Body, Soul, Spirit- Formed, Made, Created
Body, Soul, Spirit – Formed, Made, Created
The foundations have been set for understanding
the accuracy of God’s Word regarding how Scripture
interprets itself, how the Word of God came
into existence, and how this Word of God can be
trusted when rightly divided. Now we are ready to
proceed to working The Word to bring it into
fruition in our understanding and our lives.
One of the great subjects in the Word of God is
the new birth; it is the crux of Christianity. The new
birth is the miracle of all miracles. I cannot explain
it; but 1 believe that, by God’s mercy and grace, we
can approach The Word and it will explain itself so
that we can understand.
Before we move into the depth of the new birth,
we must realize some fundamental terms. When I
speak of the “natural man,” I speak of the man of
body and soul, the man who is not born again of
God’s Spirit. This is the accurate Biblical usage of
natural man. The five senses are the only avenues
of learning that the natural man has to gain
knowledge. Everything that ever comes to a natural
man’s mind must come by one or a combination of
these five senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting,
touching.
We gather information through our five senses
from a source or sources outside ourselves. We
come to conclusions from our accumulated
knowledge, and thus we believe what we believe.
Being aware of the process of learning, I came to
the conclusion many years ago that for me the
Word of God (not the King James Version, but the
Word of God which was given when “...holy men
of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost”) would be my source for truth. This is my
center of reference for learning.
For years I read around the Word of God with
the writers of outside works being centers of
reference for me. Soon I suffered from a common
disease called mental confusion because equally
great men regarding the same verse of Scripture
would contradict each other. When I began to
consider the process of learning, I finally came to
the conclusion that instead of spending my life in
confusion with men’s opinions I would accept one
center of reference for truth which was outside
myself, and that was the Word of God.
If the Word of God is wrong, I am going to be
wrong; but if the Word of God is right, then I have
everything to gain by taking it as my sole center of
reference. I believe that The Word takes the place
of the absent Christ, and that the holy spirit takes
the place of Christ in us through God’s Word. I
believe that the Bible gives the truth regarding
Body, Soul, Spirit – Formed, Made, Created 195
man’s redemption, his dominion and authority and
power over all God’s creation. I believe that the
Bible gives the truth regarding Jesus Christ, His
coming, His death, His resurrection, His ascension,
God’s giving of the truth regarding the new heaven
and the new earth which God is going to establish. I
believe that the Bible gives truth, not facts.
Anything man does, anything man makes, is a fact.
I believe that the Word of God is Truth – Truth
which is eternal, the same yesterday, today, and
forever. I believe that the revelation of the Word of
God is an absolute necessity for the natural man. If
the senses man is going to be a complete man, he
must have an accurate knowledge of God’s Word.
A very condensed Scripture which we must
thoroughly master to understand the origin of man
is Isaiah 43:7.
Even [for] every one that is called by my name:
for I have created him for my glory, I have
formed him; yea, I have made him.
“I have created him, I have formed him, I have
made him.” Are the three words “created,”
“formed” and “made” synonymous? Most people in
my classes say, yes. If The Word means what it
says and says what it means, these words cannot be
synonymous. When God said formed, He meant
formed. When He said made, He meant made.
When He said created, He meant created. Had He
meant formed all the way through, it would have
said formed at all three places. But it says, “I
created man, I formed man, I made man.” We must
now find out what is meant when He created, made
and formed man.
I Thessalonians 5:23:
And the very God of peace sanctify you
wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and
soul and body be preserved blameless unto the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Are those three words “spirit,” “soul” and
“body” synonymous? They are no more synonymous
than are created, formed and made. Body
means body, soul means soul, and spirit means
spirit. Now we must go to The Word and let The
Word speak as to what is formed, what is made, and
what is created, and what is body, soul and spirit.
In the beginning – whenever that was – man was
formed, made and created. To follow Scriptural
development, let us begin with Genesis 2:7.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of
the ground....
The Hebrew word for “formed” is yatsar,
“fashioned out of something that was already in
existence.” Genesis 2:7 says that God formed man
of the dust of the ground. The word “man” is adam,
meaning “red earth.” Man’s body is composed of
the same elements that are in the dust of the earth.
Genesis 3:19:
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till
thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast
thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust
shalt thou return.
