Now things start to get very interesting. The Bible tells us many things about the design of the human soul, what its components are, how it functions, and how the soul interacts with the outside world through the brain and senses. Understanding all of this is where things become both fascinating and complicated, which is why only the Bible can reveal the truth about such complex and otherwise unknowable issues.
The Bible says humans are made "in the image of God," and that refers to the inner human consisting of the soul and human spirit (which will be discussed in detail separately). God thinks, knows He exists, remembers, has standards of right and wrong, communicates, loves, has compassion, has a belief system, makes choices from free will, and has many other traits which are mirrored to some lesser degree in humans. Although His essence obviously goes far, far beyond human capabilities, the inner human is in the overall image of God in such areas. That is because God wants us to be capable of interacting with Him by making free will choices based on independently derived thoughts and beliefs. God did not design humans as robots or puppets which must only do what they are programmed or made to do, because such a creature would not be capable of choosing to love God, so it could only mimic something like love, but it would not be genuine love. Only a truly free will can make choices for or against God. So in order to interact with God, humans must have a degree of likeness with God which provides a basis for a true relationship. And that is how God designed the inner human, in His image.
The human soul is made up of several parts. The Bible calls them the Heart, Mind, Emotion, Conscience, and Memory. (Note: For the purpose of clarity, these will be capitalized when referring to them as soul components, unless quoting from the Bible.) Besides the soul, there is also the human spirit component of the inner human, which is also immaterial, but is separate and distinct from the soul, although intimately connected. The human spirit will be covered in a separate chapter, but as a quick overview, it is the spiritual part of the inner human which allows us to interact with God, since He is Spirit. The Bible says "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24) Therefore the soul defines us as rational human beings, and the human spirit makes us spiritual beings. But we must take things one step at a time, so we must first cover the soul in greater detail. Therefore we will need to delay discussing the human spirit for now. But your patience will be rewarded.
God created the human soul with the five components mentioned above, the Heart, Mind, Emotion, Conscience, and Memory. But as we know from the book of Genesis, perfectly created humans did not comply with the requirements placed on them by God, and so they sinned in revolt against God. That led to distortions in the human soul, mainly an added component called the Sinful Nature, which became an attachment to the soul. At the same time the two humans lost their human spirit, which was spiritual death, resulting in alienation from God. We will discuss later how God found a way to enable their human spirits to be restored or regenerated by salvation.
The two humans did not merely sin, but they also became sinful as a result of acquiring a Sinful Nature as part of their inner human which acts on the soul to promote dysfunctional thinking and behavior, including sinful tendencies. God did not design humans that way, but rather they added this feature to their souls apart from God's will. In the Garden of Eden when the man and woman sinned, both acquired the Sinful Nature by choice, although for the woman it was a deceived choice. God had designed perfection, but humans rebelled and caused distortions and added imperfections to the soul. Thoughts and beliefs changed for all of us after that point because the original parents made this choice for all humanity, making the Sinful Nature an addition to the soul of all their descendants (with the exception of Jesus Christ, as we will discuss).
Let us now look at each of the components of the human soul, namely the Heart, Mind, Emotion, Conscience, and Memory, and also the Sinful Nature which was added after the initial creation. Then we will look at the human spirit, which is a separate part of the inner human, once the soul is understood.
Let us begin with the primary focus of the soul, which is the Heart.
HEART
The Bible describes the immaterial Heart as the primary component of the soul, the essential being of the person, the integrator of all soul and human spirit functions, the center of thinking, and the decider of the soul, making the Heart the nerve center of the inner human. The Heart is the central controller of the soul which integrates all the complex components and facets of the inner human. It is the Captain of the ship, and therefore the responsible agent for what the person thinks, believes, and does. The Heart makes decisions for the soul, and expresses thoughts and intentions toward the outside world and also toward God. As such it is the center of the free will of the human, and also where self-awareness resides. The immaterial Heart is functionally analogous to the body's physical blood pump which nourishes and sustains the human body with oxygen, nutrients, immune defenses, heating and cooling, cleansing, and numerous other functions. Proverbs 4:32 says: "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." We see the "flow" analogy as with the physical pump of the body, meaning the soul's Heart pumps the flow of thoughts around the soul as they are developed into thinking, and then they flow out from the Heart and into the material world as the expressions of the person.
