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NASB | Ecclesiastes 3:21 Who knows that the breath of man ascends upward and the breath of the beast descends downward to the earth? |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Ecclesiastes 3:21 Who knows if the spirit of man ascends upward and the spirit of the animal descends downward to the earth? |
Subject: where do animals go when they expire? |
Bible Note: 'We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God' (1 Corinthians 2.12). 'He who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is judged of no man' (2 Corinthians 2.15). 'We have the mind of Christ' (2 Corinthians 2.16). These are but three Scriptures which make clear that through the Holy Spirit we receive God's direct illumination. Who are you going to make the arbiter of truth? A failing church which has distorted God's truth through the centuries? And which part of the church? Are we to look to Apollos? or Paul? or Peter? (1 Corinthians 1.12). Whose interpretation are we to follow? It was because we must look to the Holy Spirit to illuminate our own minds that 1 Corinthians 2 was written. Of course we seek the help of those who understand the Scriptures, (who all to some extent disagree), and learn from them, but each of us is in the end responsible for our own souls, and through the Holy Spirit, are responsible for our own understanding of Scripture. 2 Peter 1.20-21 is talking about the fact that what the prophets spoke was not 'privately interpreted' by them but was given to them by the Holy Spirit with the consequence that we can know it is the truth. We also then receive it through the illumination of the Holy Spirit Who interprets it to our hearts. 2 Timothy 2.15 says precisely that we are to rightly handle the word of truth, not leave someone else to handle it for us. We are in other words with the help of the Holy Spirit to ensure that we take it in context and not give it a meaning other than it has. And then pass it on in the same form. 'Your word (not the church) is a light to my way, and a lamp to my path' (Psalm 119.105). And in the end even the most ardent believer in the authority of the church interprets what he/she is taught in his own mind. It is the way in which we receive understanding. There is no other way. In Him |