Does Christian Theology Encourage Freedom?

 

God established the physical and not-physical (spiritual) rules of our Cosmos. Although we humans have done a reasonable job of discovering and applying the physical laws of our universe, we unfortunately have failed to fully embrace the not-physical doctrines of our natural Cosmos.

Thus God had a problem. He wanted to reveal his spiritual rules to us. His solution was to convey his message to all who would listen through the voice and deeds of a man he would call his son. We know that man as Jesus Christ. He was created to convey God’s wisdom to us.

Jesus Christ did a great job. He taught a theology and philosophy that would influence the development of western civilization for centuries. Our best political, technological, cultural, economic and scientific advancements have been stimulated by the energy of the beliefs he taught us in the first century.

Why is this true?

Christian theology encourages everyone... from the poorest to the richest, from the weakest to the most powerful... to seek spiritual wisdom. We are able to establish a spiritual relationship with God... a very personal and intimate relationship that helps us to define who we are. These encounters help to give life both purpose and meaning.

Christian theology establishes the rules for emotional and physical health. Be moral, be responsible, be positive, be constructive, be compassionate and be self-confident. Achievement is to be respected. Charity and love for others is essential. Seek the power of the spiritual while dealing with the reality of the physical.  And so on.... We learn God’s wisdom and confirm his love for us. 

Christian theology communicates the highest code of moral behavior, the conviction that life is valuable, and a firm commitment to faith, love, charity, and compassion. Spiritual redemption and eternal life are possible.

As a result, there is a sharp contrast between the evils of deceit, hedonism, greed, intellectual arrogance and the political tyranny of autocratic minds... versus ... the modesty, compassion, charity, moral obligation, and personal responsibility found in the message of Christian theology.

There is an equally sharp contrast between the failures of every dictatorship that governs by oppression and the success of nations that embrace Christian concepts of freedom with personal responsibility as a natural right.

The freedom to achieve... to be successful... is a natural right. It drives our creative instincts and subsequent innovation. Success breeds confidence and self-confidence stimulates further exploration of the possible. Freedom is the intellectual foundation of our quest for greater human knowledge. 

These are troubling times. Christian values are being challenged by those who chose to ignore the existence of the spiritual. That gives us a mission. The fundamental purpose of Christian theology is to practice, preserve, protect and spread the word of God as revealed by Jesus Christ.

Let us all come together as a community. Every church, every congregation, and every gathering of people who come together in his name. Compared to the challenge before us, the differences in our beliefs are trivial. United we can carry on the mission of Jesus Christ. Let us be firm in our commitment to Christian modesty, compassion, charity, moral obligation, and personal responsibility. We believe life is valuable. God’s commandments are sacred. The foundation of civilized behavior rests on the values proclaimed by the Ten Commandments. We have a firm commitment to personal faith, love, charity, and compassion. We know spiritual redemption and eternal life are possible. Christian theology provides the word... Let us remember:

If we approach life as God intended,
resolute in our efforts to preserve his word,
We will make a difference.

Christian values and philosophy provide a moral foundation

for the freedom to achieve greater knowledge.

Ron

Let us unite our perception of the physical with our experience of the spiritual.
Both were created by God.

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Creation: What is the Role of Information?

 

Advancements in genetics and molecular biology suggest cells have the ability to receive, process, store and act on information created within the cell and information received from sources which are external to the cell. This is analogous to a computing network which uses information to make decisions that control growth, movement, differentiation, and response. Think of it as natural genetic engineering. Decisions are made for a purpose and then carried out by the cell’s internal biology.

Darwin assumed all genetic change was accidental and random. But recent work suggests the functions of the genome are not static. Instead, cellular change is affected by the cell’s external environment, mutation depends on internal biochemical processes which can be altered by the cell, and active cell response can drive rapid evolutionary changes in a cell’s DNA. Thus while Darwin’s accidental and random genetic change cannot explain the rather abrupt events we see in DNA and fossil records, a cell’s ability to acquire, store, process and transmit information does encourage rapid adaptive change. Information may come from the disruption of an expected internal function, the external environment, or external intelligence.

Statistically, random mutations are unlikely to produce the desired result within the desired time-frame. But if the biological functions of the cell are actively directed by acquired information, then the cell (and hence the biological host) is more likely to achieve a successful mutation. By receiving, storing, processing, creating and transmitting information, active organisms are able to adapt to changes in their external environment and shape their own evolution.

