Body - Soul- Spirit

Dichotomy and Trichotomy

"I am fearfully and wonderfully
made, said the Psalmist (Psalm
139). But eXactly how are we
made? The first prayer that
children often learn is, UN ow I lay
me doWn to sleep, I pray the Lord
my soul to keep; If! should die
before I wake, I pray the Lord my
soul to take." From our earliest
days we are taught that man is
more than a body, that he is body
and soul. The Bible also refers to
man's spirit What do these words
mean and what is their
relationship to each other?
The Bible refers to various
aspects of man. "Bodily exercise
profiteth little," the Bible says, I
Tim. 4:8. In Mat. 10:28,Jesus
said, "Do not fear those who kill the
body but cannot kil! the souL But
rather fear Him who is able to
destroy both body and soul in hell
Paul, in I Thess. 5:23 prays that
our body, soul, and spirit be
preserved complete at the coming
of Christ. We are commanded to
love the Lord our God with all our
heart, soul, mind, and strength,
Wayne Rogers
Mark 12:30. How are we to
understand our created
constitu don?
There has been an historical
debate whether man consists of
body, soul, and spirit - three parts
(Trichotomy - "to cut in three"), or
body and soul/spirit - two parts
(Dichotomy - "to cut in two").
Some now prefer to emphasize the
unity of man, without discussing
man as separate elements.
Dichotomists believe that the soul
is in essence the same as the spirit.
Man consists of body, and of soul
or spirit. Dichotomists appeal to
the interchangeability of the terms
soul and spirit in Scripture.
Trichotomists appeal to I Thess.
5:23 and Heb. 4:12 to assert that
man is composed of three distinct
parts, body, soul, and spirit.
Depending upon the author these
three elements are defined
generally as: The body is the
material part of our constitution;
the soul is the principle of animal
22 THE COUNSEL (If Chalcedon January, 1995
life, including appetites, memory,
understanding, etc.; and the spirit
is the principle of our rational and
immortal life, our conscience and
will.
What might appear to be
merely a scholarly, semantic, or
philosophical issue does become
important when theological
implications or applications are
made based upon the trichotomist
view in particular. Often these
distinctions become the basis for
views or practices that may be
erroneous or misleading. Often
this is the underlying premise or
presupposition that is
unexpressed and is the basis for
other practices or views.
Annihilalionists, for example,
believe that the soul of the
unbeliever is annihilated at death.
there is no eternal punishment.
Annihilationists hold that man at
his creation had a' divine element
breathed into him, which he lost
by sin, and which he recovers only
iri regeneration; so that only when
he has this spirit restored by virtue
of his union with Christ does he
become immortal, death being to
the sinner a complete extinction of
being. Thus, by a radical
separation of soul and spirit, they
can deny eternal damnation. Now,
that is not,to say that all
Trichotomists are annihilationists.
John Wesley, for another
example, according to Bruce
Milne, held that man is a
dichotomy before conversion and
a trichotomy afterwards. This
position can encourage the
presumption not that we are
Simply indwelt with the Spirit, but
that our spirit is the Holy Spirit
himself. ' "Theologically it is
precarious since it involves the
almost blasphemous claim that we
possess God as part of ourselves;
pastorally it is dangerous since the
individual can on this basis claim
that the emanations of his spirit
are the emanations of God's Spirit
and thereby dispense with the
necessary correctives of Scripture
and church," Bruce Milne, Know
The Truth, IVP, pg. 97.
Bill Gothard also places a great
deal of emphasis on the
distinctions of the Trichomist
view. Wilfred Bockelman in his
book, Gothard: The Man and his
Ministry, (Quill Pub. , Matt
Media), has a chapter on the
implications of the Spirit, Soul,
and Body distinctions in Gothard's
teaching. He states, for example,
that Gothard breaks music into a
three-fold division based on the
body, soul, spirit distinctions.
Melody relates to the spirit,
harmony to the soul, and rhythm
to the body. Since rhythm relates
to the sensual and body, and
melody is spiritual, you cannot
combine melody and rhythm.
