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.
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