On Truth and Falsity

       The Knowledge of Good and Evil continued

God never directly told Eve that she should not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told only Adam, and Adam told Eve. Genesis 2:15-17 (KJB). This condition put Eve in the state of an innocent child who had been warned by her parents to never talk to strangers, but who, in a moment of trust and weakness, forgot her parents instructions, and who becomes the victim of an abuser who offers her candy. This meant that when Eve ate the forbidden fruit, she sinned, but she was not responsible for her sin. She had been victimized by the Devil.

She knew right away that she had become radically different, and that Adam was still innocent. She became scared and confused, and so she offered the forbidden fruit to Adam so that he would fall to her level and be able to comfort her and protect her. Adam failed her because he forgot to call on God for help. Adam thought that he could take care of the problem himself. A little excessive pride developed in him. Had Adam only called on God, then God would have come to extend His Love and compassion toward Eve, comfort her because she had been victimized, and He could restore her innocence and take away her spiritual death. Adam's first sin, before he even ate the forbidden fruit, was that he forgot to call on God for help. In a moment of self-will and weakness, Adam also ate the forbidden fruit, and the history of the human race began. This means Adam alone became responsible for the spiritual death that the whole human race inherited from him. I Timothy 2:13-15 (KJB).

There were three levels to Adam's sin. First, Adam received a direct commandment from God not to eat the forbidden fruit. So Adam knew that he would commit willful and deliberate disobedience if he ate the forbidden fruit. Adam must have become possessed of a little excessive pride because he thought he could handle his fallen condition even if he disobeyed. I Timothy 2:13-14 (KJB). On this level, Adam's sin was evil. Second, Adam became afraid that he would lose Eve completely. He loved her, and he loved making love with her. In a moment of weakness, he decided to eat the forbidden fruit so that there could be no possibility that he could lose the companionship of his wife. On this level, Adam's weakness caused his sin. When both of their eyes were opened to their new condition of being in a state of spiritual life and spiritual death, they became ashamed of their nakedness because they then felt the sin of lust for each other. Genesis 3:7 (KJB). Third, on this level, Adam did not sin at all. Adam sacrificed himself because of his love for his wife. He fell to her level so that he could protect her and comfort her as best as he could. On this level, Adam became a symbol for Christ Himself. Romans 5:14 (KJB). The progression was from evil to sin to self-sacrifice which happens to be God's story in His Word. II Corinthians 5:21 (KJB).

All through the Bible, God consistently displayed His wrath against evil. All through the Bible, God consistently displayed His compassion for sins of weakness. And all through the Bible, God consistently displayed His Love for humanity in that He would send His own Son who, unlike Adam, would be a perfect human being who would be qualified to sacrifice Himself on a cruel cross, and because of His innocence, would be able to rise from the dead to save the entire human race from sin, evil, spiritual death, and the Devil. All evil is sinful, but not all sins are completely evil. God's only enemies are evil, sin, spiritual death, and the Devil, never living humans whom He creates and loves. I Corinthians 15:20-26; John 12:31-32; John 11:25-26; John 5:28-29; I John 3:8; I Corinthians 13:8; Ecclesiastes 3:14 (KJB). God will thoroughly cleanse all humans who become saved by His grace with the blood and water that flowed from Jesus on the cross, and He will annul their spiritual deaths. John 5:24 (KJB). Living humans who fail to become saved by grace, and whom God must confine to the regions of death when they die, God will provide a lesser form of salvation for them when His Son appears to them and causes them to return of their own free will to faith in Him and love for Him as the Lamb of God. Revelation 5:11-14; Philippians 2:9-11; I Timothy 4:10 (KJB). God will dissolve all of their beings with His fiery wrath against evil, cleanse and separate their living souls and spirits from their spiritual deaths so that He can recreate their living souls and spirits with new bodies to live on His new earth. II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 21:1-5 (KJB). God will cast only their separated, spiritual deaths into the eternal lake of fire that will already hold the Devil and all of his evil works. I Corinthians 15:26; Revelation 20:11-15; I John 3:8; Matthew 13:36-43 (KJB).

On Truth and Falsity

          Knowledge of Good and Evil continued

When the serpent formulated his lie to Eve, he used the word "not," which means nothing, to exclude the reality of death from his systematic lie. The serpent did not mean that death did not exist. He simply meant that if Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, the reality of death would be excluded from her system which was her life. This fact illustrates one of the real uses of the real idea of nothing. Whenever a person uses words or ideas to formulate a system, that person will always use the idea of nothing to exclude any real ideas that will not work in his system. All excluded ideas and words still exist and are real and can be used in the formulation of other systems, but the use of the idea of nothing excludes all unneeded ideas or words from use in a particular system formed from exact, chosen ideas and words. The materialists claim that any immaterial idea happens to be quite useless because only that which is material can exist. Yet, the idea of nothing has proven to be quite useful even though it is an idea of a completely immaterial substance. Genesis 3:4 (KJB).

