I'm guessing you figure a 'soul' is the result of flesh plus spirit...A breathing person is a soul...
I've read some of yours and your author's stuff on your website...
The views are not new...Been around for who knows how long...
But the thing I noticed is that you have to change some words in the English text and mess with the placement of the punctuation to get to where you're at...
AND of course, you use the African manuscripts to prove your points where I stick with the Majority texts...
I'm certainly not a scholar...But I try to keep up with some of those, as much as time allows, who have spent their lives studying the scriptures...
As we know, the Apostle Paul said he'd rather be absent from the body and present with the Lord...So we know that the soul is not the body...
Therefore the soul can not be the culmination of the body/spirit...In Paul's case, the body is missing...
We know that the spirit is wind, or like wind...It is the breath that we breathe...Greek word is pneuma...Pneumatics...Air...
And the Spirit of God goes where we don't know because we can't see it...But yet someone sees the souls of those beheaded under the altar in Revelation...
I'll stick with the souls in heaven scenario...
I'm guessing you figure a 'soul' is the result of flesh plus spirit...A breathing person is a soul...
Why are you guessing? That's exactly what Genesis 2:7 tells us. If you had really read what some of my articles, and the articles other wrote that I have on the Web Site, you would have known that, and would not have had to guess.
Nowhere does the Bible teach that man has a "soul" added to and temporarily held in a body, but bound to live on somewhere forever. That is a fiction of Greek mythology, itself born of the first and deadly lie Satan implanted in Eve's mind, 'Thou shall not surely die!' Nowhere does the Bible teach that man has two separable parts, much less three, and that one can continue in self-conscious life without the other; nowhere does the Bible confuse 'spirit' which is either breath or life principle, and "soul" which is the whole man as a living, sentient being. And nowhere does the BIble use the silly phrase "spiritual death." When Adam and Eve sinned they died, as God warned, in that they passed under the irrevocable sentence of death (into God's 'death row') and the seeds of death began to work on their members. That death was the wages of their sin, and is so asserted in Romans 6:23 in order to show by contrast that God's gift in Christ is totally the opposite - life! NOTE: this paragraph is quoted from the booklet, The Blessed Hope: What Makes it Blessed? by Robert L. Whitelaw, a member of the international "Resurrection Fellowship" of Christians.
I've read some of yours and your author's stuff on your website...
If you really have, and by that I mean actually examined what is said with what is written in the Scriptures, then we would really like to see your rebuke of them - you can submit an article and we will include it in a special page per our policy.
The views are not new...Been around for who knows how long...
You're right, they are not new by any means. Many of the articles appearing on my Web Site contain statements made by the early church writers before 250 AD. Even Tertullian made a statement about the "soul" not going to heaven at the death of a Christian. Of course, he didn't use the term "soul", but instead used the Latin term "animon" which meant the animating principle which made man a living being.
But the thing I noticed is that you have to change some words in the English text and mess with the placement of the punctuation to get to where you're at...
Absolutely not. The words are a translation of the Hebrew or the Greek, and no punctuation was used other than the few found in the Greek texts. Modern punctuation wasn't a part of the Bible until centuries later - the 17th century! Apparently you didn't realize that.
AND of course, you use the African manuscripts to prove your points where I stick with the Majority texts...
I take it you are refering to the use of the LXX, the same one Jesus and the Apostles used to quote the OT from. What is your definition of the "Majority" texts?
I'm certainly not a scholar...But I try to keep up with some of those, as much as time allows, who have spent their lives studying the scriptures...
That is apparent. Many of the articles were written by Biblical Scholars who spent their lives studying the Scriptures - so don't you consider what they have found out to be valid?
As we know, the Apostle Paul said he'd rather be absent from the body and present with the Lord...So we know that the soul is not the body...
Yes, he did. And did you not read the article examining that passage of Scripture? If not, tell me and I'll give you a link to it.
Therefore the soul can not be the culmination of the body/spirit...In Paul's case, the body is missing...
I do believe you are misunderstanding Paul's statement and the context he used it in. See II Cor. 5:1-10 and other passages wherein Paul tells us when we will be with the Lord, which he was expecting also. Again, if you haven't read the article we have on my Web Site, tell me and I'll send you a link to it.
We know that the spirit is wind, or like wind...It is the breath that we breathe...Greek word is pneuma...Pneumatics...Air...
Yes, Jesus compared the pneuma(spirit) with the pneuma(spirit) :-) See John 3:8 - This is a big stumbling block to many who do not understand the Scriptures. And we know from Genesis 2:7 that this same pneuma is used to give life to the body God made from the dust of the earth - the "spirit of life". But the pneuma is not just "wind or breath", remember that the term is personified in some verses, and rightly so.
And the Spirit of God goes where we don't know because we can't see it...But yet someone sees the souls of those beheaded under the altar in Revelation...
Yep, everytime someone sees the term "soul" they think of it as a separated part of a dead human being :-) Do you believe that "blood" cries out in a language from the ground? Do you take Revelations literally, or as a warning from Christ to the Apostle John in apocalyptic style of speaking (writings)?
I'll stick with the souls in heaven scenario...
Yep, that's sticky glue for some :-) What you may need is a way of getting unstuck so that you may see the spiritual side of what is said. Someone once said to me that Revelations is like fly-paper - once stuck to it one can't get off to see what the rest of Scriptures have to say about the destiny of man.
Nice typing to you... read some of the articles and think about what they say. Rebuke them if you can. Over the centuries since "conditionalist" writings appeared (First Century) they have never been successfully rebuked, much less even considered for their Biblical basis. The "dark ages" came, and the light came back on when people became aware of the Scriptures in the original meaning again.