As best I can recall, I was probably about ten years old when I first read the book of Revelation in the Bible. I was concerned about those "streets of gold," flowery pies in the skies, clouds, harps, and other heavenly stuff, I had heard in church and elsewhere. I figured the best way to really know what was going on would be to read Revelation first hand and make my own decisions.
I found out what was usually called Heaven was really called the New Jerusalem and it came out of heaven to a restored earth. It was a real place, with actual streets, trees, and material things. I also read that the city was not made of gold, or the streets were not actually paved with gold, as I had been taught. The actual words were: "And the building of the wall of it was [of] jasper: and the city [was] pure gold, like unto clear glass." "and the street of the city [was] pure gold, as it were transparent glass." Revelation 21:18, 21c, respectfully.)
A ten year old might not know the term metaphor, but that does not mean he can not understand the concept. These verses do not refer to actual gold, any ten year old knows that actual gold is not clear. The whole New Jerusalem passage, refers to precious transparency. Why can't grown ups understand something so simple. I suppose at the time I really did not recognize just how hung up with actual gold were all those adults. Then again, I guess I still don't.
Did you know that gold is actually the 75th element in abundance in the earth's crust, but is still widely distributed? The major problem with gold mining adventures is finding it in concentrations that are high enough and large enough to merit its economic recovery. Since the days of Solomon, all we have really done in the process of gold mining is increase the economies of scale. That means in order to have a mine of economic viability in this era, you must be able to support a minimum capital investment of at least $250,000,000. (two hundred fifty million dollars).
That of course has little to do with the environmental carnage such a large investment will do to a wilderness habitat. All this means you need a huge deposit of ore, which on average might not be all that rich, in terms of the amount of gold present per ton, but there would be lots of tons of stuff to mine. In a country with strong environmental controls and a population in which you mention the word cyanide and everyone goes crazy, you understand why gold mining no longer exist in most of the developed world. But with gold fever a real disease quite common amongst the world's most corrupt legal enterprise, there are always many who are willing to risk everything for the cause of temporal wealth and greed.
Now the physics and the metaphysics of gold deposits, is that God in His infinite wisdom did not make gold that easy to mine. He made a lot of places with relatively high concentrations of gold, locked in rocks and buried in the dirt, all not generally of sufficient size so just any fool could get rich. And He also made a lot of very low grade deposits, that could never be mined economically under provisions of huge capital investments and operating expenses.
From the physics and the metaphysics of human potential, that same similar gold model seems to also apply. The question then remains. Just how do you get the gold, without destroying the person and/or his environment in the process? I'm glad you ask that question, for they are, or can be interrelated. But just as the New Jerusalem is of transparent gold, the redeemed children of God must function as transparent gold, the first fruits apparent to all in this world.
Today pure gold has a market value (spot price) of about $280. per troy ounce. That means if you were content to live on $50,000 per year, and were to live on a gold standard, you would need about 180 oz. of pure gold (61.2 kg. which would occupy a little over 3000 cc, if you wanted to put it into 3 one liter pop bottles). Other amounts might be appropriate to support yourself or your ministry elsewhere in the world, either directly or indirectly. These thoughts, of course, are just in case some day in the future some big brother determines that paper and electronic funds transfers are really not the source of wealth he persuaded the world's public to accept.
Now the key to successful mining has to do with how you handle the various components in the ore. Pure gold has a density of 19.3 (times heavier than water). Most natural gold because it is generally alloyed with silver, has a density of 10-12. Other minerals have a density of 4 to 5, and rocks and inorganic dirt about 2-3. To chemically dissolve gold it is generally the last metal to go into solution, and the first to come out.
Now if you are the typical mining company, your "mine set" says you must use large amounts of water, cyanide and have a huge ore deposit to support your capital investment. Now just because it has always been done that way, doesn't mean it is the right way to go. To use a really bad metaphor, you have to "think outside the mine box." Mine meaning actual mine, or spiritually, my selfish mine.
In the mining of gold adventure, why couldn't you use air instead of water. After all according to physics, water by definition has a density of one, and a surface tension, that really becomes important when you are dealing with small gold particles and turbulent flows. Air after all, in what we are talking about doing, has virtually no density, and if you play some games with weakly magnetic minerals you could get a concentrating factor of several hundred to over a thousand in your concentration equipment, greatly altering the economics of scale of the chemicals that you need to use.
