I. THE NATURE OF HUMANS
Down through the centuries, the curiosity and the discussions have persisted. Especially, the church leaders through history have convened study groups and creedal conferences to explain; What is good? What is evil? And what is the basic human nature? Sometimes people really appear to be spiritual – other times, not so much.
Everyone has a fleshly body. Is it the body that is evil? Or is it the emotions and feelings and desires that are evil and make people do really bad things with their bodies? Is it the will that is bent toward doing selfish and hurtful things because the will is basically bad? How can you innocently use your will to choose to wear a certain coat on one day, then using the same will, you choose to steal money from your customer? Is it your will that is the evil problem? The will seemed pretty neutral when you used it to choose which coat to wear.
My first recollection of personally being perplexed about the differences between the behavior of a man and an animal was when I was six years old. Our family had taken a vacation and traveled all the way from Idaho to Southern California. We were going to visit my Uncle Chester and his wife, Aunt Vivian in Berkley, where he was a graduate student at UCLA. They insisted that we go with them to visit the impressive San Diego Zoo.
I still have a very vivid picture in my mind of what I considered the main attraction of the whole zoo. It was a very large, hairy ape with a sense of humor that would absolutely delight the heart of any 6-year-old boy. The huge ape would stand right up close to the bars, make scary noises, and beat enthusiastically on his chest. After he had collected a large gathering of viewers around his cage he would spring down and slurp up a monumental drink of water from the concrete-lined stream running through his cage.
We all thought he had swallowed the water. But, no! He would bound back to the cage bars, find the least suspecting person in the group and give them a big hairy ape shower by spraying them with all the water he had stored in his mouth.
I stood just out of range and watched moms with little babies, old men with canes and dignified, starchy ladies all get drenched by that ape. When finished, he would begin beating on his chest with glee and start the process all over again. What a delightful experience for a boy of six to observe. That was the very first live ape that I had ever seen in my life.
I asked my Dad if the ape was really a zookeeper acting like a monkey, so that he could get away with doing something he had always wanted to do, but was afraid of getting punished if caught! But however human that ape appeared, he really was not human. He still was just an animal. My question was: “What’s the big difference, Dad?”
Well, I don’t think the historic church leaders were just monkeying around as they tried to distinguish the differences and explain the thoughts and moral behaviors of earth’s inhabitants.
II. THE DUPLEX:
In the earliest years, the church leaders tried to keep it all very simple. They viewed it as sort of a duplex construction – like a two-tenant house – part material and part spiritual.
They would refer to it sometimes as a dichotomy. They concluded that the material things which they could touch and see were of this world. Things which were real, but could not be touched or seen must be of another world – spiritual.
It was convenient, then, to think that everything could be divided into categories of material and non-material. Obviously, since the non-material could neither be touched nor seen, it must be of spirit; and if spiritual, it must be of another world and, therefore, must be good and righteous. Things which are material must be of this world, therefore, must be evil.
When it came to dealing with humans, it was easy to take the next step in the thinking process and conclude that the non-material must be spiritual and must be from the Divine, and, therefore, must be good. The human body must be material of this world and must be evil:
Non-material = spirit = Divine = good Material = body = human = evil
The religious leaders would then raise questions, like:
You can’t see love so, it must be spiritual, therefore, it must be good – But what about pain which accompanies disease? You can’t see it. Is it, therefore, spiritual; and therefore, good? And, is the pain in your mind or in your body?
How about anger? Is anger righteous just because you don’t see it? Does getting hungry have anything to do with morality? Is sex and the reproduction process evil, since it has to do with the body? The thinking was beginning to get a little convoluted and messy.
Even though this approach was simplistic and quite comfortable, it contained a number of major weaknesses:
It tends to break down, rather than support, the unity of the total person.
It unrealistically holds that if something is not material, then it is spiritual.
It does not allow or explain the moral and amoral aspects of the non-material characteristics of a person, i.e., the mind, emotions and will.
III. THE TRIPLEX:
In time, others began to refer to the human in more complex terms. Rather than seeing the construction as a duplex, they began seeing it more as a triplex – a three-tenant residence. They would refer to this as a trichotomy. Greeks talked about the “Soma” = the body, the “Psyche” = the soul, and the “Pneuma” = the spirit:
Throughout the Bible, references are made to the body, the soul, and the spirit:
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit, and soul, and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. (I Thess. 5:23 NASB)
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deut. 6:4-5 NIV)
In this further clarification, the soul and the spirit are almost as separate and unique from each other as the soul and the body. The spirit is seen as the communications headquarters of the divine life where God communes with humans. It is the seat or citadel of the divine indwelling.
The soul is seen as the management or administrative center of the natural life where the psychical functions dwell. The soul is a kind of intermediary between the spirit and the physical activities of the body.
This “triplex” view, however, suffers from the same basic weaknesses as does the “duplex” view.
Today, we realize, more than ever, that humans cannot be viewed as segregated and independent parts, whether its two parts, three parts, or a hundred parts. Psychological and behavioral studies of recent years have underscored the fact that humans can now be studied from different vantage points, but it must be seen as total interacting components with all the functions interfacing with each other and behaving as an individual entity of entirety
With the research that has been undertaken in the past one hundred years in the areas of human behavior and psychology, we stand in a better position to understand how a person functions than any other previous generation.
IV. TIME FOR SOME DEFINITIONS:
MORAL: That which deals with or is concerned with establishing principles of “right” and “wrong” in behavior, according to God’s Word (Moral is referred to as “right” – Immoral is “wrong”).
AMORAL: That which deals with concerns other than those of “right” and “wrong”. In and of themselves, the things that are amoral can never become moral (a = not + moral).
PERFECTIBLE: Capable of being made perfect, whole or entire in this present life.
IMPERFECTIBLE: Incapable of being made perfect, whole or entire in this present life.
MORTAL: Subject to death, destined to die.
IMMORTAL: Imperishable, destined to live, will not die.
Next Week: Let’s Try a Merger