Yesterday’s post garnered a lot of attention, more than normal on this blog. Aside from the questions and answers in the comment section, several other questions arose and it all warrants a review together.
The obvious point is that our human mortal existence is not real. There’s a whole lot of human decisions that simply do not matter in the long run. Everything humans do individually and in the aggregate will be wiped away, forgotten in Eternity — with the exception of our efforts to bring the Creator glory. If we make this our priority, then it naturally changes our focus in this life. The only reason we live is to glorify the Lord.
It’s not that we do nothing but sit around and sing praise songs. There are actions we must take in order to live here. Rather, the way in which we do all the same things other humans do in this life are shaped by this one priority: We are supposed to live according to His revealed agenda. Our words and actions should portray this different orientation. But there are some complications to this.
I’ve mentioned in the past a Covenant of Creation. This is not noted by name in the Bible; it’s just a supposition. It posits that all Creation owes glory to the Creator. There’s not much more to it than that. Others have posited a Covenant of Adam, as well. I haven’t referred to it, but insofar as there might be such a thing, it’s represented by the Flaming Sword at the Gate of Eden. It marks us out as fallen, and our sole duty is to return to Eden. We do have the formal declaration where God remonstrates with Adam and Eve after they hid from Him. It’s an outline of what we can expect in a mortal existence, but the summary is the Flaming Sword. I suggested that, if we were to nudge this into the parable I drew up, then the Flaming Sword is the operating system on which the game software runs. This is the sole reason we have a simulation; we are not in the Garden any more, not in an eternal form of existence.
Yes, there are flaws and problems with this parable. It cannot answer all the questions. It was never meant to do so. As the old saw goes, “You cannot make a parable walk on all fours.” That’s a parable in itself. The whole point of a parable is to indicate something worthy of contemplation about things that cannot possibly fit into words in the first place. We are inside the game simulation; this is not reality.
It’s not as if we can avoid getting involved in human affairs. The whole thing is aimed at reducing your emotional connection to this world. We need to break down the barrier between the game and reality as much as possible to turn our attention to the real world outside the simulation. Play the game because that’s how you end it for yourself; play the game according to its own rules, but with an eye to the proposition that it’s only a game.
