PRODIGIOUS SAVANTS
A Journey Back to Eden?

By Steve Van Nattan

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PART ONE:
A LITTLE PEEK INTO THE HUMAN MIND AS IT WAS

This article promises to be very different from any other I have previously done. I start out asking you to go to a link, and you will NOT be inspired to think and deal with the later discussion if you do not explore the linked site thoroughly. You will be reading about the savant syndrome found in a very few people in the world. You will watch every video please, all the way through.

THINK. Think about God creating Adam and Eve. Think about Job, the very wise man of old. Think about the upside down atheist world view that man has been getting better and better. That is a LIE. I believe these savants are a small group of people who let us look back at the first men and women and get a small notion of what they could do, all of them, when man's mind was not encumbered by sin and the cares of life.

THINK. What will it be like to have our body, soul (mind), and spirit back in perfect condition when.....

1 John 3:2 (KJV) Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

How fast do you think Adam could think? What was he created to do before sin entered and death by sin?

NOW, YOU MUST BE JUST A LITTLE CURIOUS.

You MUST visit this web site and look at several of the videos and read about savants. If you skip this step in this article, you will NOT be able to make much sense of the rest of this article. If you do not have the time now, please bookmark this page, and come back when you can study the whole thing. Thanks

CLICK HERE FOR ONE OF THE MOST ASTOUNDING ADVENTURES ON THE INTERNET.
The side box on the right has a list of savants on video.
Though you might not like jazz, the piece by Matt Savage is beyond complex-- it is an amazing study in time manipulation. Have a musician friend explain what is happening. AND, he cannot even reach the pedals with his feet!!

This site is sometimes down, so the various savants are mostly also in the links at the bottom of the page. But, the university page has lengthy discussions of the savant phenomenon, so keep trying.

GENERAL LOOK AT SAVANTS IN VIDEO-- Must see

More pages on savants:

http://www.brittanymaier.com/homepage.html

http://www.ambassadoragency.com/display_client_videos.cfm/cmid/578

"At the 1964 annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, a discussant concluded, 'The importance, then, of the Idiot-Savant lies in our inability to explain him; he stands as a landmark of our own ignorance and the phenomenon of the Idiot-Savant exists as a challenge to our capabilities.' In the years that have followed, the inability to explain the idiot savant has not lessened, and the challenge to our capabilities remains undiminished. However, no model of brain function, particularly memory, will be complete until it can account for this rare but spectacular condition, with its islands of mental ability in a sea of mental handicap and disability.

"Through the past century, since Down's description of this disorder, the several hundred idiot savants reported in the world literature have shown remarkable similarities within an exceedingly narrow range of abilities, given the many possible skills in the human repertoire. Why do so many idiot savants have the obscure skill of calendar calculating? Why does the triad of retardation, blindness, and musical genius appear with such regularity among them? Why is there a 6:1 male-to-female ratio in this disorder? What accounts for the more common occurrence of the idiot savant among patients with infantile autism than among those with other developmental disabilities?"

Treffert, Darold A.; The Idiot Savant: A Review of the Syndrome, American Journal of Psychiatry, 145: 563, 1988.

WHAT ARE SAVANTS LISTENING TO?

So, what are unborn babies listening to? [ story of the kid in Arizona who played piano ]

http://www.savantacademy.org/

WIKIpedia on Savants

If you did not dig into the whole part of the site on Savants, you will not enjoy the rest of this discussion very well.

If you have the time, you must visit the links at the bottom of this page.
There are amazing things that will boggle your mind.

Please SEND MAIL with other savant stories on the web.
Also, send mail if a link is dead so I can find another way to it.

PART TWO:
GOD AND HIS BRAIN DEAD SHEEP, FROM EDEN TO GLORY

IN THE GARDEN

Adam was made "in the image of God." He walked with God in complete person to person communication.

What entered Adam's mind that resulted in communication with God being lost? Answer: The knowledge of good and evil. Idiot savants, as well as simple idiots, do not have a concept of good and evil. We call them insane. We lock them up. Once the savant mind, the mind of God, "in his image," was lost, the mind must have the knowledge of good and evil to function. This is conscience, and it crowds the process. It is essential to keep us from destroying ourselves, and it is essential to understand who we are, that we are sinners, and that we need deliverance from our fallen state.

There is a need for data from the outside. The source is God, and he has always revealed himself to man since Adam fell. More about that when we talk about Job below. Man is a creature of appetite, lust, and imagination. The imagination, and the ability to reason and project possibilities, is greatly hampered by lust and appetite. These desires are spoken of as needs, and so they are. To eat and to procreate are essentials, and God through Solomon even encourages us to enjoy good vanity. But, man also takes his desires and appetites beyond the animal kingdom and makes of them objects of his creative mind. Only man's conscience restrains the absolute evil which can be accomplished with the appetites and lust.

