Actual discussion about consciousness, neurology, mathematics and physics.

Neurologist Robert Lawrence Kuhn, who runs the website “Closer to truth”, found it very exciting that the world-famous mathematician and physicist Roger Penrose came up with ideas about neurology. It has become a general trend that biologists and neurologists orient themselves more towards physics.

In the video “The source of consciousness” psychoanalyst Mark Solms starts by referring to the recent fact that physicist Paul Davis recently called “consciousness – the primary problem for science”, it is about our existence.

In a short video on “Closer to truth,” Paul Davis said that when we speak of God, we need to clarify what we mean by that. First, he distinguishes between his childhood-faith and the faith in God he found he could have as a physicist. But what about the meaning of life, that is what is important to most people. Can there be a cosmic meaning to life? So: Can belief in God who is behind the universe, who creates, make sense of life for some people?

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp_7WSVmEZM

When Mark Solms studied psychoanalysis and looked at the picture of the brain and the form of the processes where, he asked where is “I” in this, but it was not an actual issue. As science the neuropsychology is objective and has become large and powerful and it is admirable, but in this way it excludes the subjective psyche. But a living creature, especially a human, is not only an object but a subject that lives, is active and it experiences. Psychology is about of psyche, which means soul. So this adopts to a trend we’ve seen lately, that they won’t recognize that we have soul, as if it were ignorant to having soul.

 Now he says that when they’ve looked for man’s consciousness, they’ve looked in the wrong place, they’ve looked in the human cerebral cortex (big brain, cerebrum), but they have to look in the brainstem, the central part of the brain. It is often considered most primitive, because all vertebrates have, but of course it have also evolved, for the information between the brain and the other bodies passes through it. In it we have “raw feelings” and that he calls our most fundamental consciousness. He distinguishes between what we sense of the world around us, through the nervous system and emotions such as love, hatred, joy, depression, etc. Then the brainstem is or corresponds to what we in literature and daily life call the heart, what we feel like the heart, but it also has to do with the biological heart, that’s how it feels and now we know that it is the brainstem that controls the heart rhythm and the breathing.

The central part of the brain is the diencephalon with its hormone glands, so it controls the hormone system. It consists of the thalamus and the hypothalamus, at the back lies the pineal gland and at the forefront lies the pituitary gland, the hypothalamus is located directly above it.  The brainstem comes under this, the upper part is the middle brain, then comes the pons and at the bottom is the medulla oblongata. It regulates breathing, hearts and blood-system and digestive system. Pons also takes part in this, it regulates breathing. The vast majority of this is then automatic, it happens even if we sleep or if we should be unconscious.

I’ll also refere to a case where a woman was born without a cerebellum and it actually took many years for them to discover it. Solm’s shows that people with major injuries to the big brain are nevertheless conscious. Humans could even be born without cerebrum, but they were clearly conscious. He speaks in particular of being self-conscious, being aware that one exists.

But if a particular area of the brainstem becomes damaged, the light goes out, so they are no longer (self-)conscious. There is particular talk of an area of two cubic millimeters. Nevertheless, consciousness applies to the whole brain, so we can say that if any of the cerebrum is damaged, consciousness is reduced, because then some of the memory is lost.

We know that the visual center is at the back of the cerebrum, the hearing is on both sides, the sense of language is a little further ahead on the left side. The sense of mathematics is foremost and slightly out on the sides. Just as well, it’s a riddle that we see and hear and become aware of it. Thomas Nagel said in 1974 that an organism is conscious if there is something like being that organism, which it is like, for that organism. What’s meant by that? It may seem like a value parallel to the physical world, like new dimensions. If a physical understanding of the mind is to account for the subjective experience, we must admit that we have no idea how it happens.

But Solms gives us some idea. Look five minutes into the lecture.

Solms refers to 5 cases.

1 . When he was a little kid, his brother suffered brain damage and changed as a person (7 mins).

2 . In the 1990s, it became appropriate to ask: where am I, in the brain. In the forehead patch, it was suggested. But the man with the broken forehead patch was nevertheless self-aware (26 mins).

3 . The insular cortex was suggested, but the human who had it destroyed was still self-aware (32 min). By watching and hearing we can learn with the cerebral cortex, even if we are not aware of it.

4 .  However, a person born without a cerebral cortex (major brain) is nevertheless self-aware (35 min).  “Parabrachial core” is at the back edge of the pons or middle brain, in the “reticular activating system”. Here is an area of 2 cubic millimeters. There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that it’s the source of consciousness. Consciousness in this area is the basis for consciousness in the big brain (38 min).

