aiki
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- Feb 16, 2007
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I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. When I read of King David saying he will be reunited with his dead newborn son, when I read of Moses and Elijah, who had been dead for centuries, speaking with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, when I read of Christ explaining that when God spoke to Moses from the burning bush and told Moses that He was the "God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" he was implying that these men, who were a long time dead, were still living, well, I am not able nor willing to deny the obvious implication of the reality of the immortal soul. As Christ said, "God is not the God of the dead but of the living."
I began to but as I read it was obvious to me that the purpose of the paper from the start was to disprove the idea of an immortal soul rather than simply let the Scriptures speak for themselves. It also struck me that a simple, straightforward reading of the Bible would not lead to the conclusions of Dr. Hoff. The multitude of extra-biblical references that were required to lay the foundation of Dr. Hoff's viewpoint puts his ideas in the realm of special or arcane knowledge rather than what could be plainly discerned from the Scriptures themselves. In other words, without Dr. Hoff's knowledge of all the extra-biblical things he brings to bear upon his interpretation of the terms "nephesh" and "psuche," the average student of the Bible would not come to his conclusions. But this confounds the Bible's declaration that the study of the Scriptures themselves, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, would lead a person into "all truth." You see the problem, I'm sure.
THere are other scholarly Christian writers who contend from Scripture for the idea of an immortal soul. Dr. Hoff's ideas about "nephesh" and "psuche" do not stand unchallenged. Read the book "Immortality" by Loraine Boettner.
Selah.
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