Wednesday, March 31, 2021

WHO CAN KILL THE SOUL

   People often equate “soul” and “spirit,” but the difference is as great as the tea and the cup. It is as different as an object and space. An object is inanimate, but the space within can be animated. Harmony is when the space and object move together as one.

  God molded an inanimate image and breathed life unto it. A cup can hold water, but spirit could leak out. Hence, between the object and the spirit there is an inner container; one made of subjective material — material that cannot be seen with human eyes — immaterial, or as science cause them, matter and antimatter.

 Enough about science. We are after objective truth. Antimatter is subjective, but the soul does exist although it cannot be seen or measured by manmade detectors. The soul can be sensed by those whose souls are filled.

  Just as anyone can sense the Holy Ghost’s Presence within, with love, the presence of the unholy ghost can be felt as well. Guilt reveals the presence of evil inside. While love is “goodwill toward God and men,” hatred is “evil will toward God and men.” With that said, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is what fills the “cup,” so to speak, or the human soul. When Jesus, referred to His “Cup,” [i] the Greek word “poterion” is more general than that, meaning a “vessel.” (Strong’s Dictionary). The specific vessel is His eternal soul.  A poterion is thought of as a drinking vessel. That is why it is thought of as a cup. Indeed, Jesus said that out of His belly flowed Living Waters that could be drunk. [ii]

  Living Waters can be passed just as the wine chalice that Jesus passed. Jesus would ask that another pass the Living Waters in His place. Judas tried but his vessel was drained of ineffective blood and water when he fell from the tree in death, split open his vessel, and leaked water and blood. “Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place” (Acts 1:25). Sin broke the “cup” of Judas. Judas died of guilt.

  Guilt is like a pressure cooker. When the pressure reaches the limits of the vessel, without a safety valve, the vessel explodes. That is what happened to Judas. [iii] With Satan in him, then the spirit, Satan, exploded from the Judas Cup. Out of Judas’s belly flowed dying waters, and Judas, just as Jesus, gave up his “ghost” — Satan.  

  The “Judas Cup” leaked because the barbs of Satan pierced it. The “Jesus Cup” leaked its contents because a soldier merely spilled the contents, and he was sorry. He realized that this “Cup” belonged to God. [iv] With Judas, out of his cup flowed dying waters, or the spirit of Satan, but the Holy Spirit flowed from Jesus as He “gave up the Ghost.” [v]

  Satan forced his way out of Judas because his “cup” was of no further use. On the other hand, Jesus relinquished the Spirit of God in Him and gave up the Holy Ghost. It was of this event that John wrote about:

He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:38-39)

  That Water of Life is the Holy Spirit in Jesus. When Jesus died and was glorified, then out of his belly the Spirit of God flowed. However, John made a distinction, or at least the translators did with “pneuma,” between the Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost. The former is the omnipresent Spirit of God and the latter the same Spirit that had the experience of life and death with Jesus. It was the Spirit designated to Jesus. The “container” was not the Body of Christ, but the vessel within. When Jesus was baptized, His vessel was filled:

The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. (Luke 3:22)

  The Holy Spirit is animation, and the Holy Ghost is the animation of the Holy Spirit. The motion of the Holy Ghost takes many forms — as a cloud, fire, burning bush, a wind, and a Voice walking. This time, the motion was as a dove. However, the animated soul was in “bodily shape.” The Jesus Cup looked like Jesus and many still recognize Jesus to this day by His Cup! Just as His Cup looks like Him, men’s cups look like them and are animated in them.

 The Spirit of God is in the “cup” of Christians, and the spirit of Satan is in the Wicked Ones. Jesus did pass His “Cup” (His Soul) to mankind but not to Satan.

  God is omnipresent, but Satan is not. Christians have the Holy Ghost of Jesus, but non-Christians the unholy spirit of demons. Satan enters few beings; perhaps the Serpent, Cain, blind Lamech, Judas, perhaps Caiaphas, and in the end, the Antichrist.

  Those explanations are imperative. Just what did the Serpent kill with his forbidden fruit? Was it the bodies of Adam and Eve or was it their souls? The flesh is temporal, but the soul is immortal. The “soul” is the cup that will always be somewhere, as new or broken. With that said, the following verse is ambiguous. Just who can do what?

