(Lev. 6:2-7; 19:11, 12) And a person presenting false testimony was to receive the punishment that he desired to inflict upon another by means of his lies. (Deut. 19:15-21) God’s view of malicious lying, as reflected in the Law, has not changed. Those desiring to gain his approval cannot engage in the practice of lying. (Ps. 5:6; Prov. 20:19; Col. 3:9, 10; 1 Tim. 3:11; Rev. 21:8, 27; 22:15) They cannot be living a lie, claiming to love God while hating their brother. (1 John 4:20, 21) For playing false to the holy spirit by lying, Ananias and his wife lost their lives.—Acts 5:1-11.

However, persons who are momentarily overreached in telling a lie do not automatically become guilty of an unforgivable sin. The case of Peter, in denying Jesus three times, illustrates that, if a person is truly repentant, God will forgive him.—Matt. 26:69-75.

While malicious lying is definitely condemned in the Bible, this does not mean that a person is under obligation to divulge truthful information to people who are not entitled to it. Jesus Christ counseled: “Do not give what is holy to dogs, neither throw your pearls before swine, that they may never trample them under their feet and turn around and rip you open.” (Matt. 7:6) That is why Jesus on certain occasions refrained from giving full information or direct answers to certain questions when doing so could have brought unnecessary harm. (Matt. 15:1-6; 21:23-27; John 7:3-10) Evidently the course of Abraham, Isaac, Rahab and Elisha in misdirecting or withholding full facts from nonworshipers of Jehovah must be viewed in the same light.—Gen. 12:10-19; chap. 20; 26:1-10; Josh. 2:1-6; Jas. 2:25; 2 Ki. 6:11-23.

Jehovah God allows an “operation of error” to go to persons who prefer falsehood “that they may get to believing the lie” rather than the good news about Jesus Christ. (2 Thess. 2:9-12) This principle is illustrated by what happened centuries earlier in the case of Israelite King Ahab. Lying prophets assured Ahab of success in war against Ramoth-gilead, while Jehovah’s prophet Micaiah foretold disaster. As revealed in vision to Micaiah, Jehovah allowed a spirit creature to become a “deceptive spirit” in the mouth of Ahab’s prophets. That is to say, this spirit creature exercised his power upon them so that they spoke, not truth, but what they themselves wanted to say and what Ahab wanted to hear from them. Though forewarned, Ahab preferred to be fooled by their lies and paid for it with his life.—1 Ki. 22:1-38; 2 Chron. chap. 18.

LIFE

The principle of life or living; life is defined as the animate existence, or term of animate existence, of an individual. As to earthly, physical life, things possessing life have three distinguishing manifestations: growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to environment through changes originating internally. The Hebrew word used in the Scriptures is hhay·yahʹ and the Greek word is zo·eʹ. The Hebrew word neʹphesh and the Greek word psy·kheʹ, both meaning “soul,” are also employed to refer to life, not in the abstract sense, but to life as a person or animal. (Compare the words “soul” and “life,” as used at Job 10:1; Psalm 66:9; Proverbs 3:22.) Vegetation has life, the life principle operating in it, but not life as a soul.

JEHOVAH GOD THE SOURCE

Life has always existed, because Jehovah God is the living God, the Fountain of life, and he has no beginning or end of existence. (Jer. 10:10; Dan. 6:20, 26; John 6:57; 2 Cor. 3:3; 6:16; 1 Thess. 1:9; 1 Tim. 1:17; Ps. 36:9; Jer. 17:13) The first of his creations was given life, namely, his only-begotten Son, the Word. (John 1:1-3; Col. 1:15) Through this Son, other living angelic sons of God were created. (Job 38:4-7; Col. 1:16, 17) Later, the physical universe was brought into existence (Gen. 1:1, 2), and on the third of earth’s creative “days” the first forms of physical life: grass, vegetation and fruit trees. On the fifth day, living earthly souls, sea animals and winged flying creatures, were created, and on the sixth day, land animals and, finally, man.—Gen. 1:11-13, 20-23, 24-31; Acts 17:25; see CREATION; DAY.

