Mysteries – Freeread

The Prime Question

January 9, 2014January 10, 2014 Joseph Dewey

This entry is part 1 of 57 in the series Mysteries

Answers to the Mysteries of the Universe

J J Dewey

Introductory Question

The Prime Question

Can I know the truth of things beyond the physical?

Answer: A definite yes.

If something exists, whether it be visible or invisible, perceptive to the senses or not, it can be discovered and verified.

For instance, humanity was oblivious to the existence of ultra violet and infrared light until recent times. If someone would have described their existence the best minds of the past would have discounted the idea as the ramblings of a frenzied mind.

The fact remains that these two realms of light did exist and a means was found to prove it so.

Even so, there are many true realities that exist beyond the physical. Like ultra violet, all we need are the tools to verify them. Science itself has already done this to a degree. Pure energy has an existence beyond anything we might deem as physical and in past ages resided in the area of the metaphysical. Einstein and the demonstration of his theories through the atomic bomb proved that matter could be converted to a non-physical pure energy. Now all scientists accept the idea of a formless non-physical energy as something that is verifiably true.

It is true, in this age, that hundreds of things have been discovered which were beyond the perception of the senses just a couple generations ago. Is it not logical that there are yet many discoveries to be made in the unseen worlds?

Such a thing is not only logical but is verifiable. And how can it be verified?

Through the essence of ourselves, as our makeup is composed of much more than the physical. This is easy to prove as the mind, the emotions, our imagination and our dreams are not a part of physical reality yet few would deny their existence.

Polls show that the majority of people believe in God and in some form and an afterlife. Why is this? It is largely because most people sense the existence within themselves of something that is connected to realities beyond the physical senses.

Then there are others who do not perceive any sensation beyond the physical. Why would many perceive sensations beyond the physical while others do not? The answer is focused attention. We perceive in accordance with the direction of our attention. Just as the blind person places more attention on touch than average and senses more with this sense than the rest of us, even, so the spiritual person places more attention on the inner feelings and senses things there that are overlooked by non believers.

The answers in this book are based on the proposition that there are indeed perceptions available beyond the physical and within our whole nature is access to unlimited knowledge and understanding. All we have to do is place focused attention on the world within and the door of extraordinary perception can become available.

There lies within each one of us a connection with infinite Intelligence. It is from the vantage point of this connection I write this book, but with no claim to infallibility. All of us are capable of wrong perception and incorrect interpretation of that which is perceived. Even so, perceive we must if we are to explore new worlds and thus this book is born. Those fellow travelers who also strive to perceive beyond the physical will find much food for thought within these pages. Enjoy.

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What Is God?

January 10, 2014January 10, 2014 Joseph Dewey

This entry is part 2 of 57 in the series Mysteries

Question One

Is There a God?

Answer:

Yes.

That was easy, but it gives out nothing new on the subject. For the good stuff, let us go to the next question.

Question Two:

What is God?

There are a lot of different views on this subject and many of them are subjects of great ridicule from unbelievers. They will often poke fun by saying something like:

You believe in the great Santa Claus (or man) in the sky.

You believe in an angry old man on a throne who just barks out crazy commands as well as the talking snake in the Bible.

Your God must hate us since he lets us all suffer so much with wars, hurricanes and disease.

Actually, the critics would have some justification in their attacks if God were really a being as believed by most. If He could just snap his fingers and make this world perfect, or speak the word and create world peace and end all suffering, then it does seem strange that He would allow so many innocent ones to suffer while others who are tyrants sleep peacefully at night in their luxurious mansions. It also seems strange that He would command Israel to kill the Canaanites, take their land and then punish gays, witches and rebel children with death.

Yet no matter how odd the actions of God are in the Bible or the sacred books of other religions, people still believe in a Higher Intelligence and see it as benevolent.

Perhaps if we just knew the mystery of this Being everything would just fall in place.

The resolution to this whole conundrum is found in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible which tells us:

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Gen 1:27

Humans are thus in the image of God, or projections, or more precisely reflections of Him. If we therefore want to understand God we must look at ourselves. If we are reflections in the image of God then this tells us that God is a lot like us.

When we create a thing, whether it be a car, a television or a computer program it is not perfect at first but has many flaws. But, over time our creations improve until they function almost flawlessly.

The same thing happens with God and his creations. The Universe started out as a disorganized mass and has now evolved into a creation of beauty as revealed by the Hubble Telescope. This earth started out as an inferno, far from perfect, but is now a beautiful planet. Humans have a history of being savages and killing their enemies for sport as many tribes did in Old Testament times, but are now learning to treat each other with respect, though they are still far from perfect.

Higher Intelligence, which we call God, has to work with humans through other humans. When one has a life-saving operation that saves his life, what does the patient say? He usually says, “Thank God!” But the one who saved his life was a reflection of God, a being who is one of the hands of God on the earth.

