I've had an image that is somewhat gentle and sweet that I want to share with you as yet another way of understanding the explanations I've given you about what heaven's like. This also ties in with my recent discussion of genuine awe being reserved for God, but legitimate awe can also include marveling at the natural wonders, such as earth, space, the universe, of God's creation.
God created the universe, and it is exactly as it appears. The more that humans develop telescopes and other scientific equipment, the more can be seen about the universe, marveled at and measured, studied and better understood. I have noticed that those who study the universe as a profession tend to have a strong sense of aesthetics too, for they really enjoy and marvel at photos of outer space, or of earth as seen from space, and want to look farther outward and thus backwards in age. So the wonder of space is genuinely felt by the workers in that profession.
There's a slight temptation associated with studying anything, whether it is a small device or a large natural feature. Familiarity breeds contempt as the saying goes, and I'm not saying it is that strong, but the temptation is that the more one thinks one has collected information, the more one is tempted to feel that the topic (and unconsciously, the thing itself) is "understood" by you and hence somewhat "under your control." Let me give an example. The more one is able to photograph a remote and dim region of the universe, the more the person tends to forget that no one will ever go there. Scientists and other space fans can look at a million photographs of a galaxy that is 200 light years away, for a example, and start to feel that the galaxy itself is "at hand" as much as the photographs are in their actual hands. That is something of a flaw or, rather, an affectation (not affection, but affectation, a presumption) of human thinking. They lose their appropriate awe because familiarity has bred contempt. They now start thinking they can imagine "what it would be like" in that galaxy, just because they have collected some data. They confuse scientific speculation with familiarity. They forget that no human will ever visit distant parts of space, and likely not even venture outside of the solar system itself. Why? Because of the inherent limitations of human physical ability combined with the simple physics and lack of time that humanity can expect per generation. See all my previous lifespan discussion. The universe, indeed the solar system, is simply too vast to ever be explored by humans. Imagining otherwise and taking photographs and making plans simply does not "make it so."
So one can and one must have appropriate awe about the universe, and enjoy it, study it, and even explore the parts that one is able to, in safe, logical and proportionate ways. But the bottom line of reality that everyone must always maintain is awareness that 1) no matter how much you collect "data" it's not the same as assuming you have any genuine insight and 2) it is simply too vast to ever be traveled.
Having said that, follow this analogy with me. As wonderful as the universe is, it is still a created thing, a thing that was created by God. Heaven too is a created thing, but there is a huge difference. Heaven was created by God to be inhabited by his companions, the angels, and the souls of humans who are brought there upon their death if they are believers and they are just and righteous, and heaven does not have matter, energy or the passing of time. The universe was created to be the framing, the infrastructure for life, and human life is all that any human has to really think about, and thus it was created in order to support a system made of matter, energy and time. So on the one hand you have the heavenly realm that was created to support matter-less, energy-less and time-less beings (and is God's natural abode, though he is of course everywhere too), while on the other hand you have the universe that was created to support matter-based, energy-based and time-based beings and objects (people and rocks, e.g.)
So here is my analogy and image. Imagine in one hand a really cool and beautiful piece of plastic. Let's say that it's a pretty, super lightweight and durable object, very high tech and fun to look at and to use. Now, picture the same object in your other hand but made out of solid gold. Here is the bottom line:
Even the most awesome sight that one sees in the universe, peering out into space using the Hubble telescope or whatever, is like seeing really impressive plastic. Ultimately even the largest supernova, the biggest galaxy, the oldest stars, the most mystical appearing nebula or clouds of gas, they are all like marvelous and very useful plastic, plastic that was created by God to be useful and to support existence that is based on matter, energy and time.
One can marvel at how well God created something so good that it is perfect for its niche, its niche being the place where objects and life that rely on having matter, energy and time can and do exist.
But heaven, ah heaven, is so far beyond even the most wonderful sights of the universe that it must be compared to being made of gold, but gold that is not even of matter or light. That is what St. John tried to describe seeing in the Book of Revelation, but here I'm just using it as an analogy to help you imagine the distance between appropriate awe of the universe and appropriate awe of heaven. Not only is heaven of, in this analogy, a much finer material, wrought by God of gold while the universe is wrought by God of really cool plastic, but the beings that exist in heaven exist totally on God's presence: they do not have matter, they do not have energy, they do not exist within any structure of time itself.
