A TRILOGY ON METAPHYSICS AND THE HUMAN SOUL
(Dedicated to the Honor and the Glory of God)
--------------------------------------------
A SHORT TREATISE ON THE REALITY OF GOD
God is the ultimate reality. He has spun the universes into
existence and has created all other beings. As humans, we too had our
beginning from God. Like Plato and Socrates, I believe that we pre-
existed in a spiritual realm prior to being born into this world.
Unfortunately the church fathers, with the exceptions of Origen and
Augustine, rejected this view as an overreaction to the heresies of
gnosticism and neoplatonism that threatened to subvert the Gospel. How
do I know of this pre-existence? I have very faint memories of a
spiritual existence before being born into this world. My children
spoke of this of this existence when they were small. I have heard of
other 2-4 year old children being able to talk of their own pre-
existence in the spiritual realm prior to their earthly birth, when
carefully questioned about it. One couple I know of had three boys who
each spoke of having been with God and the angels prior to birth
without any prompting from their parents when they were small.
Evidently as people age and develop, these memories are overlaid with
countless earthly memories and are largely forgotten.
One may ask why are we here and forced to leave that spiritual
realm. I believe that the answer lies in the fall of Lucifer from
Heaven along with a third of the angels. It is my own belief that
human spirits were originally intended to be part of Lucifer's cadre
in the spiritual realm. Once Lucifer fell, there was no further need
for our existence in the spiritual realm, since we had been created to
serve Lucifer in carrying out his heavenly responsibilities. Lucifer's
disobedience led to our own eventual banishment from Heaven, even
though we were not involved in his revolt against God. God in His
infinite mercy has brought us to this world to perfect our redemption.
He is bound by His own spiritual laws in the eternal realm, but at the
temporal level, He can rewrite our destiny through His plan for our
redemption. Had not Adam and Eve disobeyed God, this plan would have
been much simpler and salvation would have been universal for all
mankind. When that couple listened to Lucifer rather than obey God,
suddenly salvation became much more difficult. Man had chosen sides
and was no longer just an innocent bystander thus bringing
condemnation on all mankind who was to be born on earth from that time
forward.
Man himself had sinned against God and lost his opportunity for an
easier salvation. To put it in the vernacular, man really blew it. Now
man's disobedience had to dealt with in a manner satisfying God,
fulfilling the new parameters now required for our salvation and
permit our return to the spiritual realm (Heaven) after leaving this
earthly sojourn. Christ, the second person of the Godhead, came to
earth in the form of a man to die a sacrificial death for our
redemption so that by believing in Him and on His death, we can be
redeemed and made new spiritual beings fit for His kingdom. Through
Christ, the Holy Spirit creates us anew and we are reshaped into His
image, no longer designed to follow after Lucifer and his entourage.
Praise be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for their gift of
salvation through the Son's loving sacrifice of Himself on the cross,
the Father's willingness to send Him and the Spirit's perseverance in
causing us to believe.
Some have a difficult time grasping the concept of the Trinity. The
Trinity is the three distinct, separate, yet simultaneously occurring
dynamic states in which God exists and through which He expresses
Himself. It may be easier to understand the Trinity by the functions
they perform. The Father is the Creator of His creation. The Son
controls the interface relationship between the Creator and His
creation. The Holy Spirit permeates the creation carrying out the will
of the Father and the Son.
