Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Spotting and Combating Cultural Eisegesis
Spotting and Combating Cultural Eisegesis: Spotting and Combating Cultural Eisegesis
June 13, 2024 by Dallas
There has been an uptick in cultural eisegesis in recent years. This typically occurs when an interpreter will attempt to proffer an interpretations that is far removed from what would be the plain reading of a text. This requires an explanation of how the interpreter arrived at the non grammatical historical interpretation. One method involves a fallacious appeal to culture.
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
The just shall live by faith
The Bible teaches in multiple places that “The just shall live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38).” What the phrase “by faith” means is that faith is the foundation of the life of the believer.
In the last installment in the series, Quantum Leap of Faith, I wrote about how the physical universe is really made up of information. This information is instantiated by the rhema word of God or particular utterances of God that are grounded in the Logos, or Mind, of God. Out of this information, both space-time and the physical objects made of the energy contained in that space-time are constructed.
During the early part of the twentieth century, evidence emerged that suggests that the physical reality is much more ephemeral and fleeting than our classical intuitions would suggest. During this time a new theory arose that stated that both energy waves and subatomic particles have a dual nature as waves and particles. An experiment was conducted called the double-slit experiment. A beam of electrons was fired through a double-slit towards photographic film. When a measurement device was present to measure the velocity and path of electrons through the slits, they would leave an impression image on the film made up of many dots. When there was no measurement device, however, they left a diffusion pattern similar to that of waves going through a double slit.
Why would electrons change their behavior depending on whether someone was watching?. The Shroedinger equations represents material reality as waves of energy whose wave-function represents all of the potential outcomes. When an unentangled observer conducts a measurement on the system, this energy waves collapses into the building block of matter - subatomic particles. The act of observation or measurement creates out of the energy stream in a similar way that a Web browser creates the object of a Web page out of the filestream of 1’s and 0’s that represent on/off pulses of electricity.
The rhema word that embedded the information that defined the space-time and energy also embeds information that controls how physical objects are created and how they behave. In man-made information systems like the World Wide Web, protocols control how information is embedded, transmitted, and decoded. Information embedded in electricity that flows into the computer is transformed into the windows, graphics, multimedia, and text that is displayed on our computer monitors and played through our speakers. God’s protocol for embedding information and transforming it into physical objects is called faith.
The Scriptures teach that God has given to everyone “a measure of faith (Romans 12:3).” At the most generic level God has embedded constraints on human thought. Every functional human who has ever lived has brought categories such as space-time, logical and mathematical truths, and moral categories into our experiences. These constrain what is possible in our experience. While Shroedinger’s Cat has the potentiality to be both dead and alive, once we open the box we will only experience one of those outcomes per cat for each instance. God has also embedded information in the form of the classical laws of physics that further constrain what we experience. Because of these constraints, we more or less all see the same world in the same way different Web browsers render the same page the same way in spite of the fact that each page-load is a unique file on a different device. Romans 1:20 instructs us on how god has hard-wired basic information that reveals his works, power and godhead.
The focus of the rest of this article is not about how God constrains our mind to hold certain beliefs that constrain how we perceive a classical universe. While faith at its most generic level has this universal application to all humanity, the primary application of faith in the Scriptures is faith that can be freely received or rejected. It is this measure of faith that is in view in Romans 12:3 and many other places. This measure of faith also contains embedded information. This information provides for divine intervention in history. It is this information that provides healing and deliverance.
This faith works like the network protocols seen in man-made information systems. They encode and embed information at the source, they transport that information through the network, and they decode that information at the destination where it can be executed. In man-made networks this may involve a server loading a Web page or Web app that runs a program on the server that encodes text, windows, graphics and multimedia as binary codes (0’s and 1’s) that is physically represented as timed pulses of electricity, light, or radio waves.This is then sent through the network. These signals are then decoded at the destination device, which transforms them into windows, text, graphics, and multimedia. When each device accesses the same resources, they get a copy of that information that is physically unique but logically equivalent to every other device.
