The Threefold Nature of Man
Clarence Larkin
Clarence Larkin stated that:
- ...man is a Trinity, and is composed of “Body,” “Soul,” and “Spirit.” Man was made in the “Image of God” and God is a Trinity.
The Tabernacle and its Courtyard is a type of the “Threefold Nature of Man.” The “Courtyard” represents his Body, the “Holy Place” his Soul, and the “Most Holy Place” his Spirit, and as there could be no communication between the “Courtyard” and the “Most Holy Place,” only through the “Holy Place,” so there can be no communication between a man’s Body and Spirit only through his Soul.
The outer circle stands for the “Body” of man, the middle for the “Soul,” and the inner for the “Spirit,” or what Paul calls the “CARNAL” (1 Cor. 3:1–3); the “NATURAL” (1 Cor. 2:14); and the “SPIRITUAL” (1 Cor. 3:1), parts of man. In the outer circle the “Body” is shown as touching the Material World through the five senses of “Sight,” “Smell,” “Hearing,” “Taste” and “Touch.” The Gates to the “Soul” are “Imagination,” “Conscience,” “Memory,” “Reason” and the “Affections.” The “Spirit” receives impressions of outward and material things through the Soul. The “Spiritual Faculties” of the “Spirit” are “Faith,” “Hope,” “Reverence,” “Prayer” and “Worship.”[1]
Footnotes
- ↑ Clarence Larkin, Rightly Dividing the Word (Philadelphia, PA: Clarence Larkin, 1921), 87-88.