The Human Soul and the Human Spirit

These studies are designed for believers in Jesus Christ only. If you have exercised faith in Christ, then you are in the right place. If you have not, then you need to heed the words of our Lord, Who said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten [or, uniquely-born] Son, so that every [one] believing [or, trusting] in Him shall not perish, but shall be have eternal life! For God did not send His Son into the world so that He should judge the world, but so that the world shall be saved through Him. The one believing [or, trusting] in Him is not judged, but the one not believing has already been judged, because he has not believed in the Name of the only-begotten [or, uniquely-born] Son of God.” (John 3:16–18). “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life! No one comes to the Father except through [or, by means of] Me!” (John 14:6).

Every study of the Word of God ought to be preceded by a naming of your sins to God. This restores you to fellowship with God (1John 1:8–10). If we acknowledge our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1John 1:9). If there are people around, you would name these sins silently. If there is no one around, then it does not matter if you name them silently or whether you speak aloud.

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Doctrine of the Human Soul	Doctrine of the Human Spirit	The Edification Complex
	Bibliography

Preface: Throughout the Bible, there is the concept of the human soul—human life, if you will—which is the life that God breathes into each one of us at birth. For some reason, people make the soul into some weird, ethereal thing. It is not. It is simply our mentality, our volition, our norms and standards, our conscience, etc. The soul is very definable and very easy for even the unbeliever to understand. Apart from this soul, we are nothing. Apart from the soul, we are a lifeless body. And when man acts only upon instinct and upon desires, he has abandoned the thinking of his own soul.

Man is born without a functioning human spirit. When we are born again, that human spirit is made alive or is reactivated. We interact with other people using the human soul; we interact with God using the human spirit.

The short and simple differentiation between the human spirit and the human soul is, we relate to other people by means of our human soul (memory, thinking, emotions, norms and standards); and we relate to God by means of our human spirit (doctrinal content). We do not have a functioning human spirit until we are born again, at which point the human spirit is regenerated (made alive). We will talk about the human spirit next after the doctrine of the human soul.

Doctrine of the Human Soul

1. What the soul is not:

1) The soul is not some mysterious, undefinable, ethereal essence.

2) The soul is not simply the result of biological, chemical and electrical impulses firing off in our brains, which make us think that we are able to think.

3) The soul did not develop by evolution. We were not some grunting heathen with a 10 word vocabulary which evolved into the men that we are today. Various segments of mankind de-evolve; but at almost any time in human history, the full scope of mankind from his best to his worst, from his most primitive to his most advanced exist simultaneously on this earth.

2. Soul is often used to translate the feminine noun psuchê (ψυχή) [pronounced psoo-KHAY], which means 1) breath; 1a) the breath of life; 1a1) the vital force which animates the body and shows itself in breathing; 1a1a) of animals; 1a1b) of men; 1b) life; 1c) that in which there is life; 1c1) a living being, a living soul; 2) the soul; 2a) the seat of the feelings, desires, affections, aversions (our heart, soul etc.). Strong’s #5590. When studying the Bible, we need to understand that, the language of the Greek could be nearly as flexible as the English language. That is, a word can have several different meanings often determined contextually. Sometimes psuchê is used very technically, as defined in this doctrine; and sometimes it is used in a much more general way.

3. God breathes life into each one of us, and that is the soul. Without this breath-life-soul, we are not alive. Human life is the result of soul life and biological life. After we are born, the electrical signals from the brain indicate a functioning soul. When these signals die, then we are physically dead. Gen. 2:7

4. The real person is the soul. Gen. 2:7 35:18 46:26–27 Psalm 104:29 Matt. 10:28

5. God has designed the human body and human soul to intersect in the brain. The electrical activity in the brain is the function of the human soul.

6. That electrical activity is both soul-life and exceptionally complex circuitry which controls the involuntary functions of the body. For instance, you do not think about maintain your body temperature to 98.5°—it just happens. But it is the circuit board in your brain which makes that happen.

7. The Essence of the Soul (which is the shadow image of God—Gen. 1:26)

1) Self-consciousness. Man is aware of his own existence and is able to relate to both animate life and inanimate objects on earth. Animals have consciousness, but not self-consciousness. 2Sam. 7:18 (And King David came in and sat before Jehovah, and said: Who am I, O Lord Jehovah, and what is my house, that you have brought me to this point?) Psalm 8:4 (What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man, that You interact with him?)

