Are you a dichotomist or a trichotomist?

First off I do not know what a calvinist believes! So I don't know if I am one or not.:tongue3:

1. God breathed into Adam the breath of life (spirit of man) and he became a living soul. Are you saying that the spirit and soul became one at this point?
I thought God created our spirits before the foundation of the world. I thought that God breathed into Adam his human spirit and he became a soul.

Could God have made them become one in harmony then and then after the fall divided them? The soul still being connected to the spirit but darkened (no contact) with the spirit through the heart.

I believe the heart is what connects the soul and the spirit. The mind is what connects the soul to the body. THe mind is having to be renewed (retaught) by the Holy Spirit through His word to get his body back in line with the spirit.

 

Questions and Biblical Answers

1) Were our human spirits created before the foundation of the world? No, God forms our spirits within us upon conception, Zechariah 12:1.

2) At the same time, our soul is the mind and essence of our human spirit.

3) Our human fleshly bodies are "received" at conception. Our glorified bodies will be received at our Lord's second coming.

4) We are not a triune being, we are physical body enlivened by our human spirit. Our mind/soul is part of our human spirit, thus when our spirit departs our physical body, our soul departs as part of our spirit. The references to physical body parts, bowels, kidney, heart as the seat of our desires and emotions are simply figurative references to our inner being.

5) Yes, we can at times receive the gospel with joy and fully trust in Christ. Noah had a deceitful heart, yet found favor in God's eyes. The concept of total spiritual inability is unbiblical.

6) Our access to God is through the blood of Jesus, we can approach the throne of grace unfettered.

 

Our inner man, the person hidden in our heart, our spirit/soul functions in harmony with itself. When we are born anew, our spirit/soul is rewired, born from above, and indwelt with the Spirit of Christ.

The relationship that was lost in the garden was Adam was separated from God, figuratively kicked out of the garden and precluded from re-entering. This separation is spiritual death, and all mankind suffered the consequence of that separation, being conceived in a separated from God sinful state, i.e. in iniquity.

Galatians 5:16- 26 teaches our spirit/soul can be led by the Holy Spirit and walk in paths of righteousness, or we can walk in an unworthy manner. The tension is between the way of the flesh and the way of the Holy Spirit. But as born anew creations, we can walk by the Spirit.

In sum, the passage provides no support for the mistaken three part view of man.

Romans 12:2 teaches we are not to be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind, so we can do the will of God.
Thus as a born anew person, we are still babes in Christ, and need to study and grow more mature, feeding on spiritual meat understood with the aid of our indwelt Spirit of God.

What does faith in Christ do for us? Great question! If we actually go "all in" for Christ, God will credit our faith as righteousness, Romans 4:4-5, and place us spiritually in Christ. And in Christ we undergo the circumcision of Christ and arise in Christ a new creature, created for good works. 1 Peter 1:3-5 tells us we God will keep us by protecting our faith, so once we are "born anew" we will always love Jesus and trust Him, even if our walk goes astray. If we build on our foundation in Christ with imperishable stuff, we will enter heaven abundantly, but if we build with perishable stuff, it will be burned up and we will still get to heaven, but as one escaping from a fire, bringing little or no rewards with us.

 

As you said...God could do whatever he wants!!

I never said all spirits were good!

 

No verse or passage says or suggests God created our spirits before the foundation of the world. The phrase appears three times, John 17:24 which says God loved Jesus before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1:4 which says God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, and 1 Peter 1:20 which says Jesus was known as the Lamb of God before the foundation of the world. But since scripture specifically says God forms our spirits within us, our spirits cannot have been created before our conception.

 

You are right! He just forknew! He chose us!

 

The Bible is Right

If the election of Ephesians 1:4 is corporate, then God knew before creation that His chosen Redeemer, the Lamb of God, would redeem believers, the target group of His redemption plan. So when God chose His Redeemer according to His Redemption Plan, He chose us in Him corporately as the target group of His Redemption plan.

The Greek words translated foreknew and foreknowledge refer to knowledge acquired or formulated in the past being used in the present. Thus when Christ was crucified, it was by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. Christ had been chosen as the Lamb of God before the foundation of the world, and therefore was "foreknown before the foundation of the world."