God is intelligence in matter and His body is the universe.

“There’s no such thing as intelligence in matter,” says the skeptic. Well, think again. I’m sure you consider yourself intelligent and you exist in a body composed in matter, do you not?

It is indeed an undeniable fact that intelligence does exist in matter and it is not that big of a leap to consider that larger bodies than humans also have intelligence dwelling in them.

But, contrary to popular belief about God, this Greater Intelligence is merely trying to bring his creations to perfection just as His reflections, or humans, are attempting to do with theirs. There are lots of problems to solve that manifest on the way.

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Where Did God Come From?

January 11, 2014December 9, 2016 Joseph Dewey

This entry is part 3 of 57 in the series Mysteries

Question Three

Who created God, or Where did God come from?

Believe it or not the Bible tells us where God came from. Here it is:

“God came from Teman.” Hab 3:3

Actually, I was kind of pulling your leg here for this does not tell us the origin of God but the writer was merely saying that the Presence of God was in Teman as it once was in Mount Sinai

It is interesting that this question is often asked by atheists to illustrate the futility of a belief in God, or a Creator. But then believers often forget to ask an important question in return. Here is a possible dialog that could be used:

Believer: Where did the universe come from?

Atheist: It started with the Big Bang

Believer: And what originated the Big Bang?

Atheist: An infinitesimally small point that contained everything in the universe we call the Singularity.

Believer: And where did this singularity come from?

Atheist: We don’t know. We suppose it’s just always been there.

Believer: So why do you not have a problem with an eternal Singularity, but discount an eternal Intelligence?

Atheist: Scientific calculations tell us everything started with a Singularity.

Believer: And what made the Singularity explode into the Big Bang? Could that be God, an intelligence with no beginning?

Atheist: I don’t think so.

Believer: Yet you believe in a Singularity that just exploded out of the blue for no reason into a universe that has intelligence (humans) in matter. Is it logical that an infinitesimal point with no intelligence created matter that has intelligence within it?

Atheist: That’s where logic leads us.

Believer: So something that is not intelligent created intelligence in matter (humans). It seems a stretch here to call the believers in Higher Intelligence the ones who are not logical.

The bottom line here is that it is the greatest mystery of all that anything even exists, whether it be God, man or a single rock. It is just as difficult for an atheist scientist to explain why a rock exists as it is for a believer to explain why God exists.

So, does this mean we have no answer on the subject?

No. There is always an answer and here it is:

All things created from form have a beginning and end whether it be a galaxy, a sun, a planet, the human body, a cell or an atom. Intelligence, which is the essence of God and man has no form but merely uses form. That which is formless does not exist in time and is therefore eternal with no beginning and end. Thus the formless intelligence of God has no beginning because it does not exist in time.

The entire universe is the physical body of God and it had a beginning and will have an end, but the Intelligence that created it is not subject to time and is eternal.

Understanding this is perhaps the greatest mystery of all, but it is an undeniable fact that creation and intelligence exists. The fact that anything exists is indeed mind-boggling to contemplate and has led mystics past to exclaim, “How great is the mystery of Godliness!”

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How Did the Universe Come To Be?

January 12, 2014January 12, 2014 Joseph Dewey

This entry is part 4 of 57 in the series Mysteries

Question Four

How Did the Universe Come To Be?

Scientists tell us that the universe is expanding. They have measured the rate of expansion and calculated when the starting point began and what it must have been. These calculations show that the entire universe began about 13.7 billion years ago where everything there is was compressed into an infinitesimally small point, smaller than an atom. They call this a singularity.

For some unexplainable reason this singularity exploded with unimaginable force, which created atoms and other particles in perfect balance. How that balance occurred they know not. They only know that it happened.

If you think creation by an Intelligent Designer is fantastic consider that this theory has it beat. Let us pick just one part of the theory, that everything began with a very very small point of compressed matter. To understand how fantastic this is, consider the difficulty in reversing the Big Bang.

First you could take your body and compress it into a particle as big as a grain of sand. Then you could take the 7 billion other people and compress them into 7 billion grains of sand. Then you could take all those pieces of sand, which could create a good portion of a beach and compress all them into a single grain. If you think that is a good trick then look at the work we still have to do. We have all the people of earth compressed into a grain of sand sitting on planet Earth, which is a pretty huge place.

Now we have to take the entire planet and compress it. This would take some serious energy expenditure, but let us imagine it could be done. Voila! The earth and humanity are now compressed together into a piece of matter the size of a grain of sand, but the amazing thing is the mass is still there. Lifting that grain of sand would be like Atlas lifting the Earth.

Even though we have now accomplished the impossible we are just getting started. Now we need to compress the planets in our solar system. We might as well start with Jupiter. Wow, we are in for some serious compression here for Jupiter is 1330 times the volume of the earth and 318 times as heavy and that’s not counting its many moons.