The body of man was formed (yatsar) of the dust
of the ground. And, because of the law that every-
thing must ultimately return to its original state, the
body must return to dust. Ecclesiastes 3:20 says,
“...all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.”
The next word to observe is the word “soul”
which in Hebrew is nephesh. What is soul? The
soul in man is that which gives the body its life, its
vitality. Look again at Genesis 2:7.
And the Lord God formed man [man’s body]
of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living soul.
“Breathed into his nostrils” is the figure of
speech condescensio. God put life into Adam; He
made man a living soul. The word “made” in
Hebrew is asah, “a substance required of which the
thing made consisted.” The soul is nothing more
and nothing less than that which gives life to a
person’s body. Sometimes it is called “the spirit of
man.” Soul has nothing to do with whether you are
a Christian or a non-Christian. As long as a person
breathes, he has a soul.
The confusion between the soul and the spirit has
caused no end of difficulty for people. They say the
soul is immortal, for instance. They talk about
transmigration of the soul, the immortality of the
soul. These are all erroneous usages of words which
are used with exactness and precision in the Word
of God.
To observe the use of the word “soul” look at
I 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.
This verse is talking about the eight souls that
were saved during the great flood. Were they
Christians? No, Christ had not yet come. Noah, his
wife, their three sons and their three wives – all
eight people, eight souls – were saved.
Acts 27:37:
And we were in all in the ship two hundred
threescore and sixteen souls.
The record in Acts refers to Paul’s and Luke’s
ship sailing to Rome. Except for Paul and Luke, the
rest on board were unbelievers, non-Christians; and
yet the record says, “and we were in all in the ship
two hundred threescore and sixteen souls.” “Soul”
means alive people; it is that part which gives life to
the body.
The modern church has been illogical on this
particular issue because it usually teaches that the
soul is eternal life spirit and goes back to God; but
then the teachers deny that a cow having a soul, life,
must go back to God. If the soul came from God, it
must ultimately go back to God, just as the body of
man must ultimately go back to dust. If what they
teach is true, all animals must return to God. But it
isn’t true, because the soul is not eternal life spirit.
The soul is that which gives one breath-life.
Genesis 1:30:
And to every beast of the earth, and to every
fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth
upon the earth, wherein there is life....
The word “life” in Genesis 1:30 is “soul.” This
verse says that every beast has a living soul.
Genesis 1:20:
And God said, Let the waters bring forth
abundantly the moving creature that hath life....
The word “life” is the word “soul.” If there is a
soul, there is movement, there is breath-life.
Genesis 1:21:
And God created great whales, and every
creature that moveth....
The word “creature” is the word “soul.”
Genesis 1:24:
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the
living creature....
The word “creature” is again the word “soul.”
These are some of the places in Genesis 1 where the
word “soul” is used regarding creatures as well as
man. The soul, then, is that which gives a being its
life. The word nephesh is “soul” Chai means
“moving life, moving soul.” Nephesh chai is always
used in the Word of God as living life, in contrast to
a dead soul, a soul that perished.
God made every beast wherein there is a soul, a
life. The question we must now ask is where is the
soul life of man and beast.
Leviticus 17:11:
For the life of the flesh is in the blood....
The soul life is in the blood and is passed on
when the sperm impregnates the egg at the time of
fertilization.
What ultimately happens to the soul? As the
body goes back to dust, the soul is passed on from
one person to his progeny. If a person has no
offspring, his soul is gone when he dies; it is no
more. If my soul is gone, I am a dead person and
the Bible speaks of me as a dead soul. There is
nothing immortal about the soul, no more so than
there is anything immortal about dust. Man’s body
is made of dust and it goes back to dust. When man
takes his last breath, his soul life terminates.
After studying “formed” and “made,” we still
must consider the Biblical usage of the word
“created.” What part of man was created?
To find the first use of “create,” we look at the
first book in the Bible.
Genesis 1:1:
In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth.
To “create” (bara) literally means “to get
something out of nothing” or “to bring into existence
something which never existed in any form
before.”
Many Sunday School teachers (if they still use
the Bible) say that “on the first day God created
thus and so, and on the second day God created
something else,” and so on. But that is not what the
Word of God says. In verse 3 God said, “...Let there
be light....” Why didn’t He have to create it?
Because whatever light is composed of had already
been created in Genesis 1:1 in the beginning when
God created the heaven and the earth. All he had to
do was “speak” light into existence.
