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Jeepers, it was certainly not my intention to speak evil of anyone! If anyone feels that I have, I apologize. I do not oppose you at all.

I simply decline to be associated with any mortal doctrine, that’s why I put “Who is Paul? Who is Apollos?” in parenthesis, as an explanation why I personally claim no mortal doctrine and thus my following remarks about the neshama were from a third party to the debate. The reference comes from I Corinthians 3:

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, [even] as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able [to bear it], neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas [there is] among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I [am] of Apollos; are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who [is] Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?

I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, [ye are] God's building.

According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and [that] the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye are. Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ's; and Christ [is] God's.

IOW, I choose to sit on the foundation itself, i.e. the living Word. Your second point was this:

Secondly, since you claim to be neither Arminian nor Calvinist, why put your 2 cents worth in on this "divine spark" when you can't speak for the Arminians. Why not let them clarify if they so wish?

I introduced the term neshama for the sake of Lurkers and to support a third party point of view, more specifically a view previously stated by betty boop.

The first time I noticed the term “divine spark” being used on a Religion Forum thread was when Dr. Eckleburg used it on another thread. He said (excerpted):

This ethic had been based on the Calvinist/Puritan concept that "work" was righteous in the eyes of God when it's done for His glory. And also on the belief that the earth was a good and Godly place, because it was created by God for His pleasure; our job being to make it into a better place to reflect God's glory. Enter the naturalists, the theosophists, the socialists, the Fabians, the spiritualists, the social psychologists, and various liberal denominations, like the Unitarians, all singing in the same choir of universalism.

They each shared the pagan notion that man possesses "a spark of God within him." And this error goes right along with the idea that God could stop being God and become simply a man. Because if "simply a man" can really be a man who changes into a God, so should we be able to morph into that "divinity" which is "naturally inside us."

The hard and eternal truth is that God is God and man is man, and the two are as differentiated as the "Sculptor" is from his "clay."

It's no coincidence that those who built this country were strict Predestinarians. As the country has moved away from its founders' belief in a sovereign God, it has drifted into metaphysical mumbo-jumbo, horoscopes and Oprah.

The next time I saw the term was on a contentious thread which has since been moved to the Smokey Backroom. On that thread, betty boop responded to Markofhumanfeet as follows:

After all, everyone has a little spark of the divine in them.

In faith and trust in God, Markofhumanfeet, I do believe that is exactly the case.

I do believe God loves His "sparky" children, each and all. And "hopes" for the "return" of the Prodigal Son. (Sorry. Human language just doesn't do justice to expressions of divine Love....)

Thanks, Mark.

Subsequent posts 994 and 1010 indicate a common understanding among some is as follows:

LOL, actually, I was at this party before you were, LOL.

The only ones who have the "spark of divinity" in them are those sheep whose faith is in Christ Jesus, and have been born of God, through the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit.

All others are dead spiritually. No spark at all.

IOW, it appears the view of some is that the “divine spark” is the indwelling of the Spirit at the point of the regeneration of having been born again. Assuming y’all represent the Calvinists, I truly do not know what the view of the Arminians might be.

But in the view of the non-aligned – such as betty boop and I – the divine spark was breathed into Adam by God and thus every Adamic man has a “divine spark” which makes him fundamentally different from all other living creatures.

I further assert that the regeneration of being born again only comes when one hears the Word and is known by Jesus. (John 10:27) The indwelling of the Spirit becomes there and increases over time, proportionate to one's surrender to God's will. (Romans 8, John 6, John 15, John 17, I Corinthians 2, 1 John 4)

***Jeepers, it was certainly not my intention to speak evil of anyone! If anyone feels that I have, I apologize. I do not oppose you at all.***

Then why draw a comparison to what Paul clearly condemns as a huge problem in the Corinthians church?

***I simply decline to be associated with any mortal doctrine....***

As do I, which is why I don't mind the nickname of Calvinism. It is, after all, the historic truths established by God prior to the first word of creation and handed down over at least the next 6000 years, gaining various nicknames along the way: Pauline, Augustinian, Calvinism, etc. But, let's not be fooled into calling it a mortal doctrine as if Calvin invented it. He merely rediscovered the truth of it, hence we may not be ashamed that the truth bears the nickname "Calvinism."

Woody.

The first time I noticed the term “divine spark” being used on a Religion Forum thread was when Dr. Eckleburg used it

The problem here is that the definition is a moving target. Dr. Eckleburg makes reference to the idea in a very clear and forthright statement of the pagan nature of such a concept. Your next reference cites the statement of someone who obviously has no such problem with the concept, which means that either they are not speaking of the same thing, or they hold radically differing views of the concept and its truth.

You then cite yet a third use of the term, where the writer has co-opted it's meaning and narrowed it to make a point, i.e. that only Christians possess it. You then draw your conclusion based on yet another interpretation of the term, equating it with that which made Adam a "living soul", and is therefore present in all men, i.e. the Breath of God which made man physically and spiritually alive. That would place your view closer to the pagan than to Christ.

However, that view (the Breath of God as the "divine spark") neglects one crucial and critical point: the entrance of sin into the world and the human race through the disobedience of Adam. Since the Bible clearly teaches that men are born spiritually dead, then it follows that only those who have been made spiritually alive (i.e. born again) have the so-called "divine spark". Therefore the pagan idea is wrong, demonstrably wrong.

Since the term "divine spark" is not strictly a Biblical term, I would suggest that its use must be with clear and precise definition, or better yet, avoid the term because of the confusion it could cause to the casual hearer/lurker.