I just became aware of this thread, perhaps you guys have exhausted all your creativity on the subject already. My (Orthodox) Easter is coming up in three weeks, April 27, but, thanks for the good wishes
Yes, they share a staged set-up concept. But I would say that this world was made in an instant from beginning to end. It has the effect on reality that a green flash has upon the sun at sunset. No effect. It is an insignificant thought, briefly given some consideration, then laughed off as a farce. God does not create in stages. It is always perfection complete. There is no evolution or learning process needed to complete what God creates. Therefore this world is not a creation. It flashed, instantaneously in the mind of the Son of God and disappeared just as fast. It seemed to cause him to sleep, blind himself, forget himself, crucify himself, destroy himself...lose himself. That proved to be an impossibility. The world was freedom used to deny freedom. Truth restores the mind that made the world to the freedom of its reality. Six billion years? Six days? These are illusionary concepts that mock the true power of the Father and the Son. Time is a vast illusion, a sleight of hand, a mind-trick. The fact that it does not exist gives you an idea of the immense power in the mind of God's equal. This world is a simultaneous imagining of hypothetical constructs that never happened. It's what happens when the Son is breifly intent upon hypothetically decieving himself. What would that be like? Brother, you're experiencing what that would be like. If you don't like it, there's an escape route. But there is really only one way. Any other way won't work. There world is every way that doesn't work. Jesus
All are God's sons and all are predestined to know themselves because all are a reflection of one mind. This has been a journey into Self-unawareness and back again. Time is of no concern. The Son stands at its beginning, and again at its end. Your remembrance of him is inevitable. Though you came last to this thread, you may be first to remember. As all remember, the world comes to its end. This is good news. Blessings this Easter. May it symbolize the joyful end of the world, as each wakes up from a morbid nightmare. Jesus
Oh Iam, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz? My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends. Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends, So Iam, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
I Am, You are saying something that I don't quite understand, although I am well versed in Christian Theology. God is beyond time and space, but He gave those dimensions to us creatures to live with and gradually improve ourselves. Time and space dominate our environement, not God's. The Scriptures were composed to help us navigate our way down here, within time and space, and eventually find our way back to Him. He may have created all in one of His instants (if He has any use for them) and destroyed all in the same instant, but that instant is felt like ages to us down here on the vast physical plane. Within time and space, we must act right, as He wishes. I hope all of us do so, but He also gave us free will to choose what we want to do, and for each of us the end result may be different. So, it boils down to what are we going to do next: love our neighbor or not? God will take care of the rest.
the scriptures are a collection of books written by suspisious ignorant men who had no concept of science and who thought thunder and lightening were God himself speaking who were trying to explain their concept of God. your average 5th grader knows more about science and how the world works today than these men could ever hope to.
You are totally wrong, v, sorry to say. Science is just another religion, based on the premise that practical logic and its connection to the surface of our mind is more relevant to our lives than feeling, intuition and inspiration connected to our higher mind, our moral compass. Humans are a lot more than computers, friend, we can do vastly better or worse than any machine, now or in the future. If you could set aside the constant chatter of your mind and listen to God, you would see what I'm talking about.
god is a manmade concept. how can it speak? what you think you hear is nothing more than your emotions working. its all in your head.
Watch out v, you're treading on thin ice: "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God", Psalms 14: 1