What Is the Soul? What Is the Spirit?

You know, it is getting to the sermon itself. It is profitable to review from time to time basic doctrines of the church. And so what I'd like to do this afternoon is discuss the soul, you know, the soul as the Bible speaks of, and also the spirit in man, and review some basic pointers to you on this. And it may start out thinking, oh, this is going to be a terribly boring sermon, but I don't think so. I think there's a lot of application that we can be involved with as we go through this. So let's first of all talk about the soul. It's a very important term. And let's go to Genesis 2, verse 7. Because when you talk to the religious world, and you mention the word soul, they hear immortal soul, right? That's what they hear. Immortal soul. End of question. But then if you were to say, none of you would do this, would you? Maybe you would, I don't know. If you were to say, well, show me the verse in the Bible that says immortal soul. Now you're creating problems because there's no scripture in the Bible that says immortal soul. So let's review some of these points, Genesis 2, verse 7. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And what an amazing event that this must have been. He forms from the clay, the mud, the dust, this perfectly formed human being that is dead, not alive. And then he breathed into this man's nostrils the breath of life. The breath of life. Very important biblical term. And man became a living, if you have the King James, it says living soul. If you have the new King James, it says living being. But the word in the Hebrew is nefesh. I'm not going to try to put too many Hebrew words out here for you. But nefesh is a word that I think most of us are familiar with. We would spell it N-E-P-H-E-S-H. Nefesh.

It used to be a very commonly discussed word among the church. In fact, over the years I've heard a few, I might say, nefesh jokes, which can be in the right setting pretty funny. So maybe we'll compare them. I'm sure some of us have some of those jokes. But man became a living soul. Man became a living being. Man became a living nefesh.

Now, this particular word is a very all-encompassing word. Like many words in the Hebrew, one Hebrew word can have several different translations in the English. And that's kind of where we get taken aback a little bit.

For example, the theological word book of the Old Testament says that nefesh has 20 different meanings or translations in the Old Testament. 20 different meanings. Well, we're not going to try to get into all of those. We don't need to. But nefesh basically means a breathing creature or a breathing being. Something that breathes. Nowhere in the Bible do we find, of course, the term immortal soul. But it usually means a breathing creature. I'm going to have to give a little bit of a caveat on that. It is a living soul or being. And it means, again, life, soul, creature, person, appetite, and normally a living creature. But it can also mean, and we need to understand this, it can also mean dead body as well. Let's turn to Leviticus 19 and just see a couple of examples as well. So a nefesh is a body. It's a body. Hopefully it's a breathing body. Sometimes the minister of church wonders if there's anybody still out there breathing nefesh. Okay, I won't bore you with bad jokes today. I'll try not to. You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh. This is Leviticus 19.28. You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the nefesh, for the dead, nor tattoo marks on you. I am the Lord. So it also means, in this case, nefesh means dead body. In Leviticus 21 and verse 1, And the Lord said to Moses, Speak to the priests, the son of Aaron, and say to them, None shall defile himself for the nefesh, for the dead among his people. And this has been used in many, many places, a book of Numbers and other places in Leviticus as well. And in these cases, nefesh means dead creature, non-breathing creature, one who has died. So we have to keep that in mind. I'd like to read a definition from the church literature, which I think does a really good job of explaining it. The Hebrew word most often translated into English as soul in the Bible is nefesh.

Strong's Concordance defines this word as a breathing creature. When used in the Bible, nefesh does not mean a spirit entity or the spirit in a person. It usually means a physical, living, breathing creature. Occasionally, it conveys related meanings such as breath, life, or person. So that's the normal use of it. Sometimes it's a nefesh that doesn't have breath, meaning it's dead. But usually it's a nefesh, it's a body that's still breathing. Surprising to many, the term nefesh is used to refer not just to human beings, but also to animals. And let's look now in Genesis 1 and verse 21. Genesis 1, 21. So God created great sea creatures. And in the King James, so God created great whales. And then every living thing, now if you've got the new King James, it says thing. If you've got the King James, it says creature. But this phrase, every living thing that moves, or every living creature that moves, is from the Hebrew nefesh.

