spirit in man

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Spirits – Made by God in Light

What is spirit?  Spirit is non-material essence.  Merriam-Webster Dictionary shows fourteen definitions for “spirit”.  The first two are: “An animating or vital principle held to give life to physical organisms; a supernatural being or essence.”  Scientific theories regarding aether, vacuum energy, neutrinos, which some relate to “spirit”, won’t be discussed here.  This topic mostly discusses supernatural spirit beings.

God is Spirit.  Holy.  Jesus said in Jn.4:24, “God is (a) spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth”.  Father God is Self-Existent spirit.  God isn’t physical matter.  No physical object or image can adequately depict God.  The Godhead or God Family is spirit essence…invisible (1Ti.1:17), ethereal.  2Co.3:17 “The Lord is that Spirit.”  The ascended Jesus is spirit at His Father’s right hand in heaven (He.1:3).  In Lk.24:39, Jesus said that a spirit being doesn’t have flesh and bones.

God is Light.  1Jn.1:5 “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”  Jesus said in Jn.8:12, ”I Am the Light of the world”.  cf. Jn.12:46.  The Old Testament (OT) prophecy quoted in the New Testament (NT) Mt.4:16 refers to Jesus. “The people who sat in darkness [in Galilee] saw a great light.”  1Ti.6:16 God dwells on His heavenly throne in brilliant light which physical human eyes cannot behold or approach.  (Also see the topics “Godhead in Prehistory” and “Jesus Is God…Jesus Has a God”.)

Psalm 104, written by David, is about God’s Creation.  Ps.104:1-3 Septúagint/LXX “Bless the Lord. You are very great. Who robes Thyself with Light [Ge.1:3] as with a garment; spreading out the heaven [Ge.1:8] as a curtain.”  Compare the Creation account sequence in Ge.1:1-8.  After Light was brought forth, lesser spirit beings were then made.

God makes His angels spirits.  After Light, continuing with Ps.104:4 LXX, “Who makes His angels spirits”.  The angelic order is composed of spirit beings.  Cambridge Bible “It is clear that the spiritual nature of angels isn’t in question here.”  He.1:7 of the NT quotes the Ps.104:4 LXX “angels”.

God’s heavenly host includes angels.  Ne.9:6 “You are the Lord, who has made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host. The host of heaven worships You.”  Cambridge Bible Ne.9:6 “Most probably means the created spirits.”  Benson Commentary “All the inhabitants of heaven.”  Poole Commentary “The angels, who are so called.”  Ps.148:2-4 “Praise Him, all His angels; Praise Him, all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon; all stars of light! Praise Him, highest heavens!”  Angelic voices on high praise the Lord.  At Jesus’ human birth, in Lk.2:13 the heavenly host was seen extolling God. “Suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God.”

Angels serve as messengers, agents, and helpers. They can make themselves visible to man as need be, appearing as humans.  The writer to the Hebrews admonished in He.13:2, “Don’t neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for some have entertained angels without knowing it”.

The Hebrew term rendered angel in our OT is maláwk, Strongs h4397.  It means messenger.  The term malawk occurs over 200 times in the OT.  It also refers to human messengers and the Messenger of YHVH.  (see “Michael in the Bible”. The only archangel so-named in scripture is Michael, Jude 1:9.)

The Greek term for angel in the LXX and NT is aggelos g32 (pronounced ángelos).  It occurs 185 times in the NT.  It can also refer to human messengers. (e.g. Ge.32:3 LXX, and John the Baptizer in Mt.11:10.)

The Lord Christ shared in the Creation.  Col.1:16 “By Him [Christ the Son] all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, rulers or authorities.”  The Creation includes the heavenly host of beings, normally not visible to human eyes.  JFB Commentary “Invisible – the world of spirits.”  Barnes Notes “The angels we cannot see. Inhabitants of distant worlds we cannot see.”  Gill Exposition “Angels were made by him, Heb.1:7; and, as the Jewish writers say, on the 2nd day of the creation, though some say on the 5th.”  Benson Commentary Col.1:16 “The different orders of angels, both those that stood and those that afterward fell.”

According to Jn.1:1-14, Jesus was the primordial Word or Lógos (Greek) of God.  Jn.1:3-9 “The Word was God. All things came into being through Him [Christ the Word/Logos]…That Word was the true Light [g5457].”  “All things” included lesser spirit beings.  Bengel’s Gnomen Jn.1:3 “All things, which are outside of God, were made; and all things which were made, were made by the Logos [Jesus, v.14].”  Expositor’s Greek Testament Jn.1:3 “In 1Cor.8:6 Paul distinguishes between the Father as the primal source of all things and the Son as the actual Creator.”  Christ the Light was Executive Creator.

He.12:9 God is the “Father of spirits”.  Barnes Notes He.12:9 “God is Himself a Spirit [Jn.4:24]. Angels and human souls [or spirits] may be represented as especially His offspring.”  JFB Commentary “God is a spirit Himself, and the Creator of spirits like Himself, in contrast to men who are flesh.”  Meyer’s NT Commentary “God, who is Father in regard to the higher spiritual domain of life.”  Pulpit Commentary “It isn’t human spirits only that are here in view. God is the Father of all ‘the spirits.”

The cherubim (plural) or cherúbs were another class of spirit beings.  Telus.net: Cherubim “Cherubim are spiritual beings.”  They serve as God’s guardians.  The Hebrew term cherub (h3742) occurs 90 times in the OT.  Ge.3:24 God cast Adam & Eve from the garden of Eden, and then stationed cherubim on the east side to guard the way to the Tree of Life.  Scripture doesn’t depict cherubs as chubby human babies with wings flying around!

