How the Bible Convinced Me We Have Spirits

NICOLE STEVENSON

Examining the 28 Fundamental Beliefs of Adventism for our current series on Former Adventist Podcast has been quite the experience. I confess that preparing for these episodes often includes moments of private mini-outbursts of indignation—which may or my not be followed by ranting text-therapy sessions with Colleen. 

I’ve come to realize that humor is a wonderful tool for regrouping (nothing like the perfect GIF to answer the moment)! That being said, I’ve also come to find myself revisiting the joy of those early days after being rescued from the corruption and deception of Adventism. Reading these chapters reminds me of what I had to fight my way out of through the grace and mercy of God and His word. Daily I’m confronted with the nature of what I’ve been rescued from, and daily I rejoice! 

One of our more recent episodes, number 106 on the Nature of Man, brought back a lot of memories for me. As most of you know, tackling the deception that humans don’t have spirits is an important step in understanding the Biblical teachings on the nature of man. Colleen and I decided ahead of time that it was important for us to spend time talking about what Scripture says about this topic even if that meant we couldn’t get through all of the false material in the Fundamental Beliefs chapter. We were both eager to prepare.

As I prepared for that podcast, I returned in my thinking to those early days of reading my Bible after I left Adventism. I remember the excitement I felt when I’d see evidence in the Old Testament for humans having immaterial spirits. I began revisiting those passages and writing them out in outline form just in case there was time to get to them during the recording. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible is irrefutably clear about the realty that we have immaterial spirits. What struck me often was how the Scriptures seemed to take for granted the fact that the reader understands this simple truth—humans have spirits! How did Adventism steal from us this fundamental innate understanding of what it is to be human?

Knowing for sure

All these memories took me back to a conversation I participated in one Sunday afternoon as I sat around a table filled with both former Adventists and believers who’d never been Adventist. Jordan, a brother who’d never been Adventist, asked us questions about our previous understanding of the nature of man. He couldn’t compute the fact that we once didn’t believe we had spirits and he seemed somewhat grieved to learn that for some of us, we still only believed by faith God’s word. The idea that we have spirits wasn’t a logical thing for some of us. We explained the texts used to teach us the false doctrine, and he understood their methods just fine, but it was all mystifying to him that we didn’t know better and that some still struggled to believe it— that it was not an innate knowing for all of us. 

As I sat there listening to him very respectfully struggle to understand us, I was deeply blessed by his innate unquestioning understanding of the human spirit. He knew he had a spirit like I know I have thoughts. It wasn’t something he knew by faith alone; he knew it logically and objectively. It was an obvious reality to him. I realized that afternoon that Adventism stole more from us than I ever understood. Our very senses and sensibilities were hacked and overridden by the indoctrinations and cultic culture of Adventism— for some of us from birth. What was innate reality to Jordan and to other humans (not only to believers as was also discussed that day) was completely absent in most of us. Adventism erased our very ability to perceive what was true about ourselves! 

After that afternoon I began to pray that God would make me know the truth about the human spirit the way Jordan did. I asked that He would help me know in my spirit what I knew in my head, that He would restore in me the ability to know the things He created me to know— the things Adventism took from me. I wanted to know the things even unbelievers know—things that Adventism siphoned from me early on as it prepared me to follow it unquestioningly—things I may not yet even understand because the very nature of being brainwashed is that the victims don’t even know what they don’t know. 

As I revisited these memories I knew I had more to say about the human spirit than we’d have time to discuss. So, during the recording of episode 106 I offered listeners my notes on some textual evidence for the nature of man and the human spirit taken from both the Old and the New Testament. I decided to share those notes here for my blog this week. They were written in outline form, and I’ve decided to keep them that way so the texts may be easier to find later should you revisit the outline.

If you’ve been out of Adventism and have processed all of these matters, perhaps having these texts lined up will help you as you talk to other questioning Adventists. And, if you’re a new former who is just examining these things, I pray the Lord will open your eyes to see what He designed you to see and to know what He is preparing in you to see. He knows you better than you know yourself, and He is the only one who does. Only the One who knit you together in your mother’s womb has the knowledge and authority to tell you what is true about yourself. I pray you will trust Him and His word as you examine the nature of man and come to know how this relates to your greatest need. 