So the creatures that swim through the waters, they are nefesh as well. So the Hebrew word translated creature or thing, depending on your translation, is nefesh. In the biblical account, these particular souls, creatures of the sea, were made before the first human beings were formed and given life. The term, if you want to look in verses 30 and 24, or maybe we should say 24 and 30, it applies, again, nefesh applies to birds, land animals, cattle, and creeping things. Whether these things are creeping are reptiles, insects, so on. Again, the Hebrew word there, again, is nefesh. So with creeping animals, reptiles, bugs, insects, cattle, and so on, there's nothing immoral. Nothing immortal in the word nefesh. In fact, nefesh can die. Ezekiel 18. Let's turn to Ezekiel. The nefesh can die. So again, very easy. And again, coming from the background that I came from, the word immortal soul is something I heard every day, probably every Sunday, or maybe every other Sunday, certainly I heard that term, immortal soul. And it was quite a shocker to see here in Ezekiel 18.4, Behold, all souls are mine, the soul of the Father, as well as the soul of the Son is mine. The soul who sins, the nefesh who sins shall die. And then verse 20, the soul or nefesh who sins shall die. So nothing inherently immortal about nefesh. Now, when the nefesh or life, we'll try to keep it pretty basic, when it expires, when our life leaves us, we die. When our life or nefesh departs us from us, we're dead. Now, God decides to put that life back into us. Guess what? We live. We're resurrected. Let me show you a couple of scriptures on that by way of review. Genesis 35, the story of Rachel. And Rachel was giving birth to Benjamin. So in Genesis 35 and verse 18, and it was soul, she was actually dying in childbirth. And so it was as her nefesh was departing, for she died, that she called his name Ben-Oni, but his father called it Benjamin. So she was dying. Her soul, her life, her breath, her nefesh was leaving her body.

And once your nefesh leaves her body, you die. Now, the powerful and great God can reverse this. He can turn this around and reverse this. 1 Kings 17. 1 Kings 17, chapter. And let's look at verse 20. Well, we'll go to a couple of verses here. Verse 21, he, being Elijah, stretched himself out on the child three times and cried out to the Lord and said, Oh, Lord, my God, I pray, let this child's soul come back into him, or come back to him. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, verse 22, and the nefesh of the child came back to him. The breath, the life, came back to him. And guess what? He revived. So you have a physical resurrection here. The nefesh returns. So if it leaves, in the case of Rachel, we die. If it comes back, in the case of this young man, we live. Now, until that happens, though, if we die, if our nefesh leaves us, we are dead all over. Psalm 6, and I know you're very familiar with this. Psalm 6, and verse 5, I do read these scriptures at funeral sermons, and I do get looks. I do get looks from the audience, if the audience believes in the immortal soul. And in Psalm 6, verse 5, For in death there is no remembrance of you, in the grave, who will give you thanks? The thought processes cease when we die. Psalm 30, and verse 9. Psalm 30, and verse 9.

What prophet, and David is, I want to say arguing with God, but he's bargaining with God. And what if he dies? He says, Lord, what prophet is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it declare your truth? In other words, give me some more time. If I go to the grave, I won't be able to pray to you. I won't be able to declare your truth.

Give me some more life. Give me some more time. He was bargaining with God, so he could live longer. In Ecclesiastes 9, and verse 5, and this Ecclesiastes does have several verses in it, about some key verses in it, about the spirit and so forth. Ecclesiastes 9, and verse 5, But the dead know not anything, neither have they, they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hatred, their envy have now perished. They don't think anymore. They don't have emotions. They don't think. They don't remember. It's all over with. And then in verse 10, Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work, or device, or knowledge, or wisdom in the grave where you are going.

Our thoughts cease at the time of our death. Now, so like I've said, if the nafesh leaves us, our life leaves us, of course we're dead. If God puts the nafesh back into us, we live. So, how dependent then are we on God for this breath of life? You know, Adam was this perfect statue of a man, made out of clay, mud, bread, mud, dust, whatever. A perfect statue, but he was dead, not alive, until God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. So, how dependent are we on God for our breath of life?

Let's go to Job chapter 34. Job 34 in verse 13. And this is Elijah explaining to Job, he was saying, you know, Job, God's really in charge. He doesn't ask you for your opinion. God's in charge. Who gave him charge over the whole earth? Who appointed God to be in charge of the whole earth? Nobody did. God's in charge of the whole earth. Who appointed him over the whole world?

