Question About Body And Soul

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Ryan&Amber2013

Puritan Board Senior
Please read this and let me know what you think. I love the thought of this, and it comes from a very godly Presbyterian, but I know it probably doesn't sit well with all. I want to embrace this. Do you think it's a biblical teaching? I'm mostly talking about the body not really being who the person is, but the soul is the true person.

"But how can we love one whom we have not seen and cannot see?" This is a question, which many ask. For one thing we may learn all the story of Christ as told in the Gospels, until we are familiar with it. Then we may remember that while Christ is unseen on the earth, he is as really present as he was during the years of his abode in Palestine. He promised, "I am with you all the days," and he certainly meant just what he said. His presence does not depend on our seeing him.

Indeed, we never really see any of our friends. It is not the human form you can see—that is the person you love. It is not your mother's face and hair and hand and body that you love; it is her soul, her spirit. It is not her body that is gentle, patient, kind, thoughtful, and unselfish. A body cannot love. Even the loveliest face cannot itself be a blessing to you. It is the life which dwells in the body, that is your mother. You can say of her, in a sense that is true, "Whom having not seen—I love." Take any friend whom is much to you, on whom you lean, and it is not the body that you love. There is sweetness in a face, kindly warmth in an eye, thrilling inspiration in a touch. Why? Because of the soul that is in the body. But the body is not your friend, whom you have really never seen, since you cannot see truth, purity, love, sympathy, constancy, and strength.

We cannot see Christ—but if we have become his, he is indeed our personal friend and is really to us all that such a divine Friend can be.

What is it in your best human friend that is most to you, on whom you lean most in weakness, who comforts you most in sorrow, who is the best help to you in any need or trouble? Is it anything in your friend—that you can see? Is it not his truth, his wisdom, his love for you, his sympathy, his faithfulness, and his constancy? Even if he is not with you at all so that you can see him, is he not still a strength to you, a comfort, a refuge, a help? The consciousness that he is your friend; that whatever else may fail you—he will not; that he sympathizes with you, understands you, will be patient with you; the assurance that if need be—he will help you with all the capacity for helpfulness there is in him—makes you strong, blesses you, gives you peace, though you see him not.

You cannot see Christ—but you believe that he is true, loving, faithful, touched with sympathy when you suffer; that he knowss all about you and loves you with a personal, deep, tender, strong, everlasting love. You know, too, that he has all power and that all his power is yours to support, keep, bless, deliver, and protect, save you. You know that he has all wisdom—wisdom that never errs, that never counsels rashly, indiscreetly, short-sightedly, and that all this wisdom is for the guidance of your life, the ordering of your steps. As we think along these lines the unseen Christ becomes very real to us. Loving this Friend whom we cannot see, becomes then blessed power in our life. For one thing we learn to trust him and leave in his hands all the affairs of our life.

Many people have altogether too narrow a concept of what Christ does for them. They think of him as forgiving their sins, changing their hearts, helping them only in spiritual affairs, and bringing them home at last to heaven. But there is nothing in our life, which is not of interest to him, and true believing in Christ implies the putting into his hand, of all our affairs. This may not always be easy. We like to have our own way, to carry out our own plans. We do not like to have sorrow and disappointment break in upon us. Yet if he is to fashion our life into heavenly beauty, he must have his way with us. Thus we get a glimpse of the meaning of trial. If sorrow comes in place of the joy which you have planned for yourself, it is because sorrow is better than joy would have been. Christ may oftentimes seem to be spoiling the beauty of our life; but it is ours to trust him even then, and by and by, we shall know that hi way was wiser than ours. Tapestry weavers see only the wrong side as they weave.

"My life is but a weaving
Between my God and me;
I may but choose the colors–
He works steadily.

Full oft he weaveth sorrow;
And I in foolish pride
Forget he sees the upper
And I the under side."
 
I don't have a lot of time to write a detailed answer, but refer you to Mark 15:46-47. Pay attention to the pronouns in reference to Jesus' body.
 
I once told my son that he should go to bed since it was clear he was tired. He said, "I'm not tired, just my body is tired." I deemed this an illegitimate argument, and he was soon in bed.


I liked what I read in Vos' Reformed Dogmatics in Anthropology:

1. According to the Holy Scriptures, of what does the nature of man consist?
The Scripture teaches:
a) That man consists of two parts, body and soul
b) That the soul is a substance
c) That it is a substance distinct from the body

3. What does God's Word teach concerning the relationships between soul and body?
This is a mystery. The following, however, is certain beyond all doubt:
a) The union between them in a life-unity. The organic life of the body and the life of the soul are not in parallel. Only on the presence of the soul in the body does the possibility rest that the organic bond of the latter is maintained.

b) Certain conditions of the body are dependent on the self-conscious acting of the spirit; others are independent of this

c) Some functions of the soul are bound to the body; others can be done independently of the body

d) In antithesis to Materialism, Idealism, occasionalism, etc., one may call this realistic dualism. It is most closely connected with some of the principal doctrines of the Bible.

And later in Christology:
In man there exists a union between soul and body, spirity and matter, which is very close and yet doers not lead to the merging of the two. Spirit does not become matter, and matter does not become spirit; each maintains its specific qualities. This union between the two substances is not a mere indwelling, as if the soul merely resides in the body as in a tabernacle, but a personal union.

...

In man, a communication takes place of the characteristics of both natures or substances to the person. Person A or B shares in all that can be said about his soul or his body. It is not his body is sick or his soul that is depressed, but he is sick or dejected.
 
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We should also be careful of identifying the soul with the person, since that is fatal to Christology. Logos incarnate had two souls, but he was not two persons. Body and soul aren't the same thing, but there is a feedback loop between the two.
 
"Body and Soul" - a classic song of the Great American Songbook

Lyrics by Edward Heyman, Robert Sour, and Frank Eyton
Music by Johnny Green

Introduced by Gertrude Lawrence in 1930.

Great song.

(sneaks away stealthily)
 
Yet if I cut off my arms and my legs and reduce myself thusly by 50% I am not 50% reduced in my essence and I am still me. So in some respects the body is the housing and external shell for the soul. Your body may be sick and yet your soul and mind be healthy.
 
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