2) Mentality. Self-consciousness is no good without mentality (Prov 19:2). This is the thinking part of man and is composed of two parts.

(1) The mind or left lobe of the soul.

(2) The heart or right lobe of the soul contains the frame of reference, memory center, vocabulary and categorical storage, norms and standards, and launching pad for application of knowledge to life.

(3) Knowledge enters into the left lobe (the mind); it is believed and then transferred over to the right lobe (the heart). Knowledge which is true and knowledge which is false can be believed; and that begins a layering in the heart. When this knowledge is true and about God, we experience spiritual growth. When this knowledge is false and a part of the cosmic system (= Satan’s thinking), then we are building up scar tissue of the soul.

(4) Emotion is also a part of the mind; and when it begins making decisions, that is when a person goes into emotional revolt of the soul.

(5) Like much of the technical terminology in Scripture, mind and heart are not used in this technical sense each and every time these words are found. There are times when these words are virtually interchangeable.

3) Volition. Man has the ability to be negative or positive to anything in life. Volition is given to man in order to resolve the angelic conflict. Joshua 24:15b (“This day choose whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.") God gives all men true volition.

4) Emotion is the appreciator of the soul (Luke 12:19). Emotion responds or reacts to whatever thoughts are in the soul. Ideally speaking, the emotion should be dominated by the right lobe (thinking) of the soul. When emotion controls the soul, there are a variety of negative results: the rejection of the Word of God, the rejection of God, the embracing of liberalism, humanism, etc. In more severe cases, this can result in an emotional and/or mental breakdown. Emotional control of the soul is sometimes described as emotional revolt of the soul.

5) Conscience. This is the evaluator of the soul. It contains the norms and standards. Acts 24:16

6) The old sin nature is genetically formed in every cell of the human body. It battles for control of the soul through sin, human good (HTML) (PDF) (WPD) and evil. Because we have an old sin nature, we are said to be totally depraved. Without Bible doctrine in the soul, you tend to run loose with your old sin nature's area of strength and link this activity with pride. You set up your system of standards and compare yourself to others to further your pride.

8. The soul must be distinguished from the human spirit.

1) Heb. 4:12a reads: The word of God [is] alive and powerful; sharper than any double-edged sword, and it penetrates deeply enough to effect the division of both the soul and spirit… Originally man was trichotomous, having a body, soul, and spirit. Y^ehowah God formed the man out of the dust from the ground [= the body] and breathed the breath [= spirit] of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living soul. (Gen 2:7)

2) After the fall, man is born dichotomous, having only a body and soul. The spirit of man is short-circuited by the sin nature. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God [= Bible doctrine; information about God], for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to know these things, because they are spiritually discerned. (1Cor. 2:14). And the natural man simply lacks the human spirit in which to store this information and classify it. At the last time there will be scoffing skeptics following after their ungodly lusts. In this, they distinguish themselves, being like animals, not having a [human] spirit. (Jude 18b–19)

3) The believer in Jesus Christ, however, is said to have a body, soul, and spirit (1Thess. 5:23). The human spirit is regenerated by God the Holy Spirit at salvation. It is the human spirit that is born again; it is the human spirit where we store Bible doctrine.

9. Only the soul, not the body, is saved at the point of regeneration. Psalm. 19:7 34:22 Mark 8:36-37 1Peter 1:9 Heb. 10:39

1) Therefore, there is no "healing in the atonement." The body is not saved because the old sin nature resides there. In eternity the soul is given a perfect body minus an old sin nature and minus human good. The only reason that we can have eternal fellowship with God is because we will not have a sin nature and we will not retain or produce human good.

2) Those in eternity who glorify God forever will be those who had maximum Bible doctrine in the soul during their time on earth.

10. Only the soul, not the body, was made in the image of God. Gen 1:26-27and Gen 2:7. God is not material but spiritual.

11. The soul is the source of all basic sin. It is the battleground between the old sin nature and the Holy Spirit. Matt. 10:28 Rom 1:20–22 Eph. 4:17–19 Psalm 143

12. The soul is the area of the worst sins which are mental attitude sins. Job 21:25 Zech 11:8.

1) The content of the soul is seen when a person speaks. What you truly are is only revealed when you speak.

2) Sins of the tongue reveal mental attitude sins. If you are guilty, arrogant, bitter, or full of revenge, you will talk a certain way—that reveals this content of your soul.

