Soul & Spirit - Same or Different?

Curious · 05-06-2020, 08:06 PM

Well, I think I will add a comment here just to confuse this issue a little more for everyone!!

Where I ‘trained’ in matters of faith and practice, the belief was very clearly that the body, soul, spirit makes up the man. There was only one difference in detail: the spirit part of us, in the LSM is broken down into ‘conscience, communication with God, and intuition’. The teaching I got fed was, instead of ‘intuition’, the third part of the spirit of a human is ‘creativity’. (intuition being part of communication, I would assume). The logic behind it was probably that God’s creative energy with which He made the universe comes from His Spirit and so our reflection of that is likewise from ours.

Further, the teaching was that we are equally fallen in each area, our body, soul, and spirit are damaged, compromised and subject to death prior to salvation. We are spiritually dead before salvation, but the idea was confusing, as it is the breath of God, (His Spirit), which is the life source within our body and soul also, in this system of thought.

The practical outworking of this belief was that to help nurture and heal our human spirit, we need to GET CREATIVE….rather than it being…..harmful, the person gets…..armfuls of projects to enjoy….screen printing, scrap-booking, watercolour painting, home made pottery, you name it!!

The only downside I can think of for this was, maybe a person gets so immersed in this that it detracts from them going out and prosthelizing the great unwashed, but is otherwise a self-nurturing and confidence-building exercise, especially as they sought to meet the skill level of people where they were at, and keep the focus on the exercise of creating more than the quality of the end result.

I’m just adding this to the discussion, not to convince anyone against their convictions as I agree it is not an essential doctrine at all. But just to say, that the outworking and purpose an idea, even a perhaps quasi-scriptural notion, is put to, has a lot to do with the intention or goal that the people are using it for. WL used the idea to suppress and control. With one alteration in detail, another ministry uses the same breakdown to help people connect with their creative potential, and grow. the separation of the two, soul and spirit, as a theological proposition has been used by WL and co. in a bad way, but they are not the only ones to have this idea and it can and has been use for much better outcomes, weather correct or errant in essence.

Sons to Glory! · 05-06-2020, 09:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curious

Where I ‘trained’ in matters of faith and practice, the belief was very clearly that the body, soul, spirit makes up the man. There was only one difference in detail: the spirit part of us, in the LSM is broken down into ‘conscience, communication with God, and intuition’. The teaching I got fed was, instead of ‘intuition’, the third part of the spirit of a human is ‘creativity’. (intuition being part of communication, I would assume). The logic behind it was probably that God’s creative energy with which He made the universe comes from His Spirit and so our reflection of that is likewise from ours.

Interesting post. In commenting on the bolded part above, I never really got the additional subdivisions of exactly what makes up our conscience, intuition, heart, etc. from WN/WL teachings. I've read different things about these further supposed subdivisions of our being, but it all seems something of a stretch and nothing really clicks. Besides, it seems to make little difference . . . at least to me.

And regarding creativity, I heard someone say recently that man is the only earthly creature that has a intently creative quality, and this is because we are made in the image of the Creator. Different animals can be fairly imaginative when need be for acquiring food, survival or a mate, but man seems to be the only one who has a vast amount of this creativity installed into our programming. We don't even have to have a pressing reason to be creative - we just create interesting things for the fun of it!

05-06-2020, 08:06 PM	#1
Curious Member Join Date: Jan 2019 Posts: 186	Re: Soul & Spirit - Same or Different? Well, I think I will add a comment here just to confuse this issue a little more for everyone!! Where I ‘trained’ in matters of faith and practice, the belief was very clearly that the body, soul, spirit makes up the man. There was only one difference in detail: the spirit part of us, in the LSM is broken down into ‘conscience, communication with God, and intuition’. The teaching I got fed was, instead of ‘intuition’, the third part of the spirit of a human is ‘creativity’. (intuition being part of communication, I would assume). The logic behind it was probably that God’s creative energy with which He made the universe comes from His Spirit and so our reflection of that is likewise from ours. Further, the teaching was that we are equally fallen in each area, our body, soul, and spirit are damaged, compromised and subject to death prior to salvation. We are spiritually dead before salvation, but the idea was confusing, as it is the breath of God, (His Spirit), which is the life source within our body and soul also, in this system of thought. The practical outworking of this belief was that to help nurture and heal our human spirit, we need to GET CREATIVE….rather than it being…..harmful, the person gets…..armfuls of projects to enjoy….screen printing, scrap-booking, watercolour painting, home made pottery, you name it!! The only downside I can think of for this was, maybe a person gets so immersed in this that it detracts from them going out and prosthelizing the great unwashed, but is otherwise a self-nurturing and confidence-building exercise, especially as they sought to meet the skill level of people where they were at, and keep the focus on the exercise of creating more than the quality of the end result. I’m just adding this to the discussion, not to convince anyone against their convictions as I agree it is not an essential doctrine at all. But just to say, that the outworking and purpose an idea, even a perhaps quasi-scriptural notion, is put to, has a lot to do with the intention or goal that the people are using it for. WL used the idea to suppress and control. With one alteration in detail, another ministry uses the same breakdown to help people connect with their creative potential, and grow. the separation of the two, soul and spirit, as a theological proposition has been used by WL and co. in a bad way, but they are not the only ones to have this idea and it can and has been use for much better outcomes, weather correct or errant in essence.