Thread: Does the soul dwell in the body or the body in the soul?

God created a body and then He breathed the breath of life into the man. The man became a living soul, according to KJ.

Also: I Cor. 15:45 "... The first Man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam a quickening spirit."

v.44b "There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body."

"We have this treasure in earthen vessels."

God didn't put the man's body into the man's non-spatial soul.

I have no doubt that spirit, soul and body are connected -- intimately and inextricably so.

I have, for years, heard it said that we ARE a spirit, we HAVE a soul and we live IN a body. But I find that formulation to be inadequate. For one thing, it is nor formulation offered to us in Scripture. For another, the Church has never come to a concensus on it. And it seems to be a formulation of recent vintage, not one of any pedigree in the Church.

The Bible does not speak of soul as merely something we *have*, but often seems to refer to people as souls. Soul is not merely incidental to what we are but essential to what we are.

Likewise the body. It is not merely something we have but it is essential to who we are. It is not, as some have called it, an "earth suit." It cannot be cast -- decoupled from soul and spirit -- and us still remain who we are. In the resurrection, we will not receive brand new, factory fresh, never-been-used-before bodies. Our present bodies will be resurrected, renew and glorified, raise immortal and incorruptible. Our bodies are inextricably part of who and what we are.

We are, each of us, I believe, spirit-soul-body -- spirit and soul (or spirit/soul) and body, thoroughly and inextricably integrated. Our bodily aspect is material, made of the stuff of the physical earth. Our immaterial aspect is part of the spiritual realm.

The body, being material, can be spoke of in spatial terms. The spirit/soul, being immaterial, cannot. It has no weight, no mass, no material dimension -- those categories pertain to what is physical. It is incoherent that what is spiritual, and therefore non-material, can be described as actually being bound by physical measurements. So the language of, for example, 2 Corinthians 5:1-5, is not literal but analagous. Words like "house" and "tabernacle" and "clothed" and "naked" are metaphors, not spatial, physical delineations of what is actually non-spatial and non-material.

So I believe that body and soul are definitely, intimately and inextricably connected and together are who and what we are. But I do not think that the dimension of the immaterial soul can be physically delimited or define, because it is part of the spiritual realm.

Paul refers to his body as his hut. That is not him, that is at best clothing.

If our bodies are not us but only something we wear, then there is no reason why they should need to be resurrected from the grave rather than God giving us new, never-before-been-worn bodies, fresh from the manufacturer. But Paul goes to great pains to speak of our resurrection -- which is the raising of our own present bodies to immortality and incorruptibility. A body that can be cast off and done with is not what the Church has ever taught us about the Christian faith but sounds more like some sort of Gnosticism.

Originally Posted by JeffDoles

If our bodies are not us but only something we wear, then there is no reason why they should need to be resurrected from the grave rather than God giving us new, never-before-been-worn bodies, fresh from the manufacturer. But Paul goes to great pains to speak of our resurrection -- which is the raising of our own present bodies to immortality and incorruptibility. A body that can be cast off and done with is not what the Church has ever taught us about the Christian faith but sounds more like some sort of Gnosticism.

What about those who die in a fire, or an explosion, or are cremated? The earthly body will return to dust.

Lista, I expect God knows where every speck of that "dust" is.

If our present bodies are not integral to who we are but are simply replaceable with brand new, never-before-been-worn bodies, then why, do you suppose, Paul teaches us about the *resurrection* of our bodies, not the *replacement* of our bodies?

Our spirits are contained some way because they don't seem to be floating around with us all being mixed into one and omnipresent.

This mortal shall put on immortality, we shall not all sleep but we will all be changed, the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies.

All the answers I need are found in scripture.

Originally Posted by JeffDoles

Lista, I expect God knows where every speck of that "dust" is.

If our present bodies are not integral to who we are but are simply replaceable with brand new, never-before-been-worn bodies, then why, do you suppose, Paul teaches us about the *resurrection* of our bodies, not the *replacement* of our bodies?

Maybe I've missed it, but is there a verse that says our corporal bodies will be raised?