When discussing the inner human the Bible most often refers to the Heart since it is the main component of the soul, rather than using the word "soul" itself. Although this may seem odd, these passages are dealing with the part of the soul which makes the decisions, and is therefore responsible for the action being discussed. The Bible refers to the immaterial Heart over 700 times, about 200 of which are in the New Testament, but the word "soul" is only used 95 times in the Bible of which 23 are in the New Testament. This shows the importance of the Heart as the main component and decision maker of the soul. The functions and attributes ascribed to the immaterial Heart in the Bible are both positive and negative. The positives include thinking/thoughts, intentions, knowledge, wisdom, understanding, deciding, believing, remembering, love, meditation, reflection, pondering, purposing, seeking, searching, humility, obedience, gladness, caring, tenderness, compassion, joy, self-reflection, yearning, cheerfulness, peace and hope. On the negative side the Bible says the Heart can also have arrogance, foolishness, anger, envy, pride, jealousy, darkness, hardness, folly, deceit, evil thoughts, impenitence, obstinacy, wickedness, perversity, lusting, coveting, can sorrow and be heavy, can be dejected and in anguish, and many other negative things.
Comparing the outputs of the Heart with the overall characteristics of the human soul we find the Heart integrates the Mind, Conscience, Emotion, and Memory which are separate from the Heart, yet are all component parts of the soul. A common misunderstanding about the Heart is to associate it primarily with emotional expression. That is not how the Bible explains the Heart. Looking at the list of Biblical usages of the word Heart which we have previously discussed, we can see that the Heart integrates the Emotion into its expressions, but is not the source of emotional responses since the Emotion is a separate component of the soul. This may seem like a fine point, but it is an important distinction as we will soon discuss how the Emotion can get out of control and revolt against the Heart. They must be separate entities for that to happen.
God is highly focused on the thoughts and intentions of the person, and He evaluates each person based on their Heart. 1 Samuel 16:7 says: "The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." It is therefore clear that the Heart is the inner core, the essential nature, the highest functioning part of the inner immaterial person, both believer and unbeliever, and therefore provides the majority of the soul's important functions. It makes all the final decisions. And it can either act in compliance with God's will and plan or make decisions contrary to them, meaning it is the center of free will in humans.
The Bible says the Heart can treasure things, is the source of the secrets of the person, and conceives plans, and all of these can be either good or evil. We will discuss why later, but for now we will stick with the soul component descriptions to keep building an understanding of how the soul is designed, and how it functions. Overall, the Heart is about decision making. That is its primary role. Salvation comes from the Heart's decision to believe in Jesus Christ as Savior. Romans 10:10 says "For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified." And the Heart is important in our post-salvation spiritual life: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." (Proverbs 3:5)
God is said to have a Heart in Acts 13:22, Jeremiah 3:15, and 1 Samuel 2:35, and this is part of the reason humans are in the image of God. As Genesis 1:27 says "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them." We are alive with a soul which has components which are somewhat like God's essence, although with greatly reduced capabilities, since we think, are self-aware, have free will to make decisions, and so on. And the human spirit is our spiritual side. God created humans as creatures with a soul containing the qualities of being alive which mirror His own inner Being, but of course on a much lower scale. And a human spirit is required to interact with God in any way, as spirit to Spirit. And while we are on that subject, it takes both a soul and human spirit to be in the image of God. Without a human spirit, part of that image is missing. Unbelievers are therefore missing a critical piece of the image of God, and without it they can never have a relationship with Him unless that missing piece is regained by salvation, at which point the regeneration of the human spirit occurs.
For those who believe the Heart is primarily a source of good intentions, think again. Satan has a Heart, and it is pure evil. Isaiah 14:13 describes what Satan thought when he chose to revolt against God: "You [Satan] said in your heart, 'I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God'." The following are some of the many verses which describe the Heart as evil under certain conditions, especially when God is rejected by a majority of humans:
Genesis 6:5 "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
Ecclesiastes 9:3 "Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives."
Psalm 53:1-3 "The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God,” They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice."
Matthew 13:15 "For the heart of this people has become dull, with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes, otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them.’ "
Hebrews 3:12 "Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God."