The next lie that the serpent told Eve was actually a half-truth. Eve would gain the intelligence needed to know the difference between good and evil. She would gain useful and real ideas and experiences that she could use to formulate beneficial systems. She would also be able to use those same real ideas and experiences to formulate false and destructive systems called sin and evil. She would no longer know goodness as a state of innocence which was blissful, but she did not know any ideas about its goodness. If she ate of the forbidden tree, she would be able to formulate any feelings and experiences that she might have into real ideas and words that she could use in creative or destructive ways. Genesis 3:5 (KJB).

But the serpent's half-truth was actually a total lie because he also told Eve that she would gain the state of being a god which gave her the feeling that she would be in a state of being even better than the one she now lived. Genesis 3:5 (KJB). Eve was able to gain this feeling because Adam and Eve had probably seen angels, and they had been impressed by their power and majesty. Adam and Eve were already gods because God had created them in His image. Even though Adam and Eve sinned, they could never lose their state of being in the image of God because God never loses anything that He creates. Ecclesiastes 3:14 (KJB). For this reason, Jesus told some evil Jews that God had created them to be gods who could be righteous and good. John 10:33-35; Psalm 82:1-8 (KJB). Jesus also told some evil Pharisees that "the kingdom of God is within you," by which He reminded them that God had created them in His image which meant that they could use God's goodness to do good. Luke 17:20-21 (KJB). God promised Eve that she would be "the mother of all living." Genesis 3:20 (KJB). God also told Luke that "all live unto Him." Luke 20:38 (KJB). All humans live in a state of spiritual life and spiritual death. God never cursed Adam and Eve. God cursed only the Devil and the ground that holds the regions of death. Genesis 3:14-19 (KJB). All of this put together means that God will, in the end of the world, recover and recreate every living human that He ever created who are confined to the regions of death, and He will cast only the Devil and all evil, including the separated, spiritual deaths of all those humans, into the eternal lake of fire. Psalm 82:8; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 20:11-15; John 5:28-29; John 11:25-26. (KJB).

On Truth and Falsity

         How the Knowledge of Good and Evil Works

The serpent happened to be a creature that Satan could possess. Satan is very intelligent and crafty, and he caused this serpent to be able to lie. This serpent lied to Eve and told her that if she ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that God had forbidden Adam and Eve to eat, she would not die. Genesis 3:1-4 (KJB). But every word that the Devil used to formulate this false statement happened to be a true and useful idea derived from the contents of the Mind of God. Satan has never created anything. The Devil can only steal real and useful ideas from the contents of God's Mind and misuse them to formulate false systems. But the Devil happens to be very crafty. The Devil knows that no one will believe his lies and false systems unless he attaches some reward for believing them and doing them.

God creates only true and good systems that cause a safe degree of pleasure for His intelligent creations. But the Devil used God's true and real ideas to invent false systems that cause excessive pleasure that eventually results in pain and destruction. God has created true systems that cause a normal and healthy state of pride in His intelligent creations, but the Devil has invented a false system of excessive pride which causes a person to desire to get rid of God and take His place. The idea of "excessive" can be useful in some true systems. For example, a group of humans who went through a drought may desire to grow an excessive amount of food when the rain returns in order to use that food to see them through another drought that may come. When a person possesses excessive pride, that person will feel like a vast emptiness is inside of them which indicates the presence of spiritual death which God warned Adam that he would acquire if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:17 (KJB). If Adam and Eve ate of that forbidden tree, Adam and Eve would retain the goodness and faith that God had put into them, but they would also acquire a state of spiritual death inside of them that would cause them to desire to participate in false systems of excessive pride and pleasure which God calls sin and evil. They would lose their innocence, but they would acquire the ability to use their good desires within them to use God's good and real ideas to formulate useful systems that are beneficial. But they would also gain the ability to participate in false systems of sin and evil that only prove to be painful and destructive. In other words, they would lose their innocence, but they would gain much more intelligence.

When one closely examines the state of reality, one will find that every false system within reality always comprises a false combination of true and useful ideas and experiences which otherwise can be used to formulate true and useful systems. All abstract ideas and all sense objects have proven themselves to be useful in the formulation of true and false systems, and therefore, they all have been experienced. In other words, the basic ideas and experiences that have been put into words in any language can only be true and real because they all happen to be useful for the formulation of beneficial systems, but they can also be misused to formulate false systems of sin and evil. Words that mean nothing are also true and useful because humans need to know the difference between that which is useful and that which means nothing. The useful idea of nothing gives humans the ability to recognize false systems which is useful knowledge. The useful and real idea of nothing also gives humans the ability to exclude all ideas that will not work in any system they seek to formulate. The knowledge of good and evil can also give humans the ability to make harmless mistakes such as mistakes in arithmetic. But mathematics closely resembles the state of reality because every false system in mathematics always comprises true and useful numbers and signs, and the use of the idea of nothing which is the mathematical sign for zero.

