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Thank you both for sharing your insights. And thank you for your encouragements, dear kosta50!

All kidding aside, the Jews will tell you that they know the power of God more than any other people on earth.

And I would agree that, as a nation of people, they are clearly chosen. Only Christians can also claim such tender mercies.

When I look at their history from Abraham to now, I stand in awe: Jesus, Moses, David, the prophets, the apostles, miracle upon miracle, grace upon grace, righteous judgments and ever a remnant, the irrational hatred of them, the persecution, the endurance, their disproportionate success in science and military campaigns.

They are beloved. May God ever bless them.

But why drag kabbalistic and rabbinical beliefs tainted with neo-Platonic and Persian concepts into Christianity?

The only prejudice I have is for God.

Sometimes the Spirit leads to me read pseudepigraphral manuscripts, sometimes the Talmud, sometimes Jewish mysticism, sometimes the Catechism, sometimes the commentary of religious leaders. And I trust the indwelling Spirit to illuminate what He wants me to know, and whether He wants me to embrace or to shun an insight.

Many posters here – you included, kosta50 – have said things which the Spirit illuminates to me, sometimes causing them to ring true or flow gently over my spirit - and sometimes causing an alarm. Your love of God always flows within me. Likewise hosepipe’s sense of God’s family coming together.

Again, pre-existence of the souls entered Judaism through Babylon and hellenistic influences, and not through the Torah, as for the Tanakh I am not sure (some parts were written after the Babylonian captivity).

And again, if we are speaking of neshama - the breath of God which made Adam a living soul – then I assert that only timelessness can apply to Him, including His breath. Thus, we should not presuppose – one way or the other – God’s awareness of His own breath or the method whereby He imparts His breath to us.

For me, it seems to always come back to a Name of God. In this case, I AM.

They [Romans 8] were interpreted as trichotomy by some, even to this day.

Then they have not spiritually discerned Romans 8 in the same manner as I have been led to discern it.

For a Christian, the body is dead, the Spirit is life. The Christian struggle explained in Romans 8, the walk, is to become increasingly aware of this, turning away from the carnal urgings and choosing instead to follow the Spirit. John explains it also using slightly different terms, i.e. walk in the Light.

hosepipe puts it this way: ”Most humans do not know they are indeed spirits in a body suit..”

This is certainly true of newly reborn Christians and is the exhortation of Romans 8, be aware, follow the Spirit.

The Hebrew language insight may support some Calvinist beliefs.

In other words, all living things – bacteria to whales – have an animal soul, the nephesh. This can be understood as the “carnal nature” of Romans 8 - survival, dog eat dog, "I" trouble. Some believe none of these animal souls survive death, some believe they do or some of them do. I do not have a leaning in the spirit either way.

But man, on top of the nephesh also has a soul, the ruach. Some see this as the “image of God” – to decide (free will) which includes the ability to intend, analyze, reason, value and so on. Some call this “spirit” as well as “soul.” And many believe this survives death though some do not. This is the choosing of Romans 8. The leaning I have in the spirit is that this does indeed survive the first death – but the ruach whose name is not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb will not survive the second death. (Rev)

Now for the Calvinist hitch which is also embraced by many Jews, the neshama - the breath of God. These are the elect, the chosen, the ones with “ears to hear” – the ones drawn to Christ by the Father. Some on the Jewish side believe the neshama is passed down from Adam, genetically so to speak – i.e. that God only did this once. Thus if a man is not a descendent of Adam, he cannot be saved. Others believe that God gives neshama to whom He wills, probably at conception.

But in either case, the neshama is the breath of God, it is timeless. If the breath of God cannot be destroyed, then the elect cannot resist the calling and therefore because God is timeless, the elect are chosen from the foundation of the world.

Of course there are many who believe every man has the neshama - every man has “ears to hear”.

I do not have a leaning in the Spirit as to when or how we receive the neshama nor do I want to make any presumptions about it. I do have a leaning in the Spirit (confirmed in Scripture) that not every man has the neshama or "ears to hear."

Still, the neshama is not the Holy Spirit Himself (ruach Elohim). The indwelling of the Spirit is the rebirth – when we receive Him were are alive with Christ in God. The Spirit is life, the body is dead. (John 3, Col 3:3, Romans 8 and so on.) His presence is the determining factor, whether our names are recorded and/or not erased in the Book of Life. (Rev 3:5 etc.)

Notice the revelation of the Trinity in the confirmation here:

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. - Romans 8:9

AG, soul if the what God breathed into Adam's lifeless nostrils as the final state of Adam's creation. That timeless "substance" without substance is what we call life. It goes along with the body. It is what we (and all living things) pass on from generation to generation by a Gopd-given method of preocreation.

The animals have it, and so do we. The body+soul = flesh. Man was made as body+soul; a body without a soul is an object; it's dead.

We are finite biengs; we have a beginning and we have an end in flesh. Now, there was a time when Adam was not. And Adam's soul did not pre-exist Adam's body. In other words there was no "Adam's life" floating around, isolated, before his body was shaped.

What sustains our life is love (the hesychastic fathers call the Holy Spirit the ερος (eros, longing) between the Father and the Son, and through the Son, between us and the Father. It's what keeps our life (soul) from extinguishing itself. A soul that sins (rejects God) dies, sasy the OT.

By sinning we reject the life-giving Spirit (Love) of God and condemn ourselves to eternal separation (spiritual death) from Him. Until Christ that separation was final. With Christ it became possible to regain our connection with God and live even after the physical death.

The HS is not our "supersoul." He is a direct conduit between God and us, through His only-begotten Son. There is no trichotomy. There is no pre-existence of souls in Christian belief. We came to life when God gave us life, at the moment of conception. Our life did not pre-exist our bodies.

We are not Jews. If you consider yourself a Christian then pray for the Jews, but don't mix-and-match. I was under the impression that you consider yourself a Christian.