3844 — Returning to God
By J. R.
Can an impure, unholy, and defiled soul return to God who gave it when the body dies? J. R. We nowhere read of the soul returning to God. We do read that the spirit returns to God. Eccl. 12:7. It might be said of the soul, in one sense, that it returns to God. It depends on the definition which we give "soul." If by soul we mean person, certainly the person does not return to God defiled and unclean. If we mean simply life, why, it came from God as life, and it goes back to God as life. It could not be spoken of as defiled, in the abstract. That life God will give back at the resurrection, but we are nowhere told that that life has form, or character, or personality apart from the body. The scripture in Eccl. 12:7 seems to have reference to the ordinary, common life which man loses at dissolution, tho there are some who hold that it has reference to the higher life, that which God gives to His believing children. God does not in any wise count a man a double being, or a triple being. The normal man has body and soul and spirit, but it takes the three to make the man. When these are separated, death ensues, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit goes back to God. It came from God as life; it goes back to God as life. It did not come from God a living, conscious entity, nor does it go back to God in that way. A simple understanding of the fundamentals will meet all these objections.