Bible Biology - Part 1

GOD'S VIEW ON THE SPIRIT AND SOUL'S HOUSE

By Walt Giddings

July 28, 2019

Scriptural Reading:   I Corinthians 9:27 "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection : lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."

Greetings Kindred. We are on a first name basis here. My name is Walter. I am not your real Teacher. The Holy Spirit, whose presence we have invoked in prayer, whose name is Jesus Christ, is your Teacher. That raises an interesting question. If Jesus Christ is your Teacher, then what is my role in His classroom today? The Greek word paidagogos (pahee-dag-o-gos’) from which we get the English word pedagogue answers that. A pedagogue was hired by families to take the children to the Real Teacher. As Pedagogue for this lesson I serve as your master of ceremonies. Please direct all correspondence through the pulpit. If it is a necessity for you, my fellow classmates in God’s classroom, to have a private conversation, please give us a chance to respect your privacy by not disturbing the class. Our forefather George Washington was elected President of the Constitutional Convention. He instituted a few simple procedural rules for the Convention. Among those was one requiring everything done out loud to be addressed to the chair. We are adopting it for this occasion. Please direct all questions, amendments, corrections, deletions, and commentary to the Pulpit. As my classmates in God’s classroom you will do the work with me.

In I Corinthians 9:27, what kind of example is Paul setting? What is he saying about the house for his spirit and soul? What does “keep under my body” mean? What is this “subjection” into which he brings his body? “Keep under” is translated from the Greek verb “to subdue. “Bring into subjection” is translated from the Greek verb “to enslave”, or “be a slave driver”.

There is a second witness in the Scriptures to our bodies being slaves. I am almost daily amazed at the understanding of God’s Word the men of King James appointment brought to the Authorized Version 1611. In Revelation 18 God’s servant John heard a voice from heaven list the Bible Biology.

Merchandise of Mystery Babylon. This list of merchandise begins with the most highly valued, and descends to the cheapest.

Revelation 18:12-13: "The merchandise of gold and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots and slaves and souls of men."

The “slaves and souls of men” are dead last. “Slaves” is translated from the Greek word for body, soma. The Greek word “soma” appears in our English expression “psychosomatic” and “somatopsychic” indicating the soul-body connection.

If we clothe our bodies, house them, clean and maintain them well and feed them with nutrient density, our slaves have their best chance to perform well. No matter how promising the plantation, without well-cared-for slaves, the plantation does not produce. That gives rise to the saying, “The plantation is promising; there are too few workers.”

In Indiana the ministry given to me is “family coach”. I coach families to be good soldiers with these old fallen bodies until we get the Glorified Body at the Resurrection.

You have a right to know what you are getting for your pedagogue. I am a stone cold white table sugar junkie. My first remembered fear, on this side of life at three years old, was my father might catch me on top of the dining room table getting my daily fix from the sugar bowl.

In my thirties, later in life, I discovered that the consumption of swines flesh in conjunction with white table sugar drugs the body’s excretory mechanisms. With no interest in matters of eternal importance, our people routinely die, out of time, from living in their own swill. As a people we vastly underestimate the catastrophic, dire, disabling, extreme, pandemic consequences of the Fall. Physiological functions of our fallen bodies produce foul wastes. On this side of life living is a dirty business.

My youngest sibling was born when I was ten years old. I learned to change her diapers. An innocent baby can produce a foul return on a carefully prepared deposit. It is convicting testimony of a formidable wrong. Later I heard from God’s Word we are born into the wrong bodies, the same image and likeness of Seth.

On our plantation of a decimal point less than an acre, my wife and I minister to families at the cottage. At the end of the day, after helping people deal with their lusts, I go up to the house and have to deal with mine.

This lesson is Bible Biology

In sharing this lesson together, our Hope is we will be much more alert to matters of biology in The Scriptures. And we will have more of the mind of Christ in being good soldiers with these fallen bodies.

