A TRADITION EXAIMINED

Of all the religious traditions which stand in the way of understanding the teachings of Jesus and the apostles is the one which substitutes the Platonic concept of the soul for the truth of Scripture.

Plato’s concepts began to dominate Greek culture in the fourth century BC, and are still popular today. In most any university library you will find many more books on Plato than you will on Jesus. Plato held that “souls” are a part of the invisible and permanent realm and are not affected by the change and decay of the visible world; therefore they are immortal. He taught that this immortality is the natural attribute of an incorporeal substance that extend into the past as well as into the future (Renaissance Thought and Its Source, by Paul Oskar Kristeller).

While the idea of immortality had existed in pagan religions, especially among the Egyptians, it was Plato and his followers who made it a major part of Greek thought which has had a big role in Western culture. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia the concept of the immortal soul “came to the Jews from contact with Greek thought and chiefly through the philosophy of Plato.” In the third century AD the school of Neoplatonism was firmly established by Saccas and Plotinus and the immortality of the soul was incorporated into Christian thought. Tertullian, Bishop of Carthage, boldly proclaimed the immortality of the soul as a Christian doctrine, but he claimed no Biblical basis for it, plainly admitting, “I may use the opinion of Plato, when he declares: ‘Every soul is immortal’” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3).

It was Augustine, an avid fan of Plato, who finally formulated what has become the traditional doctrine of the immortality of the soul, a doctrine based on Plato, not the Bible. It was at the Latern Council of AD 1513 that Pope Leo X issued a decree condemning anyone who rejected the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. His decree was aimed at Martin Luther, who denied this Platonic doctrine (Conditional Immortality, Miles Grant).

The traditional doctrine of immortality holds that every person is given, at birth, an eternal “soul,” which survives death, to live somewhere forever. The trouble is that this doctrine is diametrically opposed to the Biblical teaching that eternal life is the gift of God, and immortality is given only on the condition of one’s faith in Jesus4 [hence called “conditional immortality]” (John 3:16, Rom. 2:5-11). In this brief study we will simply ask: (1) what is the “soul,” and (2) is it immortal?

The word “soul” comes from the Hebrew word nephesh in the Old Testament and from the Greek word psyche in the New. Its first appearance is in Genesis 2:7. “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.” This is not a description of putting a “soul” into the man but of how man himself became a living soul. Neither is the soul something that is detachable, an entity that can live either in or out of the man. Rather it is simply the “living being,” a term applied in scripture to both man and animal.

Here we apply the “law of first reference”—the way a term is used in its first appearance in scripture is the way it should generally be interpreted in scriptures following. Note how it is used in Genesis 12:5, when Abraham and Lot took “the souls that they had gotten in Haran, and went forth into the land of Canaan.” Other versions more correctly say “the people,” as this is obviously the meaning. It is said of Jacob that his offspring numbered “seventy souls” (Ex. 1:5). The priests were commanded to share any “soul” they purchased with their own money, that all in the house might eat of it, obviously referring to an animal (Lev. 22:11). Scripture speaks of souls as eating, speaking, fasting, being beheaded, and many other things that are done only by people in their physical lives.

In the new Testament, the word psyche occurs over 100 times. It is sometimes translated life and sometimes soul, leaving room for confusion. For example, Jesus asked, “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own life, or what shall a man give in exchange for his life?” (Matt. 16:26). But some versions render it “what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”, leaving many to think that the “soul” is something they possess, which can be kept or lost or bartered away!

Whether in the Old Testament or the New, the “soul” is the principle of life, that which animates man or animal. Luke writes of “two hundred three score and sixty souls” in the ship of Paul, referring to the people aboard (Acts 27:38). When Paul prayed, “I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” he was praying for the spirit, life and body—for the entire person (I Thess. 5:23). The common idea that man “has a soul” which can live apart from the body is not known or taught in scripture.

In the words of Howard Hayes, “The prevalent notion that the ‘soul’ is a mysterious, ineffable, immortal something which man has or possesses rather than something which he is has corrupted Christian thought and speech…there is no account or record that Jesus came to save anything other than people, and in no instance did he commission his disciples to ‘save souls’ apart from persons” (Questioning a Tradition, Howard Hayes).

Since man is all one, all of man is mortal, for if he were partly mortal and partly immortal then he must be two beings, and his body should be no more a part of him than a tree is part of a house. Yet this is the traditional doctrine of “immortal soul,” that when a man’s body is killed, the real man is unaffected. It is the outgrowth of the first lie man believed. God had warned Adam and Eve that if they ate of the forbidden true they would “surely die” (Gen. 2:17) But Satan said it would be all right: “You will not surely die” (Gen. 3:4). By adopting the Platonic concept, man can believe that death only affects him physically, while his “soul” lives on. It is hard to tell how much damage this concept has done to the understanding of Christ’s death to meet the penalty for sin.

