CHAPTER THREE

THE DOCTRINE OF
MAN
ANTHROPOLOGY

Week -3
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
According to inspired Scripture, Man, at his creation, was given two
gifts from God: (1) A body formed from the dust, and (2) the breath of
God. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living
soul" (Gn. 2:7). As a result of the creative combination of an earthly
element and a heavenly element, Man became a living being in the
image of his Creator. He begins life on the earth in a vessel of clay, but
his intended destiny is everlasting life in a glorified body.
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
A. Is Given a Body.
The Greeks and many of the ancients thought of the body as a prison of
the soul and the source of all evil. The Gnostic, a false Christian cult, held
this low esteem of the body to the extreme of denying that Jesus had a
physical body. To counter these Gnostic, John the Apostle warned about
those who denied that Jesus had come in the flesh (1 Jn. 4:1-3). The
Scriptures teach us to honor and respect the body as God's creation:
"Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the
image of God made he man" (Gn. 9:6).
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
The following are TEN facts about the body from Scripture that
are important for the Christian believer to know:
1. It is a mortal body that will return to the dust out of
which it was fashioned,"'. . . for dust thou art, and unto dust
thou shalt return" (Gn. 3:19). This thought will keep us humble
in the presence of our God. When Abraham talked with God,
he said, "Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the
Lord, which am but dust and ashes. . . ." (Gn. 18:27).
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
The following are TEN facts about the body from Scripture that
are important for the Christian believer to know:
2. Man is made of mere dust; but that dust in the hands of
God became something wonderfully made: I will praise thee; for
I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul
knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in
secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see
my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were
written.... (Ps. 139:14-16a)
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
The following are TEN facts about the body from Scripture that
are important for the Christian believer to know:
3. Man's natural, physical body is only a temporary
tabernacle for the real person who inhabits it: "Knowing that
shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ
hath shewed me." (2 Pt. 1:14); and "For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Cor. 5:1).
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
The following are TEN facts about the body from Scripture that
are important for the Christian believer to know:
4. In the resurrection, man will have a new house not made
with hands; however, that new body will have a
relationship to this present natural body. Paul, discussing the
resurrection, states: "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. . . .
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality" (1 Cor. 15:44a,53). This present body, that goes back to dust, will
somehow be changed and transformed into a glorified body.
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
The following are TEN facts about the body from Scripture that
are important for the Christian believer to know:
5. The body of redeemed man is a temple of the Holy
Spirit, therefore it must not be an instrument of sin: What?
know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost
which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your
own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in
your body, and in your spirit, which are God's (1 Cor. 6:19,20).
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
The following are TEN facts about the body from Scripture that
are important for the Christian believer to know:
6. Man's body, when dedicated to Christ's service, is
reckoned as a living and holy sacrifice: "I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy,- acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service" (Rom. 12:1). The
Old Testament worshiper offered dead sacrifices of animals to God; the New
Testament believer in Christ offers not a dead, but a living, offering of
consecrated service - employing the body in Christian living and ministry.
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
The following are TEN facts about the body from Scripture that
are important for the Christian believer to know:
7. The redeemed man may employ his body as a weapon
against Satan. Satan strives to motivate the believer to use his body in a
way that would advance Satan's cause; Paul urges the believer to use his body as
a weapon against Satan and for God: You must not let any part of your body turn
into an unholy weapon fighting on the side of sin; you should instead, offer
yourselves to God, and consider yourselves dead men brought back to life; you
should make every part of your body into a weapon fighting on the side of God
(Rom. 6:13, JB).
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
The following are TEN facts about the body from Scripture that
are important for the Christian believer to know:
8. Redeemed man enjoys certain benefits of Christ's
redeeming work in his body, even in this world. Matthew,
writing about the healing ministry of Jesus, said, When the even was come,
they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and He cast
out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: that it might be
fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our
infirmities and bare our sicknesses (Mt. 8:16,17).
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
The following are TEN facts about the body from Scripture that
are important for the Christian believer to know:
9. The believer will be judged, at the judgment seat of
Christ on the basis of things done in the body: "For we must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may
receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done,
whether it be good or bad" (2 Cor. 5:10). The judgment above
mentioned (bema) is a judgment of works, not of condemnation (1
Cor. 3:11-15).
