The Test of Love
John 1:1-3 II Thessalonians 2:7 I John 4:8
God created all things as limited copies of some of His Infinite Ideas. A "thing" is whatever is more than nothing, including the idea of nothing which is more than nothing as an idea. God's Consciousness causes all "things" to be more than nothing. The nothingness from which all things are separated by Consciousness can only not be an absolute nothingness of which no consciousness can be conscious, including God's Consciousness. Read II Thessalonians 2:7. God's Infinite Consciousness is the source of His Infinite Ideas and is also one with His Infinite Ideas since consciousness can also be an idea to itself. God could never use His Infinite Creative Will and Power in any negative way. God could never have even thought of such a thing. God can only direct His Infinite Ideas and Creative Power to the creation of combinations that are beautiful and alive.
God gave a limited copy of the Infinite Idea of Free Will to Lucifer when He created him. God gave this gift to Lucifer with an Infinite Innocence which made it impossible for God to ever think that this gift could be misused. Lucifer misused this gift to invent false combinations of God's Ideas which indirectly indicated an absolute nothingness; that is, an idea of nothingness that hides an absolute nothingness. God only knew how to use the idea of nothing in creative combinations. Lucifer invented a method by which he could misuse the idea of nothing in a destructive way. God could know absolutely nothing about absolute nothingness since it does not exist. Thus, absolute nothingness could never limit God's Infinite Knowledge because this chaos is the opposite of knowledge. Lucifer invented false combinations of God's Ideas in an attempt to open God's Infinite Reality to the destructive effects of absolute nothingness.
Apparently, when Lucifer realized his ability to invent false combinations, the emptiness thus accessed entered into his being as a false combination called "excessive pride." Lucifer became obsessed with the idea that he could fill this emptiness with his own creations. But in order to accomplish his plan, Lucifer knew that he would have to get rid of God since God alone is the source of all creative power. For this reason, Lucifer rebelled against God and attempted to use false combinations such as "kill God" in his attempt to reduce God to an absolute nothingness so that Lucifer could replace Him. Lucifer cleverly attached other false combinations to "excessive pride" such as "excessive pleasure," in order to induce other angels to follow him. Apparently, Lucifer desired to invent his own universe filled with "excessive pleasure" and "excessive excitement." But Lucifer's "excessive pride" would not allow him to realize that his obsession was really nothing more than an addiction to self-destruction. How such an addiction could gain such a hold on Lucifer's mind when absolute nothingness holds no power since it does not exist, constitutes a mystery which not even God can understand. But God's inability to understand "the mystery of iniquity" does not limit God's Infinite Creative Knowledge in the least.
God could have completely destroyed Lucifer and his followers at the time of their rebellion and recreated them as creatures who would obey Him. Instead, God exiled Lucifer and the fallen angels to earth where Lucifer became Satan, the god of this world. God exiled Lucifer instead of destroying him because He realized that destroying him would amount to a rejection of His own gift of free will. This would seem to indicate a failure of God's creative efforts, even though God knew within Himself that His Perfect Innocence would protect Him from any such charge of failure. God also knew that a destruction and recreation of Lucifer and his followers would leave Love untested, even though God knew within Himself that His Love could pass any test. God realized that both His gift of free will and His Love must be fully tested in order to prove that His creative gifts, such as free will, has creative effects as God intended; and that His Love, which is His very Being, cannot fail. Otherwise, a hint of "doubt" could infect all of His future creations which would make future rebellions possible. God knew that He had to create a thorough test of the righteousness of both His gift of free will and His Love in order to cleanse His future creations of all "doubt" completely, and restore an absolute "faith" or "confidence" in His Love and Creative Power.
In order to make this test, God decided to create humans in His own image, give them free will, and put them into a Paradise on earth. Had humans decided to continue in their love for God and obedience to Him, and had they rejected all doubt of His Word, then God would have directly told them to eat of the tree of life and they would have gained immortality and lived in fellowship with Him forever. Should they decide to disobey God and doubt His Word by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then evil would become a part of their being giving them an obsession with sin and self-destruction which characterizes an infection with absolute nothingness. But even if they decided to disobey Him, the great Love of God would not abandon them to their lost condition, but God would come to earth at some time in the future to provide all that they and their posterity would need for their salvation if they would but simply repent of their sins and put their faith in His sacrifice for them. In this way, God would prove that His gift of free will can be rightly used to return fallen creatures to eternal fellowship with Him. God would also prove that His Love has supreme value because He would sacrifice Himself in unspeakable anguish and suffering on a cruel cross, taking man's sin upon Himself, suffering in their place to take away their sin and to restore them to eternal fellowship with Him if they would but choose to return to faith in His great Love and Power. As the Apostle Paul taught in I Corinthians 13:8: "Love never fails." God dispelled all possible "doubt" from all of His future creations by proving that His Love is the greatest possible Power. God also proved that His gift of free will can be rightly used as the means to return to full faith in the Almighty Power of His Love.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
THE GOOD versus THE EVIL chapter 2
The Beginning of Evil
Isaiah 14:12-17 Ezekiel 28: 12-19 Genesis chapter 3 Habakkuk 1:13 II Thessalonians 2:7
Evil began when God's greatest creation, the cherub Lucifer, rebelled against God. Lucifer desired to destroy God and take His place as a god. God had given the gift of free will to Lucifer. God had allowed Lucifer to do whatever he wanted. God could not imagine that free will could ever be used in any but creative and beautiful ways. God was, and is, Infinite Innocence. Yet Lucifer, who had access to God's Ideas, misused limited copies of these Ideas to invent false combinations of these ideas that proved to be destructive and empty.
"God is Love." Read I John 4:8. One of the greatest components of Love is the Infinite Idea called "Innocence." Because of God's great Innocence, He had never imagined that there could ever be such a thing as evil. God must have been greatly shocked when "iniquity was found" in Lucifer. God had had great faith in Lucifer, and yet Lucifer misused God's Ideas to invent evil. God's Innocence protected Him from any blame for Lucifer's crimes.
