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Apples of Gold
Radio Script for November 17, 2010
“The Slippery Subject of the Soul”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
There are a lot of spine chilling moments in the Bible, and this is one of them.
It’s found in the book of Revelation, chapter six. The Apostle John was given a glimpse into heaven and here is what he wrote.
“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.”
I can’t imagine what John actually saw, but he said he saw “souls,” the souls of dead people. Their bodies were dead, anyway, but their souls seemed very much alive.
In Revelation 20:4 John wrote this: “…and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”
It’s a futuristic vision that is ghastly to imagine; people standing for Christ and being beheaded. They are killed, but John sees them alive; and what does he see? Their souls. Their bodies were dead but their souls lived on, and they lived and reigned with Christ.
What exactly is a soul? Well it’s apparently similar to a person, according to John’s limited description. It’s similar, but not the same.
Listen carefully to what Jesus said in Matthew 10:28. He said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
That’s Jesus talking about the body and the soul as if they are two distinct entities. And He indicates that people can kill your body, but they cannot kill your soul.
That lines up with John’s vision, because John saw souls alive in heaven, the souls of people whose bodies had been killed.
So men can kill the body, but they cannot kill the soul.
What does the dictionary say about the word “soul”? Well first of all, let me say that the definition of soul is somewhat slippery. It means different things to different people, making it hard to get a grasp on. But listen closely to this first definition listed in the dictionary. The soul is “an entity which is regarded as being the immortal or spiritual part of the person and, though having no physical or material reality, is credited with the functions of thinking and willing, and hence determining all behavior.”
According to that, your soul is your “decision maker.” You might call it your “mind;” not your brain, not the physical organ, but your mind.
Now let’s look at something Paul wrote in First Thessalonians 5:23. It says, “May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
He added a third dimension – a spirit. According to that, the soul is something different from the body and the spirit. Well the body is easy enough to figure out, but what are the soul and the spirit?
Who knows? It could be that the spirit is the God-breathed part of us that animates us to begin with, then the soul is the unique, immortal part of us that makes decisions, responds to God, feels emotions, things like that.
Think about that difference between soul and spirit as you read Hebrews 4:12 which says, “For 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, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Now what on earth does it mean that the word of God divides soul and spirit? I don’t know, but it could be that the word of God reveals the difference between the two, between the God part inside of us that contains our highest attributes, and the “us” part inside of us that contains our sin-tarnished souls.
As you have probably gathered by now, I am no expert on the soul. I tried to find an expert on the soul, and I came across a lot of verbiage, but nothing that sounded air tight.
But here are some things we can glean about the soul from the Bible.
Jesus put a very high price tag on our soul when He said this in Matthew 16:26, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?
It’s a rhetorical question, and the point is that if you gain the whole world but lose your soul, there would be no profit. Your soul is worth more than the whole world.
Well how can you lose your soul if your soul is you? I will go back to our soul being our decision maker. If that’s the case, then losing our soul could mean losing our power to make our own decisions, such as becoming a slave to sin, for example.
Micah 6:7 includes this phrase: “the sin of my soul.”
First Peter 2:11 says “to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.”
Sin has a way of polluting our soul. The Scriptures mention other maladies that effect the soul, including grief (Psalm 31:9), bitterness (Job 7:11), thirst (Psalm 42:1), and weariness (Proverbs 25:25).
But there is a lot of good news for the soul! In Matthew 11:29 Jesus said that when we come to Him we will find rest for our souls. First Peter 2:25 refers to Jesus as the “Shepherd and Overseer” of our souls.
In Christ we have hope, which Hebrews 6:19 calls “an anchor for the soul.”
Many verses talk about souls being “saved,” including First Peter 1:9 which says, “…for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
Psalm 19:7 says that the law of the Lord converts the soul.
The Old Testament contains a laundry list of things we are to do with all of our soul, including seeking the Lord, turning to the Lord, loving the Lord, serving the Lord, walking with Him, obeying Him and observing His decrees.
The Bible says that souls rejoice (Psalm 35:9), and they praise the Lord (Psalm 103:1).
And Third John 1:2 talks about souls prospering.
As I said, the soul is a slippery subject, hard to get a grip on.
I sure don’t have all the answers, and I don’t know anyone who does.
Except the Lord Himself – the Shepherd of our souls.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
A little note on how I researched the Scriptures for this article. I stuck with verses that included the word soul in several translations of the verse. For example, I did not include Ezekiel 18:20 which says in the KJV “The soul that sinneth it shall die,” but which says the word “person” instead of “soul” in other translations. I figured it was challenging enough to track down specific information about the soul without wading into the translational differences!
© 2010 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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