Saturday, December 14, 2013

THE SPIRIT OF MAN

The world's religions believe in the concept of the immortal soul, and so do most of those who called themselves Christians. Such concept has it origin from Greek philosphers, particularly Plato who is a chief proponent with Aristotle followed closely behind. These Greek philosophers were in turn influenced by Babylonian and Egyptian mythologies. The doctrine of the immortal soul teaches that a person's soul will live on after death, either in heaven, purgatory or in hell. All these are pure philosophical and human speculations which appealed to the intellectuals and the Gnostics of that time.

Theologians like Justin Martyr (A.D 100-167),Tertullian (A.D.150-220) and Origen (A.D. 185-254) were either Platonist or neo-Platonist with some blended Catholic theology to write extensively on trinity and the immortal soul. All of these are either Greek, Babylonian or Egyptian in origin and has no biblical basis!

Most Protestant churches adopt a doctrine of heaven or hell after death largely because it was handed down through the founding fathers who were themselves influenced by Greek philosophers. A novel titled Divine Comedy written by Dante Alighierly sometime in the 14th century A.D. about heaven and hell was made popular by preachers and evangelists down through the centuries, albeit with dramatic effect, helped to seal such belief in the church fraternity. But such a position is not the teaching of the Holy Scripture.

When Adam was created, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life: and man became a living soul - Genesis 2:7. Scripture is unequivocal in stating the soul that sinneth, it shall die - Ezekiel 18:4 & 18:20. Since all have sinneth, all souls of man will die, regardless of their faith. It is not that man has a soul, man is a living soul. For the true believers, it is the hope of resurrection to immortality and eternal life. But what is it that makes man different from animals? - it is the human spirit given by God at birth of every person dwelling in his/her brain! Animal has none of this.

Man and animal are made of dust and all dies (Eccl 3:19-20). But man is inherently different. Since man is created in the image of God, man has a spirit in him (1 Cor 2:11) which makes him different from any animal (God too has a Spirit which is known as the Holy Spirit). Hence, the theory of evolution of man according to Charles Darwin is absolutely false!

While the spirit of man differentiates a human being from an animal which does not possess a spirit, the leading of the Holy Spirit in a regenerate man distinguished a true believer as the son of God (Rom 8:14, 16) from an unbeliever. Without the human spirit in a man/woman, he /she is simply living life not much different from an animal. But with the presence of the Holy Spirit, the true believer has far more wisdom in understanding the things of God and deep spiritual truth, (1 Cor 2:14) like the mysteries of the kingdom of God - Matthew 13:11!

The spirit of man enables a person to have the power of intellect which is absent in all animals. The Holy Spirit is residing in the frontal lobe of the brain where cognitive abilities operate. The heart is the seat of emotions that works out one's behavior in coordination with the mind. Those who are led by the Spirit of God will exhibit the gifts of the Holy Spirit namely, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance (Galatians 5:22-23) to reflect Christ-likeness in their daily lives.

Upon death, the spirit of the true believers return to God in heaven but is itself not conscious of anything (Eccl 3:21; 12:7). The spirit of man is the spiritual mold that encapsulates all the character qualities and experiences of the person up to the point of death ready to be made perfect in heaven (Hebrews 12:23) to be resurrected to immortality and eternal life into God's divine Family when Christ returns. Since man is a soul, not that he has a soul, it dies with him at death. It was Satan that deceived Eve at the Garden of Eden into believing that man has an immortal soul - Ye shall not surely die (Genesis 3:4).

However, while the soul of man will die a physical death, it cannot be destroyed by man - only God has the power to destroy the human soul at the lake of fire. While physical death is only a temporal departure - to await resurrection - the second death (Rev 20:14) at the lake of fire is total and final with no possibility of resurrection!

The dead - whether in Christ or without Christ - remains dead and has no sense of consciousness of anything (Psalm 6:5,146:4; Eccl 9:5). The next second of consciousness of the dead is resurrection - the first resurrection for all true believers in Christ to immortality and the rest of humanity who had ever lived, it will be the second resurrection into reconstituted physical human beings - literally where they last left off at the point of death.

The true value and potential of the human life is the human spirit, which dwells within the human brain to give the human mind - the seat of knowledge and intellect. Animal has no spirit and hence no such intellectual prowess, they operate mainly by instinct. With the human spirit working inside the human brain and the human mind working in collaboration with God's Holy Spirit, man has incredible potential far beyond this physical lifetime (1 Cor 2:9). For all of humanity, one lifetime is too short to harness its full potential, with more in store in the life to come!

True believers when empowered with God's Holy Spirit, for those who are willing to obey Him (Acts 5:32), will have the ability to understand and discern spiritual knowledge and truth with Godly wisdom. The Holy Spirit connects with the spirit in man to make him a son of God which will someday judge the angels! - 1 Cor 6:3.

The spirit in man is innately selfish because of our fallen nature. But God's Holy Spirit can change that to a higher level - the 'give way of life' as opposed to the 'get way of life'. The human spirit is limited to understanding of the physical and material aspects but not the spiritual realm. Since most problems of this world have their root causes in the spiritual dimension, man cannot find adequate solutions to solve them. Man can at best find solutions to deal with the symptoms but not the underlying root causes of most, if not all the problems of this world!