Spirit In Man References

"There is a God-like spirit in man"

Job 32:8
But it is the spirit in a man,
the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.
(from New International Version)

"floods his mind with light"

John 1:4-5
4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
(from New International Version)

"man had been created in the image of God"

Gen 1:27
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
(from New International Version)

Ps 82:6
"I said, 'You are "gods";
you are all sons of the Most High.'
(from New International Version)

which is the reason you and i were created -

John 10:34-36
34 Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods'? 35 If he called them 'gods,' to whom the word of God came-and the Scripture cannot be broken- 36 what about the one whom the Father set apart . . .
(from New International Version)

"There is a vast gulf separating man and animal"

Gen 1:28
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
KJV

Gen 2:19
Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.
(from New International Version)

"Jesus who ordered these things from the time of Adam and Eve"

John 1:3
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
(from New International Version)

"A human being consists of body, soul .... and spirit."

1 Thess 5:23
. . . May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(from New International Version)

Heb 4:12
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; . . .
(from New International Version)

"different spiritual entities"

See Mat 24.31; Isaiah 6.2; Gen 19.1; Job 1.6; Rev 4 2-5.

Matt 24:31
And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect . . .
(from New International Version)

Isa 6:2
Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. . . .
(from New International Version)

Gen 19:1
The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city.
(from New International Version)

Job 1:6
One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them.
(from New International Version)

Rev 4:2-5
2 At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. 3 And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. 4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God.
(from New International Version)

"At death the spirit leaves the body and consciousness ceases .......the spirit returns to the God who gave it. "

Eccl 12:7
and the dust returns to the ground it came from,
and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
(from New International Version)

Isa 38:18-19
18 For the grave cannot praise you,
death cannot sing your praise;
those who go down to the pit
cannot hope for your faithfulness.
19 The living, the living--they praise you,
as I am doing today; . . .
(from New International Version)

"There are two deaths referred to in the Bible."

Luke 12:4-5
4 "I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.
(from New International Version)

Rev 20:6
Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them,
(from New International Version)

Further verses concerning the spirit in man - 1 Cor 2:11 1 Cor 5:5 1 Thess 5:23-24 Heb 4:12 James 2:26 James 4:5 Job 32:8 Job 34:14-15 Ps 146:3-4 Eccl 12:7 Isa 38:18-19 Zech 12:1 Mal 2:15

"Miraculously the new-born baby sucks in its first breath and becomes a separate independently functioning human being."

After looking at what is happening in the womb and with the foetus we will examine the Biblical evidence to support this statement. (Most of the work on this was done in a study January 1980)

THE PLACENTA

It is through the placenta that the mother both feeds the embryo and disposes of its waste products.

"The placenta is defined as "the structure by which the embryo is attached to the wall of the uterus(= womb),""(The New American Medical Dictionary, by Rothenberg, Abradale Press).

"The nature of the placenta can be made clear by comparing it to the roots of a tree, for its villi ramify in the space it makes for itself by eroding the uterine lining. Blood vessels supplying the uterine wall are opened by the spread of the placental tissue and they exude blood into the space between the tightly-packed placental roots or villi. Fine capillary blood vessels forming the terminal branches of the umbilical vessels of the embryo are thus caused to dip into a sluggish pool of maternal blood.

Embryonic blood coursing in these capillaries is thus separated from the maternal blood only by the thin walls of the embryonic capillaries and the thin layer of covering cells of the villi. Oxygen, nutritive chemical substances (carbohydrates, nitrogenous foods and mineral salts) in the mother's blood circulation, and the waste products of the embryo (carbon dioxide, urea, etc.) can pass outward into the mother's blood to be carried away and disposed of through the mother's lungs and kidneys. The placenta is thus an organ of respiration, nutrition and excretion for the developing infant. By virtue of this arrangement of the membranes and placenta, the developing organism is shut off from the outer world and lives in a dark, fluid-filled space, receiving from its mother only such water-soluble substances as can be transported in solution in the blood and can pass the barrier of the placenta under the influence of ordinary chemical and physical forces. There is no connection whatever between the mother's nervous system and that of the infant and no means by which ideas or impressions in the mother's mind can reach the child." (Encyclopaedia Britannica, heading 'Embryology, Human').