Textual Evidence for the Human Spirit

The Old Testament: In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit (Who is the author of Scripture) speaks of dying humans as being “gathered to their fathers” at death. As an Adventist I assumed this means they were buried in a family burial place. However, this is said of them before they’re buried, and some who are said to have been “gathered to their fathers” were never physically buried with their fathers at all. This gathering is evidently to God where their fathers have gone before them in death.

Gen 35:16-18 Then they journeyed from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and she had hard labor. And when her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for you have another son.” And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin.

• We don’t see Rachel being spoken of as gathered to her fathers, but we do see that her soul was departing in death and that even in that process she was able to name her son. 

Genesis 15:15 As for you [Abraham], you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age.

Genesis 25:8 Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe old age, an old man and satisfied with life; and he was gathered to his people. Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, the field that Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with Sarah his wife.

• Here we see that Abraham was buried in a cave he purchased as a sojourner. He was buried with his wife, not his “people”. Even so, Scripture tells us that Abraham was “gathered to His people”. This can only mean that the Lord took his spirit to his people. 

Genesis 35:29 Isaac breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, an old man of ripe age; and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

• Isaac was “gathered to his people” before he was buried. 

Genesis 49:29, 33, 50:1-7 I [Jacob] am about to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite…When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people. Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. Forty days were required for it, for that is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days. And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, ‘My father made me swear, saying, “I am about to die: in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me.” Now therefore, let me please go up and bury my father. Then I will return.’” And Pharaoh answered, “Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear.” So Joseph went up to bury his father. 

• Here we see that Jacob was gathered to his people upon his last breath. 
• He was not buried in the family tomb until another 70+ days later. 

Numbers 20:24 Aaron will be gathered to his people; for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the sons of Israel, because you rebelled against My command at the waters of Meribah.

• Aaron was buried on Mount Hor (Numbers 33:39; Dt. 10:6) during Israel’s wandering in the desert. His family who had died in Egypt were no doubt buried in Egypt. 
• The Lord God is the one who said that Aaron would be gathered to his people, yet Aaron was buried in the wilderness on Mount Hor. 
• God cannot lie. God gathered Aaron to his people who were in God’s care in the bosom of Abraham. 

Numbers 27:12-13 The LORD said to Moses, “Go up into this mountain of Abarim and see the land that I have given to the people of Israel. When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was,

• No one knows where Moses was buried. (Dt. 34:5-7)
• He clearly was not buried in a large family tomb. His gathering was spiritual on the day he died.
• Again this is declared by God Himself, it is not authorial interpretation that can be blamed on “ignorance” as liberal scholars may suggest. 

Judges 2:10 All that generation [Joshua’s] also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.

• This entire generation was not all buried in the same place— they went to God. 
• This is not speaking of a giant cemetery.

1 Samuel 28 is further evidence of the human spirit existing after death.

This answer from the folks of “GotQuestions.org” is further evidence of this reality:

GotQuestions.org– ““The dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7). This truth is implied in the Hebrew idiom gathered to his people…Note, in Genesis 15:15, in His words to Abram, “You . . . will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age,” that God alludes to both Abram’s spiritual fate and his physical fate. Abram’s spirit would go to be with his ancestors; meanwhile, his body would be buried.”

The New Testament

In the New Testament we gather our information from God Himself in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. We see evidence of the spiritual realm, the human spirit, and the nature of life after death for believers in more ways than I have time or space to document. These below were some of the most compelling for me as I found my way out of my former world view.

The Transfiguration

Luke 9:30, “And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”

• Also found in Matthew and Mark
• Moses and Elijah not only knew each other and the Lord but they also knew what Jesus was about to accomplish. They were encouraging Jesus and were clearly in relationship with Him! This means spirits have the ability to know and be known, and to be aware of the things of God.

On the Cross

Luke 23:46, Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. (Taken also from Psalm 31:5, “Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.”)

Luke 23:43, And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

• Adventists get caught up on the comma. Forget the comma, look at the context; the thief asked Jesus to remember him in the future when He returns. Jesus said in correction that he would be with Him that day!
• This conversation is similar to his conversation with Martha (in John 11) who said she knew her brother would rise again in the future at the resurrection and He corrected her saying, “I AM the resurrection”. 
• Jesus consistently corrected the idea that His people wouldn’t be together again until the bodily resurrection. 

After the resurrection of Jesus.

Luke 24:39, “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

• If human spirits were not real, then Jesus would have said so right here. 
• Instead He clarifies the nature of spirits— they are immaterial!
• This also tells us that the Father, who is Spirit (John 4:24), does not have flesh and bones as Ellen G. White said He did. 