So, we are told that sodomites spend most of their waking hours fantasizing their lusts. We do not have to be told that the lust to eat gets out of hand when we simply step onto the weighing scale. We know that the lust for alcohol and halucenegentic drugs is a problem from mere observation in daily life. God, in his love and grace, has made provision for man to be delivered of these deviations from rational life and mental ability. You MUST read all of the following. You will be startled at how apropos it is to this discussion:

Colossians 1:12 (KJV) Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

Once a person is converted and "changed" by the power of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, that person has his sins forgiven by God. His guilt can by left behind. What a horrible barrier to creative thinking guilt is! Next, the believer has the mind of Christ given to him. Verse 21 shows that mentally we are aliens to God. What is gained? Look who has taken charge of us after our conversion in verses 15-18. The Bible believer who is walking in Christ is the only person on earth who has any chance to be released from the bondage of a fallen mind.

This is why those who reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ seem so dull and retarded mentally. They are still totally distracted by sin and guilt and their lusts. Oh, they can invent a Ford or a potato peeler, but when they start dealing with cosmology, they immediately violate the first law of thermodynamics and claim that matter came into existence of itself without a creator. We also see in the unregenerate mind that those who invent Fords are often the worst at raising children and keeping their wife content. This is the lunatic mind. The potato peeler is not the work of the savant, and folks, that is nothing to brag about.

ENOCH

Genesis 5:21 (KJV) And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:
22 And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
23 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:
24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

We cannot make more of this than is in order. It is clear though that Enoch did not have to die for his sins.

Why? Somehow, this patriarch was in such union with God that God suspended the rules and (this is my imagination) one evening, as Enoch and God were walking and talking like Adam used to do with God, Elohim just took Enoch's hand and said, "Enoch, let's finish this conversation at my throne."

The veil between us and the Glory of God and his throne in the sides of the North is extremely thin. I believe God pulls the veil aside briefly at times. He let Moses see him from behind. Jesus was transformed on the mountain before John, Peter, and James, and it was referred to as seeing his glory. Moses was so affected by the presence of God that he had to cover his face when he later talked to the people. That experience had residual physical effects.

So, Enoch was one man whom God chose to step into the Glory without dying. This happened also to Elijah. We recall the chariots of fire that the prophet could see and which God allowed his servant to see.

A troop of Mau Mau circa 1955 were massed above the mission station where I was in school as a missionary's kid in Kenya. We were to all be slaughtered to strike fear into missionaries so they would return to the USA. It never happened. The soldiers guarding us caught a Mau Mau terrorists later, and they asked him about the attack-- why did the terrorists cancel the operation. The reply, "We were terrified of your huge solders with the white shining clothes."

The curtain may be drawn back for a moment, but we cannot endure the presence of God the way Adam experienced it. That is why the Holy Ghost is sent to enter the believer and take charge. We have in us the Glory in spiritual measure necessary for us to life in victory and to help us think and accomplish the work God has given us. And, God is pleased with his people. He never speaks of us as mental midgets. Let us then be thoughtful and careful with people who seem to be savants. Let us beware of pitching them on the trash heap of humanity. God has no garbage can in heaven.

BABEL

Genesis 10:8 (KJV) And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.
10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
11 Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,
12 And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.

Asshur was a son of Shem, the line of blessing and the chosen people later.

Nimrod was the grandson of Ham who mocked at his father Noah when he got drunk. Ham bore the curse that came down and haunted many tribes and cultures.

Nimrod was the inventor of cities. Babel was his headquarters, and it is this same "Mother of harlots" that is yet to be totally razed to the ground by God in the future. Babel was the center of the Sumerian empire and two eras of Babylonian empires. It has been totally restored by Saddam Hussein.

So, Babel prospered, and Asshur was forced to leave Babel and start his own cities, of which Nineveh was central and became a city empire during the era of Jonah. Nineveh was the city of the people of blessing, it worshipped El instead of the god and goddess pagan deities of Babel, and Nineveh will be restored enough to be the end of the highway from Egypt through Zion and on north during the coming Messianic Kingdom.

So, in the advanced state of the human mind in this early era shortly after the flood, men set about to accomplish things they imagined to do to exalt themselves. Nothing new. Nothing God would worry about today, given the modern man's mental condition after 6000 year of entropy. But, God was concerned with the people of Babel:

Genesis 11:1 (KJV) And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Read verse 6 again. It is very clear that the tower was not an ancient "stairway to heaven." The epigraphic evidences prove that the Sumerians, the culture immediately after Babel, had a star chart which can still be used for world navigation and was still in use by the Greeks 1500 years later. These people, building their first ziggurat, did not think they would physically climb up and take heaven away from God. To think that is to reduce God to a mythological idiot of the Greek order of god craft. Rather; the Babel thinkers imagined things that they COULD accomplish. God said they would if left to carry out their plans.