All of this put together means that God calibrated the minds of humans to experience only that which is true and real, but when humans acquired the knowledge of good and evil, they also acquired the ability to use their true and real ideas and experiences to formulate beneficial systems, or they can use those same true and real ideas and experiences to participate in, and to invent, false and destructive systems of excessive pride and/or excessive pleasure.

On Truth and Falsity

                   The Fall and God's Salvation

God created Adam and Eve to be innocent, to enjoy their lives and their love for each other in a beautiful garden. Genesis 2:7-25 (KJB). God created Adam and Eve to be innocent like He was before He learned about evil with the rebellion of Lucifer. Lucifer's rebellion could not change God. God is Holy and Pure forever. But Lucifer's rebellion had changed God's creations. Some of God's angels had actually followed Lucifer, and so a pall of doubt about the eternal power of God's Love hung over His entire creation. All of God's creations had been tainted by evil, even Heaven. So God resolved to formulate a plan to purge all sin and evil and the Devil from His entire creation so that He could recreate it all to be wholly righteous. II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 21:1-5. (KJB).

God formulated a plan in His Mind which would work to purge all evil and the Devil from all of His creations. Acts 15:18 (KJB). God created Adam and Eve to be intelligent and good, but He gave them a free will which He knew would be much weaker than His own. God knew that their weak free will would cause them to choose to fall into sin and evil, but He also knew that He would become one of them and sacrifice Himself to suffer the eternal effects of all their sin and evil and rise from the dead victorious over it all. Genesis 3:15; II Corinthians 5:21; Luke 19:10; II Peter 3:9; John 6:33; John 12:31-32; I Timothy 4:10 (KJB). In order to attain a thorough victory over all sin and evil and the Devil, God determined that He would save His entire creation, including all humans, from the eternal death and separation from God that evil would cause, to prove that His Almighty Love can never fail. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Revelation 21:5; I Corinthians 13:8; Romans 8:18-23 (KJB).

God knew that the Devil's goal would be to annul humans life, reduce it to total evil, and subject it to eternal death and separation from God's Love forever. Genesis 2:17 (KJB). Satan knew that if he could annul human life, he could prove that God's Love is not Almighty which would give him an opportunity to eventually find a way to overthrow God and take His place. But God's plan was to completely defeat the Devil's plan, purge the Devil and all evil from His entire creation so that He could recover it all to be recreated to be wholly righteous. II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 21:1-5; Romans 8:18-23 (KJB). In order to accomplish His plan, God needed an intelligent human race who would possess free will that would cause them to fall so that He could give the Devil his chance to annul the life and goodness that God would put into them. So God created Adam and Eve in His image with faith and love for Him but also with a weak free will. Genesis 2:15-17 (KJB). Prior to Adam and Eve, God had created a human race in His image but without free will. Genesis 1:26-31 (KJB). This prior human race would attain free will by inheritance through intermarriage with the descendants of Adam and Eve. Genesis 4:8-17 (KJB). God watched His plan unfold in His Mind, and He intervened into human history from time to time to correct or to destroy those humans who became to involved with evil. God did this to shorten His work on the earth. Romans 9:28 (KJB). God allowed his humans to do good or to sin and even be evil so that He could learn the effects of evil and its full extent within His creations. But He also knew that the effects of evil and the extent of evil was finite, and He is eternal, and that fact meant that He had the power to outlast evil so that He could eventually purge it all from His entire creation. God also knew that He could use His Almighty Love and Intellect to devise a plan that would prove that His Love is real by causing all living humans to eventually choose of their own free will to return to that faith in Him and love for Him that He put into them when He created them. God knew that He could not simply program His humans to love Him because that would leave the reality of His Love unproven. Only freely chosen love can be real love. God also knew that He could not just summarily abolish evil from His creations because doubt about His Love would remain which, in turn, would cause evil to return from time to time probably forever. God also had to take time to learn all He could about evil so that He could devise an effective plan to abolish it.

God completed His plan in His Mind, but He knew that He would have to create a physical human race with a physical history to carry out His plan. Part of God's creations were already physical and had already been infected by evil. So God had to create humans with a spirit, soul, and body that were all capable of sin and evil so that He could purge all sin and evil from all of His spiritual and physical creations. I Thessalonians 5:23; Romans 8:18-23 (KJB).

