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Spirit, Soul and Body Study

Blake

Blake

Member
Greetings in the Lord Jesus Christ,

I wanted to start a study on the spirit, soul and body. I'd like to start by sharing some insights on the three and encourage everyone to hop in and share their own gleanings on the subjects for the teaching, learning and edification of everyone involved!

First a prayer. Lord God anoint our mind to receive good teaching, to be humble to correction and slow to anger. Guide in Your truth as we attempt to learn according to Your word. Grant us zeal according to knowledge and a hunger and thirst for righteousness. Open our ears to hear and our mouths to speak and our hearts to be receptive. We ask these things in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to whom all honor and glory belongs. Amen.

Here are a couple of starting points to get the juices flowing and the conversation started:

The spirit and the soul are two separate things. The soul, which is the mind, will and emotions of a man, is entirely different from the spirit, which is the innermost essence of a man. I wondered for many years how the Lord could stand to dwell in us while we are yet sinful beings, and through hearing good teaching I finally learned that upon being saved, God sets our spirit aside for Himself. Our spirits have been sanctified and preserved unto Him. (Whether or not this is unto eternal security is up for debate, WHICH WE WILL NOT BE DISCUSSING IN THIS THREAD.) He dwells within our spirits, and His Holy Spirit guides us there, revealing His will... but of course our soul and our bodies are not always in alignment with our spirit, and need to be made subservient to His will for us, through the renewing and transforming of our minds via the word of God.

This teaching has radically helped me understand things. One, for example, is Paul's saying that "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." We can be all in within our spirit man, but our minds, still in the process of renewal, war against us, and so do our bodies. The spirit says let us pray, the body says I'm too tired. The spirit says let us fast, the body says I'm too hungry. The spirit says pray for that man, the soul says that's too uncomfortable for me. The spirit says let's read the word, the soul says I'd rather be on Facebook. And then we have little contradictions in our day to day lives where we want two things at once -- I really don't want to eat that cake, but I really want to eat that cake, lol. These are examples of our spirit being prompted by God the Holy Spirit and the rest of our being out of alignment, due to all sorts of things... whether we are babes still of the milk, lazy, uncommitted, whatever the case may be.

I also believe this is what it means to be made in the image of God. We are one being, and yet we are three. We are fearfully and wonderfully made.

I look forward to your responses with great enthusiasm.

Disclaimer: I'm not saying with 100% certainty that my positions are correct, only that this is what I've come to know through study. If I'm wrong, tell me how! :)
 
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Though the soul and the spirit are in the bible, I don't know what they are translated from. That might be something neat to look into. The way I understand it is a heavy mix. Mind, spirit, and soul are too close to one another for me to discern. What the connection is in our body whether one is part of the brain or is the brain. Or another is over all who we are, brain, hormones, lack of sleep or well rested, and our free will and personality all in one. Or honestly if there are other ecplainations I wouldn't know whether to say yes or know to them. Like what if our energy and our chi (if that exists) is part of our spirit or our soul.
 
I've got the bible gateway app, and looked up in it's encyclopedia both words, soul and spirit. It gad a good amout of light to shed on the words and intreasting theories on each, but over all they seemed to mesh in what the discriptions were.
 
Greetings Blake. Congratulations on becoming a moderator. Don't forget about the A&T Guidelines which state in part, "Original posts should reference specific scripture and what it is the member wants to say or ask about that scripture." :nono :)

I am particularly interested in the verses you use to support the following statement you made;

The soul, which is the mind, will and emotions of a man, is entirely different from the spirit, which is the innermost essence of a man.​
 
jocor said:
Greetings Blake. Congratulations on becoming a moderator. Don't forget about the A&T Guidelines which state in part, "Original posts should reference specific scripture and what it is the member wants to say or ask about that scripture." :nono :)

I am particularly interested in the verses you use to support the following statement you made;

The soul, which is the mind, will and emotions of a man, is entirely different from the spirit, which is the innermost essence of a man.​
Click to expand...

The greek for soul is Psyche.
Psyche-delic drugs are "mind" or "soul manifesting" drugs.

One of the little facts that brought me out of them.
 
I've come to a conclusion that the spirit, soul, and body are a reflection of the triune nature of God. Genesis says we were made in his image.
 
jocor said:
Greetings Blake. Congratulations on becoming a moderator. Don't forget about the A&T Guidelines which state in part, "Original posts should reference specific scripture and what it is the member wants to say or ask about that scripture." :nono :)

I am particularly interested in the verses you use to support the following statement you made;

The soul, which is the mind, will and emotions of a man, is entirely different from the spirit, which is the innermost essence of a man.​
Click to expand...
this is the lounge :tongue
 
JohnDB said:
Ummmm.
I always understood that you are a soul. You have a body and a mind and a spirit.
Click to expand...

jocor said:
That is my understanding as well.
Click to expand...
Why? I've heard the same thing too, along with other similar anecdotes, such as "God works in mysterious ways." Yes He does, but that isn't actually in the Bible. Neither is "you are a soul, and you have a body."

