I don't know..

Deb Said, " *Spirit and soul are the same in your view?
They are very different in mine. Can you help me understand why you see them as the same?*"

Hello Deb, I hope you are well.
Thanks for the reply, but I don't know if I can help you understand that or not. The reason is that 'words' mean different things to different people.

Words like 'soul', and 'spirit' are often used interchangeably... some believe they are the same thing, and some believe just the opposite.

I guess the way I worded my message made it sound like I believe they are the same, but really... I don't.

I'll try to lay it out plainly:

We don't  *have* a soul!
We ARE a soul.

Humans are souls. If they are 'living' then they are 'living souls' and if they are dead, then they are 'dead souls'.

Humans HAVE a spirit. It is not a soul.

The human spirit is a *spirit component* that enables the human to BE a human... it is similar to the operating system of an computer... when the operating system is removed, then the computer no longer computes. It's limited 'consciousness' is terminated and it just sits there... dead.
Humans are like that too. When our spirit is removed [aka 'returns to God who gave it']... then WE are DEAD. No longer conscious and aware. Just dead. We are no longer a 'living soul'... we are dead souls.

Contrary to what a lot of folks believe, humans are composed of two parts.

Body, and spirit. Not three as some believe.

When the body dies, the spirit is retrieved and stored in heaven until the Resurrection. It is NOT immortal. It is NOT conscious. It's similar to a database file disk that stores all of what the person was during thie life.
Physical appearance, thoughts, hopes and dreams... a record of everything that person saw and heard.. everything they WERE.

God will use that record to restore them to life at the Resurrection.
Until then, they are 'asleep'... DEAD. Period. No exceptions...

No conscious person has ever gone to heaven *except Christ*, and no conscious person has ever gone to a ficticious 'hell'.

Dead is just that! DEAD...

Because of much confusion, it's difficult to share this with people.
Souls are not immortal! Souls are people, and people can die! Many souls died in the Flood... and 8 souls were saved alive on the ark... read that story sometime and see...

Body, spirit and breath... the breath is often confused with the soul or the spirit.. much confusion here abouts... just the way satan wants it.