– As the Bible indicates, God created humans and animals with the same kind of element or substance. It’s the dust of the Earth, as it was written in Genesis:

GENESIS 2: 7 – And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

SÁNG THẾ KÝ 2: 7 – Giê-hô-va Đức Chúa Trời bèn lấy bụi đất nắn nên hình người, hà sanh khí vào lỗ mũi; thì người trở nên một loài sanh linh.

GENESIS 2: 19 – Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

SÁNG THẾ KÝ 2: 19 – Giê-hô-va Đức Chúa Trời lấy đất nắn nên các loài thú đồng, các loài chim trời, rồi dẫn đến trước mặt A-đam đặng thử xem người đặt tên chúng nó làm sao, hầu cho tên nào A-đam đặt cho mỗi vật sống, đều thành tên riêng cho chúng.

– Because humans were created by dust of the Earth, so after we died, our bodies would return to the Earth as dust, as God declared the sentence for Adam’ sin:

GENESIS 3: 19 – By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; For dust you are and to dust you will return.

SÁNG THẾ KÝ 3: 19 – Ngươi sẽ làm đổ mồ hôi trán mới có mà ăn, cho đến ngày nào ngươi trở về đất, là nơi mà có ngươi ra; vì ngươi là bụi, ngươi sẽ trở về bụi.

– With the advance of science, now we all know that human body and animal’s have been composed by the same kind of elements, but the difference between us and them is the soul.

– According the Bible, when God created animals He did not give them His living breath as He did to Adam. That’s why humans are so precious to God and we all know the Lord Jesus Christ came to the world to die only for humans.

– Because of His love for humans so vast and deep God gave Adam the breath of life to distinguish humans from animals. In all of God’s creatures, only humans have souls that came from God’s living breath. By blessing humans with the soul, God made humans to be the dominant species (giống thượng đẳng) above all of His creatures.

– That’s why in human language, calling or treating humans as animals is a tremendous insult. But sadly, there have been some religious ideologies assumed that after death humans could be turned into animals, and many people believed that kind of thought.

– God never insult humans in that way. Although He must punish sinners because He is Just but He will do it as they are and keep their humanity intact, even in hell.

– And although Christians are called God’s sheep but it’s just a way to describe people in literature, not a real fact or real sheep.

– But because God is invisible to human eyes so the soul He gave to Adam was the same. For many centuries science has tried hard to see it but never succeed it. That is one of the reasons many scientists don’t believe in God. They supposed they only believe in what they can see. But there are many things that they have believed without seeing or touching it.

– Although we cannot see the soul but we can know that it exists and it shows clearly in human life.

– But firstly we should look at animal behavior to see the difference.

– Because animals and fish have no soul so they don’t have compassion and the tendency (xu hướng) to worship something or someone.

– For example, female Siamese fish tends to eat her eggs after giving birth to them. A mother zebra or a mother deer did not cry when her foal or fawn was killed by a lion. They just ran away for their safety.

– Although lion or tiger is called king of the jungle, no other animals have any tendency to worship them.

– Although ants take care of their queen very well and they can build big nest for their colony, they never build temple for their queen.

– All of animals live by instinct (bản năng) only, that means they eat, drink, reproduce (sinh sản) and die. Some people try to say that animals have some social structures like herd leader (đầu đàn), pack protector (bảo vệ bầy) but it actually is behavioral (thói quen) or survival instinct (bản năng sinh tồn), not comes from compassion (cảm thông) or love.

– Some artists and scientists try to humanized (nhân cách hóa) and dramatized (lãng mạn hóa) the animal world as we can see in movies, books, arts and play, but they cannot change the fact they will never be at the same level with humans.

– Some Asian religions go further by saying that after death human souls could reincarnate into animal bodies waiting to turn into humans again. But there is no evidence to support it.

– If animals could have human souls they must behave differently from their instinct, like love, disappointed (thất vọng), despair (tuyệt vọng) or repent and regret (in order to be reincarnated back to human life). But there is also no evidence of it.

