Category: Religion

Two worlds, two beginnings.

There cannot be two beginnings, so what do they represent and why are they so different? The one in the Old Testament speaks of a time where there is both darkness and light. The beginning in the New Testament is one of just light – no darkness.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was [a divine being]. (John 1:1 – Zwingli translation)

When reading the bible, Origen taught us to look for the spiritual meaning and separate it from the physical meaning. John’s Gospel is so much different from the other three because John wrote the spiritual meaning of Jesus’s teaching. John was Jesus’s favorite because he was the one apostle closest to Jesus spiritually and understood His spiritual references the best. Remember, Jesus only revealed Heaven to John because He felt him worthy and also enlightened enough to understand His revelations. The beginning that John speaks of happened so long ago – long before the big bang was needed. It was the time when God decided to populate Heaven and He created His Only Son to be the King of His Creation.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

The “beginning” in Genesis is the beginning of the reconciliation to God, after the Fall from grace and the expulsion of 1/3 the angels from Heaven. This was one of the many terrible images revealed to John. (Rev 12:4) Origen teaches of an unperceivably slow reconciliation of all things to God. To comprehend how slow this process is, we can look to science. God created the first opportunity for reconciliation in the spiritual world; a place called Eden in Paradise. (The same place where Jesus went after His death on the cross.) When Adam and Eve failed to remain true to Jesus (the tree of life) and again fell under the influence of Lucifer (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil), a new path needed to be created. In order to achieve the new plan, a physical world needed to be created where Adam and Eve started again to reconcile with God.

Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. (Genesis 3:23)

The story of our reconciliation with God did not even require a new paragraph for the 13.7 billion years it took for God to create the ground for Adam to till. This gives us an idea to the monumental task that God set out upon in order to restore us, His children, to our original state of perfection. The remaining 2/3 of Heaven has worked tirelessly to bring all the Fallen home. Many have been incarnated in a human/physical body to prepare for the coming of the King Himself. In the Old Testament, these Angels sent to teach were called Prophets and Jesus called those who came after Him the Spirit of Truth.

We live in the shadows of the Spiritual World, far away from God where we have no memory from where we came. Why? So that we can prove our loyalty again to our King, Jesus. This requires faith and loyalty. Science can give us evidence of God, but never proof. Although a scientific approach to studying the bible and teachings from other spiritual sources is needed to separate God’s Word from doctrine or man’s word.

So what evidence does science provide for the construct above?

Science provides us evidence that each of us is a citizen of two worlds. We have a physical body that serves us for a limited time and a spiritual body with the same form that is immortal, transcending life. The best evidence comes from the works done on reincarnation, past lives and out of body experiences showing how the intellect and character transcends the physical body.

The big bang theory is widely accepted, but there are still significant questions.

The two world model presented by Jesus and reinforced by Origen of Alexandria resolves these big bang questions well. If the material world was created by God from the spiritual world, it would resemble the big bang described by science. And, since the universe is essential an open system, open to beings and energy from the spiritual world, it would be expanding at an accelerating rate with a continuous flow of God’s energy. So-called dark energy is simply God’s light flowing into the material world. Since the spiritual world already existed before the big bang, all the templates of life existed and Earth was populated with life as soon as it was ready to support it.

Easter Sunday

It is unfortunate that so many Christian cultures have forgotten the true meaning of this day. The day that Jesus claimed victory over Death (Lucifer) and passed Final Judgement upon him. He then rose out of hell and opened the Gates of Heaven so that all of us now have a path back to the place where we were created in His image – the birth place of our spiritual bodies. I rejoice in the memory of the victory of death that Jesus brought to us all on this day!

 

Palm Sunday

I wanted to share the comments of Origen of Alexandria on John’s description of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He is described as riding on both a colt and an ass. Origen uses his vast knowledge of the Old Testament to unlock the deep spiritual meaning that John has hidden in his description. This is a good example of how Origen uses logic to separate the literal, moral and spiritual meaning in the bible. He shows that it is not possible to ride two animals simultaneously and comes to the conclusion that there must be a spiritual meaning to this symbol. I find his picture of Palm Sunday inspiring: Jesus entering our soul (Jerusalem) on the back of His Word (a young, unburdened colt) and on the apostle’s explanations of the Old Testament (loosening the restrains on a beast of burden).

ChristianAnswers.net

I came across a website called ChristianAnswers and I was surprised at the biblical truth’s that this website is proclaiming. I contacted the editor a few times on specific items, but I wanted to reiterate them here. I know that these are common modern christian beliefs, but to proclaim them as biblical fact goes too far. If they just stated these comments as doctrine I would be happy. Here are three examples.

  1. The website says: “According to the Bible one cannot work their way to Heaven. Salvation is by faith alone – acceptance of God’s gift of salvation and reliance on Christ’s promise of what will happen after our earthly death. Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (John 5:24).”
    • First of all, passing from death into life is not the same as passing into everlasting life. Jesus talks much about death as being separation from God “Let the dead bury the dead.” (Matt 8:22). Just moving from death (separation form God) to life (belief in God) is not the same as entering everlasting life (re-entering the highest reaches of heaven).
    • Secondly Jesus says that only through him can we achieve everlasting life. This website thinks that belief in Jesus is enough, but does not require a Christ-like life in addition as Jesus shows us. He says that we have also repay our debts to the last farthing (Matt 5:26) and tells Nicodemus that a person who could not live a Christ-like life then needs to enter into a new life to achieve this. (John 3:4) It was not enough for Nicodemus at the end of his life to just believe in Jesus. He needed to be born again and live a better life.
    • Thirdly, the bible says that there is joy in heaven when a sinner repents (Luke 15:10), not that only repenting gives us everlasting life.
    • Finally, Jesus says that “everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have everlasting life” (John 6:40). But how can we see the Son without elevating ourselves to His level? In order to see the Son we need to walk in His footsteps, and thus must fill ourselves with virtue. So for me, the bible (Jesus) does say that we need to work on ourselves to achieve heaven, besides relying on the Grace of God.
  2. This site also says “The LDS Church does not accept the biblical idea that Christ’s blood was shed on the cross to wash away our sins – present, past and future.” I can find no evidence in the teaching of Jesus or Origen to support this claim.
    • On the contrary, Jesus says that we need to repay our debts to the last farthing. (Matt 5:26)
    • Jesus’ act of redemption opened the gates to heaven to allow those who have earned the right to return to heaven, but we are all expected to follow the Law plus his new law: love thy neighbor.
    • Jesus did forgive sin, but he also told them to sin no more. (John 5:14, 8:11) He never said our future sins are also forgiven.
  3. This website offers a very weak explanation of the common question “Is God biased? Is it fair to save only some?”. Without accepting the gift of reincarnation, there is no logical explanation of God’s fairness in the bible. This website shows how difficult it is to show how it is possible for the 7+ billion souls on this earth to learn the teachings of Jesus and accept him as their savior in one lifetime.  Only multiple lifetimes on earth could allow all souls to have a fair chance to learn of Jesus and accept him.