Alpha Omega

In the first chapter of this trilogy God was referred to by several different names. God was called the Being of beings, the Uncaused cause, the Eternal Omnipotent Creator. Immanuel Kant identified God as the omnitudo realitatis and St. John called God the logos.

In the previous chapter it was noted as an analogy that God the Father could be referred to as male or positive, God the Son as female or negative and God the Holy Spirit as neutral, being neither “sex.” It was also noted that that one’s soul is made to the image and likeness of God. That is, one’s own soul could be seen as animus (masculine), anima (feminine) and one’s spirit as neutral.

In earlier chapters of this trilogy one learned that God is omnipresent and that God influences one through one’s own conscience. One has also learned that Jesus Christ is God incarnate. But who is Jesus Christ; who is this God incarnate that man is made to the image and likeness of. Better still: What is God.

One knows that God is knowledge or truth (Jn.14:6). St. John also said that God is love (1Jn.4:8). When he referred to God as a spirit (Jn.4:23-24) that was his way of describing something — a Being from another world — that not even modern science can fully comprehend. Throughout history God has been referred to by several abstract terms, (faith, hope, justice, mercy, truth, to name just a few) and different religions have given God different names (Abba, Ahura Mazda, Allah, Elohim, Yahweh, to name just a few).

But all these definitions and names still leave one with only a vague understanding of what God really is. One does not propose to give any better definition for God here. This is because God is indescribable. God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. God is everything and yet, God is a Parmenidean One.

One only hopes to give the children of God another way of understanding or perceiving God, so that each may get a clearer picture of God. This way one can take each description and each name of God and, using them as pieces to a picture puzzle, put them together in a collage to get a more comprehensive understanding of this Omnipotent Creator.

Who or what is God? God is a being of infinite love, mercy, kindness and understanding.

God loves one, meaning that God cares about one’s future, about one’s hopes and desires. God loves one, meaning that He wants to make one happy; He wants to grant each person their own wish.

As long as one’s desires are not unlawful or illogical, God will give one whatever one wants. Working through one’s friends and relatives, much as a master chess player moves his pieces across the board, God will bring about a situation whereby one’s wishes will be answered. He does this because He cares. God wants one to be happy and He will move heaven and earth just to make one happy. The only time that God does not answer one’s prayers is when one prays for something that is outside the law or unreasonable.

Many have a misconception about prayer. They believe that if they say a prayer, then God will automatically grant their wish. When their prayer is not answered they pray harder, believing that this will succeed. Other people believe that when they pray God will use their prayer as a magical potion to either alter the lives of those around them or to alter their physical surroundings or alter other natural phenomenona. But this lowers prayer to a magical formula. God does not work that way.

When one prays for something, God will work through one to bring about a situation whereby one’s prayer can be answered. For example, if someone is praying to find a job, God is not going to magically create a job for him or her. But He may inspire the person doing the praying to go to a particular business that will hire him or her, or He may inspire the person doing the praying to talk to a friend who may know of a job opening.

If one is praying for peace, God is not going to alter the lives of government leaders but He may inspire one to support a leader who will bring about peace. He may inspire one to do a work that will help bring about peace. He may inspire a friend who will give one information that will then bring peace into one’s soul.

If one is praying that a natural disaster not befall one, God is not going to alter nature to prevent the disaster but He may inspire one to be prepared for some physical or other natural phenomenona. He may inspire one to go to friends or relatives in times of need.

Thus, one’s prayers will be answered through one’s own works. But if one’s desire is beyond the scope of one’s abilities, that is, if one prays for something unlawful or unreasonable, then one is praying for something that our Lord cannot give. One should pray for the things that are necessary in order to survive and then work to obtain them. But if a person prays for something and then does nothing to gain it, then neither will our Lord do anything. God does not reward slothful behavior.

God is full of mercy, meaning that He has empathy and compassion for all His children. He knows of the hardships that one has to endure in this limited three dimensional existence. God knows that life is not always easy, that living has its ups and downs. He did not create this world for one to always “have the good life.”

When God created this world, He created a world whereby one could experience the good with the bad. One must remember that one’s life in this world is a test. Those who can accept the hardships of life along with the joys found in this world are those who pass the test. Those who learn to live with and cope with those misfortunes which they cannot change are those who are the peacemakers of God and they will inherit the earth.

