Mike,

This is a very interesting email that you sent on the soul. Thank you for taking the time to respond. I find them very instructive and helpful. I don’t understand how you come to the conclusion that the soul in scripture means, “God’s knowledge of who we are.” Everything in the rest of the email is clear to me.

I look forward to your response,
M____

Hi M____,

Thank you for your encouraging words. I am glad you were edified by the e-mail exchange concerning what is the soul.
You say:

I don’t understand how you come to the conclusion that the soul in scripture means “God’s knowledge of who we are.” Everything in the rest of the email is clear to me.

The way I arrive at that conclusion is that Christ tells us plainly that man can destroy the body but not the soul.

Mat 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

At the same time we are told that if there is no resurrection, then they that are asleep in Christ are perished.

1Co 15:16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
1Co 15:17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith (is) vain; ye are yet in your sins.
1Co 15:18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

Ecc 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

Since “the dead know not anything” and since they which are fallen asleep in Christ “are perished” if there is not a resurrection of the dead, it is obvious that the spirit which returns to God who gave it is God’s knowledge of who each of us is.

Ecc 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Since God knows who we are when we die, and since “man can kill the body but cannot kill the soul” when we are resurrected, He alone is completely aware of who will still be needing purification in the lake of fire. He knows who to raise up into that “blessed and holy first resurrection” to rule with him during the “thousand years” when He places each of us within spiritual bodies. He also knows who to raise up “when the thousand years are expired” (Rev 20:7) in “spiritual bodies” with “terrestrial glory” still in need of being purged of so many false doctrines.

1Co 15:40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

A resurrected spiritual body is glorious when compared to a natural body, but if it is still full of the doctrines of that spirit called the devil, who is still in need of being purified himself, then it is still in need of being “destroyed in Gehenna fire” so as to be purified and “saved yet so as by fire.”

1Co 15:41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
1Co 15:42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
1Co 15:43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
1Co 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward [first resurrection, rulership during the thousand-year reign, judging of spiritual bodies in lake of fire].
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss [of all of the above]: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Those bodies in the second resurrection who have “suffered loss” He will then place into spiritual bodies, and put them on “his left hand” and cast into the symbolic “lake of fire.”

Mat 25:31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
Mat 25:32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth (his) sheep from the goats:
Mat 25:33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Mat 25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting [Greek: aionios] fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

That is the same event which happens to all men. However, it happens to some first, and it happens to others later. We all must relinquish these “marred in the hand of the Potter… vessels of clay.” At that time we are either “asleep in Christ” or simply “asleep” as Lazarus was and as most men have and will die. Since we know that the death of the body is not the death of the soul (Mat 10:28), and since we know that “the dead know not anything” (Ecc 9:5), and since we know that God knew us “before the world began,” it is obvious that the ‘soul’ is who God says it is when He raises us from the dead.

1Co 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

2Ti 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called [us] with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

This is not generally understood. Our days were all ordained for us before there were any of them.

Psa 139:16 Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.

Jer 1:5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee; I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations.

I hope this all helps to explain why the soul is God’s knowledge of who we are, and is not simply a conscious entity of either spirit or flesh and blood. Man can kill the body, but man cannot kill God’s knowledge of who we are when the time comes for us to be resurrected.

On the other hand, God is quite capable of destroying the old you and me, and through that destruction and death bring forth a new soul, which is conformed to His own image.

Psa 11:5 Jehovah trieth the righteous; But the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.

God, too, has a soul in the sense that He knows Himself:

Jdg 10:15 And the children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day.
Jdg 10:16 And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.

1Co 2:11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike

Joh 11:26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

The reason this verse is hard to understand is that the whole orthodox Christian world cannot see that:

Joh 6:63 I t is the spirit that quickeneth [ gives life]; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

The whole orthodox Christian world believes that we will be given spiritual bodies of flesh and bone. This, of course, is an oxymoron. Here is the Truth from the mouth of the Truth:

Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Joh 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Joh 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

The flesh recoils at such unfleshly words and twist the words of scripture to mix flesh and spirit and come up with and eternal glorified spiritual body that can be seen and touched. And as the doctrine goes, since Christ ate and drank with the disciple after the resurrection, we will still be able to enjoy a good steak. How childish and carnal. Such a doctrine pits Christ’s words to Nicodemus in Joh 3 against Christ’s words elsewhere. But there is no contradiction except in the minds of the carnal. The fact that spirit can be manifest as flesh does not make it flesh. Did the Lord and the two angels that ate the fatted calf and the bread with Abraham really need that? Was that not for Abraham’s benefit? Did Christ really need the “piece of a fish and a honey comb, to quench His hunger? Or was He not also eating simply to make the point: ” These [ the piece of fish and of an honeycomb] are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.”

Luk 24:41 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?
Luk 24:42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
Luk 24:43 And he took it, and did eat before them.
Luk 24:44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
Luk 24:45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,

Read the paper on Rightly Dividing The Word. That paper demonstrates that most of the scriptures quoted in the New Testament are what the Dallas Theological Seminary and all other seminaries, would say were taken out of context.

That was the direct result of “Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.” When Christ raised Lazarus from the dead, He did not give Lazarus life, any more than you and I were alive at our birth. Lazarus was put right back into the same old body he was born into. Christ told one disciples: Let the [ spiritually] dead bury their [ physically and spiritually] dead.”

Mat 8:21 And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Mat 8:22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

Here is Paul’s perspective on this “living soul,” physical existence we have “in Adam:”

Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Paul, obviously understood what Christ meant when He said:

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh [ being ‘in Adam’] profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

I doubt seriously that Mary had any idea what Christ meant by his question:

Joh 11:26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

No one was even converted yet. Here understanding of scripture had not yet been given. But it certainly had been given to the writer of Hebrews. and when he, made this statement:

Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
Heb 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Paul knew that Christ’s “body of this death,” could no more, ” inherit the kingdom of heaven,” than could ours. “The flesh [ even of Christ] profits nothing.” Physical death is not the subject of Heb 9:27! We, in Adam, are appointed to spiritual death. Until we see this we cannot be judged. And since:

1Pe 4:17 … The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

It is imperative that we understand what Christ meant when he asked Mary:

Joh 11:26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

This was a spiritual statement which Christ was making by asked Mary, not so much for her benefit as for ours.

Joh 11:41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
Joh 11:42 And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.

I hope you now have a better understanding of what Jesus was doing in asking Mary that question. He certainly was not speaking of physical death or physical life. Neither is Heb 9:27.