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Simply Soul

Simply Soul

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Outside the realm of evangelical thought we find yet another view, the idea that man cannot exist at all apart from a physical body, and therefore the “soul” can’t exist separately after the body dies (although this view can allow for the resurrection of the whole person at some future time). When Paul says, “My spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful,” he means he does not understand the what he is praying. He implies that there is a nonphysical component to his being, a “spirit” within him that can pray to God. But nothing in this verse suggests that he regards his spirit as different from his soul. This misunderstanding only makes sense if we assume that “mind” is part of the soul—a trichotomist claim that, as we noted above, is very difficult to substantiate from Scripture. Paul probably could have just as easily said, “My soul prays but my mind is unfruitful.” There’s a nonphysical element to our existence that can function apart from our conscious awareness of it, but that doesn’t mean we can distinguish between soul and spirit. We can feel things that aren’t emotions or thoughts

Seeing the soul and spirit as synonymous terms for our complete immaterial being reminds us that Christian growth includes all aspects of our lives. We are continually to “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1). We are to be “increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10), and our emotions and desires are to conform increasingly to the “desires of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:17), including an increase in godly emotions such as peace, joy, love, and so forth (Galatians 5:22). This view is called monism. According to monism, the scriptural terms soul and spirit are just other expressions for the “person” himself, or for the person’s “life.” Most evangelical theologians don’t hold this view because so many scriptural texts seem to affirm that our souls or spirits live on after our bodies die:But does inward spiritual perception occur in something other than what the Bible calls our “soul”? If we were using the vocabulary of Mary, we would be happy to say, “My soul magnifies the Lord” (Luke 1:46). David would say, “Bless the Lord, O my soul” (Psalm 103:1). Jesus would tell us to love God with all our soul (Mark 12:30). The apostle Paul uses the word spirit, but it is simply a difference in terminology and doesn’t point to a different part of man. There’s a “spirit” within us that can perceive things in the spiritual realm (see Romans 8:16 and Acts 17:16), but we could just as well speak of it as our “soul” and mean the same thing, for Scripture uses both terms interchangeably. Animals have souls, too, but only humans have spirits Psalm 78 speaks of the rebellious people of Israel “whose spirit was not faithful to God” (Psalm 78:8). However, man is also sometimes said to be “body and spirit.” Paul wants the Corinthian church to deliver a sinful brother to Satan “for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 5:5). Paul hasn’t forgotten that the man’s soul would be saved, too; he simply uses the word “spirit” to refer to the man’s entire immaterial existence. When we look at the usage of the biblical words translated “soul” (Hebrew “ nephesh” and Greek “ psychē”) and “spirit” (Hebrew “ rûach” and Greek “ pneuma”), it appears that they are sometimes used interchangeably. As we mentioned in our discussion of monism, Scripture is very clear that we do have a soul that is distinct from our physical bodies, which not only can function somewhat independently of our ordinary thought processes (1 Corinthians 14:14 and Romans 8:16), but also, when we die, is able to go on consciously acting and relating to God apart from our physical bodies.

Finally, the fact that Scripture approves of one “who rules his spirit” (Proverbs 16:32) implies that our spirits are not simply the spiritually pure parts of our lives that are to be followed in all cases, but that they can have sinful desires or directions as well. When Paul says, “If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful” (1 Corinthians 14:14), isn’t he implying that his mind does something different from his spirit? And doesn’t this support the trichotomist’s argument that our mind and our thinking are part of our souls, not our spirit? Christians have a “spiritual perception” or inner awareness of the presence of God experienced in worship and in prayer. At this deep inward level we can also at times feel spiritually troubled, or depressed, or perhaps have a sense of the presence of hostile demonic forces. Often this perception is distinct from our conscious, rational thought processes. As we discussed above, Paul realizes that at times his spirit prays but his mind does not understand (1 Corinthians 14:14). The Bible talks about unbelievers having a spirit that is obviously alive but is in rebellion against God—whether Sihon, King of Heshbon (Deuteronomy 2:30: the Lord “hardened his spirit”), or Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 5:20: “his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly”), or the unfaithful people of Israel (Psalm 78:8: their “spirit was not faithful to God”). Clearly, Christians aren’t the only ones who have spirits. When Paul says, “Your spirits are alive because of righteousness” (Romans 8:10), he apparently means “alive to God,” but he doesn’t imply that our spirits were completely “dead” before, only that they were living out of fellowship with God and were dead in that sense. In the same way, we as whole persons were “dead” in “trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1), but we were made alive to God, and we now must consider ourselves “dead to sin and alive to God” (Romans 6:11).Similarly, he speaks of the unmarried woman who is concerned with how to be holy “in body and spirit” (1 Corinthians 7:34).

A trichotomist might argue that these passages are still treating the soul and spirit as different things, for when a person dies both soul and spirit go to heaven. But Scripture never says that a person’s “soul and spirit” departed or went to heaven or were yielded to God. If soul and spirit were separate things, we would expect that would be affirmed somewhere, if only to assure the reader that no essential part of the person is left behind. But the biblical authors do not seem to care whether they say that the soul departs or the spirit departs at death, for both seem to mean the same thing. 3. Man is said to be either “body and soul” or “body and spirit.” We certainly have spiritual abilities that make us different from animals: we are able to relate to God in worship and prayer, and we enjoy spiritual life in fellowship with God who is spirit. But we shouldn’t assume that we have a distinct element called “spirit” that allows us to do this. We can use our minds we can love God, read and understand his words, and believe his Word to be true. Our souls can worship God and rejoice in him. Our bodies will also be resurrected and live with God forever.

On The Go

Many non-Christian philosophers challenge the idea of a soul or spirit, arguing that humans have no immaterial existence. Perhaps partially in response to this, some evangelical theologians hesitate to affirm dichotomy in human existence, instead arguing for monism, affirming that the Bible views man as a single unified part. This is the most-widely held scholarly view on the soul and spirit. Later, we’ll look in more detail at the reasons why many scholars believe spirit and soul are synonymous. One part: the body If we believe that lists of terms tell us about the distinct parts to a person, then when we add spirit to this list (and perhaps body as well), we have five or six separate parts! It’s far better to understand Jesus as simply piling up roughly synonymous terms for emphasis to demonstrate that we must love God with all of our being. Likewise, in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Paul is not saying that soul and spirit are distinct entities, but simply that, whatever our immaterial part is called, he wants God to continue to sanctify us wholly to the day of Christ. The Word of God divides soul and spirit



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