Dick wrote:
> A TRILOGY ON METAPHYSICS AND THE HUMAN SOUL
> (Dedicated to the Honor and the Glory of God)
> --------------------------------------------
> A SHORT TREATISE ON THE REALITY OF GOD
> God is the ultimate reality. He has spun the universes into existence
> and has created all other beings.
Prove it
> As humans, we too had our beginning
> from God.
Prove it
> Like Plato and Socrates, I believe that we pre-existed in a
> spiritual realm prior to being born into this world. Unfortunately
> the
> church fathers, with the exceptions of Origen and Augustine, rejected
> this view as an overreaction to the heresies of gnosticism and
> neoplatonism that threatened to subvert the Gospel.
Groan fare thee well <PLONK>
> How do I know of
> this pre-existence? I have very faint memories of a spiritual
> existence
> before being born into this world. My children spoke of this of this
> existence when they were small. I have heard of other 2-4 year old
> children being able to talk of their own pre-existence in the
> spiritual
> realm prior to their earthly birth, when carefully questioned about
> it.
> One couple I know of had three boys who each spoke of having been
> with
> God and the angels prior to birth without any prompting from their
> parents when they were small. Evidently as people age and develop,
> these memories are overlaid with countless earthly memories and are
> largely forgotten.
> One may ask why are we here and forced to leave that spiritual
> realm.
> I believe that the answer lies in the fall of Lucifer from Heaven
> along
> with a third of the angels. It is my own belief that human spirits
> were
> originally intended to be part of Lucifer's cadre in the spiritual
> realm. Once Lucifer fell, there was no further need for our existence
> in the spiritual realm, since we had been created to serve Lucifer in
> carrying out his heavenly responsibilities. Lucifer's disobedience
> led
> to our own eventual banishment from Heaven, even though we were not
> involved in his revolt against God. God in His infinite mercy has
> brought us to this world to perfect our redemption. He is bound by
> His
> own spiritual laws in the eternal realm, but at the temporal level,
> He
> can rewrite our destiny through His plan for our redemption. Had not
> Adam and Eve disobeyed God, this plan would have been much simpler
> and
> salvation would have been universal for all mankind. When that couple
> listened to Lucifer rather than obey God, suddenly salvation became
> much more difficult. Man had chosen sides and was no longer just an
> innocent bystander thus bringing condemnation on all mankind who was
> to
> be born on earth from that time forward.
> Man himself had sinned against God and lost his opportunity for an
> easier salvation. To put it in the vernacular, man really blew it.
> Now
> man's disobedience had to dealt with in a manner satisfying God,
> fulfilling the new parameters now required for our salvation and
> permit
> our return to the spiritual realm (Heaven) after leaving this earthly
> sojourn. Christ, the second person of the Godhead, came to earth in
> the
> form of a man to die a sacrificial death for our redemption so that
> by
> believing in Him and on His death, we can be redeemed and made new
> spiritual beings fit for His kingdom. Through Christ, the Holy Spirit
> creates us anew and we are reshaped into His image, no longer
> designed
> to follow after Lucifer and his entourage.
> Praise be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for their gift of
> salvation through the Son's loving sacrifice of Himself on the cross,
> the Father's willingness to send Him and the Spirit's perseverance in
> causing us to believe.
> Some have a difficult time grasping the concept of the Trinity. The
> Trinity is the three distinct, separate, yet simultaneously occurring
> dynamic states in which God exists and through which He expresses
> Himself. It may be easier to understand the Trinity by the functions
> they perform. The Father is the Creator of His creation. The Son
> controls the interface relationship between the Creator and His
> creation. The Holy Spirit permeates the creation carrying out the
> will
> of the Father and the Son.
