Romans Lecture 35. The Thinking, Self-Contemplative Universe

[Rebbe]

PAUL'S LETTER TO THE ROMAN CHRISTIANS (35)
Analytical Commentary on Romans

THE THINKING, SELF-CONTEMPLATIVE UNIVERSE


Copyright © BRI 2017 All Rights Reserved Worldwide by Les Aron Gosling,
Messianic Lecturer (BRI/IMCF)

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"Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence" -- Alan Watts, philosopher

"It is commonly known by indigenous people that high-frequency vibrations activate consciousness, nourish what is hungry or weak, heal what is sick, and invite in the most luminous forces of Nature... [Ancient human beings] built a world on Earth which was like a mirror where the cosmic dance could reflect itself and resonate, and where all beings could receive the nourishment of this vibration" -- Arkan Lushwala, Peruvian spiritual teacher and ceremonial leader

"Sometimes I wonder if I'm in my right mind. Then it passes off and I'm as intelligent as ever" -- Samuel Beckett, Irish playwrite, novelist, poet and theatre director

"Shine like the whole universe is yours" -- Rumi, 13th century Sufi mystic

"The great Rabbi Gamaliel had among his disciples one who, according to a passage in the Talmud, gave his master a good deal of trouble, manifesting 'impudence in matters of learning.' But his name is not given; he is remembered simply as 'that pupil'" (F.F. Bruce, The Spreading Flame, 1958, 81. See also J. Klausner, From Jesus to Paul, 1944, 310f; Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 30b).

TEXT
"I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for Sonship, the redemption of our bodies... We know that all things in the universe work together for good for those who love God, who are the called according to his purpose" (Romans 8.18-22,28).

COMMENTS ON TEXT
The Bible, we have previously shown, describes CONSCIOUSNESS as the FOUNDATION of ALL BEING. This is due to the fact that in Genesis 1.1 God is revealed as creating all things "in Her head" (B'reshit being a feminine construct noun so that what we would normally translate as "in (a) beginning" actually ought to read literally "in Her head." Humankind, created in the "Image of God" also therefore creates all things in our head. As a great ancient philosopher once stated, "With our thoughts we make our world." This philosopher was a student of the prophet Jeremiah during the "Axial period" of world history.

Paul speaks under the inspiration of the Ruach HaKodesh of the universe as "waiting with eager longing" for the manifestation of the Firstfruits of God's calling and election in Grace. How strange that Paul should pen this if the universe is composed and comprised of material and gaseous elements that are devoid of consciousness. "Waiting" involves a sense of patience and/or impatience, and "eager longing" involves emotion of some kind or form. Paul mentions that the universe possesses "a will" which again is utterly startling when we think seriously upon his choice of words. To be "set free" is an articulation that the universe senses somehow that it is in bondage, and that (in the same breath), it seeks "freedom" and liberty. Not only is this the case but the universe in Paul's estimation has been experiencing a sensation that is entirely unpleasant, for it continually "groans in labour pains" -- contractions similar to that of a pregnant woman in the third stage of giving birth. Finally, the universe is in some manner "alive" for it can "work all things together on behalf" of those who share the consciousness of God toward God, life, others, and themselves.

Question: Is the universe ALIVE? Is the universe CONSCIOUS? The Pharisaic Rabbi seemed to think in the affirmative.

Elizabeth Johnson -- distinguished Professor of Theology at Fordham University, New York -- agrees entirely with Paul. She writes in her wonderful volume Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love (2014) "If the Giver of life be always and everywhere present, then the world of life is not devoid of blessing but is itself a dwelling place of God. Once we have established the Spirit of God's continuous presence to all manner of creatures in, with, and under their own naturalness... [we ought to rightly anticipate that] the ever-present Creator Spirit acts by gifting the natural world with its own operational autonomy" (124).

And herein lies the key, in my view, to coming into an understanding of a universe that is not merely alive, but which thinks, acts, and accomplishes on its own terms in association with the holy Spirit of LIBERTY and FREEDOM within the will of Almighty God.

That the universe has its own operational autonomy is suggested strongly in Genesis 1.