Because the world is really made up of information, it operates in a way similar to an online virtual gaming environment. While each individual received a distinct physical copy of the gaming experience, they are in the same logical namespace, with each individual capable of interacting with others because we are networked together in the same virtual reality network. God, in giving this measure of faith, puts faith in operation at all phases of this process. Christ is truly the author and finisher of our faith(Hebrews 12:1), meaning that He creates and superintends that faith from beginning to end.
If Christ creates faith, then this implies that any and all instances of genuine faith is the manifestation of the faith of Christ. The Scriptures repeated refer to faith “the faith of Christ (Rom_3:22; 10:6 righteousness of faith; Gal 2:16; 2:20; 3:22, 26; Eph 4:13 unity of the faith; Php 1:27 faith of the gospel; Php3:9; 1Tim 1:14; 3:13; 4:6 word of faith; 2Tim 1:13; James 2:1).” Christ creates faith and distributes this faith to the world.
Faith once created by Christ, is sent through the network. Faith is described as being transmitted from person to person. The faith of Abraham is often seen a the prototype faith that still exists today. Romans 4:12-16 describes the faith of believers in Christ in the church as walking in the steps of the faith of Abraham.
In the last installment in the series, Quantum Leap of Faith, I wrote about how the physical universe is really made up of information. This information is instantiated by the rhema word of God or particular utterances of God that are grounded in the Logos, or Mind, of God. Out of this information, both space-time and the physical objects made of the energy contained in that space-time are constructed.
During the early part of the twentieth century, evidence emerged that suggests that the physical reality is much more ephemeral and fleeting than our classical intuitions would suggest. During this time a new theory arose that stated that both energy waves and subatomic particles have a dual nature as waves and particles. An experiment was conducted called the double-slit experiment. A beam of electrons was fired through a double-slit towards photographic film. When a measurement device was present to measure the velocity and path of electrons through the slits, they would leave an impression image on the film made up of many dots. When there was no measurement device, however, they left a diffusion pattern similar to that of waves going through a double slit.
Why would electrons change their behavior depending on whether someone was watching?. The Shroedinger equations represents material reality as waves of energy whose wave-function represents all of the potential outcomes. When an unentangled observer conducts a measurement on the system, this energy waves collapses into the building block of matter - subatomic particles. The act of observation or measurement creates out of the energy stream in a similar way that a Web browser creates the object of a Web page out of the filestream of 1’s and 0’s that represent on/off pulses of electricity.
The rhema word that embedded the information that defined the space-time and energy also embeds information that controls how physical objects are created and how they behave. In man-made information systems like the World Wide Web, protocols control how information is embedded, transmitted, and decoded. Information embedded in electricity that flows into the computer is transformed into the windows, graphics, multimedia, and text that is displayed on our computer monitors and played through our speakers. God’s protocol for embedding information and transforming it into physical objects is called faith.
The Scriptures teach that God has given to everyone “a measure of faith (Romans 12:3).” At the most generic level God has embedded constraints on human thought. Every functional human who has ever lived has brought categories such as space-time, logical and mathematical truths, and moral categories into our experiences. These constrain what is possible in our experience. While Shroedinger’s Cat has the potentiality to be both dead and alive, once we open the box we will only experience one of those outcomes per cat for each instance. God has also embedded information in the form of the classical laws of physics that further constrain what we experience. Because of these constraints, we more or less all see the same world in the same way different Web browsers render the same page the same way in spite of the fact that each page-load is a unique file on a different device. Romans 1:20 instructs us on how god has hard-wired basic information that reveals his works, power and godhead.
The focus of the rest of this article is not about how God constrains our mind to hold certain beliefs that constrain how we perceive a classical universe. While faith at its most generic level has this universal application to all humanity, the primary application of faith in the Scriptures is faith that can be freely received or rejected. It is this measure of faith that is in view in Romans 12:3 and many other places. This measure of faith also contains embedded information. This information provides for divine intervention in history. It is this information that provides healing and deliverance.
