We are persons and as such we are not part of anything, rather we are a whole unit. As a person we understand as a unit of consciousness and my consciousness cannot be divided; my person cannot be divided neither.
Traditionally we understand persons as having minds, souls and spirits, but these adjectives are only pointing to the same unit, the person. These different descriptions of my person cannot be subtracted from me, they are not parts different than me, and if one of them is taken I cease to exist. For example if as a person you subtract my mind I am no longer a person, I am just a physical body, more like an animal that by the way, are not persons.
What we say we are. soul, body and spirit are just the one unit. If you take my soul from my body I am still a person because I am still consciousness. But if you take my body then it is no longer part of my person, it is physical matter. This is why we are two things only; body and consciousness, we are a dichotomy, two things. In other words we are not three things as persons we are only one thing as persons and two as humans. That is God created us bodies with consciousness called the man unit. But within this creation there is a unit of consciousness that retains its personhood on its own.
If you are a creationist this makes all the sense in the world and you can see that we, men are two separate units of consciousness and the physical matter, the body. But if you believe in the traducing theory of soul creation then you see that though original creation of the first human (Adam) involved two distinct objects, the body and the breath of life (soul/spirit/consciousness), the procreation of all other souls have the distinct requirement of body/consciousness as a necessary whole units we call persons. We don’t see God creating any more humans outside the process of procreation.
If you are an evolutionists, then the person is a process of conversion; matter-energy-consciousness, that is a heated point of contention currently. There are plenty of arguments against how is it possible for matter to evolved into consciousness and some Christians have compromise the available data to suggest an evolution of matter that at one point was evolved enough for consciousness, thus the illustration of the breath of life to Adam. They suggest that at one point the humanoid species was evolved enough for God to breath consciousness into the first “Adam” . This sort of idea would seem to contradict Traducianism, which theologically makes more sense than creationism (see my note in Traducianism vs. Creationism). So perhaps for the time being this field should be put on hold awaiting progress from the two different disciplines, science and philosophy.
Nevertheless we now can clearly perceive we are persons, complete units that though in need of the body to be humans, nevertheless we are whole in our personhood. The idea that we are more than two things, i.e., body-soul-spirit it hard to defend logically and scripturally weak since the Bible have the terms soul/spirit as synonyms of each other. Further, the resurrection of the body would suggest a need for men to be the two things as persons that is immaterial and material beings. Here Traducianism and by that matter, evolution makes more sense since in order to be humans we need both the body and the soul. We are created different tat the angels for sure why we don’t know but it is clear that man was created body/not body stuff. The logic of the fall in Genesis indicates an ideal existence without death, no separation of the two things we are. It seems that death is an accidental from the fall, but not really the ideal. I think it is safe to say theologically we as units of consciousness (persons) are only temporarily separated at death from our physicality which we need to be mankind, and that God sustain the immaterial in us (soul/spirit) through His special action.
As we saw before if you take my mind from me I am no longer a persons because I wouldn’t have thoughts, emotions, self-awareness or reflection. My person is a whole not parts. So if I am soul and spirit, how is it possible to separate the two. When is it possible tat my soul be one thing and my spirit another. The defenders of trichotomy would say we are a reflection or image of God who is triune, Trinity.
The trinity is best understood through the argument of love; three persons (One God, don’t ask me to explain that one, it is impossible for us finite beings), that is three whole persons that are not part of God yet whole persons. Unlike us if you take my mind or my soul from me, I am nothing; God can separate in a sort of way we can understand as Jesus on earth and The Father in Heaven and still be God. There have been attempts at trying to explain the trinity from our perspective and thus having a kind of “proof” that we are three things by some strange illustrations. One not so popular was the egg; the egg yolk and the white are two distinct parts of the whole egg yet it is one egg. The trouble here is that neither the yolk by itself nor the white is the whole egg, in other words the egg can be divided but it can’t retains its egg-hood, because the egg is both inseparably. Likewise I as a person cannot be divided, for which part of me can survive on its own? If you take out of my person the soul, (mind lets say) what is it that is left? Can my soul and spirit be separated and have their own self-awareness in a separate state? What part of me is the one that sins, the soul “that will die if it sins” or “the spirit which returns to God”. If I am both a soul and a spirit, which one is my person? If I am not my mind for example, do I have an excuse to enter into heaven no matter what I have done with my mind (reject Christ for example) under the excuse I had schizophrenia on earth, or that it was only my mind (Hinduism)?
From a human and biblical standpoint it seems like soul, mind and heart refers to the same unit of consciousness one indivisible unit. I don’t believe there is an evidence of the trinity in us , we are not three things but only two, body and soul (spirit) that means my person. In mankind field of experience you can have bodies without personhood, animals but you can not have persons without bodies, it seems this is how God meant us to exist. The resurrection in general and the resurrection of Christ specifically seems to give us the evidence of our essence.
Another strange example is water. The adherents of this idea take the three states of water in chemistry, liquid solid and gaseous to illustrate the Trinity. I believe the failure is in not realizing water weather liquid, solid or gaseous is still H2O. There is no separation of the two, for if they separate they are not water, their essences become gaseous elements separate fro what water is. Some may want to compare us and say we can be a son, father and still be part of my family. That family is essential to its parts and that may be so, but family refers to a union of separate beings, son, father, mother etc. The essence of a family is its distinct individuals and if one individual is subtracted you still have a family. In contrast we are not the same, you cannot divide me into sub-parts because I will no longer be a person. You take my consciousness away and I do not exist as a person any longer (not that this is possible, it is not). I believe that almost every thing we could compare us to, has a duality to it, for example: As a family member I can be a father or a son and though some would argue a brother too (meaning a trio of things) in reality by brotherhood is the same as my son-hood, because my brother is accidental to my fathers procreation not essential to my essence as a son or a father to my children.
Unlike a person who can be in the role of father or son, or water that can be solid liquid or gaseous and that are essentially one thing, God is not a conversion to three by any process. The son in the Trinity is not a procreation of the father and accidental to the Holy Spirit. They are rather three complete persons that share god-hood. I believe the oneness of the Christian God relies in that they share god-hood undifferentiated from each other thus making the essence of the Christian God one. If they were three Gods like some want to say, their essences or god hood would be slightly different and thus the definition of God invalid; for God means “the greatest conceivable being”. If there is even the slightest difference in god-hood you have both three gods and no god by definition. It is also very hard to conceive the Christian God as divisible from its essence of Father-Son -Holy Spirit!
In one side you have the indivisibility of God as three distinct persons who is evidenced only if God is love, and he is. In the other hand you have three persons that can not be three Gods because this invalidates God’s definition as the “greatest”; for if there is three, one of them has to be greater than the other two, in order for one of them to be God by definition.
So it is impossible for us dual individuals (body and soul) to even comprehend the trinity let alone identify our essence to it. The trinity is probably one of the most difficult concepts to accept in Christianity and it maybe that we will ever fully understand how it works, even in heaven. But from the argument of love for example we know there is no other way God can be love aside from a multiplicity of persons. We too often fail to realize what love really means and t is easy for us to take “thyself” as in “love your neighbor as you love thyself” to mean love is a natural essence of one, it is not for to love there has to be more than one!
In conclusion, the Trinity’s essence and ours are not similar; we are not triune but dual and my person is indivisible.
Blessings to all,
Tio Papo
What I Wish Christians Would Tell You 