(This article also includes a podcast discussion. Click the play button below, or subscribe and listen on your Apple or Google podcast app.)
One of the most popular articles I’ve written is my series on where we get our soul, which I’ve also recently discussed on my podcast. Listeners have shown interest in digging more into the human soul, and I’m here to help navigate any interesting or confusing topic that God’s people want to learn about. So let’s start talking about whether we are:
- Bodies
- bodies and souls
- bodies, souls, and spirits
- Or… something else
I’ll start with the one that most biblical readers won’t hold to, although it’s important to understand because of its popularity in a variety of cults, false religions, and even genuine Christians. Then we’ll talk about whether we have three parts, two parts, and then conclude with a fourth option that most may not have considered.
Are humans just natural bodies? Is Monism biblical?
There are two ways we can look at being only natural bodies without a separate spiritual component. The first is that if someone doesn’t believe in a spiritual realm, it only makes sense that our bodies would likewise only be made up of natural components. This approach doesn’t need too much discussion within a Christian context, though living in an increasingly atheistic culture may help us explain why the second idea is growing in mainstream Christianity.
The second idea is called “monism,” which believes that human beings are still only physical creatures while living alongside a spiritual realm. It’s tempting to dismiss this outright because we’re confident that the Bible couldn’t possibly support it. However, biblical interpretations don’t last long if they aren’t at least someone convincing. And considering this has been the teaching of Jehovah’s Witnesses for over 100 years, not to mention many others who believe it, we must understand why someone could think this way.
[A heads up to the reader: I’ll be writing this from the perspective of someone who believes this to present a balanced and fair explanation. After this, I’ll explain why Monism isn’t biblical.]
#1 The word “soul” isn’t a spiritual thing
The first evidence is the Hebrew word nephesh, which we see over 600 times in the Old Testament. This word is often translated as “soul,” although the original word has a much more robust use throughout the Bible. The main problem with the translators using the literal term “soul” instead of how it’s used in the context is that it lets us add our assumptions to the word “soul.”
Really, nephesh is better used to discuss either a living being or the “seat of our emotions.” But, as we’ll see, we run into some problems if we translate the word to mean the spiritual component of a person.
Let’s look at some examples.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7, KJV)
Here, we see that man is composed of two things: matter and breath. It doesn’t say here that God gave man a soul, but that he became a soul. In other words, this living soul was made of the physical, not the spiritual. We see God make other souls during creation as well.
And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” (Genesis 1:20)
If you consult an English/Hebrew translation, you’ll see that the word “creatures” is actually nephesh, the same word used to describe Adam as a “living soul.” Here, we see it accurately describe a living creature, just like we do in Genesis 1:21, 24, 30 (everything that has life).
If these two are the same things, it’s better to understand a soul as anything with a heartbeat.
But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. (Genesis 9:4)
Here, we see it laid out that nephesh, the soul, is found in the blood. Again, we see that our souls simply refer to our physical being.
#2 The heresy of the soul
I’ve discussed an ancient heresy called Gnosticism quite a bit on my blog and podcast. The essential idea is that there is a fight for good and evil in the universe. Evil is found in all physical material, while good is found in the spiritual realm. Thus, according to ancient Greeks, humans find themselves in a constant war as their pure souls try to overcome their evil bodies.
The apostles found themselves regularly fighting this heresy within the church. Unfortunately, it wasn’t stamped out completely, and we see evidence of this “dual nature of man” in Christianity today.
Modern teaching says humans are made of two things: a soul and a body (and maybe a spirit, but we’ll get to that in future articles). It claims that our eternal destiny is to be released from our bodies so that our spiritual selves can spend eternity with God in Heaven.
However, a study of Revelation shows that our eternal destiny isn’t Heaven. The focus is always on Christ’s literal, earthly kingdom and a perfect new Earth where we will live for eternity.
In none of this is there any room for the idea that we’re waiting around for our earthly vessels to die so that our souls can be released to God. Instead, this is all a holdover from an ancient heresy.
#3 The “soul sleep”
The Bible often talks about believers “sleeping,” such as 1 Corinthians 15:6. This is because when we die, our consciousness ends until Christ resurrects our bodies. It will be like falling asleep on a trip and waking up at our destination.
For Sheol does not thank you; death does not praise you; those who go down to the pit do not hope for your faithfulness. (Isaiah 38:18)
We see this same idea in the Psalms or Ecclesiastes 9:5. The biblical writers made no mention of an afterlife but instead spoke of the grave as an end of our consciousness.
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, (Hebrews 9:27)
We also see a sequence of events. Our experience will be that we die, then we are resurrected for judgment. There’s no mention here of anyone hanging out in Heaven or Hell in between these events.
