Bible Biology - Part 4
GOD'S VIEW ON THE HOUSE FOR THE SPIRIT AND THE SOUL
By Walt Giddings
December 15, 2019
Scripture Reading: Romans 1:20
20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.
Greetings kindred. We are on a first name basis here. My name is Walter. The Holy Spirit is our real Teacher. The last time we met we searched for nerves in The Bible. We began by trusting God’s Word in Romans 1.
In Lesson three we asked ourselves some questions. Is one of the marks of a Christian his ability to see the invisible? If we understand “the things that are made”, our bodies, the houses for our spirits and souls, are we understanding the invisible things of Him?
In Lesson 3 we asked, Does the Bible mention Nerves, the cells of the body’s master communication system? Believing Romans 1:20 we trusted we could see the invisible by understanding the things that are made: nerve cells. We asked, How is nerve tissue structured to time messages out to all parts of the body and back again in a cycle?
We used this visual aid in Bible Biology Lesson 3 to understand how nerve cells are made. We found that some of the names of the microscopic parts of nerve structure are the Greek words from the Koine Greek language of the New Testament Scriptures. “Telodendrons”, also called Axon Terminals, at the ends of nerves are tree-like structures. Telodendron is two Greek words: Telos, end, and dendron, tree. What is the word in parentheses? The word, transmitters, a term common to the general science of radio, describes their function. Transmitter signifies the ability of the living parts of our body to communicate. Telodendrons are found at the end of nerve fibres called axons, functioning as conductors, indicating how they communicate. What do axons conduct?
Conductor is commonly used in the general science of electricity. We noted in Lesson 3 that this metaphor has its limitations. Every introduction of electricity into the living tissue of the body threatens to burn it up. The electric chair for execution is no joke. Biologists say whatever flows through the living tissues called nerves is solicitous of the tissues through which it flows. The Apostle Paul, writing to the believers at Ephesus, does not use the term “solicitous”. In language unrivaled in beauty and brevity he is saying for almost two thousand years that this supply “maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.” We are looking at Ephesians 4:15-16:
15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
Are we in awe yet? Mental Impulses do not burn up living nerves.
Why do we call nerve impulses Mental Impulses? The adjective mental means pertaining to the mind. In our living bodies what is minding the store? What minds the store within us is engaged in governmental function. Our bodies have a God given Government. What is that God given Government?
Put a mark in Ephesians 4. We will be returning to it. Back to our visual aid, titled NEURON. In Lesson III we talked about another part of the nerve cell. Attached to the body of the nerve cell are processes shorter than the axon. Do we see the word “dendrites”. Dendrites are treelike structures on the side of the nerve cell body opposite to the axon. Dendrite is the diminutive form of the Greek word dendron, meaning tree. So Dendrites are smaller treelike structures. What is the word in parentheses that explains the function of dendrites? Receivers! The flow of Mental Impulses is always from the receivers to the transmitters. To say that the long way around, the Receivers, the dendrites, receive the Mental Impulses from the Axon Terminals, or Telodendrons, of the previous nerve with the flow through the cell body, down the axon to the Telodendrons, the transmitters, and on to the Dendrites of the next nerve.
This is the hardest part of our review of Lesson III. We learned a new language in order to get an accurate picture of microscopic nerve structure hung in the picture galleries of our minds. In Lesson III we learned a secret of nerve function withheld from students at high dollar tuition science universities and colleges. Structure and function are married. Without an accurate picture of nerve anatomy we fail to understand this secret function. Structure is visible. Function goes to the invisible. And the reason for the keeping of this secret may make you very angry. This secret is withheld because it confirms the Truth of Scripture and identifies our Kinsman Redeemer as the capital A Author of Biology.
