Bible Question: When I die can I become an angel? 

A summary of our viewpoint of the scriptures on this subject leads us to believe that there is a spiritual world in the heavens and human/fleshly world on earth. There are various levels of natures in the human/fleshly world like rocks, plants, animals, humans. There are also different natures in heaven. Although there are angels, not all of them are immortal. Take for example, Satan, who is an evil angel. Revelation states that God will eventually destroy Satan and his legions of demons (Revelation 20; Hebrews
2:14). We know that God does not want everyone to be an angel because the scripture says, "For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens: God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited..." (Isaiah 45:18) God
has offered the prize of immortality in a spiritual realm to those who follow in the footsteps of Christ and s acrifice their lives to following His will. This requires diligence and the giving up of a resurrection as a human being in Christ’s Kingdom, guaranteed to the entire world by the death of
Jesus. (John 5:28, 29; 1 Timothy 2:3-6; 1 Corinthians 15:22)

The following is an excerpt from "Studies in the Scriptures, Series 1" also known as "The Divine Plan of the Ages" that elaborates further on the subject:

God had arranged that man in Eden should have access to life-sustaining trees, and the paradise in which he was placed was abundantly supplied with numbers of "every [kind of] tree" good for food or for adornment. (Gen.
2:9,16,17) Among the trees of life good for food was one forbidden. While for a time forbidden to eat of the tree of knowledge, he was permitted to eat freely of trees which sustained life perfectly; and he was separated from them only after transgression, that thereby the death-penalty might go into effect. Gen. 3:22

Thus the glory and beauty of humanity are seen to be dependent on the continued supply of life, just as the beauty of the diamond is dependent on the continued supply of sunlight. When sin deprived humanity of the right to life, and the supply was withheld, immediately the jewel began to lose its brilliancy and beauty, and finally it is deprived of its last vestige in the tomb. His beauty consumes away like a moth. (Psa. 39:11) As the diamond
loses its beauty and brilliancy when the light is withdrawn, so man loses life when God withholds the supplies from him. "Yea, man giveth up the ghost [life] and where is he?" (Job 14:10) "His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them." (Verse 21) "For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest." (Eccl. 9:10) But since a ransom has been found,
since the death penalty has been provided by the redeemer, the jewel is to have its beauty restored, and is again to reflect perfectly the Creator’s image when the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings. (Mal. 4:2) It is because of the sin-offering, the sacrifice of Christ, that "All that are in their graves shall come forth." There shall be a restitution of all things; first an opportunity or offer of restitution to all, and ultimately the attainment of human perfection by all who will obey the Redeemer.

This, however, is not the reward to which Jesus refers as the end of the narrow way. From other scriptures we learn that the reward promised to those who walk the narrow way is the "divine nature"--life inherent, life in that
superlative degree which only the divine nature can possess--immortality. What a hope! Dare we aspire to such a height of glory? Surely not without positive and explicit invitation could any rightfully thus aspire.

From 1 Tim. 6:14-16 we learn that the immortal or divine nature was originally the possession of divinity only. We read: "He [Jesus] in his time [the Millennial age] will show who is the blessed and only potentate--the King of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the
light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see." All other beings, angels, men, beasts, birds, fish, etc., are but vessels holding each its measure of life, and all differing in character, capacity, and quality according to the organism which it has pleased the Creator to provide for each.

Further, we learn that Jehovah, who alone possessed immortality originally, has highly exalted his Son, our Lord Jesus, to the same divine, immortal nature; hence he is now the express image of the Father’s person. (Heb. 1:3)
So we read, "As the Father hath LIFE IN HIMSELF [God’s definition of "immortality"--life in himself--not drawn from other sources, nor dependent on circumstances, but independent, inherent life], so hath he given to the
Son to have LIFE IN HIMSELF." (John 5:26) Since the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, then, two beings are immortal; and, amazing grace! the same offer is
made to the Bride of the Lamb, being selected during the Gospel age. Yet not all of the great company who are nominally of the Church will receive this great prize, but only that "little flock" of overcomers who so run as to
obtain it; who follow closely in the Master’s footsteps; who, like him, walk the narrow way of sacrifice, even unto death. These, when born from the dead in the resurrection, will have the divine nature and form. This immortality,
the independent, self-existent, divine nature, is the life to which the narrow way leads.