HEARTBEAT

What about the heart action of the foetus?

"After the fourth or fifth month (of pregnancy), the baby's heartbeat may be heard by listening with a stethoscope placed on the mother's abdomen." (The New Illustrated Medical Encyclopedia for Home Use, Abradale Press, Volume 3, page 1140).

"The heart begins to beat toward the end of the third week" of the life of the human embryo (Encyclopaedia Britannica, heading 'Embryology, Human').

BLOOD CIRCULATION IN FOETUS

The following are extracts from Encyclopaedia Britannica (1961), volume 5 page 721B:

"The fetus has no independent respiration or digestion and therefore depends entirely on the oxygen and nutritive substances that diffuse through the placenta from the mother's blood, ....."

"At birth, the course of circulation undergoes changes. As soon as the lungs become distended by the first respiration, a portion of blood is diverted from the pulmonary artery into the lungs, ..."

SUMMARY

The embryo does not take in food through its mouth, but rather receives all its nutrition directly into its bloodstream.

It does not breathe through its mouth, nor are the lungs used for oxygenation of the blood.

It does have its own independent blood circulation system activated by a beating heart.

THE LIFE IS IN THE BLOOD

The Bible shows that, yes, the life is in the blood, but life can only be sustained if the blood is oxygenated. Some verses however concerning life and blood -

Gen 9:4
But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.
(from New International Version)

Gen 9:4
But flesh with the life thereof, (which is) the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
ASV

Lev 17:11
For the life of a creature is in the blood, . . .
(from New International Version)

Lev 17:11
For the life of the flesh is in the blood;
ASV

Deut 12:23-25
23 But be sure you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat. 24 You must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water. 25 Do not eat it, . . 
(from New International Version)

BREATH (Hebrew neshawmah, or ruach), LIFE (ruach), and NOSTRILS

Breath in the Bible is many times synonymous with life.

The following verses show how the breath, the nostrils and life are closely linked together.

Gen 2:7
the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
(from New International Version)

Gen 7:22
Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.
(from New International Version)

Job 27:3
as long as I have life within me,
the breath of God in my nostrils,
(from New International Version)

Job 33:4
The Spirit of God has made me;
the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
(from New International Version)

Job 34:14-15
14 If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath;
15 All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.
KJV

2 Sam 22:16
The valleys of the sea were exposed
and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at the rebuke of the LORD,
at the blast of breath from his nostrils.
(from New International Version)

SATAN vs. THE CHILD JESUS

Satan tried to kill Jesus.

Matt 2:16
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
(from New International Version)

This is represented figuratively -

Rev 12:4-5
. . . The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. . .
(from New International Version)

The male child was Jesus. If Mary's foetus had been a human being it would have been the Son of God, and Satan would have tried to destroy it even before it was born.

A MISCARRIAGE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

Ex 21:22-24
22 "If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. 23 But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, 24 eye for eye, . . .
(from New International Version)

Notice in the first verse that the premature birth is not counted as a "serious injury", therefore any "serious injury" must refer to the woman. Then in the next verse it says that if there is "serious injury" (i.e. to the woman), then you take life for life etc... The loss of the foetus was not counted as a loss of life.

Notice that where there was a miscarriage, but the injury to the woman was not fatal, the offender was to pay compensation.

Only when the injury to the woman was fatal was the penalty 'life for life'. That is, the foetus was not counted as a 'life'.

A CHILD ONLY PAYS FOR ITS OWN SINS

Deut 24:16
Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.
(from New International Version)

Deut 22:20-21
20 If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the girl's virginity can be found, 21 she shall be brought to the door of her father's house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. . .
(from New International Version)

Now the circumstances in the second passage could have developed because the girl was seen to be pregnant, and the husband believed he was not the father. It is also possible that she had begun a pregnancy while married to this man. If she were to be stoned to death, then any "child" in her body would die for the sins of its mother, which would go against Deut 24.16.

We therefore conclude that God does not consider an embryo or foetus as a living person.

For more on the question, "Is abortion murder?" , see abortion