Deep Thought
(and Randomness)
Friday, July 21, 2006
O Soul WHAT art thou? (No. 2)
And forming is Yahweh Alueim the human of soil from the ground, and He is blowing into his nostrils the breath of the living, and becoming is the human a living soul. (v.7)
Note that the article in front of 'breath' and 'living' is missing (that is why I put it down in light face type). There is no breath imparted into the human that has a separate personality, or is a separate entity. It is simply breath, the element, that is imparted and makes the human a living and moving soul.
In this account, we have the three basic elements of humanity: body, spirit, and soul. That 'breath of living' is associated with spirit can we learn from Gen 7:22:
Everyone which has the breath of the spirit of the living in his nostrils, of all that were in the drained area, dies.
This statement comprises humans as well as animals. All have spirit in them that makes them living souls. We have the same phrase like in Gen 2 here, but with the little addition of the Hebrew word for 'spirit', and again without any article.
Helpful to bear in mind is the literal meaning of this word for 'spirit' in Hebrew. Literally, it denotes wind and is even in a few cases translated thus. The word, therefore, is used figuratively, to denote the element in humanity that imparts life to the body, makes him a living soul. Spirit, just as wind, is invisible, and we can only see the effects of it, just as we can only see the wind moving the trees (cp. Joh 3:8). Spirit is a principle, an element, just, for example, as water or gas. More to that later.
Again, then, imagine you die. What happens? God gathers back the spirit he imparted into the body (Eccl. 12:7; Lk 23:46; Joh 19:30), and, logically, the soul stops being a living soul. It stops functioning, if you will. Without spirit no life.
All of this overwhelmingly proves that the soul is not immortal!
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
O Soul WHAT art thou? (No. 1)
There is an ample number of passages that speak of the soul dying. Here is just a selection of the many:
'and live may my soul' (Gen 12:13, Abram was afraid of being killed by the Egyptians)
'May my soul die the death of the upright' (Num 23:10)
'rescue our souls from death' (Joshua 2:13)
'Let my soul die with the Philistines' (Judges 16:30)
These few verses prove that the soul cannot be living after death. There is nothing more that needs to be said concerning these verses. It should discard any teaching about the immortality of the soul!
Another fact that we need to bear in mind is that the soul is in the blood. This we read in Gen 9:4, Lev 17:10-16, Deut 12:23.
'Yea, only flesh with its soul, its blood, you shall not eat.'
'for the soul of the flesh, it is in the blood'
'But be steadfast by no means to eat the blood, for the blood, it is the soul, and you shall not eat the soul (blood) with the flesh.'
Now, imagine you die. What happens, your blood stops flowing through your body and it coagulates, clots, and finally decays. Consequently, how can the soul be still alive or functional if the blood, which is the soul, stops to flow and decays? Blood and soul cannot be separated. Blood equals soul. If the blood stops, the soul stops to be soul. Simple really.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Job's Faithful Words (No.1)
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
God, The Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth
Monday, July 03, 2006
Which God Do We Believe?
"God's" Failure and Satan's Victory
THE GOD OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURES
1 Tim.4:10 He is the Saviour of all mankind. (Not of believers and infants only).
1 John 2:2 He is the propitiation for Our sins, and not ours only, but for the whole world.
John 1:29 He is the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. (Not believers only).
Rom.11:32 He locks all up in stubbornness (Jew and Gentile) that He may be merciful to all.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Is God too Logical?
Saturday, July 01, 2006
A simple argument for universalism (the reconciliation of all)
Here is why. If I truly love my daughter even as I love myself, then her interests and my own are so tightly interwoven as to be logically inseparable: any good that befalls her is then a good that befalls me, and any evil that befalls her is likewise an evil that befalls me. I could never be happy, for example, knowing that my daughter is suffering or in a miserable condition--unless, of course, I could somehow believe that all will be well for her in the end. But if I cannot believe this, if I were to believe instead that she had been lost to me forever--even if I were to believe that, by her own will, she had made herself intolerably evil--my own happiness could never be complete. For I would always know what could have been, and I would always experience this as a terrible tragedy and an unacceptable loss, one for which no compensation is even conceivable. Is it any wonder, then, that Paul could say concerning his unbelieving brothers and sisters whom he loved so much: "For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people" (Romans 9:3)? From the perspective of his love, in other words, Paul's own damnation would be no worse an evil, and no greater threat to his own happiness, than the eternal damnation of his loved ones would be.
God could make us "happy" whilst our loved ones suffered in hell only in two possible ways: either by concealing from us the magnitude of the tragedy (blissful ignorance), or by giving us a callous and stony heart, so that we no longer truly loved those who were lost. Both of these possibilities, however, are incompatible with true blessedness. So in the end, it is logically impossible for God to bring blessedness to one person without also bringing it to all." (Tom Talbott, http://www.willamette.edu/~ttalbott/theol.html)