This faith works like the network protocols seen in man-made information systems. They encode and embed information at the source, they transport that information through the network, and they decode that information at the destination where it can be executed. In man-made networks this may involve a server loading a Web page or Web app that runs a program on the server that encodes text, windows, graphics and multimedia as binary codes (0’s and 1’s) that is physically represented as timed pulses of electricity, light, or radio waves.This is then sent through the network. These signals are then decoded at the destination device, which transforms them into windows, text, graphics, and multimedia. When each device accesses the same resources, they get a copy of that information that is physically unique but logically equivalent to every other device.
Because the world is really made up of information, it operates in a way similar to an online virtual gaming environment. While each individual received a distinct physical copy of the gaming experience, they are in the same logical namespace, with each individual capable of interacting with others because we are networked together in the same virtual reality network. God, in giving this measure of faith, puts faith in operation at all phases of this process. Christ is truly the author and finisher of our faith(Hebrews 12:1), meaning that He creates and superintends that faith from beginning to end.
If Christ creates faith, then this implies that any and all instances of genuine faith is the manifestation of the faith of Christ. The Scriptures repeated refer to faith “the faith of Christ (Rom_3:22; 10:6 righteousness of faith; Gal 2:16; 2:20; 3:22, 26; Eph 4:13 unity of the faith; Php 1:27 faith of the gospel; Php3:9; 1Tim 1:14; 3:13; 4:6 word of faith; 2Tim 1:13; James 2:1).” Christ creates faith and distributes this faith to the world.
Faith once created by Christ, is sent through the network. Faith is described as being transmitted from person to person. The faith of Abraham is often seen a the prototype faith that still exists today. Romans 4:12-16 describes the faith of believers in Christ in the church as walking in the steps of the faith of Abraham.
“And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the Steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
"For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, ”
- Romans 4:12-16
The faith of Abraham is presented as not only active, but possessing the saints of God in the New Testament. How could it be possible that Abraham’s beliefs could do this. This faith is greater than the mere beliefs of a man who has been dead for thousands of years. This faith, once instantiated in Abraham by God revealing the gospel to him (Gal 3:7-9, was transmitted from person to person and lives as long as someone believes the word of faith. In 2 Timothy 1:5, Paul reminds Timothy that his faith once lived in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. It was transmitted to him through their testimony. Our own faith exist as a continuity of thought from Abraham to now, with God periodically adding detail to this instruction set as He reveals subsequent words of faith and promises to subsequent generations of believers (1 Corinthians 12:9 et al).
Romans 10:9-17 reveals that the gospel is presented as the word of faith. In verse 17 it says faith comes by the rhema word of God. As God communicates a rhema word1 - a particular utterance of God - more information is embedded into faith in the same way that this information was embedded into the fabric of space-time. As such, faith has the power to alter space-time, enabling objects to materialize and changing the behavior of existing objects. Verse 10 describes it in this way “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. ” The confession of the belief of faith is key to actualizing realities that God has ordained, whether it results in a supernatural manifestations or supernatural change of behavior from wickedness to righteousness. In the next installment, i will write about the precise steps of faith.
References
Rhema - Blueletter Bible Lexicon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?page=2&strongs=G4487&t=NKJV#lexResults
Monday, March 23, 2015
Cycles in the New World Order
Change is the popular mantra used nowadays. Much talk about change is in print, in the air, on the airwaves, and on the Internet about change. The word ‘change’ is on the byline of Obama’s Presidential campaign. The past few decades have a time of rapid change towards a New World Order. There is emerging a pattern of seven year cycles of change.
Background to these cycles
These seven year cycles coincide with a seven year cycles the Bible calls the shmita. The Biblical shmita involved the land of Israel resting and debts of Israelites being forgiven once every seven years(Ex 23:9-11; Lev 25:3-5, 20-22; Deut 15:9-12). Every seventh year was the year of shmita. The seven year cycles of the New World Order correspond with the years of shmita as recognized in Judaism1.