The reason we cannot understand this passage is because our minds have slowed down and are less of the tool of accomplishment than were these Babel men. I believe they were still largely savants mentally. You will wonder if they were going to make space vehicles and go to Jupiter. That is how we think. What they imagined was in other areas of mental activity which we cannot even enter today. The tower represented a point in time and space where thought could be transformed into action and reality.

To get a small notion of what this might have been, the wise men who visited Jesus were master astrologers from Babylon many yeas after the tower of Babel, as much as 3000 years after. Yet these men, with their knowledge of the heavens, knew that there had been a king born who would be a great ruler, great enough to warrant a state visit from existing kingdoms. Other writings from the era make mention of a great king being born. We discus this elsewhere. Where did the wise men of Babylon get their revelations? It would seem they were primal truths known for a very long time in Babel.

My personal conclusion is that the people at Babel were gaining back much of the mental acuity they had lost via the fall of Adam. God did not want that to happen. I believe God does not want men to operate at the level of their potential in Adam until the coming Kingdom of Messiah. Even then, God may well be content to have men as he is today mentally. This also is a comfort, for we can possibly learn how tender hearted and kind our Lord Jesus was to take on him the mental limitations of fallen men, for he knew very well what Adam was capable of since he had created him.

JOB

Think about the wisdom of Job.

Job 9:9 (KJV) Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.

Job 38:31 (KJV) Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
32 Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
33 Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?

Job referred to the revelation in the sky, in the stars, and God assumed that Job knew of ordinances, or laws, revealed in the stars. Astrology was the primal revelation in creation, and David made mention of it.

Psalms 19:1 (KJV) The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.
3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.

Pagan synthesis came in over the ages, and the Greeks did the rest, and astrology has become profane and corrupted and unsafe as revelation. Also, God had to interpret Job's wisdom for him. God has chosen other ways to reveal himself since the day of Job.

Finally, consider the knowledge of prophecy Job had:

Job 19:25 (KJV) For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

This is not made fully clear to the Bible reader until Paul does so in his epistles and until The Revelation of John about 3000 years later. But, Job was totally convinced he would stand in the earth, in his flesh, and see his redeemer. Job had a less encumbered mind than we do, and he was very free of the rubbish of sin. God said:

Job 1:8 (KJV) And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?

If we were to submit our minds to Christ and let his mind be in us, we too could understand the deep and mysterious things of God a lot better.

ISRAEL AND THE LAW OF MOSES

The Law of Moses was God's way of giving Israel a way to have victory over their dead sinful mind so that they could walk with God. Sometimes they let the Law of God rule their minds, and the result was a land of milk and honey and abundance. Other times they let the old mind of fallen Adam take over, and the result was captivity, sickness, and famine. God did not abandon men. He wanted to again walk with them, so he made it even more plain. They no longer had to consult the stars for revelation, and they did not have to depend on their consciences alone. They now had it in writing, chiseled in granite.

The fact is, they still failed to ultimately think with God. It was only when God the Son, "in the fullness of time," came into the world in the form of man, in the flesh, that a few men started really thinking with God again.

SOLOMON

This man wrote thousands of proverbs. He had the greatest wealth and military in the world, and he never fought a war. Yet, the nations flowed to him in admiration and fear. The Queen of Sheba testified, after testing his wisdom, that the half of Solomon's wisdom had not been told her.

This man wrote admonitions in proverb form, he wrote a sacred romance which is the world's premier marriage manual, and he wrote Ecclesiatstes. Ecclesiastes is the only piece of literature, with the thesis and antithesis, in ancient times, and this literary form did not again appear anywhere on earth for another 1000 years. To this day, Ecclesiastes baffles the most profound scholar. Some men refuse to preach from it, and most men who do preach from it botch it terribly.

What is the key to Solomon's wisdom, to his deep thoughtful mind?

1 Kings 4:29 (KJV) And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore.
30 And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt.
31 For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all nations round about.
32 And he spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five.

1 Kings 4:34 (KJV) And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom.

Here is the reason ofr Solomon's prodigious savant mind:

1 Kings 3:7 (KJV) And now, O LORD my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in.
8 And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.
9 Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?
10 And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.
11 And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment;
12 Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.
13 And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days.

Solomon's proverbs and wisdom are the direct result of seeking the mind of God. The mind of a prodigious servant of God is the mind of a spiritual savant, but also a mind of one who knows he has all the potential to be a lunatic and needs lots of help.