God put mankind on this earth in order to teach him how to live peaceably with his neighbor. One is not here to see how much wealth one can build up or to see how much political power one can obtain or to see how many secular goals one can gain. One is not here to force one’s neighbor to follow one’s own philosophy or to seek grievances against one’s neighbor. One is not even here to see how much knowledge one can obtain. Although this latter is a worthy goal, it is not one’s ultimate purpose.

God created man so that man could learn how to live in peace with his neighbor under adverse conditions. God did not create one in order to teach one how to live with one’s neighbor under favorable conditions, for everyone can live together peaceably under positive circumstances. But it takes grace from God and a love of neighbor to live and work with one’s neighbor when circumstances are unfavorable. Hence, one often has misfortunes in his or her own life which cannot be surmounted and one will often find him or her self surrounded by people who are disagreeable or even detestable.

Man has to come together and work together, sharing all the resources of the earth. Mankind has to unite in peaceable goals and man has to understand that no one person, government, nation, race, religion, sex or people is superior to another. Mankind has to understand that all human beings are equal and deserving of civil and political rights which cannot (ought not) be taken away from them by any government or organization.

A few of these rights are: The right to publically speak one’s mind and to publish one’s own opinions and artistry (graphically, phonetically, pictorially, photographically, electronically, etc.) and the right to pursue one’s own life style and political and religious beliefs without fear (as long as the propagation of these opinions, artistry and beliefs are not causing harm to others or inspiring harm towards others).

The government should not single out, endorse or propagate any particular religion or belief system. Indeed, the government has a moral obligation to protect the beliefs of its citizens from those whose goal is to destroy all religions.

Everyone is entitled to a proper, free and appropriate education; the right to live free from persecution and discrimination; the right to equal protection of the law and equal representation in the government; the right to a suitable occupation; the right to affordable, competent medical treatment; the right to assemble peacefully with one’s friends and relatives; the right to a humane life and the right not to be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.

Nor should anyone’s private property be taken for public use without just compensation. A person has the right to be secure in their home and property and the right to privacy in their homes and belongings. A free the press should have the right to the protection of its confidential sources (i.e. the same protections offered to attorney/client, priest/penitent, doctor/patient, etc.).

The people have the right to be free from unwarranted searches and confiscations of their property or the quartering of military personnel, militia or police in their residence; the right to be free from unjust and false imprisonment and self incrimination or to be arrested without probable cause; the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances; and the right to be taught about the criminal and civil justice process.

In all court cases the defendant has the right to be judged by an impartial jury from the district where the crime was committed and to be judged by those who are experienced and knowledgeable in the law, to be informed of the offense against him, to be allowed to confront witnesses, to be afforded a compulsory process to have witnesses at trial and to have the assistance of affordable, competent counsel for defense. The defendant should not be subjected to excessive bail.

Once convicted of a crime, a person should not have to suffer more than once for it. Nor should anyone who is convicted be subject to excessive fines, excessive imprisonment, unusual punishment or corporal or capital punishment. Rehabilitation services should be made available to anyone who is incarcerated.

Victims of crimes and witnesses thereof should also have a right to the assistance of affordable, competent counsel; to be treated with dignity, respect and compassion by those who are investigating the crime; to have police protection from intimidation and harm; to receive just compensation for any damages or inconvenience suffered; to the preservation of their property and employment; and to be periodically informed of the due process in the court proceedings of the pending case.

Counsel should not be allowed to offer courtroom theatrics, irrelevant, vain or extraneous litigation for the purpose of getting a favorable verdict for their case. Their main goal ought to be making sure the defendant’s rights are not violated. Their secondary goal should be getting a favorable verdict.

The people ought to have the right to choose those who will have authority over them and what laws they will have to obey, according to the principals of Jeffersonian democracy. All laws should be beneficial to the citizens – especially the poor and underprivileged – and the environment. Laws should not be made for the benefit of or to create a privileged class.

All laws should be worded in such a way that the average citizen can understand them. Laws should not be written in obscure or ambiguous language. Ghe government should not be allowed to hide information from a free press. Those who would deny a person these rights and goals are not doing the will of God and those who work peacefully towards these goals are the peacemakers of God.

God is full of understanding, meaning that our Lord perceives everything that one perceives and knows everything that one knows. God is within one at all times and He sees, feels, tastes, smells and hears everything one experiences.