Two years after God dragged me to his Son Jesus Christ, the thought occurred to me to reexamine with The Bible all four thousand six hundred twenty hours of a four year course crammed into three years: that is all four thousand six hundred twenty hours of anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, pathology, and lab analysis and diagnosis. Shall we start with anatomy and physiology? (Visual aid).

"Anatomy studies a pair of ganglionated chains of nerves bilaterally located slightly anterior to the spinal column. Bilaterally means one on each side. Slightly anterior means slightly out in front of the spinal column. Ganglionated means there are a multitude of ganglia connected by cords in a long chain. Ganglion, singular for ganglia, a mass of nerve cells, seems to serve as some kind of switching station. Are we beginning to crack the code in the language of the Guild?

Both ganglionated chains of nerves extend up into the skull at the carotid entrances and into the sacrum at the bottom of the spine, reaching to the coccyx. The classic first edition of Gray’s Anatomy, first published 1858, describes the pair this way:

The Sympathetic Nerve consists of a series of ganglia connected together by intervening cords, extending on each side of the vertebral column from the base of the skull to the coccyx. It may, moreover, be traced up into the head, where the ganglia occupy spaces between the cranial and facial bones. These two gangliated cords lie parallel with one another as far as the sacrum, on which bone they converge, communicating together in front of the coccyx, through a single ganglion (ganglion impar) placed in front of the bone. "

The Sympathetic Nerve. Page 532.

The Classic First Edition Gray’s Anatomy,

(Reprint) First Published 1858.

Did everybody get all that? What is the coccyx? What is the sacrum? Think of an arrowhead. We call the sacrum the arrowhead bone at the bottom of the spine for which the coccyx is the tip. The tail bone is the tip of the arrowhead.

To cut through the anatomical terminology we can say that the two parallel “gangliated chains” or bundles of nerves extend from head to tail. I can hear my wife’s question: why didn’t you say that at the beginning? Why did you drag us through the Classic First Edition of Gray’s Anatomy? The short answer is I am going to ask you a question.

At this point we should have a clear picture of two bump filled cords or nerve bundles running inside ourselves from head to tail. To complete the picture, the axis of our entire skeleton, the vertebral column, a column of turning bones, has, issuing through it and from it, cables containing a multitude of nerve filaments. Many of these cables issuing from both sides of the spine, like wires from a switchboard, have branches from these cables at certain strategic segmental levels of the spine that connect bilaterally with these “gangliated chains” running parallel from head to tail inside of us. The whole picture is one of a lattice-work ladder inside each one of us. I like to think of it as Jacob’s Ladder inside of us.

In the twentieth century, “the Sympathetic Nerve” in later editions of Gray’s Anatomy underwent both a language change and a change of classification of anatomical parts. “Gangliated chains” became “ganglionated chains”. You may recall that ganglion is singular for ganglia.

The Sympathetic Nerves are now known as the Autonomic Nerve System. To those with an interest in iris analysis, also called iridology, where it appears in the iris of the eyes, it is called the Autonomic Nerve Wreath. Because of discoveries of its functions, the Autonomic Nerve System is now divided into the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nerve systems.

Yet, our knowledge of Autonomic Nerve System function is sketchy at best. It is generally described as nerve structures used for regulating “unconscious actions”. The innervation along the parasympathetic system partakes of body at rest in salivation, urination, digestion including defecation, and arousal for cleaving. The innervation along the sympathetic nerve system partakes of body fight-or-flight in stimulating activities. Both systems are seen as complementary to each other. What is innervation? Innervation indicates the use or function of living nerve tissue. The mission of living nerve tissue is to time messages from the center of ourselves out unto all parts of the living body and back again in a cycle.

Our knowledge of the Autonomic Nerve System, though sketchy at best, comes in very handy for an important Christian function. Can you guess that function? Remember the list of functions for body-at-rest powered by parasympathetic nerve system innervation? What was the last function listed?

