Rather than bore you with endless quotes of Biblical references, as if they ever really prove anything, I will simply ask you, dear reader, to reflect on what I say and see if it has the ring of truth to it and if it bears up to your own personal experience.
I was a Zen Buddhist for nearly 30 years so please forgive me for an empirical based approach.
Do we have a Soul or are we just a physical machine? – anyone who has ever seen dead people can tell you that a dead body is just a shell. It is so obvious that the person it held has left, you will find it the most common comment that people make on viewing a dead relative. Nor do we truly know how to create life, we are close to making the conditions for it to happen occur but still we can’t give the breath of life.
We are more than a body – for example, if you were to loose your arms and legs you would still be you. Ask yourself, what bit could you loose and the loss of yourself would be obvious? Is it the brain – what part? Many cultures believe that the identity resides in the heart but we have transplanted hearts and the recipients have remained themselves. Soon we may be able to transplant brains – will we still be ourselves? We have managed to Clone living animals and have found that they may have the genetic age of the clone donor but remain individual thus we can deduce that we can create the conditions for life but we cannot create a soul – this is the missing x in the equation.
Jesus said in John 6:63: "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life."
The Jewish word for Soul is Nephesh and is related to breath. All religions have a description of the soul or what we really are. If you can learn to stop thinking and listen to the silence inside yourself you will find a direct experience of yourself beyond duality.
The Jewish Tradition also has the following:
“A fundamental Jewish belief about human beings is that they are created in the image of God. This does not mean that we look like God, for God is incorporeal. The general rabbinical interpretation of this concept is that humans have the ability to reason.
When Genesis 2:7 says "God formed man," it uses the Hebrew word vayyitzer ("formed"). The Talmud finds special meaning in the unique spelling of the word in this context, with two yods instead of one. The two yods, the rabbis explain, stand for the two impulses found in humans: the yetzer tov and the yetzer ra.
According to this view, the yetzer tov is the moral conscience that reminds a person of God's law when one considers a specific action or choice. The yetzer ra is the impulse to satisfy one's own needs and desires. There is nothing intrinsically evil about the yetzer ra, as it was created by God and is natural to humankind. It is also what drives us to good things such as eating, drinking, having a family, and making a living. However, it can easily lead to sin when not kept in check by the yetzer tov.
The idea of human free will is fundamental to Judaism. The concept of original sin is rejected, and every person has the ability to choose good or evil.”
Those that tried to subvert Christ’s teaching have tried to argue that due to Adam’s sin we are all condemned to be depraved but anyone who looks within will attest that our nature is not evil: it is love - not depravity. Children are as close to God as you can get and abusing Children makes monsters, as we have all seen. Divorce is so damaging on children for the simple reason that they always blame themselves and it is this self-condemnation that warps the soul.
If the Calvinist view were true, then once I accept Christ as my savoir there should be some fundamental change in my internal life but there is not – Christians have the same capacity for Evil as the rest of the population. Was there a fundamental change after Christ’s execution? No – Man post 33AD is as capable of Evil as man pre 33AD.
I digress a little but forgive me –
The story of Genesis speaks of God forming the world from nothing therefore all matter is from God and taking the clay (matter) he breathed life (Nephesh) into it and made man in his image (as above) so we can see that we are Spirit that enters into this dimension through the vehicle of Flesh. The problem arises with “Self-Awareness” which is the translation of the Serpent in Genesis.
“Serpent is the term used to translate a variety of words in the Hebrew bible, the most common being Hebrew: נחש, (nahash), the generic word for "snake". (close to Spirit but not quite)
The most famous Biblical serpent is the talking snake in the Garden of Eden who tempts Eve to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and denies that death will be a result. The Serpent has the ability to speak and to reason, and is identified with the wisdom of this world: "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made" (Genesis 3:1)”
You can imagine this self-awareness as a mirror with which we are intoxicated or as a fog through which we struggle to see clearly.
This is where we come to the nature of Evil – have you ever come across a man that loves a thing so much that he ends up destroying it. What about the man that loves his family but in a moment of madness sleeps with a whore and looses everything – this is evil. It is there with us every second of every day waiting for us to choose the illusion of the image of ourselves over what is true - To reject God and to choose ourselves. Thus the fall in the Garden of Eden is happening every second of everyday for every one of us. This story is allegorical and must be read in context of the Kabbalah.
To think that the story of Genesis is literal and that God would condemn us for the failing of one man is ridiculous and is contrary to the word of Christ.
"IF anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me! For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it!" (Lk. 9:23-24)
Your heart is what requires change, "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries & immoral behavior!" Mt l5:19 "From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks!" Mt 13:34 People can have the 'appearance' of drawing near to God with their mouth, but their hearts are FAR away, Mk7:9
“Jesus answered: Verily, verily, I say to thee, Unless a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of the heavens.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Wonder not that I said to thee: You must be born again.
Calvinists would say that we are depraved and only by being born again can we be saved and that is half right. We must decide to turn from the Illusion of the Image of self-awareness and turn back to God, which is our inherent nature. That is not to say that we were Evil before - just in a fog. It is the being born of water and spirit that speaks of this new beginning but that does not mean that you have a free ticket to heaven. Having glimpsed through the fog and seen the spirit of God we must fight even harder.
Romans 8: is also used to justify this perversion:
“There is, therefore, now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus”
In Romans Paul is talking about the nature of the Law. He postulates that you could say that before we make the law there is no good or evil and it is only God’s law that makes evil. He denies this and explains the Jewish law above – we are both Spirit and Flesh. We tend to do what we know is wrong despite ourselves and bring down suffering on ourselves and everyone else. Until now!
Now Christ has given us a way to be purified and to live in the light. (and the implication is that it is by taking up the Cross)
Rather than boring you here – refer to this link: http://codexsinaiticus.org/en/manuscript.aspx?book=37&chapter=8&lid=en&side=r&zoomSlider=0
This is entirely contrary to the spin that Augustine and Calvin put on this passage. There is no free ticket!
This is the prayer we must hold to our hearts everyday from 1 Timothy 1: 15 –
“Faithful is the word and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief”
I offer this in humility and hope it may help – if anyone would like to comment in good faith I am delighted to debate these points.
God Bless
John Sobieski
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