Featured New Birth vs. Soul Salvation

The only place one can separate the salvation of the soul from being born again, is if one dies as a little child prior to the need to become again a little child in one's standing with God. Matthew 18:2-3, ". . . Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. . . ." ". . . not . . ." meaning not in any way. The Greek ". . . ου μη . . . ."
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Becoming born from above means soul has now been saved....

 

No. A human being is saved whole (body and spirit). The words soul and spirit are used interchangeably at times and at other times “soul” refers to whole person (physical and spiritual).

There is one salvation.

Peace to you

 

Hi Twiceborn,

Vague words or phrases leave the door open to interpretation which may be spot on, or mistaken.
In James 1:21 does the word translated "soul" refer to our spiritual essence? Our human spirit with its core attributes, our soul?

To back up a bit, my view is we are "made sinner" thus at conception we are spiritually unholy, thus separated from our holy God. The term "dead in our sins" refers to being separated and being unable to earn or merit or deserve salvation. Spiritual Salvation reunites us with God, so we are made spiritually alive, together with Christ. We start out spiritually in the realm of darkness, and when God transfers us spiritually into Christ, we are (1) alive rather than dead, (2) in Christ rather than outside of Christ, (3) born anew alive rather than dead, (4) made righteous rather than made sinners, (5) forgiven and justified by the washing of regeneration or rebirth and the circumcision of Christ. But we are still embodied with our corrupt flesh. Thus we look eagerly forward to our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Therefore, in my view, we are saved spiritually and predestined to be saved physically at Christ's second coming and no part of that package can be affected because we are kept by the power of God.

 

". . . Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. . . ."

Little children too young to understand and believe are safe in Christ for a time. The reason Jesus taught, ". . . Allow the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. . . ." -- Mark 10:14-15.
To Nicodemus,
". . . Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? . . ." -- John 3:3-4.
Jesus explained we need to be born of God's Spirit, John 3:5-6.

So I am not understanding what you are asking.

 

Avoid Gnosticism. Soul doesn’t mean what you think it does.

 

Well, yes and no. Jesus taught killing the body does not kill the soul. But the soul with the body will be destroyed in Hell, we identify as the second death. Matthew 10:28. And according to Isaiah 53:10-12, Christ's soul died on the cross. And according to John's account that death was completed before Jesus physically died on the cross. John 19:28. And according to Acts of the Apostles 2:27, His soul lived, and was not dead.

 

Against annihilationism Christ in His soul died while He was paying for our sins with His shed blood. And while His soul was dead on the cross He was conscious, Psalms 22:1; Psalms 22:6. Demonstrates that dead souls of the lost are not annihilated. Matthew 10:28, ". . . fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. . . ."

". . . thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, . . ." -- Isaiah 53:10.
". . . he hath poured out his soul unto death: . . ." -- Isaiah 53:12.

 

I fear we do not agree 100%. Are we to strive to "abide in Christ" meaning to following His teachings, and serve Him? Yes. But what is the loss if we fall short of that mark? Loss of rewards? Yes. Loss of our inheritance? Nope.

 

Agreed.

 

A few random thoughts:

The Scriptures teach that the soul is that which is the life of a person, and that the body is frail at best - replaced with eternal.

As another poster stated the word in English is often referring to the combined life and body.

Paul in declaring that in Corinthians about the body destroyed that the soul be saved, does not pertain to salvation but to preservation (imo) of the eternal life granted by the Father .

Christ is the life giving spirit. Adam was the life giving soul. Humans by their human estate have human life, but the Spirit of life from Christ is the gift of God.

Now, I'm not going into trying to separate the soul and spirit of Christ. That is only for the Scriptures to accomplish. And I'm not certain that our understanding is not but fancy when it comes to understanding the depth of the cost to reconcile God to His own.

I do know that too often the believers do great damage to their soul (life) by living in the flesh and not feeding appropriately upon the life giving Spirit. All manner of accepting that which ungodly twists the mind, places the physical in jeopardy, and distorts the perspectives.

Back in the day, the term was living "soulish" and it was not a term one wanted applied to their manner of living.

The term "living soul" in the Scriptures does not always mean eternal soul. For example when the angel pours out the bowl into the sea, the Scriptures state "every living soul died." That isn't just humans, but all life of the sea.

"The soul that sins shall surely die" is as true today as the day spoken. For all have sinned, and therefore all die.