If he should set his heart on it, then he says in verse 14, if he should set his heart on it, if he should gather to himself his spirit and his breath, you know, I know, and his breath, all flesh would perish together and man would return to dust. Now, what if God recalled his spirit?

Now, I'm going to throw another Hebrew word at you. Ruach, I think many of us are familiar with that. R-U-A-C-H, it's spelled differently in the English. But if God would pull back his ruach and his breath, that's another Hebrew word I won't bother with. It's a very beautiful sounding word. But if he should pull it back, if he should pull back his spirit and his breath, we would go to powder.

We'd go to dust. Boom, we're done. I mean, God, he sits in heaven. He could, he won't, because he's got a plant. But what if he did it? The Bible says this is what would happen. Now, we need to keep that in mind because he literally holds our breath of our life in his hands. In his hands. And we owe him not just one breath or two, but we owe him every breath of life that we do have.

Belshazzar did not know this. Let's turn to Daniel 5 and verse 23. Daniel 5 and verse 23. Belshazzar was Nebuchadnezzar's apparently maternal grandson, as best as we can figure it. And he was a blasphemous idolater. And in verse 3, they brought Daniel 5, the gold vessels, the sacred holy vessels that were committed for him, created only one job. That was to praise God and honor his name and bring glory to his name. And they took those gold vessels that had been taken from the temple, the house of God, verse 3, which had been in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them.

And they drank wine and probably got drunk. And praise the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. And then the fingers of a man's hand appeared. And, you know, the king had an accident, as it makes it very plain in verse 6, because of the fear that he did have.

So then he called for the astrologers and all that, and finally Daniel was brought in. And Daniel explains a few things, verse 22 of Daniel 5, But you, his son Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart. And although you knew all this, you knew what happened to Nebuchadnezzar, how he was, you know, ate grass like an ox for seven years and so on. But, you know, that didn't get your attention.

You know, that didn't humble your heart. And you have lifted up yourself, verse 23, against the Lord of heaven. And they have brought the vessels of this house before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, and iron, wood, and stone, which do not see, hear, or know, and the God who holds your breath in his hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified.

So he said, Belshazzar, you forgot something. You shouldn't have learned it from your grandpa, but you didn't. God holds your breath in his hand. He owns all your ways, and you have not glorified him. Verse 30, that very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain. These are two very, very powerful scriptures, Job and Daniel, because God literally holds our breath of life in his hands. And he gives us the breath of life. And we need to be very thankful to the great God for that.

Now let's talk a little bit about the spirit in man. So again, the basic definition of nayfesh, although there are other ones, but basically it means a breathing creature. That can stop breathing. I mean, I think we've seen that already. But the spirit in man, just by way of a little bit of background, I think, as I remember, or at least remember being told, Mr. Armstrong really didn't discover this doctrine until about 1964 and 1965. And then I came along, went to college in 1966, and the spirit in man was very much on his mind. He was always preaching it. He'd preach other things, but he was always preaching it.

And I know it's the Feast of Tabernacles in 1966 in Big Sandy. He was preaching on the spirit in man. And looking back at it now, I see that God was formulating this doctrine in his mind. He had come from Quaker stock, Quaker background, and he never really had heard about, or read about, the spirit in man until God began showing him some scriptures in the Bible. And then that opened up a whole vista to him. And so he spoke very much on it, and I think it released a period of eight years, from say, 64 to 72, when we were sent into the field in 1970, the minister were told to preach the spirit in man doctrine to the brethren.

You know, Mr. Armstrong was very, very thorough. He would stay with the doctrine for years, if need be, to get the word out, to get the message out. And so he told the ministers to preach. So I heard many a sermon on the spirit in man. And it was just a great...you could just see the excitement of Mr. Armstrong as God worked with him and formulated this doctrine to him.

So let's go to Job 32. Job the 32nd chapter, and certainly one of the foundational scriptures on this. But there is a spirit in man. Again, this was Elihu doing the talking. There is a spirit, or again, Ruach, in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.

Now that's in the New King James. There is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding. It is interesting that the King James puts it this way. There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty gives him understanding. The inspiration, and when you think about it, and as we add more scriptures to this, I think the King James people were really led to see...

