[Forrest]

I've "copied" some recent, but I think relevant observations I made on separate thread with some additional modifications.

Brother George, you made an observation on another thread titled, "Hall of Shame" on post #19 which motivated me to do some searches and study. You wrote in part:

Here is something for you to check out:

Find me one verse out of the approximately 498 verses on and about the soul, where it demonstrates that a babe within a womb possesses a soul (just one). Before I undertook this Post I reviewed all 498 verses with the word soul (souls) in them (thanks to SwordSearcher!) - Every place where the word soul (or souls) shows up in the Bible is always referring to someone who has already been born and is alive and existing in the flesh {And who, by the way, also possesses a “spirit”, a heart, a mind, and a conscience}. I cannot find a single verse where the word soul is applied to an unborn child {Check it out. Run the verses, don’t take my word for it.}

IF the Bible is its own best dictionary, then HOW the word soul (souls) is used (and WHAT the word soul (souls) describes) should define what a soul is – shouldn’t it? Then why isn’t there one verse in the entire Bible where the word “soul” is used to describe a baby within the womb?

Like you, I could not find a single verse where the word "soul" is directly applied to an unborn child. My search of the scriptures did, however, raise some questions for us to consider. Just digging deeper in the word! Here is what I discovered:

• No one (I don’t believe) has said a child in the womb is not alive, so that's certainly not the issue. Scripture does, however, clarify and seem to teach that the soul is directly related to, and associated with life. No life, no soul. Of course, depending on your current view, you will either say this refers to life outside the womb, or includes life in the womb. But it's worth mentioning, if the mother dies, so does the child in her womb. Life ends.

Genesis 35:18 And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin. Notice the word says her "soul" was departing, not her breath. Here it seems to associated the soul with life.

This passage could support the idea that the soul is directly associated with "breathing air" outside the womb. But it seems to also clearly identify the soul with life itself.

1 Kings 17:17-23 And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him. [Clearly, no breath meant no heart beat, no life.] And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again. And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.

Here the soul of humankind is associated with both "life" and "breath." We conclude. No breath, no life. No life, no breath. No breath and no life, no soul.

Job 12:10 In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.

My rhetorical question is this. Is life specifically limited to only the life outside the womb? Or, is it is also related to the "life" of a child who is still in the womb? If the soul is indeed related to life, then does a "living baby" in the womb have a soul?

• Scripture also identifies the soul as existing after physical life has ceased. The soul does not cease to exist when life is over.

Matthew 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Since in scripture the soul is not limited to “physical life,” can we can conclude that the soul does indeed exist even though “physical life” has stopped. If the "soul" does indeed exist after physical death, how could we come to a logical conclusion that a baby who is still in the womb, who has "life in them," does not possess a soul?

• We all understand the doctrine that God does not possess a "soul" in the same way we do, that goes without saying. We all remember the Lord Jesus saying, in John 4:24, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” However, scripture seems to also clearly identify God as having a soul.

Jeremiah 5:9 Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

Jeremiah 32:41 Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.

My observation and question is this. Since humankind is created in God’s own image*, referring to the fact humankind is also tripartite, composed of three parts, (spirit, soul, body), when does a human who is in the image of God, actually become complete? While in the womb or out of the womb?

*Note: to Brother Brandon, I believe that some of the aspects of God’s own image (mind, intellect, will, heart, desire) which were created in Adam, are also given to us through Adam, and that these aspects of God’s own image are in us through Adam. I am not suggesting our creation is like Adam's, only that through Adam we possess certain aspects of God's own image.

In conclusion, concerning a comment made by Brother George on another thread, and I quote, "The one issue is: WHEN DOES THE SOUL BEGIN? {An issue that has been argued and debated by "theologians" and genuine Bible believers for centuries - and never "settled" I might add..." I'll agree with a hearty, amen!