The term “immortal” occurs only once in the King James Version in I Timothy 1:17 and is a mistranslation of aphthartos which means “incorruptible.” “Immortality,” from athanasian, is used three times in the New Testament. In I Timothy 6:16 Paul affirms that only God has immortality. In I Corinthians 15:53–54, Paul speaks of the resurrection, when this mortal shall put on immortality.” This clearly teaches that in this life we are mortal and will not become immortal until the day of resurrection.

One of the best known commentaries states: “Nowhere is the immortality of the soul distinct from the body taught; a notion which may erroneously have been derived from heathen philosophers. Scripture does not contemplate an anomalous state brought about by death as the consummation to be earnestly looked for, but the resurrection”(Jamieson, Faucett and Brown’s Commentary).

The “Golden Text” of the Bible tells us that God gave His Son that “whosoever believes on him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). The issue of life and death is set before us throughout the Bible. Jesus said that the hour would come when He would raise all the dead, some to eternal life and some to judgment (John 5:28-29). It is already revealed what the judgment will be: death. “The souls that sins shall die”(Ezek. 18:20). “The wages of sin is death,” Paul tells, “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”(Rom. 6:23).

We do not have an innate immortality, but we do have the offer of immortality to be conferred as a gift, by the grace of God, upon those who are in Christ at His coming. It is through faith in Christ that the Christian has assurance that he — not just a part of him called “soul” — will be raised from death and made immortal in the image of God.

If one is ever to attain immortality, it must be by the gift of God at the resurrection. It is to be real people, changed and made immortal, that will inhabit the “new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwells righteousness” (II Pet. 3:13).

“Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Cor. 15:57). “Who has abolished death and has brought LIFE and IMMORTALITY to light through the gospel” (II Tim. 1:10).

Copyright © Curtis Dickinson. Formatted and Posted by Ken Fortier Ministries. Permission is hereby granted by Mrs. Regina Dickinson to reproduce and distribute Curtis’ articles to as many as possible. This statement is to remain attached to this article for permission to be valid. Vol. XXXIII, Number 1.

OK, this statement sounded like complete B.S.:

In most any university library you will find many more books on Plato than you will on Jesus.

So I checked the Emory University (my graduate school) main library, NOT the theological school library.

Results:

"Plato" - 2,165 books.
"Jesus" - 21,003 books.

Just in case it was a fluke, I also checked Harvard University's main catalog.

Results:

"Plato" - 8,449
"Jesus" - 53,239

Yale University:

"Plato" - 1,497
"Jesus" - 2,802

But apparently they're a bunch of heathens up at Princeton, my undergraduate alma mater:

"Plato" - 1308
"Jesus" - 845

I suspect, however, from those extremely low numbers - given the size of Firestone Library - that the electronic system does not include less recent books filed under the old (and unique) Princeton catalog system.

It's always a good idea to check these off the cuff remarks before you commit them to paper (or electrons).

OK, this statement sounded like complete B.S.:
"In most any university library you will find many more books on Plato than you will on Jesus."

Sorry, I didn't check out what Curtis said about that particlar statement - it may have been true about the libraries he accessed, who knows? He may also have had referance to the theological theories on the topic he mentioned - in that case I think he might be right, again, who knows? Regardless of that statement he made, Plato's theory has gained a major foothold in most of Christendom, but more and more people are beginning to question it because of their studies on the topic. We'll see if it has any effect on the masses over the next decade or so :-)

Anyway, the topic is how I also came to realize with a lot of study - almost 40 years of it.

Are you going to look at that article I linked in post #1? It give a much deeper look into the word SOUL, which destroys much of the preaching found in mainstream churches. It would come as a surprise to most of them, if they were to read up on what it says from the Bible.

PS: BTW, there is truth to be found in all religion bodies, even those bodies once considers "heretical."

Please don't miss the point of the teaching over someones use of "in most any university library". Are you using three samples to try to disprove his statement? Try three hundred or even three thousand and you might have a point. Gee, the point being is that the man is trying to show people that the things we learn and take for granted aren't necessarily true especially when it come to the truth of God's Word. How is this relevant? When you die, you're grave yard dead. Not hovering around on some cloud some where in some protoplasmic form. Every person who has ever died is dead, except one, Jesus Christ. That is why he is called the firstfruits of them that sleep, (l Cor 15:20) KJV). Immortality is something the believers will be given at the rapture not when we pass the birth canal!