Do not miss out. Hang in with me. We needed to learn a few new words in this new language. Synapse (Spell). The long form is synaptic junction. Is a junction a joining? Can we say a junction is a joint? Please remember this word joint. It is in our Scriptures. It is the translation of a mysterious Greek word that only appears twice in the Koine Greek of the books of the New Testament, haphe (G860). What are the parts that are joining together at the synapse? The Synapse is the junction of the telodendrons of the previous nerve to the dendrites of the following nerve. The Mental Impulse of the previous nerve reaches the telodendrons, the end trees, triggering the secretion of neurotransmitters that wash over the dendrites of the following nerve. This gives rise to the same Mental Impulse in the next nerve. Mental Impulses are transmitted and received from one nerve cell to the next at the synaptic junction. Are Synaptic junctions joinings or unitings?
Turn the visual aid over to STRUCTURE OF NERVE TISSUE. Here we see the body of the nerve cell called Neuron Cell Body and the Axon with its associated structures. Above the words Peripheral Nerve Fiber at the bottom we see that fiber cut away and chopped off at the end. This allows us to see the axon inside the fiber. In Lesson 3 we talked about Teodor Schwann, an anatomist and phys-iologist, who lived from 1810-1882. He was called an anatomist and physiologist because he had a good understanding of structure and function. He discovered living cells in the nerve fiber that live in harmony with the nerve cell. They produce an exudation called myelin, a waxy-like substance surrounding the axon of the nerve cell. Myelin is not some type of blob. Myelin is highly organized into a number of layers. Visual Aid: Along the left side of the Peripheral Nerve Fiber the top label reads, “Schwann Cell Nucleus”. Underneath, the next label reads Myelin Sheath. Do we see the line connected to the bar line showing the extent of the myelin sheath layers? On the right side of the Nerve Fiber, where it is cut off at its end to reveal what is inside, appears the label showing the microtubules in the axoplasm of the Axon. Above the label microtubules Myelin Sheath appears again with a line pointing to a bar line to mark the extent of the layers. Back at the left hand side of the nerve fiber what does the bottom label read? Intraperiod lines are spaces between the outer sides of two Schwann cell plasma membranes. A label up, Major dense lines are spaces between the inner sides of two Schwann Cell Plasma Membranes. That major dense line is where the secret occurs.
The first Major Dense Line at the outer ring of the concentric circles of myelin sheath layers carries a flow of protein. Nerve tissue is fatty tissue. Their structure is fats, as in carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Their function is protein based. This flow of protein is constant. If the protein code has changed, when it arrives at the telodendrons (remember the end trees?) the nerve will switch from its synaptic joining or uniting with one nerve and make a synaptic uniting with another. There are no switches as such in the living wires of our master communication system. The living wires do the switching with each other.
In Lesson 3 I told you about Dr Paul Weiss, a biology researcher in the last half of the 20th Century whose great love was teaching. He revealed this wellkept secret. He said, “Our living nerves writhe and squirm like angleworms and snakes inside of us. Most of us are running on model T nerves; we do not practice switching connections often enough.”
Can we see that if there are anything other than momentary impingements upon our nerve tissues we have a problem? If the timing of the protein flow in between the layers of myelin sheath is compromised by a constant friction pressure of the environment around the nerves, will the nerves switch with each other on time? Nerve impingement, a constant friction pressure of the environment around the nerves, is well explained in the history of chiropractic.
Revelation 22:17: And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
What is the most important part of this secret of invisible function? The Pages of our Bibles, AV 1611, fully reveal this secret, tuition free!
Isaiah 55:1-3:
1 Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? And your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
Where do the Pages of the Scriptures reveal this secret we cannot buy with high cost tuition? (Ephesians 4:15-16). Your marker is in Ephesians chapter four. Will Scripture unite with the pictures of our Visual Aid we hung in the picture galleries of our minds? Do you remember the word joint?