"And God said, Let THE EARTH bring forth..." (Gen 1.11), "And God said, Let THE WATERS bring forth..." (Gen 1.20), "And God said, Let THE EARTH bring forth..." (Gen 1.24).

There is no argument between science and the biblical revelation. Only our traditional bigoted and fear-filled bias leads us into such a conflict.

THOUGHTS ON ATHEISM
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe assures us that "All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again."

So let me quote from Everest John Alexander, a Bible scholar, who has noted possibly better than I could -- and naturally I cannot but help to agree with him -- that "atheism is stupid, why is this not apparent to everyone on the planet?"

He gives us three scientific reasons for accepting the existence of God.

1. The First Law of Thermodynamics: Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Therefore the energy source that created the universe must be Eternal.

2. The Law of Biogenesis: Life can only ever come from pre-existing life. Non-living matter cannot produce living matter.

3. Scientists have discovered that DNA is code. By definition, this means that someone intelligent had to program it.

He adds, "Based on 1,2 and 3 above science has shown that for Human Life to exist in this universe there must be a Supreme Being who is, Intelligent, Rational, Infinite, Eternal, Life-Giving and Almighty.

"Yet, in spite of all this scientific evidence for a Creator atheists want to look me in the eye and tell me there is no God."

He says, "I find this level of stupidity both alarming and offensive."

So do I.

"WE ARE STARDUST"
Remember that song sung by Joni Mitchell at Woodstock? Some of us may well recall Woodstock, and some of us may even now remember Joni Mitchell. I certainly had a number of her LP's. She had been proven right in her inspirational and artistic recording. Our frail human bodies are composed of remnants of lost stars and massive cosmic explosions from the distant aeons of time. This is not my opinion. It's the summation of credible scientific minds.

For over 40 years I have promulgated my personal belief (based on the ancient Jewish mystical traditions, and the secret traditions of the children of Abram by his concubine Keturah) that the Universe, created by our great THINKING First Cause 13.82 billion years ago, was Itself a mirrored image of the actively engaged MIND of our Creative Intelligence and Infinite Love that we refer to so inadequately as "God." Indeed, I have stated on many occasions over those same 40-odd years that the Lord God incarnates incessantly in ALL Deity brings out of HimHerItSelf. Every speck of cosmic dust possesses the fires of an atom. Rocks and other apparently inanimate minerals along with trees, plants, grass, and animal kind possess a form of consciousness that is bound and shared with other forms of consciousness, lower or higher. (Ever read about rocks that inexplicably move, traveling in straight lines to a myriad of other places? It's entirely true and yet not explained scientifically! One may well assess that matter is not at all what it appears to be -- that is, inanimate. All matter is in perpetual movement as electrons constantly in motion as the objects of which they consist. Readers may like to know that the head of a pin contains over 300 trillion atoms! And as I have reminded students time and again, even we are not as real and solid as we at first think for we are comprised of trillions of atoms and molecules constellating in a swirling mass and held together around an invisible magnetic force field which gives us our "appearance." Our perception of what is actually "solid" is nothing more than God's creative illusion.)

Rabbi Hayyim Vital, the disciple of R. Isaac Luria, in his Etz Hayyim says, "The inanimate are metals and stone... their soul... is therefore called the compound soul [which combines between all the parts] and it enables them to exist and be maintained as they are without any change occurring. Because this soul only has one power [to exist]" (found in the Short Gate of Atzilut, Briah, Yetzira and Asiya, 117). (Etz Hayyim is Hebrew for Tree of Life.)

Quantum physicists are starting to agree with Jewish mysticism.

We are all bound together in "THAT" CONSCIOUSNESS that created it all in the first place. After approximately one thousand previous attempts to produce our Earth in this present form of universe, God at last brought forth that which ultimately satisfied Him.  God said that "It was good" (Gen 1.31). The rabbis have long acknowledged that God has been working incessantly throughout all eternity -- with which fundamental concept Our Lord Yeshua was in full agreement when he said, "My Father works unceasingly, and I work" (Jn 5.17).

The rabbinic Midrash on Genesis 1.1 -- the Genesis Rabbah -- agrees with this assessment and says, "In the beginning God created numerous worlds destroying one after the other as they failed to satisfy him. All were inhabited by Man a thousand of whom [or, which] he cut off involving no record of Man."

