The Lord’s voice declared that God cannot be likened to anything physical (Exodus 20:4). No physical human being could see God and remain alive. Moses requested to see God but was told that this was impossible. God had to use a figurative language, confirming that God existed in Spiritual form. God was not sustained by what commonly sustains physical humanity.
Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back, but my face must not be seen” (Exodus 33:18-23 NIV).
Jesus declared being God (John 14:8-9). This sounded commonly as not in sync with humanity in physical condition. But from the point of view of being created in God’s image, humans have a right to declare being God. That is what God’s image implies. However, having lost their identity, it is inappropriate for humans to declare being God.
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work” (John 14:8-10 NIV).
Of significance, here, is that Jesus was not talking to ordinary humanity. He was talking to those who would know the Father, not known by those of this world. No one could see God and live, according to Exodus 33:18-23.
“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:15-19 NIV).
The disciples were a special group who would see God without having to die. They had been with Jesus, the fountain of life. Jesus granted them the opportunity to see God, without having gone through the process of death. They had left everything to follow Jesus, who had treated them differently from their contemporaries.
The instruction to keep the commandments of Jesus was directed at the disciples, although applicable to all believers, as well. What makes ordinary humanity fail to understand is that God cannot be identified, physically. Jesus stated “Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19 NIV).
What the world could not see, which was seen by His disciples, was not of this world. Jesus used figurative terms, to describe heavenly phenomena. Right at this Scripture, the confusion enveloping those of this world is projected. It is from this misunderstanding that the Trinitarian idea was formulated.
Theologians are stuck in not knowing that the heavenly language cannot be matched with the worldly language. This is just as God cannot be likened to anything of this world. The Father should not be visualized as a physical entity. He is something unseen through physical experiences; without wavelength, no energy, and no time, or location in space.
One’s identity is the starting point to understanding this reality. Telling any person that he is not the physical body can be difficult. People are consciously not aware of themselves, being identified as different from physical structures.
In African ancestral beliefs, we have midzimu or amadhlozi. The dead are recognized as alive, spiritually. The ancestral spirit believers are consciously aware that their loved ones, being spiritual, departed from their physical bodies. But they cannot scientifically describe the structure of spiritual entities.
There is no language to describe spiritual entities. In their ancestral beliefs, Africans understood the phenomenon of incarnation. However, through the introduction of Christianity, the ancestral beliefs were generally discarded, as mistaken for witchcraft.
As unable to scientifically prove the existence of the spirit, the ancestral spirit beliefs were reduced to superstition. This is why, even today, it is impossible for one to sue against witchcraft, which cannot be proven, scientifically.
However, the existence of the spirit is now scientifically more convincing than the physical body, through the works of L Ron Hubbard. Incidentally, the term Psychology refers to the study of the spirit. Sadly, psychology serves to deceive, as its definition does not represent what it purports to practice.
There is no study of the spirit in Psychology. Whatever is studied in that subject has got nothing to do with the spirit. Human beings tend toward just believing fanciful ideas, without proof.
This belief without proof now includes the doctrine of the Trinity. People take comfort in deception, as long as coming from the so-called authorities. Supposedly, out of lethargy, ordinary people are not willing to check the workability of information.
The profile of an individual is used to authenticate information, even without proof of workability. This is why the Jews could not believe Jesus, even with evidence that He was the Messiah. Spiritual study is still not included in the current educational curricula.
In the early 1950s, Scientology introduced what could have proffered a new dimension, to education. Coming as something new, without categorization, the “Church of Scientology” now stands. Otherwise, Scientology ought to have rightly adopted Psychology as its proper terminology.
Unnecessary litigations ensued, designed to suppress Scientology, in its formative years. The landmark discovery of humans as spirit beings; came through the works of L Ron Hubbard. The subject of the spirit had all along been reserved in religion, unrelated to science.
Authorities in the field of psychiatry and psychology sought to suppress newly discovered information. They could not approve of Scientology, as not having evolved from their authoritarian system. As assumed to be the authorities, on the subject of the mind, they sought to invalidate Scientology and the author. Nevertheless, its workable solutions could not be ignored.
