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Author Topic:   What is the soul?
AlphaOmegakid
Member (Idle past 2876 days)
Posts: 564
From: The city of God
Joined: 06-25-2008


Message 148 of 165 (488460)
11-11-2008 5:32 PM


Back to what is a Soul!
I'm getting started way late in this thread, and I haven't read all of it. However, it is my opinion that the false understanding of what the soul is, has led to much confusion within Christianity. It also leads to many false doctrines.
So I will attempt to explain the soul in simple terms for all the readers. I will be more specific with scripture if people respond further....
The soul (nephesh OT and psuche NT) in simplest terms is a person.
A living person on this earth is a soul. They have a body (the flesh) and a spirit (ruach OT and pneuma NT). The spirit is the life force that we all have. When we die the spirit leaves the flesh. At this time the soul and the spirit are synonyms, and the words are used interchangeably in the scriptures.
At the resurrection, the spirit will be reunited with incorruptible flesh for those in Christ and it will be reunited with corruptible flesh for those outside of Christ.
The soul is not immortal. Immortality (eternal life) is a gift. Those in Christ have two spirits: theirs and the Holy Spirit.
Now the Greek and Hebrew are very similar to the English word "soul". We use this word properly all the time.
“The stadium is filled with 50,000 souls.” (the soul is a person)
“Grandma is a good ole soul.” (the soul is a person)
“When I die, my soul will live with God.” (my personal spirit which has been separated from my flesh lives with God)
The concept is really quite simple, but the Church teachings on this subject have really messed it up. Comments anyone?

Replies to this message:
 Message 149 by DevilsAdvocate, posted 11-14-2008 9:16 PM AlphaOmegakid has not replied

  
AlphaOmegakid
Member (Idle past 2876 days)
Posts: 564
From: The city of God
Joined: 06-25-2008


Message 152 of 165 (488786)
11-17-2008 1:45 PM
Reply to: Message 151 by jaywill
11-15-2008 6:25 AM


This is not totally true. The progression of the new testament salvation necessitates that the a distinction also be revealed between soul and spirit. And that is what the Bible does.
The soul and spirit are not used as synonyms in all of scripture. In much of the New Testament there is a distinction between the human soul and the human spirit.
The distinction of body , spirit and soul is clear in both old and new testaments. I made those distinctions clear. The spirit is our life giving breath of God. That breath of life gives life to every cell of our bodies. It gives life to our brain cells which operate our body and our mind and our emotions.
When we are alive the soul is our entire person. It is flesh and spirit combined. When we die the spirit returns to God from whence it came in the first place. The body returns to dust (the grave). Our person does not cease to exist. Our person is just bodiless. Our spirit is our soul when we are bodiless. When we resurrect, then we will be a complete soul again.
Jesus is a soul living in the heavenly realm. He is not a spirit. He is a body and a spirit. If we die before he comes, the we eagerly await our resurection, because we will be just a spirit until the ressurection.
And for experience sake it is important that the Christian be able to discern the distinction between the soul and the spirit or else he will fail to live a spiritual life.
I'm not sure what you mean by this. All animal life is spiritual. It's just not necessarily Godly. Godly life is led by the Spirit of God. As we crucify ourselves (our person) then we begin to live through His Spirit. (that is once we have received that Spirit)

This message is a reply to:
 Message 151 by jaywill, posted 11-15-2008 6:25 AM jaywill has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 153 by jaywill, posted 11-18-2008 9:21 AM AlphaOmegakid has not replied

  
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