Musings on the Tough Life Questions

Simply put, A soul is a living being. A soul is always a combination of two things: body plus breath/ spirit. A soul does not begin to exist unless body and breath are combined. God's Word teaches that we are souls. The Biblical definition of a soul is simply a living breathing body. So DUST + THE BREATH OF LIFE = A LIVING SOUL. Actually no where it says we were given a soul. A soul is not something a person has per se, it is the essence of person. It is the person. We are not immortal apart from Christ. Before resurrection The bible says at death the breath of life goes back to God and the body returns to the earth by decomposing back into the "dust" it was made of. So the soul "disappears" (I don't mean extinct or annihilated)... it goes to the Unseen. The reason why I don't use extinct or annihilated is because God knows how to bring it back, or redeem it from the "unseen". Lev 17:11 "The life [nephesh/ soul] of a body is ...

Adam Became a Living Soul/ Being When God breathed into Adam, Adam became a living soul. It is important to understand this. Adam did not have a soul. He became a living soul. This is a little different from how He created the rest of creation, where everything was made by His breath , but was not breathed into like Adam was. “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.” [Ps 33:6] The word for Spirit is pnuema meaning breath, wind. It is a play of words. God therefore, breathed His Spirit [pnuema/ breath/ wind] into Adam. Adam's spirit became alive and along with his body He became a living soul. By way of illustration, and to further understanding, we can say that Adam had access to two breaths as it were - God's breath (Spirit) which animated him physically, and his physical breath, the oxygen that he breathed into his lungs. He was alive. Note: Spirit = Ruach (Hebrew)/ Pnuema (Greek)= ...