~lpdis~an? Body - Soul- Spirit

Dichotomy and Trichotomy

"I am fearfully and wonderfully made, « said the Psalmist (Psalm 139). But eXactly how are we made? The first prayer that children often learn is, UN ow I lay me doWn to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep; If! should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." From our earliest days we are taught that man is more than a body, that he is body and soul. The Bible also refers to man's spirit What do these words mean and what is their relationship to each other?

The Bible refers to various aspects of man. "Bodily exercise profiteth little," the Bible says, I Tim. 4:8. In Mat. 10:28,Jesus said, "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kil! the souL But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell • Paul, in I Thess. 5:23 prays that our body, soul, and spirit be preserved complete at the coming of Christ. We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength,

Wayne Rogers

Mark 12:30. How are we to understand our created constitu don?

There has been an historical debate whether man consists of body, soul, and spirit - three parts (Trichotomy - "to cut in three"), or body and soul/spirit - two parts (Dichotomy - "to cut in two"). Some now prefer to emphasize the unity of man, without discussing man as separate elements. Dichotomists believe that the soul is in essence the same as the spirit. Man consists of body, and of soul or spirit. Dichotomists appeal to the interchangeability of the terms soul and spirit in Scripture. Trichotomists appeal to I Thess. 5:23 and Heb. 4:12 to assert that man is composed of three distinct parts, body, soul, and spirit. Depending upon the author these three elements are defined generally as: The body is the material part of our constitution; the soul is the principle of animal

22 ~ THE COUNSEL (If Chalcedon ~ January, 1995

life, including appetites, memory, understanding, etc.; and the spirit is the principle of our rational and immortal life, our conscience and will.

What might appear to be merely a scholarly, semantic, or philosophical issue does become important when theological implications or applications are made based upon the trichotomist view in particular. Often these distinctions become the basis for views or practices that may be erroneous or misleading. Often this is the underlying premise or presupposition that is unexpressed and is the basis for other practices or views. Annihilalionists, for example, believe that the soul of the unbeliever is annihilated at death. there is no eternal punishment. Annihilationists hold that man at his creation had a' divine element breathed into him, which he lost by sin, and which he recovers only iri regeneration; so that only when he has this spirit restored by virtue of his union with Christ does he become immortal, death being to the sinner a complete extinction of being. Thus, by a radical separation of soul and spirit, they can deny eternal damnation. Now, that is not,to say that all Trichotomists are annihilationists.

John Wesley, for another example, according to Bruce Milne, held that man is a dichotomy before conversion and a trichotomy afterwards. This position can encourage the presumption not that we are Simply indwelt with the Spirit, but that our spirit is the Holy Spirit himself. ' "Theologically it is

precarious since it involves the almost blasphemous claim that we possess God as part of ourselves; pastorally it is dangerous since the individual can on this basis claim that the emanations of his spirit are the emanations of God's Spirit and thereby dispense with the necessary correctives of Scripture and church," Bruce Milne, Know The Truth, IVP, pg. 97.

Bill Gothard also places a great deal of emphasis on the distinctions of the Trichomist view. Wilfred Bockelman in his book, Gothard: The Man and his Ministry, (Quill Pub. , Matt Media), has a chapter on the implications of the Spirit, Soul, and Body distinctions in Gothard's teaching. He states, for example, that Gothard breaks music into a three-fold division based on the body, soul, spirit distinctions. Melody relates to the spirit, harmony to the soul, and rhythm to the body. Since rhythm relates to the sensual and body, and melody is spiritual, you cannot combine melody and rhythm. Another tendency is to equate the body with the physical and sinful and to regard the physical world with the lower nature. Therefore, large sections of learning having to do with social sciences and humanities are considered inappropriate for Christians.

The trichotomist position is very popular among some evangelical psychologists such as Clyde Narramore, Donald Tweedy, and Paul Tournier. According to this position, "The soul or psyche is the aspect of man that is involved in mental and emotional functioning, and

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the spirit is the part of man which functions religiously. Trichotomists often express what they believe to be the distinction between the spirit and soul in this way: The soul is the part of man that is active in the horizontal relationships of life (adjustment to others and to one's environment); the spirit, however, is the part of man that is active in the vertical relationship of life (one's personal relation to God): " Gerald O'Donnell, Psychology in a Christian Perspective, Dordt College, 1972, pg. 7.

The Greek word "soul," PSUCHE, from which we get our word "Psyche," is the root word of "Psychology." Psychology means "words about the soul." Psychology is the study of the inner person which is viewed as the source of external behavior. The implications of non-Christian psychology is devastating in terms of the truthfulness and helpfulness of its counsel. If the counselor does not acknowledge or take into account the fact that man's soul is a divinely given spirit, that man is created in the image of God, and he does not take into account man's sin and God's word, then the counselor cannot properly counsel an individual. He may be able to relieve their symptoms of anger, depression, etc., but not by addressing the real problem, but by psychologically "doping up" the victim. Not only does he often offer little or false hope, but counsels contrary to reality and truth. He often counsels ungodly behavior, such as unbiblical divorce, venting anger, and seeks to suppress and alleviate guilt by

attributing guilt to our social! religious environment.

