Here is part two of my previous post on the human brain as the home of the soul.....
May shed some light on things you haven't considered before..
"Computer scientists and bio-engineers are trying to grow computer chips, using protein and enzyme compounds. The chips resulting from this process are called biochips," so says Decision Development Corporation, in their course on computer programming. They further suggest, "the biochip will be able to process information at speeds many times faster than current silicon chips. As a storage or memory unit, a biochip measuring 1"x1"x1" (one cubic inch) could hold all of the computer storage in existence today."
They say, "the potential for biochips is mind-boggling, even a bit scary. The idea is that scientists may some day be able to implant a chip in the human brain to achieve instant knowledge. If biochips can be taught to learn, it may even be possible to implant one in an expert’s brain. There it would absorb everything that person knows. It could then be removed, reproduced, and re-implanted in another person’s brain. That person would then have all the same knowledge the source expert had. A simple operation could turn an uneducated person into a doctor or a nuclear scientist!"
They further suggest, "If all this seems a bit too much like the tale of Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, look at some of the other truly positive uses of biochips. The blind might be given sight; the deaf might hear; those with handicaps caused by brain damage might be restored to full use of their minds and bodies. Some researchers believe that basic biochip storage will be possible by the end of the twentieth century … more exotic uses shortly thereafter."
The above statements were published in 1990. At this point, we have less than 10 months to go until their predicted "end of the twentieth century." So where is this so-called biochip? This technical breakthrough has not come. If the brain was actually a sophisticated computer, such a breakthrough might someday be possible. But, the chances of our brains operating on the same principles as a computer is mighty slim. With all of the research on the brain over the passed several decades, no one has yet to tap into the auditory or visual areas and connect them to speakers or television monitors - much less the memory areas.
People are put through Magnetic Imaging Machines (MRI) every day and no one has had their memories erased yet. On the door to the MRI room, a sign warns that all credit cards, computer disks, cassette tapes, knives, watches and anything else made of metal must not be taken into the room where that giant magnet pulses. The fact of the matter is that our brains do not operate in a magnetic sphere. The brain reacts only to chemicals. There are many "forbidden fruits" that can affect the brain. No wonder God told Adam and Eve not to eat forbidden fruit. That is the only thing that can affect the functioning of the brain.
I do not believe that men will ever be able to build a computer using so-called biochips. The brain is a far more mysterious machine. What lives there (namely our souls) is not the product of a computer program.
Where Did We Come From?
So where did we come from? Did my soul develop along with my body following conception? Or did I come from heaven for a seventy-year sojourn (give or take a few years) in this dimension?
Before getting involved with this discussion, let me assure you that I am only probing for possibilities. My thoughts are not set in stone. So, come with me, if you dare, and enter a no-man’s-land of exploration! Careful now, you are walking on holy ground!
Solomon once wrote about what happens when we die:
"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it" (Eccl. 12:7).
He wrote that the body returns to dust and the spirit returns to God, but he said nothing about the soul. We know only that God made Adam into a living soul:
"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7).
We are told that Adam’s soul was created with the breath of God. If the soul of Adam had previously existed, then Adam could not have "become" a living soul when God breathed into his nostrils. On the other hand, the spirit seems to be quite different from the soul. The spirit connects our souls to a storehouse of information in heaven and communicates between the two. Solomon wrote that upon death, "the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." If the spirit "returns" to God, then it must have come from God. Therefore, it is possible that the spirit may have pre-existed - that it is given to a newly conceived person for use only during his or her lifetime. At death, the spirit returns to God. For that reason, it seems possible that the spirit could be given another assignment. I am not referring to reincarnation as the general subject is understood. The rabbis have a term called "the recycling of the spirit."
What if the spirit of a person who has died could be assigned to communicate with another soul? Would not that soul then have some of the advantages of the previous person’s storehouse of knowledge and experience? How could Mozart play the piano and compose great music at the age of three? Was he gifted from the spirit of some earlier musician?
What about John the Baptist? When he was yet in his mother’s womb (at six months after conception), he leaped for joy when he heard Mary’s voice. Gabriel had told Zechariah that his son would "… be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.
"And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias …" (Luke 1:15,17).
Perhaps it was the spirit of Elijah, through the power of the Holy Spirit, that rested upon John. It was not the soul of Elijah, but rather the spirit of the great prophet that brought about the fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy:
"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD" (Malachi 4:5).
Elijah was not reincarnated as John. That is why the Baptist denied being Elijah:
"And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not" (John 1:21).
Yet, our Savior made it clear that the spirit of Elijah gave John his courage and clear message of repentance:
"And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come" (Matthew 11:14).