5 . Brain scans suggest that in the brainstem we have feelings such as grief, anger, joy, fear. It can be stimulated by antidepressants – increase seretonin, antipsychotics – blocking dopamine, anti-fear drug – blocking nordadrenaline (45 min). So psychiatrists are doctors for such basic emotions.

Homeostasis is equilibria that are important to maintain in the body, in order to survive, such as temperature and blood glucose concentration. So it is with these basic feelings, so what you feel as good is usually good for survival. But homeostasis also means that it is important to get the emotions in equilibrium (56 min). The emotions in the brainstem are a consciousness that is fundamental to consciousness in the cerebral cortex.

Very interesting and good to know, it gives us better self-understanding. Very basic topics, who am I, where am I – in my brain, how do I feel and think. Very well, there is a lot of good psychology in this lecture. It’s good that they will allow us to ask “who am I” and then perhaps also “what are my interests”, “what benefits me and my interests”. But I think we should be careful and be a bit more precise about what is the question and what is the answer. What is consciousness and what is the source of consciousness.

So let’s say I, me, myself, mine. Why not?

So why was it not appropriate for psychoanalysts 30-40 years ago to ask: “where am I in the brain?” Well, when a scientist write a scientific report, the word “I” shall not be there. Instead we can use the word “we”, to give it the objective image it deserves as a scientific report. But the patient is a person and is subjective, and deserves and needs to be treated like that, someone that says “I” and then it is right to report it like that.

In fact they have started to ask that question and what they find is very interesting. Only when the reticulum activating system in the brain-stem is hurt, especially a volume of 2 cubic mm, the person looses self-consciousness. It is not so strange, since if this was injured in an accident, very much of the brain would have been damaged, but they know it from patients that have got a stroke in this area. I’d wished he had said something more about how such a person is, but likely it is not so much to say about it, is the patient not self-conscious he or she is surely not conscious at all, just lying there like a cabbage.

When we report from an experiment, we shall not write “I” but “we” to give the report the objective image it deserves. But as we have learnt to use the methods of real sciences it makes us able to think independently also. I become able to find out what is true and right and become able to use it for what I find good to myself and others too.

At the same time I may use the methods of the gospel of Christ to come into his kingdom, to come into society with God and his people. In this way each and every one of us get a personal relationship Christ and to our heavenly Father, as his children.

God loved the world so much that he sent his only Son, so that everyone who believe in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Everyone who received Christ he gave right to become children of God, born by the holy Spirit. Then this is my choice and responsibility and in this way I am still the responsible programmer of “my computer”. But God is Spirit and has created everything with his Word, and he does his work with us with his Spirit and his Word.

If our brain functions like a quantum-computer, there is a dualism between particles and wave-functions that are mathematics. And a dualism between the “machine-language” and the language on a higher level.

When scientists get the question what is consciousness, they often say it is what they experience with their senses, what they touch and feel, see, hear and smell. But that is a source of consciousness in the sense of what we get conscious of. What somebody say and write is a source of consciousness when you hear it and read it.

How is information coded and what is the information that is coded. If we compare with a computer, it has a computer language and is programmed to be ready to use. But the one who use it, writes in a different languages on a higher level. I think our consciousness is like this, so that in this high level language I – myself – am the main user and responsible programmer of my own computer. Then I think of and sort out what is originally my own thoughts, really my own opinion and choice. I get ideas from others and I need some time to think of it.

God is Spirit, he is conscious, his Spirit and his Word is our source of consciousness.

When we read the Bible it becomes a source of consciousness to us. It tells us that God is spirit, he is the spring of living water and it gives us eternal life, that how his salvation is. He has revealed it for us in Christ, he gives us spirit and life from heaven, we receive it in faith, by mere grace. Then this becomes a fundamental source of consciousness for us and it makes us good.

God is alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. The beginning, as creator. Humans were his last creatures, then he rested the last day (Genesis.1). In the second creation history it is told about a dry and lifeless ground, because of no water and no man to cultivate the ground. Then there came a spring of water and watered the ground, this I regard as symbol of the living water, so it also tells about our hearts as God’s farmland.

Then God created man of the soil and blew the spirit of life into his nose, so that he became a living soul. When a newly borne animal or human start to breath, it gets enough oxygen to the brain that it becomes conscious. This is used as symbol of how God’s Spirit makes us conscious of him as our creator that also has created our surroundings.

Man comes first, then the garden with the threes and animals, but notice that he had planted the garden and then he placed the man there and told him to do the gardening and protect it. And he had formed the animals and the birds from the ground. Then he made the woman of his rib, so she should be a suitable helper for him.

God is Spirit and they experienced that he did his work with them with his word and his Spirit, so he appeared to them as creator of both them and their surroundings, as alpha, and as the one who created their future, as omega then.

