Yeeeah... I’m with Tom on this one. This issue is really one of psychological instability. Even in the so-called culture today, clinical psychologists diagnose this as a mental disorder. In the DSM-5 it’s called “gender dysphoria”. And in the case of already being married to someone who decides they want to be the other gender, it shows that they are uncomfortable in the relationship, which tells me that they weren’t committed to it.

Hi, Tom. Good thoughts. I know we don’t always agree on various things, but in this case, I definitely am on the same page with you about wanting to show respect and interest in the other person instead of making it about ourselves. That’s actually what I’m trying to do when I ask a question of that nature, but maybe my directness seems overbearing. But like I’ve said, I am no subtle person. I also don’t like mind games, so I think that there’s a line here where, on one side you’re letting the person open up freely and accepting whatever information you get and on the other side of that line you’re trying to steer someone into talking about things as if it were their idea all along, which would seem sort of dishonest. Anyway, I appreciate your feedback; I’ll be considering those thoughts next time a conversation needs help getting started.

Lung, I’m curious what Bible and concordance you are looking at? For the KJV pneuma is being translated as spirit and psuche as soul.

Hmm, I’m not sure what you mean about my profile looking like a test program, but thank you very much for your thoughts and your blessing, and I will pray that God will bless you too.

I understand. But, you’re referring to the fact that the children of Israel were exclusively God’s chosen witness people up until the cross. When Christ created the church (of both Jew and gentile) He made it to be His witness people. Israel is not cast away, and still has a part to play in His glory, and they still have promises to inherit but, the witness of God has moved to the true church.

I just wish it was possible to hear people’s voices in a conversation like this. Reading the text... I don’t why it sounds in my imagination like everyone is upset. I hope not. For “though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity [agape], I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cimbal.” 1 Corinthians 13:1

However far my two cents may go around here, I’d just like to say, with love, to those of you who have been told that the Bible has been many times altered from the original manuscripts: that’s only true if you’ve been reading the corrupt New Age bible versions based off of the heathen Wescott and Hort critical text. Stick with the King James. It’s safe and, dare I say, miraculously accurate when checked against the scriptures found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. I really recommend to people that they dig into the history of the how the KJV was made, it might put you in awe.

But that aside, I think that all of the questions about whether the children of Ishmael have an inheritance as God’s chosen people is now moot on this side of the cross. God chooses for salvation all whom He foreknows will choose Him, whether they be Jew or gentile. Prophecy is a gift of the Holy Spirit given to the church; therefore, any Holy Spirit-filled believer, Jew or gentile may prophesy, speaking as the Spirit moves him or her. Muhammed however, from what I understand, never became a disciple of Christ, and therefore had not the Holy Spirit in him; and therefore, if he did give a prophecy, his prophecy came not from God but from the enemy.

Yes, they are distinct things. I could only suppose that they would be as distinct to a fetus as to anyone else since I can’t imagine how a soul and spirit could at any point be the same thing. I don’t think that one of them could give rise to the other since the spirit is immortal but the soul is mortal.

Different (newer) translations of the Bible often use spirit and soul interchangeably, which unfortunately adds to the confusion about this subject. It is impressive that you noticed this distinction while most of the Christians I’ve had this conversation with go through their lives assuming that soul and spirit are only synonyms.

In the King James Version, which is the only English translation I study from, the Greek word psuche is translated as soul, and pneuma is translated as spirit. Psuche is the animating life force and basic sentience which all living creatures have. If Freud had been interested in the scriptures, I think he might have said that that this would compose the id and ego part of the mind. Personally, I don’t like Freud, so I just say that the mind, psuche, and soul are different words for the same thing. The pneuma, is a bit more mysterious to me, as I suppose it should be. Only human beings have this pneuma, which endures after our bodies perish. I like to associate the pneuma/spirit with that special part of our being we figuratively call our “heart”, which also I think Freud would have associated with his superego. The spirit is how it is possible to dwell with God through the mediator, Christ, for “No man hath seen God [the Father] at any time,” (John 1:18), and again “God is a spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).

And a brand new guy. Hello and welcome to you too.

A new face on the forums. Hello and welcome.

Yeah, I’d rather just meet them too. I get the feeling though that a lot of women might be nervous about that. If you aren’t one of them, I just hope you’ve come up with a plan to keep yourself safe out there.

Lol, if I were anything like most men I probably wouldn’t be here, I’d just go to that pub.

Wow, that unexpectedly felt weird using the word pub.