Read Romans 8:20 John 8:44
The Word of God often refers to evil as being "vanity." Vanity means "emptiness" but it also means "pride." "Emptiness" and "pride" constitute exact descriptions of Lucifer's attitude and actions when he rebelled against God. Lucifer invented evil when he began to combine copies of God's Ideas in ways that effected destruction and emptiness. This newfound power caused pride to arise in him to the point that he thought that he could use his power to destroy God and take His place. God had always combined His Ideas in creative ways, and had never imagined that they could be combined in any other way. Because God's Ideas are Infinite, Lucifer could not create new ideas, but he did invent false combinations of those Ideas. God had always used the Idea of nothing in creative ways, so He was able to use this Idea as His means to recognize the emptiness and pride that resulted from Lucifer's invention of false combinations. But God could not comprehend the absolute nothingness that would result if Lucifer should succeed in using his false combinations to destroy Him. God was able to use His Idea of nothing to recognize the destructive effects of such false combinations as: "The desire to kill God," "untruths about God," and "jealousy of God's Power." Every individual Idea within these false combinations are true and useful in creative combinations, but Lucifer combined them in false and destructive ways. God had used even the Idea called "kill" in creative combinations as that Idea which eliminates all Ideas from any particular combination that are not needed for that combination. While all of God's Ideas are true, he had used the true combination called "not true" to identify true Ideas that do not fit into certain combinations but which will fit into others. But Lucifer used this same combination in a false way when he tried to show that God has lied. It had never occurred to God that "not" could be combined with "truth" as a destructive attempt to "kill" the Truth which is the Oneness of God with His Word. God created a useful name for all of these false combinations invented by Lucifer. God called them "sin."
Sin can in no way whatsoever be a limitation of God's Infinite Knowledge and Power. From its beginning, sin has merely been an attempt to reduce God's Being to an absolute nothingness; that is, to reduce Him to nonexistence. But this attempt could never limit God's Infinity in the least. God possesses the Infinite ability to separate an infinite something from an infinite nothing by His power to recognize that both are Infinite Ideas in His Infinite Mind. Absolute nothingness can have no effect on God's Infinite Creative Power whatsoever because it nonexists.
By using his lies and propaganda, Lucifer persuaded a third of God's angels to follow him in his rebellion. No doubt, he probably appealed to their intelligence to awaken within them a knowledge of their own free will which their intelligence could cause them to realize that they had. The knowledge of the power of free will can be quite heady and thus cause pride and rebellion. God did not immdeiately crush this rebellion because His Love and Innocence caused Him to attempt to persuade the rebels to abandon their rebellion as being hopeless and meaningless. Also, God was probably in great shock for a while, and shock can cause inactivity. "Shock" and "inactivity" are not weaknesses in God's Power; they name two of His Infinite Creative Combinations of His Infinite Ideas. "Shock" can be described as a creative combination called a "horror of evil." "Inactivity" can be described as "rest," which is also very creative.
Read II Corinthians 4:4
When God did act, He led His loyal angels in war against the rebels, arrested them, and threw them out of heaven and down to earth. On earth Lucifer became Satan the "god of this world." Satan is responsible for all of the horror, cruelty and evil that has happened in the history of the world. But all of these false combinations have always comprised copies of God's original true and creative Ideas.
God created two innocent and immortal humans and put them into the garden of Eden to live there in bliss forever. Satan entered the garden in the form of a serpent for the express purpose of destroying their innocence and ruining their bliss. Satan seduced Eve to fall into sin with his lies about God's Word, and Eve seduced Adam to sin with both her pathos and her sexual allure. Adam and Eve came to know good and evil because they disobeyed God and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They attained the intelligence that is needed to construct both creative and false combinations of God's true Ideas. Eve's disobedience was good in that her innocence was violated by a superior being, but it was evil in that she allowed rebellion against God's Word to become a part of her being. Adam's disobedience was good in that in his compassion for Eve's lost condition, he sacrificed himself in order to become equal with Eve and thus remain her friend; but it was evil in that he selfishly did not want to lose her sexual companionship, and he also allowed rebellion to become a part of his being. In addition, the good parts of their beings could never be enough to overcome the evil parts of their beings, and so they would remain in a hopeless, lost and depraved condition until they died and became separated from God forever. They needed God to come to their rescue.
God came to Adam and Eve's rescue when He prophesied to the serpent that He would give the serpent his chance to destroy Him, but that the serpent would only succeed in injuring the seed of the woman, but the seed of the woman would succeed in destroying the serpent. God made sure that Adam and Eve could overhear His prophecy to the serpent. Both the serpent and Adam and Eve understood this prophecy to mean that God would, at some time in the future, come to earth as a mere man who would defeat the Devil on his own ground. Read Genesis 4:1. The fulfillment of this prophecy would result in the final defeat of Satan's rebellion. From the time of Christ's resurrection, the Devil knew that he has "but a short time." Read Revelation 12:12. God had decided to test His Love and rescue humanity from the Devil's power by meeting the Devil in battle on equal grounds. Could God, as a mere man, endure the worst that evil could throw against Him, or would He succumb to evil? God meant to prove that His Love can never be destroyed even when pain and suffering beyond imagination were inflicted upon Him. God also meant to prove that Love could survive even death, and that those humans who would choose to trust in His sacrifice and resurrection would forever be saved from the power of evil by His Love. God meant to prove the eternal power of Love to triumph and to save.
God then confirmed His prophecy to Adam and Eve when He gave them a sign by killing an animal and clothing them in its skin. God meant for all future humans who trusted in Him to practice this sign by sacrificing animals and shedding their blood. Read Genesis 4:1-5. This sign would continue as a prophecy to humans until the time would come that God Himself would come to earth and shed His own blood, and rise from the dead so that He could wash all believers in His own blood and clothe them in His own righteousness so that they could be saved from evil forever. God meant to prove that His Love never fails to show compassion, never fails to rescue, and can never fail to protect and sanctify forever. "Love never fails." Read I Corinthians 13:8. God meant to prove that even when the most severe test possible were applied to Love, that Love will always prevail over evil.
Isaiah 14:12-17 Ezekiel 28: 12-19 Genesis chapter 3 Habakkuk 1:13 II Thessalonians 2:7
Evil began when God's greatest creation, the cherub Lucifer, rebelled against God. Lucifer desired to destroy God and take His place as a god. God had given the gift of free will to Lucifer. God had allowed Lucifer to do whatever he wanted. God could not imagine that free will could ever be used in any but creative and beautiful ways. God was, and is, Infinite Innocence. Yet Lucifer, who had access to God's Ideas, misused limited copies of these Ideas to invent false combinations of these ideas that proved to be destructive and empty.
"God is Love." Read I John 4:8. One of the greatest components of Love is the Infinite Idea called "Innocence." Because of God's great Innocence, He had never imagined that there could ever be such a thing as evil. God must have been greatly shocked when "iniquity was found" in Lucifer. God had had great faith in Lucifer, and yet Lucifer misused God's Ideas to invent evil. God's Innocence protected Him from any blame for Lucifer's crimes.
