Are People Basically Good? (Crucial Questions)

by R.C. Sproul

A very old error has made a comeback in recent generations, even among evangelical Christians, called the trichotomy view. It teaches that our humanity is composed of three distinct aspects: body, soul, and spirit. One of the vehicles through which this view has reemerged is Watchman Nee, a Chinese church leader who integrated Eastern thinking into Christian thought. Trichotomy was condemned in the fourth century. Its fundamental basis is that, because the body and the soul are in irreconcilable conflict, the only way they can be brought together is through a third party—a mediator, the spirit. Biblical justification for this view was claimed to be in Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians, where he wrote, “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23). At other times, however, Paul talks about the heart, the mind, the spirit, and the bowels. These are simply terms for different aspects of the immaterial essence. In misinterpreting such passages, trichotomy leads to a distortion of redemption, suggesting that God has to redeem a person one step at a time: first the soul, then the spirit, then the body. Theologically, we recognize that the Holy Spirit can distinguish between spirits, souls, minds, and consciences, but to simplify it, the church has said that there is a physical dimension to our lives and a nonphysical one. The term for the nonphysic...