However, where does all this information come from? If it does not originally reside in a cell’s DNA, who or what is the source?

Ron

Summa 21 

Let us unite our perception of the physical with our experience of the spiritual.

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What Should We Believe About The Holy Spirit?

 

True story

Some time ago someone challenged me to describe God. It should have been a relatively straightforward challenge.  Christian tradition provides an explanation.  God is three persons, God is in three persons, God the Father, God the son (Jesus), God the Holy Ghost ...  and  there is a very long list of attributes that have been added to our description of God. But these traditions are .. ancient traditions. Have we learned anything new? Where does the feminine belong in our understanding of God? Why do millions of women pray to the Virgin Mary? Is she God too? What do we mean when we repeat “I am the one God”? Does that conflict with the three persons idea?   And by the way... What is the role of the Holy Ghost?

I procrastinated for days. But finally one evening a simple question firmly embedded itself in my thoughts. I could no longer avoid the challenge. “Who or what is God?”

That question echoed in my mind as I fell asleep

Then sometime between 12:30 and 2:30 AM I was gently awakened from a very deep sweet sleep by a clear and definitely firm male voice that echoed through my semi consciousness state...

“I am not a what”.

“Well... I chuckled gently to myself... that solves 50 percent of my problem”... and promptly fell back to sleep.

So... after pondering the theology of Christian tradition and the current theories of Quantum Science... here are several thoughts....   You don’t have to agree with me. I believe we need to refocus Christian theology on our spiritual relationship with God ... and bring our beliefs into the 21^st century.

Tradition

Traditional perceptions imply a physical individual; The Holy Spirit is the third person found in the Trilogy (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost). However, the very name “Holy Ghost” implies it is not essentially physical in nature. It is not an old man with a long beard looking down on us from the clouds above us.

Who is The Holy Spirit?

God is best described as the Holy Spirit... a natural biological being. The soul of the Holy Spirit is the source and presence of conscious  energy that permeates the Cosmos.  In deep prayer, we make a spiritual connection with The Holy Spirit’s conscious energy.

The term “Holy Spirit” infers spiritual energy. The activity of the Holy Spirit would be impossible without the intellectual, emotional and physical transfer of energy. Therefore, in contemporary terms, we can characterize The Holy Spirit as being both a physical and a metaphysical essence of a living reality. The Holy Spirit is a conscious divine life force. The Holy Spirit is the absolute and perfect expression of a living soul. The Holy Spirit is virtuous, pure, and without blame. The Holy Spirit is the personification of wisdom.

The Holy Spirit is a vibrant living conscious soul whose presence permeates the entire cosmos. The Holy Spirit is the source of all the laws, physical and not-physical, that govern how our Cosmos operates. The Holy Spirit created every law of physics, chemistry, geology, biology, cosmology and all other sciences; every physical characteristic of the Cosmos, including all matter and energy; and every law of moral behavior and human interaction including all human emotions and intellectual capacity.

The Holy Spirit is a transcendent spiritual person. The Holy Spirit (sometimes identified as The Holy Ghost) exists as a separate persona with God the Father and Jesus Christ the son. The Holy Spirit communicates with (and through) the prophets who speak (or teach) what they have heard from the Holy Spirit. The word “Holy” means the Spirit is blameless, without fault, and without sin. The Holy Spirit is the source of all wisdom.

Conscious Energy

Philosophers and theologians of multiple faiths from all over our planet have long believed we humans are all interconnected. Consciousness is energy. Energy is the basis of all life and matter. The energy of consciousness enables awareness.

We humans are certainly conscious beings, and we are capable of experiencing the spiritual as an extension of our awareness. We become aware of the spiritual through prayer, meditation, our sensitivity to the thoughts and feelings of others, the awe and joy brought forth by a beautiful experience, and our emotional response to someone we love. There is no physical dimension to love, loyalty, honor, integrity, morality, or righteousness. These are embodied in the spiritual nature of our being and the values of the Holy Spirit’s Cosmos.

