WE can not hold too closely to the conviction of our fathers, that our being, as man, is not tripartite, but bipartite. We do not consist of body, soul and spirit, but bipartite of body and soul.
Neither must it be said, that an unreborn man consists merely of soul and body, but that the reborn sinner obtained a third something, to wit, a spirit. For what we become partakers of in regeneration is not a human spirit, but God’s Spirit, Who then is said to dwell in us, so that we are God’s temple. Moreover, in Holy Scripture it is not only said of those who have been endowed with grace, but also of the lost, that they are spirits. Of the elect we read, that “the spirits of just men made perfect” (Hebr. 12, 23) are with God, but likewise in 1 Peter 3, 19 that “the spirits which are in prison,” were lost by reason of their disobedience.
Thus all the dead are called spirits, those who died in Jesus, as well as those who in their dying did not have Jesus.
And these same dead are also called souls. Do we not read in Rev. 6, 9: “I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God.” Also in Rev. 20, 4: “I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus.”
Yet for this reason soul and spirit do not express the same thing.
When the invisible of our being must be expressed, in distinction from our visible body, it is almost always called soul, and almost never spirit.
If on the other hand it must be expressed, how from our invisible life, independently of the body, power, action, life goes out, then spirit is the most-telling word.
He who was dead in sin, had then in higher sense no spirit in him. And he whose soul from that death in sin was made alive, is called a spiritual man, partly because he is led by the Spirit, partly because the life of his soul has come to its true action.
This had to be observed here, because especially from all sorts of German books the real-German representation, as though a man consists of body, soul and spirit, has of late also found entrance among us, and especially by means of the schools.
We, however, must abide by what Jesus said: “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, but can not kill the soul, but fear far more Him, Who can cast soul and body into hell” (Luke 12, 4).
Thus alone soul and body.
But when it must be expressed, that that soul wakes up to higher consciousness, to sanctified power, the word spirit is employed.
Therefore the Word of God, as a two-edged sword pierces even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit (Hebr. 4, 12), and the prayer ascends, that the God of peace preserve blameless the altogether upright spirit and soul and body unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 5, 23).
THIS is also of application to our dead.
When they appear passive, as victims of persecution, they are called: “the souls of them that have been killed.” But when they are spoken of as those who live by faith, they are called: “the spirits of just men made perfect.” Or when they are spoken of as continuing in their unbelief, they are called “the spirits that are in prison.”
This lies in the word itself.
When the Queen of Sheba stands confused by reason of the wealth of Solomon’s kingship, it is said, “that there was no more spirit in her.” Angels in their active service are called spirits. Also demons when by their evil power they hold a human soul in restraint, are called spirits. He who dies, i.e., he whose activity ceases, is said “to give up the spirit.” Spirit literally means: blowing, i.e., the going out of power that was at first in hiding.
So we call a person small-souled, pitiful, one who sits down passively, and from whom no action goes out, and on the other hand a “man full of spirit,” one who by wondrous activity announces himself.
Even in the Holy Spirit lies this idea of action. Therefore one is spoken of as “full of power and of the Holy Ghost,” one who is full of power by the Holy Spirit.
Hence it is wrong, when one speaks of his dead as souls. For this carries the impression of a will-less, powerless existence, without initiative of one’s own and without exhibition of power.
When on the other hand we speak of “the spirits of just men made perfect,” we receive an altogether opposite impression.
Spirits are beings, in whom something presses and urges and impels, and who thereby are capable of highest activity.
That this activity with our dead does not go out from their body, but from their soul alone, speaks for itself.
And yet to represent them to ourselves in action, as at work in the work of God, we must not think of them as souls, but as spirits, who are blessed in the service of their God.
HEREWITH, however, we stumble upon an almost insuperable difficulty.
For in life here on earth no single act or utterance of will or transaction is thinkable, except through or with the help of the body. How, then, can we think of deeds and activities in our dead, after they have been separated from their body, and continue to be deprived of their body until Jesus’ return?
He who faints, can at that moment not do anything, because he lost power over his body.