If it was not the soul of Elijah, but his spirit that communicated with John, then both statements were correct. Jesus was right to say that John was the fulfillment of the promise that Elijah "was for to come." Also, John was right in saying that he was not Elijah.
Perhaps the spirit is more of an "empowered connection" than we have previously understood. Perhaps it can tap into the memory storage of another - like Elijah guiding John - and allow that person access (albeit controlled) to the knowledge and experience of someone living beyond our space and time dimension. We are told that each of us has a guardian angel - someone that guides us and communicates with us from the "other side."
Living Soul or Quickening Spirit?
Paul tells us about the difference between Adam and Christ:
"The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit" (I Cor. 15:45).
So, what is the difference between the soul and the spirit? First, we know that Adam was a soul, given life by the "breath" of God. Secondly, we are told that Christ was a "quickening" or "life-giving" Spirit. It may have been Christ, Himself, Who breathed life into Adam’s nostrils.
Since Paul tells us that Adam was made a "soul" and that Christ was made a "Spirit," we must ask the question, "Did Christ have a soul like the rest of us?" May I suggest that the soul of our Savior was not like the soul of any other human being. His was the soul of the Father. He was very God! His soul pre-existed from eternity, unlike our souls that are created at conception.
Christ Was Made?
Notice that Paul wrote that Christ was "made" a quickening Spirit - suggesting that He did not previously exist as a "quickening Spirit." Prior to conception in the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit, Christ existed as God of very God. He was the Creator of the Universe. But for some unexplained reason, it took His incarnation in order to become the One Who could give eternal life to a sinful soul. He had to become a man in order to redeem mankind. Now, I do not pretend to know how or why Christ could only become a "quickening Spirit" through His incarnation. I know only that the apostle Paul suggested that He was "made" a quickening Spirit. Well, perhaps I should exit this part of my discussion before I am perceived to be a heretic. I am afraid I am not qualified to tread on such holy ground.
In the final analysis, however, I am convinced of my immortality. I shall live forever. God has repaired the problem caused by Adam’s sin. I have been redeemed.
Back to the biochip! The biochip will probably never work. It would have to be maintained in a perfect environment - not too hot, not too cold - it would have to be fed - and the day would come when it would die of old age! But the silicon chip is made from sand. It has no liquid parameters to confine its use. The silicon chip is considered to be the very heart and mind of the computer. Its discovery changed the course of history. Was it simply discovered? Did some scientist wake up one day with an idea that sand could replace the vacuum tube? Was the idea planted in the mind of the scientist by a spirit-connection from beyond? Or, as some have suggested, was it reverse engineered from "alien" technology?
Reverse Engineering
Our government’s military establishment has revealed some rather exotic technology in recent years. There are rumors that some of it was reverse engineered from a captured UFO - alien technology. One of the more famous breakthroughs was the transistor, produced by the Bell laboratories in the late 1950s. The vacuum tube quickly became obsolete. It used to take six or twelve volts to heat the early radio tube’s cathode and hundreds of volts to operate its grids and plate. The high voltages used by tubes were soon replaced with micro-voltages used by the silicon chip. Today, the average computerized wristwatch runs for five years on a small battery the size of a button.
Did Bell laboratories actually discover the diode, transistor and silicon chip? Or were they given a piece of UFO technology from which to decipher these electronic marvels of our age. I am told that when Bell laboratories first applied for a patent on the transistor, they did not produce the research data to prove they had invented it. It was only after the Patent office refused to grant a patent unless they came up with the necessary documentation, that Bell Lab put together the requested forms. Did they have to concoct those forms?
What about printed circuit boards? Who really came up with the idea of miniaturized wiring? The first ENIAC computer, built for the army in the early 1940s, contained 18,000 vacuum tubes and half a million hand-soldered connections. It took up 800 square feet of floor space and weighed 30 tons. It could do 5,000 additions or 300 multiplications-per-second. That same technology can now be held in the palm of your hand. So where did the development of printed circuits actually come from? I have read reports from engineers who claimed to have inspected captured UFOs. One report, dated in the early 1950s, described small wafers with hair-sized webs running from one miniature box to another - not made of metal wires, but transparent - like glass or plastic wires. Who ever heard of electronic information flowing through transparent strands of plastic instead of metal wires? But today, it is commonplace.
Was laser technology discovered? - or back-engineered from alien technology? Recently, I read a lecture by the late Bill Schnieder, geologist and structural engineer. I cannot confirm the authenticity of this strange report, but he said our government has built hundreds of underground cities - from one to two miles underground. He said that a tunneling device, developed by our government, can cut a tunnel through solid rock at the rate of seven miles a day, using laser technology. If modern technology is solely the result of scientific research, then why were not at least some of our more elementary discoveries made a thousand years ago? I suggest that men did not think of it a thousand years ago because God did not want us to think of it until He was ready for us to have it.