You know, that's really what that word means. God inspires us to have an understanding that the rest of the world simply does not have. An understanding about God and God's ways. Now, let's go...and so I'll give a couple of definitions here. In my mind, they're almost similar in one sense, but in another sense, they are different. Ruach means mind, spirit, and or wind. I've been translating that. And breath can also mean wind or breath, okay?

Wind or breath or mind. So they're very similar. But in the King James, it does capture this one word inspiration. But I want to focus more on the word, you know, spirit in man or Ruach in man. Let's turn now to Zechariah chapter 12, and we will look at verse 1. Zechariah 12 and verse 1. The burden of the word of the Lord against Israel, thus says the Lord who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him.

Forms the spirit of man within him. Now, when God wants to communicate to us, how does God communicate to us? Well, it's simple. The Bible. Okay, the Bible. But what if we don't have a Bible? What if we're a pagan? What if we're a heathen? How's God going to communicate to us? Well, let's turn to Ezra 1 verse 1.

Ezra 1 and verse 1. Here we have this pagan King Cyrus. And he is the king of Persia. Persia is still around today. It's called Iran. So it's still very much in the news. So, in the first year of Cyrus, so God gets right to the point quickly, the king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah, might be fulfilled. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom. And he put it in writing. And when you read verses 2 and 3 and 4, God put into his mind, Cyrus's mind, by stirring up his spirit that the Jews were supposed to go back to Jerusalem and build the temple.

God took that pagan king and said, okay pagan king, this is what you're going to tell. What you're going to tell the whole kingdom. And you can read here, he says, Cyrus says this, all the kingdoms of the earth, the Lord God of heaven has given me, and he, God, has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah, who is there among you of his people?

May his God be with him, let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, build the house of the Lord God of Israel. He is God, which is in Jerusalem. This didn't come from Cyrus. This came from God. God's got that kind of power. Okay, then let's go on to verse 5. Then the heads of the fathers, houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all those spirits, God had moved, arose to go up and build the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem.

So just like Eli who told, you know, Eli who told Job, there's a spirit in man, and the, you know, the breath of the Almighty gives you understanding, gives you inspiration, gives you, I should say, the inspiration of the Almighty, let me get it right, the inspiration of the Almighty gives you understanding. So the inspiration of God gave these people the understanding through the spirit in man to go build the house.

So how can God communicate to us by the spirit in man? Now here's something from the church, the church's literature on that. What is the difference between an animal brain and a human brain of similar size? Now I've been told that the human brain is one of the largest brains out there, just, I mean, just look at the brain itself. Although I think some whale's brains are quite a bit bigger than human brains. So if whale's brains are bigger than human brains, they would be smarter, right? Wrong. And what about brains that are just a little bit smaller than human brains?

Why the jump? You think, okay, the crocodile has a brain this big, he's kind of stupid, and the gorilla, he has a brain about that big, he's smarter, and then human, they got a... It's not a progressive thing.

The human brain just goes off the charts as far as the ability to do things. So what is the difference between an animal brain and a human brain? Science has not been able to explain the vast difference in thinking ability between the animal brain and the human mind. In fact, we had a member at the church at that time, Dr.

Kuhn, he had done some brain research, and he said, there's no way you can jump from a chimpanzee to a gorilla to a human and just chart it physically. There's something not even... We began to realize something non-physical about what's up here between our ears. A very, very fascinating study. Anyway, the Bible talks about a spiritual component that God gives every person. He forms the spirit of man in him. Zachariah 12.1, the Bible teaches that the spirit in man imparts aspects of the human mind, including self-awareness, intellect, creativity. Somehow these people were made aware. Let's go build the temple in Jerusalem. Creativity, personality, and temperament.

Everything that enables human accomplishment and knowledge short of true spiritual understanding. So there's a limit on the smartest of the human minds. Now the human mind can build rockets, the human mind, the general theory of, you know, relativity and how Einstein figured this all out before they were able to prove it by the telescopes.

You talk about genius because he had a brain and he had the spirits in man, and that enabled him to do great human accomplishments. So we'll be talking a little bit more about that. But what happens to the spirit when we die? Let's go to Ecclesiastes chapter 3. And we need to understand this very well, because if you're going to really explain something to people and they say, well, you're talking about the immortal soul.

