The Tree Of Life & The Salvation Of All (A Summary Of My Views)

[ZenMonkey]

As a Christian panentheist I view God to be the absolute reality (all that is), both physical reality and spiritual. There are physical and spiritual laws inherent to God, which are the distinguishing characteristics and properties (qualities) of God. God's inherent nature and quality is that of law. These laws are set in stone, meaning God cannot change that which is intrinsic to God's nature. God did not create these laws. They eternally exist as God's intrinsic nature, quality, and character. The inherent nature and quality of God is unchangeable. Universal law does not change, nor can it change. God can hardly change that which is inherent in nature and quality. God is law, life, and love. Law enabled life to be, life was made through love. All creation was made to be loved by God.

We are responsible for our actions, however. It's all built into the the mechanisms of God (its law). What we do matters. In order to choose wisely we must first be informed through the attainment of knowledge. Otherwise we are just leading haphazard lives and without proper direction. Most do not enjoy the affects of evil. I certainly don't. Adam and Eve needed to be informed however (as do we). We need knowledge and understanding, so that we can make better, more informed choices through our experiential knowledge of good and evil (calamity).

I apologize for the length, but please bear with me. The only way to rise up is by first falling down. Falling is the first step in our spiritual growth and development. The only way to grow and develop as living beings is to experience some resistance (good and calamity). No pain no gain (so to speak). It is what it is. We live, we grow, develop, and mature through pleasure, suffering, and pain. However, our suffering is not without worth. Nothing in life is without some kind of worth. When the end comes and our bodies die, another life in the heavenly realms awaits for all of us, hence God being the all merciful and all loving creator of all things. All living things evolved from the first cause of life (God).

We are a product of our parents choice to bear children (to be fruitful and multiply). With that being said, we're very much like a very tender soon to develop fruit after our conception. We grow, evolve, and ripen through our paternal and maternal branches (our earthly parents). Our earthly fathers provide the seeds that germinate the eggs of our earthly mothers, which then spurs our evolution and growth in our mothers womb. The earth is God's womb however (a place where life is formed). Life as we know it all started on this earth. We all come to be and exist on this earth as living creatures. God is the the one who shapes and forms us; he is the vine dresser, and we as humans belong to the vine.

Please allow me to explain: Jesus, the only begotten son of God is the first and last Adam. It is through the first and last Adam (the way, the truth, and life) that all humanity comes to know the eternal creator of life (God). The first and last Adam is the vine through which every human branch and family came to be. It is through the first Adam that we inherited death, and it is through the last Adam that we inherit eternal life. This vine, our lineage, our family tree of life is how we come to know the father of all creation. It is because of God's great love and mercy towards us that God allowed Adam to fall, and then Jesus to raise us up into the heavenly (spiritual) realms of existence.

Like a fruit that ripens on a branch and then falls to the ground, so are we. We fall from our maternal branch (our mothers womb) when born into this world. Once we are born, we as humans begin the process of spiritual growth (we mature) and are taught by God though life and death, through pleasure and pain, and through good and calamity. We must also undergo physical decay and a fair amount of suffering during this process as finite beings. The spark of life given to us through our maternal and paternal parents slowly wanes as we continue to age. At some point our bodies die, whether by age or prematurely. Like a seed, our inner self (spiritual self - soul) begins another process of evolution, spurring new growth, whereby we start to begin a new life. It is through this process that we become a new creation as newly born spiritual beings in God's heavenly kingdom. With that being said, all humans are a part of the vine, the lineage, and the family tree of life so declared by Christ (the first and last Adam). Christ is reconciling all things to himself and uniting all things in himself. We are all children of our Creator (everyone) destined to be reborn into God's heavenly kingdom through Christ (the anointed one of God).

A few references:

John 14:6

John 15:4-11

1 Corinthians 15:35-58

John 3:3-8

John 14:15-24

Colossians 1:19-20

Ephesians 1:7-10

[NORM]

Hi Zen,

 

Thanks for the rather interesting take on Panentheism.

 

I am curious about a few things. If God did not create these immutable, unchanging laws, then where did they originate?

 

Also, I notice you refer to the Christian Bible. Do you consider this book divine and inerrant?

 

Do you consider Judaism as the basis for Christianity?

 

Just so you are aware of where I am coming from, I am a secular (non-theist) follower (more or less) of Judaism. I don't consider the G-d of the Tanakh and the God of the Christian the same at all. I think they describe completely different mythical beings.

 

I agree with much of what you say (regarding human behavior and your emphasis on love). I just don't think the deity is necessary.

 

NORM

[soma]

Zen Monkey thanks for this topic. I have been thinking along these lines also. Here are some of my thoughts and I also apologize for the length.

