Man's Soul: Distinct From His Physical Body

Listen to this, O Job;

stand still and consider the

wondrous works of God.

Do you know when God

dispatches them, and causes

the light of His cloud to shine?

Do you know how the clouds

are balanced, those wondrous

works of Him who is perfect

in knowledge?

Why are your garments hot, when

He quiets the earth by the south wind?

with Him, have you spread out the skies,

strong as a cast metal mirror?

Job 37:15–18

            Man is so distinct from every other living thing that to not agree with this fact is to either ignore the facts, those empirical facts that demonstrate the truth that man is distinct from every living animal is to willfully choose not to believe those facts. Man is peculiar from all other brutes of the earth and has the ability to make an attempt to distinguish what he is doing and acting and this can only be the cause of man having a soul. this rationality is so different from all other brutes, all animals of the earth for man imagines, and contemplates: i.e., what are the heavens, the stars, why does life exist, and even at rest and asleep, man dreams and beholds those things outside himself, and often travels to other countries, meeting and seeing acquaintances, and often forecasts the actions of the day when he is awake. The is the rational soul operating by which man thinks of things beyond himself. We never see an animal looking into the skies and wondering why? Animals do not perceive of things beyond the present, those things that rouse his interest; i.e., a dog chasing a cat, for the animal, in this case the dog, does only those things that he is fitted for, and has the bodily organization for what he has been created to be. Man is so fitted by God creating a soul that has the ability to communicate with Him and has the morals or attributes that are of God. To admit that this is not true is to demonstrate irrationalness which is a shameful denial of reason. Allow this addition: how is that by the nature of man which is mortal by nature, that is it is not as a body permanent and courts death which is the end for all life? How is it that the body being mortal can think or imagine things that are eternal and then go so far as to despise what lies ahead of him, and also then to desire what is beyond death? The physical body cannot spontaneously think such thoughts about itself, not can it think upon that which eternal for itself. It is mortal, it only last for a period of time. For a person to think upon that what is opposed to the body and against its nature must itself then by distinct in kind. No other animal can do so, therefore what follows this line of reason is that man is a rational and immortal soul. Why? It introduces higher things, not things outside itself, rather that which is inside the body. This is true of musicians which perform music not from something outside, albeit there is an instrument, rather music comes from within a person and demonstrated externally. How is it that the eye which is constituted to see, or the ear to hear, that they may if it is so chosen, to turn from that which may be seen to another thing and having no outside force causing one to turn their eyesight, or for the ear to ear one thing and not another and this is done by choice, this natural function being moved by an inward force and not from an outside source. The hand has a natural function yet it may not hold one thing or touch one thing and do the opposite to another thing. Who is it that acts against the natural instincts of the body? How is it that the body turns from its natural course to another? The answer is that the proof to by admitted is that there is simply a rational soul that presides over the body. The body is not so constituted to move itself, rather it is driven by a master driver, a source from within itself. Man makes laws to govern himself so that there is a staying from evil to do that which is good, with the animals, those brutes or the brutes of evil those who remain without thought of God and do not discern God because the lie outside of rationality and have little or no understanding and do that which is not rational. It is the presence or existence of a rational soul in man.

            In future blogs I will aid understanding in regards to the soul as being immortal and how there is a difference between the soul and the body. That the soul is distinct from the body yet is damaged by the sin of Adam, that original sin, then to show how God acts towards sin, and the salvation of men.

But what I do, I will also continue to do,

            that I may cut off the opportunity

from those who desire an opportunity to be

            reared just as we are in the things

of which they boast. For such are false apostles,

            deceitful workers, transforming themselves

into apostles of Christ.

                                                2Corinthians 11:12–13

Study God’s Word: Beware There Are False Teachers

Richard L. Crumb