Quick Answer: I don't think so - not when referring to
physical life and physical death.
Key Scriptures:
I Pet
4:16 Death is in the <sarx>, life
is in the <pneuma>. If life is only in the <pneuma>, then how can
animals be alive? How can plants be alive
if life is only in the spirit? This
argues for another term that would describe life in a more earthly, material
sense. I believe that term is
<zoe> and its derivatives.
I Cor
15:45 describes a "<zao> <psuche>" or "living soul". Based on the phrasing, it seems that the <zao>
is describing a condition of the <psuche>. Given this, it would seem that there is a
difference between "life" or "living" and the soul. I think plants and animals could be
<zao>, but without a soul. I think
the soul is unique to humans, but I don’t think living is unique to humans.
James
5:20 James talks about saving a
<psuche> from death – so souls can die.
But I think that means the eternal “state” of the soul, not physical
death. A dead soul means a soul destined
to hell. I don’t think it necessarily
means a soul without physical life.
James 2:26
“…the <soma> without the <pneuma> is dead…” At death, the spirit is separated from the
body. But whenever spiritual death is
under consideration, it is more about the state of the
<psuche-pneuma>. It is either in
the state of death - eternal punishment - or life - eternal life. I wouldn't say that this verse says that
physical death is the <pneuma> departing from your body. That does happen, but that is not what makes
us physically dead.
Caveat:
In
general, it seems that when your physical body dies, the soul departs at the
same time. But physical death is, I
think, the loss of <zoe>. The two
events are simultaneous. But dogs and
frogs die, and that is not because their soul departs. I would say that, for humans, the physical
death of the body releases the soul. The
departure of our soul is a consequence of our physical death.
Related Scriptures
and Thoughts:
Matt 22:32 God is not
God of the <nekros>, but of the living <zao>. Further evidence, I would say, that
<nekros> is referring to physical death of the <sarx> that results
in the decay of the <sarx>. At
some point dust really does return to dust.
All memory and evidence of the physical life of any single individual is
eventually lost. Then it is just
matter. God is not God of that. Of course, He is the God of the universe. But to be the God of Abraham is not to be the
God of dust, or the God of someone that was in the past. God is in the moment. To say that God was the God of Abraham doesn’t make sense. God doesn’t live in the past. Jesus uses this to show that there is a
resurrection of the dead.
John 5:24-25
Jesus seems to use <Thanatos> and <nekros>
interchangeably. He also uses
<zoe> in the first verse and <zao> in the second. I don’t know if there is a significance to
that. “the
<nekros> shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.” If this was referring to physical death of
our <sarx>, this wouldn’t make sense.
Those dead can’t hear. I think
Jesus has to be referring to the “spiritually dead”. In fact, we are all spiritually dead before we
believe.
Discussion:
To
summarize this topic with respect to a Christian view of the science related to
living, I suggest the following:
<Zoe>
and similar Greek terms refer to "life" in the way that we used to (a
century ago) refer to a "life force" - whatever it is that makes
living things alive. Human beings,
animals, plants, etc. are "alive" because they have <zoe>. This "lifeforce" could be material,
could be spiritual, could be a combination of both. My feeling is that there is a good chance
that it is purely material and part of the natural world. It could be the natural outcome of
biochemistry in action. This is in
contrast to "eternal life", which is fundamentally spiritual in
nature. [Note though that sometimes the
word "eternal" isn't added to "life" in the Greek NT - you
have to deduce that the reference is to eternal life from the context.]
The key
issue with respect to science - biology and neuroscience in particular - is
that I would leave open entirely the possibility that science will find that
the "lifeforce" is a material thing; a natural phenomenon that can be
explained by laws of physics and chemistry.
This would not negate Christian beliefs or go against scripture, as
far as I can see. Thus, Christians
should not have irrational fears or angst about such scientific discoveries,
either now or in the future. In fact,
Christians ought to be quite interested in the whole concept and in any
discoveries made through scientific exploration.
By the
way, I really think scientists ought to be more humble when you consider that,
of all the most fundamental things we can observe in the universe,
"life" is certainly the most interesting. It has been studied by scientists from before
there was science. And yet - and yet - there still is no good
explanation of what life really is.
There's no embarrassment in that - life is unique and complex - but it certainly ought to be humbling!
<Psuche>,
on the other hand, is certainly spiritual.
Or, more properly, <psuche> is a link between the spiritual and
the material. The complete
<psuche-pneuma> of the human being is never going to be discovered by
natural science. I suppose it might be
possible to discover evidence of the action of the <psuche-pneuma> on the
material but, as I have discussed elsewhere, such an experiment is difficult to
define and is certainly outside the current realm of what is feasible. The spiritual nature of the <psuche-pneuma>
is a fundamental Christian doctrine.
Thus, when science claims that human beings are purely material, that does go directly against Christian
beliefs. Such a claim also goes beyond the bounds of science. Therefore:
Christians should oppose this concept and scientists should not make
this claim - they have no basis to do so.
There is no room for compromise on this issue.
When
scripture talks about "life" with respect to the
<psuche-pneuma>, I think it is generally talking about eternal life and
is maybe more easily understood as the "eternal state" of the
person. A human being who is destined to
hell is "dead" even though they may be physically (<zoe>)
alive. When we are "made
alive" as Christians, it is a change of eternal destiny. We were, as real human beings with a body,
soul, and spirit, always destined to "last" forever. But lasting forever and being eternally alive
are not the same thing.
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