As God's plan unfolded in His Mind, He noticed that some humans were capable of returning to faith in His Son and love for Him while still alive in the flesh. God determined that He would save these living humans by His grace, give them the perfect righteousness of His own Son so that He could accept them into Heaven to live with Him there forever. II Corinthians 5:21; John 5:24; John 17:24 (KJB). God decided that He would use the blood that His Son would shed on the cross to purge all sin and evil from the souls and spirits of these believers. Matthew 26:28 (KJB). God would also use the water that His Son would shed on the cross to purge all of the physical sins of His Church before and during the Rapture of His Church. Ephesians 5:25-27 (KJB). The doctrine of predestination simply means that those who choose to accept Christ by faith and become saved by God's grace had already done so in God's created plan in His Mind. But all of God's living humans who do not become saved by grace, God will visit them in their confinement within the regions of death, and Christ will cause them all to choose to repent and believe in Him as the Lamb of God so that He can resurrect them and recreate them to live on His recreated earth. Revelation 5:11-14; Genesis 3:20; Luke 20:38; John 11:25-26; John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5 (KJB). Christ will cast only their dead and evil natures into the eternal lake of fire. Revelation 20:11-15 (KJB).

On Truth and Falsity

                            Rebellion continued

Although evil remains as a mystery, one can speculate as to how evil came to be, or actually not to be. In Isaiah 45:7, God declares that He "creates evil." But since God can only be Holy and Pure, He cannot deliberately create evil. Habakkuk 1:13 (KJB). God also states that He "creates darkness," and darkness covered the void that was the earth. Genesis 1:2 (KJB). This means that if darkness covers evil, then, at that time, God did not see the void that was the earth. God could see the water that covered the earth, but He could not see the void. This means that whenever God makes a positive creation, a negative void is left behind covered by darkness. This means that God accidentally created evil when He created the positive universe, and He did not know that before Lucifer's rebellion. But being pure and innocent, God felt guilty about His accidental creation of evil even though He could in no way be blamed for it. God grieves over the pain and suffering and destruction that evil causes. God did not learn about the the non-existence of evil until Lucifer rebelled. God can still not directly see evil, but He can use His real idea of nothing to indirectly discern its presence. Habakkuk 1:13 (KJB). God can now see through darkness so that He can move to counter the workings of evil in the earth. Psalm 139:11-12 (KJB).

But the deepest mystery about evil happens to be the question: How did a non-existent something ever invade the being of Lucifer and cause him to rebel against God? A clue to this answer can be found in the story of the maniac of Gadara found in Luke 8:26-39 (KJB). When Jesus came to heal the maniac with the legion of devils, they begged Jesus not to cast them back into "the deep." This word must have meant the void from which they came. The Bible also calls this void "the bottomless pit." Revelation 20:1 (KJB). Apparently, when God created positive consciousness, such as angels, He also accidentally created negative consciousness which filled the void with devils. Positive consciousness can get no idea of how a negative consciousness could exist, or actually non-exist. God possesses an eternal and omniscient knowledge of all of His creations, but He may have accidentally created all of the devils when He began to create. All that a positive consciousness can know about the devils is that they are totally evil and destructive. They happen to be the opposite of creative power.

In some unknown way, evil can gain access even into Heaven. The devils somehow emerged from the void to infect Lucifer and cause him to rebel. Lucifer led an army of fallen angels in a war against God, and God defeated him and cast him down to the former earth where God hoped he and his fallen angels would repent and return to favor with God and love for Him. Ezekiel 28:13-14 (KJB). In His mercy, God gave Lucifer a world to rule. But Lucifer continued his rebellion and somehow led an army in another assault on Heaven to try to defeat God. Ezekiel 28:16-17 (KJB). In the future, in the Tribulation period, Satan, with his fallen angels, will lead an attack against Heaven, but Michael and God's angels will defeat his army and cast him back to earth. Revelation 12:1-17 (KJB). Through his minions, the Beast and the False Prophet, Satan will again make war against Christ when He comes to rescue Israel from destruction and put an end to the Tribulation period. Revelation 19:11-21 (KJB). Satan will again be defeated and cast into the bottomless pit. Revelation 20:13 (KJB). But somehow, near the end of the world, Satan will be able to emerge from the bottomless pit to again lead an army to make war against God, but God will devour his army with His fiery wrath against evil, and He will cast Satan into the eternal lake of fire from which he will never be able to emerge. Revelation 20:7-10 (KJB).

Evil persists in its wars against God. But when Lucifer led his army in his final assault against Heaven, God was finished with him. God used His fiery wrath to dissolve the beauty of Lucifer, recover all of the good attributes that God had put into his creation, and God cast the totally evil part of Lucifer to the earth as a being called Satan who is totally empty of all positive being. Ezekiel 28:16-19 (KJB). Those who worship Lucifer are wasting their time because he no longer exists. Satan now exists, or non-exists, as a Devil who belongs in the bottomless pit, but God will finally cast him into the lake of fire along with all of the evil that infects humans. Satan is a negative consciousness with destructive powers. Positive consciousness cannot understand that. It is a mystery. God can never lose anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14 (KJB). This means that just as God dissolved the being of Lucifer to recover all of the good attributes that he had put into his creation, so God will, near the end of the world, cause all living humans confined to the regions of death to repent and return to faith in Him so that He can use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve all their beings to recover all of His goodness that He put into their beings so that He can recreate them to live on His recreated earth, and He will cast their separated evil natures into the eternal lake of fire. Revelation 5:11-14; Matthew 13:36-43; II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5 (KJB).

