Last night, over dinner, I raised a peculiar subject of conversation. It is said that we have spirits, and it is said that we have bodies. In the context of both of those statements, what are "we"? It may be more accurate to say that are spirits who (currently) have bodies, but that seems incomplete. Would we really be ourselves without our bodies?
Perhaps we would, at least temporarily. When we die, our bodies and our spirits will be separated, and we (that is, our spirits) will go to the Spirit World to await resurrection. Yet, at the resurrection, we will gain bodies that we will get to keep. Our bodies will become permanent parts of us. What will we be then? If having a body is part of our eternal nature, wouldn't it be fair to say that being embodied is part of our identity now?
I think it's most accurate to say that we are souls, creatures that are a combination of spirit and body. That will remain true until we die, and become spirits, and are then resurrected to become angels and gods.
We have both spirits and bodies, and we are both spirits and bodies. We are a combination of the two. Taking away either would cause a fundamental change in our nature. Without our bodies, we would be different kinds of beings, and without our spirits, we would be dead. But together, we are unique creatures, composed of both body and spirit, who are deceptively simple, yet difficult to describe.
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