It would appear our active conscious, semi-conscious, and core conscious thoughts are influenced by quantum connections (or coherence) with an intelligence whose character we can only guess at, but whose universal principles frame our understanding of what is moral, what is virtuous, what is beautiful, and what is true. This omniscient cosmic intelligence ( the Holy Spirit) is the creative source of our universe and all forms of life.

The conscious energy of the Holy Spirit would exist, even if we did not.

Infinite Connections

There is a key question: How is the holy Spirit able to make a conscious connection with an unlimited number of humans (and other life forms) in an unlimited number of places .... all at the same time?

Actually, it’s easy to understand.

We humans (and some other life forms) have the ability to be aware of multiple mental stimuli at the same time. A mother speaking to a friend while also being aware of her children’s activity – even in another room. A teacher who (somehow) seems to know what every member of her class is doing... even when her back is turned away. While landing an airplane, full of passengers, the pilot is aware of the flight controls, the weather and wind conditions, the approaching runway, a conversation with the control tower, and the comments of the co-pilot... all at the same time.

Our ability to be aware of... and interact with... multiple mental stimuli at the same time is a fact. The physics of Quantum Mechanics suggest that inter-dimensional interactions may occur simultaneously without regard for distance or time. For me, it does not take a big leap of faith to realize the Holy Spirit obviously has this same capability  - on a much larger scale.

Personas

I am the one true God. Do not create other Gods or icons to worship.

The personas of God the Holy Spirit exist in another universe that parallels and interacts with our universe. Although these personas may exist as a form of energy that is unfamiliar to us, they are everywhere. There is no limit to the number of simultaneous appearances that may occur at a moment in time, nor is there any limit to where they may happen. The Holy Spirit can appear (or connect) to us as God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, as the Virgin Mary, a stranger, a family member...  or in whatever form serves his purpose. These personas surround us with compassion, love, and the energy of life. The more open we are to them, the closer we get to the biological life-force that exists throughout the Cosmos.

God the Holy Spirit is a source of inspiration and inspires us in many ways: the words of a person who seeks to help us, the loving actions of an animal, the sudden discovery of a lovely flower, the colors of a sunset... and so on. God the Holy Spirit is a source of wisdom and he may convey the knowledge we need to us in moments of introspective thought. In these activities the Holy Spirit takes the proactive role of a loving God.

Consciousness, awareness, and interaction with The Holy Spirit transcend ordinary perception.  Our experience of The Holy Spirit is transcendent, mystical, and inspiring. These experiences come alive, and have meaning, as materializations of divine energy.

After Death

When we are judged by God, the criteria for judgement have been established by The Holy Spirit.

For those who are worthy, there is a similar connection after we transform into the spiritual self that will live in Heaven. In simple terms, we are like the river that flows into and becomes one with the ocean. Although the waters of the river still exist, they are now intertwined with the waters of the ocean. We connect with the consciousness and awareness that is the Holy Spirit. We are aware of God’s divine unity. We are able to find and communicate with those who have also ascended into heaven.

Let us connect.

The Holy Spirit is a person whose majesty and power we can only imagine.... a singularity whose unlimited wisdom and genuine love can be discovered through prayer and meditation.  Let us seek to make that connection.

 

Ron

A Note:   Native Canadians and Americans Revere The Great Spirit

Native Canadian and American Indians have a deep respect for The Great Spirit. These beliefs are the basis of their spiritual values. Prayer to The Great Spirit embodies the very essence of spiritual connection.

The Great Spirit transcends the barriers of time and space and is sometimes described as the god of creation, history and eternity. Harmony with nature and the universe is essential. Everything that exists is interconnected. The Great Spirit is the great omnipresent unifying and universal life force that flows in and through all forms of life.

The nature of the Great Spirit is beyond human understanding. In Lakota tradition, the Great Spirit is also known as the Great Mystery. In the Haudenosaunee tradition, the Great Spirit is known as "the Creator" that lives in all of us.

A prayer might start with “Hear me; I need your strength and wisdom.”

.......

A little family history:  In 1819, my ancestors established a successful mission (Methodist Church) among the Ohio Wyandote.  It’s first to Native Americans.

 

 

“What are Christian values?”