No evolution

Consequently, life on earth did not have to wait for some chance combination of chemicals to occur under certain exact conditions. Such a thing has never yet been observed, and, in fact, is impossible. Life on earth came to be as the result of a direct command of Jehovah God the Source of life and by the direct action of his Son in carrying out that command. Only life begets life. The Bible account tells us in each instance that the thing created brought forth offspring in its likeness, or, “according to its kind.” (Gen. 1:12, 21, 25; 5:3) Scientists have found that there is indeed discontinuity between the different ‘kinds,’ and, except for the question of origin, this has been the chief obstacle to their theory of evolution.—See KIND.

Life force and breath

In earthly creatures or “souls” there is both the active life force or “spirit” that animates them, and the breath that sustains that life force. Both spirit (life force) and breath are provisions from God, and he can destroy life by taking either away. (Ps. 104:29; Isa. 42:5) At the time of the Flood animals and humans were drowned; their breath was cut off and the force of life was extinguished. It died out. “Everything in which the breath of the force of life was active in its nostrils [literally, “in which the breath of the spirit (or, active force) of life was”] of all that were on the dry ground died.”—Gen. 7:22, NW, 1953 ed., ftn.; compare Young’s Translation; see SPIRIT.

Organism

All things having life, either spiritual or fleshly, have an organism or body. Life itself is impersonal, incorporeal, being merely the life principle. In discussing the kind of body with which resurrected persons will come back, the apostle Paul explains that those created for different environments have different bodies. As for those having life on earth, he says: “Not all flesh is the same flesh, but there is one of mankind, and there is another flesh of cattle, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish.” He says also that “there are heavenly bodies, and earthly bodies; but the glory of the heavenly bodies is one sort, and that of the earthly bodies is a different sort.”—1 Cor. 15:39, 40.

Regarding the difference in the flesh of various earthly bodies, the Encyclopædia Britannica says: “Another feature is the chemical individuality everywhere manifest, for each distinct type of organism seems to have some distinctive protein of its own, and some characteristic rate or rhythm of metabolism. Thus under the general quality of persistence amid unceasing metabolism, there is a triad of facts: (1) the building-up that compensates for the breaking-down of proteins, (2) the occurrence of these proteins in a colloidal state and (3) their specificity from type to type.” [Italics ours.]—1942 ed., Vol. 14, p. 42.

TRANSMISSION OF LIFE FORCE

The life force in creatures, being started into activity by Jehovah in the first of each kind (for example, in the first human pair), could then be passed on by the procreative process to offspring. Describing the process, the Encyclopædia Britannica reports: “The life cycle of individual multicellular organisms, . . . for example, a fly, a bird or a man, is typically divisible into five biologically differentiated, and usually distinct, phases [the first of which is] as follows: (a) The formation of the zygote, which is the individual, by the union of ovum and spermatozoön in the process called fertilization. The life-history of the individual, as a distinct and biological entity, begins with this event.” (1959 ed., Vol. 7, p. 110) In mammals, following conception the mother supplies oxygen and other nourishment until birth, when the infant begins to breathe through its nostrils, to nurse and, later, to eat.

When Adam was created, God formed man’s body. Although the account dealing with Adam’s creation does not specifically mention it, God’s spirit or active force generated life, or caused the force of life to be active in Adam’s body. (As we have seen in the foregoing discussion, the Bible shows that life force or spirit animates all earthly souls. [Compare Psalm 31:5; Ecclesiastes 3:19; 12:7; Luke 23:46.]) Additionally, God proceeded “to blow into his nostrils the breath [n^esha·mahʹ] of life, and the man came to be a living soul.” (Gen. 2:7) Now Adam began to have life as a person, to express personality traits, and by his expressions and actions could reveal that he was higher than the animals, that he was a “son of God,” made in His likeness and image.—Gen. 1:27; Luke 3:38.

The life of man and animals is dependent, first of all, on the life force started off initially in the first pair, and secondarily on breath to sustain that life force. Biological science testifies to this fact. This is evident in their separation of the process of death into two classifications: Somatic or systemic death (sometimes called clinical death), which is the absolute cessation of the functions of the brain, the circulatory and the respiratory organs (the body as an organized unit is dead); and death of the tissues (sometimes termed biological death), the entire disappearance of the vital actions of the ultimate structural constituents of the body. So even though the person is dead beyond all human help of resuscitation (somatic death), the life force still lingers in the cells of the body’s tissues until eventually every cell dies completely (death of the tissues).

EVERLASTING LIFE FOR MAN?

