Blogging The Institutes: Day 32 1.15.4 - 1.15.7

In further discussion of the soul Calvin writes that the soul contains the true "image" of God in which we are created, for as Paul tells Aratus (Acts 17:28) that we are God's offspring not in substance, but in quality, in asmuch as he has adorned us with divine endowments, and it is the soul that regulates the conduct of our bodies, "this it (the soul) does not merely in regard to the offices of a terrestrial life, but also in regard to the service of God. This, though not clearly seen in our corrupt state, yet the impress of it remains is seen in our very vices. For whence have men such a thirst for glory but from a sense of shame? And whence this sense of shame but from a respect for what is honorable? Of this, the first principle and source is a consciousness akin to religion. But as man was undoubtedly created to meditate on the heavenly life, so it is certain that the knowledge of it was engraved on the soul. And, indeed, man would want the principal use of his understanding if he were unable to discern his felicity, the perfection of which consist in being united to God. Hence, the principal action of the soul is to aspire thither, and accordingly, the more a man studies to approach to God, the more he proves himself to be endued with reason."

For those who say that Christianity is a blind faith, or a small man's wonder, the are wrong. For as Calvin points out that the more a man studies the approach to God, the more he is lead by reason, to that knowledge of God. It is our soul's (remember the soul is truly our likeness of God) way of showing we are on the right path or mission. That the fuzziness of God becomes clearer.

Calvin further breaks down our soul into consisting of two faculties: intellect and will

The "office of the intellect being to distinguish between objects, according as they seem deserving of being approved or disapproved; and the office of the will, to choose and follow what the intellect declares to be good, to reject and shun what it declares to be bad...let it be enough to know that the intellect is to us, as it were, the guide and ruler of the soul; that the will always follows its beck, and waits for its decision, in matters of desire."

So i can kinda sense were this is going.... and its blowing my mind!!

Blogging The Institutes: Day 31 1.15.1 - 1.15.3

Only humans were created in such a manner as to be part body and part soul, and as Calvin points out, the soul is really the defining difference between man and other created beings. But this division of man into soul and body is not widely accepted to be true. We know, as having this idea imprinted on our hearts, as the image bearers of God, that we are indeed both body and spirit. And of utmost importance, the spirit is an immortal spirit for as Solomon speaks of death saying that the spirit returns to God who gave it, and Jesus speaks of his commending his spirit to the Father, and Stephen speaks of his spirit ascending to Christ, "that when the soul is freed from the prison-house of the body, God becomes its perpetual keeper."

In defense of the immortality of the spirit Calvin lays out very helpful arguments:

"Conscience, which, distinguishing between good and evil, responds to the judgment of God, is an undoubted sign of an immortal spirit. How could motion devoid of essence penetrate to the judgment of God, and under a sense of guilt strike itself with terror? The body cannot be affected by any fear of spiritual punishment. This is competent only to the soul, which must therefore be endued with essence. Then the mere knowledge of a God sufficiently proves that souls which rise higher that then world must be immortal, it being impossible that any evanescent vigor could reach the very fountain of life."

"But the swiftness with which the human mind glances from heaven to earth, scans the secrets of nature, and after it has embraced all ages, with intellect and memory digest each in its proper order, and reads the future in the past, clearly demonstrates that there lurks in man a something separated from the body. We have intellect by which we are able to conceive of the invisible God and angels -- a thing of which body is altogether incapable. We have ideas of rectitude, justice, and honesty, ideas which the bodily senses cannot reach. The seat of these ideas must therefore be a spirit. "

"No, sleep itself, which stupefying to man, seems even to deprive him of life, is no obscure evidence of immortality; not only suggesting thoughts of things which never existed, but foreboding future events."

How true.