Biblically, there is no theological connection between the shmita and the fates of gentile nation as folks like Jonathan Cahn have suggested2. The shmita only has theological relevance within the context of the Mosaic Covenant. I do not believe that the coincidence between the Biblical shmita and the 7-11 year Juglar cycles is accidental3. Both of these are rooted in the mathematical properties that are inherent in the movement and habits of living organisms in space-time history. Seven year cycles emerge as individuals and civilizations act out commonalities in human nature. These seven years cycles correct imbalances in human behavior. The Juglar cycle, in particular, is a cycle of waxing and waning investment. The fluctuations of investment capital are roughly analogous to rising and falling debt levels. While much more can be said about these cycles, I simply want to introduce them here as the background to understand what is happening.
The New World Order was inaugurated in 1945 with the founding of the United Nations six weeks after the end of a year of sh’mita4. Between 1945-1972 there was no correlation between events during or around shmita years and events directly or indirectly related the development of the New World Order. There were two reasons for this. One reason is that the secular instantiations of the seven year cycles are not strictly connected to the shmita cycles. Events need not correlate strictly. God isn’t making it happen the way they are; He is allowing individuals, groups, and nations play their own hands. The more influence any one group can exercise on a global scale, the more uniform and more consistent the cycles will become. In particular, the Cold War divided the world in a bi-polar way. The elites driving the New World Order had limited power to affect cycles to drive change into the New World Order.
From 1973-2000, events of great significance to the New World Order occurred that indirectly affected the push towards a New World Order. These events generally pertained to either the Cold War or to the situation in the middle east. While these did not directly promote the New World Order, they did help shape the context for other events that would become direct drivers of the push towards the New World Order.
In October 1973, days after the year of sh’mita came to an end, there was both an Yom Kippor War5 and and oil embargo6. These events did two things that provide context for future plays in the push for the New World Order. It allowed Islamist powers to flex muscle and gain geopolitical importance, and it elevated the importance of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a factor influencing public policy. This would later drive two trends in the emergence of the New World Order: The War on Terrorism and the emergence of the One World Church.
In August 1980, near the end of a year of shmita, shipyard workers led by Lech Walesa went on strikes that began a movement that would later be called Solidarity7. Solidarity was commenced in Poland. This would be the beginning of the end of the Cold War. During the 1980’s, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul 2 teamed up to assist in the breakup of the Soviet Union and liberation of the Eastern bloc from the terror of Communism.
Between 1986-1988, Soviet leader Gorbachev began making the case for reform of soviet society. This reform he called perestroika. In May 1987, in another year of shmita, he formally began instituting reforms based on concepts of perestroika and glasnost that led to the breakup of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War8.
On September 13, 1994, four days before the year of shmita, the Oslo accords - a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians which established the current framework of the ‘Two-State Solution,” was instituted9.
The events between 1973 to 2000 had only an indirect effect on the emergence of the New World Order. These events provided the context for the New World without necessarily providing direct support. A unified order could not be instantiated as long as there was a division of the world between Democracy and Communism, so the Cold War had to end. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be useful as a hook towards introducing the One World Religion
Leaps Towards the New World Order from 2001
When I describe these cycles of events leading up to the New World Order, I am not suggesting that nothing of significance occurs in other years. The trends being described here are ongoing movements. What I am describing is critical events that usher in discrete, recognizable, and rapid change towards the New World Order. These changes are often forcing factors that suddenly herd people and societies into conditions that draw them closer into the New World Order.
While the major cyclical events prior to 2001 do not provide direct support for the New World Order, such events afterward would become powerful hook for pushing major features of the New World Order. In order to set up a global oligarchy, it is necessary to undermine civil liberties, transfer massive amounts of wealth to the elites, seize control of physical resources that support the creation of wealth, and regulate religious and philosophical activity.
On September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda (or a group pretending to be alqaeda)10 took down the Twin Towers of The World Trade Center11. This resulted in the escalation of the “War on Terror.” This War on terror resulted in the degradation of civil liberties and the premise that security trumps liberty. This has resulted in great loss of liberty without much gain in over all security. The War on Terror has also planted seeds for a future move to destroy religious liberty by providing an opportunity for a growing number of people to frame it as a war against religious extremism.
