Where is the human soul during life: different versions
I propose to go through the most popular variants of assumptions regarding the location in the physical body of a spiritual, immaterial substance called the soul.
- According to the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus, the soul occupies the entire human body at once. Being the finest substance, it spreads throughout it, being in a very close connection. The physical shell cannot exist without the soul, otherwise its destruction occurs.
- The inhabitants of Ancient Egypt were sure that the spiritual component of a person is located in the body, which for it represents the temple. But to preserve the subtle substance, it is necessary that the body remains forever in its original form. Therefore, in order to avoid the processes of rotting and decomposition, the Egyptians made mummies from the dead.
- In many Eastern faiths, it is believed that the seat of the soul is the heart center or Anahata chakra (which is located in the center of the chest).
- From the notes of Claudius Galen, an ancient Roman doctor, we learn about his assumption of where the human soul is located. Galen made many observations of dying people and came to a conclusion about the location of the substance in the blood.
- Our contemporary American scientist Stuart Hameroff was also seriously puzzled by the question of finding the soul. He stated that the soul is nothing more than a clot of quantum matter. And it is stored in the neurons of the human body. As the body dies, the energy flow is released, connecting to the information field.
Components
The soul is a vortex substance that stores energy and all the experience accumulated during each incarnation in the physical world. Like the human body, the soul is capable of growing and developing; it is multidimensional and contains several levels.
Only humans have a soul, but every living and nonliving creature on the planet has a Spirit. This is the primary divine particle, a component of the universe, which is everywhere and everywhere. The soul can be destroyed, sold, lost, but the Spirit cannot.
Let's imagine human shells in the form of a hierarchy: the physical body is controlled by the soul, the soul, in turn, is subject to the control of the Spirit, all this is surrounded by conscience, like an ocean that directs a person to the path of goodness and justice.
Multidimensional structure of soul and spirit
Peter Novochekhov will tell about the components of the soul from the point of view of the Bible, about the purpose of the Spirit:
The soul itself consists of 3 components, which are described in the following subheadings.
Animal soul
The lowest level is usually called animal - it is he who is responsible for the current embodiment in bodily form. Located in the lower Dan Tien field, the animal soul changes from incarnation to incarnation.
It manifests itself at the level of instincts and physical desires. It is not capable of giving birth to thoughts and ideas, it does not accumulate life experience. If you allow physical needs to control your life, the animal soul will begin to grow, in which case the soul is not destined to move to a higher level of development, it gets stuck in the world of illusions.
Psychic soul
It is located at the level of the solar plexus, and its second name is the emotional soul. This is a constant part that passes from one shell to another, accumulating the experience of emotions, experiences and dreams experienced during earthly life.
It is this level of the soul that is responsible for the brightness of feelings: thanks to it, a person cries and laughs, experiences rage and peace.
Learn to control emotions during the soul’s earthly existence: this will help it move to a new level, and not descend to a permanent stay on the animal level.
Here is the “control panel” of love: and the maturity of this feeling will depend only on the level of the soul. Young people, as a rule, reduce love to the level of animal instincts, while mature souls are capable of raising it to a qualitatively new height - making love absolute.
Rational soul
This part connects the body and Spirit, according to experts, located at the level of the heart or slightly higher. It is completely devoid of emotions and feelings: while the animal soul experiences endless needs, and the emotional soul experiences the entire spectrum of feelings, the rational part looks for ways to solve problems and comprehends what is happening.
The rational soul is located in the region of the heart
Is the soul in the heart?
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The heart is deservedly considered the most emotional organ of the human body. Therefore, it is not surprising that the theory of finding spiritual substance there appeared.
And, of course, scientists have not ignored this issue. Thus, as a result of scientific research, the destruction of physical heart cells was established forty days after death. And, as we remember, many religions call the fortieth day the decisive day for the soul - when it finally leaves the material world for the spiritual.
What’s more interesting is that a study was conducted in Germany in 2012, the purpose of which was to determine the organ where the soul is located in the body. One hundred subjects took part in the experiment. An important selection condition was that the person had a difficult emotional experience - the loss of a loved one, a breakup, an unrequited feeling, etc.