Read Romans 8:20 John 8:44
The Word of God often refers to evil as being "vanity." Vanity means "emptiness" but it also means "pride." "Emptiness" and "pride" constitute exact descriptions of Lucifer's attitude and actions when he rebelled against God. Lucifer invented evil when he began to combine copies of God's Ideas in ways that effected destruction and emptiness. This newfound power caused pride to arise in him to the point that he thought that he could use his power to destroy God and take His place. God had always combined His Ideas in creative ways, and had never imagined that they could be combined in any other way. Because God's Ideas are Infinite, Lucifer could not create new ideas, but he did invent false combinations of those Ideas. God had always used the Idea of nothing in creative ways, so He was able to use this Idea as His means to recognize the emptiness and pride that resulted from Lucifer's invention of false combinations. But God could not comprehend the absolute nothingness that would result if Lucifer should succeed in using his false combinations to destroy Him. God was able to use His Idea of nothing to recognize the destructive effects of such false combinations as: "The desire to kill God," "untruths about God," and "jealousy of God's Power." Every individual Idea within these false combinations are true and useful in creative combinations, but Lucifer combined them in false and destructive ways. God had used even the Idea called "kill" in creative combinations as that Idea which eliminates all Ideas from any particular combination that are not needed for that combination. While all of God's Ideas are true, he had used the true combination called "not true" to identify true Ideas that do not fit into certain combinations but which will fit into others. But Lucifer used this same combination in a false way when he tried to show that God has lied. It had never occurred to God that "not" could be combined with "truth" as a destructive attempt to "kill" the Truth which is the Oneness of God with His Word. God created a useful name for all of these false combinations invented by Lucifer. God called them "sin."
Sin can in no way whatsoever be a limitation of God's Infinite Knowledge and Power. From its beginning, sin has merely been an attempt to reduce God's Being to an absolute nothingness; that is, to reduce Him to nonexistence. But this attempt could never limit God's Infinity in the least. God possesses the Infinite ability to separate an infinite something from an infinite nothing by His power to recognize that both are Infinite Ideas in His Infinite Mind. Absolute nothingness can have no effect on God's Infinite Creative Power whatsoever because it nonexists.
By using his lies and propaganda, Lucifer persuaded a third of God's angels to follow him in his rebellion. No doubt, he probably appealed to their intelligence to awaken within them a knowledge of their own free will which their intelligence could cause them to realize that they had. The knowledge of the power of free will can be quite heady and thus cause pride and rebellion. God did not immdeiately crush this rebellion because His Love and Innocence caused Him to attempt to persuade the rebels to abandon their rebellion as being hopeless and meaningless. Also, God was probably in great shock for a while, and shock can cause inactivity. "Shock" and "inactivity" are not weaknesses in God's Power; they name two of His Infinite Creative Combinations of His Infinite Ideas. "Shock" can be described as a creative combination called a "horror of evil." "Inactivity" can be described as "rest," which is also very creative.
Read II Corinthians 4:4
When God did act, He led His loyal angels in war against the rebels, arrested them, and threw them out of heaven and down to earth. On earth Lucifer became Satan the "god of this world." Satan is responsible for all of the horror, cruelty and evil that has happened in the history of the world. But all of these false combinations have always comprised copies of God's original true and creative Ideas.
God created two innocent and immortal humans and put them into the garden of Eden to live there in bliss forever. Satan entered the garden in the form of a serpent for the express purpose of destroying their innocence and ruining their bliss. Satan seduced Eve to fall into sin with his lies about God's Word, and Eve seduced Adam to sin with both her pathos and her sexual allure. Adam and Eve came to know good and evil because they disobeyed God and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They attained the intelligence that is needed to construct both creative and false combinations of God's true Ideas. Eve's disobedience was good in that her innocence was violated by a superior being, but it was evil in that she allowed rebellion against God's Word to become a part of her being. Adam's disobedience was good in that in his compassion for Eve's lost condition, he sacrificed himself in order to become equal with Eve and thus remain her friend; but it was evil in that he selfishly did not want to lose her sexual companionship, and he also allowed rebellion to become a part of his being. In addition, the good parts of their beings could never be enough to overcome the evil parts of their beings, and so they would remain in a hopeless, lost and depraved condition until they died and became separated from God forever. They needed God to come to their rescue.
God came to Adam and Eve's rescue when He prophesied to the serpent that He would give the serpent his chance to destroy Him, but that the serpent would only succeed in injuring the seed of the woman, but the seed of the woman would succeed in destroying the serpent. God made sure that Adam and Eve could overhear His prophecy to the serpent. Both the serpent and Adam and Eve understood this prophecy to mean that God would, at some time in the future, come to earth as a mere man who would defeat the Devil on his own ground. Read Genesis 4:1. The fulfillment of this prophecy would result in the final defeat of Satan's rebellion. From the time of Christ's resurrection, the Devil knew that he has "but a short time." Read Revelation 12:12. God had decided to test His Love and rescue humanity from the Devil's power by meeting the Devil in battle on equal grounds. Could God, as a mere man, endure the worst that evil could throw against Him, or would He succumb to evil? God meant to prove that His Love can never be destroyed even when pain and suffering beyond imagination were inflicted upon Him. God also meant to prove that Love could survive even death, and that those humans who would choose to trust in His sacrifice and resurrection would forever be saved from the power of evil by His Love. God meant to prove the eternal power of Love to triumph and to save.
God then confirmed His prophecy to Adam and Eve when He gave them a sign by killing an animal and clothing them in its skin. God meant for all future humans who trusted in Him to practice this sign by sacrificing animals and shedding their blood. Read Genesis 4:1-5. This sign would continue as a prophecy to humans until the time would come that God Himself would come to earth and shed His own blood, and rise from the dead so that He could wash all believers in His own blood and clothe them in His own righteousness so that they could be saved from evil forever. God meant to prove that His Love never fails to show compassion, never fails to rescue, and can never fail to protect and sanctify forever. "Love never fails." Read I Corinthians 13:8. God meant to prove that even when the most severe test possible were applied to Love, that Love will always prevail over evil.
Friday, December 14, 2012
THE GOOD versus THE EVIL chapter 1
The Perfect
Read: Isaiah 45:7 Psalm 147:5 Revelation 4:6-8 Revelation 4:11 Habakkuk 1:12-13 Psalm 33:6 Genesis 1:6 Hebrews 11:6 Hebrews 4:4
The story of the good versus the evil had a beginning. It began when the Perfect, in His graciousness, decided to give the gift of free will to His greatest creation at that time; Lucifer, the light bearer.