In September 2008, another year of shmita, there was a stock market crash that launched what is effectively the Second Great Depression. The crash and resulting recovery produced a huge transfer of wealth from the middle class to the elite. We are also seeing growing acceptance of corporate bullying of employees based on what they do on their personal time. The crash of 2008 affect the logical constructs of finances and wealth, transferring more control in the elite12.
The crash of 2008 did not affect any physical resources. Land, water, food, skills, capital equipment, and labor were still capable of doing all of the thing they did before the crash. In 2015 or 2016, there will come a shaking that will affect physical resources. California will run out of water this year13,14. Without water, California is dead and will become an abandoned ghost state. California has 34 million people and a trillion dollar economy. If Freddie Mac was “too big to fail,” then California is definitely too big too fail. What is meant by the concept too big to fail is not that certain entities cannot fail, but that their failure would result in catastrophic consequences for the remainder of the economy. If California fails, then that creates a multi-trillion dollar hole that include the demise of the American film, electronic industries, and most of our fresh fruits, and over 15 million newly unemployed and 30 million displaced people. If this were to happen, it would plunge America - and with her the rest of the world - into another Great Depression.
The scale of the emerging crisis in California is colossal. It is way beyond the ability of California and neighboring states to solve. It will require a national solution that involves swift action on a very large scale. This will likely result in a Federal declaration of a state of emergency. The solution to California’s problem will require the seizure of control of a vast array of resources. There will be water rationing throughout the nation so that water may be transported to California. It will be necessary to seize control of a significant portion of transportation and some communication. If a decision is made to relocate resources currently in California to other places, which is likely as that would be a more optimal use of resources, then imminent domain will be used on a large scale to seize land and other resources needed to make the transition.
Such a large scale seizure of control of resources will provide a perfect opportunity to push Agenda 21 through. Agenda 2115 is a program being pushed by the United Nations that involves concentrating control of all resources taking control away from individuals under and transferring it to multi-national corporation and states. This is done under the guise of “sustainable development,” but it will be optimized for the benefit of the elites rather than the public good. This will likely be blamed on climate change*, with the California crisis being interpreted as the initial manifestation of a global crisis that can only be solved by implementing Agenda 21 globally. Agenda 21 will then roll through in much the same way that the so-called Patriot Act did in 2001.
Toward the crisis of 2022.
Even as the California crisis is coming to a head in 2015-2016, another ongoing crisis is about to enter a new phase. In response to the recent victory of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and the impasse in relations between Netanyahu and President Obama, Obama is now in agreement with the United Nations passing a unilateral resolution declaring the existence of a Palestinian state and declaring that Israel’s sovereignty be limited to the pre-1967 borders. What this will mean is that there will be no more negotiations with Israel and the start of a shift towards mandated settlement terms that may be followed through with socio-economic sanctions and possibly military action. Given the nature of hostility to Israel, this move will likely precipitate a renewed push towards military action.
By the late teens or early 2020’s, a major war involving weapons of mass destruction could erupt in the Middle East that may possibly be the fulfillment of prophecy (Psalm 83; Isaiah 17). Isaiah 17 in particular describes the destruction of Damascus, Syria. Syria is one of the actors in the Psalm 83 war, so it is not much of a stretch to conceive of the possibility that Israel could use nuclear weapons if she is near the brink of defeat. This war could result in Damascus being annihilated in a nuclear attack.
The destruction of Damascus by nuclear fire will be a major game-changer and will bring the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a head. At the heart of both narratives are religious views of the world. Israel is viewed as the Jewish homeland by many Jews and Christians, and by the Palestinians and the Arab-Muslim world as dar-al-Islam, meaning that it is under the rule of Islam. This will be the perfect opportunity to push the idea that religious extremism is public enemy #1, in spite of the fact that it was actually the interventionism of the rest of the world that exacerbated what would otherwise been a local conflict and turned it into a global conflagration. Once the crisis is redefined in terms of the narrative of combating religious extremism, it will be used as hook to push an agenda calling for government regulation of religion. There will be a push for a one world religion that will control all religious and quasi-religious activity around the world16. This will allow the New World Order elites to control the flow of ideologies on a global scale.