How God does this for every human being on earth at the same time, one does not know. One only knows that He does it much like a teacher will work with his or her students one at a time while the remainder of the class does their assignment. That is, the teacher gives the class their assignment, then he or she will come to each student’s desk one at a time and help the student complete their assignment. The teacher will repeatedly go from student to student until all the students have finished their work.

A similar situation prevails with our Lord and the children of God. Since the beginning of time God has been working with mankind, teaching mankind and helping mankind grow and prosper. God gave mankind a goal to reach: to live in peace. He has been helping mankind obtain that goal since the beginning.

This is why God created man. God wants man to learn to live in peace. God wants each person to learn how to live in peace with those who have a different philosophy or a different life style than their own. It is easy to live with those who share one’s beliefs, one’s joys and one’s sorrows. But to live peacefully with someone who is different, who has a conflicting viewpoint or even someone who dislikes one, this takes courage, this takes love.

One is not saying that a child of God should remain in an abusive relationship with his or her spouse. Rather, one means here that a true child of God will live peacefully with his or her neighbor, regardless of the beliefs or life style of their neighbor. When one’s neighbor is the antithesis of everything one is and one believes in and one can still treat him or her with truth and justice in a logical and rational manner, then one is doing the will of God; then one is loving his or her neighbor.

One does not have to be famous or rich. One does not have to be all wise or supremely powerful. One does not have to be extremely beautiful or have plenty of friends. One does not have to be successful or even in good health. These are the things for which the secular minded pray. One only has to obey the Golden Rule. One only has to “love thy neighbor.” Love is all you need.

This is the law of God, Rom13:8-10. The spiritual minded pray that this will of God prevail in their hearts at all times. This is what He wants His children to do and how He wants one to live.

It is alright to be famous or rich, to have great knowledge or to be supremely powerful. There is nothing wrong with being very beautiful or having plenty of friends. To be successful and have good health are honorable goals to reach.

However, to have any these without also loving one’s neighbor or worse, to obtain them at the expense of one’s neighbor, is detestable to our Lord. It is far better to live a life that is less than ideal than to obtain a secular goal at the expense of one’s neighbor (Mt.16:26).

Who or what is God? God may be likened to the Internet, in that He can talk to millions of people all at the same time. Only our Lord is not limited by time. He is omnipresent. He can talk to someone in the past, someone in the present and someone in the future all at the same time.

For example, He is present to give the prophet Daniel his revelations about the Second Coming. He is present to give St. John his secret revelation. Finally, He is present to give one here his own revelation. All see the same thing, only each sees it differently because each lives in a different time zone. Thus, He can reveal the past, the present or the future to anyone He wants to.

Although many perceive God as a being who only reveals the future, this is a misconception. God is omnipresent and can disclose any information to anyone at anytime. This should come as no surprise and if one meditates on this, one will perceive the truthfulness of it.

Who or what is God? God is like a computer that can do several different tasks at the same time. Imagine one is sitting at a computer terminal, copying files from one folder to another. One highlights a file and copies it, placing it in the clipboard of the computer’s hard drive. Then one closes one window and opens another window and pastes the file in the new folder.

A similar situation prevails with regards to one’s existence in this world and God’s world. The good works and love one has in this world are “pasted” into God’s world, to await one’s entrance into His world at one’s physical death. There one will have them to use for growing in His world. In fact one’s physical death may be likened to closing a window at a computer terminal and entering the desktop of the computer, the computer’s main gateway to all other programs and windows.

In this world one is limited by space and time, matter and form, but in God’s world there are no such limitations. One can go anywhere one wishes at any time one wishes and one can take on any form one wants.

In some respects God’s world is very similar to this world. That is, everything that is in this physical world is also in the spiritual world. But one must not forget that the physical world is only an imitation of the spiritual world. In God’s world there is much more abundance of what is in this world.

Our Lord knows this and knows that He could not allow evil individuals in His world. One only needs to look around him or her self and see what the evil individuals of this world have done to this world. God cannot allow such to enter into His world. Hence, He made a world that has everything that His world has but in limitation.

He then placed man in this limited world in order to manifest to one what one will do with his or her own surroundings. Those who love truth and justice will not destroy their world. The saints all live and work and play together. They have learned how to live in peace. They have learned to be tolerant of each other’s shortcomings.