At the fall of sin they fell out of this life in God’s vicinity and then lost much of their former consciousness about it. But God still called people into his presence and did his work with them, even though they were not quite aware of it and did not know him. When their kings honoured themselves as gods, they lost power and the civilisation collapsed.

But the gospel of Christ tells us that god loved the world so much that he sent his only Son, so that every one who believe in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Everyone who receive Christ he gave right to become children of God. Then the crucial point is to understand the difference between this and to be tempted to become like God in the way of the fall of sin.

God loves the world so much that he sent his only Son to save our souls.

“Psychology” comes from “psycho” which means soul. According to Plato the soul came from the world of ideas, including the good idea, while Aristotle regarded it more as a biological form of life. In the bible we find similar view of it, but our soul has value for eternity, both for ourselves and for God. This is most valuable to us and to get it we must lose something in this world.

Matt.16, 24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 

25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 

26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 

27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 

28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

In this way we come into a personal relation to Christ (John.10) and to God, as his children. And he cares for us as his children.

Now we can think of Freud’s psychoanalysis with the terms “ego” and “superego”. “Ego” is regarded as primitive, like our thinking in the brain-stem, while “superego” is more advanced, more like our thinking in the cerebrum. This is still related to this world. When we become borne on new, by the Holy Spirit, all of it will be renewed.

Titus.3,3 1 Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, 

2 to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. 

3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 

4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 

5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 

6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 

7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The heart and the central parts of the brain.

Diencephalon with its hormone glands is the central part of the brain at the top of the brainstem. It consists of the thalamus and hypothalamus, at the back lies the pineal gland and at the front lies hypothalamus lies with the pituitary gland at the very front. The brain stem comes under this, the upper part is the midbrain, then comes the pons and at the bottom is the medulla oblongata. Medulla oblongata regulates breathing, heart, blood circulation and digestive system. Pons also takes part in this, it regulates breathing. Most of this is then automatic, it happens even if we sleep or if we should be unconscious.

So it seems like that the limbic system and the brain stem correspond to what in the literature is called the heart, because very much basic feelings we feel by heart.

The nerve system.

In the embryonic stage (early fetal stage) there is an abundance of nerve cells and synapses, so it seems like a competition between them to survive, those who are most in use survive, others die. Later in life, the nervous system is remodulated in response to its own activity. It is called neuron plasticity. The neurons make contact through the synapses, if there is a lot of activity through the synapse, the presynaptic neuron will make additional axon terminals (like making more lanes leading into a highway)  and/or more receptors/channels for neurotransmitters (glutamate) in the synapse. If there is little activity, on the contrary it is reduced and the contact can be broken. This is considered to be the physiological basis of memory.

“Afferent neuron” gives signals to the brain.

“Efferent neuron” sends signals from the brain, through the motor system to control skeletal muscles (so we control it on purpose) and through the autonomous system, it works automatically. The autonomous system is divided into three parts.

1. The enteric division the signal goes to the hormone glands.

2. The parasympathetic nervous system goes directly from the brain stem and out into the body, it gives orders of the character “rest and digest”.

3. The sympathetic division goes through the spinal cord and out into the body and the order has the character “fight or flight”.  

In 2&3  pregangliolic neurons lead to synaptic stations called ganglia, post-gangliolic neuron carry the order further to the muscles. The neurotransmitter is acetylcholine, except for post-cangliolic neurons in the sympathetic division, where it is norepinephrine (norepinephrine). This is what causes the effect on the muscles to be the opposite.

Then we can say that information is coded by neurons and hormones. But there are only a few kinds of them. The point is the message from the body when they are sent and the effect on the body when they are received.

The history behind the gospel of Christ.

God freed his people from the slavery under the idols in Egypt and gave them their own land, where he should be their God and they should be his people. And they should not become slaves. But there was an ongoing conflict with neighboring peoples and their idols. The prophet Samuel anointed David to become their king, but he went through a lot of trouble before he could enter the throne and under him Israel became the mighty kingdom in the central east. So David talked about eval and ungodly people that made traps to catch the individual and praised God who freed him and saved him from their traps, like a bird from the fowlers net. In this way we praise him for saving our souls.

Later they turned away from him and he asked what wrong they found with him and talked to them like putting himself in the situation of the one that suffered injustice, compared to the one that they tried to catch in a trap. This is I prophesy of Jesus. (Jeremiah.2,5 Isaiah.59,14-17).