The Bible never uses the word "brain" or anything referring directly to it. Instead, the Heart is always used as the source of man's cognitive integrating functions, namely thoughts and beliefs. The human physical brain is a material interface and sensing device which enables the immaterial part of man to interact with the material world, especially on a sensory level. But the human brain is not the location or source of thoughts, conscience, volition, emotions, high level memories or any other essentially human cognitive functions, but rather its purpose as related to the inner human is to support the soul's high level functions and also to connect the soul with the outside world.
Therefore the Heart is the key component of the soul. When the thoughts and beliefs of the soul are finalized and put in place, it is done by the Heart. Proverbs 27:19 sums up the Heart: "As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart."
MIND
The soul component mentioned in the Bible second only to the Heart is the Mind. By design, the Mind is closely aligned with the Heart as its chief advisor. The Mind is the technical, logical, contemplative engine of the soul, and advises the Heart on all issues related to thinking. It handles all incoming sensory inputs from the brain and sorts them out. An analogy would be to view the Heart as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the soul and the Mind as the second-in-command, filling a combination of numerous subordinate roles such as Chief Operating Officer, Chief Technical Officer, Chief Engineer, Chief of Logistics, Head Physicist, Head of Security, and more. The Mind is the soul component responsible for figuring things out and making sense of the world. That means the Mind is the busiest part of the soul.
In this regard the Mind is the soul component which deals most directly with inputs coming through the brain from the outside. It takes those inputs and puts them into a form which the Heart can deal with. This includes issues related to math, science, engineering, physics, safety and all technical subject areas. And not just as academic subjects, but rather being able to relate to the world in all its complex physical aspects. When an issue requires some contemplation, the Mind sorts out the facts related to what the soul should do, and advises the Heart as to how to proceed. As such the Mind is designed to be the primary contemplative engine of the soul, sorting out facts, pulling in memories related to issues under consideration, using established soul beliefs as policy, considering the issues in view of right and wrong, forming conclusions, mulling things over, pondering why things are the way they are, forming conclusions, and making recommendations to the Heart. In general, the Mind sorts out things which are not obvious, therefore the Heart is very dependent on the Mind for developing conclusions and proposed courses of action. After the Mind figures issues out, the Heart makes the final decision about what the soul will do with the information. Most times the Heart and Mind are in agreement, because they work together closely along the way. Thinking is therefore primarily a Heart-Mind collaborative effort. The Mind does the heavy lifting part of the thinking process, and the Heart does the integration and finalization part of the thinking process. This is why the Bible says that both the Mind and Heart think and possess knowledge and understanding, because what the Mind advises based on the deep thinking part of the process, the Heart usually accepts and finalizes at the finishing stage of thinking.
The Mind is described in the Bible as:
The chief advisor to the Heart. A faculty of technical understanding, contemplating, deciphering, and figuring things out for the soul (complex sensory data, math, engineering, physics, etc.).
The key to the soul's understanding and knowledge of the outside world. The soul's primary interface to the physical brain for incoming sensory data. Compiles sensory data into a more refined or final product, provides situational awareness for the soul, creates new knowledge and understanding.
The "logic" engine of the soul. Determines acceptability and quality of the data and information which comes into the soul.
The component of the soul which oversees the Conscience and Memory, since the Mind is their primary interface.
In the ancient Greek the word for Mind is "dianoia" which is a term used by Plato for a type of thinking, specifically about mathematical and technical subjects. It is associated with the capacity for deductive thinking, in contrast with an immediate recognition of the obvious, which is a different word in the Greek. This same Greek word "dianoia" is used in the New Testament to refer to the Mind of the soul.