Scientists carefully monitored the most minimal changes in the breathing and heartbeat of study participants. They sought to find out from which organ the impulses that would arise in a severe state of stress (physical signs of mental torment) would come from.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to determine the location of the spiritual substance. The fact is that the subjects felt a nagging pain in the area of the anterior wall of the sternum (the area where the solar plexus, lymphatic systems and nodes are located).
It was suggested that there is a certain area in the lymphatic system that controls the spiritual state of a person. And perhaps because of this, people experience severe chest pain when they experience serious emotional turmoil. But this is not certain - the hypothesis also has its critics.
Scientists have proven the existence of the soul
The existence of the soul has been proven by a variety of scientists, and in different ways. One of the striking examples can be considered the results of an experiment conducted by German doctors. The scientific group of Dr. Berthold Ackermann collected data on the state of clinical death from more than a thousand people.
For the experiment, people of different religious beliefs were chosen: from atheists to Jews. All of them described their condition at the time of clinical death. And everyone was talking about the same thing - about the feeling of leaving the body, about the feeling of safety, calm and warmth. Almost every participant in the experiment spoke about the state of levitation and the image of bright light.
Ackerman himself, after the study, stated that the results of his experiment may contradict the beliefs of the majority. But after analyzing the data obtained, we came to the conclusion that there is an eternal soul. Just like there is some other life after death.
Is the soul a component of the brain?
It was this theory that was first voiced in the scientific world. This event took place back in the 17th century. And its author was the famous mathematician and philosopher from France Rene Descartes. The latter expressed the opinion that the human soul is located in the pineal gland, located in the diencephalon (now known as the pineal gland).
Today it has been scientifically established that in children under six years of age the pineal gland is very similar in shape to the eye: it has a lens, photoreceptors and nerve cells. The so-called “third eye”, which, however, subsequently atrophies.
But the scientists did not stop - they observed people whose pineal gland miraculously remained in its original form in adulthood. And it turned out that they had supernatural powers - they could predict the future.
And researchers from George Washington University did encephalograms of the brains of patients with heart disease or cancer when they were in the dying stage. The results of the study were surprising: a couple of moments before biological death, EEG data showed a “brain explosion.”
A sharp increase in electrical impulses was recorded. According to scientists, this may indicate the release of energy in a certain amount. Who knows if we are talking about the human soul?
The Lord God is a programmer, and our souls are his programs
With the development of computer technology, an interesting theory has emerged that the soul is information about our personality, recorded in the Universe in the form of a special code. In this hypothesis, the Universe is perceived as a perfect computer, which contains everything that happens on earth and beyond. Each step of a person is predetermined and calculated by a special program embedded in the body shell with the help of the soul.
Today, scientists are experimenting with powerful quantum computers that can accommodate, calculate, and store enormous amounts of information. It was they who gave the scientist Seth Lloyd the idea of a perfect device capable of processing all the information in the Universe.
Following the scientist’s logic, the soul is still a program akin to a computer program, but especially complex. She is capable of self-improvement and self-learning. How the largest database in the Universe is transmitted and where it is stored remains a mystery, but the theory continues to find followers.
Is blood the seat of the soul?
And scientists from the United States have no doubt that the repository of subtle substance is the bloodstream. They explain their hypothesis by serious changes in behavior, character, and sometimes appearance in those patients who have undergone blood transfusions.
You may think this is crazy, but the facts confirm that the use of donor blood in some cases even leads to increased height! Not to mention changes in body weight. In addition, former recipients note the appearance of vague, but memories of events that they definitely never experienced.
Is there a soul in every organ of the body?
American physiologists conducted an interesting experiment in 2012. They selected older people who had received organ transplants from young donors and monitored them.
As a result, they noted a significant improvement in the general vital functions of their body. But what shocked scientists most of all was, without a doubt, the changes in character traits. According to the chief freelance transplantologist from Belarus, Anatoly Uss:
“Any human tissue is intelligent. Therefore, when a transplanted organ enters a foreign environment, it begins to show its own character.”
Without what is human life impossible?
Since ancient times, people have been trying to find an answer to the question: “Where is the human soul?” thought about what physical life is impossible without. The first thing that came to mind was breathing, because without oxygen people would not be able to live for even a few hours. Therefore, the soul was often placed in areas involved in the breathing process (chest, stomach).
