I concluded the second chapter of my book with a quote from watchman nee, whose books gave direction to my research into our communion with the holy spirit:

the greatest negative in the universe is the cross, for with it god wiped out everything that was not of himself: the greatest positive in the universe is the resurrection, for through it god brought into being all he will have in the new sphere.

i closed with the following:'

“there is a deep mystery here. how could jesus die for all? how could he take the place of each of us? how could he be the substitute for every human being in history? we shall see in the next chapter that this mystery is addressed in articles 18 and 19 of the belgic confession.”

at the beginning of chAPTER TWO OF MY BOOK I SHARE THE FOLLOWING:

“WE HAVE SEEN THAT JESUS WAS BEGOTTEN BY THE FATHER AS THE SON AND NOT CREATED AS HUMANITY HAS BEEN THROUGH ALL OF ITS HISTORY. THE NICENE CREED MAKES THIS CLEAR:

AND IN ONE LORD JESUS CHRIST, THE ONLY-BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD, BEGOTTEN OF THE FATHER BEFORE ALL WORLDS; GOD OF GOD, LIGHT OF LIGHT, VERY GOD OF VERY GOD; BEGOTTEN, NOT MADE, BEING OF ONE SUBSTANCE WITH THE FATHER, BY WHOM ALL THINGS WERE MADE.

“IN MY BOOK I MAKE REFERENCES TO THREE CREEDS AND ONE CONFESSION, INCLUDING THE NICENE CREED ABOVE. KEN SAMPLES IS A SENIOR RESEARCH SCHOLAR, THEOLOGICAN AND PHILOSOPHER WITH REASONS TO BELIEVE (WWW.REASONS.ORG). HIS DISCUSSION OF CREEDS AND CONFESSIONS EXPLAINS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS PASSAGE FROM THE NICENE CREED.

“SAMPLES SHARED POINTS ABOUT CHRISTIAN CREEDS WHICH HAVE BEEN PART OF HISTORIC CHRISTIANITY FROM ITS BEGINNING. ‘CREED’ COMES FROM THE LATIN CREDO WHICH MEANS ‘I BELIEVE.’ CREEDAL STATEMENTS ARE SEEN IN ThE BIBLE, INCLUDING THE SHEMA, ‘HEAR O ISRAEL: THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE.’ . . . CREEDS THEREFORE HAVE A BIBLICAL BASIS AND SERVE TO FORMULATE AND AFFIRM ESSENTIAL CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE AND TO AID IN CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTION IN CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE AND THEOLOGY. PERHAPS OF MOST IMPORTANCE SAMPLES STATES THAT ‘ALL OF CHRISTENDOM’S FORMAL CREEDS WERE WRITTEN TO SPECIFICALLY COMBAT HERESIES THAT HAD ARISEN IN THE EARLY CENTURIES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [SUCH AS] THE CHRISTOLOGICAL HERESY KNOWN AS ‘ARIANISM.’ ARIAN TEACHINGS WERE ATTRIBUTED TO ARIUS, A CHRISTIAN PRESBYTER IN ALEXANDRIA OF EGYPT. ARIUS WHO LIVED FROM 256 TO 336 A.D. BELIEVED THAT JESUS, THE SON OF GOD, DID NOT ALWAYS EXIST BUT WAS BEGOTTEN WITHIN TIME BY THE FATHER.”

THE NICENE CREED ADDRESSES THIS HERESY.

“prior to his arrest jesus made this promise to the disciples, ‘if you love me, you will obey what i command. and i will ask the father, and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever - the spirit of truth. the world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. but you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you . . . . i will not leave you as orphans; i will come to you . . . . on that day you will realize that i am in the father, and you are in me, and i am in you . . . . whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. he who loves me will be loved by my father, and i too will love him and show myself to him.’”

this concluding passage from the first chapter of my book shows the intimate, personal interactive relationship between the holy spirit and the human spirit and soul.

