The Breath of Life

[TIOTM]

What separates the living from the dead?

Breath.

Breathing is something that we all do without even having to think about doing it, yet the most vital part of life is our ability to breathe. When we are no longer breathing, we are no longer living.

There are some who may say they believe that there is no God, and that we exist all on our own, but that is not true.

In the Bible (Genesis 2:7 specifically), God forms Adam from the ground, and breathes the breath of life into him:

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.


God formed Adam's body from the dust from the ground, then afterwards breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (the spirit). Notice how Adam is not referred to as 'living;' until after God have breathed the breath of life into him, so Adam was lifeless prior to this, and a lifeless body do not breathe and do not move.


This is still true today.

A dead body is a body that is absent of breath, and a dead body lacks the ability to do anything living people have the ability to do-eat, drink, move, etc. While many do not acknowledge God, and deny that our breath and our ability to breathe comes from God, they cannot deny that when something is no longer breathing, then it is no longer living, nor can they cannot deny that breath is something that is not physically removed from our bodies when we die, yet once breath is absent from our bodies, then the body is lifeless. Breath, then, is proof of an invisible life that gives life to our bodies, and once the breath and our ability to breathe is gone, our bodies are left lifeless.

 

[TIOTM]

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.

In the book of Genesis 2:7, when God formed Adam's lifeless physical body from the dust of the ground, God breathed the breath of life into his body. Adam then became a living soul. Only after God breathed the breath of life into his body was he referred to as living.

Adam, like all of us, was lifeless before the breath of life was breathed into his body. He was incapable of doing anything as he was only a physical body with nothing inside that gave life to him. We see the state of Adam every time we see a dead body once the breath have left it, and we see that those bodies too have no life inside of it.

So what is the breath of life?

The breath of life is referring to the spirit that God breathed in Adam's body (and the spirit that is in our bodies too), and the spirit is where actual life and actual breath comes from.


The spirit gives our physical bodies its' abilities to do all types of things people that are alive do, like running, dancing, singing, laughing, talking, etc. However, once the spirit has left the physical body, the physical body is no longer able to do any of these things; we see this verified when someone dies and stops breathing. Although we are not able to see the spirit of that person leave, we can see when that person is not breathing, there is no longer life in their body, and they are no longer able to do anything.

Breathing is listed as one characteristic of something that is living. Breathing, however, is not only a characteristic of something that is living; it is the defining difference between the living and the dead. A person (as well as any other living thing) has to be breathing in order to live, and nothing can live and not breathe at the same time.


There are those that do not and will not acknowledge God, but the breath in our bodies testifies of God:

1. Breath and life are inseparable: Everything that is alive must be breathing, and everything that is breathing have the ability to eat, drink, move, etc. While everyone may not have the ability to do everything that every living person have the ability to do (see, walk, talk, etc.), a person has to be breathing in order to be able to do these things at all. Dead people, on the other hand, do not have any abilities at all because they are no longer breathing; when the breath leaves the body, or once something that was once living stops breathing, then the life leaves too. To summarize, life cannot exist without breath, and nothing can live without breathing, making life and breath inseparable.


2. Breath is life/Breath alone is alive: As mentioned before, breath and life is inseparable; everyone who is living must be breathing, and nothing can live without breathing, and where there is breath, there is life. This means that there is life in breath alone; therefore, since there is life in breath alone, that means that breath alone contain life; and if breath alone contains life, and gives life to all that breathes, then that means that breath too is living, seeing that nothing that is dead can give life to everything else and be dead at the same time.



3. Breath is the source of life: The difference between someone living and someone dead, and someone that is able to walk, talk, move, etc. versus someone who is not, is the breath. No one can do anything if they are not breathing, so therefore, life and every ability of the living revolves around breathing, and our ability to breathe comes from God.

 

[Right Divider]

Lev 17:11 (KJV) For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.​

 

[VladtheDestroyer]

Lev 17:11 (KJV) For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.​

This is interesting because, to me, it seems from this we can gather that only true blooded (non-hemolymph) creatures will be sentient. And their blood can be called innocent because they have no knowledge of good and evil.

Someone once point out to me that octopi and other cephalopods have hemolymph for blood and some of them seem to be kinda sentient. But while cephalopods do have hemolymph, their respiratory system is "closed" meaning it's "red-blooded-like". So that's also interesting..at least to me anyway!