Since we are talking about chemicals, why not leave the cyanide to terrorist threats, where it is about as effective of a poison as it is effective in mining. Not very. Let's just refine our gold with some chemicals not much more dangerous than what you find in the normal American home. All this could possibly make you rethink the economic necessity of a worldly life-style. Especially if you were to learn that a small high grade ore body, with say a couple of million dollars of gold could be developed on a pay as you go basis, starting with just monthly car payments. That would be a mine, I would like to call mine. All of this becomes possible by only changing the question from, why to why not, or from fear to faith. Nothing has changed in the application of the physics of gold mining, just the technique. But essentially the metaphysics of God's supremacy has changed, from man's supremacy to God's mercy and grace achieved through faith.
In a similar way, if you look at the empirical evidence of the progress of the church in the developed world you see a similar capital intensive approach. We could say, if we spend just a few more bucks, then revival will come, and we can not only play a part, we can be the rich leaders. This gold mine is just a hole you throw money into, and nothing ever comes out.
If you think about it from that
perspective, philosophically from the deductive evidence, it should
not be all that hard to prove five point Calvinism. Think about
it. However, a different metaphysical concept might be, that God
in His infinite wisdom, is unwilling to share His glory with self
serving religious leaders, Calvinist or Arminian. He is just allowing
us to spend His money on useless mining of human potential, because
He loves His kids, and if they think they can help God save some
from hell's fire, why not allow them that fleeting bit of pride.
After all none of that changes God's plan of salvation by grace
alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone, it just reinforces
it, especially in the religious sector where it is needed the
most. The joke is on the religious leaders who think they have
merit in their own works.
The problem with this type of mining of human potential however,
just as in the real mining company, is that you need either bankers,
to loan you the money, or investors who think that your mining
of human souls is a productive use of capital. That of course
goes in evangelical America by the term, prayer or ministry partners.
All this capital is an investment in my future, right along with
my material portfolio. In this world I am worth $ 5 million and
I invest $1 million in God's work. But see that this "stewardship"
is really not biblical stewardship at all, but worldly asset management.
Godly stewardship requires the presence of faith. And as the Bible
says true faith looks beyond the seen to view the unseen as the
reality that controls this natural world.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:9: But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him (Quoting Isaiah 64:4, 65:17). This is the gold refining process we saw in Revelation 3: 14-22 and the church of Laodica, and places golden brackets around John's Apocalypse. On the front side in Laodica, the church has worldly wealth, but doesn't have heavenly gold, but is urged to by it directly from Jesus. On the other end you have a metaphor that makes gold as common as asphalt and cement, but transparent as glass. In the middle we have what most of evangelicalism calls the revelation of the end times, or the Great Tribulation. Others make this interval into a revelation of the church age.
There are elements of truth in both views. But what we should clearly see is the complexity of the symbiosis that is both literal and a metaphor. God's children are supposed to be able to see the big picture, but all too often it is easier to just rest on present investments and not venture into the unseen realm of Godly faith. It is a truth that any ten year old can understand, but they as yet have not been educated to understand the subtle differences in terms. But as we grow up and wise in our own eyes we very often miss this truth. What we will then miss as we are refined, by God's standards and not our own, is the depth of John's final vision that fits into what Paul speaks of to the Corinthians. We are blind to the fact that Paul does not limit his statement to the eternal heavenly future alone. If we do that, we set the stage for our own refining peril. Eternal life begins at conversion, or regeneration for God's children, not just in heaven. It is much more complex than what is generally called progressive sanctification, for its roots lie in God's refining principles, and not our limited childish understanding.
Last week John grasped that concept, Mark had to spend six weeks in St. Peter's to get it straight. That story was a parable to get our metaphysics straight before we get all too involved with the physics of the situation. In that light we must keep our sense of humor, for God has given us that gift to make are world a better place. Once we have the physics and the metaphysics properly alined, making gold out of a pile of busted rocks is really just a matter of hot air, a little magnetic magic and some household chemicals. Last into solution, first out, leaves nothing but pure gold, with even the silver "left behind."
Next week we will look at actually turning not only gold concentrate into golden bars, but turning God's children into eternal investments of pure gold transparent as glass, whatever that is. The metaphor for this end of the deal is what I call the ten - ninety rule. This rule comes not only from the proper physics and metaphysics of gold mining, but also a new less capital intensive method of refining God's children.
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