When in sleep the operation of the soul upon the body is reduced to almost nothing, we may dream, and in those dreams enjoy ourselves or suffer anxiety, but when presently we wake, that world of dreams dissolves itself into nothing, and the night lies back of us as so much lost time.
It is very possible, even probable, that in sleep certain development goes on in our spirit, but at waking we do not sense in the least, that we did this ourselves, and nothing gives us the impression that we personally in sleep have advanced our spirit.
If it appears that in sleep we have obtained clearer, deeper insight into something, we are under the grateful impression, that God has done this, while we slept; not that we ourselves in sleep have thought out or continued our study.
Without the body we are not active.
This even goes so far that our whole world of thought, the whole world of our representations is not clear to us otherwise, than through what our body with its organs of sense observes in the outside world.
Yea even the language which we speak is virtually constructed altogether from representations, which are borrowed from the outside world of visible things.
Feeling is derived from the sense of touch, grasping (understanding) from grasping with the hand.
When with the body everything that belongs to it falls away from us, together with everything that coheres with the visible world, by itself it is absolutely inexplicable, how the spirits of the dead have anything left wherewith to think, to represent to themselves, to will, let alone to do.
AS a rule there is little thought devoted to this condition of the dead. This avenges itself with a vagueness of idea regarding life after death. And with this he who takes eternal life seriously, can have no lasting peace.
No language which to speak, no visible world from which to borrow images and representations, from which to form ideas, thus also memory torn from its connection with life, how then is clear consciousness, how the choosing of an object, how a direction of strength to that object, how especially coöperation with others to attain that object thinkable?
Altogether questions, which simply will not allow themselves to be dismissed, and which call for solution.
You have read of “innate ideas.” In that form surely a false notion. But is there no deep truth fundamental to this?
Think of the millions and millions that are carried from the cradle to the grave, which thus never have spoken human language, which never have inlived in the visible world, which have never heard of our world of thought. Have all these entered into heaven, knowing nothing, and destined eternally to continue in their absolute unconsciousness and ignorance? And do they, who die in maturity, when they open their eye in eternity, stand on a line with these souls of little ones that know nothing?
Is the heavenly life an idiotic life? It has been called a sleep of soul. But this is not yet strong enough. In sleep there is always yet a partial consciousness in our dreams. Here, then, it would be an idiotic condition.
Or is the life of consciousness on earth, which then passes away, suddenly superseded by an altogether other consciousness, which has nothing in common with our life here on earth, neither has anything to do with it?
In that case every relation between life here and life above falls away, and in turn it can not be understood, how our Mediator, in our flesh in the Sanctuary serves in our behalf at the altar of reconciliation, and prays for us. Now look at an altogether different series of thoughts, and at once a surprising light will rise upon you.
The world, before it was created, was in God from eternity. In His Divine Plan. In the Counsel of His will.
Only by Creation does the world enter upon reality, while in the life of God’s consciousness it was from the beginning.
Now we, and thus also the life of our human consciousness, are created after the Image of God. Hence there must be relation and coherence between the germ of our consciousness, and the creaturely world in which God has realized His eternal thoughts.
No “innate ideas,” for ideas originate from reflection. But the background of our consciousness can not be empty, but must be the creaturely reflection of the world of thought, of the life of consciousness in God.
Representations, images, means of language taken from this visible world, must be adaptable to our human consciousness, for the reason that in that visible world God realizes His own thought, and has implanted in us a copy of His Divine consciousness.
If now, as takes place in dying, you take away that middle-link of the visible world, you become again as a little child, and from the root of your own life of consciousness there works up again, what as bearer of the Image of God and thus also of the image of the Divine consciousness you possess, and that rich content then unfolds itself in harmony with that high world in which you opened your eye.
So then he who from the cradle was carried to the grave is of like condition with him who died in later life. grave is of like condition with him who died in later life.
The whole mystery lies in what Jesus so frequently and with so much emphasis put into the foreground: “You must become as the little child, and then you will see the glory of God.”
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