In my lecture series The Biography of God I have noted, "The enlightened children of the scientist Abram by Keturah postulated that the final age of humankind -- the hostile and quarrelsome age of Kali-yuga [yuga = age] -- began only around 5000-6000 years ago and that the purposes of Brahma will conclude for this same humankind in 432,000 years time. Previous worlds, previous civilisations, previous integrated solar systems and whirling galaxies -- all are gone with no trace that they ever existed. Even entire universes, forever lost, were discarded as our Wild God decreed. When we look at the stars at night, does it dawn on us that most have long since perished? The light from these ancient stars (and star systems and galaxies) is still traveling toward us giving us the illusion of their permanency. Have any of my students as yet recognised that we are actually involved with such a God as this -- with ALL power, and who is not afraid to use it without any regrets? We are living with a very Wild God indeed! And the very thought of such an untamed Creator ought to humble the excessively self-oriented, self-exalting, and smug self-opinionated among us" (Lecture 6. Living With a Wild God).

As Paul knew and admitted in Acts 17.28 the realisation that we are one in our consciousness with THAT Other (God) is the first baby step to being AT-ONE (in a cognisance of at-one-ment or atonement in self-denial as we evolve by the Ruach HaKodesh into our Greater Expansive Self) with Deity, in real terms -- as God the FatherMother and immensely immeasurable Giver of LIFE deals directly with us.

God opens our MINDS by granting us His very own Spirit that works even through 130 million photoreceptor cells in our two eyes. In each one of these 130 million photoreceptor cells there exist 100 trillion atoms. Scientists assure us that in each atom in each cell in each eye formed in the core of a star billions of years ago was ALL TO EXPAND THE CONSCIOUSNESS that is YOU and ME. We are discussing quantum consciousness, and the bottom-line is that YOU are the universe experiencing Itself and all we actually are is a mere THOUGHT in the thoughtforms of God's fertile and ever-creative imagination. How humbling is this revelation.

Yet think for a moment about the very existence of the human brain. It is composed of 100 billion neurons and about 100 trillion synapses. There is more than 300 times more connections in the brain than there are stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy. It is the human brain, with which we were created by God, that connects us -- the REAL us -- to the MIND of God and through which our own MIND, while we are in the flesh, functions.

While it was the apostle Paul who stated that "all things in the universe work together for good for those who love God, who are the called according to his purpose" (Rom 8.28 Gk) this thought has been carried forward into our modern age by philosophers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, "Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen."

The fact is... it does!

This is WHY Romans 8 is the most thrilling section of the biblical revelation that never fails to accommodate to my constant need for Mind-expansive inspiration.

For, the universe is little more than an distensible view of the awesome SUPER-INTELLIGENT MIND of God brought into a startling visibility for the encouragement and inspiration of a created humankind. When the ancient biblical revelation informs us authoritatively that the heavens are stretched out like a curtain and spread out like a tent to dwell in (Isa 40.22) we now have solid confirmation from astronomers and the Hubble telescope that the space between galaxies is actually expanding, and that therefore the universe is also expanding. So is the Perfect, Uninhibited and Extensive Mind of a Self-reflective and Self-reflecting God.

The Bible tells us that our present universe was created by God "in Her head" (Gen 1.1 literal rendering). As we are created in God's image our reality is also "in our heads." Said the Buddha, "With our thoughts we make the world." We are the thinking thoughts of God. And we are not alone in this matter of God's incessant creativity. Everything that God has brought forth as thought images in His/Her Mind are actively engaged dream-thoughts and dream-images. Recently when reading some more Einstein I came across this quote:

"A human being is a part of the whole called by us 'Universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty" (Albert Einstein letter dated 1950 and quoted in The New York Times 29 March 1972).

"Widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

Yes, indeed. But our nature is programmed in such a way that we can only desire to save that which we love. If we are so self-obsessed that we negate Mother Nature (the feminine side of God Almighty) in favour of a salvation limited to humankind with the exclusion of Nature then we have allowed theology to distance itself from the great biblical theme of cosmic redemption so brilliantly articulated by Paul in Romans 8 and in Corinthians and in his later letters (especially as outlined in both Ephesians and Colossians). After all, the Christian Bible actually closes with a vision of a transformed universe, including a new Earth, awash in the glory of God. As admitted by Catholic scholar Elizabeth Johnson, somewhere along the line "Theology lost touch with the universe."