Before the good and the evil began, only the Perfect existed. The Perfect contains the Ideas of absolutely everything that can exist. But the Perfect can only be Perfect if every Idea is absolutely exact and right. Absolutely no error can exist within the Perfect. This can only mean that the Perfect and every Idea within the Perfect must be Infinite.
The philosophers who are called the skeptics have rightly contended that the only test which can prove the absolute truth of anything in the world has to be an infinite test. For example, one can only prove, beyond all doubt, that the shortest distance between two points is always a straight line by comparing every instance of this idea to infinity. Because such a test remains continuously impossible for any finite mind, the skeptics wrongly abandoned any hope of ever finding the absolute truth about anything in the world. The skeptics ignored the argument that no partial truth can exist without an absolute truth from which it was derived.
The Absolute Truth does exist because the Perfect exists. The Perfect perfects Himself by continuously applying the infinite test to His Infinite Set of Ideas. In this way, the Infinite Set of Ideas, which is the same as the Perfect, has caused Himself to be absolute Righteousness and Truth. This means that the Perfect must always be right and cannot be wrong. This is called the Holiness of the Perfect.
There can be no Ideas outside of the Infinite Set of Ideas. This makes Self-Consciousness an Infinite Idea within the Infinite Set of Ideas. All finite creations, including man's self-consciousness, are based on the Infinite Set of Ideas and Infinite Self-Consciousness.
All of this means that outside of Infinite Consciousness only absolute nothingness can nonexist. All that can possibly exist already exists as Ideas within the Infinite. Absolute nothingness contains no ideas, no time and no place. Absolute nothingness nonexists nowhere and at no time. Therefore, there can be no idea of it. The idea of nothing is a real idea in consciousness, and one can use this idea to get an indirect idea of absolute nothingness, but a direct idea of it is impossible even for Infinite Consciousness. This does not mean that absolute nothingness can restrict Infinite Consciousness because it can have no effect on the Infinite whatsoever.
Nothingness exists as an Idea within the Infinite Set of Ideas. The Perfect uses this Idea in many creative ways. One of these ways is that the Perfect uses this Idea to indirectly indicate absolute nothingness. The idea of nothing is real to the finite mind, but nonexistence is never real. Neither Infinite Consciousness nor finite consciousness can ever get a direct idea of absolute nothingness. The closest that the finite mind can come to a direct idea of absolute nothingness is when it is in a coma.
Revelation 4:11 relates that God "created all things." God created all things in heaven and earth as limited material and spiritual sections of His Infinite Ideas. The manner in which DNA creates particular living beings is similar to this manner of creation. In theory, the whole of DNA could be infinite, but particular living organisms are created by snippets copied from sections of DNA strands.
The Perfect certainly created all things, but Isaiah 45:7 relates that God also created "evil." But the Hebrew word for "evil" here means all of the painful effects and emotions that evil will cause. Thus, God had already created "sorrow," "grief," "pain" and "suffering" as the sure results of sin. Just as pain is a sure sign that something is wrong in the body that needs to be corrected, so all forms of suffering are sure signs that wrongful combinations of good things exist called "sin," which also needs to be corrected. This means that all of God's creations serve good and useful purposes. "Sin" itself was not created by the Perfect, but all of the elements of sin such as "pleasure," "excitement" and "pride" were so created. God knows how to use these elements rightly when He puts them into good combinations that produce creative results. Lucifer did not create sin, but he invented sin as wrongful combinations of the Perfect's good elements, and sin is always destructive. For example, when Lucifer combined the good element called "pride," with the good element called "excessive," with the good element called "against," with the idea of the good Being called "God," then he invented that destructive combination called "excessive pride against God," which is the basis for all sin.
Since the Perfect created such good and useful elements as "grief," "sorrow," "remorse" and "pain;" and since all of the Perfect's good creations must be contained within His Infinite Set of Ideas, then the Perfect must have known these Infinite Ideas prior to Lucifer's invention of sin. Yet, these elements could have had no useful purpose prior to the invention of sin because their only useful purpose adheres to the fact that they indicate wrongful combinations that need to be corrected. Since the Perfect, by necessity, must also be Absolute Innocence, then He could have only known perfection; and therefore, He could have known absolutely nothing about sin prior to its invention. Read Habakkuk 1:12-13. Then why did the Perfect know the useful Infinite Ideas that signal sin prior to its invention? The answer lies in the first phrase of Isaiah 45:7 which states: "I form the light, and create darkness...." In order to possess truly Infinite Knowledge, then the Perfect must contain all possible Infinite Ideas. Not only must the Perfect contain all useful elements at the time of the creation of heaven and earth; indicated by, "I form the light....," but He must also contain all of the Infinite contingent elements that will prove to be useful at such a time as they are needed, such as at the time of Lucifer's rebellion. Thus God's statement, "and create darkness....," could relate to the Perfect's ability to hold some of His Infinite Ideas in reserve until they are needed, even though in Innocence He knew nothing about sin.
Since the Perfect has perfected Himself through the Infinity of His Ideas, then the combinations of these elements must also be real, since each element in finite creations constitutes but a small section of those Infinite Ideas used in these combinations. The finite mind of man is one of these creations. Three categories of the universe exist: the informational, the material and the forceful. The material is that which is known to be real through the senses. The forceful is that which is known to be real through movement and energy. The informational is that which is known to be real as ideas in the mind. All ideas abstracted from the material such as the informational idea called "solid" are real. All ideas related to man's relationship to man such as the informational ideas called "justice" and "truth" are just as real as any material object. The idea that relates the mind to the movement of one's own body called "will" is just as real as any material object. All ideas that relate the mind to itself such as "imagination" or "memory" are just as real as any material object. Reality consists of all of the elements of consciousness, material or immaterial, because all these elements are useful in creative ways. When useful elements are combined into destructive combinations, then the elements themselves are real but the combination is false and falsity always indicates a nothingness which is the only unreality.
When God created the world, He saw that everything was "good," which means that everything was useful to some creative degree. When one examines the entire contents of reality, one finds that every element of reality can be useful for some creative purpose. Even "hatred" has a useful purpose in the fight against evil. "Jealousy" can have a useful purpose as that emotion that guards the wellbeing of loved ones. However, some words do not denote irreducible elements of consciousness but true or false combinations. For instance, "cruelty" is not an emotion but is a false combination of real elements such as "hatred," "aggression,"(as an emotion) and "pain." "Sin" is always a false combination. But all the words that indicate false combinations are useful real ideas in-themselves because they always indicate that which is useless and should be usefully discarded or avoided. The word "law," as a general rule, usually indicates a true combination. Another definition of reality would be that its real and irreducible elements can be combined in useful or useless ways. The absolutely true combination is that the contents of consciousness and reality are absolutely identical.
