MY UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE HUMAN BEING

Preliminary - The Basic Outline of my Position.

Having studied the various scriptures I have arrived at the conclusion that an understanding of the constitutional nature of the human being can be derived from scripture.  This is an important positive statement and it contradicts many reports that have stated the opposite. For Example, Hoekema in his book "Created in God's Image" insists that " It is therefore not possible to construct and exact, scientific, Biblical psychology" p 203.And he goes on to quote Bavinck as saying " The Bible does not furnish us with a popular or scientific psychology..." Burkouwer says in his "Man the Image of God" that " The general judgment of theologians has been that the Bible gives us no scientific teaching on man, no anthropology..." p194.

A Biblical Psychology can be derived from scripture because the Bible implicitly depicts the constitutional nature of the human being. My  position which I derive from scripture is that the Bible depicts humans as having 3 distinct and different kinds of components to their being. It is clear that scripture sometimes uses the terms spirit and soul interchangeably but what we are interested in is the things the Bible is pointing to and not necessarily the words that are used to describe them. The nature of the human being is implicit (implied) rather than explicit (directly stated) in the Biblical teaching just as is the constitutional nature of God.

1. THE BODY

It is clear from scripture and every day experience that we have a material human body. With this all the views and scripture are in agreement.

2. THE SOUL

It is clear from scripture and every day experience that we have an inward life of consciousness, thought and feeling. This life contains our self, our ability to be conscious and aware and the mind with which we think and feel. This conscious experience must be more than just a construct of the brain and Scripture reveals the need for something to carry personality and personal identity of the individual beyond the death of the body. That this inward life continues to exist beyond the grave.

Soul is not used as a technical term in scripture. It is a term that can have different meanings which are context dependent. Sometimes as any good Biblical scholar will tell you it can mean the whole human being. At other times it seems to point to just the inward life of the human being and sometimes to just one aspect of that inward life. The terms spirit and soul sometimes overlap in their meanings, but sometimes they refer to quite different things, and it is these things that need to be identified and examined. The soul is subsistent ie that it is like "software" that works or functions in the "hardware" of the brain and  in the spirit form. The brain and the spirit carry and house the soul. The soul carries the personality and personal identity of the individual.

3. THE SPIRIT

It is also clear that the scripture depicts humans as having an identifiable anthropomorphic form beyond the death of the body and prior to the resurrection, that is that dead people appear to have a human bodily form in the spirit world. The spirit carries the physical (appearance) identity of the individual along with the body (mortal and resurrection). Disembodied human beings are depicted in scripture as having a bodily appearance. These individuals can be called souls because as we have seen the term soul can be used as applying to a whole individual even in the intermediate state between death and resurrection.  After careful consideration I don't believe that these appearances should be regarded as "figurative" or "symbolic" and that cues in the text and from the context of scripture point to the need to interpret them as being literal or actual.

It is also notable that at the new birth some part of our being is renewed and regenerated and that this part of our being is distinct from our inward life of mind will and emotions though at the point of conversion these may be effected also. It is our spirit through which we can become aware of the presence of God. It is that part of our being that interfaces with the spirit world, just as our mortal body interfaces us with the material world. These points imply distinction in parts of our inward being. This is a very important point. As I mention elsewhere on this site, it is why people who hold to a 2 part view of the nature of man can have problems in understanding Christian spirituality. They don't realize that their soul is different from their spirit and they can tend towards mysticism (confusion of the spirit and the soul) and experience confusion in trying to live the Christian life. Ie the Bible tells them that they are a new creation but they feel they are the same person and do not understand that their spirit is renewed but their soul is in process and they need to learn to cooperate with God in that process.
 

It will be noted that this is a more subtle and sophisticated view than has usually been portrayed as the tripartite view of the nature of Man, however I believe it is sustainable and provable from the scriptures and sustainable through issues like the new birth, the humanity and divinity of Christ, the intermediate state, eschatology (end time things) and the christian life.

This view is called the tripartite view, that the human being is comprised of three structurally and functionally different but integrated parts or formal elements.  The 3 parts are formally joined and function as an integrated unity or whole. The parts are different though and distinguishable from one another.

The spirit part is non material and invisible being formed of spiritual substance or stuff. The Soul likewise is non material. The body is comprised of different kinds of matter or physical substances or stuff. The spirit and soul are distinguishable and structurally different parts - different things.

Non- believers have a spirit as well as a soul, though in an non-believer the spirit part is dead in the sense that it is out of relationship with the Living God.

The Body is seen as the home of the soul and spirit during the individual's life on the earth. We are to be good stewards of our bodies which are a gift from God.

At death the spirit and soul unit detaches from the body which dies and returns to the ground. The spirit and soul remain integrated and go into the intermediate state or hades / sheol (the afterlife) either to Tartarus (the nether gloom) for unbelievers or Paradise (with the Lord) for believers. At resurrection the spirit and soul unit is restored to a resurrection body for purposes of either judgment in Gehenna, the Lake of Fire (the second death), or eternal life.

When an individual is born again the spirit part is restored, renewed, and regenerated and becomes indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The relational function of the spirit between the soul and the presence of God is restored. The difference between the tripartite and trichotomous understandings is that the tripartite understanding does not believe in a separation between the spirit and soul during the history of the human individual. These parts remain integrated though they are formally different.

As regards the relationship between the soul and the body or the mind-body problem as it is called in academic philosophy, the implication is that the soul, even though it is closely related to the brain is actually comprised of spiritual stuff or kind of substance - It must be to survive the death of the body. The challenge then is to describe how when it is attatched to the body that there is an interface and close relationship between the physical substance of the Brain and the Immaterial spiritual substance of the Soul. The idea that the Mind makes use of the brain as its instrument is a part of it,  but also what happens to the brain will effect the mind this is an Interactionist or Interactionalism theory. This means that the soul and brain interact that is what happens to one effects the other.
 
 

This is simply a statement of my position and the evidences for it with regard to scripture will follow as this page is developed. Although I have collected my evidences, work remains to be done in compiling them and making them presentable to the reader. These ideas will be unpacked more as this page is developed.