I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. (Philippians 1:23)
Though this seems to support a spiritual visit to Heaven, it fits better with the idea that it would be Paul’s experience to be with Christ after death because that would be what he’d see next. Thus, Paul dying didn’t mean that he’d immediately be with Christ in Heaven, but that after death, he would see Him when Paul was “woken up” for the resurrection.
A quick summary
Monism rests on the idea that “soul” is often mistranslated or poorly understood in the Bible since the word describes physical existence. Our modern understanding allegedly starts with a Hellenistic (Greek) heresy called Gnosticism. And with this understanding, we won’t be conscious between our death and the resurrection.
Why Monism isn’t biblical
Those are the more persuasive arguments I’ve heard from groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses. We could explore each point deeper, but that is the core idea behind the belief. So does the whole Bible truly agree with this idea?
The most significant problem with this interpretation comes down to flawed assumptions.
Assumption #1 – Weak translation doesn’t mean a poor teaching
Biblical translation is a long and tricky subject. There’s so much more that goes into it than simply replacing a Hebrew word with a Greek one. Some translations, like the King James Version, will translate a word in isolation. However, as our interpretation methods have improved and we’ve gained access to older manuscripts, more modern translations have translated words like nephesh according to the surrounding context (see Genesis 2:7 in various translations to see what I mean).
However, just because the English translation of “soul” isn’t always appropriate doesn’t mean our entire understanding of a spiritual soul is false.
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:9-10)
Here we see the souls of dead martyrs crying out for justice.
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? (Matthew 16:26)
Christ shows how our love of the world can come at the expense of our eternal destiny.
Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. (3 John 1:2)
Although this is just a friendly greeting, there is still a casual distinction between physical and soul health.
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)
If body and soul are the same things, then we shouldn’t fear those who can destroy the body, but rather fear Him who can destroy both body and body.
We can look at individual verses and see why the word “soul” may not be the best translation of a word, but we can’t escape the fact that the entirety of God’s word discusses us as both physical and spiritual beings.
Assumption #2 – Similarities don’t mean origins
First, I will grant that modern Christianity is still impacted by Gnosticism in how we think of the body and soul as opposing parts of ourselves. This is easily seen by how many are waiting to be released from the physical world so they can spend an eternity in a spiritual Heaven, despite the Bible’s clear teaching of an eternity in our new bodies.
However, we get our belief about the body and soul from the Bible, not an ancient Greek philosophy. We can point to Scripture to see why some of Gnosticism’s impact doesn’t line up with what’s revealed about things like eternity, but we can’t do that with the distinction of our physical and spiritual components.
Assumption #3 – The Bible isn’t a textbook
The Bible says the Earth has four corners and other things that support a flat Earth. The woman in Song of Solomon was apparently made by Dr. Frankenstein. Psalm 113:3 and Luke 1:78 teach that the Earth is the center of the universe because the sun “rises.”
So many false and misguided beliefs exist because we want to treat the Bible like a science textbook or rules manual. We ignore things like poetic language and an author’s intent behind their words. When we don’t understand how to read the Bible well, we can make the text say anything.
When the Bible talks about people “sleeping,” we need to ask ourselves why the writer is saying it. Does it clearly contradict other clear teachings? Are they being literal, or using poetic language in the same way we talk about a metaphor going over someone’s head or people having “hearts of gold”?
In addition to Revelation 6:9-10, we see the clear assumption of our souls being aware between our death and resurrection.
And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)
Christ talks about the thief on the cross being with Him after death.
Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. (Luke 23:46)
Shortly after talking to the thief, Christ talks about His spiritual part continuing after His physical death.
There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores (Luke 16:19-20 [full story goes through v. 31])
The story of the rich man and Lazarus gives us a fascinating look at what the afterlife was like for those who died before Christ paid the price for their sin. We call this a true story instead of a parable because Christ used an actual person’s name rather than “a rich man and a poor man.” Thus, we take this as a true story of how people’s souls continued after their death.
On their own, verses discussing “soul sleep” seem to clearly teach that we don’t continue after death. However, when compared with other verses that show that we do continue to be aware, it becomes clear that the authors are using sleep as a metaphor for death not being permanent.
Final thoughts
It’s clear from a zoomed-out look at the Bible that the body and soul are discussed separately. Human beings are physical, yes, but also spiritual.
In terms of understanding what human beings are made of, Monism is by far the weakest when it comes to biblical support. It has some merit but relies too heavily on assumptions and poor interpretations to be believed.
We’re now left with three other options: humans are body/soul/spirit, body/soul, or a mystery option. Out of those, the next article will discuss the one with the least biblical support (though perhaps the most widespread belief).
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