Do spirits/souls make decisions/think?

Question

Today I heard an instructor (a monk) saying:

At The Third Council of Constantinople, counted as the Sixth Ecumenical Council by the Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church and other Christian groups, met in 680/681 and condemned monoenergism and monothelitism as heretical and defined Jesus Christ as having two energies and two wills (divine and human).

And he explained that Jesus had two wills, as a human, he was able to do the wrong or the right thing, he chose the right path, to show us that we could be just like him and follow the road to salvation. He also had the will of a God, because he is God.

He added, we all have two wills, take saints as an example, they have the will of a human, they can make decisions, to do the wrong or the right thing, but when they become saints, they have the will of a saint, which is to be with God and so on.

So I asked him: well the devil was a spirit right? So he made the wrong decision and became a devil, in fact all devils were angels. Which poses two questions.

1. If Spirits/souls/angels (call them what you want) do think and make decisions, wouldn't be possible to someone in heaven, maybe a saint, to make a wrong decision and end up in hell, just like the devil?

2. If they don't think and don't make decisions, meaning that if you were a saint on earth, you'll be a saint forever. Then how did the devil make the wrong decision? Furthermore, how do spirits live in heaven or hell, as objects?

He said we'll discuss that later, let me finish the course, so I'm bringing this topic to here.

Answer 1

According to scripture. Yes. There are 2 minds at work in you.

You may not realise it, but the scripture tells us in 1 Thes 5:23 that we are 3 part beings.

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The part that got born again and made new is our spirit.

1 Cor 2:!6 - "For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ."

It's the only part of you that became the new creation talked about in 2 Cor 5:17.

2 Cor 5:17 "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

We also have our own carnal mind (the soul) which the bible also calls "the flesh".

That is why we can be double minded people as talked James 1:8

James 1:8 - "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways."

When our soul agree's with our spirit we become single minded. The reason that a double minded man cannot from God is because God has already provided everything we need. Our soul can not reach out in faith and grab hold of what's already provided by grace if we cannot agree with our new spirit man that it's actually there. Often times we won't believe what we cannot see. How can you faith for something that you can see?

So yes, we have two minds our soul and our spirit.

As for those other parts to your question.

1. If Spirits/souls/angels (call them what you want) do think and make decisions, wouldn't be possible to someone in heaven, maybe a saint, to make a wrong decision and end up in hell, just like the devil?

I thank God I have the mind of Christ and not the Mind of Adam. Jesus overcame sin for us and he put that ability within us in our new man. Salvation was made available to people, not to the devil or to angels. Christ didn't die for the devil.

1. If they don't think and don't make decisions, meaning that if you were a saint on earth, you'll be a saint forever. Then how did the devil make the wrong decision? Furthermore, how do spirits live in heaven or hell, as objects?

Well they do think. And the devil and those that follow him have rejected God. I'm not sure I fully get that question but I hope it satisfies.

Answer 2

When thinking about angels the scripture does not provide details of how they followed the Devil's pride in rebellion to God. However the two things it does it impress upon us is that they fell together. In other words God allowed something to test them and this split the good angels from the evil ones accordingly. As God is omnipotent he is perfectly able to test the will of a creature and then prevent all future tests and temptations ensuring they are forever protected by the measure of godliness that he has filled them with, securing the boundary of their own volition within his boundless glory. This does not mean they are now robots it just means they are protected. It means they only make free choices that are not harmful to themselves, a heavenly freedom from earthly bondage including the tyranny of the Devil, sin and death.

As we turn to humans its all different. Each human is born from another human, so individual testing could not occur all at once to winnow out the good and the bad. Furthermore due to the fall of mankind in Adam in some sense everyone failed the test in Adam. This means the choice was no longer possible accept under a redemption plan whereby our choice is enabled.

Once in heaven the same reality applies to saints as it does to angels. God is able to protect us from the type of test that fell upon the angels and he can do this forever and ever. This is clearly implied by the fact that saints inherit 'eternal life', not merely the 'potential' of it.

Answer 3

1. If Spirits/souls/angels (call them what you want) do think and make decisions, wouldn't be possible to someone in heaven, maybe a saint, to make a wrong decision and end up in hell, just like the devil?

It is not possible to change in the afterlife, because there is no time in the afterlife. Once you die, the concept of time stops applying to you, you gain all knowledge and as such make all decisions according to your fully informed will. The angels have free will, but they do not exist in time, this means that an angel cannot change his mind, when the angel was created it received all knowledge and decided what it wanted to do with that, and the angel keeps to that decision.

2. If they don't think and don't make decisions, meaning that if you were a saint on earth, you'll be a saint forever. Then how did the devil make the wrong decision? Furthermore, how do spirits live in heaven or hell, as objects?

The whole idea is that this is logical continuation not a temporal continuation. For example, if I say 2+2=4, this is always true, four always follows that addition, you do not have to wait any amount of time for the four to appear. Mathematics is usually like that so you can test it with other elementary properties like that of association. As such it goes like this:

1. The devil's knowledge is fully informed.
2. He decides he doesn't want any of it.
   C. The devil rejects god.

The conclusion stays like it; because, not exsiting time, nothing can make the premises change.