The inhabitants of Ancient Israel quite logically noticed that blood was also the most important condition for maintaining life. Therefore, they considered it the abode of the soul or spirit. It’s interesting, but Jehovah’s Witnesses (Jehovah’s Witnesses) have the same conviction today. They rely on the words of Holy Scripture:
“For the life of every body is its blood.”
This is why Jehovah's Witnesses cannot transfuse someone else's blood, because they have no doubt that along with it a part of another person's soul will enter their body.
But the inhabitants of Ancient Babylon came up with, perhaps, the most unusual version of where the soul is. So they made it a storage unit for ears! It sounds funny, but the Babylonians considered the ears to be a vital organ.
The “Vine of Life” website was founded in 2011 by Evangelist Oleg Zamuruev
“When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, at the moon and the stars that You have set, what [is] man, that You remember him, and the son of man, that You visit him? You made him a little lower than the Angels: You crowned him with glory and honor; You have made him ruler over the works of Your hands; He put everything under his feet” (Ps. 8:4-7).
CREATION
Man is the highest and most mysterious creature on planet Earth . Even after studying the Bible and auxiliary literature for many years, not many Christians have an idea of how man works. What functions does his spirit have, what are his soul and what position do they occupy in a person? How do they work? Where is our “I” and much more?
How many artists, poets, writers and philosophers, people of science and politics have devoted their lives to the study of man, and each for his part tried to penetrate the mystery of the human being, but unfortunately, often with impure motives, only in order to gain power over him, influence, manipulate his behavior, deeds and actions. And only He who created man in His image and likeness knows His creation perfectly, loves it, cares for it, guides it on the path of truth in order to lead it to perfection! You and I, friends, His children, created by His love, do not remain outside observers in this process. The Lord in His love invites us to walk this path to perfection with Him in order to return to His wonderful presence!
Let's start from the very beginning, with the process of creation, it is written:
“
Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). I would like to point out that the word “let us create” is not entirely accurately translated here.
A more correct translation would be “made, produced, fulfilled,” this is the meaning of the Hebrew word (naaseh), which is used in the Hebrew text of the Torah, since man was not created by the Word, like all other creations, and did not arise from nothing. If we talk about our physical body, it is lovingly woven from existing material - the dust of the earth, and the Almighty placed His image and likeness as the basis for the creation of the entire human being. If we talk about the image of God, then there are a lot of controversial opinions , and therefore, I think, you and I can think a little about this, plunging into the depths of thousands of years. As the Apostle Paul writes, “whatever I say, I will say not in the Lord, but as if in my (2 Cor. 11:17), “for you, men of understanding, gladly tolerate foolish people” (2 Cor. 11:19). So I think that we will not sin much if we think about this in our foolishness!
It is written: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was upon the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters” (Gen. 1:1,2). It is unknown how much time separates these two verses of the first chapter of Genesis from the third, that is, they separate the “Beginning” when the heavens and earth were created - from the first day of creation. But since in the book of Genesis 1:2 it is written about the earth that it was formless and empty, that is, it had an unfinished appearance and was not inhabited, but this is not said about Heaven, many theologians come to the conclusion that Heaven was not only completely created, but also inhabited by celestial beings! That is, even then, before the creation of our visible Universe, the entire heavenly army already existed in the created Heaven: angels, archangels, cherubim, seraphim... and the Only Begotten Son of God in some form, since it is written: “ He chose us in Him (in Christ Jesus ) before the foundation of the world..." (Eph. 1:4).
It is said about the Lord: “Who is the image of the invisible God, the first begotten of all creation; For by Him all things were created, that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible: whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers - all things were created by Him and for Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things stand.” (Col. 1:15-17).
It must be assumed that the Lord Jesus, precisely as the image of the invisible God, was once presented to the entire created Universe! It is written: “When He brings the Firstborn into the world, He says, And let all the angels of God worship Him” (Heb. 1:6). Therefore, it seems that it was in His image and likeness that a little later, on the sixth day of creation, man was created, who is the crown of God’s entire creation!
It is written: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). In the Hebrew text of the Torah, verse 26 of the book of Bereishis (Genesis), two words are used meaning image and likeness, the first: “betzelemenu” - which is translated as shadow, image, image, statue and a dozen other similar meanings. And the second is “kidemutenu” - which is translated as likeness, sample, appearance, image, appearance, form, etc. Therefore, I think there is no doubt that this is the meaning inherent in the original text of the Torah, which tells us that man was created precisely in the image of God! Yes, man could not have been created in any other way, since from the very beginning he was created as a celestial being, as a king, a ruler, as the future body of Christ, as a Bride for the Beloved Son of God, who will sit with Him on the throne of glory and will rule over the entire Universe!