Is there a whole other world, set in a nearby (but different) dimension, from which man derives advanced technology? Are we actually the products of that other dimension? Are angels and demons actually humanoid-like creatures who live in that other dimension with the capability of slipping in and out of this dimension at will? Do they have the capability of communicating directly with our brains? Can demons insert evil thoughts and temptations? Can angels insert reasons for avoiding those temptations? Why not? If our brains are translators, connected somehow to a computer-like entity on the other side, then it would be possible to receive an idea or thought from beyond this space-time continuum - similar to your computer receiving an e-mail from someone a half-a-world away via the world-wide web.
One famous inventor was asked how he came up with his ideas, to which he replied that he dreamed them while asleep. Was the technology (accredited to him) simply fed to him by beings from another dimension?
Reverse Engineering the Bible
Man’s modern study of the Bible has revealed that its authorship came from a vastly superior intellect - from beyond this world. The many discoveries that have been made in the Scriptures over the past century can only be described as a type of reverse-engineering. Theologians are actually "reverse-engineering" a Divine document, written over a period of 1,500 years, the last of which was written 2,000 years ago, and are finding incredible designs that could not have been produced by mere humans.
How could the Psalms have been collected in such a way as to allude to the events surrounding the Jews in this century? As one reads the Psalms, it is obvious that they are prophetic in nature and that they tell of the end of Israel’s long exile. Rabbinical commentaries, written hundreds of years ago, say that the Psalms tell of a time when the Jews will return to their land, welcome the Messiah and set up the world kingdom that was promised to them by God.
So, who placed the Psalms in the Bible as the 19th book counting from Genesis and the 48th book counting back from Revelation? Was it just a coincidence that Israel was reborn in 1948? Who placed the prophetic suggestion of Israel’s rebirth in Psalm 48? Whoever inspired the Psalms, did so from another dimension - it is other-worldly!
Some are suggesting that the Bible may be holographic. The ELS codes discovered to date are only two-dimensional. But there may be many more discoveries available, if only we had the ability to study the text from three dimensions - or four or ten!
Ghosts and Spirits
Reports abound throughout the centuries about people seeing strange, dimly-lit wisps of vapor-like images of people who have died. Are these "ghosts" merely figments of imagination? Or are they actually glimpses across the dimensional plane where the spirits of those people continue their existence? The Bible tells us about Jesus "casting demons" out of people. Is it possible that other intelligent entities can actually enter into a person and cause them mental problems?
If so, and I have no doubt as to its reality, then those demonic spirits must exist in another dimension occupying virtually the same space we occupy. It is more likely that they did not come from another galaxy or distant star system.
Out of the Body Experiences
There are many stories about people who have dropped into a dream-state, left their bodies and traveled to other places. Do you believe this is possible? If you deny its possibility, then I would like for you to consider a man named Paul, who tells of such an experience as he lay dying outside the city walls of Lystra:
"It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
"I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
"And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
"How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter" (II Cor. 12:1-4).
After being stoned and taken up for dead, he revived and lived to tell about this incredible adventure. Yes, there is another world nearby, into which we can step when our physical brains begin to shut down and our bodies begin to die.
Near Death Experiences
The are hundreds of recorded testimonies from people who have died, and later been resuscitated. Many tell of leaving their bodies, seeing the team of doctors and nurses working over them, traveling through a tunnel, and seeing a bright light at the other end of it. There are too many independent accounts of the same tunnel and light for it to be a mere figment of the imagination. Nor could it simply be a chemical reaction in the brain. Those who have been there claim to have seen and talked with others who are there - Jesus, their relatives, etc. Their conversations are too similar, too dynamic, and too knowledgeable to be the result of simple chemical changes in the physical conditions of their brains.
Josephus’ Description of Death and After
Perhaps the best extra-biblical account of the other world that exists just beyond our mental comprehension was given by the first-century Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus. It is quite similar to the descriptions of the tunnel or heavenly hallway awaiting our souls:
"There is one descent into this region, at whose gate we believe there stands an archangel with an host; which gate when those pass through that are conducted down by the angels appointed over souls; they do not go the same way; but the just are guided to the right hand, and are led with hymns, sung by the angels appointed over that place unto a region of light, in which the just have dwelt from the beginning of the world; not constrained by necessity, but ever enjoying the prospect of the good things they see, and rejoice in the expectation of those new enjoyments, which will be peculiar to every one of them, and esteeming those things beyond what we have here; with whom there is no place of toil, no burning heat, no piercing cold, nor are any briers there; but the countenance of the fathers and of the just, which they see always smiles upon them, while they wait for that rest and eternal new life in heaven, which is to succeed this region. This place we call the Bosom of Abraham.