Meanwhile, the religious authorities could also not readily embrace Scientology. The discoveries had not been associated with contemporary religions. However, through its technological precision, the religious people could effectively benefit from Scientology.
Scientology is an applied religious philosophy, whose technology can be proven axiomatically. For instance, the relevance of Jesus’ teachings is easily clarified through the study of Scientology. But, like the Jews, present-day Christianity, in general, would have nothing to do with Scientology.
The only reason Scientology is today established as a religion is that it carries spiritual freedom, as aimed by modern religions. The difference is that in Scientology, spiritual freedom is attained scientifically. One does not have to believe anything, to receive Scientology processing.
With its workable technologies, Scientology could provide a landmark transformation, not only in the field of education but also in religion. One discovers the truth for himself, without being advised by another person.
It is, therefore, not possible to deceive those having truly studied Scientology. Western missionaries convinced ancestral worshippers that their beliefs were mythical. This was based on ignorance of spiritual existence, whose evidence is clearer than physical existence.
Those missionaries could not understand Jesus’ Spiritual existence, as not understanding human spiritual existence. Hence, they came up with Trinitarian ideas, as unaware of spiritual compositions. They preached Biblical evidence, but without spiritual evidence.
The spiritual description is understood after having appreciated one’s own spiritual identity, as different from physical identity. Spiritual revelation comprises what was not revealed by flesh and blood, but by God (Matthew 16:17).
Each individual of this world is comfortable being identified according to the viewpoint of those of this world. Ordinary humans estimate each other according to their viewpoint, as manifested in the physical universe.
However, the physical structure is not a true representation of what was created in God’s image. Anything physical is not what was created in God’s image. Only at true conversion does a person discover this reality.
This is how God’s Church would be established, as not revealed by flesh and blood, but by God. This is impossible before identifying oneself as the son of the living God. The term “Father” does not refer to genealogical pedigree but refers to a Spiritual source of identity, unobservable by physical humanity.
The term, “created in God’s image” does not refer to physical origin. It refers to what does not have a beginning or an end. Jesus is the only known model of what was created in God’s image. The conscious awareness of physical circumstances that one finds himself in is just a shadow of what represents God’s image.
A shadow is not real. Therefore, a physical person is not the reality of what was created in God’s image. Equipped with this understanding, it can be easy for those spurred by conviction to understand. When God dwells in one, how can that person fail to know God?
“Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires, but those who live by the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
“You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you” (Romans 8:5-11 NIV).
The only reason for people to embrace material things is due to ignorance of their being spiritual. Most people view themselves as not different from animals. They assume that the purpose of living in this world is to feed the stomach and wait for death.
These are people who believe in receiving physical blessings, more than receiving spiritual blessings. This is just as there are also Christians who embrace the Trinitarian doctrine, rather than entertain the idea of being God’s children, like Jesus. The spiritual realm is unfamiliar to ordinary people.
The formula for one to be able to see God and not die is baptism. The disciples who were privileged to be with Jesus, before His ascension, were collectively baptized on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13). Those converted later, needed water baptism, symbolizing the fulfillment of death, as a requirement, before seeing God (Exodus 33:18-23).
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:1-4 NIV).
Ordinary humans cannot be familiar with spiritual existence. They are gripped in ignorance, as to assume that physical existence is all there is to life. However, it is in physical existence where all the stupidity of humanity can be found. It can therefore be accurate to state that criminality is a result of ignorance, and therefore, ignorance carries with it, a criminal label.
Andrew Masuku is the author of Dimensions of a New Civilization, laying down standards for uplifting Zimbabwe from the current state of economic depression into a model for other nations worldwide. A decaying tree provides an opportunity for a blossoming sprout. Written from a Christian perspective, the book is a product of inspiration, bringing relief to those having witnessed the strings of unworkable solutions––leading to the current economic and social decay. In a simple conversational tone, most Zimbabweans should find the book as a long-awaited providential oasis of hope.
The Print copy is now available at Amazon.com for $13.99
Also available as an e-copy at Lulu.com for $6.99
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