Song of Solomon 2:6 "His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me."

Yes. Arousal for cleaving. What is cleaving? Does cleaving set in motion becoming one flesh?

Uh oh!  Does this picture two people at rest? Is this the classic picture of a man and woman together? Notice the woman is lying on the man’s left side. She lies near his heart, the heart that she’s making pump a little faster. What kind of heart does this man have?

What if these two are young people, and single, and the vows have not yet been sealed with the Kiss? Uh oh ! What is our sketchy knowledge of the parasympathetic nerve system telling us? Does arousal for cleaving occur during body at rest? What is a synonym for arousing? Classmates you have verse seven.

Song of Solomon 2:6 "I charge you O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love till he please."

Is awaking a good synonym for arousing? What does “by the roes, and by the hinds of the field,” have to do with “nor arouse my love till he please”?  Do the roes and the hinds of the fields have set times when they go in heat? Does Adamkind have set times?

Ecclesiastes 3:1 To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. 

For the daughter of Jerusalem, whose sons and daughters we are, is there set a season and a time to embrace? Do the roes and hinds of this verse witness seasons and times for the daughter of Jerusalem?

Ecclesiastes 3:5 "A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing."

“When the eyes of Adam, as of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the LORD”, we will observe the times to refrain from embracing. When husbands dwell with their wives in knowledge there is much blessing and many children.

Our knowledge of the functioning parasympathetic nerve system instructs us that a complete chaperone program includes athletic activities, like volleyball, softball, and badminton, where opportunities abound to exercise teamwork and exercise the manners of gentlemen and ladies in polite company. Stay active and rest in polite company.

Song of Solomon 8:3-4: "His left hand should be under my head, and his hand should embrace me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please."

With the exception of eunuchs for Christ, the Bible does not say “thou shalt not”! Be fruitful and multiply. The Bible says thou shalt. This important subject matter is part of a key doctrine of Scripture: The Doctrine of One Flesh. Has our sketchy reference to it, relative to our sketchy knowledge of the parasympathetic nerve system function, fit our purpose? If our sons’ hearts be wise with a firm understanding of the Doctrine of One Flesh, they will change the face of our society. It is the vote that cannot be stolen, the ballot count for which there is no cheating.

Do we find the Autonomic Nerve System in the Bible? The answer is a resounding double yes ! We not only find the system in the Bible anatomically, but we also find it physiologically. The Bible mentions it, both for its structure, and for its function.

Proverbs 23:15-16 "My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things."

Who is speaking? Who is the speaker in these two verses? If someone addresses another as “my son”, who should we say is speaking?

In verse fifteen, what anatomical part do both father and son have? Concerning the condition of the son’s heart, for what does the father wish? If the son’s heart is wise, what is the condition of the Father’s heart?

In verse sixteen, "if the son’s lips speak right things, what part of the father rejoices? Yes. His reins."  What are reins? Reins, at a minimum, come in pairs. The autonomic nerve system has a pair of ganglionated nerve chains complete with their connections. They resemble a pair of reins. Does that fulfill the anatomical picture?

Do the Sympathetic/Parasympathetic systems complement each other, like the function of a pair of reins?

James 3:2-3: For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.

In verse two, what is attached to a bridle? A pair of reins. What does the word bridle mean? It interprets the Greek verb “to curb”, or to restrain. Verse three. We use the reins to pressure the bridle at the bit, which pressures the horse’s tongue. The horse obeys.

James 3:4: "Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth."