Ephesians 4:15-16:
15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
The King James English of 1611 is no longer commonly spoken in our streets, marketplaces, and assemblies. If we use it, or even quote passages from it, it is so unintelligible to those who speak the hybrid of gutter vernacular and alley slang on the Web, and in Wal-Mart, and other corporate dangers, it qualifies as a secret code. In fairness to my fathers before me I must admit that the men of 1611 were capable of understanding the English of Shakespeare, and The Bible! Because the use of language is constantly changing we do not enjoy their advantage today. I say these things because the exercise into which we are about to enter has been misunderstood. People have misunderstood my intent. I find it necessary to state my intention bluntly. I have no interest in changing the wording of the Authorized Version 1611, commonly called the King James. I intend to explore the meaning.
Noah Webster, proficient in twenty languages, including the Hebrew, the Aramaic, and the Koine Greek of The Manuscripts genuinely sourcing from the Tree of Life, praised the “Common Version” for its “many passages uniting sublimity with beautiful simplicity”.
The Bible is the chief moral cause of all that is good and the best corrector of all that is evil, in human society; the best book for regulating the temporal concerns of men, and the only book that can serve as an infallible guide to future felicity.
The Holy Bible ... in the Common Version with Amendments of the Language. 1833. Noah Webster reprinted by Baker Book House Company, 1987.
Does what Noah Webster said make sense to you? In Ephesians 4:15-16 the exercise is this: classmates you follow most closely these two verses “uniting sublimity with beautiful simplicity” while I explore their meaning in reading. You follow silently; I read out loud:
15 But speaking the truth in love (agape), may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ ( is the government upon his shoulder?):
16 From whom (the governor) the whole body harmoniously organizing unity and communicating by that which every joining supplieth, according to the (efficient operating in the precise portioning into every zone), maketh increase (or produces incremental growing), of the body unto the edifying ( or building up of itself in love (agape).
To insure that no one misunderstands this exercise: Did I substitute words for the AV 1611 text? With no doubt yes! Is it my stated intention to replace the words of the AV 1611 text with the substituted words? With no doubt No ! Was my stated intention to explore the meaning of the two verses? With no doubt Yes. Here is the question that should be asked: In this exercise by substitution did I exceed the meaning the AV 1611 translators extracted from the Greek text?
Thank you for the lovely thought. I perceive your intent to support a poor brother attempting to strike a balance. You should answer I do not know. In 1985 I did not know. When I perceived these verses as an excellent description of the distribution of vital life forces from the center out to all parts of the body and back again in a cycle, I did not know of a certainty whether I had exceeded the meaning the AV 1611 translators extracted from the Koine Greek text.
The thought did occur to me that if I could be seeing this, somebody else out there saw this also. In 1985 I went to the local library and found The Interpreter’s Bible published 1953, and made copies. I found those copies damaged, and returned to the Library. The Interpreter’s Bible, had been replaced with the 200 version The sections on Ephesians and Colossians had been replaced with Pablum, microwaved neurotoxic to the Children of God. It was not even milk! All mention that the Apostle Paul was speaking of the joinings or contacting of nerves uniting the body in function had been eradicated. The 1953 Edition had disappeared, preventing me from comparing the two.
After Tabernacles 2017 I visited my brother, live and direct, for the first time in twelve years. I called upon the Library in a town historically famous as a conservative Jewish community. I found the 1953 Interpreters Bible. Does the Bible use the marvelous physiological functioning of the nerves of the living body to explain the supernatural function of the body of Christ, the Church? The biggest objection is the fact we have our present day understanding from microscope and electron microscopy. How could Paul have even understood “the invisible things of Him” by microscopically understanding “the things that are made”? And, just how did Paul expect to communicate this to “unlearned and ignorant men” (Acts 4:13), the majority of the Apostles, not to mention the disciples? Just read and believe? We see 1 Corinthians 1:26.
