Do we have two or three parts? Are we body, soul, and spirit - or - body, soul-spirit?

I answer, it is just as plain that in these texts man is identified with his body, as he is in the former ones with his spirit or his soul. It would be wrong to argue exclusively from either class of passages: as wrong to say man is all soul, upon the authority of one, as to say he is all body, upon the authority of the other. This last is the vitiating error of Mr. Constable's whole argument. Neither body, nor soul, nor spirit, is the man exclusively, but "spirit and soul and body" (1 Thess. 5:23) make up the man; insomuch that he may be, and is, identified with either, according to the line of thought which is in the mind of the speaker; his identification with the body, which man sees and touches, being in general the language of sense, while faith identifies him with the unseen "spirit."* Our poor Annihilationists see and confess what sense recognizes, and are blind to the other. It is a sad evidence of their condition.

The question is thus a long way toward settlement. If it be still asked, What about the texts which, on their side, Annihilationists lay stress upon? Is not "dust thou art" Scripture? And is it not equally written that "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground"? and that "devout men carried Stephen" - not his body merely - "to his burial"? I answer, it is just as plain that in these texts man is identified with his body, as he is in the former ones with his spirit or his soul. It would be wrong to argue exclusively from either class of passages: as wrong to say man is all soul, upon the authority of one, as to say he is all body, upon the authority of the other. This last is the vitiating error of Mr. Constable's whole argument. Neither body, nor soul, nor spirit is the man exclusively, but "spirit and soul and body" (1 Thess. v. 28) make up the man; insomuch that he may be, and is, identified with either, according to the line of thought which is in the mind of the speaker; his identification with the body, which man sees and touches, being in general the language of sense, while faith identifies him with the unseen "spirit."* Our poor Annihilationists see and confess what sense recognizes, and are blind to the other. It is a sad evidence of their condition.

The answer from 1 Thess. 5:23, is, that he is "spirit and soul and body": "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God that your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." The prayer is, manifestly, for the sanctification of the whole man to God, and to emphasize it, as it were, it is, that man is divided into his three constituent parts, and the sanctification of the whole man is interpreted to be the preservation blameless before God of "spirit, soul and body."

With these facts before us, the way is prepared for us to see a new and beautiful harmony in the Scripture teaching as to soul and spirit. That these are quite distinct from one another, though so nearly related, the word of God bears abundant witness. "Your whole spirit and soul and body," and "piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit," are passages sufficiently plain. But the question naturally arises, How, then, are they distinguished, and what are their relationships to one another? In the answer to this which the inspired writings furnish, we find also the fullest confirmation of the fact of the existence of these two separate entities in the compound nature of man.

With these facts before us, the way is prepared for us to see a new and beautiful harmony in the Scripture teaching as to soul and spirit. That these are quite distinct from one another, though so nearly related, the word of God bears abundant witness. "Your whole spirit and soul and body," and "piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit," are passages sufficiently plain. But the question naturally arises, How, then, are they distinguished, and what are their relationships to one another? In the answer to this which the inspired writings furnish, we find also the fullest confirmation of the fact of the existence of these two separate* entities in the compound nature of man.

This is clearly taught in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, where it is plainly stated: “I pray God your whole spirit (pneuma) and soul (psuche) and body be preserved blameless”. Here the three elements are clearly set down as distinguishable entities. In Hebrews 4:12 , the spirit and soul are again distinguished from one another—“The Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit”.

It may be asked whether we can determine the difference between the soul and the spirit. To do this exhaustively it would be necessary to examine a mass of scriptural evidence. A brief analysis of scriptural teaching will, however, be attempted. Let us look at the term ‘spirit' first. The Hebrew word for spirit in the Old Testament is ‘Ruach' and the exact equivalent in the New Testament is the Greek word ‘Pneuma'.

Side by side with this soul, which we have seen to be the seat of personal identity, is found in the Scriptures another thing, mentioned under the name of "spirit."

The distinction between "soul" and "spirit" is marked in 1 Thess. 5:23, where "spirit, soul, and body" are separately given as the natural constituents of the man. Impossible to the unaided human intelligence, this distinction is to be learned from the word of God alone, which pierces "to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit" (Heb. 4:12); and there it is seen to be the higher or intellectual part of the man, the seat of the mind or understanding; that by which man is linked to the higher order of intelligences, as the possession of a soul in common with the lower orders of being links him with them. The word for "spirit" is in Joshua 2:11 translated "courage;" in Prov. 29:11, Ezek. 11:5, 20:32, Dan. 5:20, "mind," while in 1 Cor. 2:11 it is given as that by which "the things of a man" are known.

After Adam fell, God acquainted him with the origin of his body: "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Was Adam only dust? Surely not. He had a soul and a spirit, as we learn doctrinally from a passage in the New Testament (1 Thess. 5:23), which states what other scriptures confirm, that body, soul, and spirit together make up the man. The distinction between body and spirit all but the most pronounced materialist would admit. (Ecc. 12:7.) The difference between soul (psyche) and spirit (pneuma) the word of God distinctly asserts (Heb. 4:12), though often in scripture, and in common language, the word soul (psyche) is used for both. (Matt. 10:28; 1 Peter 1:9.) Adam died, and all his posterity, in the antediluvian world, except Enoch, who was translated, and Noah, and those with him, who survived the divine visitation of the flood within the ark. In process of time Noah died, and his offspring, with one exception — that of Elijah, who was taken up by a whirlwind to heaven without passing through the portals of death. Death, then, having been the common lot of man, and exemption from it having been limited as yet to the two just named — Enoch and Elijah — it is a most important question, which closely concerns man, Is there a resurrection of the body, or is there not? A book has been recently published denying this doctrine, which the author is pleased to call "a theological dogma." (Page 93.) Let us turn to an older book, to learn what it says on this subject.

Man, as created by God, and living on earth in mortal flesh, is a triune being, composed of “spirit and soul and body” (1 Thess. 5:23 ). These three parts constitute the man. He may be, and is, in the language of Scripture, identified with either, according to the line of truth being revealed. He usually is so with the “body” when his relation to others is in view, and with the “soul and spirit” when his attitude toward God is under consideration. It is the possession of spirit which makes man a moral and accountable being, fitted for acquaintance and intercourse with God, and which links him, in his hopes or fears, with a life and a world beyond the present.

These scriptures show us that man has a body, characterized as the bodies of animals, so far as that is concerned; but the body is evidently not the larger or more important part of his being. There is a spirit. which does not die, and which is conscious when the body is buried. Thus, our Lord, in speaking of death, calls it "sleep," as applying to the body. The soul, the seat of the affections and desires, is spoken of, as in Luke 12: "This night thy soul shall be required of thee." The spirit is not always differentiated from the soul, but in the passage referred to in Luke 16, evidently the man is seen as a spirit. Indeed, while we can clearly distinguish between the two spiritual departments of man, his soul and spirit, they evidently are to be taken together. Thus, it is the man who has desires, affections and feelings, and yet his spirit is a higher department of his personality, including, conscience and the mind. Thus, as to the constitution of man, the Gospels, in harmony with all the rest of Scripture, show him as a tripartite person, with body, soul and spirit united together, all of them essential for the full truth of manhood. We find therefore no lack of teaching as to the resurrection of the body. "Those that are in their graves shall come forth" (John 5). In the resurrection,the natural relationships of the present life, while remembered, are not renewed. They do not die, nor are given in marriage (Luke 20:35-36).