P. Billheimer writes: “According to God’s eternal plan, the Church, as the eternal companion of Christ, is destined to occupy the highest position in the Universe, close to the level of the Divinity itself. As the Bride of the Son of God, she will share His royal power with the Son.” P. Billheimer “Destined for the Throne”
Further, about the highest role of the human being, he says : “not one of the created beings in the Universe has the ability of a human being to “contain and reflect God.” Only one person was endowed with a nature in which God could be fully embodied.” P. Billheimer “Destined for the Throne”
What the Apostle Paul writes with delight: “I give thanks [to God] continually for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to the knowledge of Him, and may enlighten the eyes of your heart, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of His glorious inheritance for the saints, and how beyond measure the greatness of His power is among us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power” (Eph. 1:16-19). Isn’t the Apostle writing here about our glorious heavenly future for which you and I were created? And we are still being created, for we are still in the creative process of perfection, “until we all come into the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, into a perfect man, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.” (Eph.4:13)
God, when initially creating man, had great plans for you and me, because He wanted to have next to Him an independent being, with free will, initiative and creative, and therefore He created us as celestials who would become His beloved sons, like His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ, His bearers. genes, members of His Great Cosmic Family and the Bride of His beloved Son! And therefore, we could not be created in any other way than in the image and likeness of God, that is, in the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the second Adam and the prototype of all humanity that will inherit heaven!
And those seventy, with a greater strength of eighty years, allotted to us for living on earth - this is only the process of our birth, carnal, and then spiritual, so that, having reached here on earth the full age of Christ and becoming the spirits of the righteous who have reached perfection, we are freed from the mortal body and ascended to His Heavenly abodes to sit next to Him on the throne as the beloved Bride of Christ!
SPIRIT CARRIER OF LIFE
Immediately after conception, even in the first month of fetal development in the womb , a spirit is infused into it, which brings life to the fetus! It is written: “The Spirit gives life” (John 6:63), and therefore the spirit that dwells in a person is called the “spirit of life” (Gen. 6:17; 7:15,22). Namely, from the moment the spirit enters the embryo, life begins, it becomes a living soul and, although in the physical plane it is still completely dependent on the mother, from the first days it lives the independent life of a human being, since it has a fully formed, developed spirit received from the Lord! It is written that God, who spread out the earth, gives “...spirit to those who walk on it” (Is. 42:5).
It is the spirit, as the carrier of life , that is the main thing in a human being; if the spirit leaves the human body, then death occurs, it is written: “And Isaac gave up the spirit and died” (Gen. 35:29); “ If you hide your face, they are troubled; if you take away their spirit, they die” (Ps. 103:29); “And when Jesus had cried aloud, he gave up the ghost” (Mark 15:37). Of course, this is with the exception of cases of astral projection, when a person’s spirit, leaving the body, maintains a connection with it.
Ask where do these spirits come from that bring life into a person?
As for Adam, when God created him, he breathed the breath of life into him, but we do not see that God continued to do this to this day and breathed the breath of life into every baby conceived in the womb. Moreover, it is written: God rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done” (Gen. 2:2). He rested, that is, entered into rest, and completed all His works!
It is not known when spirits were created, but it is known that before they are incarnated into human bodies, spirits spend some time in the presence of God! What does the Apostle Paul confirm in 2 Corinthians. He writes: “... we know that, being at home in the body, we are cut off from the Lord - for we walk by faith and not by sight - then we are glad and wish rather to leave the body and be at home with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:6- 8).
From these verses we see that there was a time when we, having settled in the body, were removed from the Lord and there will be a time when we will leave the body and again dwell with the Lord.
Now let's take a closer look at who We are?
Who are we eliminated? - Our spirit, of course, which was created earlier! At that moment when we separated from the Lord, neither body nor soul existed! Having withdrawn from the Lord and entered the womb of the mother, our spirit gave life to the fruit of the womb and life arose! A soul has appeared! Thus, we were installed in the body, that is, we were born on this earth.
