As I write, I have just come upon a “Discipleship 101 Study Guide” (Unit 2A), published by the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). In it then Pastor General Joseph Tkach, in year 2000, wrote:
What are human beings? Scientists call us Homo sapiens, a member of the animal kingdom. Scripture calls us nephesh, a [Hebrew] word that is also used for animals, [meaning, “a living being”]. We have spirit just as animals do. Our anatomy and physiology is [sic] like that [sic] of an animal. [Emphasis added.]
The above-emphasized statement needs to be clarified in light of the Holy Scriptures, the Bible.
Job 32:8 says, “But there is a spirit in man.” Zechariah 12:1 echoes this: “…the LORD…who forms the spirit of man within him.” Ecclesiastes 12:6-7 says that, at death man (who is made of the earth or dust) will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God, who gave it.
The things of man” – human knowledge – is possible through the spirit in man. Paul contrasts this with the “things of God,” knowledge that can only be had through the Spirit of God, which He gives to His elect or chosen people (Verse 12).
Ecclesiastes 3:21 says that, at death, “…the spirit [Hebrew ruach] of animals goes down to the earth.” “Spirit” here refers to the breath [as ruach can also be translated into]. That spirit or breath simply dissipates into the earth, as does man’s breath at death, but man’s spirit returns to God for safekeeping until the resurrection “at the last day.”
We sometimes speak of an energetic or lively horse as a “spirited” one, but this not to say that the horse has spirit in it as man has a spirit placed in him by God.
Animals do understand some of the “things of man” in such a way as to respond to man’s kindness, cruelty, or indifference. Some dogs have been trained to do simple arithmetic by barking the correct answer. But animals are unable to comprehend the complicated, technical knowledge of man, such as space science.
There are what we may call the “things of animals” – “knowledge” and abilities that are often beyond man’s natural powers. Man may not be as strong as elephants that can move logs with their trunk, but man has invented machines that do the same task. The “things of animals” also include the natural instincts God has equipped them with. Thus, by instinct birds build their nests in some particular manner, where they lay their eggs, hatch them, and feed their young until they can fend for themselves. [See: Of Birds and Men.] Bats use some kind of “radar” to navigate their way in the darkness of a cave or the night.
Although animal lovers may wish it did, the Bible nowhere promises that animals which have died will be resurrected, as the Bible clearly promises for mankind (1 Corinthians 15). Salvation and everlasting life are promised only to the children of God. [See: “What Happens to Man After Death?”]
Pedro R. Meléndez, Jr.
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