Then Nebuchadnezzar invaded their country and brought them as slaves to Babylonia. After 70 years, under the Persian king Kyros they were allowed to return to their home country. But it was prophesied that they should be sold like sheep to be slaughtered. This we can read about as history in 1.Maccabee book. The Greek-Syrian king Antiochus 4. Epiphanes demanded that everyone in his kingdom should worship Zeus. This they could not accept and fought for their lives and their God until they managed to free their country. At this time they made a deal with Sparta and the Romans.

The Spartacus-revolt started in a gladiator school in Capua, south of Rome, the slaves fought for freedom and to take revenge (73-71 BC), but it ended with 6000 slaves being crucified along the road from Rome to Capua.

This way of execution Jesus used in his preaching.

Matt.16, 24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 

25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 

26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 

27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 

28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

The freeing gospel of Christ.

God’s salvation of our souls is Jesus’ freeing message. He was crucified as a sacrifice for our sins, in this way he died instead of us. But God rose him from the dead. By believing this we shall think this way, that we are crucified together with him, to get an end to what is wrong in our nature and living. And in baptism we are buried with him, so that we will rise from the dead by the power of his resurrection. And by this power he rises us in a new nature and a better way of living. In this way God saves our souls and frees us from people’s trap, like a bird from the fowlers net.

Titus.3, 3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 

4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 

5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 

6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 

7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 

8 The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. 

When Jesus sent his disciples to preach the gospel, he told them that if they were received, they should take their time there, if not the people at a place received them it would become their own problem, but they should just continue to next place. So they should avoid to get captured then. To bring their cross gets this meaning, it frees them from the socialization that brings them back to slavery under idols and sin.

It may seem paradoxically that the message of Jesus’ cross makes us glad, but in this way it makes us free. At Jesus’ cross we get forgiveness for sin and that makes us free from slavery under sin. At Jesus’ cross we find God’s love, that is the genuine love that makes us glad. God is love and he has shown his love for us this way (1.John.4,7…..).

God, freedom and science.

As a reaction against the democracy in Athens, the soldier and poet Aiskhylos suggested that Zeus was the god over all gods, that ruled with a universal moral so dictatorially that all that happened was his work. It fact it contradicts that the Greek gods jumped out of chaos, but that was also poetry. Now this poetry became the Greek answer to the Hebrew God and resulted in a awful dictatorship.

But the Hebrew God was not like this and the law of Moses was not like this, it told them firs of all what they should not do, but what they should do, was to believe in God in their hearts like Abraham did and listen to what he said to them. And they should cultivate their land. They should live by faith and rule by faith, but since they did not believe, the thinking became like this, that they needed someone to do something wrong, so that they could rule by the law. It seems like this was what they looked for, but that was not really to search God with all of their heart.

Similarly, in the renaissance, empiricism gets the meaning to many that they experience sin and that becomes demanding, so that they becomes slaves under the sin (Matt.18,5-11 1.Tess.4,5 1.Pet.2,11). Even though it is called freedom, it functions as arguing for dictatorship, as we see in the philosophical direction Kant – Hegel – Marx ….. This is strange to me, as I believe in the gospel of Christ, he is the truth that sets us free from the slavery under sin and idols. And in real sciences we have the rationality in mathematics and the scientific methods.

Freud’s motivation “theory”.

Here I use quote marks, because his psychoanalysis was to talk with people that had a kind of psychologic suffering/sickness, so that it is to draw a conclusion like a diagnosis, it tells that something is wrong. So it is not a scientific theory, as it should tell what’s right. When we know what’s right, then we understand what’s wrong. It tells about religion that fails, so does the Bible and Christianity, the point is not to make religion out of what fails and the failures. Because Christ is right and teaches us what is right.

Sigmund Freud said that humans are motivated by sexuality and aggression. Religion is derailed sexuality. Freud concluded like this on the basement of his talk with mentally sick people. It surely tells a lot about how we are, but it will be wrong to use this as a religious belief and policy to rule over the people, to put this diagnosis on mentally healthy people in their social life, without even talking with them and let them answer for themselves.

When I was young and heard about this I was skeptical. It seems natural according to the biological struggle for life, but humans are not quite like animals. It sounds like what apostle Paul calls the eval nature that shall be crucified with Christ, so that the Holy Spirit shall rule in our body. Then we belong to Christ and live for him and become motivated by the love of God, strengthened  by his power and driven by the Holy Spirit. Also when a man wants to get a wife and a woman wants to get a husband.

But Freud’s motivation theory can also be said in another way:

“Eros (life drive or libido) is the driving force behind the creation of the cultural community, but eros meets resistance in the aggression, which is the opponent of the culture. Man’s aggressive instincts are derived from Thanatos (the death drive), and culture is a battle between Eros and Thanatos, between love and death.”

https://snl.no/Sigmund_Freud

The way to death and the way to life.