Another tendency is to equate the
body with the physical and sinful
and to regard the physical world
with the lower nature. Therefore,
large sections of learning having to
do with social sciences and
humanities are considered
inappropriate for Christians.
The trichotomist position is
very popular among some
evangelical psychologists such as
Clyde Narramore, Donald
Tweedy, and Paul Tournier.
According to this position, "The
soul or psyche is the aspect of
man that is involved in mental
and emotional functioning, and
L ___ ___ ____ _
the spirit is the part of man which
functions religiously.
Trichotomists often express what
they believe to be the distinction
between the spirit and soul in this
way: The soul is the part of man
that is active in the horizontal
relationships of life (adjustment to
others and to one's environment);
the spirit, however, is the part of
man that is active in the vertical
relationship of life (one's personal
relation to God): " Gerald
O'Donnell, Psychology in a
Christian Perspective, Dordt
College, 1972, pg. 7.
The Greek word "soul,"
PSUCHE, from which we get our
word "Psyche," is the root word of
"Psychology." Psychology means
"words about the soul."
Psychology is the study of the
inner person which is viewed as
the source of external behavior.
The implications of non-Christian
psychology is devastating in terms
of the truthfulness and helpfulness
of its counsel. If the counselor
does not acknowledge or take into
account the fact that man's soul is
a divinely given spirit, that man is
created in the image of God, and
he does not take into account
man's sin and God's word, then
the counselor cannot properly
counsel an individual. He may be
able to relieve their symptoms of
anger, depression, etc., but not by
addressing the real problem, but
by psychologically "doping up"
the victim. Not only does he often
offer little or false hope, but
counsels contrary to reality and
truth. He often counsels ungodly
behavior, such as unbiblical
divorce, venting anger, and seeks
to suppress and alleviate guilt by
attributing guilt to our social!
religious environment.
Even the so-called "Christian"
counselor who seeks to treat man
based on definitions and
distinctions of soul &: spirit,
treating the "psyche," often fails to
properly counsel and provide
hope and comfort to his subject
and leads God's sheep astray.
God's word addresses the whole
man: body, soul and spirit as
responsible, changeable, and as
necessatily accountable for
compliance with the whole word
and will of God. Man's behavior
and feelings may be affected by his
bodily afflictiOns, circumstantial
situation, etc. But like Job,
regardless of his circumstance, he
can say, "Blessed be the name of
the Lord," Job 1:21. He is not a
victim of circumstances, but the
object of divine providence.
Because his body and soul are not
distinct from tl1e spirit, man is
never excused from holiness,
obedience, lawfulness, or self-
control because of his
circumstances, his feelings, his
past experiences, or his
personality. And man is
approached through the spirit to
change his character, behavior,
feelings, etc.
We are not saying that parents,
people, circumstances, and
experiences do not have a
significant impact and influence
upon an individual's general
behavior, feelings, or manner. A
person may feel depressed or
angry because of his past or
present experiences or
circumstances. Some of those
experiences he may not even be
conscious of. If we define
January, 1995 ~ THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon ~ 23
"temperament" as my natural way
of reacting or behaving towards
others and circumstances, then we
can admit that we all have
different temperaments and
natural tendencies. Gordon
Allport defines temperament as ,
"the characteristic phenomena of
an individual's nature, including
his susceptibility to emotional
stimulations, his customary
strength and speed of response,
the quality of his prevailing mood,
and all the peculiarities of
fluctuations and intensity of
mood, these being regarded as
dependent on constitutional .
make-up, and therefore largely
hereditary in origin,". (Quoted by
].1. Packer, Rediscovering Holiness,
Vine Books, pg. 24). Packer
comments, "Temperament, we
might say, is the raw material out
of which character is formed.
Character is what we do with our
temperament. Personahty is the
final product, the distinct
individuality that results." This is
not to adopt determinism or
behaviorism. And the place where
we want to begin is with the fact
that we are new men, not natural
men.