The more one loves his or her neighbor, the more tolerant he or she will be of his neighbor’s shortcomings. Those with perfect love have an unlimited empathy and tolerance for their neighbor’s imperfections, for they know that they each have their own imperfections.

Who or what is God? God is the Master artist, the Master architect, the Master warrior. God is the Master of all that is good.

In this trilogy one has often likened our Lord to a chess master who has complete control of the chess board when competing against an amateur. If one can imagine such an inferior player waiting to attack one of the master’s pawns, but cannot do so for the master has it protected. Only after the master releases his or her protection of the pawn can the amateur attack it.

A similar situation prevails with our Lord and His children. He will not allow the evil one to attack one of His children until He is ready for such to happen. Even then God will often dictate how and under what circumstances the evil one can attack His child.

A classic example of this was in the discovery of the Secret Annex where Anne Frank and her family were hiding from the Nazis in World War II. The Nazis did not find them until after Anne wrote in her diary on July 15, that she believed “people are really good at heart,” in effect, forgiving the very same people who were seeking to kill her.

One knows that she was protected by God because it was less than two weeks after this entry that she was on her way to Auschwitz and then death. Prior to her writing that statement in her diary the Nazis did not even know that she and her family were hiding in the Secret Annex. But as soon as she wrote in her diary, God lifted His protection of her and the Nazis got her. Then she and her family joined our Lord in His world.

Our Lord will also sometimes restrict the mobility of His own children. This would be for their own good. For example, if one of His children were pursuing something that would bring harm to his or her soul, our Lord may prevent His child from obtaining such a goal until His child was old enough spiritually to possess it without harming his or her soul. Thus, our Lord has complete control of everything in this world.

Often when two people come together they do not think of God or His involvement in their meeting. They do not think of God and how He has caused or allowed them to come together. If a chess master can have absolute and complete control over the chess board when competing against an amateur, so also can God have absolute and complete control over the lives of humans.

If a chess master can prevent two of his or her opponent’s pieces from coming together until such time that he or she wants them together, so also can God prevent two people of this world from coming together until such time that He wants them to come together. Indeed, no two people or groups of people can meet if God does not want them to do so.

To deny this is to deny the power of God over this world. For behind so many apparently disconnected and seemingly chance events in this physical world (e.g. the meeting of two people) is a super intelligent mastermind dominating amateur humans, giving them breath of life.

Many may deny this and say that if God has allowed two people to meet, and one or the other should sin, then the sin must be His fault. But this is not true. If there is sin involved, then the sin is the product of the individuals who commit such. But this still does not deny the fact that our Lord is in control of this world and nothing happens unless He either inspires it or allows it to happen.

When misfortune is the outcome of two people meeting caused by one of them sinning what often goes unnoticed is that our Lord is testing them both. The individual who committed the sin is judged by their sin. There is little dispute among theologians on this subject. However, the other person is being tested to see how he or she will accept the misfortune. Those who accept it with grace, those who accept it as God’s will are they who pass the test.

One is not saying that a child of God should not try to avoid catastrophe, for there is nothing wrong with being prepared for undesirable events in one’s life. However, when misfortune does come upon one, a child of God will accept such with dignity and self control. A child of God will look for opportunities to grow spiritually when a catastrophe overtakes him or her.

The same may be said for any work which one could do in this world. Often times one’s life seems dull and without merit. One will go about his or her everyday life and seem to make no gain. One’s life at such times seems as though it is a great waste, as though one is working for nothing.

But it is precisely at such times that one is being tested by God to see whether or not one will accept such a mundane life with dignity and humility or with pride and contempt. Our Lord wishes to manifest to one their real self. For it is in times of trial when a person’s true self comes to light.

Those who are filled with materialism and selfishness will oppose this type of life and will fight it. Some individuals will even sin in their rejection of a mundane existence. However, a true child of God will look upon such opportunities to grow in the spirit with God. A true child of God will welcome misfortune into his or her life as a chance to increase their love of God and man.

Who or what is God? God is a collage of everything one is, one believes, one hopes or one imagines. God is also a collage of every human that has ever lived, is alive now and ever will live in the future. God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end; God is everything.

At one’s physical death one will review their whole life. One will review every work, joy, and sorrow, every belief, aspiration and love that one has experienced throughout one’s whole life. This is one’s personal judgement.

