For the time will
come when they
will not endure sound
doctrine,
but according tot
heir own desires,
because they have
itching ears,
they will heap up for
themselves teachers;
and they will turn
their ears away
from the truth, and
be turned
aside to fables.
But you be watchful
in all things,
endure afflictions,
do the work
of an evangelist,
fulfill your ministry.
2Timothy 4:3–5
Paul
was instructing Timothy about what he could expect and what he was to do as a
Christian who could be affected by those with undesirable intentions. Those
intentions often are to have power over those they teach or to whom they preach
by using “happy” words, those good sounding to the soul words that scratch
their itching ears. Don’t think that God who had Paul instruct Timothy and by
His inspiration to Paul to write those words did not intend them to be for all
Christians. Be watchful, and fulfill your ministry; this does not mean to be
just a pastor, or Bible teacher, as in an educational institution, no, you have
a ministry, and this ministry is what is commanded by God for all His children.
Yet, they are and have been from the beginning of Christianity those who teach
what God has not revealed. What we need is to be taught sound doctrine, that
is, doctrine that is founded upon Scripture, not Scripture misused, rather for
Scripture to be taken as it was written, for what was written came from God.
Man has attempted to make Scripture prove his presuppositions. For instance:
Jehovah Witness do not believe that the soul is that which God has given to man
by creating for man his soul which is life itself and is able to be influenced
by the actions of man. No, they believe that the soul, or Spirit of God is
nothing more than a supernatural power of God which will return to God upon the
death of a person. The Bible does not teach this as the soul that is sinning it
will die, yes, the soul will die, as does the man who is endowed by God with a
soul dies as well and the soul is alive and if the person is a Christian will
live with God until the return of Jesus Christ at His second coming: “And I
saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them, then I
saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for
the word of God, who had not worshipped the beast or his image, and had not
received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and
reigned with Christ for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4–5). Some would
only admit that this verse relates to those who were beheaded, and as to the
word in Greek it is the word for an axe in the act of chopping, or in English;
beheaded, but this also means truncation, that is a being cut off from the
sentence, or life, and this was as a witness for God, as the Greek word which
we use; martyr and we use it to mean someone killed, which is not wrong but
does not carry the actual meaning, for the word is witness, a person is killed
for being a witness for God and this witness must follow sound doctrine, if
not, then he is following after Satan, the beast, and if you say that you are
not following Satan, or the beast, then are you following after his image? His
image can include the teachings that are not Scriptural, that are not sound
doctrine. We must be watchful, and this is a major thrust of this blog.
Therefore,
the object of this blog is not to arrive at some certainty that is not clearly
revealed in Scripture, nor can I explain from all sides that which is to be
admitted inscrutable, but to give aid to us as watchmen so that we guard
against the adoption of principles that are in opposition to what is plainly
and clearly taught in the Bible and are important doctrines of God. So, what
have we learned? Those who hold to preexistence of the soul, as do Mormon, or
that the soul is only a power but has not personality, such as do Jehovah
Witnesses, and the Traducianists who teach that the soul is numerical and is
divided among all the progeny of parents and it is the nature of parents that
is in operation in the physical element of man, that like begets like and even
though some would admit that there is some operation by God to attended and
control life, either direct or creative, this is not taught in Scripture.
Creationists do not teach that God does not exercise his creative power in the
production of the human soul any differently that He does in the production of
life in other cases. What creationists teach and deny is that the soul is not
capable of division and that all souls are only a numerical division of the
same essence for this would make Jesus Christ a sinner for He would then be the
same essence as Adam. If this be true then how would be able to accept that the
death of Jesus Christ was a propitiation sacrifice that paid the debt owed to
God? We would not and this is not what is taught in Scripture. God by His
creative power supplies to man the soul, as was done when God planted His
Wisdom, Jesus Christ, in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Jesus was not tainted by
the sin of Adam, His soul was not fouled by sin and by this He could be the true
and acceptable payment by His death after living a sinless life on this earth
as man, a soul, the One who had both the essence of man and the essence of God,
a hypostatic union, God and man in one body. Thank God for this for now all
those whom He chooses are saved by the intercession made for us by Jesus
Christ.
Next though
I must undertake the subject of what is the soul? This is an interesting
subject and an important one for us to understand original sin.
Oh, let the wickedness of the
Wicked come
to an end,
But establish the just; for the righteous
God tests
the hearts and minds.
My defense is of God, who saves the
Upright in
heart.
Psalm 7:9–10
Put Your Trust In God
Richard L. Crumb
