Even the most hardened criminal can love! Shocking, maybe, but it's true. It's hard to deny, admittedly, that there are some people out there who are seemingly beyond help, that even if you show them mercy, you will receive none in return; in fact, one might say that the only merciful thing to do is the world a favor & rid it of this evil, one person at a time. But, is anyone really beyond help or hope? Take a biblical example, for instance; the apostle Paul, on the road to Damascus. You may or may not believe the Story of Scripture, but if you do, you're probably familiar with the story recorded in Acts 9:1-30. the apostle, who was a Pharisee named Saul at the time, was on the road to Damascus where he planned to arrest, maybe even kill any who claimed to follow the teachings of Jesus the Christ. Luke records that, 'suddenly a light shone around him from heaven' & Saul almost immediately did a 180 ( complete turnaround )!
It is said that, in the beginning, 'the Lord God formed man [ of ] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being' ( Genesis 2:7 ): whether one reads this passage as speaking of the literal creation of the first human being on Planet Earth, or whether one acknowledges that a covenant creation is in view here, this should be seen as a Universal Truth, that the Creator God took of His own Spirit ( Essence ), thus animating the creature He had formed. A closer look at the Hebrew phraseology used here in the very first part of the Book of Beginnings will reveal that this Adam was not merely the first human on Planet Earth, but simply the Vehicle through whom the Creator God chose to reveal the Life of His Creation. As the Son of God, Adam & Eve were the proto-Christ, if you will, the beginning of the Revelation of the Christ, the Son of God!
'God is love' ( I John 4:8 ): this should be noted as one of the many universal truths of Scripture as well! Being that the Creator of all, as revealed, not only in the Hebrew Scriptures, but in other ancient texts from that part of the world, in particular, the Far East, is the very Essence of Love; are we really assuming too much when we say that we too, apart from our created humanity, being of the same Essence, are pure Love as well? We propose that it is not too much of a stretch to acknowledge that we are, ultimately of the same Essence as the Creator God & are thus, at heart, One with Him!
While many or most might immediately recoil at the statement just given, it is, when one clears their mind of those pesky religious cobwebs, that one cannot help but realize that it is true! We are human beings, yes, for so we were created, but we are so much more; Just as we saw earlier, in Genesis, the Creator God formed the man, then breathed into him the Spirit of Life. Now, admittedly, as we also testified to, the first parts of Genesis are not so much about the material creation, although they speak to that as well; they are primarily about a covenant creation, in particular, the priestly nation of Israel ( with which the current nation/state of Israel has NOTHING to do, Scripturally speaking! ).
Although Israel of old, which we read about in the Hebrew & Greek Scriptures, ultimately failed in their mission, as a majority anyway, to evangelize the world, or spread the good news of what some call the Marriage of Heaven & Earth, that good news has continued to spread, in one form or another, across the globe! It can be argued, though many have rejected the notion, even from Scripture, that Heaven, or the Creator God's realm & Earth, or the material realm, have been married, or put another way, have met & kissed. Humanity dwells, as places like II Kings 6:17 reveal, alongside this heavenly realm, or dimension & in reality, we dwell in both realms at once, though some have become deadened to this glorious fact!
That many, whether through religious indoctrination or whatever, have hardened their hearts & minds to the fact that we are dwelling in Realms of Glory does not change the fact! As Christians, we have been taught that unless one believes a certain way, that one has no hope of dwelling with the Creator God. In fact, many passages of Scripture have indicated this to orthodox Christians for centuries. As indicated earlier, however, the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as other ancient texts, reveal how the Creator God opened His Realm of Glory to humanity, not so that we could go there when our humanity perished, but so that we could, in Essence, dwell there now!
When we say that we are One with the Creator God & that we are of the same Essence, we do not assume that we are the Creator God, that we are the One who set the Universe ( multi-verse? ) in motion! We are simply of the same Essence & thus Creators ourselves, though on a much smaller scale. We are limited by our humanity & though this is often frustrating to us, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Many of our limitations are self-imposed, as well, for whatever reason. Much of the reason for our limitations is our own free will; we have the free-will to choose, humanly speaking, to do this or that, one thing or the other. Our choices then determine, to a great extent, whether we experience the joys of heaven or the terrors of hell on earth!
The Love that we are is not always the love that we show! When we choose not to just BE the Love that we are, but instead let our mind/ego work its spells on us, we often forget the example of Love that Jesus showed us in the Scriptures. While He did bring upon His covenant people their deservedly adverse judgement, according to their own Scriptures, He forgave them even for rejecting & crucifying Him as their Messiah. Jesus did not condemn those that sinned against Him, rather He forgave them & healed them!
Though the Hebrew Scriptures hold many universal truths, we must understand that they ARE the Hebrew Scriptures; they contain a revelation of the Creator God, but we must understand that they are not THE revelation of the Creator God! There are other, more ancient texts, from other cultures even, though maybe mainly in the East, that reveal the Divine as well. We must remember too, that we, in Essence, are a revelation of the Divine. We do not always show it to the best of our ability, through the choices that we make, but every time we show Love, however weakly, we give a glimpse of that Divinity!
Charles Haddon Shank
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