Evidence can easily be forthcoming to substantiate the hostility that exists among theologians and the universal Christian church generally in the matter of God's Salvific will. For the first five centuries a universal salvation was grasped and understood and preached, and then almost overnight man became the sole centre of God's redemptive purpose. Over the past 400 years especially, Christian educators have been persecuted and silenced if they appeared to hint at God's cosmic redemptive intentions. Even in recent times Christian authorities have had to watch the way they term things when they pen their volumes for popular consumption by a hungry Christian public. Case in point? Consider the experience of Howard A. Snyder, a Professor of History & Theology of Mission at Asbury Theological Seminary. Formerly Dean of the Free Methodist Theological Seminary in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Executive Director of Light and Life Men International, he wrote a fine little volume entitled The Problem of Wineskins: Church Structure in a Technological Age published in 1975.

In his book he stirred up enormous controversy by challenging the church to change its traditional structure in order to accommodate to the new wine of the Gospel, and he moreover dared to suggest that God's redemptive purpose in the death and resurrection of His Son was not limited to man's desperate need for God's Salvific Love, but that this Love would extend to incorporate the entirety of the cosmic order. This was rendered heresy by some because Snyder taught that salvation has now become something entirely private and individualistic whereas the biblical revelation nowhere taught such a thing as redemption constellating around a personal individual need or obsession: rather the God who inspired the Bible to be written always and inevitably considered salvation as a collective event which was in no way divorced from Nature. But thankfully, despite objections, his book continues to be sold.

Snyder penned the following....

"In contrast to traditional views, the Bible describes the church in the midst of culture, struggling to maintain its fidelity while tainted by the corrosive acids of paganism [on the one hand] and Jewish legalism [on the other]. This view is sharply relevant for the modern age... The Bible sees the church in cosmic-historical perspective. Scripture places the church at the very centre of God's cosmic purpose. This is seen most clearly in Paul's writings, and particularly in the [letter to the] Ephesians. Paul was concerned to speak of the church as the result of, and within the context of, the plan of God for His whole creation (Eph 1.9,10, 20-23; 3.10; 6.12). What is this cosmic plan? Based on the first three chapters of Ephesians we may say it is that God may glorify Himself by uniting all things in Christ through the Church. The key idea is clearly reconciliation -- not only the reconciliation of man to God, but the reconciliation of all things, 'things in heaven and things on earth' (Eph 1.10)" (Howard Snyder, The Problem of Wineskins: Church Structure in a Technological Age, 1975, 154,155).

The author continues: "Central to this plan is the reconciliation of man to God through the blood of Jesus Christ... as mind-boggling as the thought is, Scripture teaches that this reconciliation even includes the redemption of the physical universe from the effects of sin as everything is brought under proper headship in Jesus Christ" (Snyder, ibid).

Again, "Paul emphasises the fact of individual and corporate salvation through Christ, and from this goes on to place personal salvation in cosmic perspective. The redemption of persons is the centre of God's plan, but it is not the circumference of that plan. Paul alternates between a close-up of personal redemption, but periodically switching to a long-distance wide-angle view that takes in "all things" things visible and invisible; things past, present and future; things in heaven and things on earth; all the principalities and powers -- the whole cosmic-historical scene" (ibid, 155 emphasis his).

IS OUR UNIVERSE ALIVE?
Scientists answer with a profound sense of puzzlement and astonishment in the affirmative. Philosophers too are in agreement. But the biblical record also more than suggests the same. What I am about to list are texts that are without any doubt poetic in style, nature and origin, but they seem to be based on more than a mere whim and fancy.

Consider firstly that our God is above all else One who does not recognize in the nth degree (or the final analysis) what we would consider as "the last enemy... death."

