People are Souls, They have a Heart, but are Soul-less
Most of us have likely heard the expression “Bob is an old soul or Sandy is a young soul,” right? We don’t hear people say “John ‘has’ a young soul.” We do hear them say that so and so is young at heart, though.
In the Hebrew Scriptures Strong’s defines Nephesh as a breathing creature, i.e. animal of vitality; Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon as a soul, self, life, a creature, a person, an appetite, a mind, a living being, a desire, an emotion, a passion. As you can see from the definition whatever it is, it is alive and vital.
For the sake of this teaching I am going to be using the Darby Bible since it uses the words “living soul” twelve times. The first usage is:
Gen 1:21 “And God created the great sea monsters, and every living soul that moves with which the waters swarm, after their kind, and every winged fowl after its kind. And God saw that it was good.” Most other popular versions use the word “creature or “thing” instead of soul.
What does every living soul do? They move! Whether they creep, crawl, swim or fly, they are living souls. I never really thought about worms, ants, bees or snails as being living souls, but I guess they are!
The second usage (and so on):
Gen 1:30 “and to every animal of the earth, and to every fowl of the heavens, and to everything that creepeth on the earth, which is a living soul, every green herb for food. And it was so”
Gen 2:7 “And Jehovah Elohim formed Man, dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and Man became a living soul.”
Gen 2:19 “And out of the ground Jehovah Elohim had formed every animal of the field and all fowl of the heavens, and brought [them] to Man, to see what he would call them; and whatever Man called each living soul, that was its name.”
Gen 9:10 “and with every living soul which is with you, fowl as well as cattle, and all the animals of the earth with you, of all that has gone out of the ark — every animal of the earth.”
Gen 9:12 “And God said, This is the sign of the covenant that I set between me and you and every living soul that is with you, for everlasting generations:’
Gen 9:15-16 “and I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living soul of all flesh; and the waters shall not henceforth become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living soul of all flesh that is upon the earth.
Lev 11:10 “but all that have not fins and scales in seas and in rivers, of all that swarm in the waters, and of every living soul which is in the waters — they shall be an abomination unto you.”
Lev 11:46 “This is the law of cattle, and of fowl, and of every living soul that moveth in the waters, and of every soul (creature) that crawleth on the earth;”
1 Cor 15:45 “Thus also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam a quickening spirit.”
Rev 16:3 “And the second poured out his bowl on the sea; and it became blood, as of a dead man; and every living soul died in the sea.”
The following verses are from a Bible called The Message. Some of you OG’s may remember seeing it but it is one of the seventeen Bibles in my PC Bible Program.
1 Kings 15:29 “As soon as he was king he killed everyone in Jeroboam’s family. There wasn’t a living soul left to the name of Jeroboam; Baasha wiped them out totally,”
2 Chron 20:24 “As Judah came up over the rise, looking into the wilderness for the horde of barbarians, they looked on a killing field of dead bodies — not a living soul among them.”
Job 12:10 “Every living soul, yes, every breathing creature?”
Acts 3:22-23 “Moses, for instance, said, ‘Your God will raise up for you a prophet just like me from your family. Listen to every word he speaks to you. Every last living soul who refuses to listen to that prophet will be wiped out from the people.’ “
At the risk of becoming exhaustive I am compelled to give you every usage I could find on the 2 words. These verse are from the good old Catholic Bible, The Douay-Rheims. The first one we have already covered but I had to include it because someone mentioned something about adding water to dust to from the body of man. The Monks already took care of that!
Gen 2:7 “And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
Gen 8:21 “And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and said: I will no more curse the earth for the sake of man: for the imagination and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil from his youth: therefore I will no more destroy every living soul as I have done.”
Now for some of you younger souls, there are 400 more usages of soul in the Hebrew Scriptures. Feel free to have at ‘em. I’m just going to show a few that pop out at me.
