Psyche in Romans through Revelation: Sellers on the Soul—Part XII

Otis Q. Sellers (1901-1992), a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ for over 73 years, was an industrious student of the Bible. His mission was to study and proclaim God’s Word through radio broadcasts, the writing and recording of Bible studies, and Bible conferences. He arrived at his conclusions after considering all the Biblical and any other material that shed light on the subject under consideration. He studied Hebrew and Greek words to bring forth their historical and grammatical meanings. As study forced him to alter some of his beliefs, he implored his readers always to take only his latest writing to be his latest light. Sellers received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior at age 18 on November 23, 1919. Throughout 1921 he attended Moody Bible Institute; the following year he was ordained a Baptist minister. For several years in the ’20s he traveled with an evangelistic party and served as pastor in Baptist churches. By 1932, however, after his studies led him away from the rituals and ordinances (e.g., baptism, the Lord’s Supper), he left the Baptist Church, never looked back, and never joined another. He began writing pamphlets in 1935; by 1936 he was publishing The Word of Truth (17 Volumes over the next 20 years). He expanded this ministry with booklets, radio broadcasts, and 570 recorded messages covering most books of the Bible and many doctrinal issues. In 1971 he began publishing Seed and Bread, four-page leaflets, 196 of which he had produced by the time he passed away in 1992. With the cooperation of his daughter, Jane Sellers Hancock (1927-2020) and her son Rusty Hancock and the assistance of Sam Marrone (who remembers Sellers teaching at his home in the 1950s when Sam was a boy), I’ve been researching his life and thought for a book tentatively entitled “Maverick Workman: How Otis Q. Sellers Broke with the Churches, Discovered the Premillennial Kingdom, and Embodied Christian Individualism.” I would be grateful to anyone who could share information, memories, or photos for the purpose of this study.—Anthony G. Flood

[Prior installments: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI]

From the many occurrences of psyche in the rest of the Greek Scriptures, we must confine our study of Otis Q. Sellers’s What Is the Soul? to those passages that highlight the truth that the “soul” is the human being considered in his or her capacity to enjoy life or to suffer, mentally and physically.

Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man [πᾶσαν ψυχὴν ἀνθρώπου τοῦ, pasan psyche anthropou tou] that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile. (Romans 2:9, KJV)

Otis Q. Sellers believes “human soul” renders the Greek better: tribulation and anguish will be the portion of the “unrighteous” mentioned in the preceding verse.

Who have for my life [ψυχῆς, psyches] laid down their own necks . . . . (Romans 16:4a)

“Aquila and Priscilla,” Sellers writes, “jeopardized their own necks,” by beheading “for Paul’s soul,” not his life.

In 1 Corinthians 15:45a, Paul confirms the equivalency of Greek psyche to the Hebrew nephesh of Genesis 2:7:

And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul [ψυχὴν ζῶσαν, psyche zosan].

“How plain it is,” Sellers comments, “that Adam was made a living soul. He was made this by God breathing into His nostrils the breath of life.”

1 Thessalonians 5:23 provides a pretext for unbiblical theories of the soul:

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit [πνεῦμα, pneuma] and soul [ψυχὴ, psyche] and body [σῶμα, soma] be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sellers believes

that many people desire just five words out of this passage—spirit and soul and body. They are not interested in its message; they care not for the truth it sets forth. They care only for the few words which they can use to support some theory. The first question that should arise when this verse is read is, what is Paul teaching? Does this passage deal with the nature of man, or is it a prayer for the blameless preservation of the whole man

that is, your spirit, soul, and body “completely [ὁλοτελεῖς, holoteleis] and entirely [ὁλόκληρον, holokleron]”

unto the coming of the Lord? Is not the condition of the soul at the coming of the Lord just as important as the condition of the spirit and body? This passage does not deal with the relationship of the soul to the spirit and body.

And Hebrews 4:12a:

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul [ψυχῆς, psyches] and spirit [πνεύματος, pneumatos] . . .

“demonstrates that the spirit is not the soul. Let us never confuse these two.”

“Very few passages in the Word of God,” Sellers writes, “speak of saving the soul.”

Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save [σῶσαι, sosai] your [ὑμῶν, humon] souls [ψυχὰς, psychas]. (James 1:21)

“This is one of them. See also Hebrews 10:39, James 5:20, and 1 Peter 1:9.”

At last, we come to the Book of Revelation. There are four passages containing psyche—6:9, 12:11, 18:13, and 20:4—and Sellers singles out the first for extended commentary.

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls [ψυχὰς, psychas] of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.

Let’s hear Sellers at length:

In interpreting the Book of Revelation I have always followed the rule: Literal, if possible. However, I have not found it possible to interpret Revelation 6:9-11 literally. I doubt if any responsible commentator has ever considered this to be a literal description of an actual, future occurrence.

But it seems that many superficial teachers are willing to make this a literal scene when they desire to use its inferences to support some theory concerning the soul. Such would have us to believe that these souls are true men, absent from their bodies and in heaven crying out for vengeance upon those who dwell upon the earth; and that they are pacified by being given white robes and being told to rest for a season.

Those who thus treat this passage literally do not realize just what they are teaching. Does the reader believe that if these are real men in heaven that they would be crying out for vengeance upon their persecutors? (My emphasis.—A.G.F.)

Can the reader imagine Stephen in heaven crying out for vengeance against those who stoned him to death?

And if these martyrs of the tribulation period cry out for vengeance, did they never learn of Him who said “Father forgive them, they know not what they do,” when He hung upon the Cross and suffered greater humiliation than any martyr ever will suffer?

While on earth, did they never learn that God said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Romans 12:19)?

No, it is not possible for us to conceive of men in heaven crying out for vengeance.

Some will insist that this scene is in harmony with the language of the imprecatory Psalms. This is true, but will the language of the imprecatory Psalms be spoken by men in heaven?

However, it is evident beyond all doubt that there is cry for vengeance and that the cry is heard. And to find out just what it is that is crying is also to find the true meaning of this symbolic scene.

We must remember that this passage was written to tell us something about the martyred remnant of the Great Tribulation. It is not a treatise on the nature of the soul. (My emphasis.—A.G.F.)

The one great fact that stands guard against taking this scene literally is that these souls are said to be under the altar. If we acknowledge the true meaning of the word altar, then literality is impossible.

This passage is so much like Genesis 4:10 that one provides a commentary upon the other. There we read concerning Abel who had been murdered by Cain.

The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.

From this I would not infer that Abel’s blood was some part of him that lived on after his death and cried unto God for vengeance. And neither would I infer from Revelation 6:9 that the soul is some part of man that lives on after death and cries unto God for vengeance. (My emphasis.—A.G.F.)

The key to this passage rests in the fact that these were martyrs. They had faithfully and fearlessly witnessed to the Word of God, and for this testimony they had been slain. The word “slain” used here is not the word for kill or murder, but is the word for sacrifice.

In the Old Testament we discovered that the soul was put by a figure of speech for the appetite, the desires, the sufferings. It was the suffering of Abel that cried unto God for vengeance. There God calls it the blood because blood is the figure or picture of the soul.  (My emphasis.—A.G.F.)

The blood of Abel was spilled upon the ground; the blood of the sin offerings was poured out at the base of the altar.

Solomon’s temple had a great cistern under the altar to receive the blood of the sacrifices; our Lord poured out His blood at the foot of the Cross.

Calvary and its Cross became a great altar, and these souls under the altar, with the word used to describe their death, shows us that God regards them as sacrificial victims.

It is their sufferings that cry out to Him for vengeance. The language of Revelation 6:9-11 is highly symbolical.

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