So heaven is like a sheet of gold yet it's gold that has no atomic structure, and thus no matter or material existence, no energy, and thus it is not "mental" or "light" or "spirit beams" based, and there is no thread or sequence of time (that is the most difficult for humans to understand), so things do not come into being, or arrive in heaven, and then experience elapsed time. Heaven's eternity is not endless time, it is the absence of time in total and at all. Time will only become relevant again when at the Second Coming bodies are raised and a new place that does have something akin to matter, energy and time is created for those who are saved and who live in the Lord's presence. Regular heaven, however, has no matter, energy or experience of time, not because people are so happy that they are oblivious to time, but because time does not exist as a concept or a reality in heaven.
So no matter how marvelous anything is that one observes in the universe, from the subatomic to the intergalactic, remember that it is still a place that was created to be utilitarian, to provide a use, which is to support in a good way (as all of God's creation is good) objects and living creatures (humans, animals and plants) that are composed of matter, energy and time. Thus it is appropriate to be awed at God's creation and the complexity of life and matter and energy that it supports, all of which have limits to their existence. That's why a really cool plastic item explains it well, since it has a purpose, even if it is only visual or supportive.
However, one can't start thinking one can imagine what heaven is like by looking into outer space, or by smashing atomic particles and looking at the bits. That's because heaven simply does not exist in either matter, energy or time format at all. God, the angels and those who are the dearly departed who are saved and find themselves in God's presence after death are not to be found within structures, no matter how large or small, that are material, energy and/or time based. There is no "God particle" and there are no "angels" in stars. There are no "hidden" dimensions or "multiple universes" (sorry scientists and science fiction writers!) God created and natural laws put into place by God rule all that is needed to support matter, energy and time on the one hand, the one universe, and all that is need to support non-matter, non-energy and non-time, subsisting only on God's actual presence, on the other hand.
That, by the way, is why hell is so terrible. Those who are cast into hell still experience the effects of time, matter and energy, even though they are no longer in the universe. Those in heaven do not experience time, matter or energy; they only experience the complete fulfillment of God.
I hope that you have found this helpful.
(hi young people! just a quick shout out...)
Showing posts with label true gold. Show all posts
Showing posts with label true gold. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Friday, November 14, 2008
Capitalism/financial crisis: How to repair
I urge President Elect Obama and his staff to consider and implement this urgent suggestion, as it is essential if the economy is going to be repaired and put back on track. I would say that is it THE foundational decision that will allow all other ideas to succeed.
By the way, before you read this, remember I have the "bona fides" of never having voted for a Republican President, going back to the days of George McGovern, the first election that I was old enough to vote in, and as recently as when I voted for John Kerry (in a separate blog I've documented my political history). So when you read this urgent suggestion, do not have a knee jerk reaction that this is coming from "obstructionist Republican" feelings. The opposite is true because I was infuriated when the USA first erred in this problem.
The problem is that the USA should never have left the gold standard for its monetary system. I remember when the decision to leave the gold standard was made, and if anyone would have asked me, I would have told them point blank on the spot that this is a dire error that would ruin the economy sooner or later. And this is exactly what has happened. So I urge you to study and implement the return of the USA to the gold standard with as much haste as is possible.
Young people who read this, you can read on your own details of the gold standard workings. But I will summarize its benefits, no, I don't want to say "benefits," I want to say its "essential service" in two general points.
The first reason the gold standard is necessary is that it guarantees that the USA dollar (USD) will always have a value, and one that is a reasonably high value. It ensures that the USD will not wildly fluctuate or plunge in value. It will always be a worthy and valuable currency because every dollar is backed by gold. All other currencies that peg (determine their own value) against the gold standard USD also benefits from this stability and value.
