II. Historical Perspective

IRENAEUS (c. 180)

David Bercot's A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs records the church father Irenaeus as referring to the complete man being composed of flesh, soul, and spirit:

The complete man is composed of flesh, soul, and spirit. One of these does indeed preserve and fashion [the man]—the spirit. It is united and formed to another—the flesh. Then there is that which is between the two—the soul. The soul is sometimes indeed raised up by it, when it follows the spirit. But sometimes the soul sympathizes with the flesh and falls into carnal lusts. (627)

ANDREW MURRAY (1828-1917)

In his masterpiece The Spirit of Christ, Andrew Murray refers several times to the fact that man has a human spirit and that through this spirit man has fellowship with God.

In a note on “The Place of the Indwelling” (Chs. 6 and 29), Murray says:

In the constitution of these three parts of man's nature, the spirit, as linking him with the Divine, was the highest; the body, connecting him with the sensible and animal, the lowest; intermediate stood the soul, partaker of the nature of the others, the bond that united them, and through which they could act on each other. (228)

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Later in the same note, Murray remarks:

In the regenerate man the original relation between the soul and spirit has been restored. The spirit of man has been quickened to become a habitation of God's Spirit, who is now to teach and to lead, by communicating as a Divine life, as something substantial and real, the Truth, the actual good things which Christ has for us. This Divine leading into the Truth by the Spirit of God takes place not in our soul or mind, in the first place, but in our spirit, in the inner recesses of a life deeper than mind or will. (229)

G.H. PEMBER (1837-1910)

In the classic Earth's Earliest Ages, G.H. Pember refers to man's spirit as his noblest part, created to apprehend and worship God:

Now the body we may term the sense-consciousness, the soul the self-consciousness, and the spirit the God-consciousness. For the body gives us the use of the five senses; the soul comprises the intellect which aids us in the present state of existence, and the emotions which proceed from the senses; while the spirit is our noblest part, which came directly from God, and by which alone we are able to apprehend and worship Him. (76-77)

CLARENCE LARKIN

In Clarence Larkin's book Dispensational Truth or God's Plan and Purpose in the Ages, he describes man as a “trinity” made up of body, soul, and spirit. He then proceeds to explain that the difference between human and animal life lies in the fact that man has a spirit.

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From these references we see that man is a Trinity, and is composed of a “Body,” “Soul,” and “Spirit.” Man was made in the “Image of God” and God is a Trinity. The difference between plant and animal life is, that the plant has not “conscious” life, while the animal has a “living (conscious) soul.” The difference between animal life and human life is, that while animals have a “living soul” man has more, he has a “spirit….” (97)

MARY E. MCDONOUGH (1863-1962)

Mary McDonough, in the first chapter of her book, God's Plan of Redemption, unveils the function of man's spirit:

The spirit is the seat of God-consciousness, the soul the seat of self-consciousness, and the body, of world- or sense-consciousness. With the spirit we know God and our relation to Him, as well as our relation morally to every created object. With our soul powers—the intellect, sensibilities (affections, emotions), and will—we are able to deal with the intuitions of the spirit, the claims of these various soul faculties, and the record of the bodily senses. “The spirit of man”—not the soul—is said to be “the candle of the Lord” (Proverbs 20:27). In a normal condition the powers of the spirit control the powers of soul and body, just as—in a properly ordered household—the mistress controls the housekeeper, who in turn controls the servant. (17)

Later, in referring to man's created spirit, McDonough speaks of its capacity to receive the divine life, the life on a “higher plane”:

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The God-Man is the prepared medium of transmission, and every human being—because of the created spirit within him, as a capacity for receiving this Life, and the created power to choose it—is a “prepared organism” for the reception of life on a higher plane. (60)

In the latter part of her book, McDonough refers to man's spirit as a candle lit by the Holy Spirit at regeneration:

“The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord” (Proverbs 20:27). It is this “candle” that is lighted by God the Holy Spirit at regeneration. At that instant the new life of God in Christ Jesus enters the spirit of man. (75)

W. PHILLIP KELLER

Keller, well known for A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, writes in Walking with God:

In God's economy and in His estimation, the spirit is the central citadel of life. Unlike the world and human society, which endeavors to manipulate man through outside influences, God begins His deep and unique work within the realm of our spirits. (32)

It is the Spirit of God who will enter your spirit and share life with you, touch you, inspire you, enliven you, as you make yourself available to His own purposes for you.(65)

H.C. ANSTEY

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In Man: A Tripartite Being, Anstey proves from the Scriptures the difference between man and animal. Man alone has a spirit, while animals have only a soul and body.

But further, “There is a spirit [rooagh] in man: and the inspiration [n'shahmah] of the Almighty giveth them understanding” (Job 32:8); so says Elihu. But that the beasts have “no understanding” David tells us in Psalm 32:9, using this same word for “understanding.” Again, he also says, “Man that is in honor, and understandeth not [same word], is like the beasts that perish” (Psalm 49:20). The prophet Isaiah also declares that they (the beasts) have not the spirit (rooagh). “Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit” (Isa. 31:3). With men, therefore, the beasts partake both of soul and body, but not of spirit. As to the spirit (rooagh) in man, it too (as soul and body are) is God's work. (5)

WATCHMAN NEE (1903-1972)

The second chapter of Watchman Nee's book The Spiritual Man is entitled “The Spirit and The Soul.” Here, Nee explains the importance of knowing that we have a spirit:

It is important for believers to know that they have a spirit. Further on, we will see that all communications between God and man lie within this spirit. If a believer does not know what his spirit is, he will not know how to fellowship with God in the spirit and will substitute the work of the spirit with soulish activities such as that of the mind and the emotion. The result of this is that he will always remain soulish and will not reach the spiritual realm. (15)

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Later in the same chapter, Nee describes the regenerated spirit:

Before man is regenerated, his spirit is isolated from the life of God. It is only after he is regenerated that God's life and the Holy Spirit begin to live in his spirit and enliven it to become the instrument of the Holy Spirit. (18)

WITNESS LEE (1905-1997)

In The Spirit with our Spirit, Witness Lee describes the producing of the spirit in man's creation:

Man was created by God with a spirit produced of the breath of God, as man's inmost organ. I use the word produced here because the origin of our spirit is the breath of life. The Hebrew word for “breath” in Genesis 2:7 and for “spirit” in Proverbs 20:27 is not ruach but neshamah. Proverbs 20:27 says, “The spirit [neshamah] of man is the lamp of Jehovah” (ASV). Our body is the frame and this frame has an organ, our spirit. This is the highest organ within us and is mainly for us to contact God. John 4:24 says that God is Spirit and they who worship Him must worship in spirit. We must worship God in our spirit as an organ to contact Him. (13)

In The Spirit and Service in Spirit, Witness Lee goes on to expound on the reason for the creation of our human spirit:

The human spirit was created neither for material enjoyment nor psychological pleasure. Therefore, neither material enjoyment nor psychological pleasure can satisfy or meet the need in the human spirit. The human spirit was created for God. Hence, only God can satisfy the human spirit and meet its need. What the human spirit needs is God.

The spirit of man needs God, thirsts for God, and seeks after God. Man's need for God is a matter of the need in the spirit; it is not a matter of the intellect in the human mind. The need for God in the deepest part of man, which is his spirit, will not disappear just because his mind cannot understand it, nor will it diminish just by his reasoning in the mind. This is a matter of need, not a matter of reason. Within man there is a spirit, which has a spiritual need. The need of the human spirit is for God. (15-16)

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