From: allan-sv@algonet.se   
      
                         Spirit, soul and body   
      
   The man has spirit, soul and body. That is clear from many places   
   in the Bible. Jesus says in Mark 8:36-37, "For what shall it profit   
   a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?   
   Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" In 1 Thess. 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."   
      
   Many people have a very unclear opinion about the soul and the   
   spirit. They can see the body, but what is the soul and the spirit,   
   which leave the body when we die? Our spirit is our personality,   
   and we have this personality also after the death. The soul (intellect,   
   will, feelings and capacity for thinking), this we have also after the   
   death. Our intellect is a part of our soul, and those who declare   
   that the man has no soul, they declare that they have no intellect.   
   Therefore, we can take no notice of what they say.   
      
   In 1 Cor. 15: 20, 51, and 1 Thess. 4:13-15 the apostle Paul writes   
   about the death as a sleep. But only the bodies fall asleep and cease   
   that function. Please, read 2 Cor. 5:1-10. Many places in the Bible   
   show that the dead are not sleeping in their graves. Paul says in   
   2 Cor. 5:8, "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent   
   from the body, and to be present with the Lord." In Phil. 1:21, he   
   says, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." And in verse   
   23, "For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart,   
   and to be with Christ; which is far better." The death is for a   
   Christian the same as to be with Christ. And it is not conceivable   
   that Paul was longing for a state of unconsciousness.   
      
   In Rev. 6:9-10 it says, "And when he had opened the fifth seal,   
   I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word   
   of God, and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with   
   a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou   
   not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?"   
   Those martyrs were thus at full consciousness. And in 2 Peter 2:9   
   we can read, "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of   
   temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to   
   be punished." The rich man that Jesus speaks about in Luke 16:   
   19-31, he was also at full consciousness.   
      
   The people who live away from God are in spiritual meaning dead,   
   and lost from the life in God, but yet they have spirits. Col. 2:13.   
   The man consists of spirit, soul and body, also the ungodly. The   
   spiritual deaths imply that the spiritual fellowship with God is   
   broken. Such people are unspiritual, soulish. They trust their own   
   intellect and their feelings. They do not know that it is just in their   
   soul-life the devil is attacking. He does contaminate and distort   
   their way of thinking, and want to hold them away from God's   
   word. Luke 11:39. Tit. 1:15. They do not understand that their own   
   intellect is darkened and distorted through the sin and the influence   
   of the devil. Eph. 4:18. Proverbs 3:5. To come to God, they must   
   receive the salvation that he does offer them through Jesus Christ,   
   and be born again.   
      
   "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:   
   for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them,   
   because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Cor. 2:14. And they can   
   neither understand the evil spiritual world though they often mention   
   the devil with a name. Some people are curious and devote   
   themselves to spiritualism and think it is not dangerous though   
   God's words strictly prohibit such things. Lev. 19:26, 31. 20:6.   
   Deut .18:10-12. Isaiah 8:19.   
      
   Since people are spiritual beings, they are influenced of what that   
   happen in the spiritual world, and there are constantly fights. The   
   devil is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short.   
   Rev. 12:12. Next to God, the devil is the greatest power, and since   
   we are the weakest part in the spiritual fight, we cannot be neutral.   
   The only way for us to be able to win victory, is to submit ourselves   
   to the Lord and obey him. "Submit yourselves therefore to God.   
   Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." James 4:7.   
      
   But this is just what many people are not willing to do. They won't   
   humble themselves. They reject God's word and mean that they are   
   free to do what they wish, but they are not free. They are tied and   
   driven of evil spiritual forces in a way themselves do not understand.   
   If anyone will not serve Jesus or listen to him, then he is a slave to   
   sin. John 8:31-36. The devil is working through those who are   
   disobedient. Eph. 2:2.   
   To break the devil's power and be free, it demands a new birth.   
      
      
   Allan Svensson   
      
   If you have any questions after reading of this article   
   Please, visit my Web Site   
      
   http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/CONTENTS.HTM   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)