Lev 5:1-4 “And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity. 2 Or if a soul touch any unclean thing…………3 Or if he touch the uncleanness of man…………4 Or if a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips to do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man shall pronounce with an oath, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty in one of these. KJV
Deut 12:20-21 “When the Lord thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh, because thy soul longeth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after. 21 ………whatsoever thy soul lusteth after. KJV
To be honest and fair, there are many verses that would incline one to believe that the soul is something distinctly independent of the person. Here is just one:
Isa 29:8 “It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion. KJV
Here is what one Commentary says about it: “[It shall even be …] This is a most striking figure representing the earnest desire of the Assyrian to possess the city of Jerusalem, and his utter disappointment.
(from Barnes’ Notes, Electronic Database Copyright © 1997, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
Who would have thought that?
BTW, I looked up dead soul and couldn’t find anything. But, nothing is more convincing than looking at the 78 times soul(s) plural was used in the KJV! Then you will become further convinced that souls are living “things” that take breath, including fish, worms and bugs! You could even say, “If it shits, it’s a living soul!”
Souls Plural
Gen 46:15 These be the sons of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob in Padan-aram, with his daughter Dinah: all the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty and three. KJV
Gen 46:18 These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter, and these she bare unto Jacob, even sixteen souls. KJV
Gen 46:22 These are the sons of Rachel, which were born to Jacob: all the souls were fourteen.
Gen 46:25 These are the sons of Bilhah, which Laban gave unto Rachel his daughter, and she bare these unto Jacob: all the souls were seven.
26 All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob’s sons’ wives, all the souls were threescore and six;
27 And the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls: all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten.
Acts 7:14 Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls. KJV
Acts 27:37 And we were in all in the ship two hundred threescore and sixteen souls. KJV
1 Peter 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. KJV
Acts 2:41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
Acts 7:14 Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
Since Bob mentioned the Apocraphal and extra Canonical Books I thought it would be cool to look at a few of those as well.
Judith 7:26-27 Now therefore call them unto you, and deliver the whole city for a spoil to the people of Holofernes, and to all his army. For it is better for us to be made a spoil unto them, than to die for thirst: for we will be his servants, that our souls may live, and not see the death of our infants before our eyes, nor our wives nor our children to die. KJV
Judith seems to be a pretty smart lady. I’ve always said that no one is any good to God dead! Here she would rather be someone’s spoil than starve to death!
Wisdom 2:22-3:1 As for the mysteries of God, they knew them not: neither hoped they for the wages of righteousness, nor discerned a reward for blameless souls. For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity. Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it. But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. KJV
Being a soul as opposed to having one eliminates a whole bunch of things which we know are not true, like soul sleep, transmigration of the soul, or soul travel.
Part V of Identifying the False Prophet; the Predecessor of the Antichrist
As you have seen from the previous four segments the end is not yet. It could be said and has been said by many that “we are definitely in the end times.” As I have said before, there will be things leading up to the apokalupto of the False Prophet, but what they will be no one knows for sure. And I don’t believe anyone can tell you with absolute certainty that we are in the end times. I have shown you what will happen after being Caught Up, harpazoo, of 1Thess. 4:17, but no one knows what will be going on prior to that.
There are no prophecies concerning this Age because none of the prophets before Paul knew anything about this age. This age was kept a secret by God:
Rom 16:25-27 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel (Paul’s) and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the secret which has been kept silent since the world began but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the (Christian) prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith;
Eph 3:5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy (Christian) apostles and prophets by spirit; (How many Old Testament apostles can you name?)
Since none of them, no one, had any knowledge of this Secret Age, they could not have prophesied anything about it, particularly what to expect before the Gathering Together of the saints! In other words no one has any idea when this will occur. There are no worldly events which will indicate when it will happen.
Now, if I am wrong about the Rapture and there is none as many believe, at least you know what to look for concerning the False Prophet.
So, when will “the end” come? Let’s see what 1 Cor 15:20-26 says:
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep (dead). 21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the standing up from the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, (Remember the 5 parts of the Parousia, coming, in Part IV?) This is addressing the dead, those who are asleep.
24 then comes the end, when He, Jesus, hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death (death is not destroyed until Rev. 20:14, after the Millennial Kingdom.) NASU
When all of the “whens” have occurred, then comes the end!
Illustrations by Rev. Clarence Larkin who died 90 years ago, which represent Oikonemia in Scripture
This picture represents what the prophets (including Jesus Christ) could see and know from the Scriptures. As you can see here the Prophets could not know or understand anything about the Church Age because God kept it a Secret from everyone until it was revealed to Paul and the other Apostles by the ascended Christ.