Once the one world religion is set up, it will persecute and kill off those who refuse to come underneath the system. Once this is accomplished, then the world will be a place where there is a massive police state presence in every nation, weak to no civil liberties, a concentration of both the financial instruments of wealth and physical resources to the control of a very few, and centralized control of the flow of religious, philosophical, and ideological ideas. All dissent will be fully underground, hiding like rats in the sewers. There is nothing in this type of world to prevent a world leader from coming onto the scene.
Anytime after 2022, the prophecies concerning the Beast and the Antichrist will be fulfilled. The nuking of Damascus will result in a seven year peace treaty between the Antichrist and Israel (Dan 9:26-27). After three and one-half years, he will enter into the temple of God and proclaim himself to be god on earth(2 Thess 2:4). He will demand that everyone worship him, using economic incentives (the mark of the beast) and murder of those who refuse(Rev 13), and lying wonders(2 Thess 2:9; Rev 13:13-14) to get people to worship him. His reign of terror will end when Jesus returns to cast him into the Lake of Fire.
References
1 All sh’mita calculations done using Kaluach 3 Hebrew Calendar that is downloadable from;
2 The Mystery of the Shemitah by Jonathan Cahn
3 Juglar Cycle
4 History of the United Nations
5 Yom Kippor War
6 The 1973 Arab Oil Embargo: The Old Rules No Longer Apply, National Public Radio
7 Divided Poland Falls out Over Solidarity
8 Perestroika, Library of Economics and Liberty, Marshall I. Goldman
9 The Oslo Accords and the Arab-Israeli Peace Process
10 This paper does not take a position on the exact mechanics of the 9/11 attacks or whether they were executed by Al Qaeda as reported or whether it was a false flag operation. The answer to these questions is secondary to the fundamental point in bringing up 9/11 in the context of this article, which the premise that this event was used to push a narrative designed to eliminate civil liberties and justify the dangerous expansion of a police state.
11 9/11 Attacks, The history Channel
12 Timeline: Inside the Meltdown, PBS
13 California has about one year of water stored. Will you ration now?, Jay Famiglietti, op-ed Los Angeles Times, March 13,2015
14 Not One Drop: How Long Will California Survive Life Without Water?, NBC News,
15 UN Agenda 21: Prototype for Communism, Ch 10 of Mystery Babylon Rising,
16 The United Nations as a Religious Cult, Ch 11 of Mystery Babylon Rising,
Monday, March 9, 2015
The foundations of faith
Hebrews 11:3 instructs us that through faith we can understand that the worlds were created by the word of God. The basic concept is not new to Scripture, but an in depth word study reveals that the language prefigures a knowledge of relativity and quantum mechanics with precision. Furthermore, the description given in verse 3 implies that faith plays an essential role in these processes.
This article will strive to accomplish two things. It will first show that Hebrews 11:3 gives a description of reality that prefigures both quantum mechanics and relativity and grounds these in the utterances of a self-existent, infinite-personal God. It will then show how this truth grounds faith as essential to the Christian life. Below is the verse as it normally reads in English
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. - Hebrews 11:3 KJV
This analysis will involve an analysis of the words in the original Greek by which this verse was composed1. Below is the same passage with Strong's numbering
Through faithG4102 we understandG3539 that theG3588 worldsG165 were framedG2675 by the wordG4487 of God,G2316 so that things which are seenG991 were notG3361 madeG1096 ofG1537 things which do appear.G5316- Hebrews 11:3 KJV
The word translated 'worlds' is (G165 αἰών aio¯n ahee-ohn) This word generally has three meanings. One is eternity, which is used in most of the passages that deal with promises of eternal life. It can also refer to an (usually long) interval of time. It is translated 'world' in numerous passages in the KJV.
In the passages where it is rendered eternal or an interval of time, time is the major relevant attribute. When we are promised eternal life, for example, the main point is that this life has no end
In these passages where it is translated ‘world,’ there was a time component to world and a space component to time. The following passages should illustrate that ‘aion’ is often used in ways that includes space or objects that require the context of space to exist.
