The Big Lie: “Death is the Separation of the Soul from the Body”

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Many mainstream Christians claim that at death, only the body dies while the soul lives on, consciously entering the presence of God. In this view, believers never really die—they skip over death entirely by transitioning instantly into eternal life.

Related but slightly different, mainstream Christianity has introduced the idea of spiritual death—a supposed separation from God while a person is literally still alive. They assert that Adam, after he sinned, was only “spiritually dead” to God. But the idea is not in the biblical text. Adam’s death was that he would return to the dust from which he was formed.

The focus in this post is that:

There is no place in the Bible that defines death as the separation of the soul from the body.

So where did this concept come from?

Plato’s Influence: Not the Bible

The idea that "death is the separation of the soul from the body" doesn’t come from Scripture—it comes from Greek philosophy, especially Plato.

 

In his dialogue Phaedo (also called On the Soul), Plato, through the voice of Socrates, taught that:

“Death is the separation of the soul from the body... and the state of being dead is the soul’s being alone by itself, apart from the body.”— Phaedo 64c, 67d

 

Plato’s core beliefs included:

  • The body is weak, evil, and a distraction. The body is temporary, inferior, and even an obstacle to truth.
  • The soul is the true, rational, immortal self. The soul is immortal, existing before and after the body.
  • Death is a liberation, a separation and freeing of the soul from the prison of the body.
  • The afterlife is a return to the realm of the Forms, where the soul can finally perceive perfect reality.

These ideas have deeply influenced Western thought—including Christian theology—but they are not biblical.

Some Major Implications of This Platonic View

1. Creation is Evil; Escape is the Goal

Plato's worldview implies that all things physical are inferior or even evil. Therefore, the body must be escaped, not redeemed. This leads to a view of salvation as disembodiment—a spiritual escape from the physical world.

But the Bible says otherwise:

  • God called creation “very good” (Gen. 1:31).
  • The human body is marvelously made—some 60,000 miles of blood vessels testify to its complexity.
  • The biblical message is not about escape but about restoration.

Yes, creation is under a temporary curse because of sin (Romans 8), but God promises redemption, not abandonment. The key: The Bible promises redemption and restoration—not relocation.

 

2. Death is Glorified

 

In the Bible, death is the enemy (1 Cor. 15:26). It is a punishment for sin (Gen. 2:17, Rom. 6:23). But in mainstream Christianity today, death is often presented as something to be welcomed:

“My precious Mike went to be with his Lord in his forever home today.”

“He is now in heaven with his dad, free of pain and anxiety.”

 

These sentiments glorify death. But this is a modern distortion, not the historic Christian view.

 

Some early Christian writers, like Justin Martyr, strongly rejected the belief that a disembodied human soul “goes to heaven”:

“If you have fallen in with some who are called Christians, but who... say there is no resurrection of the dead, and that their souls, when they die, are taken to heaven—do not imagine that they are Christians.”
— Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter 80

True biblical hope is in the resurrection of the dead, not in the soul floating away to heaven.

 

3. Going to Heaven is a False Hope, a Lie

 

We don’t hope to go dis-embodied to heaven, we hope to be raised from the dead immortal to like on a beautiful, renewed earth. Resurrection is the hope of Israel. In 1 Thes. 4:13-19 Paul said to comfort one another over the deceased, not because they are consciously disembodied in heaven with God, but because through Christ, God will raise them from the dead to new life when Christ returns . In Acts 3:19 Peter says to pray that God would send the Messiah to earth that time of refreshing may come. Our hope is resurrection life on earth, not dis-embodied life somewhere else.

4. The Immortal Soul: The Serpent’s Lie

 

The claim that the soul is immortal is not biblical but is part of the original deception:

God: “You will certainly die.” (Gen. 2:17)
Serpent: “You will not surely die... you will be like God.” (Gen. 3:4–5)

 

God said that man, not just his body, would return to dust:

“You are dust, and to dust you will return.” (Gen. 3:19)

He didn’t say, “Your body will return to dust, but you will live on in bliss or torment.”

 

Jesus confirms that the human soul is not inherently immortal, but can be destroyed by God:

“Fear him who can destroy both body and soul in Gehenna.” (Matt. 10:28)

 

So, according to the Bible:

  • We are not unconditionally immortal.
  • We are contingent—our continued existence depends on God's power, goodness and love.
  • Immortality is a gift, granted by God through resurrection (1 Cor. 15:53), not something we inherently possess. 

Believing in an immortal or living human soul that is separate from a human body led to other non-biblical doctrines like eternal conscious torment, transgender identity as being "a soul in the wrong body." And, incarnation, that a god soul takes on a human body. As if the divine soul can put on and take off a human body. The deity of Christ interpretation of John 1:14 “the Word became flesh” comes from the Greek philosophy that a soul, in this case a divine soul, can live in or “become” a human body, then take off the human body out while still living, then put that raised from the dead body back on again.

Conclusion

 

The idea that “death is the separation of the soul from the body” is not found in the Bible—it’s found in Plato, and the Platonic thinking Gentile “church fathers” of the centuries after Jesus brought it into their Christianity. And the consequences of adopting that view are profound:

  • It devalues God’s creation.
  • It glorifies death.
  • It repeats the serpent’s lie that we won’t really die and that we will become like God.
  • Creates non-biblical theologies like the incarnation of a divine soul in a human body. 

The Bible offers something better: resurrection, redemption, and restoration of the whole human person—body and soul—through the power of the living God. “God raises the dead.” Not “God enables his child to escape from his body”. Not “God relocates his child to a disembodied bliss”. But God raises the dead.

Additional Resources:

Where do we go when we die? Interview with Pastor Sean Finnegan
https://youtu.be/w8rgs85dBtk

Conditional Immortality (Restitutio podcast)

https://restitutio.org/2019/02/14/164-theology-3-conditional-immortality/

 

Challenging Conditional Immortality (Restitutio podcast)

https://restitutio.org/2019/02/21/165-theology-4-challenging-conditional-immortality/

 

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