Benefits of Biblical Wholeness – Preaching against Dicotomy

Seventh-day Adventists believe, rightly in my understanding, that a human beings is an indivisible union of body, mind, and spirit. When you remove one then you no longer have a “living soul.” Often when I have heard this doctrine preached or taught it is within the context of protection from demonic influence. In other words, “Do not listen to dead folks becuase they are imposters. So the doctrine is totally and solely about protecting us from being fooled by those who say they are who they are not.

However, the doctrine of Biblical wholeness has many more implications than that. Thanks to a Feminist Theology course that I was taking I was introduced to many of the evils that the dichotomy between body and mind/spirit have created. The western world has argued that the body and soul can be separated and that the soul is much more important. Then the western world has implied that there are some who tend towards the mind while others tend toward the body. At any rate, the Biblical doctrine of wholeness strikes those ideas at their root. There is no dichotomy, that which affects your body also affects your mind.

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