Greetings MM and Tom, hope I am not interrupting.

There is nothing sinful about the flesh in itself. That which makes the flesh sinful is when we make the flesh source to our spirit. In other words, trust our flesh to be our source; then the desires and motions of the body bring forth sin, not because those are sin in themselves but because by making them our source, thoughts are produced unto sin. By doing this, things become upside down; that which was to be servant has become master.

Hence sin is when faith is put in the flesh to make it (the flesh) the source. Sin will likewise result when faith is put in anything other than God. So the flesh itself is not the problem; it is when flesh occupies the inordinate place in our mind that sin occurs.

Nice to hear from you John. Trusting our flesh to be our source is an interesting way to put it.

We can't avoid getting impulses from the flesh, but we can control how we react to those impulses. Similarly we get impulses from God, through the Holy Spirit, and may choose to react to those.

Good thoughts. It helps me with another conversation I was having.

That is what I see Paul writing in:

Rom 8:4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Rom 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Rom 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

That seems to fit. What would the "carnal mind" be here? The decision to follow the promptings of the flesh?

Yes,

The carnal mind would be the mind that has made the flesh it's source; hence it is carnal (fleshly).

The spiritual mind is the mind that has the spirit for it's source; hence it is spiritual.

Source is determined by faith; which source is trusted.

I haven't thought of looking at it this way before, by my initial reaction is that it makes sense. This would explain how Christ could take sinful flesh (or, equivalently, take our sinful nature) yet not have a carnal mind. He had the same flesh we do, but never chose to have the flesh be the source.

But aren't the lusts of the flesh, which strive for the mastery, generated in the mind? Aren't the promptings of the flesh function of the mind, and not any other part of the human anatomy?

It's a way of designating different areas, or functions, of the brain. EGW uses some terms which I don't remember off the top of my head, that speak of the activity of the "animal" part of the brain. That is, the basic instinct part that prompts us. "Animal nature" is a term she uses; I can't quite remember the others. Anyway, it has to do with the "lower" brain functions (I think she speaks this way to) which do not involve reason, the will, and so forth.

You're right that the brain is involved, as it processes the input that comes from our senses. Our senses perceive something, and we make a decision on how we respond to that input. Christ never let the input dictate what He would do, but rather His mind (the higher brain functions) kept the inputs in control.

Jones spoke of Satan trying to control the mind through the flesh, while the Spirit tries to control the flesh through the mind.

Perhaps the simpler way to understand this is like this.

If you did not have eyes that could see, your mind could by no means generate the "lust of the eyes". So which comes first; which is the source? It is what the eye sees that the mind can think about. If the eyes are made as the trusted source that governs the thought, combined with our other inputs: (hearing, touch, taste, feeling) desires are awakened, which being further fed by the same sources bring forth sin. Thus, ofcourse the thinking is done in the mind but the source which originally supplied the input were the senses.

But we all have senses, so what do we do with the input? That is what faith is about: we are called to distrust (remove our faith from) these sources and to trust (place our faith in) God; to live by his spirit. So that God would by his spirit through our spirit be the source of our mind.

In other words: we see with the physical eye, but that is not the source of the thought, but God is the source of the thoughts in regards to what is seen by the eye. The same goes for all other abilities. Now since it is the spirit that supplies and governs the thoughts, the resultant feedback to the body governs its response according to the spirit. Hence these abilities which were sources have now become servants to express and fulfil the mind of the spirit.

If I was blind and deaf, if I couldn't smell or taste and had no touch, couldn't I feel angry?