Question: Will prayer, a ham radio, microwave or radio signal, telemetry, a space age listening device, telepathy .... or some other yet to be discovered more sophisticated communications device be required, or is glossolalia a sufficient method of communication, one that is sufficient to meet our need to communicate with the creator?
Psalm 46
1God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
2Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
3Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.
The psalmist clearly believed as most humans believe today that God not only created the Universe, but IT knows everything about the seen and the unknown Universe and is ever present to help humans within the Universal scheme!
So it would seem to me that the best place to go in order to understand the Universe and everything within, it based upon what the Psalmist wrote, including global warming, wars, humans murdering humans … would be with the creator of the Universe. The conversation needs to include world leaders, clerics, and members of the scientific community…
Too much of what we rely upon today and have relied upon in the past to help us to determine what is real and what is not real or which direction we should take, derives from antiquated information or conclusions that have come from primitive sources that predate us. And that is simply not good enough anymore.
Some of us believe that the older the document or tradition is, that it must therefore be accurate. However, when you think about it how there hasn’t been any new scholarship to support the claims of our ancestors. The fact of the matter is that old is not always better. And even if it were, there is something to be said for being in direct contact in the present with what our predecessors claimed to be in contact with or not, in the past.
We need to accurately verify the information that has been passed on to us, and to learn from the source of the information what is relevant today in a post-modern world.
From what we have learned from the past, ancient humans purportedly communicated with God either by osmosis, direct speech, and prayer, via prophets, casting lots, oracles, speaking in unknown tongues ... or as a result of a theophany.
Well let’s assume that all of what we have been taught occurred just as history has taught us, then how come we are not or cannot communicate directly with God today? Who turned off the lines of communication? Could it be that because all of the relevant information that we would ever need thousands of years later was provided for us in the past, and therefore God did not have a reason to communicate with us today?
Or suppose that on the other hand, that God plans to revisit us in the future after we have absorbed and utilized the ample amount of information that was previously disclosed to our predecessors, and left behind for our consumption. Did God plan to in the future which is now for us intend to disclose reveal more information of the kind that would transcend basic knowledge about the world and simple human survival techniques.
If we were to subscribe to the latter theory that God supplied us with ample information to survive for 2 to 4 thousand years, and since that time all that God has been doing is responding to our petitions (without disclosing any new information during that time period).
But I suspect that there is another possibility that we ought to consider. First of all do we believe that God has sense, is logical, rational, reasonable, methodological, intelligent, cognizant…, and even more than our predecessors understood? Then isn’t it possible that God could only reveal so much to primitive people during their time on earth?
Then why have more enlightened post-modern humans been satisfied to simply rely on the information that was revealed to primitive people, instead of seeking answers from the same source ourselves?
Have we simply chosen not to seek God for answers to the serious questions that plague us or that we need answers for ourselves in a post-modern world?
Again, sadly, for too many of us if something is ancient, then it must therefore me true or authentic!In other words when it comes to ancient documents there aren't any forgeries, nor is there any such thing as historical misspeak.
Isn’t it ironic that we have listening devices stationed all over the planet (and soon some of these devices will be placed in space), given our hope that we will be able to better detect communications from other extraterrestrials up to and including God. On one hand it sounds laughable that humans are planning to place listening devices into deep space. Frankly, I am pleased to know that someone has made it their life's work to communicate with God or other life forms that share, or do not share the physical universe with us.
I make the following propositions:
1). I suspect that we have relied too much on people and information from the past, and that we have in turn surrendered our personal and collective rights to seek a personal and sustained dialog with the entity that we refer to as God, in the time period that we exist in.
2). That there is no reason to believe that if were to seek a direct communication or audience with IT, that we would be turned down, or that IT would not respond to us!
3). That perhaps the entity actually stopped speaking to our predecessors, or our predecessors stopped speaking with it except to ask for thing, and that neither scenario has anything to do with us today.
4). And rather than wasting more time reading commentaries, concordances, lexicons... in order to try to interpret the dialectic, or trying to determine what Paul or any other writer wrote down, or who was right or wrong, why don't we simply cut to the chase and go and ask God for answers to the questions that we need answered?
A new methodology.
1). We ought to use our resources (not just financial), to seek a direct dialogue or audience with what we refer to as God. Wouldn’t it be funny if IT said, I’ve been waiting for you folks to give me a call for some time now, so that I could increased your understanding beyond what you read or heard from the past, with regards to my creation and why you are here? The worse that could happen would be that we did not receive a response, or if we received a response with this message: "I’m not ready to communicate yet with humans".
Next, we also to understand by now that words are symbols of ideas, thoughts ...! And following that logic, we also need to understand that God may not be a Spirit as we have been taught to believer in this sense. The Latin and Greek terms, spiritus, spiro and pneuma were the terms used at the time to describe an entity or principle that could not be seen or heard but that apparently existed.
Each one of us, I’m sure, has experienced unseen forces operating on our bodies which could not be seen. Some perfect examples would be the wind, centrifugal or centripetal force…, And even though we couldn’t necessarily see the forces, we knew that they were there given their impact upon our tactile sensory apparatus.
2). We might have to approach God using a different methodology other than the ones that have been prescribed, that we have become accustomed to or the ones that have been passed down to us from the past. Perhaps using our understanding of quantum or theoretical physics or some other yet to be discovered technological or non-technological means apart from religion, we may learn to approach this entity with better facility and obtain better results.
The probability of what I am saying may be high, but at the same time it would frighten many individuals who are vested in religion and in religious experiences, to know that God could reached by means other than the ones that we have become accustomed to.
What we refer to as God might be a mathematical construct, or some other intangible. It might be a principle or another non-physical entity or state wherein conversing with it could simply require the use of different methods or tools or perhaps something that is already located within the locus our brains. We must understand that a non-biological entity would not have ears, a mouth…, and it could still exist and have communicative abilities!
Exodus 34:23 "Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.
In the past the methods that we have been taught to use in order to communicate with the God phenomenon have either been to approach God using our minds (mental telepathy), through prayer, by speaking in tongues, by consulting with oracles or mediums… or by appearing before God!
We learned about these methods mostly through religion, mysticism, myth and superstition, and they were passed down to us by our ancestors and parents. Science, on the other hand, religion's nemesis, has for a long time considered religion and the entity known as God to be a non-viable mythical construct that was created in human’s collection imagination and was passed on intergenerationaly.
And there were also plenty of humans around who did not attempt to confer with the entity known as God because simply put they did not believe that God existed, or they had never heard that there was an entity that existed at the time like the one that we refer to today as God. In different primitive cultures just as it is today, God was known by many appellations, for example, El Shaddai, Jehovah, Allah, Osiris, Horus, Vishnu, The Great Spirit, Baal...
I am convinced that there is something that exists that is at this time still beyond the human intellect, but at the same time I am convinced that it may not be any of the well-intended things that we were taught that it was before, and that it is comprehensible and capable of being approached.
If the men of Israel were required to meet three times a year with the entity, I am certain that it would not be offended by our requesting an audience with IT today, of course we would be bringing CNN and the other network news stations along to film and to record the event. Wouldn't this be better than waiting for what most believers, particularly Christians, are waiting for, a final meeting with God (when it is too late) on the last day?
to be continued...
Peace & Grace
Rev. C. Solomon
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