Obtaining a human understanding of God is difficult. At times it seems that a human can only reason about God through the use of analogies.
Many different analogies for God have been proposed to help explain God. Some of them are quite helpful while others are completely pointless.
The first analogy which comes to mind concerns a comparison of God to a human being. This is natural for Abrahamic religions as it states “God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Ge. 1:26).
The comparison of God with a man is a good analogy, but it lacks a proper explanation of Holy Trinity. It was proposed that the trinity is similar to a mentally disordered person having three personalities, but in my opinion this analogy is entirely pointless.
I propose a different analogy to describe God. God is similar to a civilization. To be sure, this is indeed a very deep analogy. In this analogy there is even a place for analogies of Christ, which is similar to a “contact” of a civilization that is to a less advanced civilization making contact with a more advanced one or to contact between parts of an advanced civilization and by comparing the Holy Spirit to the technology of a civilization. This is not to suggest we are able to come to a knowledge of the existence and properties of Christ and the Holy Spirit based solely on philosophical grounds without the help of the Bible; but nevertheless Christ and Holy Spirit (and therefore the Holy Trinity) have a natural place in this philosophy.
With this theology there is a good fit for mankind's purpose and position in the universe as being unlimitedly developed with God’s help.
As such, I consider a civilization to be the best known analogy for studying God.
Let us examine some similarities and differences between a civilization and God.
Note that when speaking about civilizations and outside contact, I will make not mention of aliens from outer space, because we are mostly interested in the common properties of civilizations and God, not in how a civilization may be split into parts. “For there is no partiality with God” (Rom. 2:11). This verse indicates that analyzing God through the use of an analogy of something split into parts may be not effective.
I am using the word universe to refer to the totality of physical reality. In other words, the universe consists of anything that physically exists. This would include galaxies, stars, atoms, electrons, everything. I refer not only to the visible part of universe which astronomers can see, but the entire universe including hidden dimensions. Astronomers have long debated the size of the universe. The leading theory in vogue is that the universe is finite. However, I believe the universe is infinite because (as I demonstrate below) an infinite Christ lives inside the universe.
Consider the ramifications of an infinite Universe. Within it various civilizations have reached different levels of development.
Because the Universe is infinite, it is natural to assume the existence of civilizations at all possible levels of development. Extending this reasoning, we may conclude that there exist civilizations of infinitely high level of development.
The natural question arises, does there exist several different civilizations at this infinite level of development or is there only one united civilization at the infinite level of development. If we call a civilization with this infinite level of development god, this question gets reformulated: whether there are several different gods or one god? (More exactly, an infinitely developed civilization in the Universe is a representation of God, not God Himself. I will consider this below.)
Well, what do we mean when we say “there exists just one civilization possessing an infinite level of development”? We could split a civilization into multiple parts and call them different civilizations. So the key to this question is not quantity but unity. By this I mean that the question of whether there is only one god should be reformulated: are all the entities with this infinite level of development united with each other? Do they share one common business? Are they in peace with each other? Some translators of the Bible prefer to say “God is united” instead of “There is one God.”
In other words, when we say “there is one god” what we really mean is that all infinitely developed civilizations coincide. What do I mean when I say coincide? This is a hard question and I am not able to offer a precise definition. If we consider it from the civilizational viewpoint, this would be a social relation and social relations are difficult to be defined exactly. I'm going to attempt to describe some of these properties. First, all gods are at peace with each other. If we had two infinitely developed civilizations at war with each other, this would mean there are two different gods. The second aspect of God’s unity is that He is personal. This means He has a united opinion and makes united decisions.
According to the doctrine of Holy Trinity God has not one, but three persons.
In several key aspects God differs from what we call a civilization. For example, a civilization has a definitive time and place where it first began. Rome supposedly began when Romulus killed his brother Remus and founded the city on the Palatine Hill. The civilization that formed the United States had its beginning with the American Revolution. However, God is eternal. Despite these differences I will compare God with a civilization throughout the rest of this chapter.
Thus I conclude that God is similar to a highly developed civilization, yet He is highly united, personal, eternal, and infinite.
So I submit to you the following:
Postulate: The Universe is infinite.
Postulate: God exists.
Postulate: God is one or united.
Postulate: God is personal.
If God is a civilization then Christ is its contact.
Christ is electromagnetic energy
Civilizations primarily engage in communication through the use of electromagnetic waves such as radio or television signals.
Since Christ is the mediator between God and man, it is natural to think of Christ as being similar to electromagnetic waves.
In fact, the Bible teaches that Christ is all of the electromagnetic waves throughout the Universe.
“… Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world…;” (Jn. 8:12)
“While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (Jn. 9:5)
“I have come as a light into the world…” (Jn. 12:46)
Waves in the electromagnetic spectrum are a picture of both Christ's incarnation in the Universe (Jn. 9:5; Jn. 12:46) as well as a full description of Christ (Jn. 8:12).
I understand this as meaning that electromagnetic waves of the Universe are a complete characterization of Christ. But note that Christ reaches outside of the Universe. He is only electromagnetic energy or something like it while He is in the world (Universe).
A curious reader may doubt my interpretation of Matthew 5:14, “You are the light of the world,” and Ephesians 5:8 “For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord…” Are the ones Jesus is speaking to in these passages also electromagnetic waves of the Universe? Indeed they are.
“… made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:6)
The word “sit” is in the Aorist tense (a Greek grammatical form) that is in perfect past time. This means we are already in the heavens. This may seem counter-intuitive because we do not feel like we are in the heavens. I conclude that we currently exist in the heavens as electromagnetic waves. It can be said that we, as one body, form Christ (thus Christ may be considered as an organization or a collective). But Christ is Christ only without partiality. We are part of the universe’s electromagnetic waves with partiality because every one of us is a part of the electromagnetic waves of the heavens.
How can we, being people, also be electromagnetic waves in the heaven? I understand this as being the existence of one-to-one correspondence between the structure of the electromagnetic waves in the heavens and us living on earth. I think the same applies to Christ's human nature. In the body of a man, Jesus mapped the structure of the light of the Universe. It is hard to believe and may seem absurd, but this what the Gospel requires us to believe. I continue to wonder what may be the reason for this one-to-one correspondence.
With Christ being the electromagnetic waves of the universe it then logically follows that the universe must be infinite because Christ is infinite. Thus the universe contains more than just the visible portion which is known to be finite.
Christ is also called logos (word) in the Bible because He is the Word of God (in the form of electromagnetic waves).
Postulate: The knowledge of a highly developed civilization will more than likely be in the form of the electromagnetic waves.
In other words, Christ is God’s wisdom.
“Christ is … the wisdom of God.” (1Cor. 1:24)
This means just two simple things:
- The word of God is wise.
- God has imparted all His wisdom in His word;
that is Christ is the entirety of the wisdom of God, not just parts (that exist in various forms and locations) of full wisdom. That Christ is the full content of God is also declared in the following verses.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made.” (Jn. 1:1-3)
“He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him.” (Jn. 1:10)
“… who created all things through Jesus Christ.” (Eph. 3:9)
Because God is infinitely developed, His wisdom (knowledge) not only contains all truths, it is nothing but truth and contains no error. In other words, Christ is the logical truth. When Jesus speaks on a subject, it is the final word on it. He never has to go back and make corrections when “new evidence comes to light.”
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’” (Jn. 14:6)
“… Your word is truth.” (Jn. 17:17)
I mentioned above that an infinite developed civilization is God, but that is actually not quite so. In Christianity this infinitely developed civilization in the Universe is called Christ. I will argue below that Christ is God, but only conditionally.
Which possible forms can a civilization take? It may be a peace treaty union.
Existence of one God may be understood as being the same as having complete peace between its parts. I said earlier that we are not able to precisely define the unity of God; but it is conceivable that this unity is the same as “peace in all aspects.” The unity consists of the interchange of information (“contact”) that is Christ.
A central concept in the issue of inter-civilization and intra-civilizational relations is peace.
According to the Bible, Christ is peace. I think this is equivalent to saying that Christ is the unity of God.
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in the flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace; and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility thereby. He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” (Eph. 2:13-19)
This means that Christ is far more than just the peace union for the entire Universe; He is the peace with God.
Peace is great in the sense that there is no easy way to prevent war. The measures necessary to prevent war are great. Christ is the set of measures taken (on the heavens) to prevent war. To prevent war it is necessary something as great as Christ. Thus it can be said that Christ is the prevention of war or absence of war.
A paradoxical outcome of this attribute is that a seemingly little thing such as the absence of war needs to be as great as Christ.
It can be compared to reading a newspaper headline “Peace is established, war is abolished”. That would be a very great headline.
“He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered, ‘The Christ of God.” (Luk. 9:20)
This means that Christ is the contact of God, the means through which God communicates with Himself. Christ lives by the Father; and the Father also lives by Christ. Thus, Christ is essential for the Father's existence.
“Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? … Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me.” (Jn. 14:10-11)
(Alternatively translated “I exist by the Father, and the Father exists by me”). Also Jn. 17:21.
Peace and wisdom are related: Wisdom is internal peace. When neurons are in a state of peace with each other, our brain would be cleverer than any brain! The peace of God is above (that is, more clever than) any mind (“surpasses all understanding”)
“The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:7)
Note however:
“’Don’t think that I came to send peace on the earth. I didn’t come to send peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man at odds against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s foes will be those of his own household.’” (Mt 10:34-36)
Death and resurrection of Christ
What is the history of peace and war in the Universe?