Who are we born to be? Our spirit of course! He is our “I” - it was he who moved into our earthly mortal home in order to walk the path to perfection here on earth and return to Heaven!
Who wants to leave the body and dwell with the Lord? Our spirit of course! He is our “I” - an eternal substance that, once receiving life, never dies! Paul writes: “we do not lose heart; but even if our outer man is decaying, our inner man is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16).
Who is the outer one who is smoldering? - Body! Who is internal, is being renewed? - Our spirit!
The outer one is a shell, a hut that ages and falls into disrepair!
The inner one is our spirit, which, moving away from the Lord, inhabits the body and, receiving rebirth from the Holy Spirit, begins to develop, achieving perfection. It is from here that his spiritual growth begins, and therefore, in our spiritual development there are periods of infancy, childhood, youth and maturity (1 Cor. 3: 1; 1 John 2: 12-14), and then, the spirits of the righteous who have reached perfection, will again appear before Lord! It is written: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive [according to] what he has done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10).
Who lived in the body? Our spirit is of course created by God through the angels! He is our personality, he settles in the body, he goes through all stages of spiritual development and, having reached the full age of Christ, is raptured into Heaven, joining the spirits of the righteous who have achieved perfection.
Then the words with which God addresses Jeremiah are clear: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:5). If Jeremiah was not conceived and was not yet in the womb, then where could God know him?
But, if we proceed from the fact that Jeremiah is not flesh, but a spirit who, long before his incarnation on earth, was created and dwelt before the face of God, then everything falls into place! Then it is clear why in the letter to the Romans Paul writes about foreknowledge and predestination: “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29). I think that the process of foreknowledge and predestination takes place even before the birth of a person on earth, there in the heavenly spheres, where all the spirits of God stand before their Creator!
And it is the Angels of God who make sure that human spirits, in due time, are safely brought to earth and each, according to its purpose, inhabits exactly the fetus for which they were created, bringing life to the new being created in the womb! This is evidenced by the story of the conception and birth of John the Baptist, who came to earth in the spirit and power of Elijah, as the Angel Gabriel, sent from God, promised Zechariah. (Luke 1:11-20).
From the history of the conception and birth of John the Baptist, as well as Samson and the Lord Jesus Christ himself, about whom it is said: “Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given; dominion is upon His shoulder...(Isa.9:6). We see that human spirits don’t just move in like anyone else; there is a certain order in this process.
For each of us, the Lord selects not only parents , but also the time and place of birth, gender, eye and skin color, nationality and much, much more! We are unique and unrepeatable, created for a specific purpose and each of us has our own purpose, not only on this earth, but mainly in Heaven. Therefore, our entire earthly existence pursues one single goal, to prepare us for Eternity, in which each of us will take his own place, assigned to him by God, for which he is preparing here on earth.
Remember, when the sons of Zebedee wanted to sit next to the Lord, Jesus said directly: “...you will drink My cup, and you will be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized, but to let you sit at My right hand and on My left is not up to Me [depends] ], but for whom my Father has prepared it” (Matt. 20:23).
In Heaven, not like on earth, God has order in everything. This is evidenced to us by the history of the fallen cherub, which was immediately created as the crown of beauty and the height of perfection. (Ezek.28:12-16). He did not have to fight for his place in the sun and go from a simple angel to an anointed cherub! The Lord does not hide the fact that the same order exists on earth. He says that “to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one” (Matt. 25:15), and therefore it is written: “...to whom much is given, much will be required, and to whom much is entrusted, from him the more will be required.” (Luke 12:48). That is, for each of us in Eternity, our own place has been prepared and it is for this place that we are preparing here on earth, and therefore no one can take a place higher than the one for which he was created and preparing, but we can find ourselves lower if we do not diminish like a child!
And yet, since all of heaven is occupied by the prince of darkness and the spirits of evil in heaven, no disembodied spirit can independently break through these enemy hordes, and therefore the Angels of God deliver them to their destination on earth, each to the family in which they are destined to be born. And then, at the end of their earthly career, Angels accompany souls back to God’s presence, as we see from the story of the rich man and Lazarus: “The beggar died and was carried by the Angels into Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16:22).
