Man’s Spirit Separated from His Body

There is no suggestion anywhere in the Bible that, after death, man’s immaterial part – his spirit and soul – will be subjected to the same processes of burial and decomposition that await his body. On the contrary, there is evidence in many passages of Scripture that the destiny of man’s spiritual part, after death, is quite different from that of his body.

For the first such passage, we may turn to the book of Ecclesiastes.

“I said in my heart, ‘Concerning the estate of the sons of men, God tests them, that they may see that they themselves are like beasts.’ For what happens to the sons of men also happens to beasts; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust. Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the beast, which goes down to the earth?” (Eccl. 3:18-21)

In accordance with the whole theme of this book, Solomon lays his main emphasis upon the physical, material part of man – his body. Quite correctly, therefore, he points out that in this respect there is no difference between the destiny at death of man and of the lower animals. At death, the body of man, just like that of any other animal, is returned to the earth from which it came and there decomposes once again into its component elements.

However, Solomon goes on to point out that this similarity between the destiny at death of man and of the lower animals ends with the physical body. It does not apply to man’s spirit. Man’s spirit – his immaterial part – has a different destiny from the spirit of the lower animals.

“...the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the beast, which goes down to the earth?” (Eccl. 3:21)