Let us now compress Jupiter and its moons. Uuugggh. What a job. It is now the size of a grain of sand. Now we move on to Saturn, Neptune and Uranus which are also much larger than Earth. We do the impossible and compress them. Finally we move on to Mercury, Venus, Mars, the asteroids, Pluto and the rest of the dwarf planets and compress them.

Now we have that done we tackle the sun, which has more mass than all the planets put together, somewhere around the mass of 1,000,000 Earths. To reduce this to the size of a grain of sand is a real miracle, but somehow we do it.

We still have the other stars to reduce. Let us start with a big one, the Eta Carinae system. We have our work cut out for us, for this sun is 250 times the size of our sun and a million times as bright. Imagine, though, we get the job done and it is compressed to the size of a grain of sand.

Hold on, we are just getting started. There are around 300 billion suns, just in our galaxy and 100 billion known galaxies and who knows how many unknown. Now really strain your imagination and see each of these stars reduced to the size of a grain of sand and gathered together into one place.

What do we have before us? Amazingly we have more sand than would fit in all the beaches and deserts on the whole of planet Earth. In fact, there would be enough sand for five or more planet Earths.

That is one heck of a lot of sand.

We still have our work cut out for us. Now we have to take these trillions of grains and compress them to one individual grain. Okay, really stretch your imagination here. There, it is done. The whole known universe is now reduced to a single grain of sand.

So… have we reproduced the original singularity that Big Bang theory tells us originated the universe? Not really. Believe it or not, we still have a long way to go. The grain of sand is still much larger than the singularity.

Let’s get to work and compress more, but the mass of the universe is so huge this is getting difficult. Grunt, grunt, there, the grain of sand is reduced to a piece of dust. Is that the right size now?

No. Still a long way to go. The Singularity is smaller than an atom and do you know how many atoms there are in a speck of dust?

About four times as many as there are stars in the entire known universe.

Wow.

So now imagine these trillions of atoms being compressed into the size of one atom. How far away are we now from the size of the Singularity? Are we are now getting close?

Some say yes, some say no, but most say it was as small or smaller than an atom.

If you think of what we have done so far is fantastic, now consider this.

Take away the factor of some intelligence like us doing the work and imagine that all by itself this tiny Singularity, for some reason that defies explanation and imagination, just explodes and creates the whole universe with you and me in it.

The amazing thing is that scientists are not using their wild imaginations in visualizing this, but say it really happened.

So which is the wilder thought?

(1) The singularity as small as an atom exploded for no understandable reason and created all there is, or,

(2) Some type of Intelligence made it all happen.

Putting it this way doesn’t make Intelligent Design seem too difficult to believe, does it?

Hopefully, this dialog prepares the reader’s mind to consider something new. Here it is.

Science is correct that the universe began with a Singularity which was an infinitesimally small point, but the point was smaller and much different than any of them supposed.

The point was not one of unbelievable condensed matter, but a point of pure Intelligence. The matter that created the universe did not yet exist except in the mind of this Intelligence, for the current matter of the universe is not created from anything that is solid, as evidenced from the fact that regardless of how small we go into matter, solid mass cannot be found. All that can be found for sure are wavelengths.

And of what are the wavelengths composed? If they are not composed of anything solid then what creates them?

Answer: Thought.

And what originates the thought?

Intelligence.

And where did the Intelligence come from?

The interplay of opposites.

This interplay and Intelligence co-exist and have always been.

Intelligence created matter out of Itself, and thus we have Intelligence within matter all throughout the universe. This Intelligence moves the evolution of all things forward toward an end unimaginable to us at this time.

“There is no such thing as intelligence in matter,” says the skeptic.

To this we respond: “Are you intelligent?”

He answers, “Yes, of course.”

“Do you exist in matter, of which your body is composed, or are you some phantom?”

He has no intelligent response.

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Is God Everywhere?

January 13, 2014 Joseph Dewey

This entry is part 5 of 57 in the series Mysteries

Question Five

Is God Everywhere?

Believers have often told us that God is everywhere. Even Jesus told us that God was aware when the tiny sparrow falls to the ground.

On the other hand, many believers talk about God as if he were an exalted human sitting on a throne as described in the Bible. Here are excerpts from the Book of Revelation:

“…a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne … And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals…. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne…. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away…. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face.”

This idea of God in human form sitting on a throne ruling all things on one hand, and an invisible spirit which is everywhere on the other, is confusing to many and turns them away from believing in a Creator. Orthodox ideas of God seem contradictory to unbelievers and not conform to logic.

So what is the truth of this matter then?

Jesus gave a hint at the truth when he said this:

“And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.” Matt 23:22

So, what is it that composes the throne of God?

