How to Become Immortal

Book excerpt: What Is a Human Being? All creatures on earth, except human beings, go about their life cycle within certain fixed boundaries of behavior. However, the human part of creation is quite different. The human experience changes from day to day and from personality to personality; it does not exist in a controlled or static condition. Humans are unique and they are different from the rest of creation. In order to understand what makes humans different from the rest of the creatures on earth, it is necessary to investigate the origin of humanity and see what its Creator says about the human life form. Physical and Spiritual Elements "And the Lord God formed the man out of the dust of the ground, and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living creature" (Gen.2:7 Para.). See also v8; Deut.32:18; Job 33:4. Humans were formed out of the elements of the physical earth. But is human life just a chemical reaction of a well designed structure of gas, fluid, and solid matter reacting to internal and external stimulation? If the physical form is the sum total of the human creation, humanity is no different from any other animal with similar structure. However, it is obvious that humans are different from animals in many ways. Humans are on a higher level of existence than the rest of creation. But why? What is it that makes humans different? The answer lies in an unseen element of the human creation. Job writes, "But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty gives them understanding" (Job 32:8 KJV). "The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, says the Lord, which stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him" (Zech.12:1 KJV). See also Ecc.12:5-7. The English word ´spirit,´ in these two verses, is translated from the Hebrew word ´ruwach´, which means ´wind´, or ´mind.´ It does not denote a physical being at all; it denotes an essence that is non-physical. God says that there is a non-physical element of humanity that is an integral part of the human creation. It is this non-physical element, the human spirit (the human mind), that resides within the human body and gives humanity the ability to be on a higher thought-plane than all other physical creatures on earth. It is difficult for most people to fully comprehend that the physical human body is not the totality of the human entity. However, the physical body is not the person at all; the body is merely a housing or a physical mechanism through which the spirit of man is able to exist and function in this physical dimension of time and space. The spirit of man that inhabits the body is not an it, nor is it indefinable, unexplainable, or mysterious; the human spirit that inhabits the human body is the human. See 2.Cor.5:1.