Posted on 06/11/2006 4:21:52 PM PDT by DouglasKC
A drunken driver loses control of his car and careens headfirst into a van, killing a family. A mother dies of breast cancer, leaving confused children and a grieving husband. An infant boy succumbs to a birth defect. A gentle, elderly lady dies quietly in her sleep. A desperate, depressed teenager commits suicide.
Maybe death would be different if it were predictable or consistent. But death can be so capricious. It hardly seems fair.
To us life is precious. But death is everywhere! We don't want to die. We don't want to see our loved ones die.
Self-preservation is a powerful instinct. We design special diets and exercise programs to keep us young and fit. Through medical science we seek to isolate the gene that makes us age, hoping somehow to eliminate death. A few have even arranged for their bodies to be preserved cryogenically in the hope that they can be brought back to life when the cure for what killed them is finally discovered.
Yet, for all our efforts, hopes and wishes, death is the one thing in life that remains certain. Whether through old age, illness, accident or violence, whether we are rich, poor, male or female, no matter if we're good or bad, all of us regardless of race or creed-die.
Scientists cannot tell us what happens after death. Too many aspects of life itself are intangible-too elusive to measure and record. Philosophers disagree on death and the afterlife.
Religions also disagree. Traditional Christian denominations generally teach that the souls of the dead live on in a place or condition of heaven or hell. Many non-Christians believe in the transmigration or reincarnation of souls at death. Still others believe the dead will never live again, that this life is all there is.
What really happens at death? Why do we even have to die? Can we know if there is life beyond the grave? Where can we go for meaningful, believable answers?
Only the Creator of life can reveal its purpose and the state of the dead. By looking into the Word of God for answers to our questions about death, we can learn a great deal about both life and death.
Join us now for a look at what God, our Creator, says about life and death in His inspired Word, the Bible. You may be both surprised and challenged by what you learn.
I think we're using different terminology. The Hebrew word most commonly translated as "soul" in the OT is "nephesh":
nephesh
From H5314; properly a breathing creature, that is, animal or (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental): - any, appetite, beast, body, breath, creature, X dead (-ly), desire, X [dis-] contented, X fish, ghost, + greedy, he, heart (-y), (hath, X jeopardy of) life (X in jeopardy), lust, man, me, mind, mortality, one, own, person, pleasure, (her-, him-, my-, thy-) self, them (your) -selves, + slay, soul, + tablet, they, thing, (X she) will, X would have it.
"Soul" is simply a term for something that has life. It can be an animal or a human. When something lacks life, it lacks soul. The life, the soul, is non-existent. The body and soul are dead.
He wasn't subject to death...being sinless. That's what makes his murder/crucifixion all the more heinous. This is how he paid the entire price for mankind.....one and for all. He was innocent!
You're stating something I already believe.
In what way would you distinguish between animal soul and human soul, and in what sense do you believe that man was created "in the image and likeness of God"?
Again, the term "soul" as used in scripture basically means a breathing creature, whether human or animal. For example:
Gen 1:20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature (nephesh) that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
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.
Gen 1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature (nephesh) after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
In each one of the verses above (and many others I won't bother to list) the hebrew word "nephesh" is used. This is the exact same word used here:
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)
Animals ARE a soul, and humans ARE a soul. At least according to the bible.
and in what sense do you believe that man was created "in the image and likeness of God"?
In many ways. But I suspect that you're really asking for the difference between man and animal. The difference is that man was created with a spirit, which is an image of (but IS not) God's spirit. The spirit of man is a non-physical component of who we are and is what gives us the power of rational thought, intellect...our "mind". Our spirit is NOT eternal, it is something that is created by God:
Zec 12:1 The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel. Thus declares the LORD who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him,
Without our spirit, we cannot think and are not conscious:
Psa 104:29 You hide Your face, they are dismayed; You take away their spirit, they expire And return to their dust.
Psa 146:4 His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; In that very day his thoughts perish.
Our spirit joins with the spirit of God, the holy spirit, when we begin our Christian walk:
Rom 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
More scripture concerining the spirit of man. Here Paul contrasts how mans spirit allows us to know and understand the things of man (something animals don't have the capability of doing) with how God's spirit allows us to know and understand the things of God:
1Co 2:11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
1Co 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
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