One can speculate that because God, in His eternal plan, works toward the creation of a holy realm of absolute righteousness, so total evil has the power to work toward non-existence; that is, a complete annulment of all that is good and righteous. Perhaps, total evil only has power because it has figured a way to steal it from God's realm.

When Jesus died on the cross, the Devil had three days of opportunity to annul God and all righteousness, but he failed when Jesus rose from the dead.

On Truth and Falsity

                                 Rebellion

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" because of a rebellion. Genesis 1:1 (KJB). The first verse of the Bible has often been misunderstood. In the first verse, God created Heaven, not the heavens. God created the heavens; that is, the universe, long before He created the earth and Heaven. God created Heaven as His special home where He could receive His future family saved by grace to be with Him in a beautiful home forever. God created the earth to be inhabited by humans who would be tested by sin and pain and suffering, but who would never become totally evil because God would put the desire in their hearts to sooner or later choose to return to faith in His power to save them and love for Him. Genesis 3:20; Luke 20:38; Revelation 21:5 (KJB). By doing this, God would prove to that rebel, Satan, who became totally evil, that His Love can never be annulled. I Corinthians 13:8 (KJB).

An exact reading of Isaiah 14:12-17 (KJB) relates that God cast His most beautiful creation, an angel named Lucifer, to the former earth because he rebelled against God, Apparently, God also created a race of intelligent beings, not necessarily humans, for Lucifer to rule. In His mercy, God gave Lucifer a kingdom to rule. An exact reading of verse seventeen relates that Lucifer "opened not the house of his prisoners." God must have desired that Lucifer repent of his rebellion and lead his race of intelligent beings to faith in God, and then all of God's creations would be reconciled to Him. But instead, Lucifer vowed to continue his rebellion, and he led an army of God's intelligent beings in an assault against Heaven to try to overthrow God and take His place. But Lucifer and his army were defeated, and God cast Lucifer into Hell. As a result of this war, God completely destroyed the former earth and all of the inhabitants in it. God's original destruction of the former earth is recorded in Jeremiah 4:23-31 and in Isaiah 24:1 (KJB). Jeremiah 4:27 relates that although God had reduced the earth to complete devastation, He did not intend to ever make "a full end" of the earth.

The second verse of the Bible (KJB) describes God's recreation of His desolate earth which had become engulfed with darkness and evil. Genesis 1:2 (KJB)). Water also covered the earth. The fact that water covered the earth proves that God created the universe before He ever created the earth, destroyed it, and then recreated it. The earth was "without form" because it had no goodness within it whatsoever. The earth was also a "void" because it had become totally possessed by evil. The Bible often describes evil as being "vanity" which means both total emptiness and excessive pride. Jeremiah 51:17-18; Romans 8:20 (KJB). Isaiah 40:17 describes vanity as being "less than nothing." Since the idea of nothing happens to be a real and useful idea, then whatever is "less than nothing" would have to be non-existent. The earth that had become totally engulfed in darkness and evil had become equal to non-existence. Wherever God is not, there can only be absolute nothingness.

The Bible often describes God's wrath against evil as being a burning fire. Ezekiel 21:31 (KJB). Deuteronomy 32:22 describes God's creation of Hell by His use of His burning wrath against evil. This verse also prophesies that God will use His fiery wrath against evil to "consume the earth" just before His final judgment of mankind. II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 20:11 (KJB). In the end of the world, God will burn up both Heaven and earth because both have been tainted by evil. God will recreate Heaven and earth to be wholly righteous. II Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1 (KJB).

All of this means that in the end of the world, God will only utterly destroy His enemies which are totally evil, and He will trap the Devil and his angels in Hell forever so that they will never again be able to inject evil into His new creations. In the beginning, God cursed only Satan and all evil, not His living humans whom He creates and loves. Genesis 3:14-15 (KJB). God created Hell to consume evil and for the Devil and his angels. Matthew 24:41 (KJB). God did not create Hell as a permanent place for any living human that He creates and loves. God will cause all living humans confined to the regions of death to repent and believe in Christ as the Lamb of God of their own free will, and He will recover all their lives and recreate them to live on His new earth. Revelation 5:11-14; Genesis 3:20; Luke 20:38; Revelation 21:1-5; Ecclesiastes 3:14 (KJB).

The Old Testament prophets prophesied about the past just as much as they prophesied about the future. The prophet Ezekiel learned that the king of Tyrus in his day had a personality that was very similar to that which Lucifer had had, Ezekiel wrote about the king of Tyrus, but he used his description of the king of Tyrus to also relate the story of what happened to Lucifer. Lucifer and Satan are two different beings entirely. Lucifer retained his extreme beauty even while he ruled the former earth. God gave Lucifer the garden of Eden for him to live in while he was on the former earth. Ezekiel 28:13 (KJB). Apparently, God removed the garden of Eden from the former earth before He destroyed it, and He replanted it for Adam and Eve when He recreated the earth. Genesis 2:8 (KJB). God allowed Lucifer to go to His holy mountain on His former earth with the intent that God's presence there would cause Lucifer to repent and return to worship of God. God also allowed Lucifer to walk "in the stones of fire" which meant that God exposed Lucifer to His wrath against evil to warn him, but God did not allow any harm to Lucifer. Ezekiel 28:14 (KJB).