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
The following are TEN facts about the body from Scripture that
are important for the Christian believer to know:
10. Man's body of "dust," which he inherits from Adam,
bears the image of Adam as well as the image of God. Through
Christ we will inherit a glorified body in the image of Christ, the last Adam. This is brought out in 1 Corinthians
15, and made clear in the rendering of the New King James Version: The first man Adam became a living being,
the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the
spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man
of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly.
And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man (1 Cor.
15:45-49).
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
B. Is Given an Immaterial Life.
The Scriptures teach that Man's immaterial life and personality are derived
from God's creative breath and that our life's breath depends upon the
sustaining grace of our Creator: Job. 12:10; Ps. 33:6; Is. 42:5; Acts 17:25.
Some schools of modern scientific psychology attribute Man's personality
and intellect to the physical, chemical and electrical function of the brain.
While these schools cannot explain the origin of life nor the life principle,
they prefer to entirely eliminate any Supernatural basis for man's rational
faculty.
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
B. Is Given an Immaterial Life.
The IMMATERIAL element in man is referred to in Scripture by the use of
at least NINE (9) different terms:
1. Life (Mk. 8:35) 6. Strength (Lk. 10:27)
2. Soul (Mk. 8:36) 7. Self (I Cor. 4:3,4)
3. Spirit (Ps. 31:5) 8. Will (1 Cor. 7:37)
4. Mind (Rom. 7:25) 9. Affections (Col. 3:2)
5. Heart (Eph. 6:6)
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
B. Is Given an Immaterial Life.
In regard to the composition of Man, there are TWO classical schools of
thought:
(1) Trichotomy (three parts) - body, soul, and spirit, and
(2) Dichotomy (two parts) - body and soul (or spirit).
The arguments for the two positions are as follows:
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
B. Is Given an Immaterial Life.
In regard to the composition of Man, there are TWO classical schools of
thought:
(1) Trichotomy (three parts) - body, soul, and spirit
a) In Genesis 2:7, the combination of a body of dust and the breath of God resulted in a third
part, the soul.
b) I Thessalonians 5:23 definitely specifies three parts of man: "And the very God of peace
sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
B. Is Given an Immaterial Life.
In regard to the composition of Man, there are TWO classical schools of
thought:
2) Dichotomy (two parts) - body and soul (or spirit).
a) In Genesis 2:7, only two distinct parts are mentioned: the body of earth and the breath of God. The living
"soul" is not a third part, but the result of body and spirit. It does not say that man had a soul, but "became a
living soul [being]."
b) The terms "soul" and "spirit" are used interchangeably; for instance, in John 12:27 Jesus said, "Now is my soul
troubled"; but in John 13:21, we read: "When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit." (See also Gn. 41:8;
Ps. 42:6; Heb. 12:23; and Rv. 6:9; 20:4.
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
C. Becomes a Living Soul (Being) - Genesis 2:7.
The two views of Trichotomy and Dichotomy have been
outlined above. It should be kept in the mind that the
difference between the two positions is not really great and that
no other major doctrine is affected by the difference.
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
C. Becomes a Living Soul (Being) - Genesis 2:7.
1. Man as a unity. There is a strong tendency among
conservative scholars to think of man as a unity rather than as
a being of divisible parts. The soul (spirit) is separated from
the body at physical death, but only for an interim awaiting the
resurrection. Paul speaks of the soul as naked without the
body:
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
C. Becomes a Living Soul (Being) - Genesis 2:7.
2. The origin of Man's soul or spirit. Since the Scriptures
record only one creation by God's direct act of breathing life,
from what source does each newly born person's soul come?
There are THREE theories:
(a) Pre-existence, (b) Creationism,
and (c) Traducianism.
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
C. Becomes a Living Soul (Being) - Genesis 2:7.
2. The origin of Man's soul or spirit.
a) Preexistence is self-explanatory. This theory of transmigration of souls
is held by Hinduism, Theosophy, Rosicrucians and many occult
religions. It has no support in Scripture whatever.
b) Creationism is held by Roman Catholics and many Reformed
theologians. According to Creationists, the soul is created directly by God in each
newly conceived person sometime between conception and birth; only the body is
propagated by the parents.
