The Bible – the WORD of God

(…continues from part 2…)

3)            Now let me place side by side the philosophical pedagogy and what obtains in the Bible. “Why the Bible?” one is very likely to ask cynically. It is the Bible that first taught the Divine activities of creationism; it is the biblical intimation of the Pentateuch that brought us to the knowledge of the origin of Adamic reality. The Bible it is, that gave the phenomenal accuracy of the Great Deluge. How Noah continued with Adamic propagation of the earth is purely biblical. The soul and the spirit of Adamic activation is found in the Bible: Genesis 2:7 “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” God’s breath metamorphosed the piece of sculptural work into a ‘living soul’ which is chay nephesh. Chay (khah’-ee) means: ‘living, alive’ and nephesh (neh’-fesh) is: ‘soul, creature.’ The Bible made us to know that it was after God breathed into the lifeless Adam that it became a ‘living creature.’

1Thessalonians 5:23 spirit and soul live in a body.

For Socrates’ dualism the body is imperfect and temporary, whereas the soul is the perfect and permanent aspect of a person. And there is a scriptural problem with the teaching of Socrates. The perfection of the intelligent being was at the point of his creation. As Lucifer mismanaged his free moral agency and fell, so did the pristine man of Eden. God, sending him on a prophetic mission said of the Devil to Ezekiel, “Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 15) Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee” (Ezekiel 28:12 and 15). ‘Sealing up the sum’ is the culmination of perfection. Lucifer was a perfect being before he covered his angelic self in sinfulness. Socrates is not correct to teach that the soul remains perfect after death. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Why would God tell Adam, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:” in Genesis 2:16 and warn him in the next verse, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”? It was simply because Adam began his life a perfect person.

Plato

Three important dialogues written by Plato: The Meno, The Phaedo, and The Phaedrus all argue that humans exhibit knowledge that they could not have obtained in their current life, presenting this as evidence for the soul’s pre-existence. There is a flaw in Plato’s dramatic presentation as far as scriptural facticity is concerned. There is not a smidgeon of evidence that Adam ever existed anywhere before his Eden occupation. What had never been was about to come into existence in Genesis 1:26 “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” How did Joseph know the interpretations of dreams? Genesis 40:8 “And they said unto him, We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray you.” Daniel 1:17 “As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.”

For Aristotle, the soul is the principle that gives life and shape to the body, and they are inseparable; when the body dies, so does the soul. As harsh as it may seem, a departed soul that decided not to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour ends up in hell called lake of fire.

God spoke Deuteronomy 5:32 to the children of Israel

Augustine inherited this dualistic approach from Plato, who famously distinguished between the world of sensible things (the physical world) and the world of Forms (the world of ideal, non-material realities). However, Augustine’s dualism also integrated Christian theological concepts, which placed a significant emphasis on the soul as the seat of human identity and moral responsibility. It is spiritual faux pas to mingle Christianity with other forms of doctrines. Deuteronomy 5:32 “Ye shall observe to do therefore as the LORD your God hath commanded you: ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.”

Descartes’ dualism is the belief that the mind and body are two distinct and separate substances: a non-physical, thinking mind and a physical, non-thinking body. This metaphysical view, also known as Cartesian dualism, posits that mental events and physical events are fundamentally different and can exist independently of one another. The philosophers see Adamic dualistic structure. The Bible, the Word of God teaches that the breath of Divine puff into the lifeless Adam were lives i.e. soul and spirit.

Man is spirit, soul and body (1Thessalonians 5:23).

It is very important to let Descartes understand that man has a tripartite nature of spirit, soul and body forming an individuality: in one body. As pertaining to the physical man it says in Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” This distinction is found in 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.”

It says, “and man became a living soul.” What does this mean? It means, Adam, of the redness of soil, metamorphosed into a living: intelligent entity. Jesus Christ is the incarnation of the LORD God, the Creator. God chose the womb of Mary for the Emmanuelisation of Christ, which is, and which was, and which is to come. Amen.

Getting born again is a conscious effort on the part of an individual. Get born again. Say this sinner’s prayer.

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!” 

(…to be concluded…)

Read part 2 here

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