Personal
from Herbert W. Armstrong

MY new book titled Mystery of the Ages is appearing serially in The Plain Truth. This issue carries chapter 3 – “The Mystery of Man.” What and why is man? What is human mind? Is there purpose to life? These questions have puzzled humans for thousands of years.

In my book I explain why the human mind differs from animal brain and what the real value of a human life is. I think our readers would benefit by reading the explanations, excerpted from my book, in this “Personal.”

Did you ever wonder about the vast difference between human mind and animal brain? This, incidentally, is another PROOF of the falsity of the theory of evolution!

The physical brain of the higher vertebrates in the animal kingdom is essentially the same in physical form, design, constituency, as human brain. The brains of whales, elephants, dolphins are larger – and chimp almost as large. Yet the output of the human brain is indescribably greater. Few indeed know WHY!

Many passages of Scripture show that there is a spirit in man (e.g. I Cor. 2:11). Spirit is not matter, and man is matter. To distinguish it from God’s Holy Spirit, I designate it as the “human” spirit. Nevertheless, it is spirit and not matter.

This “human” spirit imparts the power of intellect to the human physical brain. The spirit cannot see, hear, taste, smell or feel. The brain sees through the eye, hears through the ear, etc. The “human” spirit cannot of itself think. The physical brain thinks.

What, then, is the function of this “human” spirit? It is NOT a “soul.” But, 1) it imparts the power of intellect – of thinking, and of MIND power, to the human brain; and 2) it is the very means God has instilled, making possible a personal relationship between human MAN and divine GOD.

Philosophers, humanists, speak loftily of human worth as of supreme value in itself. They speak of the “god” within you – of tapping the innate hidden resources within yourself. They teach SELF-reliance, self-glorification.

They are smugly ignorant and unaware of the TRUE VALUES and the incredible but real human potential.

Human life is at once of infinitesimally less value than they suppose, and at the same time of supremely greater potential than they know.

Real truth is revealed. Unless revealed it remains a mystery, utterly unknown to the deceived and vain intellectuals. I repeat, Jesus said in prayer: “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because than hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes” (Matt. 11:25).

What is the real truth concerning human worth? What is the real value of a human life? It is grossly overestimated in its own reality, and astoundingly undervalued in its supreme potential. The truth indeed is staggering.

You look upon a sweet, innocent babe a few hours old, or upon a life-fulfilled elderly person of 80 and ask yourself, “Just how valuable is that life? – one just beginning, the other already spent.” Could you supply the correct answer?

Let’s UNDERSTAND! Right here is the point of difficulty. Right here is the jumping off point where the world’s educated jump the track. Science and advanced education today almost universally assume nothing exists but matter. They deny the existence of spirit. Which is to say, whether admitted or not, they deny the existence of God.

We come to the modern science of brain research. We learn that the human brain exercises many functions impossible in animal brain, yet we learn there is virtually no significant difference, physically. The animal cannot think, reason, study, make decisions apart from instinct. It cannot know what the human knows. It does not have attitudes of judgment, wisdom, love, kindness, cooperation, nor is it aware of competition, conspiracy, envy, jealousy, resentment. It has no appreciation of music, art and literature. It has no spiritual qualities or characteristics.

Yet science and higher education insist the faculty of intellect in humans is solely physical.

I had to PROVE to myself rationally that God exists and is in fact more REAL than matter. I had to PROVE that the Holy Bible is in fact the authoritative Word of God, by which he communicates to man, reveals truth otherwise inaccessible to man. And I found revealed PURPOSE, DESIGN, MEANING that is hidden from the self-professed scholarly. I found revealed the reason for mounting evils in a progressive world.

Can the human, who has been designed, created and made, say to his Maker, “Why did you make me thus? – and for what PURPOSE?” And can he instruct his Maker? Should he not, rather, open his mind, and listen when his Maker reveals to him the very reason for his being?

The Creator reveals and instructs in a highly coded book, the Holy Bible. Its profound message is opened to human understanding through the presence and indwelling of the Holy Spirit injected into the human mind that has surrendered and yielded completely to the revelation in belief and obedience. To such a one the TRUTH is made plain – wonderful beyond description.

But mark well this question! Think on this! If man had only the physical brain, like the dumb vertebrates, how could the great spirit God inject into the animal brain these marvelous spiritual truths? The answer is plain. God does not. The dumb animals have no awareness of God or of spiritual knowledge.

But the human spirit in mortal man makes possible a direct contact from the great Spirit God. There is no direct channel of communication between the dumb animal brain and the mind of the Supreme God.

Meditate on this. We humans sometimes speak of how wonderfully God made man, with his brain and the marvelous physical components of his body all functioning together. But without this spirit, imparting the power of intellect to the brain and also opening a channel of direct communication with the mind of the Great God, man would be no more than the dumb brutes. But with the spirit in man, man’s creation becomes all the more awesome to contemplate. It is this human spirit in man that makes it possible for man to be united with God, so that man may be begotten of God by God’s Spirit uniting with the human spirit, thus impregnating the human person as a child of the Supreme Creator God.

The real value of a human life, then, lies solely within the human spirit combined with the human brain. It should be stated at once that this human spirit is not perceived by the most highly educated psychologists, yet it is the very essence of the human MIND.