V. MAN CREATED A LIVING
SOUL (BEING)
C. Becomes a Living Soul (Being) - Genesis 2:7.
2. The origin of Man's soul or spirit.
c) Traducianism. seems to be the preferred theory among conservative
scholars. According to Traducianism, the human race was created in
Adam, and from him both body and soul were procreated by natural
generation. Scriptures supporting this theory, to list a few, are: Jb. 14:4,
15:14; Ps. 51:5, 58:3; Jn. 3:6; and Eph. 2:3. Dr. Strong describes the
position as follows:
Discussions and recitations
VI. MAN'S PRIMITIVE
STATE
It will be the purpose of this section to examine the
primitive state of Adam before the Fall. An attempt will
be made to show the psychological, moral, social,
occupational, and spiritual condition of Adam and Eve
as occupants of their God-given Edenic home.
VI. MAN'S PRIMITIVE
STATE
A. The State of Knowledge.
God gave to Adam the task of naming all the animals and birds, and
perhaps all forms of life, for he was given dominion over all of God's
creatures (Gn. 1:28; 2:19,20). This required a vast knowledge.
Apparently, Adam's knowledge included an insight into the nature and
relative purpose of each species; for in primitive times names did more
than identify the holder, they revealed character and destiny. The
father of the human race was not a full-grown adolescent; he was the
resident scientist of Eden.
VI. MAN'S PRIMITIVE
STATE
B. The Moral State.
Since Holiness and Righteousness are among the fundamental attributes of God, Adam,
created in God's image, must have partaken of a holy and righteous character. When
God had completed the creation, it was perfect: "And God saw everything that he had
made, and, behold, it was very good" (Gn. 1:31a). A comparison of Ephesians 4:24
with Colossians 3:9,10 strongly infers the primitive righteousness of Adam. His state is
often described as that of mere innocence; however, the word "innocence" is not
sufficiently definitive. Adam was created in a state of holiness; and while it was not yet
confirmed, because it had not yet been tested, it was a state devoid of evil.
VI. MAN'S PRIMITIVE
STATE
C. The Psychological State.
Adam seems to have been created with several basic instincts (some may prefer
to call them needs, drives or impulses).
These instincts or needs would seem to be the following:
1. Self-preservation: Adam was warned by God of impending death, if he ate of
the forbidden tree (Gn. 3:3).
2. The desire for food: God provided every kind of plant and tree good for food
(Gn. 1:29).
VI. MAN'S PRIMITIVE
STATE
C. The Psychological State.
These instincts or needs would seem to be the following:
3. The urge for procreation or sex: Adam and Eve were commanded to multiply and replenish the earth (Gn.
1:28). Genesis says about man and woman: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave
unto his wife. . ." (Gn. 2:24).
4. The need for acquisition: God placed them in their own garden, which they lost with the Fall (Gn. 2:15).
5. The drive for domination: Adam was commanded to have dominion over the earth and over every created
thing (Gn. 1:28). These instincts were for the good of Man; they continue to be for Man's good when they are not
abused; however, they constitute the desire of the "flesh"; consequently, they must be controlled by the Spirit in
the believer. There will be more on this subject in a later section.
VI. MAN'S PRIMITIVE
STATE
D. The Social State.
Man is a social creature, he was made for companionship. "And the Lord
God said,'It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him an help
meet for him'"(Gn. 2:18). (See also Gn. 18:23,24). In the garden, Adam had
daily communication with the Lord. When Eve was created, he had
constant companionship with a being of his own kind. When Adam sinned,
he was alienated from God; then, suspicion surfaced between Adam and
Eve, resulting in the accusation, "the woman whom thou gavest to be with
me..." (Gn. 3:12).
VI. MAN'S PRIMITIVE
STATE
E. The Occupational State.
The Garden of Eden was not a place of idleness. "And the Lord God took
the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it" (Gn.
2:15). Adam was not only a zoologist, he was also a horticulturist. The
beauty and productivity of Eden were not the result of God's creative work
only; Adam kept and tended the garden, giving it touches of human
handiwork. Creative occupation is positively essential for fulfillment. Work
became "toil" only when sin entered the scene.
VI. MAN'S PRIMITIVE
STATE
F. The State of Life Expectancy.
Adam was created with the potential of immortality. Death would occur
only if Adam disobeyed the command of God relative to eating from the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gn. 2:16,17; 3:3). When Adam and
Eve sinned, death began to reign. Angels with a flaming sword henceforth
guarded the tree of life (Gn. 3:24). Jesus Christ, the last Adam, has removed
the sting of death; the Seed of woman has bruised the serpent's head;
through God's Son, paradise is restored.
Discussions and recitations