Ex.25:16-22 Moses was to construct the mercy-seat of God’s Tabernacle with two winged golden cherubs atop the Ark of the Testimony; there the Lord ‘dwelt’ with ancient Israel.  Ellicott Commentary Ge.3:24 “The office of the cherub here is to guard the Paradise [Garden], lest man should try to force an entrance back; and so too the office of the cherubs upon the mercy-seat was to protect it, lest anyone should impiously approach it, except the high-priest on the Day of Atonement.”  In 1Ki.6–8, figures of cherubim were later carved & embroidered (2Chr.3:14) in Solomon’s Temple.  (This wasn’t idolatry.)  In the Greek NT, cheroubim g5502 occurs only in He.9:5.

Ezk.10 is Ezekiel’s vision of cherubs at the Lord’s portable throne.  Ezekiel calls them “living beings”.  Ezk.10:20 LXX “This is the living being [g2226] that I saw below the God of Israel by the river Chobar, and I knew they were cherubs [g5502].”  How did they appear to Ezekiel?  Ezk.1:1, 5 “I was by the river Chebár among the exiles. There were figures resembling four living beings.”  Ezk.1:10 “The likeness of their faces was the face of a human…the face of a lion…an ox…and an eagle.”  Compare the appearance of the four living beings (g2226), but having six wings, that John envisioned at God’s throne in Re.4:6-9…lion, ox, man, flying eagle.  The Nature and Purpose of the Cherubim “These cherubic forms combine the excellencies of these four chiefs of God’s terrestrial creation.”

Winged sphinxes resembled cherubs.  Wikipedia: Sphinx Both the Egyptian and Greek sphinxes “were thought of as guardians, and often flank the entrances to temples.”  An ancient sphinx composite had the head of a human, the paws & tail of a lion, the hind body of an ox, and the wings of an eagle.  Dr. Raanan Eichler What Kind of Creatures Are the Cherubim? “The prevailing opinion is that the cherub is a winged sphinx…such as that depicted on the sarcophagus of the late 2nd-millennium BC Phoenician king Ahíram.”  William Finck Cherubs Are Sphinxes “A sphinx is a variation on a cherub.”

Fiery seraphim (plural), seráphs h8314, were another class of spirit beings.  They’re celestial attendant worshipers of God, having three pairs of wings.  In the OT, seraphs only appear in the vision of Is.6:1-7.

They were around the Lord’s throne, praising. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.”  Then with a glowing coal of fire from the altar, a seraph figuratively purged Isaiah’s unclean lips & iniquity.  Fire purifies.  Ellicott Commentary Is.6:2 “This is the only passage in which the seraphim are mentioned as part of the host of heaven. ‘Burning ones’…with six wings.”  cf. Rev.4–6.  Gill Exposition Re.4:8 “Cherubim…like the seraphim in Is.6:2.”  Nu.21:6-9 Moses made something like a bronze replica of a seraph, and set it on a pole to aid in healing Israelites bitten by serpents.

The watchers (Da.4:13-17, 23) were another group of spirit beings.  They are discussed in the two-part topic “Watchers and Gen. 6 ‘Sons of God”.

Also there were “24 elders” at God’s throne in heaven.  They are mentioned specifically in Re.4:4, 10; 5:8; 11:16; 19:4.  The apostle John envisioned them in Re.4–5.  Re.4:4 “Around the throne were 24 thrones. On the thrones were 24 elders sitting, dressed in white garments, with crowns of gold on their heads.”  Theologians and Bible commentators have put forth various explanations as to their identity.

The elders wear crowns of gold.  Barnes Notes Re.4:4 “These elders…are of a kingly order. They are human beings.”  In the Bible, elders refer to men.  Gill Exposition “In allusion to the 24 courses of the priests, into which they were divided by David [1Ch.24:4-19].”  Re.5:10 Young’s Literal Translation “And [the Lamb] did make us to our God kings and priests.”  They were as a royal priesthood (ref 1Pe.2:9).

Compellingtruth.com “Information in scripture most likely identifies these 24 elders as representatives of the church.”  Expositor’s Greek Testament Re.4:4 “Heavenly beings, angelic figures corresponding to the ‘thrones’ of Col.1:16. The significance of the doubled 12 has been found in the 12 patriarchs or tribes [of Israel] plus the 12 apostles, or in the 24 classes of the priests.”  Cambridge Bible Re.4:4 “They act as priests in Rev.5:8.”  Pulpit Commentary Re.4:8 lists possible interpretations, including…“The 24 elders represent the great and minor prophets; higher angels – the celestial priesthood”.

Could the 24 elders be redeemed humans who are spirit beings serving on God’s heavenly council or court?  I’ll leave the choice of interpretation to the reader.  (see “Heavenly Host Authorities and Powers”.)

[Aside: Hierarchical angelologies (and demonologies) developed over the centuries in the traditions of Judaism, kabbálah, and medieval Christianity.  That, and other ‘gods’, isn’t discussed here.]

God has given each of us humans our human spirit, the “breath of life” (Ge.2:7).  Is.42:5 God the Lord gives breath to people on earth, “and spirit to those who walk on it”.  Job’s countryman Elihú said in Jb.32:8, “There is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding”.

The human spirit is a vital incorporeal component within our body which imparts consciousness and intellect to our brain.  We are a spirit, dwelling in a physical body on earth.  1Th.5:23 man is made up of “spirit, soul, and body”.

We communicate with God through our spirit.  At conversion, the Holy Spirit (HS) of God joins with our human spirit.  1Co.6:17 “The person who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”  Paul wrote to Timothy in 2Ti.4:22, “The Lord be with your spirit”.  The HS becomes part of our persona.  1Co.3:16 “The Spirit of God dwells in you.”