> Others may ask how does God create worlds and universes, i.e. this
> temporal existence. I believe the new physics gives us an insight
> into
> God's methods. The big bang which began our universe was caused by a
> large quantum fluctuation. These fluctuations are believed by some
> cosmologists to be power spikes in a tremendous quantum field of
> incredible intensity. Since there are undoubtedly many of these power
> spikes, and at the top of each powerful enough spike is a created
> universe, there are probably many overlapping sister universes to our
> universe in existence at this very moment. They are separated from
> each
> other only by the different quantum time value that each universe
> possesses. Thus we can not see or sense them nor can they see or
> sense
> us. You may ask how does God fit into the overall scheme of these
> things. I truly believe that the energy that creates and drives this
> quantum field issues forth from the mind of God even as He speaks the
> Word. The beauty of God and His methods is that while we may seem far
> removed from where God is, He is only a prayer away. He loves us and
> cares for us, who believe on His dear Son, and longs that all mankind
> will come to a saving faith in His beloved Son; but God wants our
> love
> freely given and not given through coercion. He gives us His Holy
> Spirit to guide us and lead us into paths of righteousness for His
> namesake. All that is required of us is simple faith in our living
> Lord
> and Savior Jesus Christ.
> I look forward to the day that I return to the spiritual realm from
> which we have come and can worship, adore, praise and glorify Him
> forever. Our Lord made a way back where there was no way, so that we
> may dwell with Him and enjoy Him forever. Praise be to God that He
> has
> not left us nor forsaken us, but through His death established His
> plan
> for our salvation when we come to believe on His shed blood.
> Hallelujah, God is truly great and greatly to be worshiped in spirit
> and truth.
> In awe of the Living God
> Richard E. Franing
>
> AN INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS ONE
> I've decided to take a shot at this one, so you folks need to get
> the
> stake ready along with the rope, wood and matches because I'm about
> to
> reveal my pet theory concerning the first chapter of Genesis. In
> second
> Peter 3:8, we find the following in the RSV version: "But do not
> ignore
> this fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years
> and a thousand years is as one day." This is a way of saying that God
> is the creator and ruler of time as well as every thing else in this
> universe and beyond. So even a million or a billion years can be as
> one
> day or one nanosecond to Him as He chooses it to be, since He is
> beyond
> time. With that in mind, lets move into Genesis. In the beginning God
> created the heavens and the earth. I think that this represents the
> start of our universe. The heavens representing space and the earth
> representing matter. The earth being without form and void and the
> Spirit of God hovered above the waters. The matter had not coalesced
> together sufficiently to form large physical bodies in space, but had
> coalesced enough that internal heat within the matter was driving off
> water vapor that may have condensed on the surface of that matter.
> Then
> God said let there be light. This was beginning of nuclear fusion in
> our universe, along with planet building. Where the light hit these
> protoplanets, there was day and on the backside of these bodies was
> night just as God had commanded. Obviously it took billions of our
> years for our universe to reach this stage, but to God that is little
> more than a blink of the eye.
> God called this time the first day. The morning and the evening
> being
> whatever time that God wishes it to be or when He wishes it to be. I
> think it highly unlikely He is saying an Earthday at this point
> because
> our solar system had not been created yet, that did not occur until
> the
> fourth day. On the second day God separated the waters into the seas
> and the sky. Evidently certain planets in scattered solar systems had
> cooled enough for their atmospheres to start clearing instead of one
> big shroud of clouds enveloping these planets from their surfaces
> upward. This probably took millions of years to occur. During this
> day
> God formed the land surfaces upon these planets. Again in God's time
> there could have been another blink of His spiritual eyes. Evening
> could be when He closes His eyes and the morning when He opens them
> again. So ended the second day. (I can see that you folks have
> erected
> the stake and gathered the firewood. You're having a cookout!
> Right?).
> On the third day, God brought forth vegetation. There have probably
> been many planets within our universe in times past and yet today
> that
> have some forms of life upon them. This is God's universe, along with
> any others, and He can do with them whatever He so desires. Who are
> we
> to limit Him to only caring about what happens on our dinky little
> planet, as important as it is to us? Don't get me wrong, God does
> care
> about us and this Earth, but We are not His only responsibility.
> Again
> God blinks His eyes and another day is over in His book, even though
> more millions of Earth type years may have elapsed.