We think in different ways with heart and brain, we may feel aggression and eros. In the Bible it is told about the way to life and the way to death, both in the old and the new covenant, and we get the advice to choose the way to life.  God’s grace is new every day, Jesus gives us Spirit and life from heaven and that is quite new to us and to the world. We become renewed this way.

God does his work with us, with his Word and his Spirit and his power. We receive it in faith, in this way we rest with him like on the seventh day (Hebrews 3-4). He strengthen us with his power, so that we use it in our daily life. But the central and crucial point is that he does his work with us and we can’t add anything to it or take anything from it. All we can do is to believe that God rose Christ from the dead – by this faith we become righteous for God – and acknowledge that he is Lord – by this acknowledgement we become saved, by the pledge of good conscience toward God, because of the resurrection of Christ. Everyone who call upon him shall be saved (1.Pet.3,18-22 Rom.10,5-13).

Ancient Greek philosophy in the Chruch.

Jesus blessed the children and said to his disciples that they should let them come to him, because the kingdom of heaven belong to such. The adults must repent and become like them to come into it (Matt.18,1-4 Matt.19,13-15). God sent his only son, so that everyone that believe in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Everyone who received Christ he gave right to become God’s child, borne by the Holy Spirit. And what is borne by the spirit is spirit. Then this is most fundamental. So the priests make an appointment with the parents, that their child shall be taught in the Christian faith and then he baptize the child to the Fader, Son and Holy Spirit, at least that’s what he says. In this way he puts himself in the position of teaching what is most fundamental. But what if he does not believe and teach this way and what if they don’t believe and learn this? What is it then replaced by? Christ’s Church is his bride and as his bride we may turn to him as our lover and we gladly do, he loves us and cares for us as his bride. Apostle Paul feared that they might be deceived like Eve (2.Corinth.11,3). Satan’s accusations against men are so fundamental that men does not get the chance to defend themselves at court, at God’s throne. But Satan is condemned. Our chance is to let Christ talk for us at God’s throne. God rose him from the dead because he was righteous and we need to believe that that to become righteous. So those who don’t believe in him are already condemned (Joh3,16-21). Christian Platonism arose in the Christian society. But what if they don’t believe in Christ after all, what is left of Platonism? A Platonism without the good idea? So that they start to believe that the children and everyone else who are not “well educated” are stupid and eval? 800 years later Christian Aristotelianism arose in the Church. But what if they did not believe in Christ then and not in Christian Platonism either? What is then left of Aristotelianism? And what is left of mother science? A liberalism with an empiricism that is immoral life, more like reptiles that can’t talk. Then the conclusion is that people are stupid and eval and that is in turn used as an argument for dictatorship (Kant – Hegel – Marx …). So we still face the more fundamental problem, that we are not really allowed to talk on behalf of ourselves, especially not to defend ourselves at court. Christ is the way to our heavenly Father, by going that way we come into a personal relation with him as his children, we can come to him with all our needs and talk with him about it and experience that he loves us and cares for us as his children. We will likely experience the conflict between faith and doubt. What if we don’t believe? Will our praying be replaced with more or less stupid fantasy? Like that of idols? How? Corruption! (Joel.2,28-3,3 Zechariah.11,4-17). But Christ is still the way to our heavenly Father’s house and it is just to choose it and walk it.

Understanding or miss-understanding the gospel of apostle Paul. Two human-like natures, which is most human?

Apostle Paul was first a Pharisee that was so eager for the law of Moses, that he persecuted the Christians. But then Jesus revealed himself for him and asked him why he persecuted him. This wonder changed his mind. The Christians were afraid of him, but Jesus led one of them to him and he was accepted in their community. Before they were baptized by the Holy Spirit they struck coin to choose one man to replace Judas as apostle, but now Jesus chose Paul instead.

Then Paul preached the gospel in a more “radical” way than the other apostles, he said that he corrected Peter and in some letters it seems like he corrected all of them, Jesus had chosen him as apostle and he argued for that. We can see the difference in the way they preach, about faith and what they do and then about experience also. Mainly both ways of preaching are correct, but in some cases it seems more like Paul corrected them.

When Peter wrote about the coming of the Lord, he acknowledged that Paul also wrote about it. Some of his writing is hard to understand and that may turn out badly for those who don’t understand and tries to change it (2.Pet.3,14-18).

It may seem like he writes in two ways about the human nature, in some cases as something wrong and in other cases as what is right. It also seems like he writes about the circumcision in the old covenant in two ways. This may be confusing.