DANIEL

Daniel 5:13 (KJV) Then was Daniel brought in before the king. And the king spake and said unto Daniel, Art thou that Daniel, which art of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my father brought out of Jewry?
14 I have even heard of thee, that the spirit of the gods is in thee, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee.
15 And now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing, and make known unto me the interpretation thereof: but they could not shew the interpretation of the thing:
16 And I have heard of thee, that thou canst make interpretations, and dissolve doubts: now if thou canst read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom.

Our mighty theologians and seminaries all think they can "dissolve doubt" and give definitive answers on the issues of life and the Godhead. It is hilarious that hundreds of thousands of books have thus been published by these very men, each book seeking to correct the errors of the other dissolvers of doubts. The fact is, Daniel had some of the divine savant in him, the spirit of the gods, or as we would see it, the spirit of the Godhead.

It may be hard on your ego and self-esteem my friend, but Daniel, and Enoch, and Job, and Adam had a lot more raw unadulterated glory and truth flowing forth from their soul then you, or I, or any famous Amos preacher you ever heard. If Christ had not come and paid the price of saving us, and if the Holy Ghost had not come and indwelled us, we would all be sitting in the corner drooling on ourselves.

1 Corinthians 15:10 (KJV) But by the grace of God I am what I am.........

JESUS CHRIST

Jesus Christ came to earth to save brain dead men from the destiny of the damned:

Ephesians 2:1 (KJV) And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Jesus Christ was God revealing himself in human flesh. Adam's fall resulted in a disaster, a deadly one, for all of us, and it was a disaster which affected the body, mind, and spirit. Jesus Christ had to come and walk among men and live the mind of God, in whose image Adam was created, so that we could believe that it is possible to be made alive again, body, mind, and spirit.

John 1:14 (KJV) And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Those who knew they lacked something, who would listen, were shown the glory of God in the living Jesus Christ. Those who mocked and hated the enlightenment and resurrection of their minds were damned. Hell is for people who choose to stay dead, who were always dead in mind and spirit. This is why people like Mormons and Freemasons and Hindus do not understand the Gospel. They have chosen a counterfeit, and God lets them have it. Be careful friend, for the truth is ONLY by faith in Jesus Christ, not by man made organized disciplines.

More on the message of Jesus here.

PENTECOST

God only partially revealed himself for only 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus. At Pentecost, the spiritual limping followers received the spiritual and mental estate that Adam lost. The Holy Spirit, the very person of God, entered man. What Adam lost the believer in Jesus Christ received living IN him. Manifestations were present as God filled the cup to overflowing, and those present either said they were drunk (hopeless lunatics) or were the walking manifestation of God himself. And, Peter reminded them that God said he would do this:

Acts 2:15 (KJV) For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:
21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

It is interesting that when God is totally present in the believer those observing and listening MUST respond. The skeptic simply cannot accept the possibility that fallen man could be the vehicle of God in this way, so he mocks. The other response is to ask for more information. Preaching follows, NOT more tongues. Peter preached after the interested onlookers expressed interest.

 

GOD NEVER GAVE UP ON US

Do you see how God had to keep getting closer and closer to us? The revelation of the stars, which Job used for revelation, and the heavens, which David used for revelation, had been paganized. Do you see how God chose to leave behind the revelation of conscience, which we now ignore terribly, and he had to leave behind sacred astrology, which we no longer understand at all? Friend, we are not getting better and better. We are dumb as snot.

Romans 5:12 (KJV) Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Verse 18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

2 Timothy 3:13 (KJV) But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

We cannot have back now what Adam lost without the help of the Holy Spirit. We remain busy dealing with the old nature which gets in the way of total concentration on the mind of God. Sin is still making war with our minds. So, in Christ, God came ultimately near so that, after we believe in the Son of God, God moves right in and takes residence in our minds. This is because we have degenerated so badly since Eden that no other plan will work.

John 16:7 (KJV) Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
9 Of sin, because they believe not on me;
10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;
11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

1 Corinthians 3:16 (KJV) Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

Romans 8:26 (KJV) Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Romans 8:9 (KJV) But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Romans 8:11 (KJV) But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

1 John 2:27 (KJV) But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

The next step in our restoration to Adam's estate is to move on up to Glory and see Jesus, and then. There is a day coming when we will have back what Adam, "in the image of God," had.

1 John 3:1 (KJV) Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

Idiots, the simple sort with no savant distinctions, are known as harmless and absent of guile. They do not understand sin very well, and they sin very little or not at all like other "normal" people.

The savant today, void of almost all the guile and perversions of the old fallen nature, seems to be giving us just a little peek at what happens when the mind of a man or woman is nearly free of sin and the responsibilities of a cursed life with a conscience constantly interrupting. Adam had no guilt, no schedule, no rules (but one), and no regrets. He had responsibility as God's gardener, but not to the point of sweating in the work. He had never let anyone down, especially God, and he had no ongoing messes to clean up or live down. Imagine what it would be like to give 100% of one's mental activity to thinking with, and like, God.