13. In physical death, the soul departs from the body. Job 27:8 Psalm 16:10 2Cor. 5:8

14. However, the soul does not die. Gen. 35:18 1Kings 17:21 1Sam. 28:14-19 2Cor. 5:8 Luke 16 Matt. 17:23 Rev. 6:9-11

15. The soul will be reunited with some kind of a body in the end times—for the believer, this will be a resurrection body (something which we will discuss at a later date).

Much of this doctrine was taken from http://dikaosune.com/documents/DoctrineoftheSoul.pdf and edited (accessed December 17, 2013).

Also used:

http://gracebiblechurchwichita.org/?page_id=549 accessed April 2, 2014.

Wenstrom’s Doctrine of the Human Soul accessed April 2, 2014.

This doctrine is one reason why there is such a push to get you to believe in evolution. God saves the soul; so the idea of evolution is, we really do not have a soul; but we simply have all of these electrical impulses shooting off in our brain, awash with a variety of chemicals, which cause us to do the things which we do. The idea is, this separates us from the notion of a Creator-God and, at the same time, lessens our own personal responsibility for the things that we do (after all, if these are just chemical reactions and the function of various chemicals, then how much of a choice do we really have?).

Such beliefs lead to both moral relativism as well as belief in the cheapness of human life (survival of the fittest).

This naturally leads to the doctrine:

Like many words, soul and spirit have technical and nontechnical meanings. Either word may be used to refer to human life. These doctrines define their technical meanings. Their technical meanings do not apply to each and every passage of Scripture.

The human spirit is might be understood as a reflection of the human soul; but directed toward God rather than toward man. The human spirit relates God to ourselves; and the human soul relates other people to ourselves. Man is born with a human spirit that is not functioning or is dormant. When we are born again, that human spirit is regenerated.

Doctrine of the Human Spirit

I. The human spirit is distinguished in Scripture from the human soul.

A. Hebrews 4:12 For the Word of God is alive, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

B. 2Thess. 5:23b May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless...

II. In the original creation of man, the human spirit was made alive along with the soul.

A. Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives; and man became a living soul. Note the plural in Breath of lives; this refers to the soul and spirit. The bolded words are spirit and soul.

B. We find this soul and spirit spoken of together in Job 7:11 12:10.

III. The unbeliever is born without a human spirit. He cannot understand spiritual phenomena. He is dichotomous.

A. 1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

B. We are all born as natural men; with a fully-functioning sin nature but without a functioning human spirit.

C. Jude 19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. The word translated sensual is psuchikos (ψυχικός) [pronounced psoo-khee-KOSS], which means, soulish; natural; unregenerate; of or belonging to breath; having the nature and characteristics of the breath; the principal of animal life, which men have in common with the brutes; governed by breath; the sensuous nature with its subjection to appetite and passion. Thayer definitions only. Strong’s #5591. This is the adjective for the noun soul.

D. Unregenerate man does not have the apparatus for perception, and he is guided only by his own human IQ.

E. God the Holy Spirit acts as a human spirit in the presentation of the Gospel to the unbeliever so that he can be saved.

1. Genesis 6:3 And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years."

2. John 16:8-11 "And when He [God the Holy Spirit] is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on Me; Of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged."

3. 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 But the natural [= psuchikos] man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that He may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. R. B. Thieme, Jr., in the Doctrine of GAP, spent two hours explaining this short passage.

F. At the point of salvation, both the Holy Spirit and the human spirit are given to the believer. Being born again means that the human spirit is given life (or is regenerated). We now potentially have a place in our mentality with which to process and store information about God.

IV. The believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is trichotomous: body, soul and spirit.

A. 1Thessalonians 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

B. The giving of the human spirit and the Holy Spirit makes human IQ no longer a handicap. Romans 8:16 The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.

C. Spiritual perception functions under the principle of grace, Holy Spirit, human spirit, and the Word of God.

D. The Spiritual IQ of the believer is in the human spirit, and is determined by the amount of the word of God in the human spirit.

1. Job 32:8 "But there is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding."

2. Ephesians 3:16-19 That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passes all knowledge, that you [all] might be filled with all the fullness of God. The spiritual life occurs within a person’s soul and spirit—in the inner man. R. B. Thieme, Jr. also spent two hours on this passage in the Doctrine of GAP.

3. You can be a brilliant person and know virtually nothing about God; you can be a barely functioning adult, and yet have great knowledge of God and the Word of God.