A person's general "personality'
may be described as melancholy
or "outgoing." Nevertheless,
because we are not just people
who are souls Who also have a
spirit (Trichotomy), but we are
soul and spirit, (Dichotomy)
people, each individual is
accountable to an absolute and
comprehensive revelation of
actions and attitudes that are to
characterize the new man in
Christ regardless ofhis
can't on pa(1e 16
24 f THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon January, 1995
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circumstances, environtnent,
personality, and feelings. Thus the
Bible does not seek to address the
feelings of men directly, or the
behavior of men indirectly, but
the whole man directly in terms of
the Word of God. The various
Apostles and their converts were
individuals with various personal,
spiritual, and sinful backgrounds.
Nevertheless, the Scriptures,
because they had been born again,
are new creations in Christ,
instruct them to put off the old
man (in general and in particular)
and to put on the new man. Thus,
not every Christian will have the
same personality, be naturally
friendly or an extrovert, but he
can be called to love his brethren,
be joyful, be a loving husband and
caring father, be a submissive wife
(without the need to uncover and
dredge up her feelings of hostility
toward an abusive father.) Our
point is that because the spirit that
is renewed in Christ is the .
embodiment of the "soul," the
"psyche," of a person, our
approach must be to deal wit!). the
psyche through the positive,
living, and spiritual word of God,
and not by the negative and
backward approach of dredging
up the past. Forgetting the things
that are behind, let us press forward
to our high calling in Christl
The Bible clearly indicates that
man has a material body and an
immaterial soul, Gen. 2:7. Does
the word "spirit," however,
indicate that man possesses a
third, distinct entity which can be
separated from the soul? The
dichotomist position is that there
are a number of terms, such as
, so1)1 and spirit, tliat describe the
i m m ~ e r i l side of man, not as
distinct entities, but as aspects of
the immaterial souVspiritual side
of man.
, "Man's immaterial side is given
many different names in
Scripture ... .It is always described
in terms of how man functions, or
how he relates to God, the world
around him or the next life. Thus
these terms should not be viewed
as referring to separate entities in
man but as simply describing
man's multi-dimensional functions
and relationships .... These terms
(soul, spirit, etc.) are not technical
words in the sense that they have
one consistent meaning
throughout Scripture. They
display unity and diversity by
being synonymous at times when
referring to the immaterial side of
man, and at other times; referring
to different functions or ways of
relating,"
"It is obvious that we should
not impose 20th century
standards of consistency and
linguistic preciseness to a book
which was written thousands of
years ago. Each term may have a
dozen different meanings,
depending on the context and the
progressive nature of revelation.
The failure to avoid reductionistic
and simplistic definitions is based
on the hidden assumption that
once the meaning of a word is
discovered in a single passage, this
same meaning must prevail in
every other occurrence of the
word. For example, it has become
quite fashionable to restrict the
meaning of the word "soul" to
"physical life" because this was
16 '1' THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon '1' Jannary, 1995
. probably what it meant when it
was used by Moses to refer to the
immaterial life principle within
animals (Gen. 1:20) or within man
(Gen 2:7). Once the
annihilationists and some neo-
orthodox writers demonstrated
that the word "soul" in Gen. 2:7
probably means "living being,"
they then pronounce that this is
the ONLY definition of soul which
is allowed. When other passages
are presented where the context
demands another definition of the
word "soul," they lay these
passages aside and retreat to Gen.
2:7." Robert Morey, Death and the
Afterlife, Bethany House, pg. 43-44.
"The use made of these terms
(soul, spirit) by the apostles
proves nothing more than that
they used words in their current
popular sense to express divine
ideas. The word "spirit" designates
the one soul emphasizing its
quality as rational. The word
"spirit" designates the same soul
emphasizing its quality as the vital
and animating principle of the
body. The two are used together
to express popularly the entire
man," James P. Boyce, Abstract of
Systematic Theology, pg. 198.
This theological difference,
,thus, from the start is related to
how we view words used in the
Bible. The point is that many
words in Hebrew and Greek do
not have a simple or single
meaning, but have a breadth of
meaning depending upon the
context. The trichotomist
demands that since spirit and soul
are two different words they must
be two different things. To be
concluded in the next issue. n