“throughout his life jesus lived and spoke in complete obedience to god’s counsel through his indwelling Holy spirit. in john 15:9-15 jesus teaches that he has obeyed his father’s commands and that everything he has learned from his father he has made known to his disciples. . . . responding to a question from phillip jesus stated, ‘anyone who has seen me has seen the father. how can you say, ‘show us the father? don’t you believe that i am in the father, and that the father is in me? the words i say to you are not just my own. rather, it is the father, living in me . . . who is doing his work. believe me when i say that i am in the father and the father is in me.’”

in my book’s first chapter i share the following:

“. . . jesus explained what had been proclaimed in the old testament, that god is spirit, a living person. god can be known apart from our physical senses since human beings were created with spirit providing for an intimate and personal access to a bidirectional communion with the holy spirit, the father god. jesus the god-man was begotten with a human spirit and soul as has been all of mankind. the first created humans, adam and eve, while residing in the garden, possessed the capacity for an intimate communion with god the father through man’s animating spirit by which they knew the divine. but sin accounted for the fall of adam and eve, and the intimate, direct, personal interactive communion with the godhead was lost. because god is holy he could not abide the willful sin of man and withdrew his indwelling spirit from the spirit of man. this was the spiritual death about which god had warned them. but god had a plan for the redemption of man. spiritual death was to be undone by the sinless life and substitutionary death and resurrection of the ‘last adam,’ jesus christ, the word/logos. the sinless life and death of jesus served as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all mankind against god, against his holy spirit.”

“in john 1:1-4 we read, ‘in the beginning was the word, and the word was with god, and the word was god. he was with god in the beginning. through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. in him was life, and that life was the light of men.’ word in the greek language is logos, a term referring to both the spoken and unspoken word, the word yet in the mind. [and in my blogs i have shown how the ‘word’ consists of specified information that is generated only by a mind, never from a material process.] it also refers to the rational principle of the universe that governs all things. [this is by means of the instantiation of specified information.] it refers to the divine, god’s ‘firstborn’ through whom god created all things. though the word was distinct from the father, the word was and is god in the fullest sense. in john 10:30 jesus said ‘i and the father are one.’ in hebrews 1:3 we read ‘the son is the radiance of god’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.’ the triune godhead created man with whom he would have a special relationship as his ‘bride of christ.’ the logos came from god to fulfill his purpose in and for the world and for the crown of his creation, man, who had fallen into sin through adam. god’s purpose was for man’s redemption through jesus christ.”

and by redemption the indwelling by the holy spirit lost by man at the fall could be restored to the human spirit and soul in repentance.

in my introduction i share the following:

“there is a common assumption that personal interaction between the holy spirit and the human spirit and soul ceased with the closure of the canon of scripture following pentecost. there is recognition in the christian church that the writing of the bible was inspired by the holy spirit. since 397 AD the church has considered the canon of the bible to be complete, and the assumption of many is that the holy spirit ceased to communicate directly with people as occurred with the writers of scripture. to the contrary, we shall see evidence that the counselor and helper sent by the glorified and living jesus christ continues to interact with the mind of man through the spirit.”

it has been the objective of my studies to learn how this dualist interaction occurs in our time, demonstrating concordance between neuroscience and scripture.

