Jehovah Witnesses/ and the Gen Public. Why Does Ezekiel 18:4 say that the Soul WILL DIE ???

Answer 1

A "soul" is a life, with no implication regarding some immortal otherwordly entity. Each deceased life is in Jehovah God's remembrance (with the potential for future resurrection), but the dead do not exist anywhere but memories until and unless the life is resurrected.

(Ezekiel 18:4) The soul that is sinning - it itself will die.

(Ecclesiastes 9:5) For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all

(Ecclesiastes 9:10) there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol ["hell"]

(Genesis 2:17) But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.”

(Genesis 17:14) And an uncircumcised male who will not get the flesh of his foreskin circumcised, even that soul must be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant.”

(Judges 16:30) And Samson proceeded to say: “Let my soul die with the Philistines.” Then he bent himself with power, and the house went falling upon the axis lords and upon all the people that were in it, so that the dead that he put to death in his own death came to be more than those he had put to death during his lifetime.

(Job 33:22) And his soul draws near to the pit, And his life to those inflicting death.

(Psalm 78:50) He did not hold back their soul from death itself; And their life he handed over even to the pestilence.

(Isaiah 53:12) he poured out his soul to the very death

(Acts 3:23) Indeed, any soul that does not listen to that Prophet will be completely destroyed from among the people.’

(Revelation 16:3) And the second one poured out his bowl into the sea. And it became blood as of a dead man, and every living soul died, yes, the things in the sea.

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/lmn/index.htm?article=article_08.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/19970515/article_02.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20050501/article_02.htm

Answer 2

I believe there are two deaths. The temporal (physical) which is the separation of the spirit from the body of flesh and bones and the spiritual which is an eternal separation from God or all goodness. The latter, to me, is signifantly more terrifying, and I think that Ezekiel 18:4 is speaking about the latter. Why must we jump to the conclusion that the word die means "to become nonexistent," as it pertains to the spirit of man? The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) is one example of a pillar of evidence supporting that the soul is immortal. However, this parable may seem to contradict Ecclesiastes 9:5-6,10, which states, "the dead know not anything." Referring to these verses, Joseph Fielding Smith wrote, " . . . when death intervenes, the body is laid away in the grave peacefully and that it knows nothing as to the affairs of a busy world." (Answers To Gospel Questions, Vol. 4, p.183) Non-LDS scholar Donald C. Fleming agrees: "the dead know nothing: the context (or one look at a corpse) makes the meaning obvious." (F. F. Bruce, The International Bible Commentary, p. 699). In verse 10, the word "grave" is translated from the Hebrew word sheol, which has several meanings depending on the context in which it is used. It can be translated as "hades", "grave", "hell", "pit", or "world of the dead." Thus, the term can refer to the spirit world or part of it. But the context of Ecclesiastes 9:5-6, 10 is describing a different place; a place where there is "no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom"; a place where "the dead know not any thing." What could be more descriptive of the "grave" or tomb in which a corpse is laid to rest? Moreover, since a corpse has no mental or emotional faculties, it cannot do anything, much less praise the LORD. But that pertains to the corpse of a person, not the spirit. I believe that to be absent from his life is to be present with the Lord. I base this belief off the following scripture: Physical death is the separation of one's body and spirit: "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." (Ecclesiastes 12:7, cp. James 2:26) When a person's spirit and body separate; one's thoughts depart with the spirit; leaving behind a body in which all thoughts perish: "His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." (Psalms 146:4) Note that the "he" in Psalms 146:4 must be referring to the body, because it is the body that "returneth" to the earth, not the spirit (cp. Genesis 3:19 & Ecclesiastes 12:7). Likewise, since it is the spirit that "knoweth the things of a man"; all of one's knowledge also perishes within the body after the spirit leaves. Consequently, the dead (i.e. corpses) know nothing and will eventually go to the grave. "The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence." (Psalms 115:17, cp. 6:5)

Answer 3

Continue reading further in Ezekiel 18, and you'll find the verses regarding a just man. All scripture must be taken in context, and at times the word for "soul" can also be interpreted "man", thus the man who sins shall die. Even so, only the soul/man that sins faces eternal "death", while the righteous face eternal life.

Answer 4

Because according to Gen 2:7 Adam wasn't given a soul,

Adam BECAME a living soul.

When Adam died, he became a dead soul.

It is Satan who teaches immortality for disobeying God.

John 3:16, 28 The hope is eternal life or to perish.

.

Answer 5

Royal Racer is exactly right. Doesn't the bible teach that when we die that we are transferred to our spiritual body? Doesn't Ezekiel also say that once we die our souls go back to the father that gave it? It also says that when we are in heaven that our mortal (translated to "capable of dying) souls must " put on the cloak of immortality". Haven't you read these things ?!?

Answer 6

In the end we shall shed these mortal bodies and put on new bodies, kind of something I find very interesting and am looking forward to seeing, Saved & Sinner will have new bodies for whatever our fates are after judgement day.

Answer 7

The rest of the story....

Eze 18:21 ¶ But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

Answer 8

It will at the Great White Throne Judgement.
Well after the Millennium, when all will know the truth, and still deny God.

Answer 9

30Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.

31Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

32For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.


This is speaking to the House of Israel saying
God has no pleasure in the soul that chooses to die

I think that is the spiritual death of the soul and spirit of man
that happens when he forsakes God and his word and his life
and chooses to walk in his own lust and passions of this world
and not God's ways and commandments

We live in life in God and all outside of that is death to the inward man
so it is not saying the soul dies, it is saying the soul and spirit will die when we walk in our own lust and passions of this world and not God

Answer 10

Make it a challenge...we are sinners. Also, the SOUL dies, not goes to live somewhere else.