There are also some sweet promises of gifts that God will give to the faithful, which are written in Revelations, chapters 2 and 3.

2:7 “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”

2:10 “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”

2:17 “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving [except] he that receiveth it.”

2:26 “And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations...”

2:28 “And I will give him the morning star.”

3:5 “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before His angels.”

3:12 “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God; and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name if the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.”

3:21 “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.”

I believe the potential reward of good deeds all depends on what side of the Law one is on. If my sins have been forgiven by God because I received His grace through my faith in Jesus Christ, then even the smallest good deed will be rewarded greatly. But if I have not been forgiven of sin because I refused the atonement offered through the sacrifice of Christ, then no amount of good deeds will be able to buy my soul out of Hell.

But what is the reward of faith? Atonement = at one ment. I will be as one with the Son of God dwelling in the perfect presence of my loving Father forever.

“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee;”. Jeremiah 1:5

“Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there were none of them.” Psalm 139:16

Quoting the scriptures is the most honest answer I can give you, friend. As you can see, I don’t know of a scripture that more specifically answers your question. But to me, knowing the character and eternal awesomeness of God, it gives me the idea that both soul and spirit are endowed upon the new human at the moment of conception.

Neighbor, I’ve never heard anyone say some of these things before. I’ll have to beg your pardon, first of all, for being a few months late to this conversation, but I seem to have some time on my hands now and I’m just sitting at home, looking for someone to talk to. It seems kind of nice, even though my fingers are doing the talking and you might never read this.

But be as it may, I just wanted to tell you that I find myself rather perplexed by some of these statements of yours. To be perfectly forthright with you, I feel kind of sad for you, that you would think that Jesus didn’t want the gospel to be preached to you. I think if I was able to make myself believe something like that, well, there would just be nothing left for me in this world: nothing would have any meaning any more.

The thing is though, I can’t wrap my head around where you would get a notion like that. You mentioned getting the milk first, well, it doesn’t get much milkier than John 3:16, which tells me that Christ died for all of us. Also, that word which was translated in the King James as “nations” is ethnos. Ethnos is where we get the word ethnicity, and it means the same thing in Greek as it does in English. It means races. Jesus was commanding his disciples to preach His gospel to all the races of the world. Whoever has been teaching you your Bible, I’m sorry to say, they’ve got this matter exactly backwards.

I hope I haven’t upset you, friend. I just wanted you to know that Jesus loves you and everyone else, Jew or gentile, for there is no respect of persons (no favoritism) with God.

Well, um... sorry to have to bring bad news to this right off the bat, but Satan hasn’t actually been in Hell yet. He’s roaming around the earth, seeking whom he may devour. And actually, according to Revelation chapter 20, it’s Jesus who is going to bind him in the Bottomless Pit for a thousand years when He returns.

Will I live to see that? Yes, but probably not in this body.

Hi John, you should check out some of Kent Hovind’s work if you’re curious about dinosaurs in the Bible. They ARE in there, friend.

Also, there are black people in the Bible too (Ethiopians) they just didn’t make a big deal out of mentioning people’s skin color. Israel was right at the center of the “civilized” world in those days, and major international trade routes ran through it. Seeing people of different skin tones would have been fairly commonplace.

As for the age of the Bible, the oldest book (Job) is believed by many scholars to have been written at the time of Abraham, which was only about 4500 years ago.

Thanks Peilz. I think it’s a fair question, by the way, to want to know how Esther relates to the progressive revelation of God and His plan for man. I think the answer for Christians is in typology. Similar to how the parables of Jesus taught people about the Kingdom of God by using stories about things that they were familiar with. In Esther, the King represent the Father, Haman represents the adversary, the Jewish people that Haman sought to destroy represent the church, and the duo of Mordecai and Esther represent Jesus as intercessor. But I think that even without spiritualizing a piece of history, the story is worthwhile in its own right as an example of how God has kept His promises to His chosen people.

Yeah, I’m kind of supposing you might not have read that last thing I wrote there, about still liking to give things a chance. People stuck in victim mentality don’t really do that. They hide. So don’t worry about me. I might not be getting very far but I’m still railroadin’, as my granddad used to say.

Okay... $7.48 is your total. Out of twenty?

Hey there, Acquired, I just saw this thread for the first time. I was thinking, though it’s probably too late, it’s worth mentioning to Peilzww that those Bible stories which tell the sins of men are not paying homage to them, but only truthfully recording them. Also, Esther wasn’t considered a minor in the Hebrew culture; 18 is an arbitrary number assigned in very modern times.