I know it’s April Fool’s Day, but I have something serious in mind here.
This won’t work if I put it together like my other books.
God is a Person; His revelation teaches us to treat His Creation as a living thing. Revelation also points us to a communion with Creation as each of us is a part of Creation. It’s not a “doing” nor precisely a matter of “being.” It’s an “I am” kind of thing, though when describing it in English, the difference is hard to state.
We aren’t lost or absorbed, per se, but voluntarily immerse ourselves. There are elements that outlive our human existence because they are eternal. We are connecting ourselves to Eternity, and it simply isn’t possible unless some part of us belongs to it. However, there are other elements of this that remain ephemeral and momentary, in that it requires an active effort to drag the resistant flesh around as Eternity moves us through this world.
We cannot pretend to really understand it all; human language breaks down under the strain of describing it. The Bible presents it mostly in terms of covenant relations with God. The two primary Law Covenants (Moses and Noah) don’t offer much direct reference to what they really mean. You are supposed to realize that on your own. There is something in the covenants themselves that call to your higher faculties. It’s really up to you how much of that you seize upon and connect to what’s behind it all.
The Bible was written by mystically minded people, in a mystical language about a mystical grasp on something forever beyond mere words. Christianity was born an Eastern religion because Old Testament religion was also Eastern in nature. The Hellenization of OT religion into Judaism was a damnable perversion, and the Westernizing of Christianity is likewise damnable.
There is no such thing as “propositional truth.”
So it’s not crazy and weird to suggest that what our Creator intended is all mystical and ineffable. That’s His nature, insofar as any part of His Creation can even pretend to know Him. That means you and I.
It is not that we are the purpose behind the rest of Creation, but that God’s witness to us required all the things we experience in our universe. The vastness of Creation is pitifully tiny in God’s reckoning, something He put together with unspeakable wisdom and skill in just a few days. You can immerse yourself in what your senses and logic can grasp, but you cannot get to know God that way. You have to rise above human reason and intellect, because relying on that is the very essence of the Fall. You have to awaken higher faculties. You have to connect on a different level, so that your mind becomes a mere servant, an executive organizer that implements what God requires. God does not address Himself to the human intellect. He speaks only to the spirit and heart.
The heart is a sensory organ with it’s own “brain” and is far more powerful than the intellect. That much is simply scientific fact. You can read the highly academic papers and books of Stanford University biologist Jan Walleczek and associates; they are hard to find and often expensive to access. You can also find the much more accessible Heart Math Institute, so long as you realize that it’s wrapped in a high pressure sales pitch. I’ll point you to the landing page for their basic explanation, but warn you that it’s all about drawing you in, almost like a cult.
For our purposes, it is enough to simply note the facts for those of you who simply cannot proceed without a valid factual basis: The heart has a measurable sensory field and interacts with other fields, particularly the measurable energy fields around other living things. The scientists can detect a field presence extending about ten or fifteen feet (3-4.5m). What they cannot tell you is that your own heart can interact with living creatures in Creation much farther out. In general, the scientific approach doesn’t yield a whole lot for the investment. It requires a massive cerebral effort for a tiny improvement in your existence. If your mind remains in control, you really can’t get very far. I assure you it’s better than nothing, but nothing like the approach hinted at in Scripture.
The Bible points you to a path that takes you face to face with God. It cannot be factual; it is wholly personal. There will be obvious similarities with those who share this gift, but as a whole, it grows as something utterly unique to you. That’s because the whole point is to awaken parts of yourself that have been silenced by science and all that it represents. We don’t give you something you don’t already have. God put it there. So far as anyone can tell, He put it into every living soul, not to mention every other creature that lives. Indeed, it connects directly to matter itself. This connected-ness is fundamental to Creation, and is a direct reflection of God’s own personal character.
So when I begin putting this together, it will of necessity be in the first person voice, for example. It’s personal. But I’m not willing to confine this to what I have experienced myself. It will inevitably include some of the work from Sister Christine. I’ll be including some of my wife’s story. Some of you could probably write or at least relate your own experience with this awakened communion with Creation. If you are willing to share your own witness to the truth with us, let me know.
Sure, you can fake it. A decent writer could splash out all sorts of goop that sounds like what I’ve written above and the rest of us would never know. There’s no way to prevent that. But those of you who understand what this is about will surely grasp how there is no particular interest in exercising that kind of editorial control and “fact checking.” That’s because, in the final analysis, God knows the truth about you. If you use His name in vain to manipulate others for some imaginary personal gain, He won’t let it slide.
But the whole point is my firm conviction that this particular part of God’s ineffable truth is within reach of all humanity, including those who remain spiritually dead. There is something about the mercy of God expressed in His Law Covenants that calls to all of humanity with a measure of redemption. That was the purpose of the Law as Law. You can decide how much of it you want. I am convinced that you need not be “born again” to experience the living moral sphere of God’s Creation. What’s missing is the background that permits folks to be open to such a sphere.
We can’t remake society, and certainly cannot correct the massive deception that is Western Civilization, but we can give people an exit ramp that takes them off that vast highway to Hell on earth. There is sufficient scientific research to draw attention to that ramp. Everyone living can surrender their intellect to the higher faculties of the heart, which is really the only way you can properly understand God’s Word. The Bible itself frequently refers to this faculty, but Westerners have been taught to read it as a figure of speech. We need to awaken this thing in every soul that we can possibly touch with the truth.
Nobody will make any money from this project, and the resulting written product will remain free, available in multiple formats. Nothing is aimed at controlling the outcomes. Nobody will be asked to join anything, only commit themselves to what they can discern from their own heart-mind. Go ahead and write your own book if you like; it’s not a competition for some limited resource. This stuff won’t change the world. It could awaken a few more souls to what the world actually is. It won’t take much for readers to realize why it’s worth any investment of our personal resources. How can we who sense this reality keep it to ourselves? The moral fabric of Creation itself demands we do this.