It is “heaven,” or, in other words, the universe itself. And where is God? It is written he is sitting on this throne of heaven or the universe. Now get this. The word “sitting” comes from the Greek KATHEMAI, which can sometimes be translated as sitting but usually conveys the idea of occupying an abode, to dwell or to live in.

Consider this modern translation of the word from Matthew 4:16

“The people living (KATHEMAI) in darkness have seen a great light; on those living (KATHEMAI) in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” New International Version.

Obviously, the people were not “sitting” in darkness in the land, but they were dwelling or living there.

Even so, when Jesus told the people that God “KATHEMAI in heaven” they mostly likely interpreted that to mean that God dwells or lives in heaven or the universe of all there is.

Here is the clarifying answer:

We know there is intelligence in matter because humans are intelligent and they live in matter. This intelligence which is you is omnipresent in all the cells of your body. If your big toe hurts you know of it because your life occupies all your body.

Even so, the body of God is the entire universe, and since he lives in the universe as a whole, he is aware of his entire body because it is a part of his being. This makes God aware of a sparrow falling to the earth because even a tiny bird is a part of the life of God and it is aware of itself.

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Does God Know Everything?

January 14, 2014 Joseph Dewey

This entry is part 6 of 57 in the series Mysteries

Question Six

Does God Know Everything?

If God is omnipresent and his life fills the entire universe that is a large part of the way to seeing God as all-knowing or omniscient. But it doesn’t quite get us there.

Remember that the key to understanding God is to understand ourselves. Since we are in his image we reflect his attributes.

Each of us dwells in a physical body and our life force is present in each part, extending to every cell therein. But are we omniscient concerning our body? Are we aware of what each of the many trillions of cells are doing?

No. We are not?

Could we be?

We know for certain that if we focus our attention we can be much more aware of the various parts of our body than we are. Meditation techniques teach us how to be aware of our breath, our sensations and various parts of our bodies of which we are usually oblivious. If we are ill we can tune into our bodies and attain an awareness of what needs done to make it well. Some yogis maintain that there is an entire universe within our bodies and with correct training we can become aware of the cells and even atoms within it.

Is the One Life whose body is the universe aware of everything happening on the trillions of worlds within?

In this respect God is a lot like us. He has his goals and dreams and is moving his creations forward to an end that will eventually be satisfying. He focuses on this and this focus moves trillions of lives, suns and galaxies forward toward his purpose. Just as we do our work without dwelling on individual cells, even so does God labor without dwelling on the tiny lives within the universe. He’s looking at a much bigger picture.

BUT… Within our body are smaller concentrations of intelligent life. We have our various organs which function with a high degree of intelligence as well as the tiny cells which have a life of their own. The way your body works to keep it healthy is this: The whole consciousness, which is you, takes care of the big picture and sees to it the body as a whole gets what it needs. Then the smaller lives take care of the lesser details and maintain a support system that is not perfect, but manages to keep the body functioning well most of the time.

Even so, God takes care of the big picture and his overall consciousness is focused on that, but within the body of his universe are many smaller lives including you and me who are linked to the life of God. As an extension of his consciousness we are individually aware of many things which God is not. But another way of looking at it is this. We are an extension of the consciousness of God. This means that if we are aware of something then God is aware of it.

If it becomes necessary the greater lives in the universe, including the one Great Life, which is God can focus and tune into any part of the body which is desired.

So… as humans our surface consciousness is only aware of a few things going on in our bodies, but the overall life has unlimited knowledge of what is happening down to the tiniest cell and extended intelligence seems to take care of everything so the body functions well.

Even so, while God is taking care of the big picture the smaller lives within his body are an accumulation of intelligence that makes the whole of the life of God pretty much all knowing. But each individual life within the body of God, including God himself, doesn’t pay much attention to the tiny details, but leaves them for the lesser lives to handle.

We’ll talk more about these lesser lives later on.

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Is God All Powerful?

January 16, 2014January 16, 2014 Joseph Dewey

This entry is part 7 of 57 in the series Mysteries

Question Seven

Is God All Powerful?

The common view among believers is that God is indeed all-powerful. If he wanted to establish a paradise on earth he could will it done in an instant, or if he wanted the entire earth to disappear he could make it vanish in the snap of a finger.

This belief creates a problem for skeptics as they say that if there is a God he must be one mean guy. If he has all power then why does he allow wars and not extend a hand to those suffering and in need, especially innocent little children? Rather than believe in a mean God, they generally believe in no God at all, as a world ruled by chance seems to make more sense to them.

Believers counter that all this suffering is part of some divine plan to allow us free will and teach us lessons but even they have a problem when loved ones have to endure great pain or grief.

It indeed appears that a piece of the puzzle is missing for no explanation so far satisfies the soul.

The missing piece of he puzzle is this.

God is not all-powerful. There, I’ve said it. This is a blasphemous statement for some believers but food for thought for others, as it explains a lot.

But, if this statement is true why would so many think otherwise? Is it because the omnipotence of God is taught in the Bible?