It is difficult to say how long you and I, or rather our spirits, were in the presence of God before our incarnation on earth. Some theologians believe that since God completed all creation by the seventh day and rested from all His works (Gen. 2:2), then spirits were created even before the creation of the world, along with angels, archangels, cherubim, seraphim and other celestial beings. But if we proceed from the fact that our spirits were created by God even before the creation of the world, then in this case, you and I are very ancient entities, and then neither in age nor in the experience of spiritual warriors we should yield to the devil! But we don't see it!
From Scripture we see that we come to earth as young, inexperienced spirits and here on earth, learning good and evil, we receive spiritual rebirth, and then, fighting against the forces of darkness, we grow, passing through the ages of infancy, childhood, adolescence and reaching the full age of Christ, we become spirits righteous people who have reached perfection! It is as spirits that we grow, as Hebrews 12:23 clearly states. Having achieved perfection, our spirit, having united with the Spirit of God, undergoes serious qualitative changes and achieves Godlikeness! (1 Cor. 6:17). From this we can conclude that you and I, beloved, like spirits, were created a little later.
And yet, I don’t think that billions of spirits created by God along with angels, archangels and other celestial beings would not have been mentioned on the pages of the Old and New Testaments if they had already existed in the Universe before the creation of the world. Imagine that only for our sake, for the sake of God’s spirits, which in the future should inhabit human bodies and achieve complete likeness to God, not only man was created, through whom all this is carried out, but also the Earth and the Universe, which, upon completion of the creation of the Sons of God, - the highest creation of God and their achievement of the greatness of the Trinity Itself - will be destroyed! (2 Peter 3:10).
OUR SPIRIT IS OUR AUTHENTIC SELF
From all of the above, we can confidently say that it is the human spirit, created by God and having within itself life and a glorious continuation in Eternity, that is the main thing in a person and determines his essence, and not the soul or body as many of us believe ! The Spirit is our personality, our true “I” and, according to God’s plan, should guide the entire human being, but unfortunately, at the moment of the Fall, he was captured by the soul, and having lost communication with God, he was deprived of His power, glory and leadership! “...it is written: The first man Adam became a living soul; and the last Adam is the life-giving spirit.” (1 Cor. 15:45)
Rick Warren came to a similar conclusion that man is a spirit. In his book The Purpose Driven Life, Day 13, he writes: “When Jesus spoke of “worship in the spirit,” he was not talking about the Holy Spirit, but about our human spirit. Being created in the image and likeness of God, you are a spirit living in a body , and your spirit was created to communicate with God."
Lester Sumrall points this out even more specifically in his book 101 Questions and Answers on Demonic Powers, where he writes: “We need to remember that God is a spirit, angels are spirits, and humans are spirits with bodies.”
The fact that it is our spirit that determines a person’s personality is also evidenced by the fact that God in the Holy Scriptures repeatedly calls himself “Father of spirits and God of spirits” (Heb. 12:9; Num. 16:22), and even Moses himself, turning to the Almighty he calls Him the God of the spirits of all flesh! (Num.27:16;) Note, not the God of soul or body, but the God of the spirits of all flesh!
Further from the Word of God we see that it is the spirit living in a person that determines his behavior and actions, it is written: “But My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit, and he completely obeyed Me, I will bring into the land” ( Numbers 14:24). And again: “...God stirred up his spirit to go and build the house of the Lord” (Ezra 1:5); “As many as were willing brought offerings” (Ex. 35:21). And there are many such examples in the Bible when God acts through a person’s spirit, but never through the soul or body! And not only in man, but also in cherubim and all other celestial beings, it is the spirit that determines their behavior. It is written about the cherubim: “ Where the spirit wanted to go, there they (cherubim) ” (Ezek. 1:20).
It is written: “And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” (Gen.2:7). From this verse we see that only after God created the human body from the dust of the ground and breathed spirit into it did man become a living soul! The Spirit is the bearer of life, it is written about him: “The Spirit gives life; the flesh does not profit at all.” (John 6:63), and therefore when the spirit leaves the body the soul simply dies! It has no continuation in Eternity; everywhere on the pages of Holy Scripture it is said about it that it is mortal, which is never said about the human spirit! The soul is doomed to death and with the exit of the spirit from the body, it dies: “Isaac gave up the spirit and died” (Gen. 35:29), “... the people doomed their soul to death” (Judges 5:18). It is said about Christ: “He gave up His soul to death” (Is. 53:12), and gave up His Spirit to the Heavenly Father: “...Father! I commit My spirit into Your hands. And having said this, he gave up the ghost.” Luke 23:46.