Even the so-called "Christian" counselor who seeks to treat man based on definitions and distinctions of soul &: spirit, treating the "psyche," often fails to properly counsel and provide hope and comfort to his subject and leads God's sheep astray. God's word addresses the whole man: body, soul and spirit as responsible, changeable, and as necessatily accountable for compliance with the whole word and will of God. Man's behavior and feelings may be affected by his bodily afflictiOns, circumstantial situation, etc. But like Job, regardless of his circumstance, he can say, "Blessed be the name of the Lord," Job 1:21. He is not a victim of circumstances, but the object of divine providence. Because his body and soul are not distinct from tl1e spirit, man is never excused from holiness, obedience, lawfulness, or self­control because of his circumstances, his feelings, his past experiences, or his personality. And man is approached through the spirit to change his character, behavior, feelings, etc.

We are not saying that parents, people, circumstances, and experiences do not have a significant impact and influence upon an individual's general behavior, feelings, or manner. A person may feel depressed or angry because of his past or present experiences or circumstances. Some of those experiences he may not even be conscious of. If we define

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"temperament" as my natural way of reacting or behaving towards others and circumstances, then we can admit that we all have different temperaments and natural tendencies. Gordon Allport defines temperament as , "the characteristic phenomena of an individual's nature, including his susceptibility to emotional stimulations, his customary strength and speed of response, the quality of his prevailing mood, and all the peculiarities of fluctuations and intensity of mood, these being regarded as dependent on constitutional . make-up, and therefore largely hereditary in origin,". (Quoted by ].1. Packer, Rediscovering Holiness, Vine Books, pg. 24). Packer comments, "Temperament, we might say, is the raw material out · of which character is formed. Character is what we do with our temperament. Personahty is the final product, the distinct individuality that results." This is not to adopt determinism or behaviorism. And the place where we want to begin is with the fact that we are new men, not natural men.

A person's general "personality' may be described as melancholy or "outgoing." Nevertheless, because we are not just people who are souls Who also have a spirit (Trichotomy), but we are soul and spirit, (Dichotomy) people, each individual is accountable to an absolute and comprehensive revelation of actions and attitudes that are to characterize the new man in Christ regardless ofhis

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circumstances, environtnent, personality, and feelings. Thus the Bible does not seek to address the feelings of men directly, or the behavior of men indirectly, but the whole man directly in terms of the Word of God. The various Apostles and their converts were individuals with various personal, spiritual, and sinful backgrounds. Nevertheless, the Scriptures, because they had been born again, are new creations in Christ, instruct them to put off the old man (in general and in particular) and to put on the new man. Thus, not every Christian will have the same personality, be naturally friendly or an extrovert, but he can be called to love his brethren, be joyful, be a loving husband and caring father, be a submissive wife (without the need to uncover and dredge up her feelings of hostility toward an abusive father.) Our point is that because the spirit that is renewed in Christ is the . embodiment of the "soul," the "psyche," of a person, our approach must be to deal wit!). the psyche through the positive, living, and spiritual word of God, and not by the negative and backward approach of dredging up the past. Forgetting the things that are behind, let us press forward to our high calling in Christl

The Bible clearly indicates that man has a material body and an immaterial soul, Gen. 2:7. Does the word "spirit," however, indicate that man possesses a third, distinct entity which can be separated from the soul? The dichotomist position is that there

are a number of terms, such as , so1)1 and spirit, tliat describe the imma~erial side of man, not as distinct entities, but as aspects of the immaterial souVspiritual side of man.

, "Man's immaterial side is given many different names in Scripture ... .It is always described in terms of how man functions, or how he relates to God, the world around him or the next life. Thus these terms should not be viewed as referring to separate entities in man but as simply describing man's multi-dimensional functions and relationships .... These terms (soul, spirit, etc.) are not technical words in the sense that they have one consistent meaning throughout Scripture. They display unity and diversity by being synonymous at times when referring to the immaterial side of man, and at other times; referring to different functions or ways of relating,"

"It is obvious that we should not impose 20th century standards of consistency and linguistic preciseness to a book which was written thousands of years ago. Each term may have a dozen different meanings, depending on the context and the progressive nature of revelation. The failure to avoid reductionistic and simplistic definitions is based on the hidden assumption that once the meaning of a word is discovered in a single passage, this same meaning must prevail in every other occurrence of the word. For example, it has become quite fashionable to restrict the meaning of the word "soul" to "physical life" because this was

16 '1' THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon '1' Jannary, 1995

. probably what it meant when it was used by Moses to refer to the immaterial life principle within animals (Gen. 1:20) or within man (Gen 2:7). Once the annihilationists and some neo­orthodox writers demonstrated that the word "soul" in Gen. 2:7 probably means "living being," they then pronounce that this is the ONLY definition of soul which is allowed. When other passages are presented where the context demands another definition of the word "soul," they lay these passages aside and retreat to Gen. 2:7." Robert Morey, Death and the Afterlife, Bethany House, pg. 43-44.

"The use made of these terms (soul, spirit) by the apostles proves nothing more than that they used words in their current popular sense to express divine ideas. The word "spirit" designates the one soul emphasizing its quality as rational. The word "spirit" designates the same soul emphasizing its quality as the vital and animating principle of the body. The two are used together to express popularly the entire man," James P. Boyce, Abstract of Systematic Theology, pg. 198.

This theological difference, ,thus, from the start is related to how we view words used in the Bible. The point is that many words in Hebrew and Greek do not have a simple or single meaning, but have a breadth of meaning depending upon the context. The trichotomist demands that since spirit and soul are two different words they must be two different things. To be concluded in the next issue. n