"But as to the unjust, they are dragged by force to the left hand by the angels allotted for punishment, no longer going with a good-will, but as prisoners driven by violence; to whom are sent the angels appointed over them to reproach them and threaten them with their terrible looks, and to thrust them still downwards. Now those angels that are set over these souls, drag them into the neighborhood of hell itself; who, when they are hard by it, continually hear the noise of it, and do not stand clear of the hot vapor itself; but when they have a nearer view of this spectacle, as of a terrible and exceeding great prospect of fire, they are struck with a fearful expectation of a future judgment, and in effect punished thereby; and not only so, but where they see the place of the fathers and of the just, even hereby are they punished; for a chaos deep and large is fixed between them; insomuch that a just man that hath compassion upon them cannot be admitted, nor can one that is unjust, if he were bold enough to attempt it, pass over it.
"This is the discourse concerning Hades, wherein the souls of all men are confined until a proper season, which God hath determined, when he will make a resurrection of all men from the dead, not procuring a transmigration of souls from one body to another, but raising again those very bodies, which you Greeks, seeing to be dissolved, do not believe; but learn not to disbelieve it; for while you believe that the soul is created, and yet is made immortal by God, according to the doctrine of Plato, and this in time, be not incredulous; but believe that God is able, when he hath raised to life that body which was made as a compound of the same elements, to make it immortal; for it must never be said of God, that he is able to do some things, and unable to do others. We have therefore believed that the body will be raised again; for although it be dissolved, it is not perished; for the earth receives its remains, and preserves them; and while they are like seed and are mixed among the more fruitful soil, they flourish and what is sown is indeed sown bare grain; but at the mighty sound of God the Creator, it will sprout up, and be raised in a clothed and glorious condition, though not before it has been dissolved, and mixed with the earth, So that we have not rashly believed the resurrection of the body; for although it be dissolved for a time on account of the original transgression, it exists still, and is cast into the earth as into a potters furnace, in order to be formed again, not in order to rise again such as it was before, but in a state of purity, and so as never to be destroyed any more; and to everybody shall its own soul be restored; and when it hath clothed itself with that body, it will not be subject to misery, but being itself pure, it will continue with its pure body, and rejoice with it, with which it having walked righteously now in this world, and never having had it as a snare, it will receive it again with great gladness; but as for the unjust, they will receive their bodies not changed, but with the same diseases wherein they died, and such as they were in their unbelief, the same shall they be when they shall be faithfully judged.
"For all men, the just as well as the unjust, shall be brought before God the Word; for to him hath the Father committed all judgment; and he in order to fulfill the will of his Father shall come as judge, whom we call Christ.…
"… the just shall remember only their righteous actions whereby they have attained the heavenly kingdom, in which there is no sleep, no sorrow, no corruption, no care, no night, no day measured by time, no sun driven in his course along the circle of heaven by necessity; and measuring out the hounds and conversions of the seasons, for the better illumination of the life of men; no mood decreasing and increasing, or introducing a variety of seasons, nor will she then moisten the earth; no burning sun, no Bear turning round [the pole], no Orion to rise, no wandering of innumerable stars. The earth will not then be difficult to be passed over, nor will it be hard to find out the court of Paradise, nor will there be any fearful roaring of the sea, forbidding the passengers to walk on it; even that will be made easily passable to the just, though it will not be void of moisture. Heaven will not then be uninhabitable by men; and it will not be impossible to discover the way of ascending thither. The earth will not be uncultivated, nor require too much labor of men, but will bring forth its fruits of its own accord, and will be well adorned with them."
There are two things of particular interest predicted by Josephus. First, he said, "nor will it be hard to find out the court of Paradise.…" In other words, we shall someday possess the technology of intra-dimensional travel. We will be able to slide to and from this plane of existence into paradise, the dimension in which angelic creatures live, and return.
Secondly, Josephus said, "Heaven will not then be uninhabitable by men; and it will not be impossible to discover the way of ascending thither." We have already begun to see man’s first attempts beyond the gravitational pull of planet Earth. We have sent men to the moon and robots to Mars. We are presently exploring the planets. But, when the souls who have died, have been resurrected with immortal bodies, and the church has been raptured, we will all return with Christ possessing the knowledge and technology to travel across the universe!
In our modern age of technology, with new discoveries being made almost every day, perhaps it’s time we attempted to understand the concepts of those ancient mysteries which lie just beyond our present comprehension.
They teach that unless you are one of the "lucky" 144,000 then you just cease to exist when you die..
