Last week Robert gave us his testimony of his life. Looking at it in the
light of our basic assumption that man is a religious personality, it is quite
easy to understand that Robert's task in giving us his life story is to convert
us to his particular belief style. To put it in a broader context, Robert is
trying to create, through his evangelical efforts a community of believers with
similar beliefs with which he can fellowship or commune. He is bringing us his
good news, his evangel. It really makes no difference to the specific
individual whether the underling reasons for evangelism and the requirement for
community evolved out of the need for mutual protection from a hostile
environment, or a need to create a superior being out of our own intellect to
explain unknown forces at work in the universe and in that context form a
religious culture, or a straight forward proposition that a supreme personal
God created man out of the dust of the earth. Man spends much of his enterprise
capital trying to convert others to is cultural religious outlook. The ultimate
truth of those endeavors bear little importance to the overall conduct of the
community building enterprise, whether that be community in the traditional sense,
or a modern corporate structure.
In Robert's case his religion has borrowed many twigs from the three main
branches of religious thought we described earthier. He believes strongly in
the influence of western culture, that he can not only figure everything out,
but by his efforts alone he can make his way secure in this world. He has this
idea that what goes around comes around, sort of the circular reasoning we find
in reincarnation and eastern thought. He also maintains some concept of formal
middle eastern religion, of a Supreme Being he calls the Great Spirit and a
concept of Jesus that helps him again makes some sense out of what he doesn't
understand.
Now in the concept of Enterprise Symbiosis, each of these three main belief
systems possess power for those who practice those beliefs. Each of those
beliefs in their main branch are the source of the higher power that makes
symbiosis or potential symbiosis occur. However, we have the tendency to mix
them all together, picking and choosing those parts we like to develop into our
own personal belief system. This is really in a religious sense an adaptation
to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, or entropy. To really be able to develop a
strong symbiotic enterprise you need to be connected to the true main shoot of
each religious teaching. The question is as you backtrack down the Betting Oak
of life, which is the right branch to follow to ultimate truth and how to
discern paths that led nowhere.
Since both Robert and his spirit guide, Three, understood that the knowledge
of good and evil of the Quercus trifecta, is described in the Bible in Genesis
Chapter 2, perhaps we should see if that main middle branch of the three major
religions Islam, Judaism and early Christianity, and the Good Book that all hold
in reverence, can provide some guidance.
Now virtually all people in Western society have a copy of the scriptures
unused and collecting dust somewhere. If not they can be obtained at little
cost in any bookstore or if you would like one for free, almost any church or
Christian ministry or Christian would provide you one for free. Depending who
you ask depends upon what type of evangelical response you will obtain, (just
like Robert) so keep man's evangelistic religious responses in mind. For sake
of our discussion here virtually any translation or paraphrase edition is
adequate. I personally use the New King James Version (NKJV) because I have
been told by a number of informed sources that this translation was the one
used by the Apostle Paul (the writer of over half the New Testament) in his
later ministry. Early in his ministry he used the regular King James or
Authorized Version, the standard for the English speaking world since 1611.
Since Paul was a Jew and wrote the New Testament in Greek, this of course is a
joke. Ha, Ha. However when dealing with heavy religious matters one must
maintain his sense of humor. That is one prerequisite.
In Genesis Chapter 3 my particular edition has a Chapter Title "The Temptation and Fall of Man." This
was not in the original Hebrew Scriptures but was added by the editors to help
normal people find stuff. My particular edition probably contains fifty percent
of its volumes in various explanations and notes to help clarify certain
verses. Sometimes, depending upon the edition's editorial staff, these are
helpful, sometimes they reflect certain evangelistic biases of the editors and
may or may not reflect the truth of the original words. In plain words they may
reflect a specific western Christian cultural bias that may be far removed from
the simple straight forward understanding of the written word. So go retrieve
your Bible from its place of disuse and read this chapter.
First of all in the chapter we see four personalities, with the ability of
speech, the serpent (in this context generally understood to be Satan, the
Adversary, or the devil), the woman (Eve created by God from Adam), the person
of God himself, and Adam the first man. The simple story line is that Eve was
tempted by the serpent to eat the forbidden fruit, she talked Adam into it and,
having eaten from the tree, death entered the world and humanity.
We will deal with a number of questions related to the whole creation
account over the next few weeks, but for the remainder of this article let us
deal with a fundamental question related to this incident, that been ask
throughout the ages. That question goes something like, "If there is a
Supreme God, Creator of all, and the essence of Love, why did (does) he allow
suffering and death?" Let us look at some potential answers.
A typical person from the western branch of the Betting Oak could respond, "There is no God. Everyone is in this for himself,
to get all he can get. But as for death, there has always been death, it is the
way it has always been, the way it always will be. Once you die, your elements
are freed to be recycled into plants, other animals and compounds. But why do I
have this individual personality, this language ability (both oral and
written), why is there evil and good and a whole host of other questions of
cosmology, epistemology and ontology, we have only theories as of now. But
through the evolutionary process someone, someday, perhaps in another million
years will figure it all out."