What will we be like when we have been made free from sin, when "we shall be like him"? It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but when we see him, when we are changed, we will have the mind of Christ himself. The "body of this death" will be past history, and we will be free from the overpowering presence of our old nature and the daily responsibility of dealing with our fallen state and those other fallen people we deal with. Virtually no one but the Holy Ghost in us is actually "good company," for Paul tells us, Romans 7:18 (KJV) For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. Your best friend in this world is still a distraction to you at times, for he too struggles with sin and death.

Can the Bible believer, the one who loves and seeks the face of the Son of God, move somewhat into this future mind before death or the rapture of the Lord's Church? I think so, but only in the measure of our zeal to purify ourselves, as in 1 John 3:3 above. The former spiritual idiot, after he is enlightened by faith, has more and more of this mind "which was also in Christ Jesus" taking over his thinking. The Holy Spirit gives light, and the Pre-fall Adam shines forth, "a little lower than the angels", but distinctly more than a sinner. The believer can indeed become a spiritual savant in a sinful world and be a blessing to the most hopeless and vile idiot by becoming like Jesus to those sinners.

How many times have we met someone who was utterly dead in sin, living a filthy life, the last time we saw them. Later we meet them, and we are thunder struck to see the supernatural change in them, only to learn that with the heart they believed, and with the mouth confessed the Lord Jesus, and now they are totally transformed. Their tattoos and trendy rags of the past no longer matter, for the light is shining out from the mind of Christ in them.

Dr. Darold A. Treffert believes we all have some measure of the savant in us. He may very well be right. I believe it is what is left after the degeneration of 6000 years of falling. I also believe it is a miracle that we have anything left to work with. The scholars of the world believe man has been evolving and becoming better and better. I believe there is evidence of exactly the opposite.

So, our only hope to ever show any spiritual savant-like behavior will be in proportion to the zeal we have to let the mind of Christ rule our mind. Let us examine some of God's savants:

Dr. Reynolds

Dr. John Reynolds, President of Corpus Cristi College at Oxford, originally was a Catholic until he was converted to Christ by his brother. He went on to become a leader of the Puritan movement within the Church of England. He became a "vigorous champion of the Reformation." From the time of his conversion, he was a "most able and successful preacher of God's Word." He also was described as being "the very treasury of erudition" and had the reputation of being "a living library, and a third university." It was Reynolds who appealed to King James at the Hampton Court Conference for a new English translation of the Bible which in turn became the King James Version.

Dr. Reynolds had a reputation as a Hebrew and Greek scholar. He had read and studied all the Greek and Latin fathers, as well as the ancient records of the Church. Those who knew him held him to be the most learned man in England. It is said of him, that he alone was a well-furnished library, full of all faculties, all studies, and all learning. His memory and reading were near to a miracle. He worked on the translation of the Prophets until his death in 1607.

How much of a savant was Dr. Reynolds? As a child of four, he would be asked by his parents to come to the parlor after dinner and read the Greek New Testament to guests. He entered the University at the age of thirteen.

Here is his comment on what constitutes a local church, and Fundamental Baptists are at this hour sabotaging this truth, "unto us Christians, no land is strange, no ground unholy; every coast is Jewry, every town Jerusalem, every house Sion; and every faithful company, yea, every faithful body, a temple to serve God in. The presence of Christ among two or three, gathered together in his name, maketh any place a church, even as the presence of a king with his attendants maketh any place a court."

Did you think all the light that could be had came out of Bob Jones University or Dallas Seminary. Think again please. The Holy Ghost has ALWAYS had access to men of God from whom the truth could be sounded forth. Any Christian, emptied of self, becomes a savant of God to this world.

Dr. Reynolds ended his life, literally, by too much study, and when his friends asked him to desist in so much study of the Word, he replied, "Non propter vitam, vivendi perdere causas," for the sake of life, he would not lose the very end of living!

 

Fanny Crosby

This lady was blind. In May of 1820, when she was six weeks old, she caught a cold, and her eyes became slightly inflamed. The regular physician in Putnam County, New York, was out of town, and a man posing as a doctor gave her the wrong treatment. Within days, her eyesight was destroyed, and the man fled town in a panic. Fanny was never bitter about the stranger's intervention. "I have not for a moment in more than eighty-five years felt a spark of resentment against him, because I have always believed...that the good Lord...by this means consecrated me to the work that I am still permitted to do."