God loved Lucifer, and God gave him every chance to repent and return to love for God. God had created Lucifer to be perfect which caused God to become absolutely shocked and stunned when evil was found to be in Lucifer. Ezekiel 28:15 (KJB). God became stunned because He did not know that evil even existed, or actually non-existed. God's Omniscience extended only to Himself and all of His creations which were all good. Evil cannot be directly known because, in some strange way, there is nothing to know. For this reason, in His written Word, God refers to evil as being "vanity;" that is, absolute emptiness  and excessive pride. God even described vanity as being "less than nothing." Isaiah 40:17 (KJB). But God found that He could use His real and useful idea of nothing to indirectly indicate the sudden presence of evil in Lucifer and in His creations. Yet, how something which is non-existent could invade the inner being of Lucifer and cause a void inside of him which, in turn, caused him to resort to excessive pride in his attempt to fill that void by his rebellion against God remains a great mystery, even to God. II Thessalonians 2:7 (KJB).

On Truth and Falsity

                    Additional Criticisms of Skepticism

The skeptics claim that humans have appearances but that no one can tell if their appearances are real or not real. They admit that appearances could be real, but what would reality be? All appearances; that is, all sense objects and all thought objects, even if they are illusions, prove themselves to be useful in the formulation of useful systems that prove to be beneficial to humanity. This means usefulness could be the same as reality. This also means that all sense objects and thought objects cannot be illusions because all illusions prove themselves to be useless. All illusions mean nothing. But it is useful to know that they mean nothing. All words in any language mean sense objects and thought objects all of which happen to be useful for humans to form useful systems. What about nonsense words? Nonsense words mean nothing, and it is useful to know that they mean nothing. These facts can only mean that all sense objects and all thought objects are experienced by humans, and all of them happen to be useful and therefore real.

But humans can also formulate systems that are false and useless. But whenever anyone analyzes any false system, one always finds that all false and useless systems always comprise true and real and useful sense objects and/or thought objects. This fact can only mean that humans never experience anything that is not real. Humans always form false systems by their use of true and real and useful sense objects and thought objects. Humans can only experience reality, and all sense objects and all thought objects have to be real because they all are useful.

But if humans can never experience unreality, then how can humans ever come to know that it exists, or actually non-exists? Humans have been given the real and useful idea of nothing that humans can use to identify the falsity in false systems. Falsity indirectly indicates unreality. For example, humans can recognize that the system 2+3=6 as a false system that means nothing even though all of its signs and numbers happen to be true and real. The useful idea of nothing gives humans the ability to recognize falsity which indirectly indicates unreality. The ability to recognize false systems proves to be very useful to humans because humans know to discard all false systems from reality. This fact means humans can learn and grow in their recognition of reality because they can create new and useful systems, and they can also usefully discard all false systems. But humans never directly experience unreality because it actually does not exist.

Only reality exists. If one subtracts all true and real experiences from any false system, one is left with only nothing. But that is the real idea of nothing which gives humans the ability to recognize false systems. By the use of the real idea of nothing, humans can indirectly recognize the unreality in false systems. But humans can never directly recognize unreality itself because it does not exist.

Some words which are the results of false theories, which are false systems, have been thought to be possibly real, but when these words have been discovered to be false, and mean nothing, they have been discarded from reality. For example, the word "aether," which was the product of a false theory about a substance that was thought to pervade space, was discovered by experiments to non-exist, the word "aether" was discarded from reality because it means nothing. But the non-existence of the substance called "aether" has never been experienced by humans.

On Truth and Falsity

                                God is Truth

The skeptics admit that humans have appearances, but they suspend all judgment as to whether appearances are real or not real. Nevertheless, they admit that appearances exist as appearances. But then, they propound in their entire philosophy that nothing can exist. And yet, they also assert that it is absurd to say that anything can both exist and non-exist at the same time. pb. OP p.233. Thus, the skeptics judge their own philosophy as being absurd.

The skeptics also seem to believe that when something appears, all that is connected to it that does not immediately appear must non-exist. For example, they contend that if a ten becomes reduced to nine, then the ten no longer exists. pb. OP p.226. When day appears, then night does not appear, and therefore, night does not exist. To the skeptics, only immediate appearances can exist, and only as something which may or may not be real, and everything which does not immediately appear cannot exist. Yet, they also argue that no thing can come into or go out of existence. pb. OP p.227. They also maintain that something cannot be produced by nothing. They seem to argue against themselves that appearances cannot appear. But since the skeptics admit that humans do have appearances, then they must believe that both humans and their appearances had to have come from nothing even though they also contend that this is impossible.  

