Musing on the creative effort of God
January 9, 2012
Man was made a creator in the exact (metaphorical) image of God. Accordingly then God is now in process of creating our future world through us. We are creators, and love to create, just as God does, and we are going about doing things in our own independent way (our very make up now). And so in order to complete his creation God will have to induce us to create what he is after. This will be, I am sure, a world of the Highest Good (reason’s greatest contribution to human thinking and recognition). We are going to freely do our own creating, and nevertheless God will accomplish his creation through our own free wills, by giving us hints and prompts.
The biggest prompt was Jesus, of course, and this appealed to our vision of wonderment, namely that through him, i.e., letting go of our baggage (accepting forgiveness) and making a brand new, guaranteed start by latching on to his spirit, we will be honored by God to serve as his instruments and in all conditions. This, according to Kant, the Christian will do without complaining of his ills and without taking credit for any goodness. Even though you have been unworthy, says God in this prompt to us, you are made worthy by virtue of the love and sacrifice of my son, Jesus. The slate is wiped clean and you have a new start. So let’s get on with it, building the New Jerusalem.
If we have a prompt for good from God, maybe the creating of the New Jerusalem is made more difficult by a sly and mischievous angel, a certain Satan, and where his prompts (lies) are inputted into the on-goings. Perhaps there was a challenge to God by Satan saying, “I admit that you could induce people to establish the Great Commune of Love on this earth if there were no opposition, but could you do it even if lies were spread about?”
The authentic evil is in the human heart where, even though inexplicable in a good creation, there is a willingness to put personal happiness before the moral law and where we are willing to lie for our advantage. We are prompted by, and respond to, the original lie and see that we can lie, just as Satan did in implying that God was either ignorant or a liar.*
[* In fact death did set in at that moment (according to the story in Genesis) and continues until final state of burial. We learned to have secrets, i.e., which are essentially lies. We could never lie if all people were totally spontaneous as in the Pre-Fall situation. We learned what a lie was through Satan. And we latched on to that as a nature, as a natural thing to do, to lie for our perceived and personal advantage.]
Accordingly now the book of Revelations must be considered as metaphor. We know that God is going to create this perfect community on earth, and indeed is in process of doing so now. What we also know is that we are going to be the tools that he uses for that creation. And so we are going to be using our heads and figuring out how to create this perfection and we know that we will be successful and reach it because God will continue to give us prompts, maybe just a sudden thought or idea which proves to be helpful, especially when shared freely with others. If we can get back to the spontaneity of the Garden, without secrets (except now we will want to wear clothes—the older we get the better we look in clothes), then we will be getting these thoughts and ideas, these prompts, and can share them and come up with the solutions to our problems.*
[* This is certain consistent with Gandhi’s notion of God having given us already all the answers to all of the problems of the world and where we just need to share.]
I wonder: those who with knowledge deliberately seek to thwart this creation of God (as opposed to those who act in ignorance) need to understand that there is a penalty for this opposition, and this somehow must be connected with the sorrow and unhappiness that arises by the willful acts of those people. Perhaps an avatar sort of existence until the sorrow as been fully absorbed. Justice would suggest that Hitler, for example (like many others), should experience all of the sorrow that he caused in others. Perhaps he must come to know his victims as their family and friends perhaps knew them and then feel the sorrow that arises as a result of his own actions. Or maybe it is so difficult to sort out every thing with justice that we need to just give up on that and decide not to blame anyone, for everyone has some blame. Perhaps I am like Hitler, only I have not had the environment which would bring out such a hate from within me, and so like the emotions of a symphony not heard, that hate lies dormant and unknown to me Perhaps it is best to stop blaming, and rather get on with the work of creating this wonderful New Jerusalem where we can all be happy at how all children are being raised, i.e., in full care and with no fear.*
[* I note from Miz Les that Valjean does not hate or even blame his nemesis, Javert, but acknowledges that the latter has done his duty as he understood it. The justice arose, I guess, when Javert could not accept that his entire orientation was wrong and that he was causing harm. Valjean and Javert both had similar experiences of disorientation, only Valjean was willing to accept the goodness offered him, while Javert was not and chose self destruction instead.]
Surely one thing is certain. Our nearest guess for the intention of God in his creation (which we see now will be accomplished through our own creativity) is communism. The marriage of today is the model, where all dedicate all their talents to their mutual well being, and where to whom more is needed more is given. The final communism that is established will be based on that love and sense of mutual duty and fidelity. As far as actually implementing a conscious effort toward that ultimate goal, i.e., the Highest Good, we will just have to use our heads and get creative. One thing we have learned is that a forced, materialist communism is not going to work. The most important thing that materialist communists had refused to recognize is the innate, radical and natural evil which exists in the human make up as understood by Kant. And the only possible, human solution for that, according to that same Kant, is a church.
My continuing advice to the Chinese Communists is to be on the look out for a hint from God that they would be wise to overcome so much of the corruption in the Chinese society by promoting a gentile Christian socialist church.
Accordingly then the cry of the Christian evangelist should be: stop your sinful behavior, and repent and be born again and join with us in the creation of a world where it will be unnecessary for anyone to tell a lie, or to keep secrets. And the personal promise is that all who take part in creating that end purpose will enjoy that creation in its final state. They won’t just be enjoying the process of the creation, but they will enjoy the final fruits of that creation in New Jerusalem.
As I speculate further I think that the reward of the creative effort in the Christian commune and its accomplishment will be the joy of helping the team (brotherhood) achieve to its potential. Something like a slap on the back and a smile and a “well done” or at least a “good try”.
And the anti-socials will not be put into a prison to ferment, but into a therapy and for as long as it takes to get into a frame of mind for wanting to pitch in and taking part in the common good.
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