Did you ever wonder why Christianity resonated so strongly among the Greeks? Not that it didn’t also spread to Persia, Central Asia (Armenia was the first officially Christian nation), North Africa, etc., within the first century, but the Greeks (including those in what’s now Turkey) really took to it.

Did you know that ancient Christians, as early as the first century, marvelled at how the Greeks had been prepped to understand their Christian message?

Did you know that Plato referred to a monotheistic god, albeit unknown to him, as “logos” centuries before John the Evangelist? Yes, when John called Christ, “Logos,” he was purposely representing a concept formulated by Plato and his followers.

Did you know that when the New Testament cites the Old Testament, it does not cite the Hebrew bible, but rather a Greek version of it?

The Greek religion was deeply antithetical to Christianity, but it was so patently antithetical to the truth that is Christianity that many of its discontents gained deep insight to a truth they could never have completely fathomed.

That’s why the Essenes were fascinated by Greek (Hellenistic) culture. John evidently had been an intense scholar of Greek before joining Christ, and this was no pagan pursuit of his. (Yes, humble fishermen could also be scholars.) His use of Greek has been called virtually native, using clever plays on words, making profound literary references, and displaying intimate knowledge of subtle connotations.

A good article. Consider the implications of this understanding of the Scriptures. If this has been widely known among religious leaders (it has) then all this talk about the soul going to heaven at death is false and the real hope for the majority faithful is the future general resurrection not an automatic raising to heaven at death or condemnation to a place of fiery torture.

I agree. I don't remember if the article pointed it out but animals, biblically, also have nepesh...souls.

Gen 2:7 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 (NEPHESH).

NEPHESH is used many times in Genesis:

Gen 1:21 And God created great whales, and every living creature (NEPHESH) that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

All living breathing creatures are SOULS and clearly animals are not immortal.

The concept of Christoplatonism is found in the book “Heaven” by Randy Alcorn. A complete outline of it is in chapter 6, but briefly it is a mix of Christianity and Platonic fatalism.
I recommend the book for its conceptualization of Heaven. It caused me to think about Heaven more.

Yes, there was definitely a mix of Plato's teaching and the Scritures starting around the mid to late second century. And what about heaven? Tertullian said that those who believed that a Christian going to heaven immediately after death was not to be believed - one was not a Christian if he believed that.

I've read much of Plato's works, but I haven't run across his use of "Logos" as you report. As for John "purposely" using Plato's teachings, whatever, I can't seem to find that in any of what he wrote to us...John, 1, 2, 3, or Rev., if he was the writer as most think (and I do).

Okay, sounds right.

Thank you. The truth was actually known to religious leaders all through the centuries - although with a form of Plato's teaching mixed in, they had a rough time trying to convince others. Even the Catholic Encycopedia goes along with the "soul" being basically the result of the body and "breath of life" joined together. One does not "have" a soul, one "is" a soul.

"It's all in Plato; all in Plato. Bless me, what do they teach them in these schools?"

- C.S. Lewis (via Prof. Digory Kirke)

It's not Plato so much as what you do with him. See St. Thomas Aquinas.

My only point was that that off-the-cuff statement jumped out like a flashing neon sign. I was a history major who read a lot of Classics (Greek and Latin; mostly Greek) and I knew that statement was inaccurate. "Most any" does not mean "some", nor does "university library" mean "theological library". I went to a sample of schools and my suspicions were confirmed.

Anybody who writes an essay had better check their premises and most certainly their "hook".

There are a number of factual errors in this writing. First, many theologians, such as Martin Luther and many Roman Catholic theologians taught traducianism, and not that there is an eternal soul. The immortality of the soul is not the same as eternal. Souls are created in time. I do not know of a single teaching in the Christian church that believes that souls have always existed. Plato and Aristotle’s belief that matter is eternal was never accepted by the Church. The issue of the relationship between philosophy (Platonism, stoicism, and aristotlianism) was that philosophy is a handmaiden to theology. Where philosophy contradicts theology, philosophical ideas are to be rejected. The determination of a meaning of a word is determined by its immediate context, not where one first encounters that term. The assumption that people that believe in the existence of the soul apart from the existence of the body are somehow ignorant of Scripture is simply false.

I was a history major also. My specialty was in immigration patterns, secular and religious - and religion played a major part in immigration.

As for Curtis, well, I'd say to ask him, but he passed away in 2005. He was a good friend and a preacher of the Lord. The Koine Greek was like a second language to him and his exegesis is top-notch. As for history, he was one of most well-read persons I've ever met - even more-so than the professors who taught me in college.

I agree with you point - it does sort-of jump out.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.