With Christ being understood as the peace for the entire Universe, the death of Christ can be understood as the loss of peace and His resurrection as restoring peace once again.
According to Hebrews 7:37 Christ “died once for all.” This means that everyone has lost their peace (with God) until the return of Christ.
In other words, war has broken out throughout the entire Universe but afterward eternal peace comes.
“Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him!” (Rom. 6:9) That means that war will never return.
The question “Is Christ God” is similar to asking if the sequence of digits such as 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3… is a real number. A real number can be expressed by such a sequence and then we could say that it is a real number, but only conditionally, depending on what we mean by real numbers. (Real numbers can be defined not only as sequences of digits but also in several other ways. For example, splitting a set of rational numbers into two parts. All these ways are equivalent but different.) In like manner, Christ is conditionally God; that is, whether He is or He isn't God depends on what we mean by God.
I will sometimes use the analogy of Christ with a civilization, and sometimes the analogy of God with a civilization, depending on the context.
The Trinity is (obviously) also conditionally God. When it comes to the Trinity it is particularly clear that it is God only in a conditional sense, because clearly in general God is not a set consisting of three elements.
The scriptures plainly proclaim Christ to be God in multiple verses.
“… Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.” (Rom. 9:5)
“… one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him.” (1Cor. 8:6)
“Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him were all things created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible… He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.” (Col. 1:15-17)
“For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily.” (Col. 2:9)
“… his Son… through whom also he made the worlds” (Heb. 1:2)
“His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power…” (Heb. 1:3)
“And, ‘You, Lord, in the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish, but you continue. They all will grow old like a garment does. As a mantle you will roll them up, And they will be changed; But you are the same. Your years will not fail.’” (Heb. 1:10-12) “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Heb. 13:8)
“Who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider it robbery to be equal with God.” (Phil. 2:6)
Wouldn’t taking all power and becoming “like” God be robbing God of some His power? No, it isn't.
If God is a civilization then the Holy Spirit is its technology.
Suppose someone wanted to do something with an object inside of a closed vessel. We would have trouble doing this, but a higher civilization would have the ability to move individual atoms inside of it. A force of their technology would come inside and move the individual atoms. By doing so, the subject would behave like a gas.
The technology of God is called the Holy Spirit (the word “spirit” may mean a gas). This is the force which is able to enter the human body and move individual atoms to, among other things, cure disease.
It is believed by many Christians that every part of God's will is accomplished by a move of the Holy Spirit. Thus, the Holy Spirit is fully (conditionally) God.
Together with above description of Christ being conditionally God this forms the Holy Trinity consisting of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The function of the Holy Spirit is salvation; that is repairing things, especially those things which are inside closed vessels that cannot be opened. This is because all things are done by God and the only things left in need of repair are broken things. Things that are not inside of closed vessels can be repaired by outside entities without the direct help of God.
The divinity of the Holy Spirit is a natural outcome in the civilizational consideration. Just as in our modern civilization the technology of the advanced civilization contains the totality of its knowledge.
The Holy Spirit is an active and live force: He knows: “… Even so, no one knows the things of God, except God’s Spirit.” (1Cor. 2:11)
In this civilizational approach to describing God, the doctrine of Trinity does not look contradictory or paradoxical at all.
I define a person as something which speaks and hears. Different persons differ in what they say and hear.
For a civilization, we would not find it contradictory to have three distinct representative agencies. (An agency is a form of a person.) Yet all three would necessarily work in agreement with each other to properly represent the civilization. This is similar to how God having three persons is not a contradiction. Three persons of God act in complete agreement, so that God is not divided.
Note that because the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are different “agencies,” we may pray to each of them. We may also pray to God without specifying a particular person. However, Jesus said we are to pray to the Father.
Don't be tricked into thinking that I am suggesting the members of the Trinity differ only in what they speak and hear. There are other differences as well. For example, the Father is greater than the Son: “… the Father is greater than I” (Jn. 14:28).
A prayer may be addressed to any of the three agencies officially representing God. When somebody is praying and God hears it, it differs from simply God knowing (as He knows everything), in that God's hearing of the prayer is His official reception of the information.
When a son grows older he becomes similar to his father. This is a definition of the word son.
Christ is the Son of God. This means that Christ goes to the Father. That is, He becomes the same as His Father.
Well, indeed Christ does not move. He is like a river that moves and does not move at the same time. In the same way Christ goes to His Father, but Christ does not move. The following Bible fragment says that Christ does not change:
“And, ‘You, Lord, in the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish, but you continue. They all will grow old like a garment does. As a mantle you will roll them up, And they will be changed; But you are the same. Your years will not fail.’” (Heb. 1:10-12) We are children of God, this means that our natural course of development is to become like God (Jn. 1:12).
