Lesson 1   

#1 THE IMPORTANCE OF YOUR SOUL

Illus.: The Roman Emperor Hadrian lived around 200 AD.   He is still regarded as one of the greatest
Caesars of all time.   He was incredibly busy & industrious and perhaps no man in history built so many
architectural structures and left such a mark upon the world as Hadrian.   He was still building a 750-acre
tract at Tivoli when he learned that he was dying.   He was quoted as having said, "O fleeing little soul,
where do you go now?"

Many people worry about their body more than their soul.   The body may live for several
decades, but the soul lives on forever in either Heaven or Hell.   The word soul appears 473
times in the Bible!   You receive your soul at the moment of your conception (along with
the sin nature Ps. 51:5).   Your soul is invisible and lives inside of your body.

Your soul inside your body is the real you (your personality, thinking, affections, desires
and feelings).   Genesis 2:7, "the LORD God formed man...and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life; and man became a living soul."   1 Corinthians 15:45, "The first man Adam
was made a living soul;"   You have a body, but you are a soul.   The soul is the real you.   It
is invisible and lives inside of the body.   Our bodies are just a ‘motel’ the soul is
temporarily living within.   One day at death our soul will ‘check out’ permanently.
Illus.: A Swedish doctor in a new book says he discovered the human soul weighs 21 grams.   He placed
beds of terminal patients on sensitive scales and saw the needle drop as soon as the patients died.

It is your soul that loves ... Matthew 22:37, "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind."   It is the soul
that feels sadness ... Matthew 26:38, "Then saith he [Jesus] unto them, My soul is exceeding
sorrowful, ...."   Your soul is the center of your feelings & emotions.

Your soul leaves your body at death.   Genesis 35:18, "And it came to pass, as her [Rachel's]
soul was in departing, (for she died)...."
Acts 7:59, "And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit [soul]."   When the soul leaves the body, the body is lifeless and no longer feels or
thinks.   James 2:26, "the body without the spirit [soul] is dead[.]"   There is a soul inside of
you just waiting to get out!

Your soul cannot die ... Matthew 10:28, "And fear not them which kill the body, but are
not able to kill the soul:"

Your soul is more valuable than anything the world can offer .. Matthew 16:26, (Jesus
said) "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"

Many people neglect their soul for temporal things of the world ... Luke 12:20, "God
said unto him [unsaved man], Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then
whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?"   (We are going to leave it all behind).

Your soul will live on forever in either Heaven or Hell.
   Four hundred years before the birth of Christ, Socrates, the renowned Greek Philosopher, drank the
poison hemlock and lay down to die.   "Shall we live again?" his friends asked.   The dying philosopher
could only reply, "I hope so, but no man can know."
ACCORDING TO GOD'S WORD, WE CAN KNOW FOR SURE!

Your soul needs to be ‘converted’ sometime during your life .. Psalms 19:7, "The law of
the LORD is perfect, converting the soul:"   (More about this later).

You will go to Hell if your soul is not converted... Luke 16:22-23, "the rich man also
died, and [his body] was buried; And in hell he [his soul] lift up his eyes, being in torments[.]"

Your soul immediately goes to Heaven at death if converted ...
2 Corinthians 5:6, 8, (Paul the apostle said) "whilst [while] we [the soul] are at home in the body,
we are absent from the Lord: We are...willing rather to be absent from the body, and to
be present with the Lord [in Heaven]."   Luke 16:22, "And it came to pass, that the beggar
died, and [his soul] was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom" (Paradise or Heaven).   In Luke 12, Jesus
speaks with Moses & Elijah who reappear on earth hundreds of years after they had lived
and died (their soul is still alive).   In I Samuel 28, the prophet Samuel is alive and speaking
from Paradise (Heaven) years after his body had died.

You can know for sure your soul is going to Heaven... 1 John 5:13, "These things have I
written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have
eternal life,"

IF YOUR SOUL IS SAVED (converted), IT GOES TO HEAVEN IMMEDIATELY UPON DEATH.
*Please note the following examples of Christians who died and went to Heaven
immediately.

Revelation 6:9-10, (John the apostle gets a vision of Heaven and says) "I saw...the souls of
them that were slain [martyred] for the word of God," (they were alive & well and even
speaking up in Heaven).

Jesus told the thief on the cross who got saved just before his death, "Verily I say unto thee,
To day shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43).

Hebrews 12:1, "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about [surrounded] with so great
a cloud of witnesses [the many deceased Christians named in the previous chapter], ...let us
[survivors on earth] run with patience the race [life] that is set before us," (there is a ‘great
grandstand’ in the sky and our saved deceased loved ones are in it!)

John 5:24, (Jesus said) "...He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me,
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation [Hell]; but is
passed from death unto life [i.e.- at death, the soul of a Christian goes straight to Heaven]."

Philippians 1:23, (Paul the apostle said) "For I am...having a desire to depart [from this
world], and to be with Christ; which is far better:"   Also, note Acts 7:59, "And they stoned
Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit [soul]."   Like all
born again Christians, Stephen went straight to Heaven!

Jesus was confronted by clergymen who did not believe Christians go directly to Heaven
when they die.   Speaking of His heavenly Father, Jesus said in Mark 12:27, "He is not the
God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err."   (Jesus had earlier
told the clergy that His heavenly Father is the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob who had
died hundreds of years earlier, but were still alive in Heaven).

God makes it clear in the Bible.   If someone has been saved the Bible way, they go straight
to Heaven as soon as their heart stops.   They do not need to be "purged" from their sins
(purgatory) in order to go into Heaven.   The Bible says, "the blood of Jesus Christ his
Son cleanseth us from all sin" (I Jn. 1:7).   According to the Bible, there is no such thing as
purgatory.   It was invented by Pope Gregory V in 593AD (over 500 years after Christ).
Since that time untold amounts of money have been given to get people out of a place that
does not exist.   The Bible says in Hebrews 9:27 "it is appointed unto men once to die, but
after this the judgment [Heaven or Hell]:"   Also note from this verse that there is no such
thing as reincarnation.   Where we will spend eternity is determined before we die based on
whether our soul has been converted or not... Revelation 21:24 tells us that, "the nations of
them which are saved shall walk in the light of it [Heaven]:"   How to be saved will be
explained in an upcoming lesson.

(Once again)... You can know for sure your soul is going to Heaven... 1 John 5:13
"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye
may know that ye have eternal life,"

[Remember, you are one heartbeat away from eternity.]

Go to Lesson #2