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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.

The animals have it, and so do we. The body+soul = flesh.

Just quickly stopping by and once again am struck by your ideas. Animals have souls?

Animals have life, by the grace of God, but man in the only creation with an immortal soul.

If you hope your dog is with you in heaven, maybe he will be. But it won't be because Fido was a righteous canine, but because it is joy for you.

To believe animals have souls borders on occultism.

And of course there's the excellent question -- where do you draw the line? Do porcupines have souls? Zebras? Slugs? Gnats? Grasshoppers? Viruses?

Next thing you know they'll be baptizing animals in church. Oh, wait. Some churches do almost this very thing.

Sacrilege.

Animals partaking of the Lord's Supper are probably not too far off.

Maybe they'll even tithe.

"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." Indeed they did. I recommend "Topics of Natural and Theological Science" in the Philokalia as an informative and challenging read for Westerners. "The Spirit of the supreme Logos is a kind of ineffable yet intense longing or 'eros' experienced by the Begetter for the Logos born ineffably from Him, a longing experienced also by the beloved Logos and Son of the Father for His Begetter; but the Logos possesses this love by virtue of the fact that it comes from the Father in the very act through which He comes from the Father, and it resides co-naturally in Him. It is from the Logos's discourse with us through His incarnation that we have learned what is the name of the Spirit's distinct mode of coming to be from the Father and that the Spirit belongs not only to the Father but also to the Logos. For He says 'the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father' (John 15:26), so that we may know that from the Father comes not solely the Logos - who is begotten from the Father - but also the Spirit who proceeds from the Father. Yet the Spirit belongs also to the Son, who receives Him from the Father as the Spirit of Truth, Wisdom and Logos. For Truth and Wisdom constitute a Logos that befits His Begetter, a Logos that rejoices with the Father as the Father rejoices in Him. This accords with the words that He spoke through Solomon:'I was She who rejoiced together with Him' (Prov. 8:30). Solomon did not say simply 'rejoiced' but 'rejoiced together with'. This pre-eternal rejoicing of the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit who, as I said, is common to both, which explains why He is sent from both to those who are worthy. Yet the Spirit has His existence from the Father alone, and hence He proceeds as regards His existence only from the Father. Our intellect, because created in God's image, possesses likewise the image of this sublime Eros or intense longing - an image expressed in the love experienced by the intellect for the spiritual knowledge that originates from it and continually abides in it." +Gregory Palamas Says a lot about Holy Orthodoxy and an Orthodox mindset doesn't it, Kosta!

Thank you so much for sharing your doctrines!

But please understand that, to me, they are doctrines of men which I eschew across-the-board.

And yes, I am Christian. God knows, and He is the one who matters.

there was a time when Adam was not

The operative word is "time."

I AM is a Name of God. Timelessness would apply.

Thus the two statements, that God knows us from the foundation of the world (and to the end, btw) - and that there was a "time" we were not - are not mutually exclusive.