Others may ask how does God create worlds and universes, i.e. this
temporal existence. I believe the new physics gives us an insight into
God's methods. The big bang which began our universe was caused by a
large quantum fluctuation. These fluctuations are believed by some
cosmologists to be power spikes in a tremendous quantum field of
incredible intensity. Since there are undoubtedly many of these power
spikes, and at the top of each powerful enough spike is a created
universe, there are probably many overlapping sister universes to our
universe in existence at this very moment. They are separated from
each other only by the different quantum time value that each universe
possesses. Thus we can not see or sense them nor can they see or sense
us. You may ask how does God fit into the overall scheme of these
things. I truly believe that the energy that creates and drives this
quantum field issues forth from the mind of God even as He speaks the
Word. All quantum phenomena is created by God. The physical is the
result of an outpouring of the spiritual, though not in a
pantheistic way. The beauty of God and His methods is that while we
may seem far removed from where God is, He is only a prayer away. He
loves us and cares for us, who believe on His dear Son, and longs that
all mankind will come to a saving faith in His beloved Son; but God
wants our love freely given and not given through coercion. He gives
us His Holy Spirit to guide us and lead us into paths of righteousness
for His namesake. All that is required of us is simple faith in our
living Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I look forward to the day that I return to the spiritual realm from
which we have come and can worship, adore, praise and glorify Him
forever. Our Lord made a way back where there was no way, so that we
may dwell with Him and enjoy Him forever. Praise be to God that He has
not left us nor forsaken us, but through His death established His
plan for our salvation when we come to believe on His shed blood.
Hallelujah, God is truly great and greatly to be worshiped in spirit
and truth.
In awe of the Living God
Richard E. Franing
AN INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS ONE
I've decided to take a shot at this one, so you folks need to get
the stake ready along with the rope, wood and matches because I'm
about to reveal my pet theory concerning the first chapter of Genesis.
In second Peter 3:8, we find the following in the RSV version: "But do
not ignore this fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a
thousand years and a thousand years is as one day." This is a way of
saying that God is the creator and ruler of time as well as every
thing else in this universe and beyond. So even a million or a billion
years can be as one day or one nanosecond to Him as He chooses it to
be, since He is beyond time. With that in mind, lets move into
Genesis. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. I
think that this represents the start of our universe. The heavens
representing space and the earth representing matter.The Earth without
form and void and the Spirit of God hovered above the waters. The
matter had not coalesced together sufficiently to form large physical
bodies in space, but had coalesced enough that internal heat within
the matter was driving off water vapor that may have condensed on the
surface of that matter. Then God said let there be light. This was
beginning of nuclear fusion in our universe, along with planet
building. Where the light hit these protoplanets, there was day and on
the backside of these bodies was night just as God had commanded.
Obviously it took billions of our years for our universe to reach this
stage, but to God that is little more than a blink of the eye. God
called this time the first day. The morning and the evening being
whatever time that God wishes it to be or when He wishes it to be. I
think it highly unlikely He is saying an earthday at this point
because our solar system had not been created yet, that did not occur
until the fourth day. On the second day God separated the waters into
the seas and the sky. Evidently certain planets in scattered solar
systems had cooled enough for their atmospheres to start clearing
instead of one big shroud of clouds enveloping these planets from
their surfaces. During this day God formed the land surfaces upon
these planets. Again in God's time there could have been another blink
of His spiritual eyes. Evening could be when He closes His eyes and
the morning when He opens them again. So ended the second day. (I can
see that you folks have erected the stake and gathered the firewood.
You're having a cookout! Right?). On the third day, God brought forth
vegetation. There have probably been many planets within our universe
in times past and yet today that have some forms of life upon them.
This is God's universe, along with any others, and He can do with them
whatever He so desires. Who are we to limit Him to only caring about
what happens on our dinky little planet, as important as it is to us?
Don't get me wrong, God does care about us and this Earth, but We are
not His only responsibility. Again God blinks His eyes and another day
is over in His book, even though more millions of earth type years may
have elapsed.
On the fourth day God created our sun, the moon and obviously the
planets in our solar system. From this point on, I think that God is
referring to our planet when He speaks of the earth, although He is
not yet talking in earth days when He speaks. We tend to limit God
into our way of thinking, not realizing that He is far greater than we
could ever imagine. God also created the land and plants on our Earth
in this time frame. This "day" must have been several billion earth
years long. It is wonderful that God never gets tired doing all this
creating, because if He
...
read more »