Verse 6 says, “And God said....” Verse 9, “And
God said....” Verse 11, “And God said....” Verse 14,
“And God said....”
In verse 21 God created “great whales, and every
living creature that moveth....” Their bodies were
brought forth abundantly out of the waters. Water
and earth already existed, so the substance which
made up their bodies did not have to be created.
What had to be created at this point? Soul life,
because it never existed before. In verse 24–26 God
brought forth from the earth the cattle, the beasts,
and man – all having the soul life that was created
in verse 21.
As God progressed in His work of forming,
making and creating the earth and its inhabitants,
He finally came to bringing about His culminating
work – man.
Genesis 1:27:
So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created he him; male and female
created he them.
God had already formed and made man; man
already had a body and soul. So what was God
doing in creating man in his own image? What is
the image of God? John 4:24: “God is a Spirit....”
A spirit has no flesh or bones. God created within
man His Spirit (ruach), His image. Thus man
became body, soul and spirit. After God created man
in His own image, God had a companion – not in the
body and soul parts of man, but in the spirit. It is that
part of man which made it possible for God to talk to
man and for man to communicate with God. This
gave them fellowship. This is the man we read about
in Isaiah and Thessalonians where the Scriptures say
that man was formed, made and created, and that he
was body, soul and spirit.
Scientists today talk about creating life. That is a
misnomer. They may rediscover, revamp, reorganize,
readapt, or recompose; but they cannot create
because to create something is to bring something
into existence which did not exist in any form. The
scientists always start with some substance so they
are not creating.
Genesis 1:1, 2:
In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth.
And the earth was [became] without form and
void; and darkness was upon the face of the
deep.
There is a long period of time between Genesis
1:1 and Genesis 1:2. I do not know how long, but I
do know that when verse 2 came into being, “the
earth was [became] without form, and void....” The
earth was not created without form and void; it
became that way.
Now, the question is: what caused this original
creation in Genesis 1:1 (which was perfect) to
become formless and void. To see the tremendous
accuracy of The Word, we have to study Scriptures
like Isaiah 14:12; Ezekiel 28:15–19; Romans 8:22; I
Timothy 3:6; Revelation 12:4. These Scriptures
explain that in the beginning God created angels
under three leaders: Gabriel, Michael and Lucifer.
These three archangels were responsible for all the
other angels. Lucifer, who was called an angel of
light, wanted to usurp the throne of God. He caused
a mutiny in heaven, so to speak. Therefore Lucifer
was cast out of heaven along with one-third of the
angels who, under Lucifer’s leadership, had
conspired against God. After being cast out of
heaven, Lucifer became “Satan,” “the serpent,” “the
Devil.” He and one-third of the angels of heaven
make up the evil-spirit or the devil-spirit world
about which people know very little and believe
less.
The mutiny in heaven of Lucifer and his angels
was so cataclysmic that while the war was taking
place, all that God had originally created in Genesis
1:1 fell into ruin. Thus, verse 2 of Genesis I says,
“And the earth was [became] without form, and
void....”
How much time was there between Genesis 1:1
and 1:2? I don’t know. There could have been eons
of time. Verse 3 simply begins the record of God’s
actions in making the earth habitable for mankind –
mankind of body, soul and spirit.
Were there “men” before the man of body, soul
and spirit? To the scientists, yes; but not man as
Genesis 1:27 defines him. When a scientist looks at
a fossil or a skeleton and the relic suggests a manlike
form, he puts it in the species of homo sapiens.
What scientists do not know and what they cannot
see is the life that was in that being.
The reason I am concerned about this accuracy is
that verse 24 of the first chapter tells us that God
created man as we know him – body, soul and spirit.
What kind of life there was in the so–called man before
Adam and Eve, I do not know because the Bible
does not tell me. Nor do the scientists know because
they cannot re-enact that life. I do know, however,
that whatever that life was then, it was not the life
that God created when He created soul life for animal.
The possibility of there being a different kind of life
is indicated by the word “replenish” in Genesis 1:28.
And God blessed them [man], and God said unto
them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the
earth....
How can the earth be replenished if it had previously
had no beings? Genesis 1:28 will corroborate
and substantiate science because of “replenish.”
There are many things one ought to know about
the great accuracy of God’s Word in Genesis because
in it is the foundation of the accuracy of His matchless
Word.
Genesis 1:11 says,
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass,
the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding
fruit after his kind...
