(This article also includes a podcast discussion. Click the play button below, or subscribe and listen on your Apple or Google podcast app.)
Today we continue our look at where the soul comes from. While Part 1 looked at a theory that is largely rejected, this one may be the most commonly held belief in Christianity. Let’s talk about the creation of souls.
Creationism
This one is incredibly straightforward. The basic idea is that when an embryo is created (or perhaps when a baby is born, if someone doesn’t believe the unborn are human), God creates a soul and places it in that physical body. Thus, God is the creator and giver of life by creating and giving us our souls.
(A quick note: this theory shares a name with the theory that God created everything in the universe. Despite the name similarities, a person can believe God created the universe without believing He creates individual souls.)
Does the Bible support creationism?
This belief was largely held by the early church, and thus it’s no surprise that there is some biblical merit to it.
First, the Old Testament clearly points to God as the originator of the soul.
Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)
Here, we see a two-part aspect of man’s creation. Only once the body was formed and God gave him the “breath of life” did Adam begin existing. This breath of life is often understood not as literal breath, but the creation of a soul. Of course, we see other Old Testament writers refer back to this idea as well.
Thus says God the Lord,
Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread out the earth and its offspring,
Who gives breath to the people on it
And spirit to those who walk in it, (Isaiah 42:5)
Just like in Genesis, we see God giving someone their breath (a physical means of existing), as well as their spirit. Again, God is seen as an active participant in a person becoming a complete being.
The burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel. Thus declares the Lord who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, (Zechariah 12:1)
We see even more clearly that God forms the spirit of man. It’s important to point out that the prophets weren’t making a point of where we get our souls. This mention of God creating souls is said with the same amount of “it’s so obvious” as God laying the foundation of the earth. Thus, it seems that the idea of God forming man’s spirit was so obvious to their audience that they don’t even explain themselves.
Some problems with creationism
Despite what is implied in Genesis and the prophets, the Bible doesn’t outright claim that God is actively creating souls today. And if we look deeper, we can certainly find some issues with the idea of each soul being created and placed by God.
Problem 1: Does God still create?
First, the Bible is quite clear that God is no longer creating things anymore. In His perfection, God created a scientific principle that we call “conservation of mass,” which simply means that nothing in the universe is created or destroyed. Based on what we observe, what amount of atoms we have in the universe today is the same amount we had when the universe was created. And this makes sense when we consider some other areas of the Bible.
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. (Genesis 2:3)
God spent six days creating, then rested on the seventh. Not that He needed the rest, but did so as an example to His finite creation that we need rest, both physically from our work and spiritually through the coming savior, Jesus Christ.
This is further seen in Hebrews 4:1-11. I’ll share the most relevant parts below, but I’d encourage you to check the entire passage for yourself.
(1) Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it… (3) For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said,
“As I swore in My wrath,
They shall not enter My rest,”
although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. (4) For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”
Here, we see the writer of Hebrews revealing the greater purpose of the Sabbath. Like much of the Old Testament laws, the Sabbath was pointing to our rest in Jesus Christ. He is encouraging believers to stay focused on entering that eternal rest, remaining faithful to the truth of the gospel. There seems to be a definite assumption that God rested from His creation and has created an eternal rest.
All of this works together to imply that God no longer creates anything. He created everything in six days, and upon man’s creation He called it “very good.” By all understanding, He stopped creating after that, quite possibly because everything He wanted to accomplish was done.
Could God still create? Absolutely. However, God seems to be very consistent with how He’s ordered things, and to no longer make anything except souls raises some questions that can’t be answered consistently with the Bible.
Problem 2: Accidental heresy
If God creates souls, then we run into some issues when we consider how sin affects not just our bodies, but our soul as well.
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned (Romans 12:5)
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. (Psalm 51:5)
Along with being accountable for our own personal sins, all humanity carries the guilt of Adam who served as our representative. We are born with the guilt of sin upon us, as David implies in the Psalm. That means that as soon as we’re conceived, we have sin.
This only allows for two possibilities:
- A perfect God creates a sinful soul
- Our soul is perfect upon creation, but becomes tainted by sin as soon as it enters our body
Obviously, most would hold to the second option because God is not the author or creator of sin. When He creates something, He calls it good. So what’s the problem with the second option?
If we believe that, then we must necessarily affirm a heresy that the early church spent a lot of time and energy combating. This belief, called “gnosticism,” was even addressed by the New Testament writers because it was so problematic in the church.
There’s a lot to the belief system, but this is the easiest way to understand it:
- spiritual things are good
- physical things are evil
The reason this caused so many issues is that if Christians truly believed this, then they also had to believe that Christ didn’t come in human form, but merely appeared to be human. After all, how could a good God taint Himself by allowing His pure spirit to be corrupted by inhabiting a physical body? Thus whenever you see a New Testament writer talking about Christ’s physical body, it’s often because they have to debunk this terrible belief.
That brings us back to the soul. If we believe that God creates a pure and sinless soul that is corrupted as soon as it enters our bodies, then we are saying that physical things are evil and spiritual things are good. We believe that sin only affects the physical realm, while the spiritual realm remains pure and untouched as long as it stays separated. By affirming that God creates our souls, we must be consistent an also affirm an ancient heresy that undermines the very person of Jesus Christ.
Final thoughts on creationism
This belief is still widely held today by men and women who love God and His truth. Believing that God creates souls doesn’t mean someone believes in heresy – they just have some very difficult questions to answer. And, if we’re honest, they’re likely questions the person hasn’t even considered. Arguing that God creates souls requires us to answer whether God is still creating things today, and why a good God’s creation is corrupted as soon as it enters a body. It’s certainly a popular belief, but Christians are very aware that being “popular” and being “right” aren’t always the same thing.
In the next article, we’ll conclude with a third theory that many have never heard of, but holds a unique perspective that answers the questions that creationism struggles with.
Check out part 1 and part 3 of this series
[Originally published 1-2-20]