One of the strongest influences in Fanny's childhood was her grandmother. An intelligent and patient woman, she took Fanny on nature walks, describing every bud and leaf in meticulous detail. She exposed her to great literature and poetry. Most importantly, she read her long passages from the Bible every day. Even with such attentive teaching, Fanny's thirst for knowledge was not satisfied; her mind was phenomenal.

Before she was ten years old, she had memorized most of the New Testament and more than five books of the Old Testament. However, since schools at that time were not equipped to teach blind children, she was unable to receive a regular education. Fanny knelt with her grandmother beside her rocker and prayed: "Dear Lord, please show me how I can learn like other children."

God answered her prayer. Read more here, But let the list of her poems tell you the impact her simple prayer to God had as God added to her a very powerful creativity in verse:

All the Way My Savior Leads Me
Be Thou Exalted
Blessed Assurance
Blessed Bible
Christ, the Lord, Is Risen Today
Close to Thee
God So Loved the World
He Hideth My Soul
Holy, Holy, Holy Is the Lord
I Am Thine, O Lord
I Will Praise Him-- A favorite in Swahili in Kenya and Tanzania
Jesus Is Tenderly Calling You Home-- Many a sinner walked the aisle to this one
Just a Word for Jesus-- This one will get a testimony meeting going
Living for Jesus
My Savior First of All
Near the Cross
Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior
Praise Him, Praise Him
Redeemed, How I Love to Proclaim It!-- Kombolewa, nokombolewa na damu.... Swahili favorite
Rescue the Perishing-- No missions conference is complete without it
Safe in the Arms of Jesus-- Sung at many a memorial service
Showers of Blessing
Tell Me the Story of Jesus

Fanny Crosby wrote a total of 9000 hymns. These words from one of her final hymns express the foremost hope of her life: "And I shall see Him face to face and tell the story - saved by grace."

 

William Cowper

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.

Cowper, like modern savants, was encumbered all his adult life with bouts of insanity and depression. But, Cowper's poetry fills your hymn book.

The peculiar thing about Cowper was this-- He gave much time to visiting the poor and comforting them and teaching the Word. The poor loved Cowper deeply. John Newton said the Cowper had a supernatural ability to explain the Word of God in a plain yet deep manner. Those who loved Christ not only learned to look past Cowper's bouts of the lunatic, they watched over him to keep him from hurting himself. This is precisely the case with prodigious savants today. They need help dealing with much of life.

Did God choose to use this man who had such a distracting side?
"There is a fountain filled with blood."- Has this hymn been sung a million times? Has it brought countless sinners to their knees in confession of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God?

Here is a part that might be left out, but there is a lesson in it. As Cowper neared death, his melancholy mental state reasserted itself and he became convinced that he was one of the souls that his rigorous Calvinist upbringing had taught were predestined to damnation.

When you hear of a saint who, after serving Christ faithfully for many years, ends his life in what appears to be an ungodly state, be careful. The mind of fallen men can play tricks on us. Learn to rejoice in the fruit, not in the sorrows of the last days of life.

Now, what is holding YOU back? Do you use some infirmity or distraction to keep you from opening up the golden chest of divine jewels God has handed you? These are yours, not to play with, but to use to show the mind of Christ to your friends.

 

Isaac Watts- Spoke in poetry from a child

What a naughty boy. He was totally distracted by verse. When his father asked him where his shoes were, Isaac would answer in rhyme and couplet. Isaac's father, though very godly, at first scolded Isaac for making poetry of life in general.

There was a mouse, for want of stairs,
ran up a rope to say his prayers.

Oh father, father pity take
and I will no more verses make.

Soft and easy is thy cradle:
Coarse and hard thy Saviour lay;
When his birth-place was a stable,
And his softest bed was hay.

Then Isaac's father had second thoughts, and he encouraged the boy to pursue literature and poetry.

Intellectually he was well endowed for the Lord's service and for the work for which he is best known-- a hymn writer. When he was sixteen years old he had mastered Latin, Greek, Hebrew and French, and later excelled in natural philosophy and higher mathematics. Although he was never strong and often ill, Watts applied himself diligently to acquire learning which would help him in his service for the Lord.

He preached his first sermon at the age of 24, and afterwards preached frequently. He was made pastor of the well-known Independent congregation in Mark Lane, London, in 1702. He was a very efficient preacher and was dignified in the manner in which he presented the truths of Holy Scripture. He deprecated the use of theatrical gestures in order to embellish his preaching. In order that his hearers might understand what he said, he concentrated on simplicity and clarity. His prayers were not pompous or verbose. It was God to whom he prayed, not man. A desire for public acclaim and reputation was far from his mind.

It was his father who embarked Watts on his career as a hymnwriter. In those days a paraphrase of the Psalms was widely used in the Dissenting churches. According to Watts' judgment of them, they were crude renderings and did not express the joy and dignity of Christian worship. When Watts complained to his father about composition and the singing, his father exhorted him to attempt something better.