Why is this the case? Primarily because God is the God of salvation, of LIFE eternal. His very Name means everlasting health, vitality, life itself. God is PURPOSE. God is never purposeless. All God's intentions know only those things that lead to ultimate LIFE. God IS life and it would therefore follow that everything God creates, touches, produces in his thoughtforms would also be alive. This seems to be the belief of Yeshua who remarked on one occasion, speaking of dead patriarchs: "He is not the God of the 'dead' for ALL live before God" (Lk 20.37-39). Having said this, let us consider the following texts which speaks of familiar created items possessing a form of CONSCIOUSNESS. This may not be consciousness as we human beings grasp it, but consciousness it still remains.

Yes, it is patently obvious to anyone with half a brain still capable of working, that the following texts are essentially Jewish poetry. Of course they are poetry! But I am more intrigued by that which underscores the poetry in the first place!

[1] Concerning Mountains, Hills, Trees, Fields, Rivers, Deserts of our planet:

Isaiah 55.11-12 "So will my word be which goes forth from my mouth; It will not return to me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace;  the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands."

Psalm 65.12 "the hills gird themselves with rejoicing."

1 Chronicles 16.33 "Then the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the LORD; For He is coming to judge the earth."

Psalm 65.13 "The meadows are clothed with flocks and the valleys are covered with grain; They shout for joy, yes, they sing."

Psalm 96.12 "Let the field exult, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy."

Psalm 98.8 "Let the rivers clap their hands, Let the mountains sing together for joy."

Isaiah 14.8 "Even the cypress trees rejoice over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, 'Since you were laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us.'"

Isaiah 35.1 "The wilderness and the desert will be glad, And the Arabah [Hebrew, ha'avarah = desert or dry place] will rejoice and blossom."

Leviticus 18.25,28: "Thus the land became defiled, and I punished it for its iniquity and the land vomited out its inhabitants."

[2] Concerning Space/Heavens:

Revelation 12.12 "Therefore rejoice you heavens, and you that dwell in them! Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea; for the devil is come down unto you possessing enormous fury, because he realises he has but a very short time."

Isaiah 44.23 "Sing O you heavens; for the LORD has done it. Shout, you lower regions."

Isaiah 49.13 "Sing, O heavens and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing..."

Psalm 96.11-13 "Let the heavens rejoice; Let the earth be glad. Let the sea roar..."

Psalm 19.1-4 "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes forth into all the earth, their words to the end of the world..."

Psalm 104.19 "He made the moon for the seasons; The sun knows the place of its setting."

Psalm 19.4 "Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their utterances to the end of the world. In them He has placed a tent for the sun..."
 
Psalm 148.3 "Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all stars of light!"

Nehemiah 9.6 "You alone are the LORD You have made the heavens, the heaven of heavens with all their legions, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them, and the heavenly legion bows down before you."

EVERYTHING DISPLAYS LIFE
The earth is full of the speech of trees, leaves, shrubs, plants, palms, flowers, insects, bees, birds, and they all communicate in their own way. Ever read The Secret Life of Plants (1973) by Peter Tompkins? You should. Through direct hands-on experimentation, plant sentience -- consciousness and awareness -- has been established to be indeed verifiable. We have come a long way since this study was published.

Scientists admit that consciousness exists among the trees of the fields, and that even mountains and hills in some way carry on conversations! Believe it or not! Not only is this the case. Stars and planets and even far-flung galaxies send out signals which Earth scientists are scrambling to intercept in their attempt to interpret. It's a form of conscious awareness, once the plot of bizarre science-fiction novels. The biblical revelation, even to this degree, proves ITSELF authentic and way ahead in revelation to modern scientific investigation.

Over the years my wife and I have shown our children how plants and branches of trees and palms communicate. Once on an adventure to Mt Warning (the extant volcanic plug- remains of an ancient volcano in the Northern Rivers region of northern NSW) we pointed out to them -- once we got them to actually remain still and quiet -- how, although there was no sense of any breeze around, certain tree branches and palms would suddenly begin to individually sway or vibrate dramatically and then, in turn, we would see plants and branches in the same vicinity respond to them. Some carried on extensive conversation. Just a few weeks ago Glenys and I were walking the dog in the late afternoon along a pathway near the bush that surrounds our suburb when an entire shrub began to vibrate demonstrably as we walked past. When we abruptly stopped, it also stopped. After we advanced a few meters it began again, and another shrub in the immediate area began to respond enthusiastically to it. We are all part-and-parcel of this strange, but very real collective consciousness. And its very much tied-in to the all-pervading consciousness of HaShem.