And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. - Mark 4:19 KJV
The cares of this world does not merely mean cares about time, but cares about things that exist and move within this time interval. These things necessarily exist in space.
But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life......Who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.- Mark 10:30; Luke18:30 KJV
There are three time referents are used in these parallel passages. The phrase “in this time” is translated from (g2540 | καιρός | kairos). This word is used when one wishes to refer to time as a mere chronological measurement. The word “eternal”is translated from a form of aion - ‘aionios.’This word is used as a description of the time attribute of the life that will be lived in the “world to come,”which is translated as ‘aion.’ This aion has an extended meaning, referring not just to a future time period, but also implying that it is a place where people will live an endless life.
And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.- Luke 16:8 KJV
Time, in and of itself, has no children. This phraseology refers to those who are influenced by the ethos of a given historical period or time interval. The phrase “children of the 60’s,”for example, refers to those influenced by the predominant cultural forces at work in the 1960’s. These forces are at work in people who necessarily occupy space while they live.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. - Romans 12:2 KJV
Being conformed to this ‘aion’ implies that ‘aion’ has more than chronological attributes. The ‘aion’ has cultural, ideological, and political attributes
Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?......Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory......Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.- 1 Corinthians 1:20 ; 2:6-8; 3:18 KJV
Wisdom is not a property or method of time, but of individuals, groups, and civilizations that exist in time.
Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:......For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. - Galatians 1:4; Ephesians 6:12 KJV
Darkness would not be a property directly of a time-period, but implies that this time interval contains objects that might contain darkness or rulers of darkness.
Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; - Titus 2:12 KJV
We are to live godly lives in this ‘aion’ - inside of time. In our lives inside of time, we must occupy space.
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;......Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.- Hebrews 1:2; 11:3 KJV
Both Hebrews 1:2 and 11:3 speak of the entirety of space-time. The difference between the passages where (G165 αἰών aio¯n ahee-ohn) is used to designate an epoch of time or eternity and those where it is translated ‘world’ require an extended meaning. According to Trench,
“In classical Greek, aion often refers to the duration of a human life. But the essential meaning of aion is time as the condition for all created things and as the measure of their existence. Thus Theodoret wrote: ’Ho aion is not any substance, but it is an irresistible thing, accompanying those who have a mortal nature; for the interval from the constituting of the world [kosmou] to its consummation is called aionaion then is the interval yoked to created nature. Aion came to mean all that exists in the world under conditions of time: "The totality of what is discernible in the passage of time, the world inasmuch as it is active in time." ’ ......”the use of aiones in Hebrews 11:3 is decisive. In both passages aiones can only mean ‘the world,’ not ‘the ages...’...Etymologically our English world more nearly represents aion than does the Greek kosmos. The old Weralt (in modern German Welt) is composed of two words, Wer (man) and Alt (age or generation). Thus the basic meaning of Weralt is "generation of men." The notion of space unfolds from this expression of time, as aion passed into the meaning of kosmos ”2
What this means is that ‘aion’ implies not only time but space in these passages. The ancients knew nothing of relativity theory - particularly the concept of space-time as a unified substance - and would likely have understood these to have the same meaning that we attach to the idea of historical dispensations today. The term ‘aion’ would be used to refer to an interval of time that contained a common arrangement of physical and cultural dynamics, all of which necessarily occur inside space. In most of these passages this is sufficient.
Hebrews 1:2 and Hebrews 11:3, however, concern the beginning of all creation. The idea of historical dispensation is much too small to fully capture the full meaning of ‘aion.’ These passages are addressing the creation of everything that is not self-existent. Aion as space-time would, in these passages, include all of space-time or space-times. This meaning of ‘aion’ which God intended but would have been unknown to the ancient mind prefigures relativity. Through faith we can understand that God created space-times.