Rom 16:25-27
And to Him who is able to establish you, according to my good news, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the secret, in the times of the ages having been kept silent,
26 and now having been made manifest, also, through prophetic (Christian) writings, according to a command of the age-during God, having been made known to all the nations for obedience of faith —
27 to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to him [be] glory to the ages. Amen.
YLT
Eph 3:3-5
3 that by revelation He made known to me the secret, according as I wrote before in few [words] —
4 in regard to which ye are able, reading [it], to understand my knowledge in the secret of the Christ,
5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it was now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the spirit —
YLT
1 Cor 2:7-8
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a musterion, secret, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
KJV
This one represents the Church of the Body of Christ versus the Kingdom of God and Christ. The resulting affect of this hidden wisdom is that the coming Kingdom which Jesus and the apostles expected soon after his ascension, would be put on hold or held in abeyance. As you can see, the Kingdom most Christians speak about as if it existed today, will not exist until after the Great Tribulation. As for now, Jesus is our Lord, not our king.
2 Peter 3:14-18
Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, 15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, 16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
NASU
This revelation is NOT to be ignored; you do so at your own destruction.
Will you be found blameless?
Are you among the untaught (unteachable) and unstable?
Are you being lead astray by the error of unprincipled men?
Are you growing in knowledge as well as grace?
ANGRY YET? IF NOT, YOU SHOULD BE.
The Bible, the words of the One, True God, (YHWH), says that we are to get Angered, “BE ANGRY” about certain things, “YET WITHOUT SIN,” in Ephesians 4:26. Yes, it should make us angry when, as the preceding verse implies, we are surrounded by LIARS. We have many examples in the world today of people who are angry and sin because of their anger. Anger is an innate emotion that we are not to be denied. I am angry that some government officials think they can get away with murder, instead of just telling the truth.
2 Co 10:4 tells us “(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) KJV. Taking matters into our own hands is not the answer. The WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE ARE MIGHTY THROUGH GOD. Our anger, our outrage, needs to be taken to God through our prayers. The previous verse in 2 Co 10 says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:” The way we carry on our warfare is spiritual, not physically.
In the final chapter of the greatest revelation given to the Church of the Body of Christ, Paul, by way of our Lord, Jesus Christ says:
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; Eph 6:10-18
Yes, we should be angry about what is going on in high places in our country and around the world today. Taking matters into our own hands as the two domestic terrorists recently did is not the answer. Fervent Prayer Is.
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Jas 5:16
Was Newtown Really a Movie Set?
My son sent me a You tube video yesterday (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx9GxXYKx_8&feature=youtube_gdata_player) which portrayed the school in Newtown, CT as a movie set, alleging that the entire shootings there were all fabricated. He wanted my opinion about it. Here is what I told him:
I don’t have a difficult time believing stuff like this. Fast and Furious failed and everyone knows what the government tried to do with that: to make the public cry out for gun control. If this doesn’t succeed, watch for more and pray we are never a victim.
Are You Willing to be Criticized?
Happy New Year Everyone!
We are 2 weeks into 2013. Has it taken you by storm? Do you feel more in control of things in your life than you did last year? Or do you feel like you are being swept out to sea by the wave of public opinion?
Those of us who stood for truth during the last election were bitterly demonized for our positions. We were called divisive, unpatriotic, trouble-makers, fabricators, spoil sports, poor losers, etc. Even members of our own families said such things.
As you all know life is a spiritual battle. If you did not personally experience anything like this, then I would say that you need to get in the fight and quit watching the parade of life pass you by. In Real Estate we call the silent majority “Looky Lews;” people who come to an Open House just to see it, with no interest at all in making an offer, getting involved. Are you just a “stander-by?”
I recently watched a video posted on Facebook by David Wells about the spiritual forces grinding down Americans. Throughout the video I am thinking ahead about what one person can do to rebuttal. Suggestions were given at the end of just that. One of them was “to be willing to be criticized.” Most people I know would shudder at the thought. Criticism, whether giving it or receiving it, has been completely vilified in our society. Being able to be criticized for what you believe takes integrity. Knowing what you believe to be true and truthful makes being criticized a badge of courage rather than one of disgrace.