He said that if somebody is circumcised, he has to live according to the law of Moses , so that the faith in Christ will not help him (Gal.5,1-5). But by believing in Christ, we become rightous by faith, like Abraham and according to the promise given to him, that in him every people will be blessed. But God made the covenant of circumcision with Abraham (Genesis 17).

But Moses told the people to love God by all their heart and soul, to circumcise their hearts instead of being stubborn (Deuteremony.10,12…). Likewise Paul teaches that by faith in Christ we become circumcised on hearth in the Holy Spirit, but that is by believing like Abraham, as he believed that God could rise his son Isak from the dead.

Paul talks about the old eval nature that was slave under the sin and the law of Moses, even though it is good. It punishes eval, but then it is the eval nature that likes to do eval, that becomes slave under the law. But by the circumcision of the heart by the Holy Spirit, we get a new nature. God is Spirit and he create us in Christ, then he creates us in his image.

Then Paul tells us to live a normal life and argues that it is natural, in the sense that it is correct (1.Corint.11,1-16 1.Tess.4,11… Ef.4,28…) . This we see elsewhere in the Bible also. How can that be?

After the fall of sin, God put enmity between the serpent and the woman. Then the reptile-like nature is the old eval nature.

Kain killed Abel, so the Kain-like nature is the old eval nature, but the Abel-like nature is the new nature (1.John.3-4). The nature we get by faith in Christ is the new nature, it is just for us to choose to receive in faith. Paul said that he could make the good choice, but it might still seem helpless. What made the difference then, was that Jesus gave him his Spirit (Rom.7,22-8,3).

By preaching the gospel of Christ the priests should teach us what is most fundamental.

The priest in the Church speaks warmly about Jesus blessing the children and saying that we must repent and become like children to come into the kingdom of God. Then he makes an appointment that the children shall be taught in the Christian faith. In this way he puts himself in a sovereign position toward the child as the one who is to teach it what is most fundamental in life. And keeps this position as the child grows up. Does he believe it and teach it, do we learn it and believe it? What is really that fundamental? God loved the world so much that he sent his only Son, so that everyone that believe in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Everyone who receive Christ he gave right to become children of God, borne by the Holy Spirit and what is borne by the Spirit is spirit. Jesus said to the adults that they should not look down on one of his small ones, because their angles in heaven always see the face of his father in heaven (Matt.18,1-10). What does this mean to them? Well, if a priest shall teach this, he should already know. And as they learn to talk, we may get to know little more. As God’s children we may come to him with all our needs and talk with him about it and experience that he loves us and cares for us as his children. And we praise him for it. What is fundamental then, is that he loves us and cares for us and talks to us and we talk to him as our Father. And Jesus is God’s Word, he is the intermediatory between us and him. Then it is our right as God’s children to talk with our heavenly Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus didn’t leave his disciples as fatherless children, he sent them the Holy Spirit as Counselor (John.14,15….).

Jesus said that they should believe in him, love him and love each others. Then He would reveal himself for them, he and his heavenly Father would come and live among them.

What if the priest is not faithful to this preaching and starts to teach something else instead. Then he misuses his position of teaching what is most fundamental and is not faithful to the appointment he did with God and the people. Then it is his responsibility and if the people go away from God like that it is their responsibility. They become traitors.

Instead of speculating about that, I just say that Christ lives and is faithful to us who believe in him. Jesus listen to my and our praying and answers us from heaven, by his Spirit. So he did when I studied real sciences. He said that I shall look at him and talk with him, so I talked with the creator when I studied what he had created.

If you want to se and hear how he talks to us, it is just to click into my youtube-page. Usually one get a message in a language we don’t understand, “speech in tongues”, then somebody translate it into Norwegian. On tsivert.com it is written, then you can use a translator.

According to the Bible we shall search God and love him with all our heart. This is not just introspection, because our faith in him and his Word is our reference, so we look up to him and let him look to our heart and research it.

God said to his people that if they searched him with all of their heart and soul, they would find him (Deutoremony.4,29).

David became their great king, but he had sex with the wife of one of his soldiers and when she became pregnant he ordered his general to betray him so that he fell in the battle and then he could marry the widow. But the prophet Natan accused him for committing adultery and killing. According to the law of Moses, there was death penalty for this, nevertheless David acknowledged that he had sinned. Since he acknowledged it Natan said that God would forgive him, so that he should not die for it, but he would get into trouble, even in his own house. Then David humiliated for God this way:

Psalm.51, 6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. 

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 

8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 

9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 

11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. 

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. 

14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. 

15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 

16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 

David was regarded as the greatest and most righteous king Israel ever had and he acknowledged God’s Messiah as his king.