If such be the absolute truth, then the question arises: Where and what is unreality? The mind does encounter unreality from time to time. Since the entire contents of consciousness and reality are the same, the only possible answer to this question is that unreality nonexists nowhere and at no time. Just as the real elements of consciousness can be combined in creative ways, so these same elements can be combined in useless and destructive ways, and all the words that indicate these useless combinations are themselves useful. "Hatred" and "Jealousy" can be combined with other real elements in cruel and evil ways. The chemical elements that can be combined to make explosions can be used in destructive ways such as in war, or can be used in creative ways such as in building roads or mining operations. Whenever real elements are combined in useless or destructive ways, this always indicates a nothingness, but this nothingness is an idea in the mind, and therefore, a real nothingness. An explosion may be used to destroy a house, but then there is no house; a nothingness of which one is aware. The destruction of the house may serve some useful purpose, or it may serve simply a useless and destructive purpose; but in either case, it has been reduced to a nothingness which must be real because one is conscious of it. We always say that illusions, such as ghosts, are really nothing, but when we think about it, we realize that all of the elements of a ghost, such as "wispy" or "grey" are always real informational ideas in our minds including the real idea that the ghost is nothing. So where and what is unreality? False combinations always comprise real elements, but the real idea of nothing always indirectly indicates a useless and absolute nothingness that nonexists nowhere and at no time.
Since unreality nonexists nowhere and at no time, it must lie outside of God's Infinite Set of Ideas. Both God's Infinite Consciousness and man's finite consciousness can only be indirectly aware of the nonexistence of absolute nothingess by the use of the idea of nothing which indirectly indicates its nonexistence.
All of this means that something can never come from nothing. Something can only come from something, and nothing can only come from nothing. Nowhere does the Bible teach that God created something from nothing. God's Infinite Consciousness is required for an eternal separation of something from nothing. Without God's Infinite Consciousness, absolute nothingness would swallow up both something and nothing so that they could never be separated, and would forever equal each other, and therefore, nonexist.
Psalm 33:6 teaches that God created the heavens "by the Word of the Lord." The word "heavens" is plural which indicates His creation of both heaven and the material universe. In Genesis 1:3 and subsequent verses, the Bible teaches that God created the earth and life by His spoken Word. Some scientists maintain that they have discovered that material substance consists of highly concentrated sound waves. Psalm 33:6 also relates that God created the universe "by the breath of His mouth." In Hebrew, the word "breath" means "a blast of wind" but it also means "mind." The universe exists in three categories: information, force and material. Thus, the word "breath" denotes both the force and materiality of God's spoken Word as well as His intellect which contains the information by which He formed all of the separate objects of the universe and the life within it. All of this indicates that God did not create the universe from nothing. Reality must always be a something including the useful idea of nothing because all ideas are something. One of the uses of the idea of nothing is that it indirectly indicates a useless nothingness that nonexists outside of God's Being and all of His creations.
Reality requires consciousness and information. Without them, reality can not exist. If there had been no Infinite Consciousness prior to finite consciousness, then the information vital to the existence of the universe could not exist and neither could the universe. Without Infinite Consciousness, there also could have been no separation of something from nothing and the universe would nonexist.
Nothing produces only nothing. Consciousness produces reality by separating something from nothing. That is the very purpose of consciousness. The real idea of nothing indirectly indicates to consciousness an absolute nothingness. This means that all of the "somethings" thus separated from "nothing" by the power of consciousness must be real, including the idea of nothing. The idea of nothing itself is a useful something separated from absolute nothingness by consciousness. This also means that consciousness can never objectify any something forever hidden by nothing. For example, no astronomer can ever know whether or not a galaxy lies hidden by a dark spot upon which he has focused his telescope because its light has not reached his eye. To him, the dark spot only indicates the idea of nothing which may, or may not, hide a galaxy. If he never sees the galaxy which lies behind the idea of nothing, then it will forever be to him an absolute nothingness because his consciousness has never separated it from nothing.
All that appears to consciousness must be real. False combinations trick the mind into thinking it is experiencing something unreal. Actually, the elements of all false combinations are real. Falsity lies only in the uncreative combinations themselves. Falsity always equals a nothing that indirectly indicates nonexistence.
This means that consciousness of consciousness that appears as an idea to the mind must be a creative combination of real elements because it cannot be a false theory that produces nothing. Consciousness of consciousness does produce a good result which is an intelligent consciousness which stores information.
This also means that consciousness cannot be solely the product of brain activity since brain activity itself constitutes a true combination which is one of the informational contents of consciousness. This fact makes brain activity an object of consciousness which means that consciousness must be a real element on its own separate from brain activity. Consciousness also works to produce a consciousness of itself as well as brain activity. If consciousness can only be conscious of the real, then self-consciousness can only be a true combination separate from brain activity. Apparently, brain activity is simply a true combination by which consciousness makes itself aware of the material world through the senses.
If consciousness can only know nothing of whatever it is not conscious, and consciousness of all elements makes them real; then consciousness of consciousness must indicate another consciousness, and that still another, and so forth toward infinity. Finite consciousness simply lacks the power to carry this process to infinity. But this possible connection of consciousness to infinity must be real because self-consciousness is a true combination that produces a real result; that is, intelligence. This possible connection of finite consciousness to infinity could be that which the Bible calls the "spirit" of man which survives bodily death.
All of this raises the next question: Is infinity real? If infinity is real, then an Infinite Self- Consciousness must also be real since the infinite must contain all possibilities. Otherwise, there could be no infinity.
If infinity is real, it could be a real result of the true combination of real elements called "not" "finite." If infinity is not real, then it must be a false combination of real elements called "not" "finite." But if infinity is a false idea, it can only be equal to nothing. This means that finite consciousness could never get an idea of infinity because the false combination could never indicate to consciousness any other idea than the idea of nothing. However, the idea of infinity could be the result of a false theory about reality called "not" "finite," which consciousness has not yet discovered to be equal to nothing. If science could devise a test that would prove whether or not the combination called "not" "finite" produces a real infinity or a falsity equal to nothing, then this problem would be solved. But such a test may not be needed if one considers the fact that even false theories almost always possess logical possibilities. For example, the false conclusion that there has to be a medium in space called "aether" was a logical possibility. But when false combinations contain no logical possibilities, we usually immediately recognize them as false and equal to nothing without the need for a test. For example, we immediately recognize all mistakes in arithmetic to be false and equal to nothing because they are completely illogical. There seems to be no logical connection within the combination called "not" "finite" that would indicate a leap to the idea of infinity. Then why do we not immediately recognize the idea of infinity to be equal to nothing? Despite this, we possess the idea of the infinite as a real idea. How could a finite mind ever make a seemingly impossible leap from the finite to the infinite, especially as an illogical result of a finite combination called "not" "finite" which would logically only indicate the idea of nothing? After all, the logical conclusion of the combination called "not" "finite" can only be that the "finite" has been temporarily considered to be hidden in the idea of "nothing," leaving only nothing remaining. There can be no logical connection to the infinite in that. The truth can only be that we cannot, and do not, get the idea of the infinite from any finite combination. The truth is that we could have no idea of the infinite except as a real idea given to us from the Infinite Himself. Just as Descartes taught us that we can have no idea of the absolutely perfect without the aid of the Absolute Perfect, so we can have no idea of the infinite without the aid of the Infinite Consciousness.