(You may ask why the USA ever got off the gold standard if this is true, which it is. Don't believe propaganda that you may read. The obvious real reason is this was the birth of people who realized they could enrich themselves by currency manipulation, such as the birth of foreign exchange trading. This decision was made in the early days of when people wanted to "look for the angle" to "make a killing in the financial markets," whether it was good for the economy, the country or even the world, which it most assuredly was not, as recent events of the past twenty years have shown. It's been great for the currency vultures, but not for anyone else. People made enormous money by pushing up and down the value of individual currencies of countries, so they could trade on the differences in current and future value, pocketing the profit. Thus they made money without manufacturing any goods or providing any services, and robbed countries of the value of their currency to provide services and goods to its people. This would be a different and much more prosperous world for the poor and middle class if we had not gone off the gold standard).
The second reason this is important is that it maintains a budgeting mentality for our country. A country that spends outside of its real means cannot and will not survive. It has been the fall of many empires and the cause of much war, when countries spend more than they have in treasure, or can borrow without the collateral of real gold. When the country operates its currency and hence its economy off of the gold standard, to put it very simply, it is like having a genuine savings account and a budget that one cannot spend outside off of and so one has a budget. The country cannot turn repeatedly to the printing press to just run off more money, as the USA has done to the point of today's most dire peril of its very stability. The gold standard forces a budget, but one that can grow (one can always obtain more gold to back up expansion) but it is done in real terms of growth, not imaginary or false growth. Far from denying the country loans, the gold standard guarantees the worth of the USA to those countries who lend it money, and opens up rather that dries up credit lines, which happens in crisis. One is never in peril of disaster when one is operating on the gold standard.
I cannot emphasize how crucial it is that the USA returns to the gold standard with measured but definite haste.
I hope that you find this helpful.
By the way, before you read this, remember I have the "bona fides" of never having voted for a Republican President, going back to the days of George McGovern, the first election that I was old enough to vote in, and as recently as when I voted for John Kerry (in a separate blog I've documented my political history). So when you read this urgent suggestion, do not have a knee jerk reaction that this is coming from "obstructionist Republican" feelings. The opposite is true because I was infuriated when the USA first erred in this problem.
The problem is that the USA should never have left the gold standard for its monetary system. I remember when the decision to leave the gold standard was made, and if anyone would have asked me, I would have told them point blank on the spot that this is a dire error that would ruin the economy sooner or later. And this is exactly what has happened. So I urge you to study and implement the return of the USA to the gold standard with as much haste as is possible.
Young people who read this, you can read on your own details of the gold standard workings. But I will summarize its benefits, no, I don't want to say "benefits," I want to say its "essential service" in two general points.
The first reason the gold standard is necessary is that it guarantees that the USA dollar (USD) will always have a value, and one that is a reasonably high value. It ensures that the USD will not wildly fluctuate or plunge in value. It will always be a worthy and valuable currency because every dollar is backed by gold. All other currencies that peg (determine their own value) against the gold standard USD also benefits from this stability and value.
(You may ask why the USA ever got off the gold standard if this is true, which it is. Don't believe propaganda that you may read. The obvious real reason is this was the birth of people who realized they could enrich themselves by currency manipulation, such as the birth of foreign exchange trading. This decision was made in the early days of when people wanted to "look for the angle" to "make a killing in the financial markets," whether it was good for the economy, the country or even the world, which it most assuredly was not, as recent events of the past twenty years have shown. It's been great for the currency vultures, but not for anyone else. People made enormous money by pushing up and down the value of individual currencies of countries, so they could trade on the differences in current and future value, pocketing the profit. Thus they made money without manufacturing any goods or providing any services, and robbed countries of the value of their currency to provide services and goods to its people. This would be a different and much more prosperous world for the poor and middle class if we had not gone off the gold standard).
The second reason this is important is that it maintains a budgeting mentality for our country. A country that spends outside of its real means cannot and will not survive. It has been the fall of many empires and the cause of much war, when countries spend more than they have in treasure, or can borrow without the collateral of real gold. When the country operates its currency and hence its economy off of the gold standard, to put it very simply, it is like having a genuine savings account and a budget that one cannot spend outside off of and so one has a budget. The country cannot turn repeatedly to the printing press to just run off more money, as the USA has done to the point of today's most dire peril of its very stability. The gold standard forces a budget, but one that can grow (one can always obtain more gold to back up expansion) but it is done in real terms of growth, not imaginary or false growth. Far from denying the country loans, the gold standard guarantees the worth of the USA to those countries who lend it money, and opens up rather that dries up credit lines, which happens in crisis. One is never in peril of disaster when one is operating on the gold standard.
