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a rudimentary understanding of brain functioning can be very useful when it comes to understanding and helping others.
We have a growing sense that the brain is the real cause of behavior. What started as a suggestion that brain chemistry is the ultimate cause of alcohol abuse has expanded to the point where brain chemistry is considered the ultimate cause for literally every human problem.
Most people are under the impression that researchers go into their laboratories and simply report the facts. Then, those who get those facts report them to us. The reality, however, isn’t that simple.
Sometimes it is legitimate to blame our misbehaviors on the brain, and sometimes it isn’t.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to say that the Bible is authoritative on the spiritual realm, and the brain sciences are authoritative on the brain? It may sound plausible, but such a compromise solution actually demeans the God of Scripture and exalts human insight.
to say that sickness is always a result of personal sin is actually an old heresy that goes back to Job and his counselors.
What about the opening case study in the book Listening to Prozac4? It describes a man whose interest in pornography ended soon after taking that drug. Do you think this man will ever call pornographic indulgence sin? Clearly not. It was not a spiritual change that removed his desire; it was a medication that manipulated brain chemicals. Therefore, he will argue, if the soul exists, it can be changed through prescription drugs, not preaching the Gospel.
This time, we want to listen to what people are saying about the brain, develop clear and powerful biblical categories, and bless both the sciences and the church in the process.
Nearly every philosopher and brain scientist has his own theory of the relationship between mind and body. As a whole, these theories loosely cluster into two larger groups. One group is dualistic, suggesting that mind and matter are two different substances. Another group, usually the brain scientists and physicists, are monistic, suggesting that mind emerges out of matter.
Almost everything that was once considered to be the purview of the immaterial spirit or soul is now clearly seen to be under the control of the brain. For example, speech, personality, emotions, intellectual
Scripture teaches that the created universe consists of material and immaterial substance.
To become a thoroughgoing materialist would be to deny the existence of God, because God himself is spirit.
This is the Bible’s most relevant teaching on the brain sciences: the created world consists of the spiritual and physical, mind and matter.
If there were no death or physical weakness, the distinctions between body and spirit would be sufficiently blurred as to make them appear functionally indivisible. Since the fall, however, even though these substances belong together, they are capable of separation. Therefore, although Scripture emphasizes that the true person is the whole person — a unity of spirit and body — in our fallen world we must reckon with our twofold nature and its various implications.
Our hearts are at the center of an ongoing moral drama: Will we live for God or against God? Will we love and worship him or will we love our own desires? It is especially revealed in our answer to the question Jesus posed to Peter, “Do you love me?”
The good news about this distinction between heart and intellect is that the heart can be renewed and thereby reflect the light of Christ even when the brain is weak or wasting away (2 Cor. 4:16). Therefore, those whose brains are still immature, such as children, can know Christ and follow him in obedience. Those with brain diseases can respond to God. Those who are mentally retarded can be wiser than the scholar. Spirit-given faith, not IQ, is the power behind true knowledge and understanding, and faith is an expression of the heart.
The whole person consists of body and heart together. Both are essential and neither can function in the material realm in isolation of the other.
The unique contribution of the body to the whole person is that it is the mediator of moral action rather than the initiator. In a sense, it is equipment for the heart. It does what the heart tells it to do; it is the heart’s vehicle for concrete ministry and service in the material world.
Sin preys upon these natural weaknesses, hoping that the inner person will indulge them rather than exert godly self-control. If the inner person yields to sin, then bodily passions will rule the entire person, and Satan has accomplished a kind of anthropological reversal: the body will control the heart rather than the heart control the body. When this relationship is reversed, chaos reigns.
There are mysteries inherent in any discussion of the unity of heart and body. If you crave precision and completeness, you will be disappointed.
although we may not fully understand the simultaneous unity and duality of spirit and body, we should be somewhat comfortable with it because God’s world is filled with similar mysteries.
Heart and body are both two and one.
this unity suggests that the heart or spirit will always be represented or expressed in the brain’s chemical activity. When we choose good or evil, such decisions will be accompanied by changes in brain activity.
the Bible predicts that what goes on in the heart is represented physically. But the Bible would clarify that such differences do not prove that the brain caused the thoughts and actions. It may very well be the opposite. Brain changes may be caused by these behaviors.
While we certainly agree that life can be more difficult at certain times in a woman’s monthly cycle, do we really want to excuse sinful behavior by blaming the brain?
Although we never minimize or excuse sinful behavior, we treat people with one talent as if they have one talent, those with five as if they have five. We treat people according to their abilities.
if someone is able to be verbally or physically abusive, he or she is able to understand that the behavior is wrong.
A dysfunctional brain can make it very difficult to understand what is going on, but it can’t create sin. It can only reveal things that were previously hidden in the heart.
some physical problems have spiritual causes.
instead of giving us the clear cause for a sickness, the Bible simplifies the problem by saying that those who are sick, whatever the cause, need prayer and encouragement from others.
Our sins do not always lead to physical disability, and our faithfulness does not always lead to health.
God graciously takes us to the end of ourselves so that we will rely on him and the resources he gives us in other people.
Too often families prefer denial over education. Denial lets families believe the myth that all is well, and it keeps people from confronting the bitter reality of the physical decline and death of a loved one.
Since we approach physical and spiritual problems in different ways, we need to be able to distinguish between them.
brain disability does not mean spiritual disability. Even in the more severe forms of brain injury and deterioration, there remains a conscience, an ability to respond to God, and an ability to turn from sin. The challenge is to communicate God’s truth in a way that is understandable and memorable.
deterioration of memory and intellect severe enough to interfere with social relationships and work.
The key biblical principle is to honor the elderly. Honor them by listening, asking for their opinions and counsel, understanding their perspectives, helping them maintain relationships with friends, being honest with them, and working creatively to serve them. Also, within safe boundaries, give them decision-making responsibilities and ongoing ministry.
Families need to be reminded that although their ministry seems unappreciated, it has both temporal and eternal significance.
The cognitive impairments of those who were previously committed to biblical living will rarely lead to the same frustrating changes that are obvious in those who were not.
Some improvement is likely as the injured person makes some cognitive recovery, but real hope awaits spiritual renewal. Of course, this is true for everyone, but in head injury it is particularly obvious.
Low expectations are as problematic as impossibly high ones. Families must constantly understand and help maximize patients’ abilities.
Never allow brain injury to be an excuse for sinful behavior.
Too often braininjured people are unable to anticipate the consequences of their actions.
brain function in psychiatric problems shows no consistent differences when compared with normal brain function.
You will never find a psychiatric problem where biblical counsel — counsel directed to the heart — is anything less than essential.
Most psychiatric problems are hybrids — a combination of spiritual problems and physical ones.
Medication cannot change the heart: it cannot remove our tendency toward sin, it cannot revive our faith, and it cannot make us more obedient to Christ. It can, however, alleviate some of the physical symptoms associated with some psychiatric problems.
Psychiatric medication is not treating a verifiable chemical imbalance in the brain.
The brain is simply too complex and is sustained by too many chemicals for us to be able to pinpoint chemical imbalances with our current level of knowledge.
Is it possible that future research will reveal confirmed chemical differences in the brains of some people with psychiatric diagnoses? According to our biblical understanding of the heart-body relationship, we would predict that one day researchers will find chemical differences. Depression, disobedience, fatigue, dyslexia, and every other human behavior is represented on a neurochemical level. This doesn’t mean that the brain causes all these behaviors, but that the brain expresses differences in behavior at a chemical level.
