O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee, Psalms 16:2.
In my previous post I defined the what a spirit is. The post was generally well received but there were some for whom it raised more questions. Whether are are attempting to define a spirit, a soul, or whatever we encounter in the word of God, it is important that the definition fits each usage of the term being defined, and that it does no violence to any place in a King James Bible wherein that same term is used.
I never want there to be a day in which my understanding of something in the bible is not nudged slightly or made more clear. Sometimes definitions that I have formed in my own mind are seriously challenged by a specific verse in a context that uses that term. Sometimes, my defintion doesn't seem to fit in that application. When that happens, I don't want to be so wed to my own opinions that I cannot budge.
Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished, Ecclesiastes 4:13. If it is a grief to God when a king will no longer be admonished, how much more if a preacher will not be admonished. It is a joy to me when a person young in the Lord points out something they have learned and I find it new to me. It didn't bother the Lord to speak to the child Samuel when Eli the priest had hardened his own heart, (1st Samuel 3:1-18).
A particularly precious woman needed further clarification upon what I wrote and the following is partly what I sent to her. Also, one comment that I received in the last post is worthy of a response. The commenter left his full name and spelled out a valid criticism.
"I'm not saying you're wrong, but a lot of these don't have supporting verses in the article. For example, the spirit being a cursor or director of the mind or will, what specific verse is used for that? Plus, the article doesn't delve deep enough about the soul to show its difference to the spirit. Yes, I agree the soul is different from the spirit, but the article fails to actually name how it is."
As will be my defintion of the soul, I don't always have a specific verse. Instead, what I look for is a defintion which if it is applied in every circumstance wherein the word "spirit" or "soul" is used, that defintion works. Obviously, I cannot claim infallibility for such a defintion. What I hope is that the serious reader of the King James Bible can find the definition helpful.
If after a while they begin to see flaws in applying that defintion in certain places, I can only rejoice. As the Lord allows the English Speaking People to further our understanding of this great heritage we have in our King James Bible, I expect nothing more than the men expected who have gone before me. I learned much by starting my walk listening to them. It saved me many years to have benefitted from their years of study. Nevertheless, over time, I found my understanding carried beyond in certain things that they had understood.
If the labor of those whose labor has gone into this site can produce similar results, I cannot help but to believe that we have done well. Read what we have written. Apply those precepts as you read. If you find that they are only partial precepts and the Lord takes you deeper in your understanding, or the Lord clearly refutes what we have said, we can only praise God for the clarity of our King James Bible and his willingness to teach so diverse a people.
I don't know of any specific verse that defines the soul. Instead, I propose a definition or description that will do no violence to any usage of the word soul throughout scripture and would appear to harmonize with it. The soul is the essence of a person or animal (Numbers 31:28 speaks of beeves as souls.) The soulish body is recognizable, 1st Samuel 28:12, Luke 16:23.
The fat in the levitical sacrifices is symbolic of the soul. If you have ever watched someone skin a raccoon or other small animal, when they have made those slits on the carcass and grabbed the pelt and pulled it off, what remains retains the exact form of the animal. It is a shimmering carcass being held together by the fat that was below the skin.
We can see by those few references we have to persons who are dead but still talk, that the soulish body still retains the memories, feelings, and thoughts they had while they still had bodies. What allows the person to regulate those feelings, memories, and thoughts is their spirit.
When Jesus Christ yielded up the ghost (Luke 23:46), we know that his spirit went to the Father and his soul was made an offering for sin. His body went to the grave. In our opening verse, Psalm 16:2, Jesus Christ speaks to his own soul and in fact quotes what the soul had said; O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD.
When Jesus Christ sent his spirit back to the Father, and his body went to the tomb, what happened to the goodness of his soul when he was made sin and descended into the lower parts of the earth? Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?, Ephesians 4:9.
We see in Psalm 16 that the soul spoke to the Father. His goodness did not go back to Father as did his spirit. The goodness of his soul went to the saints in the earth and to his excellent in whom is all his delight. (That is those who have believed on him unto salvation.)
He then described himself in Psalm 22:6 as, a worm, and no man. He was made sin for us who knew no sin, 2nd Corinthians 5:22. His spirit was not made sin. His flesh laid in a tomb as was described by Peter as the Holy One.
Acts 2:27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Acts 2:28 Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
Acts 2:29 Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
Acts 2:30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
Acts 2:31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
Clearly the soul and spirit are not the same. I hope that what I have written will help you to understand the soul and the spirit. What I know is that the King James Bible is the word of God. It does not contain the word of God. It is the word of God. To correct a King James Bible is to correct God. Any conclusions that I have made have been made with the understanding that if I find any verse in context that casts doubt upon my conclusions, it is my conclusions that must be doubted, not the verse.
All too often, criticism of the King James Bible springs from an author or preacher who is so wedded to an idea, that when the King James Bible differs with his pet theory, he changes the Bible to fit his theory. If yours or my theory disagrees with the King James Bible in any place wherein attention has been paid to the context, the theory must go.