Supposing it were technically possible, would you want a brain transplant to save your life?
But who would you be?
Would you be the person died and gave the brain or would you be the person who received a new brain?
We believe the brain is where you think and which therefore defines who you are. But the Bible never says that. In the Bible it is the heart which defines who you are.
Proverbs 23:7 (NKJV) FOR AS HE THINKS IN HIS HEART, SO IS HE. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, But his HEART is not with you.
Proverbs 14:10 (NKJV) The heart knows its own bitterness, And a stranger does not share its joy.
Luke 6:45 (NKJV) A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
The Bible says we think with our heart, meditate in our heart, love and hate with our heart and we believe or doubt with our heart but we know better.
That is just symbolic language. A heart transplant is just a technical operation involving a muscular organ that pumps blood. OR IS IT?
We have become accustomed to seeing science exposing and correcting naive literal interpretations of the Bible.
Of course we all know that the brain in our head is full of nerve cells which enable us to think. When we read in the Bible that our heart thinks, we assume this is an old fashioned and symbolic use of language. The best Bible dictionaries and commentaries agree with this view. We have come to think that heart is a powerful muscle that pumps blood and nothing more.
But then something very strange happened.
In 1988, Claire Sylvia, a 47 year old American woman had a successful heart and lung transplant. After her recovery, she unexpectedly remarked to an interviewer: “I’m dying for a beer right now.” This astonished her because she had never liked beer but the 18 year old boy whose heart she received was definitely a beer drinker.
She also discovered she had acquired a taste for Snickers Bars, green peppers and Kentucky Fried Chicken, which she never liked before. It turned out the dead boy also loved these foods. Then her daughter observed she walked like a man and she was more assertive than before.
Claire traced the family of the boy who gave her his heart and wrote a book about her personality changes. This opened a new field of research which is still in its early stages. Other amazing stories emerged.
A little girl received a new heart from another girl who had been murdered. She had vivid nightmares about the murder of the other girl. A psychiatrist took her stories seriously and the police were called in. The detailed account of the murder led the police to find and arrest the killer.
You can find a number of similar stories on the following web pages.
You can also find a good introductory article on the following web page.Relatively new research is telling us that there are many that the heart has a huge number of nerve cells and the heart includes a second brain, possibly over half the size of the brain in your head.
Now read these Bible texts and see what they say to you.
Romans 10:9-10 (ESV) ... if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your HEART that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the HEART one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Psalm 51:10 (KJV) Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Ezekiel 11:19 (NKJV) Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh,
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