The book of Leviticus says about the soul: “... the life of the body is in the blood, and I have appointed it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for this blood makes atonement for the soul; That’s why I said to the children of Israel, “Not one soul among you must eat blood... If anyone of the children of Israel or of the strangers who live among you catches an animal or a bird that can be eaten while fishing, he must let the blood flow out and cover it.” its earth, for the soul of every body [is] its blood, it is its soul; Therefore I said to the children of Israel: You shall not eat the blood of any body, for the life of every body is its blood: whoever eats it will be cut off. (Lev.17:11-14). From this text we see that the soul is mortal, it is in the blood and dies with the body.
The human soul exists only during our earthly life, while we are in the body and does not have its glorious continuation in Eternity. the spirits of the righteous who have achieved perfection return to heaven, to the throne of God (Hebrews 12:23). It is written: “And the dust will return to the earth as it was; and the spirit returned to God who gave it.” (Eccl. 12:7).
To summarize we can say the following:
First, God created our spirit, for some time this created spirit was in the presence of God, after which, having withdrawn from the Lord, it settled in the body, being born on this sinful earth! Then, having gone through some path of contrition and suffering, by faith calling on the name of the Lord into our lives, our spirit received rebirth from the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. Further, over the course of many years, our spirit goes through the process of its spiritual development from infancy to the full stature of Christ. And then, just as butterflies are freed from their chrysalises, so you and I are freed from our mortal bodies and return to heaven again to receive a new glorified body to join the great family of God forever!
It is very important that we now, on this earth, realize who we are? Why did you come to this earth? How should we live on it and what should we strive for?
The earth is our temporary home! A military training ground where we walk the path to perfection, reaching the full age of Christ and no more!
Here on earth, we are only wanderers and strangers who undergo a difficult school of knowledge of good and evil, so that, having reconciled with God and achieved perfection, we can ascend to heaven! That is why many heroes of faith expected a city: “ having a foundation, whose artist and builder is God.” (Heb. 11:10).
“All these...rejoiced and said about themselves that they were strangers and strangers on earth; ...they strived for the best, that is, for the heavenly; Therefore God is not ashamed of them, calling Himself their God: for He has prepared for them a city” (Heb. 11:13,16).
ALL CELESTIALS BEAR THE IMAGE OF GOD
Reflecting further, we see that all the inhabitants of the heavenly world: cherubim, seraphim, angels, archangels and man, created in the image and likeness of God, are somewhat similar to each other, and we can assume that the image of the Son of God is the prototype for creation not only man, but also all the inhabitants of heaven (Ps. 8). Speaking about the cherubim, Ezekiel writes: “...the likeness of four living creatures was seen, and this was their appearance: their appearance was like that of a man” (Ezek. 1:5). “And the hands of men were under their wings...” (Ezek. 1:8). “The likeness of their faces is like the face of a man...” (Ezek. 1:10). An appearance is an image, and this image was similar to a human image!
As for the angels, when they appeared to people, they always appeared in the guise of a man , and not in the guise of birds or four-legged animals, which may be evidence that angels have bodies similar to ours. Jesus says to the Sadducees who approached Him: “those who are counted worthy to reach that age and the resurrection from the dead do not marry or be given in marriage, nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are the sons of God” (Luke 20:36). I draw your attention to the words “equal to Angels,” that is, absolutely identical!
Further in the book of Revelation, it is written: “And he measured the wall thereof one hundred and forty-four cubits, the measure of a man, which is the measure of an angel” (Rev. 21:17), that is, angels not only in appearance, but also in size do not differ from us!
There is a point of view that angels are people who have gone through the earthly path of development, but I believe that such an assumption is wrong! Since man, reborn by the Holy Spirit, is much higher than the angels created in the mass and, having gone through his earthly path of development, he acquires the Divine essence and becomes God-like in all its fullness, which is confirmed by the Apostle John, saying: “Beloved! we are now children of God; but it has not yet been revealed what we will be. We only know that when it is revealed, we will be like Him...” (1 John 3:2). Similar to the Son of God himself - this is the height and perspective that opens up for us, which is inaccessible to angels who were created as ministering spirits!
