To be honest I think we all have it wrong in a way so many verses go both ways. I think we have split and split. I am ready to see church reunite. We can not even agree on the color of our carpet. Red for the Blood someone else says Purple for repentance what about throw up green for our pleasant state
Hi, friend, it should come as no surprise that there exists so much division in the church...
it's because the truth divides.
Hebrews 4:12 KJV -- "The Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, the joints and marrow....."
...and in this very verse lies a perfect example of how the truth can be so divisive:
Everyone knows a skeletal "joint" is comprised of "parts" such as bones and marrow, tendons, cartilage, etc, and that any of these components can be divided from the joint by means of a bone saw or scalpel.
The fact that these things can be divided one from another proves these things are DIFFERENT one from another.
So, why do "Bible believers" refuse to acknowledge the difference between the "soul" and "spirit" which the verse plainly says are as easily divided one from the other as the joints and marrow are divided one from the other? The text plainly says the soul is the "whole" from which the spirit "part" can be divided as easily as the joint "whole" is that from which the marrow "part" can be divided. A quick glance at Genesis 2:7 KJV reveals that the soul "whole" is comprised of the two "parts": the body and the spirit/breath of life. No division or dichotomy between the OT and NT. Yet....almost the entire Christian world claims there's no difference between the soul and spirit and therefore reads that at death "the spirit shall return to God Who gave it" and concludes the soul is immortal and flies off to God at death (or goes burning in hell).
Church division -- it's got nothing to do with anything else but a refusal to allow the Bible to speak for itself and an insistence it must speak whatever words we decide.