> On the fourth day God created our sun, the moon and obviously the
> planets in our solar system. From this point on, I think that God is
> referring to our planet when He speaks of the earth, although He is
> not
> yet talking in Earthdays when He speaks. We tend to limit God into
> our
> way of thinking, not realizing that He is far greater than we could
> ever imagine. God also created the land and plants on our Earth in
> this
> time frame. This "day" must have been several billion Earth years
> long.
> It is wonderful that God never gets tired doing all this creating,
> because if He did He would probably get worn out just trying to keep
> up
> with all the petitions I offer up to His throne, let alone those that
> everyone else bring to Him in prayer.
> On the fifth day, God created the animals. Plants were already in
> existence on the Earth, being part of his previous day's work. This
> time frame probably lasted hundreds of millions of Earth years. As
> you
> can tell by now, I think that God used an evolutionary process to
> bring
> this to past. Not a random type of evolution, but a God inspired and
> God driven evolutionary process that only He is capable of doing.
> Truly
> we have a great and awe inspiring God.
> On the sixth day, we arrive at the place where the rubber meets the
> road so to speak. Did God create man? You bet He did. Did God use an
> evolutionary process to create man from the higher mammal animals?
> You
> bet He did. (GASP!) You say what about Adam? I think He came along
> later. This day probably lasted several million years. God looked at
> all of this creation and declared it good. Who are we to argue with
> God
> about something like that. If He says it is good, then it must be
> good.
> Anyway God decided He needed a little vacation after all that work of
> creating. I'll bet my bottom dollar that the seventh day did not last
> even two Earth seconds, because God loves what He is doing so much
> that
> He won't ever give it up and keeps on keeping on.
> Getting back to Adam, I believe that Adam was the first human with
> a
> spirit bearing soul. God created him from the dust of the Earth and
> breathed life into Him because God had created him for a special
> purpose. Adam was a perfect man. He could not say that bad genes had
> caused him to sin. Likewise Eve whom God created from Adam was
> perfect.
> These two were to be the first of mankind to enter into this world
> with
> a God created spirit. All men existing before Adam had a soul, but no
> spirit indwelling that soul. This leads me to think that the fall of
> Lucifer from Heaven occurred sometime after the sixth day. This I
> have
> reason to believe: that spirits of men are leftover remnants from the
> old order that existed in Heaven before Lucifer launched his revolt
> against God. As beings who did not take part in that revolt, but
> nevertheless of suspect loyalty to God, we could not remain in Heaven
> in our old form. We have to be transformed into new creatures before
> we
> are acceptable to God again. This is the purpose of our earthly
> existence. God knew that Lucifer and a third of the angels were going
> to revolt against him. He also had originally created us as
> subangelic
> beings to assist Lucifer in carrying out his heavenly
> responsibilities,
> before Lucifer got the big head and decided to try to take over God's
> position. I wonder if that happened while God was on vacation during
> the seventh day. It would be just like old Lucifer to try something
> like that.
> Anyway, once God decided that we subangelic spiritual beings (see
> Hebrews 2:7) could no longer dwell in His heavenly kingdom in our
> then
> spiritual form and He began thinking of ways to change us. He could
> not
> do this at the eternal level because He is constrained by His own
> eternal laws at that level. He had to bring us to a temporal level to
> accomplish that. Since a suitable vehicle (man) was already in place
> to
> accomplish this objective, God decided to piggyback these spirits
> into
> men's souls. This is why our soul also contains a God created spirit
> (see Hebrews 4:12). Adam was the first of these spirit souled men.
> Had
> he not disobeyed God, he would have been permitted to eventually eat
> of
> the tree of life and been transformed into an eternal creature, with
> rights to dwell with God forever. Adam and Eve were a special test
> case. God knew that if they failed the test, then all men from that
> point on would fail this test. They were cast out of the Garden and
> forced to live among the other existing humans. From that time on all
> human beings have had a spirit bearing soul. How long will this go
> on?