 

Energy is united at different stages or vibrations and is never destroyed, but it does interact and change from one energy frequency to a different vibration. One of most fundamental laws of science is the Law of the Conservation of Energy. Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be changed from one form to another. Therefore, we can infer that energy is not currently being created. Present day measures of energy are considerably vast, indicating a power source so great that the words “endless or infinite" are the best words we have to describe it. The whole cosmos is inter-related energy interacting at different vibrations or frequencies. This unified field of energy is information reacting in a field of intelligence that we can label as consciousness. Christian Mysticism gives us the vision that this energy that makes up everything that moves the force fields of this Earth of ours is a part of the pure consciousness of God. We are experiencing this change and will be able to move and flow with it if we see the path upon which we are moving. Christian Mysticism offers a window to see a path to the soul and to an experience of the unified field within God if one chooses, but there are many ways to wisdom, the soul and God. Choose the path that is generous and big-hearted not the narrow one that is small-minded, uncaring and selfish because all paths lead nowhere, but they do have side-effects. We are already there or here so I say all paths lead nowhere. Therefore, choose the path that will open the heart in order to perceive the dream. There are many paths up the one mountain and many rivers flow into the endless sea of consciousness because there is one light, one truth, but many windows. Dr. Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut said about his return home, "Instead of an intellectual search, there was suddenly a very deep gut feeling that something was different… that there was a purposefulness of the flow, of energy, of time, of space and the cosmos… that it was beyond man's rational ability to understand, that suddenly there was a non-rational way of understanding that had been beyond my previous experience… There seems to be more to the universe than random, chaotic, purposeless movement of a collection of molecular particles…On the return trip home, gazing through 240,000 miles of space towards the stars and the planet from which I had come, I suddenly experienced the universe as intelligent, loving, and harmonious."

Quantum mechanics, the new physics states that we can’t observe existence without changing it or ourselves because we are a part of it and can’t be separated. The scientists no longer think we are disconnected, but interwoven and linked together. There is no longer an independent observer of the world or an experiment because it turns out that we are involved in the world that we observe. John Wheeler an American theoretical physicist and collaborator with Albert Einstein said we should replace the word observer with the word participator. We are living and participating in this great universe at the same time. Christian Mysticism today only wants to introduce Christians to the interaction and interplay of nature and ourselves by climbing into the heart of Christ. "One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all and in all....." (Ephesians 4:6) Our deeper understanding suggests that a top-quality person values others more than he/she values itself or values love more than physical desires. Our path to love and fulfillment brings us into alignment with this deeper understanding. It seems according to the Quantum view that we are interconnected and our meaning surfaces from our relationship to the whole, our energy mixing with energy. We have already started up the hill and can start to perceive that the separate parts of the universe are connected in a direct way in a unified field of energy. In the approach of Quantum Mechanics, a contemplation of God in the function of pure energy will enable us to perceive God permeating all things, communicating, and surrounding us in the form of resources that are willing to assist us at any second. Everything is energy internally and externally, it is the pure energy of God making contact with us. This energy is more than what we see with the five senses; it is a symphony of vibrations of light and sound infused with a goodness that comes alive with meaning and purpose. Without respect it seems the results are violence and a harshness that makes us contract and shrivel. No longer limited to the five-sensory mentality we pass fear and the need for physical survival. We pass Cain and Abel and the need to seek power over one another. Continuing on the path up the mountain or within ourselves we admire and esteem the solar systems of atoms in our cells with large quantities of energy. Initiated by fear and the competition for external power the atom bomb flashed and released a great amount of energy demonstrating the power and force that is contained in one atom. It caused countless suffering in individuals and species, but on our way to the soul we perceive another luminary of power, a capability to love life in any arrangement without judgment. One becomes joyously engaged with the world directly experiencing the authentic power in the energy of love. We seem to become an organism that stops pursuing external power, but pursues the authentic power or Divinity within. This ends the evolution of the five-sensory human and starts the development of the multisensory consciousness present within everyone. The comprehension of Christ and other great illuminators can now begin to be comprehended and appreciated in their enlightened consciousness. “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ,” Mahatma Gandhi said. Hildegard of Bingen was a medieval mystic known as St. Hildegard. She was a German religious teacher at a time when women were often not recognized in the public and religious spheres. She was also an author, counselor, artist, physician, healer, dramatist, linguist, naturalist, philosopher, poet, political consultant, visionary, and composer of music. She wrote theological, naturalistic, botanical, medicinal, and dietary texts as well as letters, liturgical songs, poems, and plays. She said, “God hugs you. You are encircled by the arms of the mystery of God.” She also said, “God has arranged all things in the world in consideration of everything else.” This corresponds to modern science where there is an explanation for everything. This confidence that nothing happens without some cause or reason has its origins in religion before science existed. I gave you the excerpt from Newton where he said his search for the laws of nature were prompted by a belief that a wise creator would have designed the universe to run on simple principles. This rational creator is a single entity united with everything and not many gods as some Christians would have you believe. He/She/It is a reasonable, realistic creator and not an arbitrary agent who creates in unpredictable and irrational ways. Saint Hildegard said, “Every element has a sound, an original sound from the order of God; all those sounds unite like the harmony from harps and zithers.”

[skyseeker]

Beautiful topic.

 

I find it interesting to note that while energy is not getting lost, the patterns in an energy field can change from one to another so completely that there is no identity anymore. That is where I think mysticism must latch on, the problem of identity and death. Does death free us from our identity while mystically we can retain it so to know such a change? On my desk I have a photo of my dad who died 4 years ago. Sometimes when I am close to God and open to love, it's like I can see him smile in the photo in a certain light.

 

Yes, this life here certainly includes much suffering for many. I have been spared physical pains so far, but I know a bit about mental pain from my schizophrenia. Sometimes pain is passing, but when it stays it can be an agony to live with. It's like being bed-ridden, it's like you always dream of going outside into nature and sunlight but you just can't go into the world anymore and have to live in the dark. It can be difficult sometimes.