I cannot emphasize how crucial it is that the USA returns to the gold standard with measured but definite haste.
I hope that you find this helpful.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
A personal reflection
There's a window in my apartment that overlooks a small strip of ground between the building and the bayou. For the past several weeks there has been an abundance of goldenrod growing, with their brilliant golden yellow flowers on stalks up to a meter tall. For those of you who do not know what goldenrod looks like, this picture is an excellent representation of what I have been seeing.
http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=108384
In the past day, however, as the weather has cooled, the goldenrods still stand but the flowers have lost their golden color and the flower heads are now a beige white. In a matter of one day these flowers that commanded the landscape and demanded that all eyes turn to them have become virtually unnoticeable and the entire plant is practically invisible, since the eye is now drawn past them, to look at the bayou. When the flowers were golden their brilliance "intercepted" the eye, demanding that one look at the flowers. The brilliance of the gold was like a curtain, a psychological curtain, where someone standing outside and gazing at the landscape would stop short in their viewing, captured by the vivid demands of the goldenrod. And all of that power to capture is gone, through the natural turning of the seasons, in just a day's time.
It is a reminder that even good things, such as beauty, can blind one to what is standing right behind it. And it is also a reminder that gold, in all its forms, can disappear in a day. When one admires gold make sure that it is true gold. True gold is the word of God and Jesus Christ, and true gold is the use of the element of gold only for what is good and pure. Love the goodness that gold can do, not the gold itself. The metal gold itself can be gone from one's possession in a day, but the goodness that is done with the gold endures, even if it turns a beige white and thus disappears into the landscape. Life is not, and should not, always be that which is the most noticeable, the loudest, or even the most beautiful. Only God and his true "gold" can have claim to being perfect beauty, who overpowers all around him, being the source of all glory. But humans can use and spend the currency of God's "gold" in imitation of the example set by the prophets, holy people, and everyday saints who "invest in life."
Exodus 25: 8-9, 11-12
"They shall make a sanctuary for me, that I may dwell in their midst. This Dwelling and all its furnishings you shall make exactly according to the pattern that I will now show you. Cast four gold rings and fasten them on the four supports of the ark, two rings on one side and two on the opposite side."
When one reads God's instructions to the Israelites regarding the use of gold in the Ark, remember that the gold rings symbolize a covenant, a loving covenant, just as much as their pragmatic use to allow the Ark to be lifted.
Leviticus 24: 3
"Thus, by a perpetual statute for you and your descendants, the lamps shall be set up on the pure gold lampstand, to burn regularly before the Lord."
God instructed Moses to have Aaron, as priest, have a sanctuary light, of olive oil burning on a pure gold stand, that is burned regularly before the tent where God would meet with his people, and dwell in their midst.
Psalm 21:1-5
Lord, the king finds joy in your power;
in your victory how greatly he rejoices!
You have granted him his heart's desire;
you did not refuse the prayer of his lips. Selah.
For you welcomed him with goodly blessings;
you place on his head a crown of pure gold.
He asked life of you; you have it to him,
length of days forever.
King David praised God's blessings as being like a crown of pure gold, where the true gold is God giving him life, and eternal life in God's presence.
Sirach 31: 5
The lover of gold will not be free from sin,
for he who pursues wealth is led astray by it.
Many have been ensnared by gold,
though destruction lay before their eyes;
It is a stumbling block to those who are avid for it,
a snare for every fool.
Mankind must love the gold of God, and the good that can be done with gold, not the gold itself.
1 Peter 1:6-9
In this you rejoice, although now for a while you may have to suffer through various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Although you have not seen him you love him; even though you do not see him now yet believe in him, you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, as you attain the goal of [your] faith, the salvation of your souls.
Peter, the first Pope, given the keys by Jesus Christ, sets forth remarkable words that illuminate how gold is a symbol of purity that leads to understanding of the true gold, the love of Jesus Christ and belief in what he teaches, leading to salvation of the soul.
Revelation 21:21
The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made with a single pearl; and the street of the city was of pure gold, transparent as glass.