Some Christian philosophers criticize those philosophers who offer any proofs of God's existence on the grounds that such proofs amount to an insult to God. They rightly maintain that God requires faith in His existence and not proofs. God has deliberately instilled a balance in history whereby His existence can neither be proved nor disproved. Man has never been able to overcome this balance. Sometimes, this balance tips in favor of faith, and sometimes in favor of unbelief. But always, this balance guarantees the free will of man. God is using history and the free will of man to test His Love. Free will requires a history in order to operate properly. God intends to prove that Love is the most valuable and powerful force in the universe. God knows that this test can only succeed if an intelligent creature freely chooses to love and believe in Him. Thus, God must maintain the balance.
As long as the forces of evil and rebellion remain in God's universe, then the value and power of God's Love remains in doubt. Not that God would ever doubt the power of His own Love, but that "doubt," as an Infinite Idea must be applied, as with "grief" and "pain," to false combinations as a negative effect of such combinations. These negative effects make the balance, and free will, and the test of God's Love necessary. God cannot simply annul evil without the test because "doubt" of His Love could cause evil to return in the future with even more power. After all, evil is a mystery even to God. God must test His Love even with all of the "horror" and "pain" that must attend this test, in order to remove all doubt about His Love so that He could, by His final judgment, purge all evil from His universe forever. God Himself endured all of the "horror" and "pain" that evil can inflict when He died on the cross in the place of sinners so that He can cleanse with His shed blood all who will believe in His sacrifice. God Himself passed the test of His great Love. All who believe in His sacrifice will participate in God's victory forever.
The proofs of God's existence contained in this philosophy are not meant to prove the actual existence of God. God's balance in history does not allow such proofs. God requires faith which comes from free will. However, God is not insulted by such proofs. God is longsuffering and understanding. God knows that the reasoning power that He has given man will naturally lead man to all sorts of speculation. Natural speculation seldom results in sin. The purpose of these proofs is that they may cause some atheists and materialists to think a little harder about God's existence and maybe start reading His Word. The Holy Spirit is likely to cause those who read His Word to come under conviction of their sins and discover in that conviction that they have a choice to accept or to reject Christ as their Savior. This philosophy is meant to be a witness to the most stubborn of unbelievers.
Read: Isaiah 45:7 Psalm 147:5 Revelation 4:6-8 Revelation 4:11 Habakkuk 1:12-13 Psalm 33:6 Genesis 1:6 Hebrews 11:6 Hebrews 4:4
The story of the good versus the evil had a beginning. It began when the Perfect, in His graciousness, decided to give the gift of free will to His greatest creation at that time; Lucifer, the light bearer.
Before the good and the evil began, only the Perfect existed. The Perfect contains the Ideas of absolutely everything that can exist. But the Perfect can only be Perfect if every Idea is absolutely exact and right. Absolutely no error can exist within the Perfect. This can only mean that the Perfect and every Idea within the Perfect must be Infinite.
The philosophers who are called the skeptics have rightly contended that the only test which can prove the absolute truth of anything in the world has to be an infinite test. For example, one can only prove, beyond all doubt, that the shortest distance between two points is always a straight line by comparing every instance of this idea to infinity. Because such a test remains continuously impossible for any finite mind, the skeptics wrongly abandoned any hope of ever finding the absolute truth about anything in the world. The skeptics ignored the argument that no partial truth can exist without an absolute truth from which it was derived.
The Absolute Truth does exist because the Perfect exists. The Perfect perfects Himself by continuously applying the infinite test to His Infinite Set of Ideas. In this way, the Infinite Set of Ideas, which is the same as the Perfect, has caused Himself to be absolute Righteousness and Truth. This means that the Perfect must always be right and cannot be wrong. This is called the Holiness of the Perfect.
There can be no Ideas outside of the Infinite Set of Ideas. This makes Self-Consciousness an Infinite Idea within the Infinite Set of Ideas. All finite creations, including man's self-consciousness, are based on the Infinite Set of Ideas and Infinite Self-Consciousness.
All of this means that outside of Infinite Consciousness only absolute nothingness can nonexist. All that can possibly exist already exists as Ideas within the Infinite. Absolute nothingness contains no ideas, no time and no place. Absolute nothingness nonexists nowhere and at no time. Therefore, there can be no idea of it. The idea of nothing is a real idea in consciousness, and one can use this idea to get an indirect idea of absolute nothingness, but a direct idea of it is impossible even for Infinite Consciousness. This does not mean that absolute nothingness can restrict Infinite Consciousness because it can have no effect on the Infinite whatsoever.
Nothingness exists as an Idea within the Infinite Set of Ideas. The Perfect uses this Idea in many creative ways. One of these ways is that the Perfect uses this Idea to indirectly indicate absolute nothingness. The idea of nothing is real to the finite mind, but nonexistence is never real. Neither Infinite Consciousness nor finite consciousness can ever get a direct idea of absolute nothingness. The closest that the finite mind can come to a direct idea of absolute nothingness is when it is in a coma.
Revelation 4:11 relates that God "created all things." God created all things in heaven and earth as limited material and spiritual sections of His Infinite Ideas. The manner in which DNA creates particular living beings is similar to this manner of creation. In theory, the whole of DNA could be infinite, but particular living organisms are created by snippets copied from sections of DNA strands.