The Mind is therefore the master contemplative-thinker of the soul which receives all sensory inputs from the brain, combines them with previously known information (memory), and engages in deeper levels of thinking which lead to knowledge and understanding, especially when trying to figure things out. It employs mental tools and takes inputs from the other parts of the soul, and for believers it receives spiritual inputs from the human spirit. The Mind develops conclusions about technical subjects such as professions, mathematics, solving puzzles, problem resolution, how to fix things or make things work, alternate approaches to an issue, why things are the way they are, and any type of deep thinking which requires figuring things out. It cogitates, theorizes, mulls things over, and tries to make sense of anything and everything it can based on previously learned information plus the new inputs it receives from sensory data passed through the brain. It is therefore the center of curiosity, wanting to know the "why" behind what it encounters. It is also the part of the soul which recognizes that which is already familiar or known, and declares it correct or incorrect according to previous memory and thinking. This allows the soul to see most things encountered as obvious or clear on the surface, as familiar to us, which allows the soul to focus its energies on those things which require special attention, thinking and figuring out what is new or unknown. Therefore it engages to recognize the familiar, and also to decipher and figure out that which is not clear, to compare new things with previous knowledge, to develop conclusions, to put issues into perspective. That can be technical, mathematical, visualization skills (the "eyes of the mind" in Ephesians 1:18). It thinks in three dimensional (3D) and contemplative ways. When functioning properly it is very logical. As the master thinker component of the soul it solves cognitive problems, sorts things out, and makes sense of the world around us.
Once again it is important to note that thinking is not done in the brain, but rather the brain interfaces with the outside world to bring sensory data to the Mind of the soul where that sensory data is used for the purpose of figuring things out and putting them into perspective, which results in an understanding of the issue, or a conclusion that more information is needed to understand the issue. The Mind therefore thinks and creates understanding and new knowledge in association with the Heart, which is its boss. And when mixed with spiritual information from the human spirit the result of the thinking of the Mind can eventually become wisdom.
The issue of relative intelligence often measured by IQ is an interesting issue which shows the relationship between the brain and the Mind of the soul. Although actual thinking occurs in the soul, data from the outside world comes through the brain where it is semi-processed before going on to the soul. Some people process raw data in the brain better than others, or maybe just certain specific types of data better than others. Therefore IQ is a mixture of brain and soul functions. Otherwise all humans have the same thinking capabilities in the soul, which far exceed even what a super-genius is able to achieve while alive in a human body. But the brain affects our ability to think deeply in certain areas of life by limiting the data processing and transfer capabilities to some degree, and it occurs in certain areas more than others, and therefore differs from one person to the next. Some are geniuses at math while others struggle. Certain people have strong visualization skills. Some have high functioning capabilities as artists, engineers, physicists, architects, garden designers, leadership, writing or whatever. Individuals have varying degrees of abilities in a wide variety of areas, and no person has high levels of everything. Some of it is also related to learning skills, because learning is based on previous learning and accumulated knowledge. Therefore brain capabilities associated with processing and transferring data to the soul causes people to have different levels of ability to think at a high level in certain areas, which is generally called IQ.
The Bible refers to the outputs of the Mind as "understanding" and "knowledge" in a number of verses, such as these representative ones:
Daniel 5:12 "Daniel...was found to have a keen mind and knowledge and understanding,”
Daniel 10:12 "Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard,"
Job 17:4 "You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore you will not let them triumph."
The Mind can be influenced by various portions of the soul and Sinful Nature, so its thinking processes can be distorted. Therefore it is not always truly "logical" even though it is the engine of logical thinking, so the Mind is not always correct about its understanding and knowledge. Sometimes the understanding and knowledge it had previously created are wrong, so the new understanding and knowledge developed based on it will also likely be wrong. Sometimes the sensory data is misinterpreted. And sometimes other parts of the soul interfere with the proper functioning of the Mind by inserting distortions, often based on the person's overall belief system. So the outputs of the Mind can have variable degrees of accuracy because the Mind gets pulled in many different directions by the agendas of the various soul components.