At physical death, our human spirit is to “return to God who gave it”, Ec.12:7.  The dying Stephen said in Ac.7:59, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”.  (Ja.2:26 “The body without the spirit is dead…our physical body is then a corpse. Also see the topic “Life and Death – for Saints”.)  Php.1:23 Paul said it was better to depart our physical body and “be with Christ” in heaven with a spiritual body (1Co.15:44, 50).

Jesus prepares our heavenly abode for us.  He said in Jn.14:2-3, “I go to prepare a place for you”.  He.12:22-24 dwelling in heaven are the spirits of men (righteous).  Lk.16:22 God’s holy angels will escort our spirit too, returning it to God who gave it…for His disposition and use.  Lk.16:8-9 as the “sons of light”, we’re welcomed into eternal dwellings.  Our spirit returns to the Light.  1Jn.1:5 God is Light [g5457].  Paul/Saul saw it from afar…Ac.9:3 “Suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.”

Jn.3:20-21 those who do truth don’t fear the Light.  But the spirits of those who do evil or are unbelieving are afraid to go to the Light at death, to return to God (Ec.12:7).  They stumbled in darkness (Jn.11:10), not receiving the HS.  These may remain for a time as earthbound spirits (ghosts), stuck.

Those who believe in Jesus and repent of sin won’t abide in darkness (Jn.12:46)!  Ps.36:9 “In Thy Light, we shall see light.”  After death, we shouldn’t fear to return to God…going to the Light!  Trust in His destiny for our human spirit.  God is good (Lk.18:19)!  Medical personnel confirm numerous Near Death Experience (NDE) cases where patients saw the light.

Ja.1:17 God is the “Father of lights [g5457]”.  He made spirit beings, and human spirits (and stars too).  Bengel’s Gnomen Ja.1:17 “He is the Father even of the spiritual lights in the kingdom of grace and glory.”  Pr.20:27 LXX “The spirit of man is a light [g5457] of the Lord.”  Gill Exposition Pr.20:27 “The spirit of man…was a bright and burning light at first, but through sin is become a very feeble one.”

Yet Christians whose human spirit is joined to God’s HS are able to figuratively “shine as luminaries [g5458] in the world” (Php.2:15).  Jesus exhorted the disciples with Him in Jn.12:36, “While you have the Light [g5457], believe in the light, in order that you may become sons of light”.  It’s our destiny too!

Re.22:5 “The Lord God has given them light, and they shall reign forever.”  Col.1:12 Father God “has enabled us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light [g5457].”  Prepared by God, it is the future for our spirits on into eternity…in His heavenly Light!

 

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Life and Death – for Saints

The Christian hope is to live eternally with God!  As our years in the body advance, this hope becomes nearer.  Jesus said in Jn.10:10, “I came that they might have life, and more abundantly”.  Life after death may be better than we thought!  Here we’ll look at scriptures about life and death for the saints.

As we age, most will experience aches & pains in the body.  Yet the future for saved Christians is wonderful!  Ex.23:25-26 the Lord will fulfill the number of one’s days.  We can receive healing in the body until that last illness or the day we take our final breath.  (see the topic “Healing Our Bodies”.)  Pr.9:11 “Years of life will be added to you.”  Ps.48:14 “This is our God forever; He will guide us unto death.”  Is.46:4 “Even to your old age and grey hairs, I will deliver you.”  God sustains us and will give us the abundant life!  Physical death is a time of transition to the afterlife; it isn’t the end of our existence.

Ps.91:16 “With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.”  (The Hebrew term for salvation is yeshúah, Strongs h3444.)  God saves His people.  The Lord gets us out of trouble, in general!  He ‘saves’ us from danger, catastrophe, enemies, sickness, etc…and saves us in the spiritual sense.  God saves us from death.  And the Bible indicates there are (at least) two kinds of death.

One kind of death occurs when we take our last breath.  Our physical body is buried; it decomposes or disintegrates.  God formed the first human from the elements of the earth, breathed life into him, and he became a living soul (Ge.2:7).  The Lord told the first man Adam in Ge.3:19, “You return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. You will return to dust.”  Adam died physically at a very advanced age (Ge.5:5).  David said of God in Ps.103:14, “He is mindful that we are but dust”.  And Ec.12:7 (the reverse of Ge.2:7), “The dust returns to the earth, and the spirit returns to God who gave it”.  (The term for spirit is Hebrew rúach h7307, Greek Septúagint/LXX & New Testament pneúma g4151.)  We breathe our last, our spirit returns to God, our physical body returns to dust or decomposes…this is physical death.

God has given each of us a human spirit, the “breath of life”.  Jb.32:8 “There is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.”  The human spirit is a non-physical component which imparts self-awareness & intellect to our brain.  At physical death, our spirit is to return to God.  Ja.2:26 “The body without the spirit is dead.”  Without our human spirit, our body is just a corpse.  ref Lk.8:53-55 the girl who’d died was a corpse (until Jesus brought back her spirit, which returns to God after death, to her body).  When Adam finally died physically, the human spirit God had initially breathed into him went back to God.  We humans undergo this physical death.  Ps.104:29 “You take away their spirit, they die and return to dust.”  When the Lord takes away our spirit…we expire.  Man’s spirit returns to God for His renascence, re-embodiment, placement or disposition, as He sees fit.