The Perfect certainly created all things, but Isaiah 45:7 relates that God also created "evil." But the Hebrew word for "evil" here means all of the painful effects and emotions that evil will cause. Thus, God had already created "sorrow," "grief," "pain" and "suffering" as the sure results of sin. Just as pain is a sure sign that something is wrong in the body that needs to be corrected, so all forms of suffering are sure signs that wrongful combinations of good things exist called "sin," which also needs to be corrected. This means that all of God's creations serve good and useful purposes. "Sin" itself was not created by the Perfect, but all of the elements of sin such as "pleasure," "excitement" and "pride" were so created. God knows how to use these elements rightly when He puts them into good combinations that produce creative results. Lucifer did not create sin, but he invented sin as wrongful combinations of the Perfect's good elements, and sin is always destructive. For example, when Lucifer combined the good element called "pride," with the good element called "excessive," with the good element called "against," with the idea of the good Being called "God," then he invented that destructive combination called "excessive pride against God," which is the basis for all sin.
Since the Perfect created such good and useful elements as "grief," "sorrow," "remorse" and "pain;" and since all of the Perfect's good creations must be contained within His Infinite Set of Ideas, then the Perfect must have known these Infinite Ideas prior to Lucifer's invention of sin. Yet, these elements could have had no useful purpose prior to the invention of sin because their only useful purpose adheres to the fact that they indicate wrongful combinations that need to be corrected. Since the Perfect, by necessity, must also be Absolute Innocence, then He could have only known perfection; and therefore, He could have known absolutely nothing about sin prior to its invention. Read Habakkuk 1:12-13. Then why did the Perfect know the useful Infinite Ideas that signal sin prior to its invention? The answer lies in the first phrase of Isaiah 45:7 which states: "I form the light, and create darkness...." In order to possess truly Infinite Knowledge, then the Perfect must contain all possible Infinite Ideas. Not only must the Perfect contain all useful elements at the time of the creation of heaven and earth; indicated by, "I form the light....," but He must also contain all of the Infinite contingent elements that will prove to be useful at such a time as they are needed, such as at the time of Lucifer's rebellion. Thus God's statement, "and create darkness....," could relate to the Perfect's ability to hold some of His Infinite Ideas in reserve until they are needed, even though in Innocence He knew nothing about sin.
Since the Perfect has perfected Himself through the Infinity of His Ideas, then the combinations of these elements must also be real, since each element in finite creations constitutes but a small section of those Infinite Ideas used in these combinations. The finite mind of man is one of these creations. Three categories of the universe exist: the informational, the material and the forceful. The material is that which is known to be real through the senses. The forceful is that which is known to be real through movement and energy. The informational is that which is known to be real as ideas in the mind. All ideas abstracted from the material such as the informational idea called "solid" are real. All ideas related to man's relationship to man such as the informational ideas called "justice" and "truth" are just as real as any material object. The idea that relates the mind to the movement of one's own body called "will" is just as real as any material object. All ideas that relate the mind to itself such as "imagination" or "memory" are just as real as any material object. Reality consists of all of the elements of consciousness, material or immaterial, because all these elements are useful in creative ways. When useful elements are combined into destructive combinations, then the elements themselves are real but the combination is false and falsity always indicates a nothingness which is the only unreality.
When God created the world, He saw that everything was "good," which means that everything was useful to some creative degree. When one examines the entire contents of reality, one finds that every element of reality can be useful for some creative purpose. Even "hatred" has a useful purpose in the fight against evil. "Jealousy" can have a useful purpose as that emotion that guards the wellbeing of loved ones. However, some words do not denote irreducible elements of consciousness but true or false combinations. For instance, "cruelty" is not an emotion but is a false combination of real elements such as "hatred," "aggression,"(as an emotion) and "pain." "Sin" is always a false combination. But all the words that indicate false combinations are useful real ideas in-themselves because they always indicate that which is useless and should be usefully discarded or avoided. The word "law," as a general rule, usually indicates a true combination. Another definition of reality would be that its real and irreducible elements can be combined in useful or useless ways. The absolutely true combination is that the contents of consciousness and reality are absolutely identical.
If such be the absolute truth, then the question arises: Where and what is unreality? The mind does encounter unreality from time to time. Since the entire contents of consciousness and reality are the same, the only possible answer to this question is that unreality nonexists nowhere and at no time. Just as the real elements of consciousness can be combined in creative ways, so these same elements can be combined in useless and destructive ways, and all the words that indicate these useless combinations are themselves useful. "Hatred" and "Jealousy" can be combined with other real elements in cruel and evil ways. The chemical elements that can be combined to make explosions can be used in destructive ways such as in war, or can be used in creative ways such as in building roads or mining operations. Whenever real elements are combined in useless or destructive ways, this always indicates a nothingness, but this nothingness is an idea in the mind, and therefore, a real nothingness. An explosion may be used to destroy a house, but then there is no house; a nothingness of which one is aware. The destruction of the house may serve some useful purpose, or it may serve simply a useless and destructive purpose; but in either case, it has been reduced to a nothingness which must be real because one is conscious of it. We always say that illusions, such as ghosts, are really nothing, but when we think about it, we realize that all of the elements of a ghost, such as "wispy" or "grey" are always real informational ideas in our minds including the real idea that the ghost is nothing. So where and what is unreality? False combinations always comprise real elements, but the real idea of nothing always indirectly indicates a useless and absolute nothingness that nonexists nowhere and at no time.
Since unreality nonexists nowhere and at no time, it must lie outside of God's Infinite Set of Ideas. Both God's Infinite Consciousness and man's finite consciousness can only be indirectly aware of the nonexistence of absolute nothingess by the use of the idea of nothing which indirectly indicates its nonexistence.
All of this means that something can never come from nothing. Something can only come from something, and nothing can only come from nothing. Nowhere does the Bible teach that God created something from nothing. God's Infinite Consciousness is required for an eternal separation of something from nothing. Without God's Infinite Consciousness, absolute nothingness would swallow up both something and nothing so that they could never be separated, and would forever equal each other, and therefore, nonexist.
Psalm 33:6 teaches that God created the heavens "by the Word of the Lord." The word "heavens" is plural which indicates His creation of both heaven and the material universe. In Genesis 1:3 and subsequent verses, the Bible teaches that God created the earth and life by His spoken Word. Some scientists maintain that they have discovered that material substance consists of highly concentrated sound waves. Psalm 33:6 also relates that God created the universe "by the breath of His mouth." In Hebrew, the word "breath" means "a blast of wind" but it also means "mind." The universe exists in three categories: information, force and material. Thus, the word "breath" denotes both the force and materiality of God's spoken Word as well as His intellect which contains the information by which He formed all of the separate objects of the universe and the life within it. All of this indicates that God did not create the universe from nothing. Reality must always be a something including the useful idea of nothing because all ideas are something. One of the uses of the idea of nothing is that it indirectly indicates a useless nothingness that nonexists outside of God's Being and all of His creations.
