Breaking The Jewish Code Perry Stone

deficient. Science demonstrates that the frontal lobe of the brain—the area that allows judgment for consequences and control of impulses—doesn’t fully develop until after the teen years. So in the absence of a fully functioning frontal lobe, teenage brains rely more on the centers that control emotion —which in effect means they give in much more easily to impulses.8 Society places heavy responsibilities on teens to make major decisions about career, college, and the military at age eighteen, when in reality the mental judgment for such major decisions is better developed after the teen years. Obviously, the Creator knew that at age twenty and beyond, the judgment and reasoning lobe of the brain was fully developed, allowing for better decision making and mental judgments. God permitted young men to fight in battles at age twenty. When the leadership of ancient Israel conducted a census, numbering the men from age twenty and above, a silver half shekel was collected from each man, symbolizing the price of redemption. The coins were presented to the priests and used to repair the tabernacle and the temple (Exod. 30:13–15). Thus, age twenty was the introduction into a level of mental and emotional maturity among the men of Israel, with confidence that good mental decisions could be made. At age thirteen boys were affirmed into adulthood, but at age twenty they became an adult. Stage 4: The celebration of spiritual development