THE FINAL CLINCHER
Remember the real "Fall" occurred when God changed the spiritual universe -- that which had an existence in His divine SPIRITUAL Mind -- into physical, material existence. It was not a bad thing. This original Fall was a good thing. God saw the entire Creation and stated, "It is very good" (Gen 1.31). Not, "It is very bad." Rav Shaul agreed.

In his Letter to the Roman Christians he wrote that "The creation was made subject to decay [atrophy], not willingly, [as if it had a choice! Some commentators have paused over this assessment but now we know why Paul wrote as he did. The universe was and is a conscious entity, and it had no choice in this matter of subjection to atrophy or decay] but by reason [God had a reason for the "Fall" -- for materialising the spiritual universe into a concretised form] of him who has subjected the same in hope [the hope of a salvation from this original "Fall"]. Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption [materiality, corporeality, physicality, unspiritual concretisation] into the GLORIOUS LIBERTY of the children of God" (Rom 8.20,21).

Here in a virtual nutshell is the Salvific purpose and intention of God toward His creation. God intends to REVERSE the original "Fall" -- taking the entire material creation BACK INTO a vibrating Life-satisfied form of DIVINE SPIRIT ENERGY, precisely as it existed from eternity in HisHer divine Mind. The Jewish thoughtform knows nothing of a hostile, punitive-oriented, revenge-seeking, power-hungry, arrogant Deity.

That type of God is found in Roman Catholicism and in the heartland of Protestantism where the Atonement is an appeasement of a hostile Deity. God's entire psyche -- if we may be so bold as to thus describe His holy Nature -- is Salvific, constellating ONLY and EVER around salvation. We are God's possession; that possession is His obsession. He wants each of us saved, but saved collectively as a divine Galactic humanity for eternity, recreated and REBORN as glorious SPIRIT BEINGS made in His Divine Image, no longer corruptible and subject to atrophy in its myriad forms: SAVED, with and not apart from, cosmic redemption.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
The spirit of the apostle Paul has journeyed with us through his Letter to the Roman Christians, starting from his opening introduction in which the entirety of the world stands condemned, and then he has explained how the world may be saved.

He speaks of justification, opens the Doorway to Faith (and especially the Faith of Mashiach) and then introduces sanctification. His legal courtroom arguments contribute to our understanding of law and Grace.

With Paul's use of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Apocryphal writings (which are also Scripture), and his utilisation of Wisdom literature from the Intertestamental period along with Jewish Targums and the genius of pagan poetry, his ms has opened our spiritual insight into that of a stretched Mindscape which has brought forth for all of us an appreciation of his own massive intellect and gifted perceptions relating to the living WORD (logos) of God.

We have climbed mountains, crawled through caverns, and descended into dark valleys, waded through murky crocodile-infested rivers and swampy marshes, and struggled wearily through his plenteous arguments relating to the Gospel of Grace. Grace is ever a heartbeat away from his thoughts and with each and every breath Paul articulates the power of God's Sovereignty. What we see around us may not be especially liked, and fact is that God's will is oftentimes miserably uncomfortable but its outworking is the plan, purpose and intention of God for the eventual reconciling of the universe into ONE with Deity in the joy of the Sh'ma.

We are plainly told in the Wisdom of Solomon,

"... the cycles of the year and the constellations of the stars,
the natures of animals and the tempers of wild animals,
the powers of winds and the thoughts of human beings,
the varieties of plants and the virtues of roots:
I learned what is secret and what is manifest,
for wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me"
(Wisdom 7.19-22).

What have human beings done on this planet, and what have we done to this Earth?