Psalm 110, 1 The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” 

2 The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies! 

3 Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments; from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. 

4 The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” 

5 The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. 

6 He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. 

7 He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head.

Later their kings started to turn away from God. For long time the people didn’t turn to hi. If they searched him, it was not with all of their heart (2.Chronicles.15,12).

God said to his people that they honored him by their lips, but their hearts were far away from him (Isaiah.29,13). The law was written on stone-tabula, but he would make a new covenant with them and replace their hearts of stone with heart of flesh and give them a new spirit in their hearts.

Ezekiel.11, 19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 

20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 

This new covenant is also for the gentiles and it is according to the promise he gave Abraham, that in him all peoples should be blessed. That is by Abrahams faith, he believed that god was able to rise his son, Isak, from the dead, by this faith he was righteous for God, like that we become righteous for God by believing that God rose Christ from the dead. By this fait we get the Holy Spirit for free. By the grace we get in Christ, he pours it out over all flesh.

Joel. 28 “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 

29 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. 

30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 

31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. 

32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.

God is Spirit and his Spirit touches the flesh then. This is the point with the circumcision on the body, it symbolizes circumcision in the heart with the Holy Spirit.

Jesus blessed the children and said to his disciples that they should let them come to him, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to such. Notice that it was not because they were sinners and needed to repent, rather the adults needed to repent an become like them to come into the kingdom of heaven (Matt.18,1…. & 19,13-14 & 26,36…).  So the adults had learned and done something bad then. How? Jesus warned them that temptations had to come and in Gethsemane he warned them several times. Then he was crucified and died as a sacrifice for all our sin.

The fall of sin and Freud’s psychologic displacement.

After the fall of sin, Adam and Eve became afraid, because they saw that they were naked, so they hided from God among the trees. Then they were locked out from the garden. Sin separated humans from God, that’s the problem. But with one sacrifice Jesus took it away. God is love and he has shown his love for us in this way, he loved us first, that’s why we love (1.John.3-4).

I think Sigmund Freud’s displacement is like Adam and Eve hiding from God. We may have taught and done wrong and maybe still do, so that we remember it in part of our heart and then we displace it. Then we don’t search God with that part of our heart, but this is what we need to do, by bowing for Jesus cross and tell him what is on our heart and mind an acknowledge what we taught and/or did wrong, what went wrong for us. Then he cleans us with his blood and fills us with the Holy Spirit. When we believe in Christ and love him with all of our heart, God creates us in Christ, then he creates us in his image and according to the creation history in Genesis.2, but now Christ is the last Adam, that is from heaven and for us have become a lifegiving Spirit. The hope of God’s glory does not disappoint us, because the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that is given to us.

God cares about his children.

Jesus said that they should not care about what their body need, because God would care for them and give it to them and it is quite natural. They should first of all search the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then they should get all this in addition (Matt.6,25-34). He blessed the children and said to his disciples that they should let them come to him, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to such. The adults had to repent and become like them, to be borne on new to see it and come into it (Matt.18,1-4 19,13-15 John.3,3…..). We must be borne of water (the living water) and Spirit and that Jesus gives us from heaven.

Homeostasis in the body and for mental balance and for the benefit of ourselves.

Homeostasis is that the body maintain some kind of balance in the body, like keeping the temperature at 37,5 degree C, keep the concentration of blood-sugar at a certain level and so on. This is local order and to get it we use of the total order so that it decreases according to the entropy-law. As long as we keep the balance, we feel ok and are comfortable, if it comes out of balance, we will often feel it and know what to do about it. In this way feelings are important to us.

So are social and mental feelings also and it is important for us to understand how and why and to find the good balance. The point is not to regard all that tends to make imbalance as bad, but to understand what to do. For example in Piaget’s (biologist) pedagogic theory the pupils faces problems that bring them into slightly mental imbalance that motivates them for learning.

Some get difficulty with this, maybe they can get help from a priest, a psychologist and/or a psychiatrist. Then they may get the diagnosis as “the patient”, taking it for granted that there is something wrong with him and/or her. For they just have to adopt to the environment, if they don’t, it is their fault, that’s how the survival of the fittest is. But if they didn’t fit into a special society, it is not certainly their fault, there may be something wrong with the society, that the social life does not function quite well. What to do about that? This they need to find out of, to see how they can fit into the society in a better way, maybe another part of it.