We see that humans have spirits that return to God at death. For those who are born of the Spirit, they go into the presence of God. For those who are not, they are kept by God awaiting the final judgement (see Rev. 20). So, why do we need to be born of the Spirit? And what does that mean? 

The Created and Fallen Nature of Man

When we understand how the fall altered our very nature, we have a better understanding of our deepest need. Adventism’s doctrines alter the natures (of God, humanity, sin, and salvation) and create a different human need, a different savior, and a different gospel. So, what is our nature and our need and why do we bear the consequences for Adam’s sin? 

Adam and Eve were created both in the image (spirit) and in the likeness (personhood, relational, creative, and so forth) of God

Gen. 1:26  Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

Gen 5:1-2 This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. 

• God is not gendered and does not have a material body!
• God created us with living spirits and with personhood, intellect, logic, relational, creative, etc.

At the fall their spirits died.

Gen 2:16-17 The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Gen 3:4 The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die! For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil.” 

• The serpent redefines the internal shift Adam and Eve would experience upon the death of their spirits. He doesn’t mention their shame, but says they’ll “be like God”.
• Instead their eyes were open to their nakedness— their separation from God.
• Evil always redefines reality

Gen 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves waist coverings.

Their children are said to be created in the likeness and image of Adam who had already fallen. This doesn’t mean that humanity ceased to be made in the image of God, but we are all fallen as Adam.

Gen 5:3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. 

People have argued that they’ve not sinned in the way Adam did so they shouldn’t be responsible for his sin. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the need of our very species. 

The snake in Gen 3 has helped give me a sense of how this single event permanently altered the nature of our entire human species.

Gen 3:14,15: The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat, All the days of your life; And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed;

• All snakes created since have also been created in the likeness of the cursed snake—every snake since has crawled on its belly in the dust. The seed of this cursed snake will be like the snake even without having participated in the event in Eden. 
• The same is true for humanity. We are all created in the likeness of fallen Adam whose spirit died the day he ate of the fruit. Scripture fleshes this out in the New Testament.

Romans 5:12-14,19, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 

• So we see that it’s not our sin that makes us sinners. 
• It was Adam’s sin that made us sinners.
• We sin because we are sinners by our very nature. 
• Even so, we are still responsible for our sin. 

We are born with a dead nature. A spirit that needs life.

Ephesians 2:1-3, And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 

Our need is for spiritual life through Christ.

John 3:3, Jesus answered and said to him [Nicodemus], “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:5-7, Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’”

Jesus expected Nicodemus to understand this.

John 3: 9-10 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?” 

Ezk. 36: 26-27, And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

• God will give a new human “spirit” = Ruach (Strongs # 7307)
• God will give us His “Spirit” =  also Ruach (Strongs # 7307)
• The same word used of God’s spirit is used to speak of a new human spirit. 

John 3: 16-18, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 

• Notice Jesus says we are born judged, and believers are taken out of judgement.
• In Adventism, “believers” enter into the Investigative Judgement upon belief. 

The Believer’s New Nature

When we believe the true gospel we are sealed with the Holy Spirit, born again by the will and work of God alone, and kept in salvation guarded by God’s power through faith. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit testifies with our spirit (not our breath) that we are God’s (the Father of spirits) children and He will resurrect our bodies one day. Furthermore, death cannot overtake Him and as our seal when our body dies He will take our spirit, sealed to Himself, back to the Father!

Ephesians 1, 13-14, In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

1 Peter 1:3-5, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 

John 1:12,13, But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

• “Our will is not free to rise above our nature.” —Gary Inrig

Eph 2:4,5,8-10, But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved…For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation [or creature]. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Romans 8:16,  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 

•  Spirit and spirit= Pnuema 
• This is not the Spirit testifying with our breath. 

Hebrews 12:9. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? 

Romans 8:9-11, However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Hebrews 12: 22-24, But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.

We were sold into bondage by Adam.

Romans 7:14, For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 

Believers have been redeemed from that bondage by Jesus.

Romans 7:24-25, Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

Romans 8:1,2 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

So, you see, if you take away the human spirit you cannot retain the message of Scripture. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. Unless you are born again you cannot see or enter the kingdom of God. †

For further reading: Are Humans More Than Living Bodies?