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Originally Posted by Timotheist
The Bible does indeed distinguish the spirit from the soul... that should be a given.
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I agree that the Bible distinguishes between the two. My question, however, is if this distinction is something that should lead us to a tripartite view or if perhaps means something different? Consider these verses:
Luke 1:46-47
And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior…” (NKJV)
At the surface it seems to indicate that two parts of her being were simultaneously giving glory to God. I’m not entirely convinced, however, that’s what these verses are saying. I have to quote something that I saw
OBW post on a different thread:
“Unless you are seriously bipolar, you never disagree with yourself.” It's a good point, and it's summarizes the reason why I question whether or not this kind of distinction between the soul and spirit means what it is often presumed to mean.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Timotheist
The spirit is given from God, and returns to God upon death.
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Does it? It doesn’t seem like this was the case with Saul:
1 Sam 16:14
But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the LORD troubled him. (NKJV)
Or here:
Josh 5:1
So it was, when all the kings of the Amorites who were on the west side of the Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until we had crossed over, that their heart melted; and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel. (NKJV)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Timotheist
The soul is yours, and yours to be sanctified. The resurrection is a reunification of the spirit with the soul. It is the soul that will be judged.
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I agree that the soul needs to be sanctified and is what we should be concerned with. Who we are is what we are accountable for. It seems that the soul is indeed what is matters. In Rev 6:9, the souls of martyrs were recognized:
When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. (NKJV)
My question here is why only the soul is mentioned? Obviously the Bible makes a big deal about man’s soul. WL, however, downplayed the soul. He instead taught that we need to have a “strong spirit”. If that were true then I might expect the martyrs to be recognized by how ‘exercised’ they were. If the spirit is so important, then you might expect that it would be something that people can be recognized by.