No, I'm not talking about the immortal soul. Well, you're talking about life after death. Well, no, no, I'm not talking about life after death until the death is ended by resurrection. In Ecclesiastes 3 verse 19, what happens to the sons of men also happens to beasts. One thing befalls them as one dies, so dies the other. So dies the other. Surely they all have one breath or one ruach. Man has no advantage over the beasts for all his vanity.

All go to one place. All are from the dust and all return to the dust. And then the Word of God says, who knows? How many people know or understand the spirit of the sons of men which goes upwards and the spirit of the beast which goes down to the earth? One goes upwards and the other one goes downwards. Let's look at Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse 7. And again, I like to explain this, that funeral sermon, so that people will understand, you know, what happens to the human being when we die.

Ecclesiastes 12 and verse 7.

Now is that a spirit that lives on, you know, in heaven? No, it doesn't live on in heaven. Let's look at a couple of scriptures in John 19, John 19. And verse 30.

And these were the last words of Jesus as he was dying on the cross. When Jesus had received this sour wine, he said, it is finished. And bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. Jesus remained unconscious for three days and three nights, and then he was resurrected from the dead by his father. We all know that.

Acts chapter 7 and verse 58. We see the second Christian martyr. We debated before who was the first martyr, Stephen. Well, you know, we're in Acts 7. No, no, he would not know if Jesus cried. No, no, no, it was Abel. Well, Abel technically wasn't a Christian. Then he could buy you. Then you don't know because maybe he talked to Jesus cry.

You know, we go on and on. Let's just not go there anymore. Wasting your time. But in Acts 7 and verse 58. And they cast him out of the city and stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they stoned Stephen, Acts 7, 59. And as he was calling on God, saying, Lord Jesus received my spirit.

Because, see, he knew that his spirit was going to go back to God who gave it. And then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not charge them with this sin. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. So when we die, we fall asleep. That's why the Bible says there's no memory. There's no thought process. There's nothing going on. David is not ascended into the heavens. Oh, and by the way, that's a feast story. I've got to tell you, I think I can work this in here.

Talking to somebody at the feast. And he was a man who lives in the Colorado area. And he went to Lutheran school. Went to a school at the Lutheran church. And one day, the main minister came. Well, he was teaching them. He was teaching the Bible, kind of a lead minister.

He was teaching the Bible. And he made this statement. And let's go back to Acts here. If I can find it. Somewhere here, yeah. Acts 2, verse 34. And so the minister was saying, Well, right now he said Jesus Christ and David are in heaven saving souls. And so, typical, I don't know how old he was. Maybe he was seventh grade. That's what it was. Seventh grade. So he's not paying a whole lot. He's paying some attention. He's paying his Bible. And he fell on this.

His eyes fell on this particular verse. So he raised his hand and he said, But how can David be in heaven saving souls with Jesus when it says here, David did not ascend into the heavens? David did not ascend into the heavens. Well, that did not go over too well. So our spirit goes back to God. But it is unconscious. It is not thinking. It is not reasoning any longer. Let's turn now to 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 14.

1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. So again, death, Peter says, Stephen fell asleep. He said, Lord, did I read the rest of that? I can't remember if I did or not. Having said these words, he fell asleep. I think I did read that in Acts 7 and verse, you know, verse, don't charge him with his sin, verse 60.

And when he had said this, he fell asleep. We sleep in Jesus when we die. Now, let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 9. Now, the spirit in man is a crucial component of our makeup. It is a spirit in man. And apparently, therefore, all of what we have ever accomplished in life is recorded on this spirit in man, kind of like a DVD in a DVD player.

I know people have made fun of that, and they've laughed at that analogy. But again, we're only human. We can only understand so much. And so, like the spirit in man is this DVD that's recording the events of your life. And then when the DVD player breaks or dies and is thrown in the trash can, that DVD is saved by God.

And so then at the resurrection, he will put that DVD in for us a spirit body. And all the record of our character, our faith, our faithfulness, our godly love, it will all be there ready to be used, only this time in a spirit body. Now, let's go to 1st Corinthians 2, verse 9. And there's a wonderful destiny that we do have. But as it is written, I has not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.

But God has revealed them to us through his spirit. Now, through God's spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. Things that great engineers, great scientists, you know, cannot discover. I guess it was in Time magazine someone was telling me that the scientists have now figured out why we are addicted to sugar. And the reason why we're addicted to sugar is because these apes, you know, millennia or whatever, millions of years ago, they were the famine.