Did God add the mind of heaven to this man? These lines will tell you:

"When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of Glory died"
"Alas and did my Saviour bleed"
"O God how wide Thy glory shines"
"Jesus shall reign where e'er the sun"
"Break forth and sing the song Of glory to the Lamb"
Come let us join our cheerful songs, And thus approach the Throne"
"Join all the glorious names Of wisdom, love and power"
"Our God, our help in ages past"
"Am I a soldier of the cross?"

Now, here is the rest of the story. From his youth until he died at 74 God allowed Isaac to be sickly and troubled by "the body of this death." Yet, he never looked back.

Issac Watts' little warning is timeless:

Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do ...

Question: Do you have a child whose little mind seems to wander off to nether parts instead of on the things that you believe count? Be careful. Discipline is essential in a young life, but start putting things in front of that child to see if something will answer that curious mind in a special way.

 

JS Bach-

This man won souls with his music. As God's submissive savant, he has lifted up Jesus Christ to this day. The link is to our article at this journal. You will read about Japanese intellectual students who came to confess their faith in Jesus Christ by listening to Bach's works.

Please read our article at the link above.

 

Jan-

Boxed in by the demands of her parents to "get a career," she turned her savant mind from things she could understand, and she went to New York City to pursue a career. Some terrible thing happened which her mind could not deal with, she could not even talk about it, and she went home and hid in her room for weeks. Later, she married because that too was supposed to be her destiny, and she has never since dealt with life.

When you are with Jan in a group and start talking about something, moving on from subject to subject, Jan will listen quietly with intense concentration and then suddenly interrupt, and what follows will leave your jaw hanging. She will take the few bits of information from the ongoing conversation and start hanging pieces of the past on the conversation, she may add people's birthdays and relationships, various events are inserted, and then Jan will relate all of this data to itself until you cannot believe so much order could be made of a few facts. You will also marvel that she could recall all that in a moment of time. Much of it was heard only once long ago in many different times and places. How utterly sad that the mind in Jan was not turned loose to go where Jesus wanted it to go.

Are you boxing your kids in? Are you in charge of their mind, or is Jesus taking charge of their mind? God sees your kids, your students, and your fellowship members as his savants. He will give them his mind. Your job is to teach them how to be IN Christ, and let him take over their minds, and get your arrogant ego out of the way. There is nothing more damnable than a preacher trying to control the minds of the saints.

GETTING USED TO THE MIND OF GLORY

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (KJV) He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.
14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.

The beginning and the end is only known to God. The labor of men is much encumbered and driven by his obligations to survive the results of the curse and keep his mind free of guilt and transgression. So, what is good then? Answer: That which is of God. It is about time, in this last dispensation of Grace, that we get our mind on Christ and the revelation of God for our day, the King James Bible. Only then can we "enjoy the good." Only then can the idiot be crucified and a little of the primal savant shine forth-- that mind which God gave to Adam. It is still there, but it is only possible to have the savant back, in any measure, by the power of God and the work of the Holy Ghost who moved over the face of the waters when a man first opened his eyes in Eden.

Are you spending any time enjoying yourself in the presence of Jesus Christ? Or, are you all wrapped up in the shoulds and oughts, the should nots and ought nots, of daily life. If you will get under your mind and bring it into subjection so that every thought and intent is captive of Jesus Christ, I promise you that he WANTS to join you and walk with you in the cool of the evening, even if only a portion of the time Adam spent with God.

1 Corinthians 6:19 (KJV) What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Romans 6:12 (KJV) Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

1 Peter 4:1 (KJV) Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;
2 That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
Verse 10 (KJV) As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

The mind of Christ is woefully missing in many who claim to be born again. This is not because Jesus Christ went on vacation. It is because many saints are all wrapped up in the does and don'ts of survival, and they are not very interested in spending time with Jesus. The Word of God is God's plainest revelation since he walked with Adam. No one can say he cannot hear from God, for it is in every home in the form of a printed book. THERE is the mind of Christ. Read it, meditate on it, or remain a spiritual idiot.

Romans 14:7 (KJV) For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.
9 For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.

Philippians 1:18 (KJV) What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
19 For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
20 According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.

2 Corinthians 5:14 (KJV) For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

LET THIS MIND BE IN YOU WHICH WAS ALSO IN CHRIST JESUS.

YOU HAVE BEEN BURIED WITH HIM, BUT DO YOU THINK WITH HIM?