Now let’s look at another kind of death.  When Adam & Eve ate from the wrong tree, they died in another sense.  Mankind is made in the image & likeness of God (Ge.1:26-27).  God said in Ge.2:16-17, “The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in the day you eat from it you shall surely die”.  The serpent deceived Eve (Ge.3:4-7).  When Adam & Eve ate from it and disobeyed God or sinned, they became separated from God spiritually.  That day their spiritual death occurred.  (Their physical death wasn’t until centuries later.)  Ge.3:8 so they hid themselves from God.  Ge.3:24 although they’re made in God’s image…to further separate them from Himself, the Lord banned them from the garden of Eden.  (see the topic “Tree Symbolism in Scripture”.)

Death is a form of separation.  Adam & Eve were separated from God’s Presence and the Tree of Life.  Even if they’d previously eaten some from the Tree of Life while obedient (Ge.2:9, 16), outside the garden they couldn’t continue to eat its fruit…and Adam finally expired at age 930 (Ge.5:5).  Gill Exposition Ge.2:9 “Before Adam sinned there was no prohibition of his eating of it.”  (Perhaps the effect of the Tree of Life was passed down through very long-lived descendants for generations?)

At physical death, one’s human spirit is separated from the physical body.  Spiritual death is separation from God, who is eternal Life.  Is.59:2 “Your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you.”  Sin kills us spiritually, in this sense.

Since Adam & Eve, humans are born spiritually ‘dead’.  David referred to his unborn self, Ps.51:5 “I was shaped in iniquity, in sin my mother conceived me”.  Natural man from birth is spiritually unaware, our eyes ‘blinded’ to spiritual eternal Life (e.g. 2Co.4:4).  Ro.5:12 “Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all, because all sinned.”  Mankind has a proclivity to sin.  Ja.1:15 “When sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”  Separation from God.  Gill Exposition Ja.1:15 “As the first sin of man brought death into the world, brought a spiritual death.”  Orthodox Bible Ge.2:17 “The words ‘you shall die’ indicate a spiritual death through separation from God.”  Spiritual death happened to Adam at the wrong tree; it becomes the common state of humanity.

We were all dead spiritually.  Paul wrote to the saints in Ep.2:5, “We were dead in our transgressions”.  Of course Paul and those he was writing to weren’t dead physically!  Rather, they’d been spiritually dead earlier, while physically alive!  Continuing in Ep.4:18, “Being alienated from the Life of God”.  As Adam & Eve had become alienated from God; separated from the Lord and His Presence.

Jesus said in Mt.8:21-22, “Let the dead bury their dead”.  Jesus expressed two kinds of death here…in other words, let those who are spiritually dead bury their relatives who had died physically.  And in Jesus’ parable of Lk.15:24, 32, the prodigal son had been spiritually dead, while physically alive.  In 1Ti.5:6, Paul wrote of the profligate widow who “is dead even while she lives”.  Spiritually dead, physically alive.  Paul also wrote in Col.2:13, “You were dead in your transgressions”.  The Colossians were physically alive, yet earlier had been spiritually dead by reason of sin.  But not dead forever!

Continuing in Col.2:13 “…He has made you alive together with Him”.  Those Christians were no longer spiritually dead!  1Co.15:22 “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.”  Since Adam, humanity was spiritually dead or separated from God, and also died physically.  But through Jesus and the Holy Spirit (HS), we’re made alive spiritually; there’s no separation from God (though we still die physically).

Peter said in Ac.2:38, “Repent and be baptized, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”.  The HS is Life eternal (He.9:14).  1Co.6:17 “The one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”  It’s a spiritual union.  We become spiritually alive!  Ga.6:8 “The one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.”  Wikipedia “For Paul (as in Ga.6:8), future eternal life arrives as a result of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit during the present life.”  The seed of eternal Life is now within us.

The New Testament (NT) doesn’t describe eternal life in detail.  But it does provide assurance that the saints will receive it.  Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible “The nature of eternal life is only sketched in its essential elements in the New Testament.”  The saved Christian becomes spiritually alive, no longer are we spiritually dead!

John wrote in 1Jn.3:14, “We know that we have passed out of death into life”.  ‘Saved’ Christians are spiritually alive.  1Jn.5:11-12 “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who doesn’t have the Son doesn’t have life.”  The eternal Life made possible by Jesus indwells us.

Jesus said in Jn.8:51, “If anyone keeps My word, he shall never see death”.  Jesus was referring to spiritual death, not physical death.  Of course we all die physically.  Jesus also spoke of Himself as the living bread.  Jn.6:50-51 “One may eat of it and not die. I AM the living bread that came down from heaven.”  Not die spiritually, that is; having the kernel of eternal Life.  Jn.11:26 “Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”  Shall never die spiritually; won’t be separated from God.

Many believe that even Jesus Himself experienced separation from God for a short time on the cross…for our sake!  Mk.15:33-34 “Darkness fell over the whole Land. Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (cf. Ps.22:1)  Jesus knew He’d be resurrected (Mt.20:18-19).  But as Jesus became sin in our stead (2Co.5:21), He was separated from His Father for the only time.  Ga.3:13 “Christ became a curse for us.”  Father God is so holy; He won’t dwell with sin.

God is the Father of spirits (He.12:9).  The Lord gives breath & spirit to His creatures on earth (Is.42:5).  For physical death to occur, man’s spirit departs his body, and returns to God who gave it (Ec.12:7).

Jesus also experienced physical death when He expired on the cross.  At the transfiguration of Lk.9:31, Jesus spoke of His soon departure (g1841) which would take place at Jerusalem.  Later, Jesus said as He died on the cross in Lk.23:46, “Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit’. He breathed His last.”  Jesus’ spirit departed and returned to Father God.  Jn.19:30 “Jesus yielded up His spirit.”