V. The human spirit is both the target and storage area for the Word of God under the concept of full knowledge.

A. The filling of the Holy Spirit is necessary to get the Word of God from the Bible to the mind to the human spirit.

1. John 14:26 "But the Comforter, Who is the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said unto you.” The Comforter is God the Holy Spirit.

2. 1Corinthians 2:9-16 But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him. But God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that He may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. (Isa. 64:4)

3. 1John 2:27 But the anointing which you [all] have received of Him abides in you, and you [all] need not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is Truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you [all] will abide in Him.

B. Knowledge of the Word of God in the mind is called gnosis, which has not yet been believed in. It is something that we have been made aware of; and stands as academic knowledge.

C. The Word of God which is transferred by faith to the human spirit is called epignosis, full knowledge or rooted doctrine.

1. Ephesians 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love.

2. Colossians 2:6–7, 3:9–10 As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, being rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his practices... (VW) The new man is the soul and spirit of the growing believer; that is, the believer with Bible doctrine in his soul.

3. The difference between gnosis (= knowledge) and epignosis (= full or complete knowledge) is the expression, By means of faith; (pistis). Ephesians 3:17 (above)

D. The target therefore for the Word of God is inside the human spirit which becomes the basis of application or wisdom.

VI. The Word of God is usable only from the human spirit.

A. Intake of the Word of God into the mind as frame of reference and Divine viewpoint.

B. Exhale of the Word toward God and man. The human spirit stores knowledge of God and interacts with God. The human soul stores knowledge about people and interacts with other people. Many decades ago, R. B. Thieme, Jr. developed the Doctrine of the Edification Complex of the Soul. The weakness in this doctrine was, there was no differentiation made between our relationship with other people and with God. See the God-ward and the man-ward sides of the Edification Complex (HTML) (PDF) (WPD) (or, see below). The online doctrine will show the original edification complex structure and the revised version. The God-ward side is the human spirit and the man-ward side is the human soul.

C. Bible doctrine in the soul results in having eyes in your soul.

D. Bible doctrine in the soul results in maturity of the soul. Ephesians 4:12-16, 20-24 For the perfecting [or, maturing] of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; until we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ [that is, spiritual maturity]; That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the Truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ; From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. But you [all] have not so learned Christ; If so be that you [all] have heard Him, and have been taught by Him, as the Truth is in Jesus; That you [all] put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that you [all] put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. All of the body working together is the function of various believers who are spiritually mature, so that their gifts are all functioning without there being inordinate competition or people working in cross purposes with one another.

VII. Since the Word of God in the human spirit is the basis for spiritual IQ (Eph. 3:16-19), the human spirit is the area of refreshment.

A. 2Corinthians 7:13 Therefore we were comforted in your comfort; yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy to Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all.

B. The Word of God stored in the human spirit constitutes the basis for grace orientation.

VIII. It is the human spirit that goes to God at death. Acts 7:59

From http://gracebiblechurchwichita.org/?page_id=181 accessed December 17, 2013; and is probably ultimately attributable to R. B. Thieme, Jr. Edited and appended.

Let’s look at the concept of the edification complex. The God-ward side is the human spirit interacting with God; the man-ward side is the human soul interacting with other people.
So let’s look at this structure as having an east and west facing; to the east, the edification complex is towards God; and to the west, the edification complex is towards man.
These are floors built upon a foundation, and should be read from the bottom to the top.
The God-ward and Man-ward Sides of the Edification Complex
God-ward Side (the Human Spirit)	Man-ward Side (the Human Soul)
Reflecting the glory of God (or, Christ formed in us—in the continuous sense, this phrase describes the building of the edification complex; in the completed sense, we are speaking of the top floor of the complex)	+H (happiness, contentment, enjoyment of our lives); friendships where there is no jealousy or inordinate competition; a marriage which fulfills the commands of Eph. 5:22–25 automatically and without an attitude
Motivational Virtue (personal love toward God)	Functional Virtue (impersonal love toward mankind)
Occupation with Christ (God, God’s plan, viewing life from the viewpoint of eternity)	A relaxed mental attitude. We do not get involved in mental attitude sins against those around us.
True Humility (which includes grace orientation and teachability). We are willing and able to employ God’s system of spiritual growth.	Authority Orientation; life without an attitude. The ability to relate to your boss or the policeman who just stopped you for speeding without being an ass.
Bible doctrine absorbed into the soul by the function of gap (Eph. 3:18–19).
Filling of the Holy Spirit
The Foundation: Jesus Christ (salvation by faith in Him)

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