The God Culture: Soul and Spirit: Where Do We Go When We Die? Part 3

Timothy Jay Schwab of The God Culture's series about the afterlife is pretty massive and cannot really be distilled into a few articles but I shall do my best. The last article dismissed three of the videos in his series as totally irrelevant. In this article I want to look at his definition of soul and spirit. Spoiler alert: they are the same. But are they really? 

Tim is very straightforward about the nature of man. Man is composed of body and spirit only.

What Is The Soul? Where Do We Go? Part 6 Answers In 2nd Esdras 23F 

10:11 We are not triune beings in either sense. We are made of really a body and a spirit which is the soul in many scriptures equated and we're going to show you so don't worry. The two are interchanged and we'll show you.

20:34 So, the spirit and soul cannot be separated into a definition of a triune being nor can they be separated in any way. They are the same in representation, see? The soul as an essence, well, that's direct new age occult, uh, basically, uh, it, it, I mean it could be better than that because it's the breath of life, okay? You could, you know, you could go there but even the word as an essence, I mean that's it just sounds so new agey it's just weird to look at that in the middle of a definition here. 

What an incredibly stupid statement. Tim has no idea what accidents and essences are. They have nothing to do with the new age or the occult. This is incredibly dumb. 

What is the soul? It is our life force.

22:40 Our soul is our being, our life force, our spirit, indeed.

Tim's main argument is that the term translated soul and spirit is general and means a multitude of things. Therefore you cannot pin down any one definition. While that is not necessarily false the fact is that simply because the word translated heart, soul, mind, spirit, and understanding can mean a wide variety of things does not mean the that they are all the same and interchangeable. It's really odd that Tim, in this video only covers ONE GREEK WORD which is G5990, psyche.

Actually it's not odd because Tim's modus operandi is to throw a lot at his listeners to make it seem as if he has covered everything when in fact he has barely scratched the surface and twisted the information he is using. There are three other words he did not cover, dianoia, nous, and cardia. They are translated mind, understanding, and heart respectively. Matthew 22:37 would then read as follows:

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy KARDIA, and with all thy PSYCHE, and with all thy DIANOIA.

Why does Jesus use three different words if they all mean the same thing? It would be as silly as saying, "I am going for a drive in my car, horseless carriage, and automobile." You only need one word. 

As important as getting the definition of words correct is, I don't want to quibble over that here and I will not be ferreting out Greek definitions. There are two ways to show what Tim is saying is absolutely wrong and that the spirt/mind/heart is not the same thing as the soul.

The first way to show that Tim is wrong is by analyzing what he says in video 9 about spiritual death. Tim vehemently disagrees with the standard interpretation of God threatening death upon eating from the tree of knowledge to mean that Adam died spiritually. One cannot die spiritually except on the day of judgement says Tim. 

What Is Hell? Is It Real? Part 9 Answers In 2nd Esdras 23I

13:27 Your spirit can't die because you sin. Now, you can eternally set your position that you will be in hell, that you will die, yes, but that's not what the Bible does here. It's not playing these word games of dumb scholars that just don't get it. It doesn't do it. So, spirits don't die not unless they are consumed with eternal fire period. That is the only measure in scripture for so-called spiritual death. We do not die spiritually when we sin. Our spirits can't die. It can set it up sure but the Bible doesn't do that there and that is not what Yahuah is saying to Adam. They have rephrased Yahuah's words changing the Bible. It is a lie.

There are problems with that interpretation. First of all the Bible does say Adam would die in "the day" he ate from the tree."  

Genesis 2:17 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.

But it is only in Jubilees that we read an interpretation about dying in the day you eat from the tree.  Any story that comes from Jubilees is apocryphal nonsense that is rightfully ignored. That book is not and never will be scripture.  But even so Jubilees says this:

4:29 And at the close of the nineteenth jubilee, in the seventh week in the sixth year thereof, Adam died, and all his sons buried him in the land of his creation, and he was the first to be buried in the earth. 

30  And he lacked seventy years of one thousand years; for one thousand years are as one day in the testimony of the heavens and therefore was it written concerning the tree of knowledge: 'On the day that ye eat thereof ye shall die.' For this reason he did not complete the years of this day; for he died during it.

Are we really supposed to believe that when God said you will die the day you eat from the tree he really meant you will die within a thousand years? What kind of threat or punishment is that? How does it apply to the rest of humanity who fell in Adam and are subject to the same penalty? The punishment happened then and there. Adam died. He became spiritually dead and separated from communion with God and so are we.

Secondly, the Bible says we are all spiritually dead in numerous passages. I will only list a few.

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

Ephesians 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Colossians 2:13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

Obviously our soul is not dead as in lifeless. We are alive. But as the Bible says, we are dead in our sins while we live until Jesus Christ quickens us by the Holy Spirit. What exactly about us is dead? What did Jesus mean when he said let the dead bury their dead?

Matthew 8:22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

How can someone dead do anything? Because Jesus means they are spiritually dead and are walking after the things of this world rather than seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. The spirt and mind are not the same as the soul. Tim says the soul is the life force. Everyone has a soul, a life force. 