2Pe.1:13-15 elderly Peter said he would soon die physically.  The time was near for his spirit’s earthly tent (his physical body) to be laid aside.  “After my departure (g1841) you may remember these things.”  Peter’s spirit would soon depart his body.  (Ja.2:26 “The body without the spirit is dead.”)

In the last chapter of 2Timothy, Paul’s time to die physically was imminent.  2Ti.4:6 “The time of my departure has come.”  Paul’s spirit would soon depart his physical body, when he expired.  As Peter’s.

Ac.7:54-60 righteous Stephen was stoned to death.  As he died physically, Stephen said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (v.59).  Stephen’s spirit departed when his body “fell asleep”, then decomposed.

At their physical death, the spirit of Peter, of Paul, of Stephen…departed their body and returned to God.  They went to be with Jesus.  Their fleshly body became dust after their spirit separated from it.  But those three, as well as the saints Paul wrote to at Ephesus, Colossae, etc., are made alive in spirit!

Paul wrote in Php.1:21-24, “To live is Christ and to die is gain. To depart and be with Christ is far better.”  Paul’s earthly life became dedicated to Christ’s purposes.  Yet Paul believed Life for him would be better after he died physically, when his spirit consciousness went to be with God and Jesus.

Here’s the final verse of the song, God Knew Your Name, by Jim Likens. “As you gracefully grew old, you know you had been told, God knew your name. And one day when you died, your friends and family cried, God knew your name. And My angels carried your soul [or spirit] to Me, And I said, ‘Welcome home’. You were one of Mine, I loved you for all time, I knew your name.”

Our spirit, returned to God who gave it, is at His disposal as He sees fit.  In Jesus’ parable of Lk.16:19-31, the poor man’s spirit…“was transported by angels to Abraham’s bosom [or Paradise]”.  The rich man’s spirit was placed in Hades, the realm of the dead (v.22-23).  Evidently some of what Jesus spoke in this parable was commonly believed by Jews in the Land, so they were able to understand His point.

Before Jesus left His disciples on earth, He said in Jn.14:2-3, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; I go to prepare a place for you”.  Father God’s house is in heaven, not on earth.  After Jesus died and was resurrected, He was received up into heaven, at His Father’s right hand (Mk.16:19).

Stephen asked of Jesus, “Receive my spirit” (Ac.7:59).  Stephen, Peter, Paul and other saints went to the heavenly dwelling places Jesus prepared for them.  Their spirits returned to God, and would never die!

The writer to the Hebrews wrote in He.12:1, “We have a great cloud of witnesses”.  A most unusual way to identify a group of witnesses!  There’s a “cloud” of saints in the heavens who have gone before us.  Untold numbers of saints had been “caught up in the clouds” prior to the departure of Paul’s spirit consciousness to be “together with them” (1Th.4:17).  Continuing with He.12:22-24, “You have come to…the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the assembly and church of the Firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus”.  Glory to God!  The spirits of the righteous saints in their heavenly dwelling are an innumerable cloud of witnesses!  (cf. Re.7:9-12)

Paul wrote of our body in 1Co.15:44-49, “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. As is the earthy so are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”  All humans have a natural physical body on earth.  The spirits of the righteous, who departed and were received by Jesus, have a spiritual body in the heavens.  The spirits of Stephen, Peter, Paul…are among those witnesses in the “cloud” with spiritual bodies.  (compare the topic, “Rebirth to Physical Life”.)

Paul wrote more of eternal life with God in 2Co.5:1-4. “We know that if our earthly tent is dissolved, we have a house from God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. We long to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling. So that we won’t be naked. While in this tent we groan, not wanting to be unclothed.”  Our earthly body is made by our mother & father, so to speak.  When it dies and dissolves into dust, our spirit returns to God/Jesus.  Our spirit is there “clothed” with our heavenly imperishable spiritual body (1Co.15:42); not mortal physical bodies in heaven.  We don’t live forever as disembodied spirits.  Spiritual bodies are portrayed as being pure and clothed in white (ref Re.3:5, 4:4, 7:9).

Paul continued in 2Co.5:8, “I would rather be absent from the body and be present with the Lord.”  Paul’s preference was to depart his mortal tent here on earth, and go to be at home in his heavenly spiritual body, with the Lord.  (It’s been said that Paul was absent-minded in that regard!)

Greek Bible scholar Spiros Zódiates’ note on 2Co.5:1-10, “Our real self is the spirit within us and not the body. The mortal body is presented as a tent. When death happens we don’t become extinct. We continue to live on. God is building a completely new house for our spirit. It will be identifiable, but not the same. Paul was evidently speaking of his resurrection body.”  It’s a heavenly body for our spirit.

Php.3:20-21 “Our citizenship is in heaven. Jesus Christ will transform our lowly body to conform to the body of His glory.”  We shall be like Jesus (to a lesser degree), in our spiritual bodies.  Cambridge Bible “The saints’ body of glory.”  1Jn.3:2 “We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him just as He is.”  Vincent Word Studies “The manifestation of that glorified state, the revealing of what we shall be.”  Now our physical eyes cannot behold Jesus’ glorified brightness or the appearance of our spiritual body.

{Sidelight: Various eschatological views, the timing of resurrections, other spirits, the underworld…are somewhat related to this topic, but aren’t discussed here.  Also, the interchangeable expressions, “Kingdom of God” and “Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt.19:23-24).  see the topic “Kingdom of God”.}

Cardiologists have revived people who died physically for a brief period of time.  Pronounced dead!  While dead, their spirit left their body, and ‘saw’ the future life.  While dead, they heard conversation of nurses, or viewed streets exterior to the hospital!  As they were revived physically by the cardiologist or medical team, their spirit reentered their body (cf. Lk.8:55).  There are thousands of people who have had near-death experiences (NDE)!  Numerous documented cases are on medical record.