The patient may come into an emotional imbalance that is hard to explain except that this is the diagnose and this is how the patient is. The psychiatrist is a doctor of feelings and gives the patients drugs to bring them back to emotional balance. In this way the real social problem may be obscured and not solved and the need of drugs become artificial, the problem is not solved like naturally adopt to the environment (society). Isn’t this also the explanation and the problem with the illegal drug trade?  The drugs gives them an intoxication that makes them feel well and comfortable, normally that should tell them that they are doing well and survive, but they cheat themselves, it may even make them feel better than normally, even though it is poison that actually bring them closer to death. So it make them enjoy their own self-destruction.

The priests in the Church should preach the gospel of Christ, that is to teach what is most fundamental. What if they replace it with something else?

The priests in the Church were supposed to teach the people what should better be most fundamental in their lives. Then it’s strange that the pope and the priests started to teach the ordinary people could not call upon Christ and talk to him as their savior and Lord and talk with God as their Father. What they could do, was to acknowledge their sins for the priests and ask them to pray for them. So they should just acknowledge that they were wrong, giving the priest right to rule over them.

But if they acknowledged their sin for Christ, then he would forgive them and do something about it to change their lives. By the reformation they started to preach forgiveness for sin and righteousness by faith, but some were just cheated and killed. And even after some hundred years ordinary people were not allowed to preach from the Bible and have local Christian meetings.

The priests might come in contact with people that have come into some kind of trouble, so they make use of psychology and may ask for help from psychologists and psychiatrists to help people to better adopt to the Christian and/or secular society. Then it’s strange that psychologists, psychiatrists and neurologists and other educated people draw conclusions like Christ and his heavenly Father don’t exist, this is Antichrist according to 1.John.3-4, humans don’t have souls, dualism is wrong, the human “self” is an illusion.

How can you then take care of yourself and your interests and work for your own benefit? The point is simply to make you a slave for others. We find the correct and good explanation for it in Zechariah.11.

Zechariah.11, 4 This is what the LORD my God says: “Shepherd the flock marked for slaughter. 

5 Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Praise the LORD, I am rich!’ Their own shepherds do not spare them. 

6 For I will no longer have pity on the people of the land,” declares the LORD. “I will give everyone into the hands of their neighbors and their king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue anyone from their hands.” 

7 So I shepherded the flock marked for slaughter, particularly the oppressed of the flock. Then I took two staffs and called one Favor and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock. 

………

15 Then the LORD said to me, “Take again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 

16 For I am going to raise up a shepherd over the land who will not care for the lost, or seek the young, or heal the injured, or feed the healthy, but will eat the meat of the choice sheep, tearing off their hooves. 

17 “Woe to the worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! May his arm be completely withered, his right eye totally blinded!”

Notice that such a stupid shepherd may also use Freud’s psychoanalysis, but for the wrong reason, that the sheep shall be sold and slaughtered, so that those who sold them shall earn money on it. That’s why the purpose is that their souls shall die and that’s why they draw the conclusion that humans don’t have souls.

The priests were supposed to teach what is most fundamental, but now that is replaced with something else, the sheep get new owners, they got them for free and sell them for money and become rich.

The lost son and his brother.

Imagine a farmer and his wife. They have slaves and hire workers on the farm. When their children are small, they learn both from them and their parents. They talk to their parents like sons and daughters, but start to work on the farm with no more rights than the slaves. But as they grow and learn, they get more rights and responsibility than the slaves and the workers.

Maybe the slaves and the workers tell their children that their Father is very busy, but they can talk with them instead. Then they don’t get more rights than them. They tell them that their parents went abroad, but as time goes by they start to ask for them again. Then they say that they were killed. After some more days the children start to claim their rights as heirs. But then they say that there is no testament. As the children still claimed their heritage, they start to say that their parents didn’t really exist. The farm belongs to them and the children are their slaves.

By the way compare to apostle Paul’s talk about the old and the new covenant (Gal.4) and Jesus’ talk about the two sons, one was lost the other remained at home. The lost one was dead, but became alive and returned home. Then the Father made a feast. The other one didn’t want to participate and went out. Because he had been faithful, but the Father had not let him make such a feast with his friends. But the Father came out and told him that all that he owns is his, he is heir. This is first of all Christ, as he went out and died instead of us. For he said about himself that all what the Fader has, is his. All who received him got the right to become children of God, borne by the Holy Spirit and what is borne by the Spirit is spirit. Then we live at our Father’s house. Then we don’t need to pray to him like slaves, because by faith we pray to him like heirs.

He knew he should be executed and told his disciples. Still he would not leave them as Fatherless children, he would come to them and after he rose from then dead he said that should see he was with them every day. How? By sending the Holy Spirit to them from heaven.

John.14, 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 

John.16,1 “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. 

2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. 

3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. 

4 I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, 

5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 

6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. 

7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 

8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 

9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 

10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 

11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. 

12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 

13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 

14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 

15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”