The Soul

The meaning of soul is often assumed but seldom understood.

In fact, the real meaning of soul has largely been lost to the contemporary consciousness. With the use of common use of the terms: ‘soul mate’, ‘soul music’, ‘soul food’ and ‘soul searching’, you could be forgiven for thinking the soul is little more than a sentimental mode of the human self—the deep well of our true feelings.

Yes, some contemporary thinkers still reflect on the idea of soul. But for the most part, they view it as a naïve remnant of past metaphysical discourses. Indeed, the soul is little more than a fictitious idea, long since displaced by the more ‘mature’ vocabulary of the fashionable sciences of the modern world–psychiatry, psychology, and neurology. In the new consciousness, the soul doesn’t really exist.

Ironically, this new view of the soul originated in past metaphysical discourses. Philosophers such as Emmanuel Kant— in dividing reality between the phenomena (that which we experience) and noumena (that which we can know about, but never experience)—helped establish the notion that the soul may be imagined, but never truly known. Significantly, Kant was partly responding to the ‘naïve’ metaphysics of Plato, that ancient philosopher who saw the soul as a ‘life spirit’ trapped in the body.

For the influential Plato, the eternal non-material realm of ultimate ideas, to which the soul belongs, manifests itself imperfectly in the corporeal (material) realm. Correspondingly the individual eternal soul is imprisoned by a material body. Deliverance of the soul involves a progressive emancipation from the material toward the eternal absolute. In Plato’s scheme, the soul is ‘in transit’ through a series of incarnations, migrating toward its eternal home. Salvation finally arrives when the series of incarnations terminates with the soul’s release into a pure bodiless state.

Yet, for all their erudite logic and fanciful ideas, these metaphysical quests represent little more than the musings of clever humans speculating with their residual knowledge of divine truth.

The fact is, the human soul is much more than a convenient label for sentimental feelings, more than an unknowable metaphysical concept, and even more than an eternal ‘spirit force’ seeking redemption.

The soul is simply the ‘real’ you.

How do I know this? Because I accept the opinion of someone who really does know–God. The Bible, God’s revealed truth, was expressly given to bypass fantasies, clarify misguided musings, and challenge flagrant distortions about human reality. This divine word gives insights into mysteries that the human imagination cannot even begin to conjure up. Among these insights is the existence, nature, and destiny of the human soul.

As to its origin, we first learn about the constitution of the soul at the very beginning of God’s truth revelation, the book of Genesis. Here it is written, “And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Gen 2:7).

When God infused the breath of life into the first man, Adam, he became a living soul– a material person with a divinely created spirit. Contrary to Plato, the human soul has a definite beginning in time. Furthermore, the soul, in being created with the body, is inextricably bound to it as long as the body exists in time. Because the soul is the life-force of the body, the body cannot live without the soul. However, the soul can exist without the body.

Being divinely created, the soul is endowed with perpetual existence. That is, the soul cannot die, be killed, or stop existing, as the words of Jesus affirm, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both the soul and the body in hell” (Matt. 10:28). Of course, the ‘one’, Jesus is referring to here is the Lord God, the creator and ruler of all things.

The soul is not merely a thing ‘you’ have, it is you! As the real you, the soul has a number of enduring faculties you are familiar with: The capacity to reason, feel, remember, and experience pain and pleasure– even in its post-death state.

In validating this, the Bible gives insight into the soul’s existence after death from the teaching of Jesus Christ…

In a story from Luke’s Gospel (based on facts known to Jesus), Jesus relates how both a rich man and poor man died. Both souls continued to exist, the soul of the poor man in a place of blessedness (Heaven), and the soul of the rich man in a place of torment (described as Hades). In this account the rich man being in torment, is able to see the poor man in place of blessedness and begs the poor man’s guardian (Abraham) to send him across the divide and quench is painful thirst with a drop of water on his finger. He consciously describes his situation as being in great anguish. Abraham, says that his suffering is due to has actions in life, and there is no possible way to cross and alleviate his suffering –even if he wished. Having abandoned hope for himself, the tormented man remembers his family and begs Abraham to send the poor man to his father’s house to warn his five brothers. Again, Abraham is unable to comply, stating if the brothers don’t listen to God’s word, they will not pay attention to a person who returns from the dead. We can only conclude that this lost soul continues in hopeless anguish, perpetually haunted by the memories of what might have been.

Following the death of the body, the soul is destined for one of two places of conscious existence. The first involves an eternal destiny with God in his eternal kingdom, the second involves a destiny of eternal torment. The departed soul can only exist in one of these two realities; realities which are really intermediate states in which the soul awaits the resurrection of the body, the final judgment of God, and subsequent assignment of body/soul to permanent realities of similar composition to the former. Only God is ‘the one’ who has the power to appoint the final destiny of your soul!

Given this, you might be forgiven for thinking that God is a deterministic monster, a cruel despot who arbitrarily assigns souls to hell without regard to the person’s actual life. Nothing could be further from the truth. God values your soul above all things and has a deep desire for your soul’s salvation and wellbeing.

Just how valuable the soul is in God’s eyes is revealed through Jesus’ teaching. “ For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?” Mark 8:36 (ESV) Here, Jesus ( the Son of God) suggests that nothing in this world is over greater worth than your soul, even if you owned the whole world! He is implying that those who appreciate the value of the soul would willingly surrender any ‘earthly’ pleasure to secure its salvation and eternal wellbeing.

But why this talk of salvation?

God’s word reveals that the human soul’s condition, on account of the perpetual effect of Adam’s disobedience to God’s initial commands, necessitates deliverance from its fallen state. Not wanting humanity to perish without hope, God formulated a plan to redeem lost souls from the unavoidable consequences of their wilful rebellion. He set in place a plan of deliverance, culminating in the substitutionary death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which addressed the sin-originated penalty and guaranteed the penitent human soul the hope of new life–reunited with a ‘now’ imperishable body in eternity.

Jesus saves by providing salvation based on trusting submission to him and exclusive reliance on his substitutionary death and resurrection. Jesus not only requires we actively trust him, but expects an ongoing trust reveals a diligent concern for the perpetual wellbeing our of our souls. Once saved, the soul is too precious to lose again.

This soul-attention necessarily involves resisting the ubiquitous temptations and endless distractions that seek to derail our heavenly destiny, as Jesus forcefully states, “And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.” Matthew 18:8-9 (ESV)

The challenge of securing the destiny of your soul is real. We live in a culture obsessed with the ‘here and now’, an environment entirely dedicated to the carnal lusts and fleeting ambitions of this present life world, an existence inexorably set against eternal hope. God, through his revealed word, pulls back the thin veil of this worldly facade and offers a glimpse of another reality, a future of unending joy, peace, love and life. In doing so, he desires for us to grasp the full value of the soul; to see and understand it as he does. For in God’s eyes, nothing is more valuable, more significant, more lasting, and more precious than your soul.

In a particular example of pulling back this veil, Jesus tells a story about proud man who sought security for his soul, ” …. he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:18-21 (ESV)

That your soul has an eternal destiny is guaranteed; where your soul will spend that destiny involves a choice–your choice. This choice will eventually bring you face-to-face with Jesus Christ and a decision to either accept or reject his generous offer of life everlasting. Because the destiny of your priceless soul is at stake, the choice is simply too important to dismiss or delay.