True Christian Religion # 156
156. (vi) A PERSON'S SPIRIT IS HIS MIND, AND WHATEVER COMES FROM IT.
A person's spirit, regarded as an object, is nothing but his mind. It is this which lives on after death, and it is then called a spirit; if he is good, an angelic spirit and later an angel, if wicked, a satanic spirit and afterwards a Satan. Everyone's mind is his internal man, which is the real person and resides within the external man composed of his body. So when the body is cast off as the result of death, the internal man has a fully human form. Those, then, are in error who believe that a person's mind resides only in his head. There it is only in its beginnings, from which first emerge everything a person's understanding allows him to think and his will induces him to do. But in the body the mind is present in derivatives from those beginnings, and these have been so constructed as to permit sensation and action. Since it is inwardly attached to the bodily structures, it imparts to them sensation and movement, together with a feeling that the body thinks and acts of itself. Yet every intelligent person knows that this is a fallacy. Now since a person's spirit is allowed by his understanding to think and is induced by his will to act, and the body does not do so of itself but from the spirit, it follows that a person's spirit means his intelligence and the affection of his love, and everything which comes from it and acts.
[2] There are numerous passages in the Word to prove that a person's spirit means such things as are to do with the mind; their mere quotation will show anyone that this is so. The following are a few among many:
Bezaleel was filled with the spirit of wisdom, intelligence and knowledge, Exodus 31:3.
Nebuchadnezzar said of Daniel that an outstanding spirit of knowledge, intelligence and wisdom was in him, Daniel 5:12, 14.
Joshua was filled with the spirit of wisdom, Deuteronomy 34:9.
Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit, Ezekiel 18:31.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for of such is the kingdom of the heavens, Matthew 5:3.
I dwell in a broken and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, Isaiah 57:15.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, Psalms 51:17.
I will give a cloak of praise in place of a depressed spirit, Isaiah 61:3.
Spirit also stands for the products of a wrong and unjust mind, as these passages prove:
He said to the foolish prophets, who run after their own spirit, Ezekiel 13:3.
Conceive chaff, bring forth stubble; as to your spirit, fire shall devour you, Isaiah 33:11.
A man who is in spirit a vagabond and utters a lie, Micah 2:11.
A generation whose spirit is not steadfast with God, Psalms 78:8.
A spirit of whoring, Hosea 4:12; 5:4.
That every heart may melt and every spirit be depressed, Ezekiel 21:7.
That which rises upon your spirit shall never be, Ezekiel 20:32.
Provided there is no deceit in his spirit, Psalms 32:2.
The spirit of Pharaoh was troubled, Genesis 41:8.
Likewise that of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel 2:3.
These and very many other passages plainly establish that spirit means a person's mind and what is to do with it.
Ezekiel 21
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The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
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Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and drop [your word] toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel;
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and tell the land of Israel, Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, and will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked.
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Seeing then that I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:
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and all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath; it shall not return any more.
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Sigh therefore, you son of man; with the breaking of your thighs and with bitterness you will sigh before their eyes.
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It shall be, when they tell you, Why do you sigh? that you shall say, Because of the news, for it comes; and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord Yahweh.
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The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
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Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says Yahweh: say, A sword, a sword, it is sharpened, and also furbished;
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it is sharpened that it may make a slaughter; it is furbished that it may be as lightning: shall we then make mirth? the rod of my son, it condemns every tree.
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It is given to be furbished, that it may be handled: the sword, it is sharpened, yes, it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the killer.
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Cry and wail, son of man; for it is on my people, it is on all the princes of Israel: they are delivered over to the sword with my people; strike therefore on your thigh.
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For there is a trial; and what if even the rod that condemns shall be no more? says the Lord Yahweh.
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You therefore, son of man, prophesy, and strike your hands together; and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the deadly wounded: it is the sword of the great one who is deadly wounded, which enters into their rooms.
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I have set the threatening sword against all their gates, that their heart may melt, and their stumblings be multiplied: ah! it is made as lightning, it is pointed for slaughter.
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Gather yourselves together, go to the right, set yourselves in array, go to the left, wherever your face is set.
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I will also strike my hands together, and I will cause my wrath to rest: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.
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The word of Yahweh came to me again, saying,
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Also, you son of man, appoint two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come; they both shall come forth out of one land: and mark out a place, mark it out at the head of the way to the city.
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You shall appoint a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and to Judah in Jerusalem the fortified.
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For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he shook the arrows back and forth, he consulted the teraphim, he looked in the liver.
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In his right hand was the divination [for] Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, to build forts.
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It shall be to them as a false divination in their sight, who have sworn oaths to them; but he brings iniquity to memory, that they may be taken.
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Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear; because you have come to memory, you shall be taken with the hand.
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You, deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day is come, in the time of the iniquity of the end,
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thus says the Lord Yahweh: Remove the turban, and take off the crown; this [shall be] no more the same; exalt that which is low, and abase that which is high.
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I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: this also shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it [him].
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You, son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach; and say, A sword, a sword is drawn, for the slaughter it is furbished, to cause it to devour, that it may be as lightning;
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while they see for you false visions, while they divine lies to you, to lay you on the necks of the wicked who are deadly wounded, whose day is come in the time of the iniquity of the end.
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Cause it to return into its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your birth, will I judge you.
31
I will pour out my indignation on you; I will blow on you with the fire of my wrath; and I will deliver you into the hand of brutish men, skillful to destroy.
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You shall be for fuel to the fire; your blood shall be in the midst of the land; you shall be remembered no more: for I, Yahweh, have spoken it.