We have raped it mercilessly. We are stripping it of its natural resources and made a few men super-abundantly wealthy by selling minerals to nuclear nations for supposed peaceful uses but knowing full well its for the game of war. We have hacked its precious rain-forests to pieces, exiled and butchered indigenous tribal peoples who have populated these regions for millennia, and we have almost denuded the oceans of fish. We have cast our dreaded, damnable plastics across the planet, and we have slaughtered entire species of our Wild Kingdom for everything from fur to aphrodisiacs. Our universities specialise in the ongoing cruel agonies of animal vivisection and useless experimentation supposedly accomplished in the holy name of medicine. Birds and animals -- rabbits especially for cosmetics -- subjected to blinding by acids, submitted to repeated electrical shocks, poisoned, disemboweled, inoculated with diseases, frozen and starved and amputated internally and externally. Its senseless and inhuman. We have counterfeited Nature's medicines in the laboratories of Big Pharma and have wondered why we end up with so many ill side-effects from the so-called helpful "medicines" we create. We deny people their right to natural alternative medicines and force them to be subjected to chemo, radiation and the knife. At the same time the Gorbachev Foundation is promoting necessary population reduction, and some of their well-known spokespeople suspiciously advocate vaccination as a method of ridding much of earth's population. Schools in the West educate their pupils in a form of "acceptable" brain-washing and suicides are mounting worldwide among school children. We face a world where nuclear devastation can easily occur, and where we face food wars in the next few years. Pure water is scarce. Air is predicted to become utterly unbreathable in around 30+ years from now with the wholesale reduction of rainforests. Our delicate eco-systems are being eroded dramatically, and our planet is circled by millions of pieces of space junk that would make any intelligent extra-terrestrials think twice before they launched an invasion of our once-beautiful blue dwelling place in space. Our planet is warming through its own climate change for it has had more than enough of its exploitation at the hands of the plague known now as viral humankind. Small wonder John wrote that Christ is returning "to destroy them that destroy the earth" (Rev 11.18). I'm with him, BIGTIME!

The Book of Job forthrightly states:

"Ask the beasts and they shall teach you;
and the fowls of the air and they shall tell you;
or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you.
And the fishes of the sea, shall declare unto you.
Who knows not in all these that
the hand of the Lord has wrought this?  
In whose hand is the soul of every living thing,
and the breath of all mankind"
(Job 12.7-10).

But we have not asked anything of the beasts, the birds, the earth itself, or any fish. Instead of asking we have destroyed whatever moves, flies, or swims.

Academic Elizabeth Johnson, whom I have quoted previously, sums up our situation succinctly. She writes in her conclusion to such a wonderfully God-inspired volume of wisdom:

"The future of the tree of life is now at the mercy of human decision and indecision. If ever there were a sign of the times to be interpreted theologically in light of the living God who creates, and redeems, this is it" (Johnson, op.cit., 285).

Professor J.A. Seiss writing way back in 1900 and speaking of the Scroll of Revelation (the Apocalypse) is patently pertinent to this specific time in our history. What he notes about John's Apocalypse could also be said of Romans 8. He writes,

"The Apostolic prelude [John's Prologue] to this solemn book [the Apocalypse] is sufficiently before us to be made of great spiritual profit. Let us see to it that we do not fail to realise that advantage which it is intended and so well fitted to impart. Here is grace and peace from the Triune God spoken for our acceptance; let us see to it that we do not receive the inspired salutation [Rev 1.4-8] in vain. Here is a glorious celebration of an accomplished absolution, an existing love, and sublime endowments, all made ours in [the Messiah Yeshua]; let us make sure that our hearts are in tune to the same lofty song. Here is an apostolic admonition to direct our most earnest thoughts to the personal return of our Lord, which is to be so dreadful to the unready and so joyous to them that watch and pray; let us make it our business to be properly exercised in that "Behold." [Rev 1.7 "Behold! He comes with clouds and every eye shall see him, and they also who pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen!"] Here also we are referred to the ineffable greatness and Divinity of our Redeemer and Judge; and let us beware how we trifle with his word, question his power, or dash ourselves against his Almightiness" (J.A. Seiss, The Apocalypse, 1900, 33,34).

Just as Paul begins Romans 8 with reference to "in Messiah Yeshua" so the rabbi concludes Romans 8 with the same intention by focusing our spiritual eyes on the Jewish Messiah. Hence his summation, in Romans 8.39 of everything he has revealed and also hinted at in the entirety of the chapter, he concludes with --  "in Messiah Yeshua Our Lord."

We shall pursue Paul's views on the biblical revelation in our following lecture.

THIS CONCLUDES LECTURE 35

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