Today’s post is a real stretch for me. I am trying to understand a realm that, intellectually, is outside of my grasp. This is the spiritual realm. Imagine a blind water snake trying to understand a blue sky.
We are confined in a spatial and temporal world. Our world is governed by the laws of science. Every year we learn and understand more. But, there are limits to our reach. We cannot change the past. We cannot forsee the future. We cannot even see the distant reaches of the universe. We cannot conceive anything beyond our spatial/temporal world. We never will. We are all blind water snakes.
What follows is one blind water snake trying to explain a blue sky to another blind water snake.
So……here goes.
God is a spiritual intelligence operating in a spiritual world. He is not restrained by space and time. As such, God is and was and always will be. He is just as present in the past and in the future as he is in the now. God had no beginning. God will have no end. God is constant based on our limited understanding of time. But, God is also constant in his nature…….his character. God’s character is defined by love, justice, mercy, and his desire for relationship. Our relationship with God is based on his absolute sovereignty. What we are supposed to become is dictated by his sovereignty. What God wants more than anything else is for us to be with him……..not as equals……but in a sovereign, parent/child relationship. God operates both in his spiritual realm and our spatial/temporal realm. There is probably much more to God. But, this is what we have been told. This is the limit of our understanding of God. We will probably someday know more. But, I do not believe that we will ever fully understand God.
Satan is a created intelligence. He had a beginning and he will have an end. He, too, is constrained by God’s sovereignty. Satan has a degree of sovereignty; but, his sovereignty is delegated by God and restricted by God. Satan has freedom to operate across space and time. But, this too is restricted by God. Satan’s character is far less constant than God’s. It changes with his appetites. Because of this, it is harder to pin down. Satan’s character is defined by jealousy, vengeance, anger, frustration, and the desire for power. In a word, Satan wants to be in charge. Satan, more than anything else, wants to be God. He knows that this cannot be and he takes his frustration out on mankind.
And then, there is man. Like Satan, we are created beings. We, too, are restricted. We are tightly hemmed in by space and time. We each have a beginning, birth. Our end is far more complicated. Our physical being is limited to the spatial/temporal world that we know. Spatially, we are limited to a tiny blue planet, one of trillions, so far. Temporally, we have about 80 years to work with. Given a potentially infinite cosmos and infinite time frame, our physical being is so tiny as to be almost inconsequential. That’s the bad news. The good news is that we are also spiritual beings. Our spiritual side is eternal. At our physical death, it will return to the spiritual realm. But, what about our character? Our character is all over the place. We have free will. This was not given to us by God. It was taken……stolen…..by man. Free will has a profound effect on our character and on our relationship with God…….and with Satan, for that matter.
With free will, our character can be anything that we want it to be. Ultimately, each of us chooses our own character. We choose, either by considered thought, or by happenstance. In practice, how we choose our character is governed by either God’s sovereignty or by our own appetites.
God’s appetites/sovereignty vs. Our appetites/sovereignty.
Enter the problem……..of distance.
From a spiritual perspective, God is constant. Satan, man, and everything else change from minute to minute. God is the center of the spiritual universe. Satan is the periphery. Satan extends as far from God as is possible. This is his “happy place”. But he also has a presence closer to God. This is the spiritual realm of man. Both Satan and God operate in the spiritual realm of man. We see this every day. Both Satan and God desire man. We drift around in the spiritual “Grey zone” between God and Satan. We spend time close to God. We spend time close to Satan……..all of us.
The most defining feature of humanity is our distance from God in mankind’s part of the spiritual realm. Because Satan is all over the periphery, anything that increases our distance from God draws us closer to Satan. In our exercise of our free will we act. These acts will either increase or decrease our distance from God. This is the key to human life.
Why is this so important? This distance is the most important metric in our life for one reason.
When we die……..the distance becomes fixed……..for eternity. Wherever we are in our relationship with God when we die is where we will stay……forever. And forever…….is a long time.
I am not privy to the details. But, being close to my creator is where I am meant to be. This is the best place in the spiritual realm. It will be warm and sunny. It will be defined by love and joy.
The periphery, Satan’s realm, will be cold and dark. It will be defined by anger, hate, vengeance, jealousy, and pain. It will be defined by distance………from love…….from joy…….from God.
The sole object of human life is to daily draw closer to God so that when we die………our distance from God…….our distance from love…..our distance from joy…….is as short as is humanly possible.
All of the teaching of Christianity leads to that goal.