The angel shows St. John the Apostle a view of the new Jerusalem that is located in heaven. Because one who dwells there is one whose soul has been saved, the pathway to the gold of God has been achieved, and since there is no longer anything to learn or to strive for, the gold itself is transparent, something one could not see on earth.
http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=108384
In the past day, however, as the weather has cooled, the goldenrods still stand but the flowers have lost their golden color and the flower heads are now a beige white. In a matter of one day these flowers that commanded the landscape and demanded that all eyes turn to them have become virtually unnoticeable and the entire plant is practically invisible, since the eye is now drawn past them, to look at the bayou. When the flowers were golden their brilliance "intercepted" the eye, demanding that one look at the flowers. The brilliance of the gold was like a curtain, a psychological curtain, where someone standing outside and gazing at the landscape would stop short in their viewing, captured by the vivid demands of the goldenrod. And all of that power to capture is gone, through the natural turning of the seasons, in just a day's time.
It is a reminder that even good things, such as beauty, can blind one to what is standing right behind it. And it is also a reminder that gold, in all its forms, can disappear in a day. When one admires gold make sure that it is true gold. True gold is the word of God and Jesus Christ, and true gold is the use of the element of gold only for what is good and pure. Love the goodness that gold can do, not the gold itself. The metal gold itself can be gone from one's possession in a day, but the goodness that is done with the gold endures, even if it turns a beige white and thus disappears into the landscape. Life is not, and should not, always be that which is the most noticeable, the loudest, or even the most beautiful. Only God and his true "gold" can have claim to being perfect beauty, who overpowers all around him, being the source of all glory. But humans can use and spend the currency of God's "gold" in imitation of the example set by the prophets, holy people, and everyday saints who "invest in life."
Exodus 25: 8-9, 11-12
"They shall make a sanctuary for me, that I may dwell in their midst. This Dwelling and all its furnishings you shall make exactly according to the pattern that I will now show you. Cast four gold rings and fasten them on the four supports of the ark, two rings on one side and two on the opposite side."
When one reads God's instructions to the Israelites regarding the use of gold in the Ark, remember that the gold rings symbolize a covenant, a loving covenant, just as much as their pragmatic use to allow the Ark to be lifted.
Leviticus 24: 3
"Thus, by a perpetual statute for you and your descendants, the lamps shall be set up on the pure gold lampstand, to burn regularly before the Lord."
God instructed Moses to have Aaron, as priest, have a sanctuary light, of olive oil burning on a pure gold stand, that is burned regularly before the tent where God would meet with his people, and dwell in their midst.
Psalm 21:1-5
Lord, the king finds joy in your power;
in your victory how greatly he rejoices!
You have granted him his heart's desire;
you did not refuse the prayer of his lips. Selah.
For you welcomed him with goodly blessings;
you place on his head a crown of pure gold.
He asked life of you; you have it to him,
length of days forever.
King David praised God's blessings as being like a crown of pure gold, where the true gold is God giving him life, and eternal life in God's presence.
Sirach 31: 5
The lover of gold will not be free from sin,
for he who pursues wealth is led astray by it.
Many have been ensnared by gold,
though destruction lay before their eyes;
It is a stumbling block to those who are avid for it,
a snare for every fool.
Mankind must love the gold of God, and the good that can be done with gold, not the gold itself.
1 Peter 1:6-9
In this you rejoice, although now for a while you may have to suffer through various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Although you have not seen him you love him; even though you do not see him now yet believe in him, you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, as you attain the goal of [your] faith, the salvation of your souls.
Peter, the first Pope, given the keys by Jesus Christ, sets forth remarkable words that illuminate how gold is a symbol of purity that leads to understanding of the true gold, the love of Jesus Christ and belief in what he teaches, leading to salvation of the soul.
Revelation 21:21
The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made with a single pearl; and the street of the city was of pure gold, transparent as glass.
The angel shows St. John the Apostle a view of the new Jerusalem that is located in heaven. Because one who dwells there is one whose soul has been saved, the pathway to the gold of God has been achieved, and since there is no longer anything to learn or to strive for, the gold itself is transparent, something one could not see on earth.
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