A soul with a body, not a body with a soul.

[soma]

Our soul is the deep connection with God and the experience that shows us the presence and power of God's pure consciousness everywhere around us. The soul knows that we are a part of God that there is one life, the life of God and that life is ours. The soul gives us oneness with the blissful qualities of guidance and inspiration, and it inspires and gives us a clear sense of inner peace and guidance. We are not separate from our soul; we are the soul. This great unity, this oneness with God is greater than the mind and is the source and originator of everything around us. In evolution the processes unfold with order and constancy, giving evidence of a guiding consciousness within life so by recognizing the presence of this guidance we see the creative power of God in us and in nature. The soul is everywhere and can be experienced as support and encouragement that is why the artist and the scientists draw upon it for inspiration. Contemplation of the soul is always available to us to help us find meaning and purpose in life.
The soul is a garden that gives many experiences of peace, where there is beauty and tranquility, where there is no separate identity. This garden offers a larger opening to the same sky that is seen by everyone, where the beauty and grandeur of that sky can be enjoyed with a wider window. The soul invites you to look through a bigger opening at a more beautiful life. This hidden garden of ecstasy is not in any particular country or in some private area away from civilization. It lies within each one of us so we just have to find the keys to open the gates. The keys are hidden in the layers of the mind in our experiences, agonies and ecstasies. Listen with thought to the inner voice to properly understand what to do because your intuition is a key to find, enter and live in this heavenly kingdom. When you enter the garden, you will see the river of life skipping down to the sea. Every obstacle causes the water to dance, every waterfall roars with excitement and every bend brings new enjoyments. The garden has one purpose and that is to show you the totality of life, and the river’s aim is to merge with the ocean of pure consciousness. When one finds the river merging with the ocean, one can see Jesus walking on the waters on the ocean of pure consciousness.

http://thinkunity.com

 

[John Debaptist]

According to the bible the dead know nothing.

Ecclesiastes 3:

19] For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts; for all is vanity.
[20] All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
[21] Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down to the earth?

The belief in a soul is alien to the Bible. A true Bible based Christian belives that the dead are asleep and awaiting the resurrection when Jesus Christ will come.

The the word which describe soul in the hebrew language is Nephesh and it means air or breath. The greek word for soul=is Pneuma. This word also means breath or air. The word which confuses most people into believing that a soul is a spirit is the latin word Spiritus which also means soul or breath. As you can see that in the Hebrew and Greek of the Bible the word soul means air or breath of life. When a child is born he sometimes comes out of the mother without breathing but then he gets a little slap on the bottom and then he infuses the breath of life. When a person dies the process is reversed he or she loses the breath of life or air within them and the body returns to dust. The only hope for that person is the resurrection from the dead when Jesus will come.

 

[michel]

Hi John,


As I notice that this is your first time on here, I thought I would take the opportunity to Welcome you to Religious Forums;



I hope that you would feel able to introduce yourself to the other members of the forum, by posting on:- Are you new to ReligiousForums.com?



Please feel free to ask questions, if you have any. You might like to check out our article with links for our newer members; from there, there is also a link to the forum rules which you ought to look at.

I hope you will enjoy being on this forum, and look forward to seeing your posts.

http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=21

 

[Scuba Pete]

Interesting. For a belief that has no concept of "soul" they sure use it a lot! I found 136 references to "soul" in both the Old and New Testaments. Here is a link from www.BibleGateway.com:

http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?search=soul&version1=31&searchtype=all&limit=none&wholewordsonly=no

Maybe that will help you to understand just how important the concept of the soul is to judeo-christian theology.

 

[Katzpur]

According to the bible the dead know nothing.

Ecclesiastes 3:

19] For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts; for all is vanity.
[20] All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
[21] Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down to the earth?

The belief in a soul is alien to the Bible. A true Bible based Christian belives that the dead are asleep and awaiting the resurrection when Jesus Christ will come.

The the word which describe soul in the hebrew language is Nephesh and it means air or breath. The greek word for soul=is Pneuma. This word also means breath or air. The word which confuses most people into believing that a soul is a spirit is the latin word Spiritus which also means soul or breath. As you can see that in the Hebrew and Greek of the Bible the word soul means air or breath of life. When a child is born he sometimes comes out of the mother without breathing but then he gets a little slap on the bottom and then he infuses the breath of life. When a person dies the process is reversed he or she loses the breath of life or air within them and the body returns to dust. The only hope for that person is the resurrection from the dead when Jesus will come.

Hello, John.

Welcome to the forum!

I've got to disagree with your premise here. First off, I don't see the verses from Ecclesiastes as in any way implying that the dead know nothing. I see them as essentially stating that, in terms of the spirit leaving the body at death, humans and animals are alike. None of these verses describes the state of the spirit after death. Certainly they don't say that the spirit ceases to exist.

The scriptures describe Jesus' visit to the Spirit Prison during the three days His body lay in the tomb. He taught His gospel to the spirits who waited there. It makes little sense that He would have preached to them had they been unable to hear His words, understand His message and accept it. These were dis-embodied spirits, but they were alive and they were congnizant entities.

I'm not sure what you mean when you use the phrase "Bible-based Christian." My guess is that you are a Jehovah's Witness, since your beliefs sound like the JWs. Personally, I'm a Christ-based Christian, and I believe my spirit is eternal. When it entered into my body at my birth, I became a living soul. When it leaves my body at my death, it will continue to exist in another realm. When it returns to my new, perfected body at my resurrection, I will again be a living soul. But this time, I will be immortal. I will never be able to die again.

Kathryn

 

[michel]

According to the bible the dead know nothing.

Ecclesiastes 3:

19] For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts; for all is vanity.
[20] All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
[21] Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down to the earth?

The belief in a soul is alien to the Bible. A true Bible based Christian belives that the dead are asleep and awaiting the resurrection when Jesus Christ will come.

The the word which describe soul in the hebrew language is Nephesh and it means air or breath. The greek word for soul=is Pneuma. This word also means breath or air. The word which confuses most people into believing that a soul is a spirit is the latin word Spiritus which also means soul or breath. As you can see that in the Hebrew and Greek of the Bible the word soul means air or breath of life. When a child is born he sometimes comes out of the mother without breathing but then he gets a little slap on the bottom and then he infuses the breath of life. When a person dies the process is reversed he or she loses the breath of life or air within them and the body returns to dust. The only hope for that person is the resurrection from the dead when Jesus will come.

Apart from the point that netDoc makes, I believe we do all have a spirit; I would refer you to another part of Ecclesiastes;


Ecclesiastes

12:6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
​

12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Defenders Notes

In accord with the primeval curse, the body returns to the dust from which it was formed (Genesis 3:17-19).
​

The spirit of the one who dies, however, does not die. The molecules of the body disintegrate back to their basic elements, but the spirit lives on. The spirit was sent from God into the body in the first place, and thus is still under His control when the body dies.

So would you not accept that the word spirit here is in fact the same as the word Soul ?