Therefore, we have somewhere to strive, where to stretch by faith, it is written: “Do not slack in zeal; be fervent in spirit..." (Rom. 12:11). God has great plans for us! In this connection, Paul writes: “Brethren, I do not count myself to have attained; but only, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press toward the goal for the honor of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. So, whoever is perfect among us should think like this; But if you think otherwise, God will reveal this also to you” (Phil. 3:13-15).
I don’t think we need to delve further into these thoughts , but I want to make it clear to you that you and I, friends, are from the family of celestials and came to this earth only to achieve perfection. And having gone through the difficult school of knowledge of good and evil, and having suffered from the forces of darkness, decide who we are with? So that when we achieve Heavenly glory, we do not fall as the luminaries who were carried away by Lucifer fell!
If we know that Jesus Himself, being the only begotten son of God , came from Heaven and was incarnated on this earth in a human body in order to gain the skill of obedience through suffering (Heb. 5:8), and then ascend to Heaven through the cross, then is it really for us? is there another way with you?
Jesus said: “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6), that is, His way is our way, and there is no other way!
Then it is reasonable to assume that you and I, beloved ones, came from heaven only to walk our difficult path to perfection on earth and return home! But let us return once again to the question of image and likeness.
Rev. Clarence Larkin - writes: “Jesus Himself came to us in a human body; He could not appear among us in any other guise and be God-like! It was as a Man that John saw Him in the midst of the “seven lampstands” (Rev. 1:10-20). If the human body is not made in the heavenly likeness, then Jesus, in the likeness of man, in heaven is out of harmony with His surroundings, and we have an anomalous condition where the second person of the Trinity differs in likeness from the Father and the Holy Spirit .
If Jesus came to reveal the Father, then what did he mean when he said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:8-11). Who was He but the revelation of God in His person and works? K. Larkin, “The World of Spirits”
You can also talk about the vision of the glory of the Lord, which also appeared to Ezekiel in human form: “And over the vault that was over their heads [was] the likeness of a throne, in appearance as if made of sapphire stone; and above the likeness of a throne was the likeness of a man above upon it” (Ezek. 1:26). And this is already said about God the Father, Who is the God of the spirits of all flesh. (Num. 27:16).
To summarize, I can say that you and I were created in the image of God for several reasons:
firstly , the children of God must bear the image and likeness of the Heavenly Father and cannot differ from Him either in appearance or in internal content!
Secondly , the Bride of Christ and the Eternal companion of the Son of God, who will sit with Him on the throne of Glory, must be like Him in everything and it cannot be any other way!
Thirdly , Jesus calls us His brothers, emphasizing our complete identity with Him, which means that we cannot differ from Him in anything. “For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from One; therefore He is not ashamed to call them brothers” (Heb. 2:11). And we will be His brothers not only on earth, but also in Heaven, as we become members of the great family of God!
Friends, “God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ... and raised us up with Him, and seated us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4-6 ), and therefore we have the right to reason, we have the right to stretch our spirit into heaven, to where we are already planted in Christ Jesus!
Unfortunately, today: “we see through a glass darkly” (1 Cor. 13:12), and therefore we cannot affirm all this as doctrinal truths! But the Lord, when creating man, placed in him an amazing ability to think and a desire to know the hidden, and he rejoices when, using His revelations, we have the boldness to stretch into Heaven by faith, and therefore, I think, we have not sinned by touching the cherished and secret!
If we talk about similarity, then there is less controversy: almost all theologians agree that man is internally created similar to God, and thanks to his similarity, he can communicate with His Heavenly Father, who gave him life! What else will we discuss next!
Oleg ZAMURUEV.
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So where is the soul?
Finally, I would like to talk about an interesting study conducted by psychologists from Germany (University of Lübeck). Experts gathered children in the age group of 7-17 years and unobtrusively asked them about the location of their souls. The children's answers varied depending on age:
- middle-aged children touched their heads, circling them with their hands;
- older people answered that everywhere, extending their palm from head to floor;
- and the kids confidently touched the area bordering the heart with their finger. By the way, it was their answer that became the most frequently cited.
However, some children made their own unique choice - for example, they pointed to the solar plexus or eyes.
It turns out that so far no one has been able to confirm exactly where the human soul is located in the body. There are many theories, you can choose the one that seems most plausible to you. Share your opinion in the comments below the article!