I mean, this is all in time, I'm told. You know, famine. And so they were searching for food and they found some sugar and ate a bunch of sugar. And then they passed on this craving to us, and so we evolved as sugar addicts. God has revealed the truth to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. And then He talks about, so here's basically the formula. You have a brain, you know, human brain. God adds the Spirit in man to that brain. Now you've got a mind. You've got the human mind.

Then God takes that human mind, if He calls you, which He has, then He'll take that human mind, add His Spirit, and He is a child of God. He's a child of God. So in verse 11, what man knows the things of a man except the Spirit of the man which is in him? You cannot teach mathematics to your dog. Remember that? They try to get monkeys to type out, well, the Encyclopedia Britannia. I mean, that's what evolution would tell you. They give it enough time, monkeys will, can type out the Encyclopedia Britannica, and we saw beyond today's program on that.

And after several weeks of banging away on the typewriter or the laptops, they did not spell one word. Not one word. So to write, to speak, to do math, you have to have the Spirit of man which is in him. Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

The things of God, the godly things that we know come from God's Holy Spirit. Now, we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which, as it should be, which is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. In other words, it's so plain to us. Why can't the rest of the world understand it?

I mean, the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, and it's commanded. What's so hard about that? Well, only a few thousand people, maybe many thousand, that are, you know, but I don't think it's in the millions who are keeping the Sabbath day. So the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that freely, it's so simple to us.

These things we also speak not of words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. So God gives us the ability to compare it. They want, okay, we're going to have to have the Sabbath, that makes sense.

Oh, these holy days, most of them, you know, are called Sabbath days, right there, you can find that. You know, Sabbath days, and then you've got the plan of God revealed. But the natural mind does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to Him. Nor can you know them because they are spiritually discerned. Now, getting back to the animal kingdom for a moment, you know, dogs know doggy things, you know, and man knows human things, and then with the Holy Spirit, man can know the things of God.

The natural mind, as I've just read, does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. I have a letter I'd like to read, this is someone's, someone wrote this in, that really describes verse 14. So think about verse 14. The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, so on, so on, so on. So let me just read this here. I've been an agnostic and finally an atheist for many years. I'm now 85 and terminally ill with multiple myeloma, but currently now in remission and in relative fair health. I have been reading the experiences of those who had near-death experience and written books of what happened on the other side.

He's read the stories of what supposedly happened on the other side. I am, I believe, very well read in matters of New Testament stories, as well as Buddha, Islam, and others. So I think we're going to see some problems coming along here.

I was raised in Protestantism from childhood to late teens. I joined the Army late World War II, went to college on the GI Bill, and have a degree in political science. I am still eager to learn whatever I can about life and life after death if it exists. He doesn't know that there is a life after death.

At this stage, I am once again back to agnosticism. I simply don't know. My politics are radically socialistic and have been almost all of my life. If he did indeed exist at all, Christ was a socialist, in my opinion. The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God.

My present view of the world is that we, through the influence of various confused religious sects, are now in a state of hopelessness and insanity. My children are fundamental Christians, who assure me that Christ will return to make all wonderful once again soon. I do not believe this, in regard of this pure mythology and fable. For they are foolishness to him. Nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

I cannot believe that God punishes us forever. Well, we don't believe that either. I think if we could teach this man this one thing, that there is no ever burning hell fire, then we might have a chance. Christ had to die for us because Eve succumbed to Satan's urging to eat forbidden fruit nonsense. You know, God created a loser and then cast him out of heaven because he was getting too uppity nonsense.

The absurdity of these writings offends me intellectually. I reject all of it. This man is writing his life story based on basically verse 14. And it's a sad deal, isn't it?

He does say, thank you for responding to my queries. I sincerely appreciate you taking the time. I respect you and your church as genuinely concerned people. But as far as understanding God's truth, he's agnostic. Verse 15, but he is spiritual judge of all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he might instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ. Now, this is really a good passage to think about, pray about, meditate about, because you just see the progression of things. A brain, then the spirit in man, a mind, then the mind, plus God's Holy Spirit, and then we have the mind of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5, 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. I will just say that as I was reviewing this material and studying it again and preparing the sermon, it got me excited again, excited all over again. What a joy! What a privilege to know what we know, that we are now a new creation. And sometimes we think we can just make the mistake, or we make the mistake, and we just think we can just talk to somebody about the Sabbath, and they'll get it, right? Oftentimes, not right. They don't get it. They just, their minds are closed yet. So, we see these things. Let's turn to Romans chapter 8 and verse 18, because, and I'm going to build on the scripture that says, I has not seen, ear has not heard, and neither has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for us. Okay, Romans 8 and verse 18, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