Did you know that the biggest Critic in life is God and His Word, the Bible. All the great believers throughout the ages were severely criticized for their words and deeds. Most of them were accused of heresy, including our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The political leaders of his time were out to murder him from the get go, just because some Persian men said they were looking for him who was born to be the King of the Jews. He hadn’t even done anything to deserve death and didn’t when they finally succeeded thirty years later! Are you willing to die for what you believe? Is what you believe willing to die for?
One of my fellow-labourers in the Word, John Lynn, has done a few teachings on “Words—Words Have Meaning.” People live and die by words everyday. In order for words to have any affect on anyone, they have to be written or spoken. If you are not into writing, then you need to be into speaking. People need to know what you believe; your neighbors need to know what you stand for. What are you afraid of? Criticism, Embarrassment? Being afraid to be who you are is the worst.
We see this in the pre-resurrection Peter. He actually denied Jesus six times, but 3 will suffice. Many of the men who followed Jesus before his murder were in hiding afterwards for four days. They were scared to death. They were probably wondering what they got themselves into, why they didn’t just leave well enough alone and keep doing what they were doing before they met that troublemaker, Jesus. Now they were all in the stew. What had they done?
What they did, is what we need to do: stick our necks out for what we believe. Be willing to be criticized and if need be be willing to have our necks chopped off for doing so. The husband being the head of the wife, is just that: we stick our necks out for our wives just as Christ stuck/sticks his neck out for us. Don’t feel helpless, it is God in Christ in You. You are a majority wherever you go, whatever you do and whatever you say. If God be for us (and He is) who can be against us?
What a Fool I have Been!
The believers of Hitler’s time must have thought Hitler was the Antichrist; surely they believed Christ would return before he was able to do so many horrible things. The point is, there are no signs to indicate his return for the believers of this day and age. The Rapture of the Church is a part of the Sacred Secret, that was kept a secret by God until He revealed unto the apostle Paul, through Jesus Christ.
No one, including Jesus Christ, before his ascension, knew anything about the time in which we now live. It stands to reason that there can be no signs in the Bible as to when this Age will end, since no one knew when it would begin. All this and more is in my book at www.fredswolfe.com. If you did not read it this past year, you owe it to yourself, your children and your grandchildren to do so. Since there are no signs announcing the Rapture (Part 1 of the Parousia) there will be no time to prepare for it. If you are not ready now, you could very well be left behind.
If you are left behind, my book will tell you what to expect and how to make it through the Great Tribulation into the Millennial Kingdom where Christ will reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. It will be a thousand years that you will not want to miss. God bless you and happy new year.
A Few Reviews of my New Book on Understanding the Bible.
From the minute I opened the book I felt TRUTH pouring through the pages. I was astonished at the number of scriptures I have repeated over and over in my life, and lived by that were not translated correctly – this book has changed my foundation. It is eye opening. It has made me responsible to question and reprove my core beliefs and walk in truth of the word and not to be mislead. Thank you so much Fred for this message, my only hope is that you continue in this quest and write more books on rightly dividing the word! This is a MUST READ for all Christians and all those who want to know truth!!
I just finished reading Fred’s book. It was sometimes a challenge with quoted passages that could get long before Fred explained them, but staying with it increased my biblical fortitude! Fred helps by explaining translations and errors in translations that are important to understanding intent. I am frankly stunned by the happy, “Sesame Street” rendition of Christianity that I received through life by churches that were too often focused on pleasing and increasing their flock, than on properly explaining the message of the Bible, including its dark and gritty context. I deem Fred’s book to be a very worthwhile read from front cover to final page. Do it for the sake of your soul. I intend to reread it in the future as a reference in comparison to other books and to the Bible itself.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Reviewing ‘Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth“, September 29, 2012
This review is from: Rightly Dividing The Word Of Truth: A Fresh Perspective To Understanding The Bible. (Paperback)
To every Readers benefit, author Fred Wolfe has dug deep into historical linguistics; carefully examining the many descriptions, and developments in language over the centuries to present us with a remarkably transparent presentation of scripture. |
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