1 Corinthians 1:26: For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called:
The word noble is translated from the Koine Greek word (G2104) eugenes, well born, high in rank, upper crust, privileged, the Elites, the Just-Us System. We need to consider what 1 Cor 1:26 does not say. Verse 26 does not say not any mighty, not any noble are called. It says not many. Paul identified himself as a Jew from Tarsus, and in Phillippians as “circumcized the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews, ...” He took instruction at the feet of Gamaliel, member of the Sanhedrin, and was well known to the Priesthood. He learned from Christ he was persecuting the genuine Remnant in the name of the Counterfeit Church. At first he was astonished. Then he was grieved to the grave. Before King Agrippa Paul retold meeting Christ. Festus said in a loud voice, “Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad.” The Greek word “mania”, (man-ee’-ah), translated mad in Acts, appears in English as mania. The world after Paul’s change thought he was crazy. “Not many”. Not many can withstand the accusation, much less the conviction and condemnation as “those crazy Christians.”
2 Peter 3:15-16:
15 And account that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
Peter confesses there “are some things hard to be understood” in Paul’s Epistles.
The Apostle Paul is one of the few (not the only) to be called into the Christian Faith from among the mighty, the noble, the cognoscenti. He had the best of education. He was not an ignorant fisherman. Yet he was martyred as were the Twelve Apostles. (“Nerve Function”). As you look upon Ephesians 4:15-16, may I read from The Interpreter’s Bible. It contains for each Bible verse an exegesis and an Exposition. For Ephesians the Exposition is written by Theodore O. Wedel, and the Exegesis is written by Francis W. Beare.
The 1828 Webster defines the noun Exegesis as “a discourse intended to explain or illustrate a subject.” The adjective Exegetical is defined “to unfold or illustrate.” Does illustrate mean to picture? The 1828 Webster defines Exposition as “a laying open the sense or meaning of an author or of any passage in a writing.”
In Wedel’s effort to expose the meaning of verses 15-16 in his Exposition he writes, “Paul’s Epistles are not easy reading.” Speaking of verse 15 Wedel notes that Paul “thinks of maturity as a mark of unity in the church.”
A Christian without daily, or at least weekly contact with Holy Scripture, and without continuous growth in understanding of its meaning, will soon find his faith withering away. He will be open to the wiles of error.
Wedel adds that the most effective agent maturing us as Christians is “full sharing in the common life of the Christian fellowship.” He calls Christian fellowship a miracle of “divine grace.” He explains why creating fellowship is such a miracle: Every man is by nature a little (g)od to himself...Unconverted human society resembles a battlefield of rival gods. The Interpreter’s Bible 1953 Volume X, pp 694-695.
He defines the church as “a fellowship of repentant and forgiven sinners..... a community of the dead and risen” and says “only such a body, as it upbuilds itself in love, can bring true fellowship onto the stage of history.... It can be the one agent on earth producing true community.”
In his Exposition of Ephesians 4:15-16 Wedel contrasts this supernatural fellowship in the church body with the world’s counterfeit. Modern man, he says, suffers under the illusion establishing community is easy. Just throw people close together: contiguity, annihilating distance, seating people at a conference table to produce brotherhood.
Hence, our naive faith in leagues of nations, or other unitings in assembly halls, in the telephone, telegraph, or the airplane as instruments of unity.Experience is teaching us hard lessons. A bringing of people close to each other may mean merely a greater knowledge of mutual faults, or an intolerable clashing of egotisms......
The ancient world was more realistic than the 20th century. That is why the church appeared to the con temporaries of Paul as a great miracle. To create fellowship is simply not easy. It calls for divine grace.... It involves a dying to self. The N.T. does not hesitate to call it a dying.
The Interpreter’s Bible 1953 Volume X pages 694-695.
There is in the Book of Colossians, the Epistle of Paul “to the saints and faithful brethren which are at Colosse,” a second witness, a compan
ion scripture to Ephesians 4:15-16. For the second time we find the King James English word “joint”, translating the mysterious Koine Greek word “haphe, (haf-ay’ G860).
Colossians 2:19: And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.
To overcome our disadvantage that the 1611 King James English is no longer commonly spoken in our 21st Century, may I test by substitution using our current vernacular. Again my only intent is to explore the meaning. I do not intend to replace any of the beautiful words of The Authorized Version.