 

When we are asked: “What are Christian values?” we may struggle to answer. They are so natural to us we seldom try to list them. But these values are the bedrock of our faith. Throughout  the ages, God has taught them to all who would listen. They exist in the wisdom of many cultures – all over our planet.  For Christians, these values can be found in the written expressions of faith found in the Old and New Testaments as well as the words and deeds of God’s chosen messengers. We know God’s values provide a moral framework for our behavior.

But we are being challenged to declare our beliefs with conviction.  We seek a more complete understanding of these values so that we can express them with confidence.

It all starts by establishing a loving relationship with God. We are inspired to seek and love him without reservation. Those who are able to connect with God in prayer or meditation discover he is a wonderful source of wisdom, peace and joy.

We can are also encouraged to create a transcendent relationship with Jesus Christ. The son of God taught us God’s values and gave his life to prove the truth of his message.  

Our spiritual relationships with God and his son inspire us to love others with sensitivity and empathy. God wants us to take a thoughtful view of our interpersonal relationships. People with a healthy outlook on life will not choose to hurt themselves either physically or emotionally. We are expected to project this same caring attitude in our personal relations with others. It does not matter whether our contact is casual and brief (as with a stranger we meet on the street), or the result of a long term relationship (as in marriage), God wants us to set the example.  

Life begins at conception. The preservation, protection and support of the family unit, along with the physical, emotional, and intellectual well-being of family members, are fundamental components of Christian theology.  Although these values can be found in other spiritual faiths and secular social structures, they find their best expression in the influence Christianity has had on western philosophy.

We choose to elevate Christian theology, with its emphasis on love, goodwill, individual growth, personal responsibility, and freedom. We do not believe in a class social system where there is a hierarchy of privilege based on title or wealth. We believe in the inherent equality of humanity, regardless of physical attributes. One is not condemned to forever be at the bottom of the sociological pyramid. Even the poor can have dignity and status. Within our Christian community there is love and compassion for the sick, the elderly, the very young, the hungry, the widow or widower, and the poor. No one need live in the loneliness of isolation. One can have a sense of belonging to a community of friends, of every age, all brothers and sisters in Christ. Salvation is offered to those who adopt God’s values.

We try to live our lives according to the tenets and lessons of the Ten Commandments. We can also add a 21^st century context to our obligation.

1. I am the one true God.  Do not create other Gods or icons to worship.

2. Never use my name in vain or as an expression of profanity.

3. Set aside Sunday as a day for God, family and friends... in that order.  Join others in worship. Seek the transcendent spiritual experience in song, prayer and meditation. Embrace your family with joy and quiet conversation. Strengthen the bonds friendship.

4. Honor your father and your mother. Love your family and relatives.

5. Do not seek to humiliate, torture, or kill another human.

6. Do not commit adultery, engage in indecent behavior, or seek to exploit the weak for sexual pleasure.

7. Do not steal, or commit fraud.

8. Do not lie or make false statements against any person or institution.

9. Do not want to have your neighbor’s house or possessions; do not desire to possess your neighbor’s wife; and do not attempt to disrupt your neighbor’s household.

10. Avoid conceit and envy.

We must be aware how our actions and words affect other conscious beings. Being actively mindful of others enables understanding, compassion, and ethical restraint. By this introspection we learn how to treat others as we would want them to treat us

The core values of a 21st century Christian are taken from the New Testament of the Bible. Within these pages one finds the best expression the theology taught by Jesus Christ. These beliefs, along with selected passages from the Bible’s Old Testament, provide a moral foundation for the cultural values of Western Civilization. Christian theology with its emphasis on personal achievement, has been a key driver in the development of a strong middle class, and is the philosophical basis of the American Republic.

If we deliberately ignore God’s values.... the values by which he wants us to live our lives...we cannot claim to be a Christian, ... and there is a penalty...  we may forsake our chance to enter God’s Kingdom (heaven).  And there is another downside. If we discard these values, we destroy the moral foundation of civilized behavior.

These are some of the core beliefs that motivate the life and behavior of a 21^st century Christian. So how can we prepare to convey them to others?

Let us start by making a quiet connection with God: a quiet interlude of prayer to nourish our soul and encourage spiritual peace.  Then let us list these values: one by one.  What do we believe?  Let us seek God’s wisdom to confirm our thoughts.

Then we go forth with confidence.  We know what we believe.

Ron

Selected thoughts from…  “Summa 21, The Natural Theology of a 21^st Century Christian”

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