> Probably until heaven is emptied of its condemned subangelic spirits
> or
> until the church on Earth becomes so decadent that so few are getting
> saved and transformed thru faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus
> Christ, that there is no purpose in continuing the process. This why
> spirit bearing souls should not be aborted and the Gospel must be
> preached with great fervor everywhere on Earth. This is our one and
> only chance to be able to dwell with God forever. We pass this way
> but
> once and each spirit bearing soul gets only one chance. There is no
> reincarnation. We must not rob ourselves or future generations of
> this
> sole opportunity for salvation. Once Adam failed, only the new Adam
> (Jesus Christ) could salvage the situation for us. He is the Way, the
> Truth and the Life. He who has Christ has eternal life and this life
> is
> in God's only begotten Son.
> I have presented this theory, not as an absolute truth, but as an
> attempt to bridge the difference between fact and faith. Many people
> choose to ignore the physical facts around us or to twist them to
> agree
> with their particular interpretation of God's Word. Likewise too many
> people ignore the Scriptures in a vain attempt to arrive at the
> facts.
> God does not lie nor do the facts lie, and ultimately they are saying
> the same thing. (So why are you folks grabbing me, not the stake. Oh
> well, let the flames begin. (Arrrgh!!!)
> Thoughtfully yours in Christ Jesus,
> Dick Franing
>
> A SHORT TREATISE ON ORIGINAL SIN
> The Lord God took man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it
> and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "You may
> freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the
> knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you
> eat of it you shall die."
> But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die. For God knows
> that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be
> like
> God, knowing good and evil." .....she took of its fruit and ate; and
> she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both
> were opened, and they knew that they were naked. .....
> Then the Lord God said, "Behold the man has become like one of us,
> knowing good and evil; and now lest he put forth his hand and take
> also
> of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"---therefore the Lord
> God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from
> which he was taken. He drove out the man: and at the east of the
> garden
> of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned
> every
> way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
> (excerpts from the Book of Genesis, Chapters 2 and 3)
> How often has man pondered these words throughout the ensuing
> centuries and speculated as to their exact meaning. Some say that it
> was an actual fruit such as an apple, some look at it as being an
> abstract historical event, some think of it as a crisis of the spirit
> that man experienced, while others think that these verses represent
> a
> supernatural experience that Adam and Eve had. Some people think that
> it represents some form or type of superior knowledge. Still others
> think of it as a mythical story told to explain how sin began. None
> of
> these concepts are comprehensive enough to adequately explain the
> true
> nature of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
> I fear that I now know the meaning of these verses. The tree of
> this
> knowledge lies deep within the soul of man. It is what the Christian
> teacher Watchman Nee refers to as "the latent power of the soul". So
> what is this latent power that lies hidden deep within the inner
> recesses of man's soul? I believe that it is a type of angelic power,
> which might be better thought of as Adamic power.
> Man is a sub-angelic being who is endowed with a certain degree of
> latent angelic capability. Man is not an angel, but man may be
> distantly related to the angels in some manner. Under certain
> circumstances, the latent angelic capability of a relatively few
> number
> of people can become momentarily activated for short periods of time.
> Probably at least 99% of the human race never experiences any of this
> activation and thus are totally oblivious to the existence of the
> latent angelic capability within themselves.
> Activation of this capability primarily occurs during spiritual
> dreams while asleep. The person begins a troubled dream while in a
> deep
> sleep, then slips into a state of spiritual dreaming through which
> the
> person can temporarily enter into the angelic mode. While in this
> temporary angelic mode, the person is able to direct the course of
> future events, depending what the subject of spiritual dream is. If
> the
> person exercises his angelic powers in concert with the direction of
> the Holy Spirit of God, the results will be good and beneficial. If
> the
> person exercises his angelic powers in a unilateral manner, then the
> results will inevitably be evil. The person acting in a unilateral
> way
> is trying to play God by usurping God's authority in total disregard
> to
> God's will. This is the reason why Adam and Eve fell in the garden.