There’s a saying…“A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with just an argument”.

Raymond Edman They Found the Secret, p.33, gives Salvation Army Commissioner Samuel Brengle’s account of his final days at age 76.  Though nearly blind, Brengle ‘saw’ some of the great cloud of witnesses, saints who’d gone on before. “I had sweet fellowship at times in my own room. Saints of all ages congregate there. Moses is present, and gives his testimony, and declares that the eternal God is his refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. Joshua arises, and declares, ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord’. Samuel and David, my dear friends Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel, Paul and John and James, and deeply humbled and beloved Peter, each testifying to the abounding grace of God. Luther and Wesley and the Founder [General William Booth] and Finney, and Spurgeon and Moody, and unnumbered multitudes all testify…Fanny Crosby cries out, ‘Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine’! So you see, I am not alone. Halleluyah forever, and glory to God!”

The 2000 edition of evangelist F.F. Bosworth’s Christ the Healer, contains a concluding chapter written by his son Bob Bosworth, about his father’s passing in 1958 (p.246-7). “About 3 weeks after he took to his bed, we were around the bed talking, laughing and singing. Suddenly Dad looked up; he never saw us again. He saw what was invisible to us. He began to greet people and to hug people; he was enraptured. Every once in a while he would break off and look around saying, ‘Oh, it is so beautiful’. He did this for several hours. Finally, with a smile on his face, he put his head back and slept. We took turns sitting with him. My wife Stella suddenly realized that he’d stopped breathing. There had been no struggle, no sound. The psalmist had described it correctly; God had simply removed his breath and he was home! ‘O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?’ [Ho.13:14 LXX, 1Co.15:55]  This is the testimony and ultimate triumph of F.F. Bosworth.”

Death and the grave are defeated!  1Co.15:54 “When this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.” (cf. Is.25:8)  For saints who’ve received and been led by the Holy Spirit, Life with a heavenly body will be abundantly satisfying and pain-free for all eternity!  To God be the glory!

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Tri-unity of God

In the English language, the word “God” is customarily used for Deity.  Is.43:10 “Declares YHVH, ‘Before Me there was no God formed, neither will there be after Me.”  Only the true God is Divine.

The true God is a uniplural Being.  Yet the God-kind is one/unified (echád Strongs h259, Hebrew).  De.6:4 “YHVH our God, YHVH is one [echad h259].”  However, Adam & Eve were to be one in Ge.2:24. “A man shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be one [echad h259] flesh.”  The two of them were one, echad!  Ezr.2:64 “The whole assembly united as one [echad h259] man was 42,360.”  In this verse, 42,360 souls were as one!  So we see the term echad/one is numerically plural in these verses.

The Hebrew term yachíd (h3173) meant absolute oneness, sole, or the one and only.  In the Old Testament (OT), yachid is never used in reference to God.  Jdg.11:34 “She was his only [yachid] child.”  The LXX Greek equivalent term monogenés (g3439) refers to Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, in Jn.1:14, 18.

God, as the God Family, consists of the Father, Holy Spirit (HS) and Jesus the Son.  The Word/Logos from eternity past later became the human Jesus, Jn.1:1-5, 14.  (see the topic “Godhead in Prehistory”.)  Ge.1:1-3 reflects the Father, HS, and the Word/Light who would become Jesus.  The first “Us” verse in Genesis, where the “Us” refers to the uniplural God, is Ge.1:26-27. “God said, ‘Let Us make mankind in our image, according to our likeness. In the image of God, male and female.” (not in the image of angels.)  Other such “Us” verses in Genesis are Ge.3:22, 11:7, LXX 2:18.  Also Is.6:1, 8 “I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Who shall go for Us?”.  And Ge.19:24 reflects plural YHVHs. “YHVH rained on Sodom & Gomorrah fire from YHVH out of heaven.”  YHVH (h3068 Hebrew) is the Lord.

God as a Father in the OT: Moses said in De.32:6, “The Lord, is not He your Father?”  Also see Is.64:8, 63:16.  Mal.2:10 “Do we not all have one Father? Has not one [echad] God created us?”

God the Father is supreme in the Godhead (as we’ll see).  Father God is the Source of all life (even of Jesus, Jn.5:26 & 6:57).  The Father chooses the time of calling His elect, Ep.1:3-5 & Jn.6:44.

Jesus the Son in the OT: Ps.2:7, 12 “YHVH said to Me, You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. Do homage to the Son.”  (YHVH isn’t referring to David.  Jesse, not God, begat David.)  Pr.30:4 “Who has ascended up to heaven and descended? What is His name or His Son’s name?”  Jn.6:62 Jesus said, “What if you should see the Son of Man ascending where He was before?”  Jn.1:18 Jesus said no one has seen Father God at any time.  In the OT Péntateuch, the God seen was the Word/Rock/Son/Angel, the Messenger of YHVH. ref Ge.31:11-13, 18:1, Ex.24:10, Is.6:1 & Jn.12:41-44.  De.32:18 & 1Co.10:4 according to the apostle Paul, “That Rock was Christ”.  (see “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.)

The primordial Word of God, the Messenger of the Lord, took on flesh as Jesus/Yeshúa (Hebrew).  Neither the Father nor the HS took on flesh.  As human, Jesus could bridge the gap between Creator and creation.  1Ti.2:5 “There is one Mediator between God and men, the human Jesus Christ.”  He.4:14-15 Jesus as such is High Priest.  In Je.23:5-6, the Messiah would be both a human descendant of David, and YHVH!  Harvard’s Jacob Neusner Judaisms and Their Messiahs, p.275 “An early Judaism myth portrayed a supernatural God-Man King Messiah as Savior and Redeemer of Israel.”  He is Jesus.