The Mind can be "open" to looking at things differently or become "set" (or "made up," or "determined") so that it thinks in a narrow range on certain issues, and can be either of these at different times on different issues. It is therefore highly influenced by the belief system of the person, whether liberal or conservative, emotional or deliberative, trusting or suspicious, care-free or detail oriented, etc., so that it views all data from a certain pre-determined set of assumptions, biases, prejudices, blinders, prisms, and filters based on underlying beliefs which have been built up and established over time. This is where beliefs become a powerful influencer in the soul, since they narrow options for thinking, either for good or bad. The Mind figures things out within certain parameters using those underlying beliefs and assumptions built up in the soul. So the outputs (conclusions, knowledge and understanding) of the Mind are not always correct, logical, or make sense in view of the facts of the universe, they just make sense in view of the filters, biases, etc. which have been established inside the individual soul. These beliefs are often "hardened" into the soul, creating inflexibility. Previous incorrect assumptions and knowledge can be difficult to overcome. Therefore the Mind as the "logical" component of the soul can be entirely illogical. But it can also be bifurcated, thinking very logically in one area of life, such as one's profession, doing math and science, problem solving, and so on, while at the same time that same Mind can be totally illogical about social issues, economics, politics, and on and on because of the underlying belief system which affects those specific issues but not the person's profession. In this way many people build up areas of logical expertise mixed with some degree of illogical views of the world around them. This becomes the basis of a split soul to at least some degree. To prevent such mental distortions in the Mind it must be trained in the way of truth from the study of the Word of God in order to align with the will of God:
Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
So the Mind can align with truth when the underlying belief system is based on truth. Then in turn the Mind will cooperate with the human spirit on spiritual issues and advise the Heart to align with the Plan of God on a more regular basis as the best course of action. Unbelievers are unable to align with the spiritual plan of God, but they can often be good citizens and generally moral. But for a person who is a believer living a life without learning the Word of God, they will have a Mind and belief system which inevitably becomes distorted to some degree. When this is the regular status of the person, the Mind will gravitate to and align with the Sinful Nature in some way or another, as these verses indicate:
Rom 12: 7 "…because the mind set on the flesh [Sinful Nature] is hostile toward God; for it does not submit itself to the law of God [God's Word]…"
Colossians 1:21 "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior."
The Bible describes a war inside the inner human where the human spirit and Sinful Nature fight each other for control of the soul of the believer. The ammunition for the human spirit is the Word of God, while the Sinful Nature gets plenty of firepower from everyday living and seeks to oppose the will of God. This shows the importance of learning and growing from the Word of God instead of relying on whatever comes in through everyday living as the source of one's "truth." A Mind which has truth from the Word of God as its basis for knowledge and understanding will be far less likely to become distorted in its thinking processes.
All of this means the person can have technical competency while at the same time have illogical beliefs about many other things in life. We might ask: "That person is not dumb, so how can they think that way?" It is not a matter of being smart or not, but rather it is about belief systems which drive illogical thinking in the Mind in certain core subject areas. As such the Mind can try to figure things out using premises provided by distorted beliefs in the soul, which reside in the Heart, and the result will be distorted conclusions. That means a person can be brilliant technically but "walking around" ignorant and confused. Many technically competent people can isolate the technical area of their soul, doing an excellent job at their work, and live the rest of their life based on a belief system which can range from somewhat distorted to absolutely illogical and absurd. More details on this issue later, since we must stick with describing the soul components at this stage. Next, we discuss Memory.
MEMORY
Humans could not relate to their surroundings or even think without the Memory, a soul storehouse of previously learned information. Without it nothing could be related to prior experiences, so nothing could be recognized, recalled, or understood in relation to the past. Learning would be irrelevant, since nothing would be stored. In order to think, there must be information stored somewhere with which to form thoughts, and that location is the soul Memory. The soul is the center of higher level memories, those associated with humanity. These are not stored in the brain, although the brain holds the sensory data memory (visual, smell, taste, sound, and touch), and muscle memory to relieve the soul of unnecessary workload. The interaction between brain memory and soul Memory is important for enabling the soul to focus on high order functions related to humanity, while the brain focuses on sensory data and muscle memory related to survival and physical body functions. In this regard, the soul component Memory works very closely with brain memory, although the two exist at different levels. This section will focus on the real memories of human living which are stored in the soul's Memory. The issues of soul Memory and remembering are mentioned in the Bible over 275 times.
Every human is born with no memories, meaning a blank soul Memory, and therefore cannot think at that point. Memories form a frame of reference for both recognition and new learning based on information previously learned. And although the Memory begins to be populated soon after birth, the initial information is at first very basic, since a foundation of sensory information must first be built up in the brain before the more advanced soul Memory can be populated to any degree. This is because the brain sensory memory supports the soul Memory. The higher level memories of the life, which are the important memories related to humanity, are located in the soul, so it is important to understand how the Memory works. If not for the Memory, every sensory input from brain to soul would be new to us. Over and over again. We would not remember what food is, or grass, or a chair, or parents, or anything at all. Every input would be completely unknown. Humans could not survive, because they lack the instincts God gave animals. As we have discussed, instincts in animals make up for their lack of a soul. Humans are born with very few instincts, and must