Question about Soul and Spirit?

RE: Soul and Spirit

You know, Tali, I have always wondered what the difference was between the "soul" and "spirit". I know that in Revelations, it makes reference to Jesus, and a two-edged sword proceeding out of His mouth, able to separate the bone and marrow, the soul and the spirit. I have a Strong's Greek and Hebrew book that has I guess every word found in the bible. If my memory serves me correctly, a big IF, the same words used for "soul" and "spirit" were the same. But this was a long time ago, and like I said about my mind......

Willis

 

I, too, will watch this thread with interest.

(at least I hope it will be interesting :laugh.

 

In biblical thought the soul and the spirit are the same rather then seperate. The few passages of scripture that have a reference to a "soul and spirt" must be interpereted in light of the overwhelming passages that refer to the spirit and the soul as the same.

 

We need to get more traction over on this area with your "Winneth souls" subject.

That too is very interesting.

Bob

 

Dig up the archives on this one.

 

k

In Eccl 12 we are told that at death "the spirit goes to God who gave it".

no distinction between good and evil - if you are human your spirit goes to God "who gave it" when you die.

BTW - how many "you's" do you think you have?

Ezek 18 says "the soul that sins it shall die".

In most contexts it is a reference to the "whole being" the spirit-united with the Body.

In all cases the soul represents "the real you" -- and the spirit (when speaking of the process of death) is that "real you" that has left the body and as Christ said in John 11 (and as Paul says in 1Thess 4) "sleeps" -- is dormant during the period of death.

In other places like 1Cor 5 Paul says he is absent in body but present in spirit when the church meets in Corinth - and it "could be argued" that he is not talking about a new age thing nor of being dead -- it is simply a figure of speach.

in Christ,

Bob

 

I take it you are assuming they are separate. I tend to believe they are interchangeable, as they are used interchangeably in Scripture. I believe we are made up of material (bone, sinew) and immaterial (spirit, soul).

 

And all the souls in the sea perished -

Rev 16:3
3And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.

 

The word soul refers to who I am in an immaterial sense while the flesh is the physical part of me. These terms can both be used to refer to a person but typically the word soul is used when referring to a person in scripture.
For instance, "3000 souls were added to the church" does not mean that only an immaterial part of 3000 people were saved, it merely is stating the fact that 3000 people were born again.

Animals have souls but do not have a spirit. Animals have fears and can be happy. They can be mean or they can be cuddly. They love to be rubbed and paid attention to. We have dairy goats and some are friendly while others are aloof. These are aspects of the soul. With people, we need to be controlled by the spirit and not the flesh. When the Spirit is leading my spirit I make different decisions and act differently than when the flesh is out front. This truth has great impact on understanding the gospel and Romans 6-8 in particular.

When God made man he created Adam in his image but he didn't do so with animals. We are spiritual beings and are therefore able to commune with the Spirit of God. This brings up interesting issues regarding the issue of worship. We are told to worship God in spirit and in truth. I have come to see that a lot of worship is very soulish and is based on feelings more than truth.

 

To be sure, it must be a very fine distinction of two entities, from the wording of 'dividing even the sould and spirit.'
Is the Soul the 'hybrid' of the body and spirit?
Do we know that animals have souls, or is this based on our attempts to define 'soul' as the 'seat of the emotions'?
Animals communicate with God and vice-versa, so why don't they have a spirit, if it is the spirit that communicates w/God?
Couldn't we say that a bulldog, for instance, has the 'spirit' of stuborness in it?
Something in Adam and Eve died that day. Most would agree it was not their soul or body.

I'm usually better at asking the questions than providing the answers...

 

Animals do not "have souls" they "are souls" just as "8 souls were saved i the ark" Adam BECOMES "a living soul" in Gen 2.

On the other hand -- there is a reference to "souls" such as we find in Matt 10:28 where those wicked on earth can "kill the body but NOT the soul" whereas our God can "destroy BOTH body AND SOUL in fiery hell".

in Christ,

Bob