We know that we see with our eyes for we can shut one and see out the other, or shut both and not see at all! Likewise with our ears, we can stop them from hearing, and so it is with our noses in regards to smell.
What of our brains? do you feel that your thoughts emanate from your head, or are they from someplace else?
I am well aware that people suffer concussion by taking a knock to the head, and their thoughts and senses pretty much leave them - however, it is clear that our thoughts and actions are put into place through what we see, hear, smell, and even touch, nevertheless, does our conscious intelligence, occur in what we know to be our brains, the so-called grey matter just underneath our scalp? Without doubt, the brain has been removed from the head and dissected by neurosurgeons the world over more times than I have had a hot dinner, nevertheless, what can they tell us about it? can they enter it as it were, and bring anything out of it? Absolutely not! The only thing that they can surmise is that it is a lump of grey matter; they can only theorize and speculate upon exactly what it does, and they can go no further.
Where do our thoughts, imaginations, lusts etc emanate from? in our heads, hearts, soul, spirit or some place else? Left to the Creator's Word alone, it would appear that there isn't a clear distinction.
I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts. Heb.8:10.
I will put my laws into their hearts, And in their minds will I write them. Heb.10:16.
Did the apostle slip up here? I think not! Where, then is the seat of consciousness? some would say the soul is the seat of our consciousness; is the soul in our hearts, and or minds?
The first mention of soul appears in Gen.2:7: And the LORD God formed the man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
On this verse I quote those ever helpful Bible expositors Jamieson, Fausset and Brown (JFB);
"Not that the Creator literally performed this act, but respiration being the medium and sign of life, this phrase is to show that man's life originated in a different way from his body-being implanted directly by God (Eccles.12:7) and hence in the new creation of the soul Christ breathed on His disciples (John 20:22)."
Quite why JFB should not believe that the Creator didn't literally perform the act of breathing into Adam's nostrils I am at a loss to know! Clearly Adam was fully formed, but was no more than a mannequin until God breathed into his nostrils, then he became a "living soul" as the Scripture teaches. The process is reversed at death, at this moment the breath of life departs, we are left with a body that decomposes and returns to the earth from whence it came. Man's life and soul it would seem is inseparable from his heart and mind, it is only his mortal body that dies, the soul never dies or sleeps, from whence come dreams in the night? it is only the physical body that needs sleep, for it gets tired through it's daily toils. As for the soul, it thinks, feels and hurts, even after the life has departed from the body (Rev.6:9-10), Luke 16:23-24). The invisible (to us at least) soul which is the life of man retains the bodily functions of the heart and mind, as is evidenced by the fact that the rich man and Lazarus, though now in a 'dis-embodied' state still have eyes, fingers and a tongue, they are complete with all their faculties, even though they are 'dead', but it is only the physical body that is dead, it awaits the "resurrection of life" for the righteous, and for the unrighteous; "the resurrection of damnation." John 5:29. What of man's spirit? Hebrews 4:12 tells us that it is intimately bound up with the believer's soul; it is only the Word of God that can "divide asunder soul and spirit". Every regenerate man, woman and child has a spirit, for it is only those who have the Spirit of Christ who are born again, for "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." Romans 8:9. There is therefore a people on earth, past, present and future, destitute of this vital life giving power without which no man can enter into eternal life in God's Kingdom. The unbeliever is "spiritually discerned" 1 Cor.2:14, the Revised Version (RV) reads judged, and in the margin examined; the apostle goes on to say in verse 16; "we have the mind of Christ." (Something the unbeliever is utterly devoid of - obviously!) The unbeliever, or unregenerate does indeed have a soul, for he is a living being, nevertheless he is only of the earth earthy, he cannot ascend upward to heaven- please read 1 Cor.15:47-49. Does the unbeliever (the non-elect) have a spirit? Certainly he doesn't have "the Spirit of Christ" (Rom.8:9) this much is obvious. However, we do read of "unclean spirits" in the New Testament (NT) (Matt.10:1, Mark 1:27, Luke 4:36 etc.) and these in the NT era were most certainly demons, that is fallen angels, permitted by God in Christ to possess certain individuals for the sole purpose of demonstrating God's omnipotent power over not just the earthly realm,but the heavenly also. But, do unregenerate men, women and children have a spirit? Certainly, we can say that the unregenerate are under the sway of the evil one, the Devil himself (for they "have not the Spirit of Christ"), but, is there now an actual spirit, a literal real and living spirit in the unbeliever? I don't believe so, as is evidenced by the Lord's words in John 3:6; "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." The "Spirit of Christ" is however a real and living Spirit that does indeed convict and guide the elect, without which there could be no hope of salvation. All of the negative spirits that now exist are such as "the spirit of bondage" Rom.8:15,"the spirit of slumber", Rom.11:8, "the spirit of the world" 1 Cor.2:12 are 'spirits' or rather effects that exist in a person that has not been born anew by God's Holy Spirit. In other words they are not possessed by demons, they are literally and truly only in the flesh. When the Lord Jesus said to the particular Pharisees in John 8:44 "Ye are of your father the devil" He could say such for He knew that they were not born from above, that they were in the flesh, and if not born again, then they were under the sway of "the god of this world" hence His naming their "father the devil", for what other universal "father" is there apart from the Father?
When the apostle Paul says "I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Thess.5:23, we must ever remember that he is talking to the Thessalonian believers, not to men in general. Surely only the regenerate can assume the status of a tripartite being; therefore the unregenerate are bipartite; possessing only body and soul, knowing nothing of the life giving Spirit from above. This issue has somewhat befuddled the very best of theologians. Eccl.3:21; "Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth down to the earth?" Does a beast have a spirit? Two verses previously in 3:19; "For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man have no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity." (I have emphasized breath, for the RV margin reads "or spirit". Clearly, men and beasts alike, do indeed breathe? Otherwise they couldn't exist! We have seen that Adam's body couldn't live until God breathed into his nostrils*, similarly none can be "born again" without the very same "wind" which is the breath of God, see John 3:8 & 20:22. Men have indeed been classified as beasts in God's word; for the unregenerate are they who are "as brute beasts" Jude 10; have not such been created, or rather "reserved unto judgment" 2 Peter 2:4? and indeed are ever behaving as "Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame...to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever." Jude 13.
"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." Eccl.12:7. From Eccl.3:19 we have seen that the spirit is in the margin for breath. Certainly, regardless of whether one be elect or not, all men do as "dust return to the earth", and all shall stand before Christ in judgment Day; to the elect, it will be "the throne of grace" Heb.4:16, the non-elect will find their eternal destiny confirmed at the "great white throne" Rev.20:11. Regardless of whether spirit should be breath or not, as in Eccl.12:7 there is however a notable distinction in this verse, for it says in the affirmative, without distinction, that "the dust" (man) will "return to the earth as it was", and only "the spirit return unto God who gave it." So, all with God's Spirit will return to Him, for He came to "save His people from their sins." Matt.1:21, His elect people, not so those without "the Spirit of Christ." for their names are not written in "the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Rev.13:8.
*When God breathed into Adam's nostrils; though he was made perfect, he knew nothing of redemption, he was "of the earth, earthy" 1 Cor.15:47, this is why one "must be born again" John 3:7 in order to enter God's kingdom. The elect will "bear the image of the heavenly" 1 Cor.15:49. The natural/unregenerate man to all intents and purposes, no matter how good his morals and civility, is after all, no better than a beast (see 1 Cor.2:13-15). Therefore if a man is "spiritually discerned" does he even have a spirit? To have what the Scriptures teach to be the "Spirit of Christ" is God consciousness; if he has this; he has been born from above.
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