19 And not (absolute negative) holding on fast to the Head ( kephale, kef-al-ay’, G 2776. from which we get our anatomical term cephalic ), from, or out of which or whom all the body (soma, so’- mah, G 4983) by joinings, junctions, contactings, touchings, or unitings and bands or bondings, unitings, and controllings, having nourish ment, or supplyings or contributings ministered, and knit together, or driving together, or compacting, or gathering together, increaseth, or groweth, or enlargeth with the increase or growth of God.
The Exposition of Colossians is rendered by G. Preston MacLeod. He says the Church, neglecting “to rise above the outlook of contemporary human society,” is “not holding the Head.” He damns Churchianity in this paragraph:
Christianity as a law of life, a way of living, or a ‘fel lowship of kindred minds’ is an emasculated Christianity. The living Christ is the Lord of thought, the Lord of the soul, the Lord of all life, and the church’s Lord.
MacLeod exposes us to the cross reference of “all the body” in Colossians 2:19 with “the whole body” in Ephesians 4:16. He calls them parallel passages. Even the Greek words are the same for both: pan to soma. He says: It is ... not the human membership or the human leadership of the church, who supplies the life and power by which the church grows..... The growth is not mere growth in numbers, prestige, influence, or activity, according to any merely human standard of progress. In vital union with Christ the growth of the Church will conform to the divine nature and will, fulfilling God’s purpose for his church. The Interpreter’s Bible 1953 Volume XI, page 208.
Have we noticed what admission Wedel in Ephesians and MacLeod in Colossians make? In the two Epistles what do the Expositors say Paul is doing?Is Paul comparing the marvelous physiological functioning of the living body to the marvelous supernatural functioning of the living body of Christ, the Church?
Francis W. Beare writes the exegesis for both Colossians and Ephesians. He says of Colossians 2:19:
In this verse Paul .. develops .. an elaborate physiological metaphor. The head .. (is) not merely the seat of the directing intelligence. In ancient physiology (it) was regarded as the center and source of all the vital forces, supplying the body with all it requires for health and growth. In Ephesians 4:16 the same metaphor is used .. Ibid, page 205.
In the exegesis for Ephesians 4:16 Beare writes: The physiological metaphor which Paul had employed in Colossians 2:19 is now taken up and applied .. (to picture) the interdependence of the members in contributing to and through one another the vital forces which derive ultimately from the head. ... Haphe (joint) is better taken in the more general sense of “contact;” the literal rendering would then be “through every contact of the supply,” suggesting the way in which the vital forces make their way through the body by an endless succession of “contacts.” ... every part is a channel which receives and passes on the life. Ibid, Volume X. page 694-695.
Did we say earlier that every cell inside our bodies transmits and benefits from mental impulses that course the living nerves? Does every cell or member in the body of Christ do the same? Is this us?
Paul Weiss, whose first love was teaching, revealed the secret of living nerve function in the 1970’s. While “we live and move and have our being,” (Acts 17:28), our nerves writhe and squirm like angle worms and snakes inside us, constantly switching connections with each other in an amazing dance timed by changes in the code of the protein flow between layers of the Myelin sheath. Intraperiod lines and major dense lines delineating spaces between myelin sheath layers were first visible in the 20th Century under the electron microscope. Were they visible in the 1st Century Church? How did Paul know the living wires, the nerves do the switching? Was he given the abundance of the revelations for the sake of the Gentiles, Israel in Dispersion?
2 Corinthians 12:7: And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
The Greek word translated buffet means to rap with the fist.
Does even the visible seem supernatural? Imagine the invisible! Does the visible testify to the invisible? If even the visible seems supernatural, imagine what the invisible is?
Matthew 16:16: And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
Does Jesus tell Peter that he is blessed because flesh and blood has not revealed this unto him? Our homework is verses 18 and 19: are we only Churchianity? Or are we already functioning supernaturally? What kind of supernatural functioning withstands the gates of hell? Who are we? Are we holding fast to the Head? Who are we?
To be continued, God willing, in warm, wonderful, and private fellowship.
