(* Quotation marks have been used to indicate a strict and isolated "mind to object" relationship whether solely within the imagination or coming into the mind through sensory perception.)
Mark 4:22 For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad. KJV
Some philosophers contend that they do not know what he word "thing" means. They should have no problem with the meaning of "thing" if they would realize that it refers to any individual appearance to consciousness whether restricted to the imagination or coming into the mind through sensory perception. There are basic "things" such as "red" or "hard," and then there are combinations of "things" such as "man" or "machine."
When one observes appearances, one notices that all "things" are separated by "nothing." Reality consists of something and nothing blended together. In addition, each thing can be recognized as an individual "thing" because the mind realizes that it is "not" anything else. This means that the "not" can never diminish the "thing" nor can the "thing" ever blot out the "not." They co-exist together.
However, the mind does hold the power to isolate individual "things" by considering all other "things" to be equal to "nothing" so that the individual "thing" can be recognized and named. The "nothingness" thus used by the mind never diminishes the reality of the other things since each one of them can also be isolated by the use of "nothing." The mind simply temporarily considers all other "things" to be equal to "nothing" so that the isolated "thing" can be recognized as such. This shows that the mind also holds the additional power to form combinations of "things" in the world or in the imagination and add or subtract "things" to or from these combinations by the use of a "nothing."
When one considers Jesus' statement in Mark 4:22, one understands that the mind can use two "nots" to consider each other cancelled so that a particular combination can be isolated as having a real meaning. If the "nots" cancel the statement, it can have no meaning. When the "nots" cancel each other, then Jesus' combination reads: " For then is (no)thing hid, which shall (not) be manifested,....." which constitutes the exact meaning of Jesus' statement.
The fact that our minds readily and easily understand what Jesus meant, even with the "nots" included, demonstrates that the mind possesses an "idea of nothing" that is useful, and therefore, real to the mind. If both the "idea of nothing" and "things" prove useful to the mind in order to isolate that which is real, then evidently the mind has been geared to recognize only that which is real.
However, if everything is real, then how can anything be false? We know that a real falsity exists in the world. Where is it?
Consider Jesus' statement again. Jesus' statement is a combination of real "things" called ideas and His statement means that at the end of time all "things" that people believe they have forever hidden; God will manifest them and judge the people by them. If this actually happens at the end of time, then Jesus' statement consists of a true and real combination of real ideas.
On the other hand, if God does not reveal all hidden secrets at the end of time, then Jesus' combination of real ideas, taken as a whole, will prove false, and therefore, not real. Jesus' statement will prove unreal even though each individual "thing" in the combination, including the "idea of nothing," must be real in isolation. Of course, all true Christians believe that all of Jesus' statements are true and real.
At the end of time on judgment day, Jesus' statement will prove either true or false, either real or unreal. In other words, His prophecy will actually happen or it will come to nothing. This shows that the real ideas of "nothing" and "falsity" are equal. One can use the idea of nothing to recognize falsity. In fact, this is the only way that falsity can be recognized. But if both "falsity" and "nothing" are real, where is the "not real?" If the mind is geared to know only the real, where is the "not real?"
When one considers the combination of real ideas called the "not real," one realizes that this combination means that the mind has temporarily considered all that is real to be equal to nothing; that is, that all appearances have disappeared. In this case, all that can be left is the "idea of nothing". But if the " idea of nothing" can only be real in combination with "something," then what can this "nothing" be? Apparently, or actually not apparently, this "nothingness" can only be a kind of "nothingness" which can never appear, even as an idea. Unreality must be an absolute nothingness or chaos which never appears to the mind. The mind can only indirectly recognize unreality by using real ideas that indicate it such as "nothing" or "falsity."
The entire history of the human race consists of a process by which the real is continuously being separated from the unreal. Man constantly observes or invents combinations of real "things." If such combinations prove useful and true, then these combinations are real. If other combinations prove useless and false, then these combinations are unreal even though the "things" that compose them are always real. Even "nothingness" and "falsity" are useful and real ideas because by means of these ideas the mind identifies useless and false combinations which then can be usefully discarded. Man uses many systems; such as in religion, philosophy, government and law, science and technology, as well as in a study of history itself, in order to observe or invent combinations of real ideas that, in time, either prove to be useful and true or produce nothing and prove false. Yet, even the real ideas of "nothing" and "falsity" are useful because they indicate those useless combinations which should be usefully discarded. However, unreality itself is an absolute nothingness which never appears.
At the end of time, God will reveal absolutely everything that is real and all of man's lost reality will be recovered. All that is unreal will be left far behind and will forever be subject to absolute nothingness.
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