All of this begs the question: What is the purpose of the skeptics philosophy? The skeptics propounded arguments for the non-existence of God. pb. OP ps.186-190. It is plain from the context of their arguments that they had in mind an omnipotent and omniscient God and not one of their mythical gods. The aim of the entire philosophy of the skeptics was to try to prove that God does not exist. If no thing can be real, then God cannot be real. They knew that if God exists, He would have created a true and good reality including all humans. Genesis 1:31 (KJB). They tacitly admitted that they knew that God had to be good when they argued that if God existed He would not have created evil. They tried to subject the existence of God to man's puny reasoning powers when God happens to be far greater than any such limited reasoning. Romans 11:33 (KJB).

The skeptics knew that if truth existed at all, it would have to be eternal and changeless. Truth could never be something that fleets in and out of existence. The wisest dogmatists were beginning to get a hold on these facts. Plato's Ideals contained a glimpse into the eternal contents of the Mind of God. Aristotle's idea of the first mover contained a glimpse into the eternal power of God.

Truth and reality can only be an infinite and changeless set of Ideas in the Mind of God. Anything less than that cannot be truth. When God created humans, He gave them the ability, and the free will, to use some of those ideas to invent creative systems or false and destructive systems. For these reasons, the Apostle John could use the Stoics' idea called the Logos, which means an infinite power of reasoning that governs the universe, to declare that the infinite contents of the Mind of God had to be the same as the Power of God. John 1:1 (KJB). Jesus Christ is the Living Word of God. In all areas where the feeble minds of humans would be unable to ever discover the exact Truth, God revealed His Truth to humans through His written Word. God prepared Western civilization to be ready to receive the Truth of His Word when He caused certain wise philosophers to begin a search for the Truth. The Stoics came closest with their idea of the Logos. God meant for humans to make a progress in morals as Western civilization spread to the whole world. God also meant for His gospel of salvation by grace to spread to the entire world with the spread of Western civilization. Acts 16:6-11 (KJB).

But alas, the pernicious influence of the skeptics has persisted within Western civilization and has caused the atheistic philosophies of such men as Hume, Nietzche, Darwin, Marx, and Freud. This influence of evil has caused terrible wars and cruelty to spread within Western civilization. True Christianity has always been opposed to war, except in national defense, and deliberate cruelty of any kind. Christianity caused Western civilization to give up slavery. Christianity established the first hospitals. Christianity started education for the common man. Christianity founded America with its rule of law and the freedom of the individual. But modern Western civilization has begun to return to doubt about truth, and now proclaims a new progressivism which is nothing but the old immorality. It is quite ironic that the skeptics, even to this day, remain content to live in the safety of civilized society made possible by the good systems created by the dogmatists whom they so despise.

On Truth and Falsity

                           Reality Similar to Mathematics

The skeptics arguments that addition and subtraction are impossible happens to be particularly absurd. pb. OP ps. 218-222. The skeptics admit that subtraction and addition work in experience, but that is all that is needed to make them real. Humans can create mathematical systems that benefit their fellow humans which makes addition and subtraction absolutely necessary. That is the reality of mathematics.

The only real, basic number is the number one. All higher numbers are but additions of the number one. The skeptics admit this which means that they also admit that addition is possible. Every number is a separate system that only works in a very specific way under very specific circumstances. If a carpenter needs a nine inch piece of lumber in a specific place when building a house, no other number but nine will work. If he accidentally cuts a ten inch piece of lumber, he must cut off one inch to make it work. Subtraction is possible. If he accidentally cuts an eight inch piece, he must cut another nine inch piece. Addition is possible. But a house comprises many different lengths of lumber cut and fit together to complete it. Reality happens to be very similar to that.

All numbers higher than the number one are real and useful but only in a spectrum that results from additions of the basic element of mathematics which is the number one. This means the number one can be used to represent all appearances considered to be one in being. This means the number one represents whatever happens to be more than nothing; that is, something. Those dogmatists who assert that "all is one" happens to be right because being itself can only be more than nothing. The number one is the basic element of mathematics that spreads out to the highest possible number. But there can be no such thing as an infinite number because all numbers must be limited to the number one. Human reality is also limited. The basic number one is known to all humans both as a thought object and a sense object. Since the number one can represent the basic idea of something, then all being that is more than nothing would have to be real simply because it transcends nothing. That which causes it to transcend nothing can only be consciousness.

The sign in mathematics for zero cannot be a number. Zero means nothing. Just as zero in mathematics means the absence of number, so the idea of nothing in reality means the absence of something. Just as zero is useful in mathematics, so the idea of nothing is useful in reality. When a human formulates a system, he must use the idea of nothing to exclude any something which will not work in his system. He simply considers any something that will not work in his system to be equal to nothing as far as the efficiency of his system is concerned. He uses a form of subtraction. He also might have to add ideas to his system to make it work.