“His kind” should be translated “its kind.” To
bring forth after its kind means, for example, when
a tomato seed is planted tomatoes are reaped. When
an onion seed is planted, onions are produced.
Everything comes after its kind. The word “kind” is
the Greek word genos which is transliterated into
English as “genus.” If cows are bred, a calf is born.
If dogs are bred, puppies are born. A dog and a cat
cannot be bred to get a kitten-pup. Crossing a cow
and a horse doesn’t bring a horsey-cow or a cowyhorse.
Why? Because of the law of everything after
its kind. That is why you can have variety within
species but not in genus, not in kind. There is a
great difference in characteristics between a Guernsey
cow, a Jersey, and a Brown Swiss, for instance;
but they belong to the same kind – the genus is
bovine. There is no overlapping of genus. You
cannot breed a cow to a horse because they are not
of the same genus. There is evolution within
species, but not between genus. All theories of
evolution die before they start unless kept within
the category of species and not genus.
The Word of God says, “...the fruit tree yielding
fruit...whose seed is in itself....” The seed is always
in itself and it is the seed that has life. Take a seed,
put it in the ground, add a little moisture and
sunshine, and soon a leaf shoots up. Why? Because
the seed has life in itself.
When it comes to man, who has the seed? The
life which is in the flesh is contributed by the sperm
of the male. When the sperm impregnates the egg,
the sperm carries soul life and the soul life is in the
seed. This becomes singularly important to man
when studying the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
How many times did God create soul? The Bible
says that (except for the birth of Jesus) God created
it just once and that was when animals first came
into being. God simply took the previously created
soul life and gave it to man when God formed and
made Adam. Adam then had progeny; and his sons
and daughters, in turn, had progeny. The soul life
which was in Adam was carried on in his children
and in his children’s children. When Adam took his
last breath, his personal soul was gone; but his soul
life lived on in Cain, in Seth and in the rest of his
sons and daughters. To this day the same soul life
continues in mankind which God originally put in
Adam when God made him.
Acts 17:26:
And [God] hath made of one blood all nations of
men for to dwell on all the face of the earth....
If all men come from the same blood, our soul
life being derived from one common source
(Adam), why are there so many physical variations
among people? For instance, why are some people
white, some yellow, some black and some red?
How does one account for all this? To understand
physical variations, we must have a knowledge of
genes and chromosomes and dominant and recessive
characteristics. Mendel’s Law explains the process
of dominant and recessive characteristics in plants
and animals. Breeding controls or determines the
variations within species.
In the beginning of man, the gene which determined
the coloring of the skin carried both the dark
and light characteristics. After generations of the
darker-skinned marrying darker-skinned and fairer-skinned
marrying fairer-skinned people, eventually
strains end up with darker darks and lighter lights
than originally existed, all due to natural selection
and dominant characteristics. Thus came about the
different colors and the different races of men that
Body, Soul, Spirit – Formed, Made, Created 207
dwell upon the face of the earth today. It does not
contradict any of God’s Word and it does not contradict
the science of genetics.
Another question always arises as to whom the
children of Adam and Eve married. Since there
were no neighbors around, whom could the children
take as their mates? Whom did Cain marry, for
instance? He married his sister. Whom else could
he marry? Finding a mate was no problem because,
as Genesis 5:4 says,
And the days of Adam after he had begotten
Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat
sons and daughters.
The sons of Adam married their own sisters. If
we had a pure blood stream, we could marry our
sisters. The reason we are not allowed now to marry
sisters is that the impurities in our blood streams
would cause complications in the next generation
and in those following.
Because of purer blood people lived longer lives
as the early Biblical records tell. Some people
explain early man’s longevity by saying that their
years weren’t as long as ours. But time then was the
same as now. The reason for such longevity was
that their blood had not become so contaminated, so
impure. Marriage and sin eventually began to
produce weaker people who, therefore, died at an
earlier age.
Previously “soul” has been defined as “breath-life.”
Plants do not have breath-life and yet they
obviously have life in that they grow and bear fruit.
Plants have growth-life, but they do not have
breath-life. Animals have both growth-life and soul
or breath-life. Man, as he originally was created,
surpassed the animal realm in that he not only had
body and soul but also spirit. It was the spirit which
set man apart from the rest of creation. Because
man had spirit, God could communicate with his
final masterpiece.