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Truth is truth. God is Truth...John 14:6. So, does it matter what we believe the soul is?? ABSOLUTELY!! If you KNOW the TRUTH about something, then it's less likely you will fall for lies. And it's up to all of us, as individuals, to search for the truth in EVERYTHING.

Ask 5 different Christians the difference between BODY, SOUL, AND SPIRIT, and you will probably get 5 different answers.

Do animals have souls? What happens to our soul after death? Someone is more likely to listen to your profession of Christian faith if you have scriptural answers to seemingly insignificant questions. How can you be expected to know the BIG, IMPORTANT things if you don't know the little things everyone should know?


This one is a great study on the DIFFERENCE between the Soul, the Body, and the Spirit. I've never read a better one:


http://www.ecclesia.org/truth/body-soul-spirit.html


Piece of the link article:

And in the same fashion as to how God breathed into man's nostrils the "breath of life" and man became a living soul (Genesis.2:7), all animals have in their nostrils the "breath of life" from God as well (Genesis 1:30 [Septuagint]; 6:17; 7:15,21-22).

Therefore, not only man, but also the animals have "nephesh" (soul/life). This is not strange at all, if we understand that soul is what gives life to the body (Job 12:10). When you die, there is no more life, no more soul. The same happens with the animals. Soul is for them the same that it is for man (it gives life to the body).

Though scripture clearly shows us what soul is, a problem is created when one goes to the scripture with the preconceived idea that soul is immortal. If soul was immortal, then the souls of the various animals would also be immortal, since they have "nephesh" as man has "nephesh". Soul is not something immortal. It just gives life to the body. When you stop having life in your body, you have no more soul. If a soul couldn�t die, then there would be no need to "save a soul from death" (James 5:20).

The words �soul� and �spirit� occur in the scripture approximately 900 times, and not once are they referred to as being immortal or undying. The inspired writers of the scripture had at least 900 opportunities to inform us that the soul is immortal, but never did. Surely this is a significant fact that must not be overlooked.

The fact that man is mortal is affirmed throughout the scripture. The word "immortality" is used only five times (the word "immortal" only once) and is never coupled with the words "soul" or "spirit." On the contrary, we have found that the scripture teaches clearly: first, that God alone possesses immortality (1 Timothy 1:17; 6:16); second, that man should be seekers for it (Romans 2:5-7); third, that immortality can be found in the gospel (2 Timothy 1:10); and forth, that if man "puts on" immortality, it will be conferred upon him at the last trump (1 Corinthians 15:51-54).

Every man in the world, believer or unbeliever, has body and soul. It can therefore be concluded that, since Adam died at 930 years of age after he had partaken of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, his body or soul obviously did not die during that time. Thus, since something had to die for Adam that day, he originally had to have had at least one more part, which was lost, which died, when he ate. So, let's continue searching the Scripture to find the answer.


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Everything becomes so much more clear once we put the correct pieces together. Then it's so much easier to recognize false doctrine when we hear it.

A very personal belief for me involves animals. Some argue that animals cease to exist after death because they do not have "souls" (which they do), or "spirits" (we just don't know one way or the other). I have learned more about love from some pets I have had than from human relationships. Animals love. I have seen it. And I do not think that ANYTHING that has the capacity to love EVER ceases to exist. God is "LOVE", and nothing of God is EVER created for no purpose....and some day we will rejoice in that purpose....

Arlene