The system of mathematics based on the number one can represent all of reality. Reality happens to be a vast system of interconnected spectrums, each one with its own basic element. But unlike the number one which is a sense object and a thought object, most of the basic elements of the spectrum of reality are not directly known to humans. For example, humans possess the idea of the circle which results in the spectrum of all circles of any size. But the basic circle remains unknown to humans. Humans possess the idea of justice which results in the spectrum of all systems that try to be just. But the basic idea of justice remains unknown to humans. Humans possess the idea of the spectrum of beauty, but not the basic idea of beauty. The basic idea of nothing regulates reality because it allows humans to select from the spectrums of reality only those sense objects and thought objects that are needed to formulate any particular system. The idea of zero in mathematics performs a similar function. The idea of nothing in reality also allows humans to recognize the falsity that occurs in false systems. The interconnection of all spectrums of reality are based on basic ideas that, unlike the number one, remain unknown to humans. But the basic idea of nothing is vaguely known to humans.

Whenever a person formulates a system, he must use sense objects and/or thought objects selected from the vast spectrum of reality. But a person can also formulate a system that does not work to accomplish anything. All such systems mean nothing, and a person can realize that they mean nothing by his use of his real idea of nothing. When a person makes a miscalculation in mathematics, he can only use real numbers and signs. But he can recognize the falsity of his miscalculation by his use of his idea of nothing. Whether a person formulates a useful system or a false and useless system, he can only use real sense objects and/or thought objects in order to do so. Uselessness only occurs in false systems that always nevertheless comprise real sense objects and/or thought objects. If sense objects and thought objects were themselves unreal, then the vast system of reality based on the spectrums of real, basic elements would be impossible because the sense objects and thought objects themselves would be useless, but they are all useful.

One cannot know something without experience. All sense objects and thought objects are experienced. That is the very purpose of consciousness. All experience happens to be useful for the formulation of useful systems, but that same experience can also form useless systems. Nevertheless, all experience can only be real. One cannot separate knowledge from experience

On Truth and Falsity

                          Logic Versus Reality

When the skeptics use their form of logic to reach the conclusion that motion is impossible, they put their form of logic against experience. pb. OP ps. 210-218. But the experience of motion can be put into many systems that benefit humanity, whereas the logic of immobility does nothing at all. Parmenides used his logic to conclude that reality was but one, motionless sphere, and therefore, all motion was but an illusion. But his illusion obtained many good results, whereas his logic brought reality to a halt.

All of this begs the question, when experience conflicts with logic, which one should be considered to be real? There have been times when a person has formulated a system in his mind that he just knew would solve a certain problem he had. He put his plan into action, but it did not work to solve his problem. He became greatly puzzled. He knew his plan should have worked, but it did not. He used his logic to go over every part of his plan to try to discover why it did not work. But try as he might, he could not discover why it did not work. He finally settled on a reason that his plan did not work which he actually knew could have had nothing to do with why his plan did not work. He put his logic in conflict with his experience. Which one was real? Obviously, his experience was that which was real, and his logic was faulty even though he could not discover why it was false. The same happens to be true about the skeptics form of logic. Experience is real, and the skeptics logic has to be false even though we might not be able to discover exactly why it is false.

Sometimes, a scientist will formulate a theory that he just knows should explain a particular problem in an unknown area of reality. If an experiment, which is an experience, falsifies his theory, then it has to be false. But sometimes, other scientists will discard his theory simply because they will formulate logical reasons why his theory has to be false. But those logical systems could be that which is false, and the theory might still be real. Nevertheless, many scientists will often disregard that theory simply because they take the logic of the better scientists to be valid and the theory to be false. But if an experiment should later prove that the theory was correct, then all scientists would be forced to concede that it has to be real. In reality, experience trumps logic even when we do not know why the logic was false. In reality, logic can only be valid when it agrees with experience.

Some logicians, especially the materialists, use logic to trump experience, especially if a person claims to have had an immaterial experience, such as that he saw an angel. According to these logicians, anything that has immaterial existence has to be absurd and therefore non-existent. But if a person sees an angel, he always sees the angel in terms of that which he has already experienced. He sees the angel as a person. Persons are real. He sees that the angel has wings. Wings are real. The angel may talk with him. Talk is real. That which the person does not see is the consciousness of the angel which would have to be immaterial since the person cannot observe it with his senses. While it is quite possible that the person had an hallucination and the angel was not real, only the false combination of the real experiences was not real and not the real experiences themselves. But the false combination of the real experiences would have to be immaterial. He does not see that. On the other hand, the person could have had an experience of a real angel who talked with him. In that case, the consciousness of the angel would be immaterial.

Humans possess the immaterial, but real and useful idea of nothing. Humans can use the real idea of nothing to identify the falsity in false systems which always comprises true and real experiences. But humans never directly experience the unreality within false systems. Humans can only experience that which is real.