– Some unbelievers even used the Scriptures to indicate that animals have souls by quoting the story of a speaking donkey that was written in the book of Numbers:

NUMBERS 22: 28 – Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Balaam: What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?

DÂN SỐ KÝ 22: 28 – Bấy giờ, Đức Giê-hô-va mở miệng lừa ra, nó nói cùng Ba-la-am rằng: Tôi có làm chi cho người, mà người đã đánh tôi ba lần?

– This particular verse is telling us of the miracle God did by making a donkey to speak human language in order to prevent Balaam to commit sin against the Israelites. It does not give evidence of a donkey that has soul.

– In real life some people can make parrots to speak human words, so for God as the Almighty, He can easily make a donkey to talk.

– Other people used another passage in the letter to the Romans as an evidence of all things of the creation having some kind of souls in order to contradict the truth in the Bible about only humans have souls.

ROMANS 8: 19-22 – For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

RÔMA 8: 19-22 – Thật thế, muôn vật ước ao, nóng nảy mà trông đợi con cái Đức Chúa Trời được tỏ ra. Vì muôn vật đã bị bắt phục sự hư không, chẳng phải tự ý mình, bèn là bởi cớ Đấng bắt phục. Muôn vật mong rằng mình cũng sẽ được giải cứu khỏi làm tôi sự hư nát, đặng dự phần trong sự tự do vinh hiển của con cái Đức Chúa Trời. Vì chúng ta biết rằng muôn vật đều than thở và chịu khó nhọc cho đến ngày nay.

– For the above passage, we have to understand this: In literature, there are many formats of writing and it’s the format of humanization (nhân cách hóa) to emphasize on the subject of enduring suffering and waiting for future glory as Paul mentioned in his letter in the same chapter from verse 18 to 30.

– Everyone who has knowledge of writing literature can understand this format easily, except those who intentionally misunderstood it in order to criticize or blatantly mocking God’s words.

– I like to give an example like this for you to understand this kind of format in writing or speaking: There was a mother who tried to teach her daughter to cook so that she could take care of her own family when she grew up and got married. The mother started her lesson with a simple recipe but the girl was still young and she had no interest in learning how to cook. After a while and after many unsuccessful attempts, the mother became irritated and spoke somewhat sternly to her daughter: This recipe is so simple that the pot can cook it by itself. By saying that she did not mean the pot could cook but she emphasize that the recipe is so simple and easy, and the daughter should pay more attention to learn.

– This explanation can apply to what Jesus had said at the time He came into Jerusalem:

LUKE 19: 37-40 – When He came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” “I tell you,” He replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out”.

LU-CA 19: 37-40 – Lúc đến gần dốc núi Ô-li-ve, cả đám môn đồ lấy làm mừng rỡ, và cất tiếng ngợi khen Đức Chúa Trời về những phép lạ mình đã thấy, mà nói rằng: Đáng ngợi khen Vua nhơn danh Chúa mà đến! Bình an ở trên trời, và vinh hiển trên các nơi rất cao! Bấy giờ, có mấy người Pha-ri-si ở trong đám dân đông nói cùng Ngài rằng: Thưa thầy, xin quở trách môn đồ thầy! Ngài đáp rằng: Ta phán cùng các ngươi, nếu họ nín lặng thì đá sẽ kêu lên.

– Although Jesus certainly could make stones to praise His name, because He is God Who took human form, but what He meant was not of the stones but the important of praising He Who came from God above.

– Therefore, we Christians should be careful when hearing other unbelievers tried to attack our faith by using some verses in the Bible. They never wanted to learn from it but often picked some verses here and there and used them to criticize the Bible, pretending to understand it but in fact they were completely wrong about the Scriptures in every aspect.

– Now we come back to the subject of human soul. Although no one can see souls with his/her own eyes, but evidence indicates that human soul is real.

– One of the proof of the human soul is the tendency (xu hướng) to worship (tôn sùng) a higher being or thing, either in religion, science, artistry or politic.

