in the flesh. Jesus didn't resurrect Lazarus for the benefit of Lazarus, but rather for the testimony to the LORD's power over life and death and for the sorrow of his family. Whether his sleep was having actually died and being in heaven or a time of sleep before the person experiences his heaven is not stated. It is speculation. You are speculating to undo clear passages, that's the opposite of right interpretation. Use the clear to interpret the unclear.

Mortal and destructible. On the other hand, Matthew 10:28 states that God “can destroy both soul [psy·khen′] and body in Gehenna.” This shows that psy·khe′ does not refer to something immortal or indestructible. There is, in fact, not one case in the entire Scriptures, Hebrew and Greek, in which the words ne′phesh or psy·khe′ are modified by terms such as immortal, indestructible, imperishable, deathless, or the like. (See IMMORTALITY; INCORRUPTION.) On the other hand, there are scores of texts in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures that speak of the ne′phesh or psy·khe′ (soul) as mortal and subject to death (Ge 19:19, 20; Nu 23:10; Jos 2:13, 14; Jg 5:18; 16:16, 30; 1Ki 20:31, 32; Ps 22:29; Eze 18:4, 20; Mt 2:20; 26:38; Mr 3:4; Heb 10:39; Jas 5:20); as dying, being “cut off” or destroyed (Ge 17:14; Ex 12:15; Le 7:20; 23:29; Jos 10:28-39; Ps 78:50; Eze 13:19; 22:27; Ac 3:23; Re 8:9; 16:3), whether by sword (Jos 10:37; Eze 33:6) or by suffocation (Job 7:15), or being in danger of death due to drowning (Jon 2:5); and also as going down into the pit or into Sheol (Job 33:22; Ps 89:48) or being delivered therefrom (Ps 16:10; 30:3; 49:15; Pr 23:14).


Dead soul. The expression ‘deceased or dead soul’ also appears a number of times, meaning simply “a dead person.”—Le 19:28; 21:1, 11; 22:4; Nu 5:2; 6:6; Hag 2:13; compare Nu 19:11, 13.

Are the 144,000 in Heaven Immortal?

Will those resurrected be immortal?

If yes, to either question, than you are claiming they are more powerful than God(swt) because he can not destroy them.

Yes, Christ and those with him will be immortal.  But no that does not make them more powerful than God because he is the one that grants them immortality.  And it's not so much he lacks the power to destroy them so much as it means he would never have the moral right to do so because he has granted them incorruptibility, meaning it is impossible for them to sin therefore God cannot destroy them in the same way that God cannot lie. This sets them even above the angels as they are not immortal and some will die when they are cast into the lake of fire. This means second death, the lake of fire.

And those resurrected on the earth will not be immortal but they will have everylasting life.  For all intents an puposes it's the same thing as far as I can tell, but just like Adam's survival depended on eating of the Tree of Life so will those those be that are resurrected on the earth be dependant up something similar.  The distinction to me is blurry, but those in heaven will possess immortality in a way that those on earth will not.  The Bible shows that after the end of the 1000 years when Satan is let loose for a while that he will again mislead many upon the earth.  However he will not be able to mislead any that are in heaven because they are incorruptible.  After the 1000 years I have no reason to believe that any humans will ever die.  But like I said the distinction is rather blurry to me.

I think what it is is that those on earth can theoretically sin although they never will, those that survive Satan's final test, whereas those in heaven cannot sin. That is why only those on earth are mislead at the end of the 1000 years.  But they will in no way be more powerful than Jehovah or even equal.  After the 1000 years and after Satan's final test Christ hands the kingdom over to his father who will be all and in all. 

The question is not if He would ever destroy the 144,000. The question is does he have the ability to destroy them. If he does not have the ability to, they are more powerful than him.