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What is the true nature of a soul?

PLATONIC-HINDU: The human soul is naturally and essentially immortal; it is uncreated and eternal. The soul passes from one body to another through a series of many incarnations. After paying off its sin (karmic debt), the soul is liberated from somatic existence and lives in a totally blissful state.

webpages.uidaho.edu - ON THE NATURE OF THE SOUL

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Rather than a dualistic view like Plato's--i.e., an immaterial, immortal soul separate from, but within a material body--the Hebrews believed that the soul is a psycho-physical unity. It is sometimes called a "somatic" (Gk. soma=body) soul to emphasize the fact that there is no soul without the body and vice versa. We have to conclude, then, that the Hebrew soul was thoroughly mortal, and that this life was the most important for human beings, and that the afterlife was essentially the non-life of Sheol (the "Pit") where everyone goes, exists as a shadow, and is alienated from God. Note this passage from Job: "Before I go, never to return, to a land of darkness and gloom [Sheol]" (10:21, Anchor Bible). THE NEW TESTAMENT: The somatic soul of the Hebrews continued to have a profound influence, even though Greek dualism is strong as well. Late Judaism, especially under the Pharisees, eventually accepted the idea of eternal life, Heaven, and Hell, and this idea passes into Christianity. The Hebrew "somatic" view dominated particularly in the idea of the resurrection of the body. This is alien to Platonic and Hindu views of the soul, which celebrates a disembodied soul and rejects the body as ultimately evil.

The New Testament uses the Greek word psyche for soul (it means "breath" too), and, interestingly enough, there are animal souls here, too (Rev. 8:9). And, even more intriguing, Jesus, when he dies, is said to "ransom" his soul (Mk. 10:45) or to give up his "spirit" (pneuma, Jn. 10:30; Lk. 23:46; Matt. 27:50). Neither soul nor spirit can be immortal if this is the case. Does God, in the Resurrection, bestow immortality on Jesus as well?

THREE VIEWS OF THE SOUL'S NATURE AND DESTINY

HOMERIC-HEBRAIC: The human soul is essentially mortal and must live in a body to have any integrity or meaning. There is only a shadowy, meaningless afterlife in Hades or Sheol. JUDEO-CHRISTIAN: The human soul is naturally mortal, but immortality is "bestowed" upon it by divine miracle, which resurrects the body and enables it to live with the soul forever. (Note that the Hebrew idea of psycho-physical unity wins out over Greek dualism.) Interestingly enough, this immortality must be granted to everyone, otherwise eternal damnation in Hell would make so sense. (After Vatican II Roman Catholics have returned to something like Sheol for the damned.) PLATONIC-HINDU: The human soul is naturally and essentially immortal; it is uncreated and eternal. The soul passes from one body to another through a series of many incarnations. After paying off its sin (karmic debt), the soul is liberated from somatic existence and lives in a totally blissful state.

AN ARGUMENT FOR THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL (based on Plato)

A thing can be destroyed only by separating its parts.

The soul has no parts.

Therefore, the soul cannot be destroyed.

Both premises can be disputed. Think, for example, of ways of destruction other than separation into parts, such as a light burning out and having no intensity left. The second premise begs the question about the nature of the self. The self that we can observe by introspection is, as both the Buddha and Hume observe, a collection of feelings, cognitions, emotions, dispositions, and awareness. To assume that the soul is simple and not compound is to place your desired conclusion in the premises.

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How does God restore my soul?

God restores your soul by leading you to Jesus Christ, and that is what He was doing through the ministry of Isaiah 700 years before the birth of Jesus, and that is what he wants to do in your life today.

openthebible.org - How God Restores Your Soul | Open the Bible

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Isaiah 53:4

Psalm 23 says, “The Lord is my shepherd…” and David tells us what that means: He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. God restores your soul by leading you to Jesus Christ, and that is what He was doing through the ministry of Isaiah 700 years before the birth of Jesus, and that is what he wants to do in your life today. Isaiah 53 is one of the clearest statements in the Bible of what Jesus has accomplished for his people; and the first thing we see in verse 4 is that Christ came to redeem you. That means he came to release you, set you free, do whatever it takes to get you out of the mess you are in. When Isaiah speaks about the redeeming work of Christ, he does not begin with our guilt and sin; that comes later in the following verse. He starts with our suffering. He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows—the division in your family, the loss of your job, the death of your loved one, the pain of your past. Christ has not abandoned you in your griefs and sorrows. He refused to remain in heaven at a distance from your pain and your tears. He came near, and he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows for us. Jesus will not allow suffering to be the last word in your life.

What does it mean to you that Jesus does not abandon you in your sorrow?

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