All forms of vegetable life, and that of animals, is transitory. A long-standing question among scientists has been, Why does man die? Could he, under right conditions, live indefinitely? In considering this possibility for man, it is noteworthy to read what biologists say about the capacity of life, not only individual cell life, but life of an organized body composed of many cells, to continue in active existence for a long period of time. In its discussion of Death, under the subheading “Potential Immortality,” the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1959 ed., Vol. 7, p. 112A) states regarding cells: “It may fairly be said that the potential immortality of all essential cellular elements of the body either has been fully demonstrated, or has been carried far enough to make the probability very great, that properly conducted experiments would demonstrate the continuance of the life of these cells in culture to any indefinite extent.”

Then, under “Death Among Multicellular Animals,” the Britannica goes on to say: “A fundamental reason why the higher multicellular animals do not live forever appears to be that in the differentiation and specialization of function of cells and tissues in the body as a whole, any individual part does not find the conditions necessary for its continued existence. In the body any part is dependent for the necessities of its existence, as for example, nutritive material, upon other parts, or put in another way, upon the organization of the body as a whole. It is the differentiation and specialization of function of the mutually dependent aggregate of cells and tissues which constitute the metazoan body [one composed of many cells making up tissues and organs] that brings about death, and not any inherent or inevitable mortal process in the individual cells themselves.

“When cells show characteristic senescent [aging] changes it is perhaps because they are reflecting, in their morphology and physiology, a consequence of their mutually dependent association in the body as a whole, and not any necessary progressive process inherent in themselves. . . . In short, senescence appears not to be a primary or necessary attribute to the physiological economy of individual cells as such, but rather of the body as a whole.”

On the other hand, however, in later experiments reported in the Scientific American magazine of March 1968, lung tissue cells were found to stop dividing after about fifty divisions, and died out, indicating that the aging and death process was a “built-in” factor. It might be mentioned, however, that the cells were in an artificial environment; the tissue was first broken down into separated cells by means of a digestive enzyme, then put in a centrifuge, and afterward cultivated on the glass surface inside a bottle. When more than one layer grew, the cells were then re-treated with the enzyme and put into two bottles, and so forth. The time occupied for the approximately fifty divisions, or population doublings, was about six to eight months, after which the cells died. A question that might be asked is: How could this data be used to prove what would take place in the human body? For certainly humans live many times more than eight months, and most of their body cells are regularly being replaced.

In all such experiments it must be kept in mind that the experimenters are working with imperfect dying mankind, not the perfection that originally existed in man’s forefather Adam. Sin and death are working in their bodies, doubtless affecting all organs and cells. So no sure conclusions can be drawn from such research as to the human body’s possibility of living forever. In considering the findings and conclusions of these scientific men, this fact must be taken into consideration. All such research, however, tends to demonstrate the tremendous vitality of the life force that God started in living things initially by means of his holy spirit.

What man needs for life

Such reasonings of scientific investigators not only overlook the cause of death in all mankind, but, more importantly, they ignore the prime factor requisite for everlasting life. While it is necessary for the human body to be constantly nourished and refreshed by breathing, drinking and eating, there is something far more essential for continuance of life. The principle was expressed by Jehovah: “Not by bread alone does man live but by every expression of Jehovah’s mouth does man live.” (Deut. 8:3) Jesus Christ repeated this statement and also said: “My food is for me to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work.” (John 4:34; Matt. 4:4) On another occasion he declared: “Just as the living Father sent me forth and I live because of the Father, he also that feeds on me, even that one will live because of me.”—John 6:57.

When man was created, he was made in God’s image, according to his likeness. (Gen. 1:26, 27) This, of course, did not mean physical image or appearance, for God is a Spirit, and man flesh. (Gen. 6:3; John 4:24) It meant that man, different from the “unreasoning animals” (2 Pet. 2:12), had reasoning power; he had attributes like God, such as love, a sense of justice, and wisdom. He had the ability to understand why he existed and his Creator’s purpose toward him. Hence he, unlike the animals, was given the capacity for spirituality. He could appreciate and worship his Creator. This capacity created a need in Adam. He needed more than literal food; he had to have spiritual sustenance; his spirituality had to be exercised for his mental and physical welfare.

Consequently, apart from Jehovah God and his spiritual provisions there can be no indefinite continuance of life. As to living forever, Jesus said: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.”—John 17:3.