“when jesus christ was dying on the cross of crucifixion he cried out, ‘my god, my god, why have you forsaken me?’ up until that moment jesus was in eternal triune communion with god the father and his holy spirit. was it impossible for jesus the god-man, the begotten son of god, to lose intimate, personal communion with god the father? . . . because jesus the man was carrying the sins of all mankind god removed his holy spirit from jesus’ human spirit accounting for his anguished cry of personal abandonment. god too experienced profound grief when he turned his back on his only begotten son whom he loved. but god in his grace to mankind had an eternal purpose for this center point of history at the cost of his son. ‘the reason the son of god appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.’ the purpose for the sacrifice of the spotless lamb of god was fulfilled when jesus was heard to say as he died, ‘it is finished.’ . . . man was the ultimate focus for jesus’ spiritual separation from the father at his death. fallen mankind deserves eternal spiritual death, but the love of god was revealed when he abandoned the human spirit and soul of jesus while he sacrificially bore and gave death to the sins of all mankind, harking back to isaiah 59:2. his substitutionary death provided for the redemption of the spirit and soul of mankind in repentance. mankind’s debt to sin was incurred at the fall of adam when the choice was made to live self-focused, denying the authority of god and being disobedient to his counsel. the consequence was loss of direct communion between the spirit and soul of man and the holy spirit, a fall that threatened to extend into eternity. man’s debt to sin was fully paid by jesus’ sacrifice so that direct communion between the holy spirit and the human spirit could be restored. god’s purpose was fulfilled, but the cost to the father was the death of his beloved son. god restored his spirit to the spirit of jesus when he was resurrected glorified by the power of the holy spirit. the eternal triune communion in love between the father, the son and the holy spirit was restored, and eternal life and hope was offered to man. . . . because jesus the incarnate son of god was fully human but without sin the propitiation of the sins of mankind against the holy god and the offer of eternal life was accomplished by his death as a sin sacrifice. . . . now each one of us can choose to accept god’s offer in repentance and grow in sanctification. this is accomplished by the leading of the indwelling holy spirit, the helper and counselor sent as promised by the resurrected jesus christ. it is a gift of god’s grace. it is an expression of the boundless love of the father for man. when understood it gives inspiration and the motivation to become as christ-like in this life as humanly possible.”

“the ultimate tragedy that can befall a human is being overcome by sin. sin can claim our thoughts, desires and will. it can damn our soul and accounts for the loss of the intimate, indwelling communion between the holy spirit and the spirit of fallen mankind. jesus the god-man had a human spirit and soul and was indwelled by the holy spirit at his baptism by john the baptist. he lived in full obedience to the spirit’s counsel, even to his death on the cross. it was for this redemptive death that jesus entered into our human existence on earth. he came to save mankind from sin by his sacrifice on the cross to restore the indwelling by the spirit.”

(many of the excerpts i will include in my blogs give reference to resources which are listed in the end notes of my book. for readers who are interested in finding resources i allude to, please refer to my book where citations are recorded and listed in the end notes.)

CONTINUING FROM MY PREFACE:

“my neuroanatomy professor in medicAL SCHOOL SERVED AS A RESEARCH FELLOW WITH SIR JOHN CAREW ECCLES WHO WAS AWARDED THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR HIS STUDIES OF NEURAL SYNAPTIC TRANSMISSION. MY PROFESSOR OFTEN REFERRED TO SIR ECCLES DURING HIS LECTURES, AND WHEN I SPOKE WITH HIM BY PHONE YEARS LATER AT THE INCEPTION OF MY RESEARCH INTO THE HOLY SPIRIT HE REFERRED TO ECCLES AS ‘A MAN OF THE SPIRIT.’ THIS DESCRIPTION OF HIM LAUNCHED MY STUDY OF INTERACTION BETWEEN THE IMMATERIAL SPIRIT OF GOD AND THE SPIRIT OF MAN THROUGH WHICH THE HOLY SPIRIT COMMUNES WITH US. I DREW UPON THE INSIGHTS AND RESEARCH FINDINGS OF SIR ECCLES. THE INTERACTION PROVIDES FOR AN INTIMATE AND PERSONAL COMMUNION BETWEEN THE MIND OF GOD AND THE MIND OF MAN, A MIND THAT WAS CREATED IN THE IMAGO DEI. SIR ECCLES’ WORK SHOWED HOW THE IMMATERIAL HUMAN MIND DEPENDS UPON THE SYNAPTIC NETWORKS OF THE MATERIAL BRAIN BUT CANNOT BE REDUCED TO THEM. THE MIND IS A SEPARATE IMMATERIAL ENTITY AS IS THE SPIRIT, AND BOTH ARE DISTINCT FROM THE MATERIAL BRAIN WITH WHICH THEY ARE IN AN INTERACTIVE FUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIP, A RELATIONSHIP REFERRED TO AS DUALIST INTERACTIONISM. I APPLIED THIS MODEL TO MY STUDIES TO COME TO AN UNDERSTANDING OF GOD’S LOVE.”