COUNTERFEITS

A pastor in a Baptist church near us claims that he does not need to study. As he walks into the pulpit the Holy Ghost allegedly gives him the text for his sermon, and he just preaches his heart out to the glory of God. What blasphemy. The teaching believer is told in 2 Timothy 2:15 to study. Elsewhere he is told to give attention to reading and to doctrine. The Holy Ghost does not bypass the brain of any man. God said, "Come, let us reason together...." Even the savants must learn and store data in their memory to crunch later.

Notice that the four Gospel writers, writing about the same Savior, were permitted to reveal their personalities by the Holy Ghost. Each Gospel is targeted at a different group. The revelation of Scripture is not the product of mindless occult writing. It is the work of minds under control of God.

The most ugly example of heresy in this regard is the Charismatic movement. These people believe that they can come under the power of the Holy Ghost to the extent that they mind is taken over and shut down as the Holy Ghost delivers manifestations, messages, and prophecies. Where special works of the Holy Ghost were done in believers in the Bible, their mind was in full operation.

So, let us have no Mother Goose doctrine of the work of the Holy Ghost in the believer's mind. Every savant we have seen has been using his brain as he did amazing feats. The servant of God uses his brain and can understand and articulate what is being communicated or done by God. This is clearly seen in the command that anyone speaking in an unknown tongue must be sure there is an interpretation. This clearly implies that the speaker will know if the interpretation is correct. Beware of alleged works of God which bypass the brain of the operator. Any such events are the work of devils.

1 Corinthians 14:6 (KJV) Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine?

The ONLY things delivered by speaking in tongues were revelation, knowledge, prophesy, or doctrine. All of these require that the speaker have his mind in gear, and the message must be delivered to the minds of believers present. Anything else is damned to hell. If people hear speaking in tongues, or a Baptist sermon, and one or all of the above four divine products are not delivered, Satan is the source.

CONCLUSION

I HAVE COME TO A NEW LEVEL OF UNDERSTANDING IN THIS CONNECTION BY PAUL:

1 Corinthians 13:8 (KJV) Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

I shall know even as I am known. One day, when I have crossed over into the Glory, whatever Jesus thinks, I will think, whatever I think, Jesus will think, and when you get there, you and I and Jesus will........

I could not finish that sentence because of the latent lunatic idiot distracting me still, but it won't be long.......

LAST WORD-- A Story

Orville Stoddard lost both his parents when he was a baby. He was raised on a small plain farm in Michigan by his grandparents. But sadly, they both died when Orville was very young. He had no one to take him in, so he finished raising himself. Orville lived in the most plain and troubling manner. When I first visited him in his old age I thought he was a moron barely making it.

Two things happened to make me pause. I was leading the worship service in Grant, Michigan one Sunday, and, as was my custom, I asked for a response in worship to a question. All present were invited to respond in exalting God. This Sunday I asked, "What do you like about God?" Several folks responded, and then Orville perked up and declared with great force, "I'm just glad that when they made God, they made him so he wouldn't change."

The theology was not worded well, but I suddenly realized that Orville had come up with that on his own. From a boy upward to about 70 when he attended our church, Orville had literally grown up with the goats on the farm he inherited from his grandparents. Where did he learn that God is changeless?

One day, after Orville checked himself into a nursing home for the winter, he was talking to me about whether he should stay there or go home in the spring. Orville was worried about his nest egg at the bank. It would be used up paying the nursing home fees. I assured him that the government would kick in and pay the fees after the nest egg ran out. He had told me he had over a hundred thousand dollars. When I said the state would pay the fees after his money ran out, Orville immediately told me the exact number of months that would take. He did not hesitate to figure in his head. Where did he learn that?

If you have some young person around you, your child or a student who seems to be slow or backward, or a handicapped kid who seems to be on a dead end road due to their handicap, what have you done to find out if there is a savant's mind in there? Can you imagine what Orville might have accomplished if someone had taken in that kid after his grandparents died?

LINKS:

Wikipedia List of Savants

Wisconsin Medical Society Savant Program-- Exceptional work

ALONZO CLEMONS- Sculpture extraordinary -- Second Version, Full Screen-- DSL

If you would like to dive deep into the speculations and research.....

Matt Savage--
You may not care for jazz, but this is about as good as it gets in this genre
Matt's site with Audio and Video clips

Stephen Wiltshire

Brittany Maier and Second Page

Daniel Tammet -- Second Video

Richard Wawro -- Scottish artist savant Second Version

Kim Peek --
Reads the left page with his left eye and the right page with his right eye.

Christopher:
Learns languages, MANY of them, by talking to people of that culture or reading their book, speaks that language very well, and then translates into English fluently.

VIDEO ONE = VIDEO TWO = VIDEO THREE = VIDEO FOUR = VIDEO FIVE

This is a deviant spiritual journey based on the savant phenomenon

Interesting discussion

Here is a savant who is not as extreme, but his skill has not been appreciated.

 

 

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