Actually, it is not. The Bible says that God is powerful, but nowhere does it say he is all-powerful and omnipotent.

So, if this doctrine did not come from the Bible, where did it come from?

The answer is quite simple. Just put yourself in the position of one of those who first formulated this and other doctrines on the attributes of God.

You have a responsibility to teach the people the truth about God and you are not clear on the idea yourself. You study all the holy writings for answers to your questions. You wonder, is God all-powerful, omniscient, perfect, etc.? He seems to be but the scriptures do not give many details about such things.

You are now faced with a decision about the presentation of your teachings. “Should I teach that God is all-powerful or merely powerful?”

You think about it a minute and consider the results if you are wrong. If you diminish God in any way and it turns out that he is all-powerful then he may be offended and punish you. On the other hand, if you present God as being even greater than he is then he is not likely to be offended. Who’s going to punish anyone for assuming good things about them?

Therefore, you consider that the safe route is to assume the best and the highest possible things about God in all you present. You tell the people he is indeed all-powerful, omniscient, perfect, etc.

It’s a win win for you. If you are correct God will be pleased and if you are wrong he will not be offended.

This approach to teaching about God has influenced most teachers down through time. After all, it is human nature to take the safe route, and this most of us do pretty consistently.

Let us be brave souls though and discern the true reality, for it is also written somewhere that God hates a coward

If we want to know the power of God we must look at two things.

(1) Ourselves. As we said earlier we are reflections of God or made “in his image” as the Bible says. Therefore, if we want to understand the power of God we must look to ourselves. It turns out we human beings are capable of doing some powerful things. We have harnessed atomic energy, built great structures and are generating computing power that will soon equal the human brain itself.

When humans are united the Bible says that “nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” Gen 11:6

So we can accomplish anything we imagine to do but we do not consider ourselves as being all-powerful.

Why?

Because many of our goals take an enormous amount of time. We have desired an efficient form of central heating for thousands of years but only achieved it recently. We have also desired peace on earth for thousands of years, and have made some progress, but the goal is still far away. Yet we know in our hearts that it will come one day.

Like us, God can accomplish whatever he sets out to do, but he is not all-powerful to the extent that he can just snap his fingers and make everything work perfectly in an instant.

(2) Reality

The scripture says: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.” Psalms 19:1

If indeed the universe, the galaxy, the earth and all things therein are the handywork of God, then that is what we must observe to understand his use of power.

The Hubble telescope has looked back in time about 13 billion years and this has allowed us to see what the early universe looked like just shortly after creation. What we see are galaxies that do not have the form and beauty as nearby galaxies whose light doesn’t take so long to reach us.

This tells us that, over a very long period of time, billions of years, the universe has been increasing in refinement, perfection and beauty. In other words, God just didn’t snap his fingers and make perfect creation in an instant. He has an idea of how he wants the universe to end up and he’s been working at perfecting it for over 13 billion years.

The same idea applies to the earth. 4 billion years ago this place looked like a living hell. There were volcanoes spewing hot lava all over, the surface was too hot for water and the atmosphere was poisonous to life. Then over a long period of time this creation has turned into a very beautiful planet.

What does this knowledge tell us about the power of God? It tells us that the Intelligence we call God is indeed powerful for the creation of the universe was a very powerful thing to do. On the other hand, this intelligence is not all powerful, for it has taken him a long time to get it right and he’s still working on it.

Conclusion: the Intelligence we call God is indeed powerful and can accomplish any work he wishes if given enough time. On the other hand, he is not all powerful in that he cannot instantly make his creations perfect any more than we can. Just like it takes time and thought for us humans to build a house it takes God time and thought to get his universe completed to his satisfaction.

The Bible tells us that God worked for six periods of time to manifest his creation. If he had all power he wouldn’t have had to work at it until the work was good, but could have just snapped his fingers and made a perfected universe appear.

To understand that God is powerful, but not all powerful should be encouraging, not discouraging. Why? Because it brings us closer to pure truth and the truth always empowers and makes us free.

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Is Jesus or God Perfect?

January 17, 2014January 17, 2014 Joseph Dewey

This entry is part 8 of 57 in the series Mysteries

Question Eight

Is Jesus or God Perfect?

This is another one of those traditional beliefs, not supported by the Bible, but by tradition, that is bolstered by fear of offending God. What if you were to teach that God is not perfect in every detail and then after death you are confronted by a being that is perfect and is annoyed at you for the insult? Why, you just might be sent to the nether regions of outer darkness.

On the other hand, it seems safe to teach that God is perfect. If God is perfect and a strong authoritarian then he is likely to be pleased at your complements. But, if he is not perfect he may still be pleased that you gave him the benefit of the doubt. The idea of promoting the perfection of God seems to be a good insurance policy.

There are several problems with attributing perfection to any being, even God.