– As I have said before, animals don’t have this kind of tendency but humans do. Because humans have souls therefore people tend to pay respect (tưởng nhớ) to passing parents, grand parents and ancestors, like Vietnamese people do. But animals does not have the tendency to do something like that.

– From the time humans came into existence in this world, everyone, no exception, has wanted to worship someone or something. For those who lived in the primitive and ancient times, they worshipped thunder, sun, moon, star, animals, and some imaginary figures like dragon, phoenix (the Asian dragon is completely different from the dragon in the Bible). Even scientists, nonreligious people and atheists have the tendency (xu hướng) to worship (or pay respect to) something or someone. They like to respect (tôn sùng) human brain, technology, famous actors and actresses, renowned singers, or political leaders.

– They are their idols (thần tượng) and although they don’t have temples for them but they still dedicate their lives to them the same like religious people. They spend time, money, efforts and even their lives for their human idols.

– I can give you a lot of examples for this kind of worship but we don’t have time for that. When you read news, pay attention to those who follow their idols on social media and you will see it clearly and understand what I just said.

– The tendency to worship (tôn sùng/thờ phượng) someone or something is always in human heart. The reason is that God created humans and in our hearts there is always one place for Him that cannot be fulfilled (trám đầy) by someone else. Although unbelievers try to substitute (thay thế) someone or something into that place but their lives will never be satisfied.

– Because people have tried to push God out of their lives and filled that place in their hearts with idols, money, drug and many immoral or inappropriate things (không xứng đáng) that human lives are always full of sorrow and melancholy.

– Another evidence of human soul is the conscience (lương tâm). Our ancient people, although they did not have the Bible, but they could understood this truth a little bit so they called the conscience the human way (lòng nhân đạo/cách sống của con người khác với loài cầm thú) to distinguish humans from animals.

– For example, a lion never hesitated to kill a baby deer, disregarding of its beauty and likable. The lion only focused on satisfying its hunger. There have been many stories on the news about home dogs mauled and maimed human babies to death.

– But for humans, people tend to be hesitated when doing something contradict to their conscience. It happens because God gave Adam His living breath, and together, His standards for human life. That’s why people can feel regret or have repentance. Animals never have those tendencies.

– The Bible recorded such conscience in Paul’s letter to the Romans:

ROMANS 2: 15 – They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.

RÔ-MA 2: 15 – Họ tỏ ra rằng việc mà luật pháp dạy biểu đã ghi trong lòng họ: Chính lương tâm mình làm chứng cho luật pháp, còn ý tưởng mình khi thì cáo giác mình, khi thì binh vực mình.

– And because God gave humans souls, so when humans die, our souls will return to Him, as it was written in the Bible:

ECCLESIASTES 12: 7 – And the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

TRUYỀN ĐẠO 12: 7 – Và bụi tro trở vào đất y như nguyên cũ, và thần linh trở về nơi Đức Chúa Trời, là Đấng đã ban nó.

– Our ancient people also got a slim of this truth even they did not understand it completely because they did not have the Bible like we do, but they had said this: The leaves fall back down to their roots (Lá rụng về cội/có ý nói rằng khi qua đời linh hồn của con người sẽ trở về nơi Thượng Đế).

– Because human souls will return to God Who gave it to Adam in the first place, so everyone, especially Israelites and Christians, should prepare ourselves for the day we see Him, as the Bible has reminded us in the book of Amos:

AMOS 4: 12 – Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, Israel, prepare to meet your God.

A-MỐT 4: 12 – Hỡi Y-sơ-ra-ên, vậy nên ta sẽ đãi ngươi dường ấy; hỡi Y-sơ-ra-ên, vì ta sẽ đãi ngươi dường ấy, nên ngươi khá sửa soạn mà gặp Đức Chúa Trời ngươi.

– Thus, as we now know that God loves us dearly to give humans souls, and meeting Him someday is a certainty for everyone, may that day be a happy one for us, to hear His praise for each one of us as His faithful child and servant and to be allowed intoeaven with Him forever.

(will be continued)