> As
> a result, they were stripped of their innocence and left naked before
> the Lord. It appears that the ability to be activated runs in certain
> families. It may also be that this ability may skip generations
> within
> a family, as well as individuals within an active generation. My
> father's mother was an angelically active person, but my father never
> experienced activation as I have.
> In honesty, I must admit that I have exercised this angelic power
> both ways in the past, for the good of mankind when exercised in
> concert with the Holy Spirit and to the detriment of man when I
> exercised it unilaterally. This was largely done in ignorance before
> I
> realized what the exact nature of this power was and how capricious
> this Adamic power can be. It has a Jekyll and Hyde quality about it
> and
> must be exercised with extreme caution and then only under the
> guidance
> of the Holy Spirit. Adam was warned about this danger, but he chose
> to
> disregard God's warning. When God told Adam not to eat of that tree,
> He
> was telling him not to exercise his angelic capability because it
> would
> cause him fail the test and all future mankind with him. After man's
> fall in the Garden, this capability became latent. Because Adam
> sinned,
> he was not permitted to eat of the tree of life. The way of the tree
> of
> life would have to be personified in the Way, the Truth and the Life
> in
> order for man to have that opportunity again to gain eternal life and
> that life is in God's only begotten son, our Lord and Savior Jesus
> Christ.
> My experience with this phenomenon is that it begins in earnest
> during the early teen years, reaches its peak about 30-35 years of
> age
> and then slowly declines until it reaches a point of near cessation
> during one's lower fifties. The time of greatest power during a
> person's early thirties is also the time of greatest danger because
> it
> when the greatest extremes of good and evil are possible. Momentary
> angelity can a potent stealth weapon if used unwisely. Following
> one's spiritual instincts can indeed be dangerous, thus the person
> must stay close to God and be clothed in His righteousness. The old
> testament and book of Acts states that the young men shall see
> visions
> and the old men shall dream dreams. In those days, an old man could
> be
> any man past the age of thirty because life expectancy was not very
> long in those days. I have experienced these visions and dreams in
> the
> past. The visions are basically learning experiences while the dreams
> are basically doing experiences.
> Adam lost any chance to gain access to the tree of life in the
> garden
> when he disobeyed God, thereby losing the opportunity for eternal
> life
> with God in heaven. As children of Adam, we also share that lost
> opportunity, but God in his great mercy has created another way for
> us
> to obtain eternal life with Him. God sent his Son, the Lord Jesus
> Christ, to die and shed his blood to free us from the first Adam's
> curse and our own sin. Through faith in the Lord Jesus we are born
> anew
> into God's family and receive the promise of the Father that we will
> stand faultless before the throne at the day of judgement. We are no
> longer children of disobedience, but we are now children of God fit
> for
> His kingdom. All that is required of us is simple faith in the Lord
> Jesus and His sacrificial death on the cross, and to open our hearts
> and minds to the working of the Holy Spirit of God.
> Man tries his own methods of attempting to tap into this latent
> angelic capability that some are vaguely aware of within themselves.
> Some gnostics, certain psychics, many new agers, kundalini yogis,
> certain mediums and supernaturalists of various kinds are trying in
> their own way to regain the power that Adam and Eve possessed, abused
> and subsequently lost during the fall. Little do they realize that
> they
> are playing with spiritual dynamite. A few people may try to regain
> this Adamic power with an intent of somehow attaining angelic status
> which they think might give them access to the tree of life. God has
> blocked this route with his cherubim and flaming sword. They would be
> far better off to seek the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness as
> the path to eternal life. Having experienced this Adamic power first
> hand, I am well acquainted with good and evil even as Adam was. I
> thank
> God that Christ is my refuge, that in Him I find forgiveness through
> faith in His shed blood and that He sets my feet on the path of
> righteousness for His name's sake. Truly He is the Way, the Truth and
> the Life. Praise be to God for His everlasting grace, love and mercy.
> Under the Blood of Jesus,
> Richard E. Franing
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