However 1 Thessalonians 5:23 is, and says this: "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

You are not more of a soul than you are a body or a spirit. As we are made in God's image and He is not more the Father than He is the Son, we are not more or less of either aspect of our triune nature. We are human, but we are soul (mind/will/emotion), spirit, and flesh.

At least that is what makes the most sense to me.
 
Soul is inclusive of the other attributes mentioned. Not exclusive of attributes.

This comes from reading Hebrew Old Testament.
 
Blake said:
Please do share, I'd love to learn more.
Click to expand...

Boy Howdy would I love to...but reality dictates something else.
I would really have to first teach you Ancient Near Eastern Anthropology, and then some History, and then the Hebrew Alphabet plus spelling (without the vowel points) and then Hebrew Grammar and finally Hebrew Poetry.

The mindset of someone from the ANE is somewhat different than that of us in our Westernized culture. Of course there are a lot of similarities in actions and conclusions...but the path to getting there is sometimes radically different.

Hermeneutics is a blend of Art and Science together to understand the scriptures. Flatly reading scripture and taking what it says at that value is usually a mistake of making say less than what it does...and often the translators have to do just that. But if they were to tell all of what scripture was saying to them then they are making sermons, paraphrasing with theologies, and telling of their feelings...and not exactly translating scripture.
The problem with Hebrew into English (as a receptor language) is that our customs are often vastly different and our language does not have the same parts of speech that Hebrew does.

Lets look at one scripture in the New Testament that should scream at you at how this really works.

John 1:12
Those that received him, Those that believed in his name, He gave the right to be called Sons of God.

OK...I emboldened the parts that should scream at you that something is amiss with this scripture. It is all in the past tense...as if it is over and we missed it all. But we know that this isn't true either.
But the Perfect Aortist Tense doesn't exist in the English Language...it does in Early Latin and Greek. The Perfect Aortist tense is one which means Past, Present, and Future tense all at the same time...The Original scripture doesn't even have this many words in it...but the meaning had to be conveyed and they couldn't. So the translators simply had to pick a single tense and place it there when such things happened.

**
Such is the case in Genesis (creation account) where you can find the word "nepesh" when Hebrew is transliterated into English. It is with this license we say such things as since that animals have souls and didn't sin they must be in heaven as well. But that would really be going beyond what scripture really says or infers. Honestly...we don't have a clue and can't.

On this note...a spirit (in Old Testament) may or may not be a part of a person's soul. Sometimes a spirit is temporary and other times a spirit is permanent and part of our identity. We tend to think of spirits as ghosts...but they did not. Think of terms like "a spirit of whining" came across the room versus He always seems to have a joyous spirit. Paul was travelling across many different cultures and became and spoke in the terms that they would understand. This doesn't mean that he didn't base his main things in Hebrew/Jewish cultural truths. But some of the fringe things would be shifted to accommodate the differing cultures.

Now in the New Testament this whole concept of spirits being some kind of ghosts inhabiting people was a take off from Zoarastrianism which became syncretic with Judaism. Where often in the Old Testament there would be some Anthropomorphism (saying these intangible things have humanistic qualities) of these spirits as told in Hebrew poetry. Which leads one of the main arguments between Pharisees and Sadducees.

Now that I have made your eyes hurt and your brain swell beyond with all of this information...sorry. I tried to help explain myself but probably made things worse.
 
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The body of Adam lies on the table:
1. The heart is ready to pump needed nutrients to every part (but it is not beating yet)
2. The brain has the river clear as crystal with the tree of life planted on either side of it (but it is not flowing yet).
3. The immune system is there prepared for problems (the problems have not yet been seen ?)
4. The digestive system stands ready (both for physical food and spiritual food)
5. The DNA & RNA have the plan of life written in it
6. The kidneys (reins) are ready to filter out toxins (the temptation of evil has not yet manifest)
7. The natural pacemaker stands ready to direct the beats (looks like a crucified man)
8. The tree like CNS, sympathetic, para sympathetic, spine ladder holds the cord,
9. The ribs bow before the heart (the breast bone looks like a crown
10. The lungs are over the mercy seat of the curtain yet to be circumcised (heart)
11. The light of the Father & Son are not yet known (the symbols are there ahead of time)
12. The sense organs are there to sense the physical (trainining for the spiritual is off in the future)
13. Many other symbols

The imagery is complete but hidden.

The Spirit kick starts the soul (natural man)
The spirit of man will not enter till Pentecost (be active inside)

Adam will talk with God, but not have the spirit inside yet.

First the physical manifests, then the spiritual.

The house is built, and awaits the knock that will bring eternal things.

I always knew rednecks were strange.
eddif
 
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