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'Now faith is the substance (hypostasis) of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' (Hebrew 11:1)

So, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not separate persons, despite exhibiting attributes of 'personality', curiously capable of independent thought and action. Likewise, my spirit, soul and body are not three people, yet are similarly distinct.

But does the Bible not rank our spirit as the senior associate in this curious 'partnership'?

No.

Consider Genesis 2:7.

'Yahweh God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.'

One of those scriptures so familiar we can miss what it says; notice what it doesn't say: 'Yahweh God formed a body out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into its nostrils the breath of life; and the body became a living Man.'

Re-writing it like that shows how it is commonly rendered.

By casting the human being as 'A spirit that possesses a soul and resides in a body', we have relegated the body to a third rate status God never intended.

We better see how ridiculous this is by applying the same logic to God who becomes: a Spirit who has a Son and lives in the Father.

Of course it sounds ridiculous and doesn't work. That's my point.

Adam's corporeal nature was human from the outset; not just some 'dust-dolly' that only became a man when God breathed into its nostrils.

This idea of corporeal inferiority comes from Pagan religion and philosophy, from Plato among others, creeping into the Church as Gnostic heresy. Neither Christian nor Jewish, it is syncretism the adoption of extra-biblical religious ideas into Christianity.

But how does it insult God? By blatantly disregarding and flagrantly contradicting his Word.

Consider the Resurrection.

'Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen.' (1 Corinthians 15:12-13)

And,

'But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them who are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with himFor the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air:

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