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material world air is a gaseous
essence. This "human" spirit can–
not see. The physical brain sees
through the eyes.
The human spirit in a person
cannot hear. The brai n hears
tbrough the ears.
This human spirit cannot think.
The brain thinks- although the
spirit
imparts the power to think
far above the leve) of brute animals'
brain function. Without such spirit
animals cannot do original think–
ing.
Whatever knowledge enters the
brain through the five senses is
instantly stored (memorized) in the
"human" spirit within the person,
much like a computer stores infor–
mation.
It
enables the brain to have
instant recall of stored-up knowl–
edge in the spirit, thus enabling the
brain to utilize bits of related
knowledge in the process of
THINK–
ING
and
REASONING.
The human spirit imparts the
power of intellect to the physical
brain in two ways: 1) it gives the
brain instant recall of whatever the
brain calls for in the knowledge
stored in this memory; 2) it supplies
the brain whatever energy is needed
to cause it to think-that is, to put
the pieces of information stored in
the spirit together in the process we
call "thinking," "reasoning" and
"drawing conclusions." The human
spi rit also is the means God has
instilled to make possible a personal
relationship between human
MAN
and divine Goo.
The truth about the "spirit in
man" is so important that Satan,
the archdeceiver, twisted and per–
verted it long ago. He clouded the
minds of meo and led them into
believing his "big lie" as far back in
time as the first human beings in
the garden of Eden.
Here was the
origin
of the "im–
mortality of the soul" teaching so
prevalent today! Satan told the first
woman she would "not surely die"
(Gen. 3:4). In other words, she had
an "immortal soul" that would live
forever. Eve believed this lie. And
most of the world today continues
to believe sorne variation of that
ancient "big lie"!
A Second Splrlt Needed
Man has the intellectual capacity to
design spaceships to take him to the
30
moon· and back, to invent the com–
puter and to do other marvelous
exploits in the physical, material
realm. Yet during man's nearly
6,000 years on earth, he has proved
that he cannot solve his problems
with fellowman.
Why has this been so'? Because
man's real problems are
spiritua/
in
nature and the natural man simply
cannot solve spi ritual problems. In
producing the computer or in fly–
ing to the moon, he is dealing with
physical matter that he can under–
stand because of the human spirit
within him. But he cannot solve
problems with fellow humans
because this involves knowledge
a nd understanding of
spiritua/
principies,
which he cannot com–
prehend without the addition of
another spiritual element
to his
mind!
Man was made to need
another
spirit-the Holy Spirit of God!
Justas a human could not know the
things of human knowledge except
by the human spirit within him, so
he cannot know the things of
God-spiritual knowledge-except
by the addition of the Spirit of God
(I Cor. 2:9-11, 14).
Just as surely as no animal
brain-such as a cow's, for exam–
ple-can comprehend or under–
stand
human
affairs without the
human
spirit, so no human mind
can have comprehension of spiri–
tual truths on the divine plane
without the Holy Spirit!
Even the greatest scient ific and
philosophical minds simply cannot
come to know and understand
SPIR–
ITUAL
truths with their natural
minds. They are "foolishness" to
them. The natural man with his
human spirit is
limited
to material
knowledge.
Spiritual things cannot be seen
with the eye, heard with the ear,
felt with the . hands, tasted or
smelled. The human mind, which
can receive knowledge only
through the physical senses, can
never really comprehend spiritual
concepts and principies without the
Holy Spirit of God. A person can
come to know that which is spiri–
tual only through God's Holy Spir–
it, which works with the human
spirit in the mind. That is the only
way the human mind can receive
and comprehend the knowledge of
and attaín God's
GREAT PURPOSE
for man's existence!
Man was created incomplete. He
was made to need another spirit–
the Holy Spirit of God.
How can one receive the Holy
Spirit? Through Chríst, the second
Adam, we can receive God's gift of
his Holy Spirit. Upon repentance
and faith in Jes'us Christ, whose
death paíd the penalty for sin in our
stead, we may be reconciled to God
and receive the Holy Spirit of God,
which is
added
to our human spirit
(Acts 2:38; John 7:38-39). Thus we
become the
begotten
children of
God (I Pet. 1:3; Rom. 8:14-17).
The human spirit in roan and the
Holy Spirit of God
join
to make a
begotten child of God, just as the
male sperm cell and the female
ovum or egg cell join to make a
begotten human, but not yet devel–
oped or ready to be boro as a
human being.
God's Holy Spirit, when it
combines with the human spirit in
the human mind, does two things:
1) i t begets the human wi th
divine, eterna! life later to be boro
into the God family as a divine
being, then composed wholly of
spirit; 2) it imparts to the mind
the ability to comprehend
spiri–
tual
knowledge-to understand
the things of God.
The first human beings were
freely offered this second and
much-needed Spirit. Of the two
symbolic trees in the garden in
Eden, the "tree of life" represented
God's Holy Spirit. To have taken
the fruit of that tree would have
been to receive God's Holy Spirit,
which would have joined with their
human spirits, impregnating them
as begotten (not yet boro) children
of God.
But by taking of the fruit of the
"tree of the knowledge of good and
evil," our first parents rejected
God's Spirit, which would have
begotten the very life of God in
them and would have enabled them
to understand revealed
spiritua/
knowledge. Thus they cut them–
selves and their descendants off
from access to God's Spirit. They
limited
themselves and the human
race to material knowledge and
understanding (Gen. 3:22-24), ex–
cept for those whom God would
(Continued on page 40)
The
PLAIN TRUTH