This judgement will start with the worst deeds that one has committed and slowly progress to one’s greatest achievements, acts of good will and service that one has performed. As one proceeds, one will lose that which one did not give to our Lord while here on earth. That is, one’s sins, misdeeds and materialisms will gradually fall from one’s soul into the abyss, leaving one with only those acts of love preformed by one during one’s life. One will then enter the center of his or her soul to greet God, who is waiting there to fill one with His grace.

One may draw an analogy of this personal judgement and say that it is much like the final scene from the 1997 James Cameron classic Titanic where Rose reentered the sunken liner. As she moved down the walkway the years of filth that encrusted the ship began to fall off, to be replaced by light. The closer she came to the grand staircase the greater the light. There waiting for her at the top of the stairs were not only her lover, Jack Dawson, but also all the good people she met while on her voyage.

A similar precept prevails in one’s personal judgement. Upon entering heaven, one will lose all the years of sin and materialism that have encrusted one’s soul. This filth will be replaced by the light of God. Upon entering the center of one’s soul, one will find that not only is our Lord — one’s “lover” and the Captain of one’s soul — waiting there for one, but also every good deed and act of love performed by one while alive on earth are also there waiting for one to arrive.

This analogy should come as no surprise. For earlier one learned that God speaks to one through many different media. Although such communiques are not equal to an official communication from our Lord, one can, with humility, learn of God’s world through them. One need only exercise caution and humility in attempting to understand God’s word and then wait for His helping hand.

A proud and conceited person, a secular minded person or a hateful individual will believe that he or she is receiving some great esoteric wisdom from our Lord though such unofficial communiques. But such is just not true. A true child of God will exercise humility and perceive his or her own sins and shortcomings through them. A true child of God will use such unofficial communiques to peaceably help him or her self and his or her neighbor come closer to our Lord.

Who or what is God? God is one’s own conscience. For those individuals with mortal sin on their soul, they have no conscience. Their souls are dead in sin. Hence, their souls exist in complete misery. If they do not repent of their sin, they will die in the second death.

The secular minded have their consciences filled with their materialism and their love of this world, which injures their soul. Their souls have life but it is a handicapped existence. Hence, they will suffer loss when they enter our Lord’s kingdom.

However, those who have perfected their love of God and man have their consciences filled with the full grace of God. They have no fears and they are the ones who help our Lord guide the other children of God into His world. They are the ones who are humble in the presence of our Lord.

One should note that humility is a much misunderstood virtue. Many individuals believe that humility is an unreasonable sense of inferiority or a lack of self appreciation. But such is just not true. Others believe that humility is a mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

But humility is more than that. Humility is an honest facing of the facts, admitting them and then acting upon them. The humble person lives free of all pretense and self deception about him or her self and about those around him or her. This honesty with facts helps one to think clearly and act fairly in their daily relations with others.

All things and all people, not just some things or some people, are in one’s life for our Lord’s good reasons. In one way or another, they are meant to help one earn the unending happiness and glory of heaven. A truly humble child of God would let God do with him or her as He pleased. (Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word, Lk.1:38.) For he or she knows that the only worthy offering to our Lord is a humble and contrite heart (Ps.50:19).

One’s offering to our Lord will be pure only after he or she is ready to accept whatever God cares to send to him or her, be it pleasant or unpleasant, great or small. God wants one to gain the prefect and unending joy of heaven. For this reason at times He places one in a spiritual desiccation, deprivation and confusion. Then again He lets one enjoy the light of His ecstasy, delirium and joy. One day God will console His child and the next day one may find life harsh, sorrowful and without purpose.

Thus, a humble person counts as nothing all the accomplishments, glories and satisfactions, of his or her mundane life. A humble child of God sees our Lord as their first and greatest good. He or she sees our Lord guiding and directing their life toward perfect union with Him in heaven.

A true child of God looks forward to those times when he or she can increase his or her faith, hope and love of God and man. For he or she knows that it does not matter whether one is rich or poor, famous or unknown, powerful or powerless, beautiful or banal all are the same in God’s eyes; who judges what is in a person’s heart and what is in a person’s thoughts, not what a person appears to be. This is an honest facing of facts, which is the beginning of humility.

Alpha Omega

I Am He