If the soul is our life force and there is no unique spirit or mind then all men would be the same. A force is not personal. A force is an impersonal power like combustion which powers an engine which makes a car go. Not all cars and engines are the same. But combustion is a principle which never changes. In the case of humanity the life is in the blood.

Leviticus 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.

The word translated life is the Hebrew word nepes which is translated elsewhere as soul. Obviously our blood is not our soul. But there is power in our blood which gives us life. There is a life force inside us that makes our heart beat, that powers our autonomic nervous system. Is the force that regulates our body the same as our mind, will, and emotions. Obviously not! Yet in Tim's system it would have to be because man is only body and soul.

What makes each man different is his unique spirit or mind or heart. It is clear that spirit, soul, mind, and heart are not the same thing which is why there are different words for them. In fact the Bible tells us that we were once dead in our sins and fulfilling the lusts of the body and the mind.

Ephesians 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

The word in this verse translated mind is dianoia and not psyche which shows they are not the same thing. It's a shame that Tim did not discuss the meaning of dianoia and only focused on psyche. But it is only a Youtube video after all.  Maybe he will write a book on the subject?

Another word Tim did not discuss in his video is the Hebrew word translated heart or mind.

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3820/kjv/wlc/0-1/

This word, leb, translates as heart, mind, or understanding as in the following verses:

Genesis 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Exodus 7:14 And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

From the context we can see that heart does not mean breath of life or nepes which is the only Hebrew word Tim analyzes. Going through the usage it is painfully obvious that nepes is not at all the same as leb. Leb always means something immaterial. Nepes can mean the immaterial soul but it can also mean the entire person.

Genesis 14:21 And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.

Exodus 16:16 This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.

The fact is Timothy Jay Schwab has not proven a single thing except that the words psyche and nepes can mean many things. But so what? Looking at the context of how these words are used shows that man does have a spirt as well as a soul and a body. The soul is what gives us life and the spirit is who we are. It is what makes us unique. It is our mind and heart. It is a lot of things. Can one harden the soul? Is the life force of man deceitful as Jeremiah says? No. That is the spirit. 

Tim's analysis of these two Greek and Hebrew words for soul is very poor. It's as bad as the first two videos where, instead of giving any context, he simply points to the word sleep and says, "See? It plainly says we go to sleep when we die." 

The second way to show Timothy Jay Schwab is completely wrong in denying that man has a spirit which is distinct from a soul is to look at the nature of Jesus Christ or Christology.

To really understand man we must first understand that we are created in the image of God and that God, in the Person of Jesus Christ who is the Son, took on human flesh. Properly understanding the incarnation is essential to understanding ourselves. Jesus, the divine Second Person of the Trinity, united Himself to human flesh, and had a human soul and a human mind. 

We must understand that while Christ is not a human Person but a Divine Person, that does not mean it is the divinity that empowers the body without a soul. That is akin to the heresy known as Apollinarianism which denies that Jesus had a rational human mind.

A Christological theory, according to which Christ had a human body and a human sensitive soul, but no human rational mind, the Divine Logos taking the place of this last.

https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01615b.htm

According to Apollinaris Jesus had a body and soul but the Person of Christ, the Logos, took the place of the rational mind. 

Looking at this from the dichotomy that is Tim's perspective means that Apollinaris would have taught that Jesus did not have a human soul. Instead he would have taught the Jesus had a human body but the soul, the life force, was the Logos. Kind of like God using a body as a puppet. In both schemes Jesus would not have been fully human. Every man has a soul. Every man has a rational mind or spirit. The mind is not the soul.

The Church teaches in no uncertain terms that Jesus Christ was fully man without sin. That means he had a body, soul, and mind. This is a principle taught by Gregory of Nazianzus.

If anyone has put his trust in Him as a Man without a human mind, he is really bereft of mind, and quite unworthy of salvation. For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved. If only half Adam fell, then that which Christ assumes and saves may be half also; but if the whole of his nature fell, it must be united to the whole nature of Him that was begotten, and so be saved as a whole. Let them not, then, begrudge us our complete salvation, or clothe the Saviour only with bones and nerves and the portraiture of humanity. 

https://earlychurchtexts.com/public/gregoryofnaz_critique_of_apolliniarianism.htm

Now, I know Tim won't give a fig for what the "Synagogue of Satan" has to say unless it aids his deficient worldview but Christology is very important. It is not enough to say Jesus is God. Many heretics have said the same thing. The church spent 700 years formulating its Christology against those heretics. Jesus Christ is the Logos who became man. He united Himself to a human body, soul, and mind or spirit all while retaining his divine nature and personhood. Jesus is not a human person he is a divine person with a human nature and a divine nature. This is why we can say Mary is the mother of God and God died on the cross.

This was just a brief analysis and rebuttal of Tim's doctrine of the soul and spirit. As we have seen Tim's discussion of the issue is as shallow as ever. He only discussed TWO WORDS in the whole Bible which can be translated a number of ways. He did not bother to discuss all the other words which can be translated mind, spirit, or heart or analyze the contexts in which they are used. If he did he would have to come to the conclusion that man is a tripartite being made of body, soul, and spirit/mind. Did the Pharaoh harden his soul? Of course not.