The Holy Spirit in the OT: Is.48:16 “The Lord God and His Spirit have sent Me.”  Job.33:4 “The Spirit of God has made me.”  Pr.1:20-23 “Wisdom lifts her voice, ‘I will pour out My Spirit on you.”

Father God is in heaven.  God has operated through the HS and Jesus.  Ac.2:34 Jesus ascended into heaven and now sits there at Father’s right hand (and Jesus lives mystically in Christians, Jn.17:21-23 & Col.1:27).  The human Jesus wasn’t omnipresent.  The HS is on earth…omnipresent.  David wrote in Ps.139:7-10, “Where can I go from Your Spirit, where can I flee from Your Presence?”  Nowhere.

Although the Godhead is tripartite, a common trinitarian view is partly incorrect.  That is, the Bible doesn’t reflect the three in the Godhead as equal in authority.  Father God has the greatest authority!  Jesus said in Jn.14:28, “The Father is greater than I”.  1Co.15:27-28 Jesus is forever subject to Him.

The Father sends Jesus.  Jn.12:49 Jesus said, “The Father who sent Me has given Me commandment”.  The two are distinct.  The Father also sends the HS.  Jn.14:26 “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send.”  Jesus too sends the HS (Jn.16:7).  All three are distinct!  But neither Jesus nor the HS sends the Father!  They differ in order and subordination.  The human Jesus wasn’t omniscient.  Mt.24:36 “Of that day and hour no one knows, not the Son, the Father only.” (see “Jesus Is God…Jesus Has A God”.)

Father God is so very great!  Jn.6:46 & 5:37 no human has ever seen His form.  They hadn’t heard His voice.  Not before Jesus and John the Baptizer heard the voice of Father God formally testify of His Son at Jesus’ baptism.  ref Jn.1:32-34 & Mk.1:9-11.  The (OT) Voice heard by God’s people was that of the Word, the Lord Jesus, e.g. Ge.18:1, 13, Jn.8:56-58.  Jesus said in Jn.10:27, “My sheep hear My voice”.

Ontology is the study of being.  God, angels, humans are called personal beings.  But God’s Being isn’t finite or limited, as we are limited.  Scripture doesn’t define ‘person’ (the term we use in modern English), and doesn’t apply that term to the triune God.  The Latin persona (or Greek prósopon) was a ‘face’ worn by Greek/Roman dramatic actors.  Church fathers applied the Greek term hypostáses (subsistences or entities or individuals) to God.

Several verses in the New Testament (NT) reflect the tripartite Godhead.  First, I should say, 1Jn.5:7 KJV is only in late manuscripts.  And the Mt.28:19 phrase, “Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit”, wasn’t in the text Eusebius quoted ca 300 AD.  But there are many other verses….

2Co.13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the HS be with you all.”  2Co.1:21-22 “He who establishes us in Christ and anointed us is God, who also gave us the Spirit.”  Ep.4:4-6 “There is one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all.”  (That’s three!)  Ac.7:55 “Being full of the HS, Stephen saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God.”  He.9:14 “Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without blemish to God.”  1Co.12:4-6 “The same Spirit…the same Lord…the same God.”  (Again, that’s three.)  1Pe.1:2 “Elect according to a foreknowledge of God the Father, sanctified by the Spirit, sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ.”  All these verses indicate the three ‘Persons’ of the Godhead, the God Family.

As God, they are identical in essence, fully divine, a tri-unity of subsistences having self-awareness, sinless.  It’s been said as an analogy that the Father is the wall outlet, the HS is the cord, Jesus is the lamp (Re.21:23).  The tripartite Godhead is revealed to us by Jesus the Son’s coming in the flesh and His words in the NT, by other scriptures, and by the HS dwelling within us as Christians.

The terms for God as “Father” and “Holy Spirit” rarely occur as such in the OT.  Very few men had the HS in OT times; and prior to the NT, Jesus hadn’t yet come to reveal the Father.  (see “Life and Death – for Saints”.)  Jesus said in Jn.4:24, “God is Spirit”.  In Mt.10:20, Jesus spoke of Christians having “The Spirit of your Father who speaks in you”.  The HS belongs to and was part of Father God, has personality, but isn’t the totality of God.

Every human has a spirit within.  Jb.32:8 “There is a spirit in man.”  Our human spirit gives biological life to our body of flesh (Ge.2:7).  Ja.2:26 “The body without the spirit is dead.”  Without our human spirit, we’re just a clod.  Our spirit in God’s image imparts self-awareness and intellect to our brain.  It’s a non-physical component which differentiates human mind from animal brain instinct.  Our spirit gives us a moral sense of conscience, based upon the self and cultural customs & laws, not the HS.  Yet the HS will join with our human spirit (1Co.6:17); we become linked to God, able to live God’s morality.

Mt.1:18 “Mary was found to be with Child by the HS.”  The HS as God conceived Jesus in the womb of the surrogate mother Mary.  Kind begets kind.  So even as flesh, the Word/Jesus was of the Godkind.