The creation of space-time
How did God create this space-time. We are instructed that is is through the word of God. The word used here is (G4487 | Ῥῆμα | Rhēma hray'-mah). The meaning of this word is utterance. This type of word is a particular word of God rather than the word of God as the full counsel of God or the mind of God. The term for the Word of God that represents the Mind of God and possesses the ontology or essence of God is (G3056 | λόγος | logos | log'-os). The Logos is the Mind of God and the source of all of the prescriptive information and fine-tuning for the creation. The Logos is the ground and constructor of every rhema word. The rhema, because of its particularity as a free will expression of the Logos, has a relativity and contingency that sets it apart from the Logos. The Logos necessarily shares in the divine essence. The rhema, however, while grounded in that essence attains a distinct ontology by virtue of being a particular and freely given word from God. Once the rhema is defined, it has its own distinct essence, dynamics, and constraints.
While not being the essence of God as the Logos is, the Rhema word is defined by prescriptive information in the Logos. This sets the constraints (natural laws and cosmological constants) and initial conditions of the rhema. In the Septuagint, which is the first translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew to Greek that was finished about 200BC, Isaiah 55:11 uses rhema to mean word. The rhema of God, while going FROM God and having a distinct essence from God, WILL accomplish His divine purposes.
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Isaiah 55:11
What is the purpose of the rhema word in creation in Hebrews 11:3. It was the rhema that would ‘frame’ the space-times. The Greek here is (G2675 | καταρτίζω | katartizo | kat-ar-tid'-zo). It means to complete throughly and is translated variously as frame, fit, and prepare. The rhema word frames, or builds, these space-times and sets their properties and methods.
The use of rhema to define building blocks of the universe implies that the space-time universe is composed of information. This has huge implication concerning the nature of material reality. Hebrews 11:3 uses a connective to establish this relation. The, “worlds are framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” There are two key words which define the nature of physical reality which is created: G991 | βλέπω | blepo ̄| blep'-o) and G5316 | φαίνω | phainō| fah'ee-no).
The word ‘blepo’ simply refer to that which is observed or the act of observation. The word ‘phaino’ refers to that which reveals or manifests itself. The use of Phaino implies that an object that already exists comes into view, whereas Blepo refers to the observation. What Hebrews 11:3 is saying that because the rhema word is the building blocks of space-time, the observation of reality is NOT based on objectively existing objects revealing themselves. It is based on information. When we make an observation, we are are observing information and constructing discrete, material objects from the observation. This idea prefigures quantum mechanics, whose experimental findings suggest that material reality acts like a wave when it is not being observed but like particles when they are observed. One of the implications of quantum mechanics is that particles are constructs that materialize only when observed3. If the universe is really made up of information, then there would be protocols that would govern how that information to be used to construct objects upon reading the input or output stream in much the same way that a browser constructs Windows, graphics, multimedia, and text upon reading the information stream published by the Web server. When we observe the physical reality, our minds construct concrete objects from an information stream according to rules God has ordained.
Hebrews 11:3 was not written solely to speak about the Bible teaches about science. In context, it is not even primarily about science. This verse was written to provide a meta-physical foundation for understanding how faith works. Because the space-time universe is composed of prescriptive information, God can modify how the universe operates by embedding additional prescriptive information in faith. This faith is revealed to us so that we can access the things God has provided for us.
This faith is grounded in the facts that the universe is made up of information that can be programmatically modified. Think of our physical universe as a virtual reality simulation that God has programmed but runs in an ontologically distinct manner from the Divine essence. The revelation of the rhema word of faith is a way that God continues to embed input into the simulation. Our receipt of that word of faith is how we can access God. As we believe His promises and receive His promises, He will do exceedingly above all we can imagine. In the next installment I will write about the methodology of faith and how it translates the invisible realities ordained of God into the physical universe.
References
1 Strong numbers are used to map English words found in translations to the original languages. This can be verified by consulting Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance. It can also be verified using Bible study software like E-sword or Web sites like http://www.blueletterbible.org
2 Trench’s New Testament Synonyms
3 For a quick introduction to quantum mechanics, here is a playlist from Inspiring Philosophy. It is mostly a very excellent treatment of the subject, although Quantum mechanics, in my view, implies dualism rather than “weak pantheism.”
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