(1) Perfection is in the eye of the beholder.

(2) The Bible doesn’t say that God is perfect.

Let us start with the first one. Perfection is in the eye of the beholder just as beauty is.

There are many creations that the majority will admit are beautiful, but none that appeal to all. There is no work of art, a human being, an animal, a flower or a diamond that all will agree to be the most beautiful of its kind.

The same judgment goes into perfection. What is the perfect work of art, the perfect poem, the perfect crystal, the perfect planet, ruler, king, president, man, woman, etc.?

The Buddhists in the Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan thought that their world’s largest, 180 foot tall statue of Buddha, represented beauty and perfection. In peaceful times people came from all around the world to see it. But the Taliban had a different opinion. To their eyes it was an ugly abomination so they took high explosives and blew to smithereens the great work that had existed there for 1400 years.

This sad account of ignorant action illustrates the point that both beauty and perfection is in the eye of the beholder and not a thing we can earmark for everyone.

Therefore, a person’s view of a perfect God may be much different than his neighbor’s. My view of a perfect God may be your view of the devil himself.

Now let us move on to the second statement that the Bible doesn’t say that God is perfect.

“That’s blasphemy and untrue,” says the fundamentalist. “Let me give you two statements from the Bible that prove you wrong.

“Here is one about God: ‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect.’” Matt 5:48

“And here is one about Jesus: ‘And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.’” Heb 5:9

“Obviously, the Bible says both Jesus and God are perfect.”

Not so fast, my friend. Those words were not written in English, but translated from the Greek. An examination of the meaning of the Greek words reveals that believers have been relying on a gross mistranslation over the centuries.

There are two words in the Biblical Greek from whence the word “perfect” is translated. The first is AKRIBELA and the second is TELEIOO.

The word AKRIBELA corresponds to the modern usage. If a person or thing is AKRIBELA then it functions flawlessly with no imperfections. The religious leaders in the days of Jesus placed great emphasis in following the laws of Moses with this type of perfection. They placed particular attention on the Sabbath Day and condemned Jesus for not being perfect in honoring it. They thought that if one were perfect (AKRIBELA) that he would do no work on the Sabbath Day as was written in the law, but Jesus labored tirelessly on this day healing and teaching. They even criticized him and his apostles for picking some grain to eat on the Sabbath.

In the end they crucified him because they thought he was far from perfect and thus could not be the messiah.

The other word translated as “perfect” is TELEIOO. “Perfect” is a poor translation, not correctly representing the meaning. This, or the adjective form, TELEIOS, does not imply that one has functioned without flaw but that he has finished a job or completed a work. Let us therefore interpret from the Greek and retranslated the above two verses.

Instead of, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect.” It should read, “Finish your work to completion even as God does his.”

That makes a lot more sense doesn’t it? After all, who can expect any mortal to be as perfect as the infallible omnipotent, omniscient God that is envisioned by many religions?

Now let us look at the one about Jesus which reads, ‘And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation…”

A much better translation is, “Having finished his work he became the author of eternal salvation…”

Conclusion: It was the enemies of Jesus who placed great emphasis on flawless perfection, whereas Jesus placed emphasis on getting the job done successfully, even if he had to use flawed fishermen to help him.

God brings his works to wonderful and beautiful conclusions, but that which happens as the work progresses may be far from perfect. That which is to be the beautiful butterfly was once a repulsive caterpillar.

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Why Did God Create the Universe?

January 18, 2014 Joseph Dewey

This entry is part 9 of 57 in the series Mysteries

Question Nine

Why Did God Create the Universe?

Again, we must remember that if we want to understand God we must first look at ourselves for we are in his image. The question to ask then is why do we create?

The answer is quite simple. We create because we enjoy the challenge and when the creation reaches its envisioned end we achieve a degree of satisfaction and happiness. A life without creative endeavors is a pretty boring and unfulfilling one. Sooner or later we all want to do something challenging, useful and constructive. This even applies to God.

So why did God create all there is? The same reason we create. Creating the universe and then occupying it with his life essence was a major challenge. Guiding the universe toward his desired end is an even bigger one.

He is far from being all powerful to the extent that he can just snap his fingers and make everything work just right. Like us he finds himself in the middle of a life and has to figure out how to deal with it.

The difference is that his life is on a much vaster scale extending over trillions of worlds and billions of years.

You and I would probably get frustrated over such a tremendous project, but not God. He moves ever onward toward completion and depends in part on the cooperation of you and me for his own progression. That turns out to be a major problem for him because few of us are in alignment with his will. The fact that God can get anything done when he has to use the tiny lives within his creation to assist him is a miracle in itself.

Other parts of the universe are much more cooperative than humans have been, but God has faith that we will eventually learn our lessons and sense there is a greater plan than our own little lives and cooperate.