Did you notice the word governor? Is government restraint? Turn one of your wrists inside up. At the wrist/hand joint place the first three fingers of the opposite hand under the thumb side bone of the forearm. If that pulsing stops repeating in this class we have about eight to ten seconds before we flop over. The flop over is a dire emergency defense mechanism, designed to slow body functions for the rough ride in emergency. It results in limited additional time for emergency first aid/crisis intervention to reestablish pulsing. Can we see that our need for fresh oxygenated blood to the brain is immediate? Under ordinary conditions even for the strongest among us, lack of fresh oxygen/blood supply to the brain is, in eight to ten minutes, final. While we thank our God our repeated pulsing is on His schedule, and not on Lucifer’s schedule: What is the blood pressure at that location now? What should be the blood pressure there now? Do we recall that blood pressure is reins mediated? Did we say before that our knowledge of Autonomic Nerve System function is sketchy at best? Did we say that Autonomic Nerve Function is described as “regulating unconscious actions”?

Here is the question I said before that I was going to ask: If our educated mind is not regulating blood pressure, then who, or what, is minding the store?

Each of us is unique. Our regulation meets our needs, not another’s.

There is even function within us that no physiology textbook describes. Is it a function based on an intimate relationship? Or is this a function based on an intervention?

Psalms 16:7: "I will bless the LORD who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons."

Has our LORD given us counsel? Do our reins instruct us in the night seasons? Is this reins instruction function based on an intimate relationship? Is this instruction function in our reins based on a divine intervention? In Jeremiah chapter twenty the endtime weeping prophet Jeremiah was persecuted on a national scale by a backslidden House of Judah. He was so politically incorrect that his own people said that when he denounced their wickedness, they would denounce his denouncing. But Jeremiah understood by faith that the LORD is with those made righteous, as a warrior oppressor of his persecutors, who would not prevail. They would be put to shame, they would not prosper, and their everlasting disgrace would never be forgotten.

Jeremiah 20:12: "But O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause."

Jeremiah understood by faith that persecution by terror on every side is the test of those “made righteous”(Romans 5:19). The LORD does not only look upon the reins and the heart; He sees into them with discernment. (Psalms 139:13). Here’s another example of a function of the reins appearing in no physiology book.

Psalm 139:13 "For thou hast possessed my reins; thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb."

Each reference to “reins” in the Library of God presumes we know what the reins are. The Greater David, the “rod out of the stem of Jesse”, Jesus Christ, “the Branch”, who shared our lot in the flesh of Abraham, had loins and reins.

Isaiah 11:5 "And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins."

The loins, that part of our body that narrows to the waist, has at its top, within the bottom of the ribs, the kidneys. “Kidneys” is translated from the Hebrew word “kilyah”, also translated “reins”. Why does the Hebrew see both the reins and the kidneys as continuous? Is it because the greater part of the nerves of the autonomic nerve system connect with the kidneys? Do the kidneys filter circulating blood tissue? Is the soul, or the life, in the blood? Does “faithfulness” the girdle of Christ’s reins in verse five, tell us something very special about our Saviour’s soul?

These next few verses deal with death and resurrection.

Job 19:25-27: "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall be hold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me."

Burial is a rotten state of affairs. Our bodies in the tomb or grave are decaying into their constituent elements. Though our reins be consumed within us, yet in our flesh shall we see God!  (Revelation 2:23). Jesus saw no corruption before his resurrection. We do.

There is but one reference in the Koine Greek scriptures to reins. Jesus Christ, writing to the fourth church at Thyatira, said, “Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee”. Jesus warns against a Jezebel woman, who calls herself a prophetess, seducing his servants away from the truth, teaching them to commit fornication. Christ warns the believers that he will violently judge her because she failed to repent, and all those who commit adultery with her. He says in Revelation 2:23:

"... and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and heart: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works."

And Jesus, in His mercy, says in the next two verses that he will not fail to distinguish between those who hold to Jezebel’s doctrine, and those who do not.

If our educated mind regulates no unconscious functions, then who, or what, is minding the store?

Is there another kind of mind in us that sources from nothing educated?

The God of Israel is the Author of all government, principality, and powers or authorities. Does the God of Israel author government of our unconscious functions within us? What is that government within us and where is its seat?

To be continued, God willing, on another occasion.