KEY VERSE: Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Mat 10:28)

  Satan killed the body of Judas, but the Judas Cup was emptied. It “lived” on in Hell. Of course, spiritual life is not “living” but “death.” In Hell, the soul is slowly destroyed just as the body in Earth’s environment. The body withers and dies, but the soul remains intact and never quite dies, but suffers death eternally. Even the dead soul is immortal, but death is not cessation of animation but continual suffering.

  Likewise, Satan slowly killed the bodies of Adam and Eve. They withered for nearly a millennium. However, he could not kill their souls.

  In like manner, Satan was allowed to lay hands on Job. He caused harm to Job’s body and could have killed him, but God had a hedge of safety around the soul of Job. Satan could pierce it with his barbs, and he tried hard, but Job’s shield of faith made it impenetrable. Only God could allow Job’s soul to be penetrated, or to allow Satan to break his “cup.”

  Thus, my interpretation, without the aid of commentary, is that we should not fear Satan but God. Why? Satan can only destroy the body, but God can destroy both the soul and the body. The curse of the Serpent is death of the body, but God allowed Satan that honor but not the honor of destroying the soul. God, on judgment day, will decide the fate of the body and soul. We should fear God, not Satan, because Satan is a mere tool of God to test the faith of human beings.

  The best validation of my hypothesis came on the day that I was wondering about who is who in the key verse. I was reading the Testament of Job. (Consider it good commentary but not canon,)

“When he (Satan) left he asked my body from the Lord so he might inflict plague on me (Job). Then the Lord gave me over to his hands to be sued as he wished with respect to the body, but he did not give him authority over my soul.” (Testament of Job 20:2-3)

  Whoever wrote that, whether Job or a biographer, it explains Who has authority over the flesh and Who the soul. God has authority over both the body and the soul but allows Satan to destroy the body. God wants that none should perish. [vi] Satan wants that all will perish. God has the authority to destroy the body and soul because he created them both in Adam, then breathed “Living Water” unto them. [vii]

  What happened with the original sin under the Tree of Knowledge? God allowed Satan to perish the body and then the flesh became perishable, whereas before, it was imperishable. [viii] God was sad; He wanted that none should perish, so he provided new flesh from a lamb for coats of Adam and Eve. [ix] It is temporary flesh until the Lamb of God would share His Holy Flesh with Adam’s kind.

  Adam’s kind were made in the image of God — Mind, Body, and Spirit. The Body can be destroyed but the Spirit remains. Hence, there must be a vessel to contain the Living Waters. The invisible vessel is the human soul, and the souls of men and women would look like those same men and women if they could be seen.

  Nebuchadnezzar saw the Soul of Jesus in the fiery furnace, saving three young men. He said so, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God” (Dan 3:25). He recognized the animate Spirit of God as God’s Son! He saw the Soul of Jesus!

  A certain Greek came to Philip and said, “Sir, we would see Jesus” (John 12:21). Well, Nebuchadnezzar saw the Soul of Jesus walking in the fiery furnace. His Soul looked like Him! Adam saw the Soul of Jesus and recognized His Voice, as He walked in the Garden. Abraham saw the Soul of Jesus, never born and without parents, walking as the King of Salem (Peace). Christians see the Soul of Jesus as the Holy Ghost. Our “vision” is not seeing with our eyes but by a new nature that could only belong to Jesus. We see Jesus best even when blinded, as God demonstrated with Paul.

  Sometimes when I look at a holy Christian, I see Jesus in him or her. There is an aura that makes them recognizable. It is their new nature, with their corruptible bodies covered with the Coat of the Lamb of God.

  Others can see Jesus in you. When you have Jesus, He will reveal Himself to you with a new nature. That is “born again” when the Holy Ghost of Jesus lays over our flesh as a Coat to preserve His saints. Satan can affect the body, but the cup remains safe, unless like the friend of Jesus, who destroyed his own cup. [x]

 (picture credit: ebay: "Mr. President" by Danny Hahlbohm)



 



[i] Mat 26:42

[ii] John 7:38

[iii] Acts 1:18

[iv] Mat 27:64

[v] Mark 15:37

[vi] John 3:16

[vii] Gen 2:7

[viii] 1 Pet 1:23

[ix] Gen 3:21

[x] Psalm 41:9

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