Reality requires consciousness and information. Without them, reality can not exist. If there had been no Infinite Consciousness prior to finite consciousness, then the information vital to the existence of the universe could not exist and neither could the universe. Without Infinite Consciousness, there also could have been no separation of something from nothing and the universe would nonexist.
Nothing produces only nothing. Consciousness produces reality by separating something from nothing. That is the very purpose of consciousness. The real idea of nothing indirectly indicates to consciousness an absolute nothingness. This means that all of the "somethings" thus separated from "nothing" by the power of consciousness must be real, including the idea of nothing. The idea of nothing itself is a useful something separated from absolute nothingness by consciousness. This also means that consciousness can never objectify any something forever hidden by nothing. For example, no astronomer can ever know whether or not a galaxy lies hidden by a dark spot upon which he has focused his telescope because its light has not reached his eye. To him, the dark spot only indicates the idea of nothing which may, or may not, hide a galaxy. If he never sees the galaxy which lies behind the idea of nothing, then it will forever be to him an absolute nothingness because his consciousness has never separated it from nothing.
All that appears to consciousness must be real. False combinations trick the mind into thinking it is experiencing something unreal. Actually, the elements of all false combinations are real. Falsity lies only in the uncreative combinations themselves. Falsity always equals a nothing that indirectly indicates nonexistence.
This means that consciousness of consciousness that appears as an idea to the mind must be a creative combination of real elements because it cannot be a false theory that produces nothing. Consciousness of consciousness does produce a good result which is an intelligent consciousness which stores information.
This also means that consciousness cannot be solely the product of brain activity since brain activity itself constitutes a true combination which is one of the informational contents of consciousness. This fact makes brain activity an object of consciousness which means that consciousness must be a real element on its own separate from brain activity. Consciousness also works to produce a consciousness of itself as well as brain activity. If consciousness can only be conscious of the real, then self-consciousness can only be a true combination separate from brain activity. Apparently, brain activity is simply a true combination by which consciousness makes itself aware of the material world through the senses.
If consciousness can only know nothing of whatever it is not conscious, and consciousness of all elements makes them real; then consciousness of consciousness must indicate another consciousness, and that still another, and so forth toward infinity. Finite consciousness simply lacks the power to carry this process to infinity. But this possible connection of consciousness to infinity must be real because self-consciousness is a true combination that produces a real result; that is, intelligence. This possible connection of finite consciousness to infinity could be that which the Bible calls the "spirit" of man which survives bodily death.
All of this raises the next question: Is infinity real? If infinity is real, then an Infinite Self- Consciousness must also be real since the infinite must contain all possibilities. Otherwise, there could be no infinity.
If infinity is real, it could be a real result of the true combination of real elements called "not" "finite." If infinity is not real, then it must be a false combination of real elements called "not" "finite." But if infinity is a false idea, it can only be equal to nothing. This means that finite consciousness could never get an idea of infinity because the false combination could never indicate to consciousness any other idea than the idea of nothing. However, the idea of infinity could be the result of a false theory about reality called "not" "finite," which consciousness has not yet discovered to be equal to nothing. If science could devise a test that would prove whether or not the combination called "not" "finite" produces a real infinity or a falsity equal to nothing, then this problem would be solved. But such a test may not be needed if one considers the fact that even false theories almost always possess logical possibilities. For example, the false conclusion that there has to be a medium in space called "aether" was a logical possibility. But when false combinations contain no logical possibilities, we usually immediately recognize them as false and equal to nothing without the need for a test. For example, we immediately recognize all mistakes in arithmetic to be false and equal to nothing because they are completely illogical. There seems to be no logical connection within the combination called "not" "finite" that would indicate a leap to the idea of infinity. Then why do we not immediately recognize the idea of infinity to be equal to nothing? Despite this, we possess the idea of the infinite as a real idea. How could a finite mind ever make a seemingly impossible leap from the finite to the infinite, especially as an illogical result of a finite combination called "not" "finite" which would logically only indicate the idea of nothing? After all, the logical conclusion of the combination called "not" "finite" can only be that the "finite" has been temporarily considered to be hidden in the idea of "nothing," leaving only nothing remaining. There can be no logical connection to the infinite in that. The truth can only be that we cannot, and do not, get the idea of the infinite from any finite combination. The truth is that we could have no idea of the infinite except as a real idea given to us from the Infinite Himself. Just as Descartes taught us that we can have no idea of the absolutely perfect without the aid of the Absolute Perfect, so we can have no idea of the infinite without the aid of the Infinite Consciousness.
Some Christian philosophers criticize those philosophers who offer any proofs of God's existence on the grounds that such proofs amount to an insult to God. They rightly maintain that God requires faith in His existence and not proofs. God has deliberately instilled a balance in history whereby His existence can neither be proved nor disproved. Man has never been able to overcome this balance. Sometimes, this balance tips in favor of faith, and sometimes in favor of unbelief. But always, this balance guarantees the free will of man. God is using history and the free will of man to test His Love. Free will requires a history in order to operate properly. God intends to prove that Love is the most valuable and powerful force in the universe. God knows that this test can only succeed if an intelligent creature freely chooses to love and believe in Him. Thus, God must maintain the balance.
As long as the forces of evil and rebellion remain in God's universe, then the value and power of God's Love remains in doubt. Not that God would ever doubt the power of His own Love, but that "doubt," as an Infinite Idea must be applied, as with "grief" and "pain," to false combinations as a negative effect of such combinations. These negative effects make the balance, and free will, and the test of God's Love necessary. God cannot simply annul evil without the test because "doubt" of His Love could cause evil to return in the future with even more power. After all, evil is a mystery even to God. God must test His Love even with all of the "horror" and "pain" that must attend this test, in order to remove all doubt about His Love so that He could, by His final judgment, purge all evil from His universe forever. God Himself endured all of the "horror" and "pain" that evil can inflict when He died on the cross in the place of sinners so that He can cleanse with His shed blood all who will believe in His sacrifice. God Himself passed the test of His great Love. All who believe in His sacrifice will participate in God's victory forever.
The proofs of God's existence contained in this philosophy are not meant to prove the actual existence of God. God's balance in history does not allow such proofs. God requires faith which comes from free will. However, God is not insulted by such proofs. God is longsuffering and understanding. God knows that the reasoning power that He has given man will naturally lead man to all sorts of speculation. Natural speculation seldom results in sin. The purpose of these proofs is that they may cause some atheists and materialists to think a little harder about God's existence and maybe start reading His Word. The Holy Spirit is likely to cause those who read His Word to come under conviction of their sins and discover in that conviction that they have a choice to accept or to reject Christ as their Savior. This philosophy is meant to be a witness to the most stubborn of unbelievers.
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