Book 2 of Musings Losing Our Soul

God has given us a soul. Our soul has the ability to choose to do what is right and profitable.

When we become unable to choose to do what we know is right and profitable, being driven by lusts and fears we no longer can control, then we have lost possession of our soul.

The soul that sins shall die. But what does this mean?

Jesus asked what good it would do someone to gain the whole world and lose his soul.

The Book of Hebrews urges us to believe to the saving of the soul.

The Lord spoke of possessing our soul:

In your patience possess ye your souls. (Luke 21:19-KJV)

Our Christian traditions are strong in this regard. We view losing our soul, the death of our soul, as meaning we go to Hell. Perhaps this is correct. But the expression "lose his own soul," or "forfeit his soul," does not speak of fiery torment. Yet I would not be totally surprised if this is what is meant. Had the rich man in Hell lost his soul? Had he died? Is this what the Scripture means when it says "the soul that sins shall die"?

It may be true that the death of the soul is not the same as Hell, and that Hell and the Lake of Fire are the proper residences for souls that already are dead. What I am saying is, the issue is not so much the place of our residence but the condition of our personality. Undoubtedly we will be placed where we belong, whether or not we have "accepted Christ."

The reason I am poking around in this matter is that we have made accepting Christ a means of escaping Hell and going to Heaven. Personally I think this viewpoint is more mythological than scriptural, and it evades the issue.

I know from the Scripture that there is a Heaven, a Hell, and a Lake of Fire. There is no question about the existence of these places.

But we evade the issue when we stress that accepting Christ gives us a ticket by which we escape Hell and go to Heaven when we die. I don't believe this is at all correct.

The real issue is what kind of person we are, and also what our relationship to Christ is. I think today we are suggesting to people that if they will agree with the stated theological formula they will go to Heaven when they die. However, just because they have made a profession of Christ does not mean they are properly related to Christ. Neither does it mean they are undergoing the process of change into the heavenly personality.

Perhaps it is true that to lose our soul means to lose control of our soul. There are many pressures that attempt to cause us to behave in a manner of which we do not approve. The world is one such pressure. Our bodily lusts are another. Our self-will, self-love, and personal ambition are another. Also, there may be romantic passions that inflame our soul.

Jesus spoke of the man who decided to retire. He intended to store his wealth in his barns and then settle down to eat drink and be merry.

Jesus said to him: "You fool! This night your soul will be required of you."

Again the Lord asked, "What does it profit a person if he gain the world and loses his soul?"

I think the Lord was speaking about something more than being cast into Hell.

Let us say there is a Christian person. He has worked hard and has saved enough money so he doesn't have to work any longer. He has done this so he will be free to spend his days eating, sleeping, and playing.

He wants to buy a vacation trailer and travel around the country with his wife. He wants to be able to go to a hotel when he feels like it, or go lay on the beach. He has worked hard. Now he intends to relax.

This is an acceptable form of Christianity in America.

Let me tell you, this man is not serving Christ. He is not presenting his body a living sacrifice. He is not pressing, pressing, pressing forward to attain to the early resurrection from the dead. He is not seeking to live in the resurrection power of Christ nor to share the sufferings of Christ.

He is close to spiritual death.

Is the issue Hell? I don't think so; at least not at this point. The issue is, he is in a lukewarm spiritual state, neither accepting Christ nor rejecting Christ.

What if while he is enjoying an outside barbecue with his family he has congestive heart failure? He appears before Jesus Christ.

The Lord says, "I have granted you many years of life. You have worked until you were free to serve me without the need to report to your job. What have you done with your time?

"Do you think everyone in the world has heard the Gospel? Do you think your church needs the support you can give with your time and money? Are you seeking spiritual gifts so you may build up the Body of Christ? Are you putting the health, time, and money I have trusted you with to the best possible use in building my Kingdom?"

This individual was given a soul like the Soul of God-capable of making moral choices. But he chose to waste what the Lord had given him on the things of this world.

He has lost control of his soul. He is bound in his bodily lusts and appetites. He has no inheritance in the Kingdom of God, as Paul said concerning those who live in their fleshly nature.

He does not fit in Heaven among the saints of God. He is not qualified to ride behind Christ when the saints appear to install the Kingdom of God on the earth.

Where is he fit to be? In the outer darkness? That is where souls are placed who waste the resources entrusted to them.

He no longer has fellowship with the Father and the Son. He is useless, a wasted personality.

Can you see what I mean by saying the issue is not Heaven, Hell, or the Lake of Fire? The issue is what kind of person we have become, and our relationship with God and Christ.

I think this understanding is terribly needed in America today. We have literally millions of Christians who have "accepted Christ" according to the traditional formula, but who are not walking in fellowship with God and Christ. Their souls are at stake, not because they have not "accepted Christ" but because they are not living in continual interaction with the Son of God.

They have been saved from Hell, they think. What they do not realize is they are not the kind of person that fits in Heaven among the saints of God.

They have not grown strong in the Lord. Their personality is a wasteland of animal appetites. In the Day of Resurrection their flesh and bones will be raised and joined to a soul that knows not God, that has disappointed Jesus, and that is not a kindred spirit with the fervent disciples of the Lord.

Where will they be sent? It depends on what Jesus decides.

But they certainly will not be placed among the true disciples of the Lord, for their personality will corrupt wherever they are placed, just as on the earth they tend to weaken, by their worldly example, those believers who are struggling upward in the night, so to speak, so they might please their Lord.

To lose our soul is to have it destroyed by living in the flesh. Jesus did not say the man who built the barns had sinned, Christ rebuked the man for not laying up treasure in Heaven.

The Lord did not accuse the man of sin who had wasted the talent entrusted to him. He had him thrown into the outer darkness for being lazy and unproductive.

The Lord did not shut the door in the face of the five virgins because they had committed sin but because they did not keep themselves prepared for His return.

We have some incorrect viewpoints in America at this time. We may be stressing too much getting people to "accept Christ." Perhaps we need to emphasize more what it means to be a disciple of Christ, so people don't get the impression that all they have to do is make a religious statement and then continue with their usual way of living.

But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:39-KJV) What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:26)