A typical person from the eastern branch of Quercus
trifecta you can almost hear respond something like this. "Life is the force of the universe. The force is
either good or bad (evil). God is all and all is God. It has always been so, it
will never change. The role of man is to use is knowledge and understanding for
good and not for evil. In that way over many lifetimes he can one day reach
that point of complete understanding and then he will finally be at peace. He
will be with God as God. I know that does not give a reason for the actual
existence of evil, but one day all will be one. For what reason I do not know,
nor do I really have any idea of a course to chart to get there."
Ask the typical North American Evangelical Christian, from whom you got the
free Bible the response would typically be something like, "Da, Da, I really don't know anything about that. I
just know I asked Jesus into my heart and now I'm saved and filled with the
spirit."
The more historical Christian view however, would go something like, "In Genesis you see that God created everything and
that creation was very good. But because God is spirit there must be something
in natural creation that causes the created to want to sin. It led the devil to
sin and it allowed him to tempt Eve and with that all of creation and mankind
fell into sin. It is pretty much a great mystery, however I have a whole lot of
books that I could sell you, or let you use, perhaps they could help you
understand this a lot more."
The point one must draw from this Genesis account as written however is "Da. If God truly is who he says he is, he must have
before hand developed a plan to deal with sin, suffering and death.
Consequently from His perspective (and yours?) it should not be that big of a
deal. 'Chill, Adam, Eve and the Serpent, I have it all under control. But that
assurance must be accepted by faith because you cannot see that plan in this
context of the present only.'"
Let us blaze a new trail as a path of enterprise. All these scenarios look
at the act or the consequences of the fall and not the very goodness of
sanctified creation the Bible describes. The problem is not in weakness of some
aspect of creation, the problem (for lack of a better word) is in the actual
perfection of creation. The creation account says: Then
God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let
them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over
the cattle, over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth" (Genesis
1:26)
As God told Adam and Eve (and as the serpent already knew) God knows the
difference between good and evil (by His own definition). But because God is
all good and all holy (not evil) he cannot really choose to create evil because
it is a logical impossibility. However, mankind is created in the "image
and the likeness of God." The importance of the creation account is that
God created creation or the universe out of nothing, In His image there is a
possibility that this creative ability could have been given to the first man
and woman. Now since they were completely good, without the knowledge of evil,
because of their divine creation, the only possibility for them to create
something out of nothing can only occur by them using their own free will. As a
creature, they can create evil out of there own created goodness, free choice,
words, and actions and nothing else, bringing about what is defined as the fall
of man. However, since that knowledge elevates the created to the level of the
creator God, understanding good and evil, they are no longer holy and innocent,
and death must ensue. But man's creation is now truly complete in the image of
God, because he now has the knowledge of God, but also will forever be aware of
that distinction between the Creator and the created.
In another way. It is that through their creative enterprise, (the creation
of evil from nothing and the resulting eminent death) they can thereby
understand the ultimate difference between the created and their Creator, this
time without having the perfect innocence of perfect creation. Therefore the
inbred knowledge of good and evil, becomes part of mankind's genetic makeup.
All that is required is a solution to the death problem, which God promises to
the serpent through Eve in Genesis 3:16.
This creation of evil was accomplished through Eve the woman, really the
part of humanity responsible for reproductive creation. Adam, the man really
only provides genetic information to the woman who then wonderfully creates new
life within her body. It therefore would make perfect sense to offer her that
Genesis promise and one day through that same natural creative process within
her womb create the ultimate solution to death. It would also make perfect
sense that the serpent would focus his attention upon her, because he and Adam
already know that Eve is the better half.
In the context of this portion of the Genesis scriptures, to God the
knowledge of good and evil and the Betting Oak (Quercus trifecta) was not that
big of a deal. It was all planned out before hand and he has provided a
solution to that problem of death, up that God centered branch of the tree.
The question of the week, is if your thought and religious processes are not
along that central branch of the Betting Oak, "How does God's mercy and
grace provide that appropriated solution to the ultimate knowledge of sin, evil
and death? What is God's evangel?
Last week Kris Repp mentioned that her Central
American ministry had to rest upon God alone because of her impossibility to
carry it out in her own abilities. Since that time and in the context of
Enterprise Symbiosis, I have come up with a way to proceed with the property I
mentioned a couple of weeks ago, perhaps pay for it completely right away. It
is located about 10 miles from where my great-grandfather Bannon homesteaded
about a century ago. After a number of years, he couldn't take it any more and
headed to Southern California to spend the rest of his life, leaving his wife
and kids on their own, or so I have understood listening to the stories I was
told as a kid with perhaps a little reading between the lines. In any respect
since I drive by the place a few times each year, I fully understand that if
God isn't in it, this particular enterprise is bound to fail. Therefore the
only reason to proceed is if that is what God wants me to do. As much as I
don't care for Southern California, my great-grandfather was not stupid, it is
a much easier place to make a living. Therefore this will not be an undertaking
that I will be jumping into unless I know that this is truly what the Lord
would have me do. Please pray for that guidance and those provisions as
required.
Financial provision have increased over the last week so I thank you for
your prayers, but continue to pray for an understanding and victuals for the
immediate path.