Once we collectively realize that we are a part of something greater than ourselves and work for the good of the whole, as well as ourselves, then the progress God seeks to make with his own life will be enhanced.

It is a fallacy to think that God does not need anything, let alone have a need for us. He needs everything within his creation to fulfill his vision, even you and me.

When you think about it, it makes life just a little more meaningful when you realize that God needs us, just as we need him.

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Why Would God Permit Suffering?

January 19, 2014 Joseph Dewey

This entry is part 10 of 57 in the series Mysteries

Question Ten

Why Would God Permit Suffering?

The fact that there is suffering in the world is one of the main causes of rejecting a belief in God as well as the cause of a lot of consternation from believers.

It appears strange to skeptics to accept that God is love on one hand yet allows suffering of innocent people on the other. As noted earlier it seems to skeptics that if there is a God he must be uncaring, negligent or just plain mean.

So what is the real answer to this dilemma?

Here are several that have been given:

(1) God has given us free will so if some crazy guy chooses to abuse and torture an innocent child then no one is going to stop him. The big picture is that we learn from our mistakes.

Comment: This answer fails to satisfy because it looks like God could have set something up where we could still learn our lessons while the innocent were protected from extreme abuse.

(2) There has to be opposition in all things. Without pain there can be no opportunity for joy.

Comment: True, but some characters who were truly evil go though life healthy, pretty much pain free and die in their sleep. Why didn’t these characters get their share of the painful opposition so they could have lots of joy? Then we all know loving and wonderful people who have had very painful lives.

Duality is indeed a reality but this alone does not satisfy the soul for it is far from the complete answer.

(3) God wants to show us how fallible we are so we will realize how much we need him.

Comment: This view makes no sense to the thinking person.

(4) All things that happen, even great suffering is part of a great plan if we could just understand it.

Comment: This is just another way of saying that you do not have a clue as to what is going on.

After considering all the orthodox answers available to this question the sincere seeker has to ask what the real answer could be. After all, whatever the truth is has to make sense because in the end all truth is logical and satisfying.

The reason that the answers about why God allows suffering make no sense is the foundation beliefs from which they spring is based on pure illusion. The answers are based on a belief in a God who is all-powerful and could, with a snap of a finger, save all the innocent from suffering and right all the wrongs that transpire on earth.

If God indeed had such power then all the explanations to why he allows suffering make little sense. On the other hand, when we realize that even God has limitations in this physical reality then the fact that there is suffering makes perfect sense.

Remember, we are in the image of God so we can understand God by looking at ourselves. Your life is omnipresent in your body and sometimes a part of your body will experience a lot of pain. You may discover that you have no instant remedy but after a lot of trial and error you finally find something that works.

Even so, in God’s body, which we call the universe, there is a planet called earth that is experiencing pain for which there is no instant cure. God cannot just snap his fingers and make everything all right for us but he is working on helping us alleviate the pain and suffering. It’s only a matter of time before humanity tunes into the mind of God and learns to live much higher quality lives and eliminate most of the suffering that many now have to endure.

It is time for humanity to stop being angry with an all-powerful God who just sits on a throne and does nothing to help the innocent enduring pain and suffering. God, and powerful beings that are in tune with him, do have a lot of power, but even they are limited in how much help they can deliver to 7,000,000,000 individuals on this planet as well as numerous other planets.

Here is a story that illustrates the fact that God often depends on common people to accomplish his work on earth.

The Hands and Heart of God.

Don had been a believer in God and accepted Jesus as his Son. He had always tried to speak positive of living the good Christian life, which would lead to peace and happiness in this world and the next.

Now, for the first time in his life he doubted everything. He was on the verge of totally rejecting God, Christ, sacrifice, salvation, love – the whole works – anything associated with all that he embraced in the past.

Here it was Christmas Eve and he was all alone reflecting on the terrible year it had been. January was a shock because he didn’t get the promotion that he deserved. Then in April when he was expecting a raise he received a cut in salary, In June he had a car accident that laid him in the hospital with the insurance only paying part of the expenses. In September he realized he was hooked on painkillers. In November his wife had an affair and when confronted she asked for a divorce. It didn’t help that she pointed out that she had now found a real man.

Now to top it all off, on this day, Christmas Eve, he was fired from his job where he had been a faithful employee for 20 years. Yes, reflecting on this terrible year filled him with unspeakable rage. He felt like cursing God with such language that would make hell itself shutter. He raised his fist, looked to the sky and was about to lash out at God for being so unloving, uncaring and basically one mean SOB for not giving a damn about him. He was thinking that since God couldn’t possibly be this negligent that he must not exist at all.

Just as he was about to utter the most destructive words of his life he hesitated and could not bring himself to curse his Lord. Instead, he fell to the floor crying like a baby with great sorrow speaking these desperate words:

“Oh, Lord my God! Are you really there? Are you the God of love or just a tormentor laughing at my misery? If you love me, then where is it, because I feel nothing.”