“But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in him.” (Jn. 1:12)
“Behold, how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it is not yet revealed what we will be. But we know that, when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is.” (1Jn. 3:1-2)
Christ also is called the son of man in Gospel. This means that Christ is the final product of the development of mankind.
This is very good news because it means that the development of mankind will never be stalled but will continue without limit.
Jesus is the final result of the development of mankind. In other words, Jesus is just a guest from the infinitely far future.
It is not mankind that caused Christ to exist, instead the infinite development of mankind was made possible only by the coming of Christ to earth 2,000 years ago.
Now consider Revelation 10:6 (modified translation) “… there will be no longer time.”
I think in this Bible verse the word time should be understood as an ordering of events in which preceding events can be the cause of following events but not vice versa. “No time” would mean that there is no longer an order to things, thus allowing subsequent events to affect those that come before it. In other words, unrestricted time travel is possible. I think there will be time in the sense that clocks and other physical objects dealing with time will continue to function. I think in this way, because physical objects continue to exist after Rev. 10:6 they would be unlikely to continue existing without time. Revelation 11:1 describes a temple with physical characteristics such as size; Rev. 11:13 describes an earthquake, etc. and even in Rev. 22, the last chapter of Apocalypse describes a river of water which cannot be without time as the river must flow.
A common scenario in science-fiction is members of a civilization returning back in time and changing its own development. I believe it is what Christ does with mankind.
For a loop in time this would be necessary to avoid contradictions such as the well-known paradox of somebody killing his own father before his birth by traveling in the past. I think God's commandments are intended to avoid such contradictions. For example, following the commandment “Don't kill” would make it impossible for a person to kill their father as in the mentioned paradox.
So after the second coming of Christ, we will take advantage of being part of this civilization of the highest possible development level without waiting an infinite amount of time for this. This is what “come of Christ” means.
It is worth mentioning that Islam has a very pessimistic attitude that “Allah is one and has no sons.” This would mean that no one is able to reach an infinite level of development and every development will become stalled at some stage. This agrees with the Muslim belief of a “materialistic” paradise filled with the pleasures of good foods and women, rather than the infinite development towards God offered by Bible.
“… Christ Jesus our hope.” (1Tim. 1:1)
I would instead translate this verse “… Christ Jesus our dream.”
What is a dream? It is the best we can imagine. So Christ Jesus is the best we can imagine.
This is twofold:
1. Christ is good and nothing we are able to imaging can be better than Him.
2. Our common imagination is good enough to attain Christ.
Also: “… we were saved in hope …” (Rom. 8:24) or “… we were saved in dream…” It means that our salvation consists of dreams, like a table consists of wood. It also means that our dream (the best we can hope for) is exactly what we will become when our salvation is fully accomplished. We will be exactly what we hope to be. What we dream here on Earth is laid up for us in the heavens: “because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens…” (Colossians 1:5)
It is natural to think future development will only continue in the highest civilization, and that all other development outside of it will eventually stall at some point.
In other words, the highest civilization is exactly the (eternal) development.
In the Gospel development is called life. So Christ is the eternal life: “… This is the true God, and eternal life.” (1Jn. 5:20)
“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life…’” (Jn. 11:25)
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life…’” (Jn. 14:6)
Every life is a part of Christ. Note that true life is always eternal because it is an inherent characteristic of life to continue.
All life is in Christ: “… no longer I that live, but Christ living in me…” (Gal. 2:20). This means that our characterization of being alive means that we are in Christ and Christ is our life.
“He who has the Son has the life. He who doesn’t have God’s Son doesn’t have the life.” (1Jn. 5:12)
Father is greater than Christ: “… the Father is greater than I.” (Jn. 14:28)
It can be understood this way: Christ is peace (see above), but “… God is love …” (1Jn. 4:8, 16). Love is more than just peace, because peace is nothing more than the absence of war but love is something greater. If we have love with somebody we also necessarily have peace with him, but the reverse is not always true. Consider the case of North and South Korea today. They have had peace since the armistice of 1953, yet one would be a fool to say that both sides love each other.
As God is love, all of the following applies to God:
“Love is patient and is kind; love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…” (1Cor. 13:4-8)
Note that while God being love results in kindness to those who are in Him, He is cruel towards outsiders (those who are not in the Peace), as they are His military opponents.
“See then the goodness and severity of God. Toward those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness; otherwise you also will be cut off.” (Rom. 11:22)
Despite their being one God, the desires of Christ are different than the desires of the Father:
“He went forward a little, fell on his face, and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not what I desire, but what you d