So, we've got a plan. God has a plan for us that is just absolutely phenomenal. Let's look at a couple of scriptures in the New Testament. Matthew chapter 10. Again, this was a stopper to me as far as understanding that we don't have an immortal soul. Christ is saying, do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Not torture forever, not burn your mortal soul forever and ever, but destroy both soul and body in hell.

What about the phrase, body, soul, and spirit? Let's turn to 1 Thessalonians 5 and take a look at verse 23. 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 23. And He is praying that, now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, your soul and body, be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have a nice little study note from our web pages and so on.

Many are confused by the expression that Paul uses, spirit, soul, and body. By spirit, which is pneuma, P-N-E-U-M-A, if we would pronounce it, Paul means the non-material component that is joined to the human brain to form the human mind. So you've got spirit, or pneuma, plus brain, that equals the mind. The spirit is not conscious of itself, but it does give the brain the ability to reason, create, and analyze our existence. By soul, or suke, that would be equivalent to nayfesh, and that means the person's physical being with its consciousness.

Suke is the person's physical being with its consciousness. Body, or soma, S-O-M-A, body or soma, Paul means a physical body of flesh. In short, Paul wished for the whole person in mind, vitality, and physical body to be sanctified and to be preserved, sanctified, and blameless.

That's kind of a tall order, don't you think, for all of us? That we protect our spirits, we protect our vitality, and we protect our human body from destruction, you see, or beating our body down, or in the modern age, drinking themselves, drugs, and so on, and just destroying their body. Paul says, my prayer is that you will preserve your body as long as you can, until God takes it, and it takes your life, but you can preserve it, and not just abuse yourself with drugs, drinking, and so on, and your spirit and your soul as well.

So we have an obligation, again, to take care of our brain, or our human mind, our consciousness, and the body itself. We need to be taking care of that as well. Let's go to a couple of other scriptures to see just what God is going to do with us. In Genesis chapter 1, verse 24, we see this here.

God said, let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth, each according to its kind. After its kind, God made the beast of the earth according to its kind cattle, according to its kind, no cows ever produced a horse, in other words, everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind, and God saw that it was good.

And then God said, let us make man in our image. If you think about it, he's following the same pattern. Let us make man after God's kind. After our image, according to our likeness, I let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. He didn't do that with the crocodiles, the alligators, the whales, and so on.

God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him male and female. He created them, and he expects our soul, our spirit, and our body to be preserved, blameless, to be taken care of, because we're supposed to be, even now, we're supposed to be God-like. In 1 John 3, verse 1, Where are we going? What is the future? What is the plan for us? Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God.

Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know him. Beloved, now we are the children of God. We are God-like. God is not really building a team. God is building a family. We are children of God. It has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And everybody that has this hope in him purifies himself, keeps thoughts and attitudes and moods in the right place, and prays and studies and fasts occasionally, and purifies himself just as our Father, just as God is pure.

I'd like to read from John 10 and verses 33-36. Because where are we going with all of this? The Jews answered him, saying, For good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, because that you, being a man, make yourself God. And Jesus turns the tables on them, John 10.34. Is it not written in your law? I said, You are gods. If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken, it cannot be broken, John 10.35, it cannot be parableized away or metaphorically taken away, the scripture cannot be broken.

Say you of him whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world, you blaspheme, because I said, I am the Son of God. In Luke 20, we see a similar way of expressing this. Luke 20 and verse 34. And it says that the sons of this age are given to Mary and given in marriage, but to those that are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead neither married nor are given in marriage, nor can they die anymore, because they are equal to the angels, and are sons of God, sons of God being sons of the resurrection.

And let's turn finally to Revelation 21 and verse 7. He who overcomes shall inherit all things. I will be his God. He shall be my Son. And brethren, we are living, breathing, nayfeshis. We have the spirit of man in us. We have the spirit of God in us. And we must preserve that precious gift of God's Holy Spirit and be found blameless at the return of Jesus Christ.