What About the Soul

What About the Soul?

In some aspects, the soul is the center of the trichotomy of man. When I refer to a person, I refer to a being that has a soul, being composed of the mind, will, and emotion. While human inventions can mimic the logic of the mind it cannot simulate the emotion or the creativity of the will. These three are necessary for the soul.

Animals and angels also have souls. They are not human souls, but both display the mind (thinking), the will (choosing), emotion (feeling), and self awareness. Therefore both angels and animals are in that sense persons. I do not thereby imply that animals go to heaven. There is little doubt that there will be animal life in Heaven. Furthermore, the Bible does seem to indicate that there will be a rising of animals from death. This is found in:

Ezekiel 47:8 Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: [which being] brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. 9 And it shall come to pass, [that] every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come hither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh.

In my younger years (early teenage years), I looked at the soul as an orb. An orb seemingly infinite in this containing capacity, but from outward appearance the size fixed. I reasoned that the person functioned from the contents of this “orb.” The orb contained swirling mists of light or colors. The colors represented attitudes or spiritual qualities, or possibly soulual forces (such as greed, affection, happiness, bitterness, or whatever). Soulual is just my way of saying the things that belong to the soul.

A person naturally functions based on what is in the “orb.” (This is an especially good picture of the unconscious but still applies to the rest of the soul.) You can add qualities to the orb endlessly (or so it appears) but it is endless in capacity. As you add something it changes the set that you naturally function from. So, what happens when you have added something evil. It can be hard to do, but evil qualities can be replaced ad weeded out. You cannot just take them out. Once the inward capacity of the orb is increased by adding forces that capacity can not be decreased again. Something must replace what you take out. (This is different from the way sin destroys parts of our souls and forcing use to amputate our potential actions or activities.) This orb contains the unconscious, memories, the physical brain, and attitudes.

While that was my earlier conception of it, the soul has or is, rather a body. We know this because of what Jesus says about the soul desiring water. Luke 16:24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. Some want to allegorize this. But we always want to allegorize what we do not understand.

It functions and acts. It has senses. Different people have different senses. I don’t know if that is because some just have soulual senses that others do not, or if everyone has them and some have just not discovered all of them. Certainly, people have varied levels of perception, just as in all other areas of existence, spiritual and physical.

I have studied the theory of four temperaments of Tim LaHaye. I do believe this to have validity. I believe that the reason that the temperaments works is because each temperament corresponds to each of the soul’s faculties. The sanguine is the person that orients himself from the faculty of the self awareness. The melancholy corresponds to the emotions. The choleric corresponds to the will. The phlegmatic corresponds to the mind. My theory of soul’s orientation seems to translate into LaHaye’s system.

As far as the soul’s orb, I believe there is some application to the aspect of the subconscious.

It seems very possible that the soul has physical bearing, perhaps in energy or something like that.  The Bible seems to indicate this in that angels carried away Lazarus’ soul to Abraham’s bosom.  Luke 16:22 “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried.”   Now, if the soul occupies space and time then it must have physical bearing in some way.  This would shed a new light on the possibilities of out of body experiences and e.s.p. and so forth.  I am not supporting those that practice such things.  Out of body experience could be something arranged by demons.  Perhaps they carry the soul of a person to some other place.  But if that were so, how could the soul of the human gather physical information without the use of physical preceptors such as their eyes or ears . . . too many speculations.  The souls of Lazarus and the rich man and even Abraham seem to be able to see and hear things without a body.  The Scripture does seem to indicate that souls do have physical bearing in the information give about angels who have souls.  Jacob’s latter, Elisha’s servant’s eyes opened to the angels around.

Some will dismiss this essay as foolish because they usually dismiss the physical issues brought up in the story of Lazarus and the rich man.  They call this story a parable.  But Jesus indicates that this is not a parable.  Jesus said that there was a “certain rich man.”  This was not an imaginary man.  It was a real, certain man.  “And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus. . .”  Jesus is not in the business of making up names for imaginary people.  This was a real man.   Jesus told us something that no one else could have known.  This was what happened to these people after they died.  It is not an allegory.  It is a historical account.  Of course, if you do not believe the Bible, then none of this matters to you.

By Andrew Grosjean 1993

This article was written during college around 1993, laying aside some recent editing. I find some of it less developed in understanding than what I understand now. But it is worth reading. This was written during the college years when I was working for my BRe.

This article is a part of a series.  The first one was "What about the Soul?" and then "What about the Spirit?"  Then there was "What about the Mind and Memory?"  Please refer to these articles as well.

APG