The HS is very God, distinct from the Father.  Jn.15:26 “The Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father.”  Orthodox Bible “The HS receives…eternal existence only from the Father.”  1Co.3:16 “Don’t you know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God lives in you?”  The Father and Jesus are in heaven…Christians wouldn’t be God’s temple if God the HS didn’t dwell within.  Lk.3:21-22 “Jesus was baptized. The HS descended upon Him in bodily form as a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son, in Thee I Am well-pleased.”  The Father sent the HS as a dove upon Jesus the Son, then the Father’s voice spoke to Him from heaven.  That’s three!  Father God didn’t appear as the bird.  And Jesus isn’t an angel’s son.  1Jn.5:10 “God [not an angel] has testified about His Son.”

The HS is a Who, not a what, not an impersonal power such as magnetism or centripetal force.  The following verses reflect HS personality:  Peter said to Ananias in Ac.5:3-4, “You lied to the HS. You weren’t lying to men but to God.”  The person of the HS can be lied to and is God!  1Co.2:10-11 “Who knows the inner thoughts of a man, except the spirit of the man. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. The thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.”  The HS has an intellect and knowledge, as does our human spirit.  Ro.8:26-27 “The Spirit intercedes for us with deep groanings. And He who searches the hearts knows the mind of the Spirit.”  The HS has a mind and prays for the saints, unlike an impersonal ‘force’, so-called.  (see “Holy Spirit Personification”.)

The HS speaks in 1st Person as “Me” and “I” in Ac.13:2. “The Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work which I have called them to.”  Also ref Ac.11:12, Jn.16:13, Mk.13:11, which indicate the HS is personal and speaks.  2Sm.23:2-3 “The Spirit of YHVH spoke by me. The God of Israel.”  Again, the HS is YHVH/God.

Ro.15:30 “By our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit.”  The HS is a ‘Person’ who can love!  (1Jn.4:8 God is love.)  1Co.12:11 and Ac 20:28 the Person of the HS has a will and appoints overseers in the church.  The Person of Jesus also has a will.  Mt.11:27 “The Father, who the Son wills to reveal.”

The church is the metaphorical bride of Christ (e.g. Re.19:7-9).  Christians (the “bride”) are persons.  Re.22:17 “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.”  The Spirit and the bride speak, as persons.  Jesus is symbolically the Lion, Lamb, Word, arm (of the Lord, Is.53:1)…yet Jesus is a distinct person!  Jesus is also referred to as, “The power of God and the wisdom of God” (1Co.1:24).  Yet Jesus is clearly personal, as the four gospels reveal.  The HS isn’t just the power (or force) of God.

Is.63:10 “They rebelled and vexed His HS.”  Ep.4:30 “Don’t grieve God’s HS, by whom you are sealed.”  The HS seals believers…and can be vexed or provoked, and grieved or made sorrowful.  He.10:29 “Sorer punishment to he who has insulted the Spirit of grace.”  The HS can be insulted.  To think that an emotionless ‘force’ can be vexed, grieved and feel insulted…seems absurd!  Jn.15:26 the HS testifies of Jesus.  Any spirit who denies Jesus is false!  Yet…Mt.12:31-32 “Blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.”

Forces such as magnetism and centripetal force don’t: have a mind, speak, pray, love, or hear and comprehend lies.  Whereas the Bible says the HS does: have a mind, speak, pray, love, hear and comprehend lies.  The HS can be vexed, grieved, insulted, blasphemed!  To repeat, the HS is personal…not just a powerful but emotionless ‘force’ from God!  (also see “Holy Spirit’s Identity”.)

Benny Hinn Welcome Holy Spirit, p.29 “There’s glory in grasping the Personhood of the Holy Spirit….your life will never be the same.”  ibid, p.199 “The Spirit is the Author of the Book.”

A church denomination I won’t name published an article about the Holy Spirit.  Their position is, “The HS is not God. It is the most powerful force in the universe. The HS can be poured out, an impersonal characteristic.”  But we read verses above, such as Ac.5:3-4 and 1Co.3:16, which indicate the HS is God.  Their article went on to say, “Only God can change hearts” (as if the HS isn’t God).

But the HS is God and does change hearts.  Ro.5:5 “The love of God is poured out in our hearts by the HS.”  2Co.1:22 “He gave us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.”  Ro.15:30 it’s by “The love of the Spirit.”  God’s love is “poured out” or shed abroad through the Person of the HS.  The Holy Spirit personally loves as God.  (And the HS is symbolically “poured out” as living water, Jn.7:38-39.)

Is.53:12 prophesied of Jesus, “He poured out Himself to death”.  Jesus the “Person” also “poured out” Himself or His soul.  1Sm.1:15 Samuel’s wife Hannah describes her supplication to God. “I have poured out my soul before the Lord.”  Jb.30:16 Job’s sore complaint, “My soul is poured out within me”.  David said in Ps.62:8, “Pour out your heart before God”.  In the Bible, the soul and even the heart of a person can be “poured out”!  Hannah, Job, and David are persons.  Jesus and the HS are divine Persons, in a manner “poured out”, so to speak.

Angels are also spirits, “ministering spirits” in He.1:14 (they aren’t the Holy Spirit).  An angel is a spirit who, likewise, isn’t just an impersonal force (e.g. the angel Gabriel, Lk.1:19).

Ministering spirits (angels), the Holy Spirit, our human spirits…aren’t an impersonal Star Wars type force!  Our human spirit is me, is you, within our flesh ‘suit’.  Again, the HS is changing our hearts!  We, as God’s temple of the HS, connect with God…the HS joined with our human spirit (1Co.6:17).  God will be all-in-all, Ep.4:6!

Finally, the triune God is thrice holy.  One Spirit…one Lord…one Father (Ep.4:4-6).  Is.6:3 “Holy, Holy, Holy is YHVH of hosts.”  A three-in-one Godhead.  The heavenly worshipers in Re.4:8 “Do not cease to say, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty”.  Yea, and Amen.