Don just lay on the floor sobbing and feeling sorry for himself until it seemed that he fell asleep. In that place of twilight where he was not sure if he was asleep or awake he heard a gentle voice speaking his name. He looked up and to his amazement his Lord stood in front of him. This beautiful being grabbed Don’s hand and said, “Arise,” as he lifted him up. “What can I do for you?” he asked.

“For starters, you an answer some questions. How can God be looked upon as loving or even good when He allows so much suffering? My life over the past year has been a living hell and even though I have prayed regularly God has done nothing for me. I’ve felt completely abandoned.”

“Come let me show you something,” said the Master. He waved his hand in the direction of the wall and suddenly an image appeared. Don looked and saw a child in a hospital bed awaiting surgery to save his life. He was terrified. Then his mother entered the room and caressed him with love only a mother can give while speaking comforting words. The child was then at peace as he entered the operating room.

The physician looked at the child before him and thought that this could be his own in different circumstances and proceeded with all diligence and skill to save him. The child recovered to live a full life.

“Look again,” he said.

This time he saw a soldier in Afghanistan who had just survived a deadly firefight. He was wounded and dying with thoughts of meeting his Lord when villagers who didn’t even speak English came to assist him and saved his life at great peril to their own.

“One more time,” said the Master.

This time Don saw a man at the end of his rope on the edge of a bridge preparing to jump. He was given an insight into his life and Don had to admit that his life was in worse shape than his own. Just as he was about to jump he heard the soft voice of a young lady who approached him.

“Please don’t do this my friend. Life is good and there is much to live for.”

“I have nothing to live for. My life is horrible and no one cares.”

The lady reached out her hand, looked him in the eye and said, “I care. Now take my hand and come with me.”

The words, “I care,” touched the man’s soul and he realized that he could not jump. He took her hand and began life anew.

The Master looked at Don and spoke, what do these three accounts have in common?

Don replied, “They are all examples of the neglect of God. If humans hadn’t come to assist, the three people would have died.”

“Listen and learn the truth,” said the Master. “Humans are in the image of God and as reflections of Him they are his hands and vessels of love upon the earth. It is the responsibility of the Sons and Daughters of God to manifest the love of God on the earth. When the mother lovingly comforted her child, I was there. When the surgeon saved his life I was guiding his hands. When the villagers saved the soldier, I was in their hearts and when the lady stretched out her caring hand, I was stretching mine also.

“The Love of God cannot be comprehended except through caring and kindness from other humans who are instruments in the hands of God.”

“Well, the hands of God didn’t do much for me.”

“They did more than you realize,” said the Master. “Look again.”

Don looked and he saw a review of his life over the past year. He saw that when he was denied the promotion that his friend Jim reached out to him and spent time with him to lift his spirits.

When he didn’t get the promotion he was in a terrible mood and his wife did her best to comfort and assure him. Instead of appreciating it he lashed out and complained about everything. This led her to seek comfort from another man.

When Don had the accident he saw that he was operated on by the hands of a caring physician who saved his life. When he got hooked on painkillers friends and family counseled him. Then when his wife left him his friend Jim was there for him again.

The Master spoke, “The Love of God has been with you through the whole year, but you saw it not, neither did you understand.”

“I see your point,” said Don, “and am ready to change my attitude. The problem is that I am feeling terrible over losing my job, on top of everything else, and there is no one to cheer me up. Are you going to send me one of the helping hands?”

“I will send a helping hand,” said the Master. “Take one more look.”

The image of a young man caught Don’s attention. As he looked closely he realized it was his own son, lying in bed staring at the ceiling with tears in his eyes. Somehow Don understood his feelings. During this whole terrible year his son did his best to comfort his father and sought to spend time with him. Don was always too busy or preoccupied. He had heard that his Dad lost his job and was contemplating visiting him but was afraid Don would be drowning in sorrow and anger and brush him off.

Don saw that his son was thinking of happier times and was wishing he could share some happiness with his Dad again just one more time.

As the image faded Don spoke, “I didn’t realize the void my own child feels because of a lack of love and that this love must come from me. I must be the helping hand that you will send.”

“Correct,” said the Master. “It is now your turn to be the hands, head and heart of God. Go to your son and fill his heart with joy. Heal your son and you will heal yourself and once more you will believe in the reality of the love of God.”

Don went to his son and they embraced, shared old stories and touched each other’s hearts. Both were healed. Don began to take attention off himself and sought to bring comfort to others. As he did this he realized that he was one of the hands of God and the servants of God are continually nourished with the love of God.

Oh, and it wasn’t long before someone who he helped, assisted him in return and gave him a lead that led to a good job which also led to finding a wonderful woman as a companion.

Their happy home has this message stuck on their refrigerator: “We are the hands and the heart of God, seeking to manifest the Love of God.”

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