Where does the immaterial part of man come from?

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 606.

There are several views on this as well, and once again, Scripture is not perfectly clear. Wayne Grudem describes these views very well.

3 Theories on the origin of the immaterial part of man:

Creationism is the view that God creates a new soul for each person and sends it to that person's body sometime between conception and birth.

Traducianism, on the other hand, holds that the soul as well as the body of a child are inherited from the baby's mother and father at the time of conception. Both views have had numerous defenders in the history of the church, with creationism eventually becoming the prevailing view in the Roman catholic church. Luther was in favor of traducianism, while Calvin favored creationism. On the other hand, there are some later Calvinist theologians such as A. H. Strong who favored traducianism (as do most Lutherans today). Creationism has had many modern evangelical advocates as well.18

There is one other popular view called pre-existentianism, namely, that the souls of people exist in heaven long before their bodies are conceived in the wombs of their mothers, and that God then brings the soul to earth to be joined with the baby's body as he or she grows in the womb.…

In favor of traducianism it may be argued that God created man in his own image (Gen. 1:27), and this includes a likeness to God in the amazing ability to “create” other human beings like ourselves. Therefore, just as the rest of the animal and plant world bears descendants “according to their kinds” (Gen. 1:24), so Adam and Eve also were able to bear children who were like themselves, with a spiritual nature as well as a physical body. This would imply that the spirits or souls of Adam and Eve's children were derived from Adam and Eve themselves.…

However, the biblical arguments in favor of creationism seem to speak more directly to the issue and give quite strong support for this view. First, Psalm 127 says that “sons are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward” (Ps. 127:3). This indicates that not only the soul, but also the entire person of the child, including his or her body, is a gift from God. From this standpoint, it seems strange to think of the mother and father as being responsible by themselves for any aspect of the child's existence. Was it not the Lord who, David says, “knit me together in my mother's womb” (Ps. 139:13)? Isaiah says that God gives breath to the people on the earth and “spirit to those who walk in it” (Isa. 42:5).19 Zechariah talks of God as the one “who forms the spirit of man within him” (Zech. 12:1 NIV). The author of Hebrews speaks of God as “the Father of spirits” (Heb. 12:9). It is hard to escape the conclusion from these passages that God is the one who creates our spirits or souls.…

In conclusion, it seems hard to avoid the testimony of Scripture to the effect that God actively creates each human soul, just as he is active in all the events of his creation. But the degree to which he allows the use of intermediate or secondary causes (that is, inheritance from parents) is simply not explained for us in Scripture. Therefore, it does not seem profitable for us to spend any more time speculating on this question.4

It is possible that there is some balance between God creating the spirit and mankind inheriting their spirit from parents.

The emphasis we have already made on the fat that it is hard to separate physical from spiritual leads me to believe that there is some balance probably between GOD creating the spirit and yet the spirit of man having some influence/inheiritance from the parent's spirit.

Difference from Animals

There are always questions regarding the difference between man in animals. These are very real concerns that deserve consideration. One of the problems with being too dogmatic in explaining what “in His image” means is that we will attribute this to characteristics that we may discover animals also have. If so, then we begin to question if we really are created in His image.

Wayne Grudem has done a good job laying out the difference so I will be referring to his systematic study for much of my thoughts in this.