This class is not to be raised from the tomb human beings; for we are assured by the Apostle that, though sown in the tomb natural bodies, they will be raised spiritual bodies. These all shall be "changed," and even as they once bore the image of the earthly, human nature, they shall bear the
image of the heavenly. But "it doth not yet appear what we shall be"--what a spiritual body is; but "we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him," and share in "the glory to be revealed." 1 John 3:2; Col. 1:27; 2 Cor.
4:17; John 17:22; 1 Pet. 5:10; 2 Thess. 2:14

Not only is this high calling to a change of nature confined exclusively to the Gospel age, but it is the only offer of this age. Hence our Lord’s words quoted at the beginning of <PAGE 212> this chapter include on the broad road to destruction all who are not on the way to the only prize now offered. All others are still on the broad road--these only have as yet escaped the condemnation that is on the world. This, the only way of life now open, because of its difficulty, finds few who care to walk in it. The masses of
mankind in their weakness prefer the broad, easy way of self-gratification.

The narrow way, while it ends in life, in immortality, might be called a way of death, since its prize is gained through the sacrifice of the human nature even unto death. It is the narrow way of death to life. Being reckoned free from the Adamic guilt and the death penalty, the consecrated
voluntarily surrender or sacrifice those human rights, reckoned theirs, which in due time they, with the world in general, would have actually received. As "the man Christ Jesus" laid down or sacrificed his life for the world, so these become joint-sacrificers with him. Not that his sacrifice
was insufficient and that others were needed; but while his is all-sufficient, these are permitted to serve and to suffer with him in order to become his bride and joint-heir. So, then, while the world is under condemnation to death, and is dying with Adam, this "little flock," through the process of faith reckonings and sacrifice, already described, are said to die with Christ. They sacrifice and die with him as human beings, in order to become partakers of the divine nature and glories with him; for we believe that if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer with him, we shall also be glorified together. Rom. 8:17 and 2 Tim. 2:11,12

In the beginning of the Millennial age, those who now walk the narrow way will have gained the great prize for which they ran, immortality; and being thus clothed with the divine nature and power, they will be prepared for the
<PAGE 213> great work of restoring and blessing the world during that age. With the end of the Gospel age, the narrow way to immortality will close, because the select "little flock" that it was designed to test and prove
will have been completed. "Now is the accepted [Greek, dektos, acceptable or receivable] time"--the time in which sacrificers, coming in the merit of Jesus and becoming dead with him, are acceptable to God--a sacrifice of sweet odor. Death, as the Adamic penalty, will not be permitted forever; it will be abolished during the Millennial age; as a sacrifice it will be acceptable and rewarded only during the Gospel age.

It is only as "new creatures" that the saints of this age are on the way to life; and only as human beings are we consecrated to destruction, as sacrifices. If, as human creatures, we be dead with Christ, as new, spiritual beings, we shall live with him. (Rom. 6:8) The mind of God in us,
the transformed mind, is the germ of the new nature.

We hope this is helpful to your Bible studies. The complete book, "The Divine Plan of the Ages" is available on our Web site and will likely help you in further studies. If you do have any more questions on this subject or other subjects, please feel free to e-mail us personally.

Bible Question: What does the Old Testament teach about the soul? Do angels have a soul?

Thank you for your thoughtful questions. We are glad that you have found our website of interest. So, what does the Old Testament teach about the soul? The Hebrew word translated "soul" is nephesh, which simply means "a breathing creature." Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words defines nephesh as "the essence of life, the act of breathing, taking breath... The Hebrew system of thought does not include the combination or opposition of the "body" and "soul" which are really Greek and Latin in origin." (1985, p. 237-238, emphasis added) Even though the Hebrew language may not include the thought it is included in the context of 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 soul. " Here the word nephesh is defined as body and breath becoming a (nephesh) soul.

The Hebrew words nephesh caiyah mean "living soul" and these words apply not only to man but to all of God’s living creatures. "To every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life."

But what about the angels? They are not souls! They live in heaven and do not breath and have no body like you and me... We do not need a soul to get to heaven... And the Bible says that the spirit goes back to God, when we die. A Soul Is a sentient being. With this definition we could include the spiritual realm. The breath of life implies more than just oxygen it also implies life energy. If a lifeless body was had oxygen pumped into it but it wouldn’t lbe alive for there would be no life force in it. The definition of a soul has to be reasoned upon and expanded beyond a simple formula of breath and body even though this definition is generally correct in its simple form. A spirit being has a spiritual body and the life principle which makes it a soul. I Cor. 15:45, 40 implies this although it doesn’t directly call spirit beings souls. "And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [was made] a quickening spirit. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [was made] a quickening spirit....There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial (spirit being) is one, and the glory of the terrestrial (earthly being)is another."

See the following for further reading: http://www.biblestudents.com/htdbv5/htdb0136.htm
http://www.biblestudents.com/whyareyouachristian_01.cfm