Greetings Brethren:
My heart is heavy our
hearts are weary as we continue our mission to refute the vile and evil notion
of BURNING the dead. The belief in CREMATION by those that claim to love God is
very ugly. We pity the Pagans and Heathens that BURN the dead however for those
lost among the Church of Christ and those that come as Witnesses for God it is
a crying shame. Meanwhile Satan rejoices as many of the very elect bow to his
evil desires.
Can you BURN the
Soul? Can you BURN the Spirit? Can you BURN the body?
Peace and Love, Carl
Patton writing for the FreedomJournal October 17, 2003, in the year of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ.
CREMATION AND THE SPIRIT
PART 10: CAN YOU BURN THE SOUL?
In
the name of God master of the universe, Ruler of the earth.
Greetings Brethren we
are thankful for another day in time to bear witness to the Truth of God.
Therefore we thank our Father God who blessed us with our Savior Jesus Christ
who then rendered to us the Holy Spirit at His ascension.
As we pursue what the
writers inspired by God have to say about Cremation we note that the word
CREMATION is not found in scripture. However it is the challenge of the Bible
readers to search the Bible for answers to certain questions. Our question and
concern is that Cremation is an ungodly act. Our specific concern here is to
note what the Bible says about Spirit. The Spirit is important in our
three-fold look at our subject because many people especially those in the
Church of Christ argue that the body is useless at death thus we are concerned
( they must mean God is concerned) with the Spirit. They also must be implying
that they believe in the resurrection and that the Spirit will only be
resurrected which is not Bible nor does it make sense.
So as we continue to
dispel the argument that the body is useless we also have to bring clarity to
the soul. As we proceed to the Spirit we will now render the Biblical realties
regarding the Soul.
The standard secular
definitions for Soul note the following: “The part of the human being that
thinks, feels, and makes the body act; the spiritual part of a person as
distinct from the physical.”
Many religions teach
that in death the soul and the body become separated and the soul lives
forever.
For example “For what
shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Mark 8:36) Can you lose your soul by Cremating your body?
The Hebrew word for
soul is nephesh. The Greek word is psyche. My daughter’s name is Psyche also
the Publishing Co. (which is defunct due to Censorship etc.) established by my
beloved Sister Catherine Patton Cothran and myself is named Psyche Publishing.
Therefore we have for sometime had some idea of the nature of the Soul as a
part of Greek mythology and in regard to nature and the make-up of humankind.
Soul is often used in
the Bible to note non-material relationships of man with earthly and physical
things. Soul can also be described as one of the psychological nouns. These
nouns are mind, heart, will and spirit. However each has a different functional
relationship. For example Spirit is very important at this point therefore we
need to give a definitive statement because often it over-laps with the soul.
Therefore the Spirit is the self when thought of apart from earthly
connections.
The following
scripture will add clarity to this statement.
Revelation 6:9. ‘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:”
Here we see the
blessed dead in heaven being spoken of as having been put to a martyr’s
death, they are
called souls. However when there is no reference to their former bodily experience,
they are called Spirits.
Turn to Hebrews
12:23. “To the general assembly and church
of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of
all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,” (See Mathew 27:53; Romans
8:29; 1 Corinthians 15:20; Ephesians 4:8; Jude 14 for examples of just men made
perfect).
Therefore the most
vivid definitive distinction between Soul and Spirit is the Soul refers to
bodily experiences and the Spirit refers to heavenly experiences. So as they
over-lap we will still be able to see the distinction as we proceed and
especially when we get to the section where we will concentrate on the
relationship of Spirit and Cremation.
Do the Body, Soul and
Spirit distinguish man from the beast of the field? The major difference
between man and lower animals is that man was/is made in the image of God. What
else is different? (See Genesis 1:20;
7:15; Ecclesiastes 3:21). Also the
argument and belief by some that the human being is composed of only the body
and soul is refuted in the following scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 1
Corinthians 15:44; Hebrews 4:12.
Cont. Part 11. The
Soul As The Whole Person
Peace and Love, Carl
Patton writing for the FreedomJournal August 21, 2003 in the year of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ.
carl@freedomjournalpress.comcastbiz.net