The Soul

Ha ha, if any of us answers with authority, we would be ignorant fools.

What I believe to be true, is that your soul is the essence of who you are. No matter what happens to your body, your soul remains intact. Pained, but whole.

It is valuable, it has aspirations and intrinsic talents and passions for justice. It can sense things that are not part of the physical realm.

If everything fails with your body, it is not quite you who fell apart. It is the body you have been given that naturally deteriorates, gets beaten on, doesn't look how you want it to, doesn't work properly... but your soul is You.

You are made up of three parts.. body, soul and spirit
Body... pretty obvious, that one!
Soul... generally thought to be your 'personality' - thoughts, emotions, feelings and so on.
Spirit.... the part that communicates with God. that is made in His image.

Did you have any other thoughts that related to your question? Just curious... didn't want you to stew over something too long.

Demian said:

Not really but the poster above menioned that the soul is our emotions and thoughts and such. Yet a brain damaged person lacks these abilities as they are formed in the brain. Explanation?

Click to expand...

They still have them, they are just not as highly developed as ours are.

Cheers,
Digit

Actually, I would suggest you read this. I don't believe the soul is our characteristics, or that it is immortal. I was merely suggesting in light of the point above from the other poster, that even people who are 'dead to the world', so to speak, they do not lack the functions and features the other poster talked about, they are simply not as developed or are inactive.

Either way, I believe the soul is life, and life is not eternal and only God can grant us immortal souls, as a gift of embracing His salvation from sin.

Cheers,
Digit

Dear Demian. Yes the soul is our US, or the inner man, as St.Paul calls it. The soul grows, as the body grows, and until we mature, start our own reasoning and life-styles, the soul will follow our bodies wishes. As we get older, God`s spirit in us, or the still small voice, the soul will take notice and follow it, or not. As we grow older, our souls will either follow our human bodies completely, or will take note of God`s spirit within us, and will be completely earthbound, or believe that there is a God, who loves us, and wants us back again. When our human bodies die, our souls will either return to God, or will be small and undeveloped, and end up in Outer Darkness, without God`s Love and Light. I say this humbly and kindly, Demian. Greetings from Emmy, sister in Christ.

Criada said:

You are made up of three parts.. body, soul and spirit
Body... pretty obvious, that one!
Soul... generally thought to be your 'personality' - thoughts, emotions, feelings and so on.
Spirit.... the part that communicates with God. that is made in His image.

Click to expand...

Excellent answer. I agree with this and would like to add (note that Criada may not agree) that our spirit defines who we are and how God sees us. Also I believe that death is the seperation of the body from the soul & spirit. Meaning that the soul is eternal as well as the spirit.

I found this paper from a Bible Study class that addresses the OP. Somehow I tried to post this 3 times and its failed, so here goes again:
Man is a Triune being: body, soul and spirit (1 Thess. 5:23; Heb. 4:12)


Spirit - Saved man is complete in his Spirit because of the presence of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. His spirit never changes because Jesus never changes. We communicate with God through our spirit. (I Corinthians 6:17; Romans 8:16)

Our true identity is in Spirit:
· The world view - man is a physical being that has a soul
· God’s view - man is a spirit that has a soul and lives in a body (John 4:24; Genesis 2:7)


Soul - Man’s soul, his personality, is the seat of the faculties: mind, will, and emotions.

We communicate with others through our soul; we express our thoughts and feelings through the body.

The 3 functions of the soul:
· Mind – Rational thought – reason and logic
· Emotions – Feelings peculiar to man
· Will – Free choice


Body - The body is purely physical. Man in his body receives information from without through his five senses of sight, taste, smell, hearing and touch. This information is processed through the brain, a physical organ, where information is stored and recalled.


Also located in the body of saved man is the power of indwelling sin.


Man is complete in his spirit, is being completed in his soul, and will be completed in his body at the resurrection of the dead when the body of Christians will be spiritualized and rejoined with the spirit and soul.

The term "soul" is the English equivalent of the Hebrew nepes, meaning true self, living being, or person. One should note that nepes is a loaded word that must be carefully translated based on the context in which it is used. That said, of its 757 occurrences in the Hebrew Old Testament, no fewer than 203 refer specifically to the soul. For example:

"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." [Genesis 2:7/KJV]

Most modern translations render "living being" in this verse, which is equally correct. In either case, my nepes is my true self -- the person inside my body.

In the Old Testament, "soul" and "spirit" are often rendered somewhat interchangeably (depending on your translation); the Greek New Testament, on the other hand, delineates the two separately. Consider this example:

"For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." [Hebrews 4:12/NASB]

The Greek word for soul is psyche, and is the approximate equivalent of the Hebrew nepes. The Greek word for spirit is pneuma, and refers quite literally to a person's ghost.

We learn two interesting facts from Hebrews 4:12. Firstly, the soul and spirit are two different things. Secondly, they are attached to one another. My soul is the real me -- my true self -- my thoughts, feelings and personality. Etymologically then, my spirit is the noncorporeal container for my thoughts, feelings and personality.

While many of God's animal creations have a soul, only human beings have an eternal spirit. It is the fact that a human's thoughts, feelings and personality are contained in an everlasting package that permits (and in fact requires) our ongoing existence after death. Unfortunately, as a consequence of Adam's sin, every human being is born with a dead human spirit -- that is, a corrupted spirit that is unsuitable for heaven [Romans 3:10-23; Romans 6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22]. Consequently, Jesus taught that a person must be spiritually reborn in order to enter heaven [John 3:1-21].

Thus, if a person dies in his sins -- that is, dies having not received God's forgiveness in Christ -- his dead spirit will drag his doomed soul into eternal punishment. On the other hand, if a person has received God's forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ, then that person has a living spirit -- and that living spirit will carry his soul into God's presence when this life is over. The moment a person repents of his sins and surrenders to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, that person is instantly born again -- made spiritually alive and ready to meet God.

Hope this helps.

Demian, you posed a question that made me think. I have always imagined the soul being synonomous with the brain. I think of a body losing arms, legs, torso, etc. If the person were left with only the head (and still able to live of course), the person, or soul would not have changed. But you brought up the point about those who are brain dead and that made me think.

I still think the soul lies within but lies dormant in some people. I work with children with severe disabilities who are not brain dead but very, very low, near vegetative state. I can see their soul in the sparkle in their eye, ya know? I feel like if they just had the ability to communicate they would tell me what life is all about. I think their soul is in there working and living but is limited because of the body's limitations.