Holy Hormones Bible Study: If your book isn’t a buzz, it’s not the Bible.
THE BIBLE HAS BEEN HI-TECH ALL ALONG
If all you see is what you see, there’s more to see because you don’t see all there is to see.
TRIGGER WARNING: This is not a safe space for those who subscribe to the following quote.
We can say now with considerable confidence that the Bible is not a history of anyone’s past. The story of the chosen and rejected Israel that it presents is a philosophical metaphor of a mankind that has lost its way. The tradition itself is a discourse about recognizing that way. In our historicizing of this tradition, we have lost sight of the Bible’s intellectual centre, as well as of our own.
— Thomas L. Thompson, The Mythic Past, p. xvi.
Introduction
The organising principle guiding this post has been 1 Corinthians 2:13–14 || These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
If this article doesn’t show the difference between the Interested, Disinterested and the Devoted it will have failed.
Contrary to the thoughts of many, God knows quite a bit about science.
Yehovah used light to teach Einstein, a Jew, about Time. The message He gave Albert was, “By the way, Time means nothing to me.”
THE LIGHT IN GENESIS 1:3 IS THE SAME LIGHT IN REVELATION 22:5.
What?!
It is written:-
Genesis 1:3 || Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
This was on Day 1 of Creation. The sun and stars had to wait till Day 4. What was this light without sun?
The Holy Spirit reveals the answer in Revelation 22:5 || There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God (Yehovah Elohim) gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.
And He keeps dropping reminders through the text.
John 8:12 || Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
But isn’t the light in Genesis 1:3 created?
Didn’t Elohim say, “Let there be …,” as He did in bringing all Creation into being?
What He said will be closely examined shortly but first some simple deduction is necessary.
- The sun was created on Day 4 making it created (natural) light. Genesis 1:14–19.
- The light mentioned in Revelation 22:5 is Yehovah Elohim, the Preexisting One, The uncaused Creator. It is specified that there is no need for the sun.
- Elohim was present to utter Genesis 1:3. He was present to utter John 8:12. The Light has always been there.
- God is a Spirit (John 4:24). Having no mass He is not subjected to time. He is beyond the horizon — beyond our perception. He is the same Today, Yesterday, Tomorrow. His Name is El Olam, Everlasting God — God over eternal things. So His Light is not natural. This is Algebra 101, “You must compare apples to apples.”
Jesus says in John 6:63║It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
If it is not now clear that the Spiritual Light has never…not…been…there (the scream from the English teachers can be heard from around the Globe), I give up.
It is not unreasonable, therefore, to deduce that there is natural light and there is Spiritual LIGHT — low beam and HIGH BEAM, as it were.
If it has to be explained that LIGHT (HIGH BEAM) is operating on a higher plane than light (low beam), nothing I say will make any sense to you.
Exactly what did Elohim say in Genesis 1:3?
Genesis 1:3 Hebrew background from Jewish site, Chabad.org, the text is translated in English,
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
[3=ג] וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים יְהִי־אוֹר וַיְהִי־אוֹר׃
The Light (אוֹר) has been identified as the Messiah. It is the two verbs of existence (יְהִי) that are of interest.
יְהִי is one of a number of inflections of the root word H1961 — hāyâ הָיָה . The importance of which will soon become evident when discussing Exodus 3:14.
AN ASIDE: Even though Hebrew is the Mother Tongue of Judaism they, generally, do not yet have the key of Revelation 22:5 they cannot translate Genesis 1:3 as well as NT Saints. But, in Romans 9 → 11, Apostle Paul reveals that day will come.
ALSO: Do not be confused by the dots-&-dashes under and over the Hebrew characters. Described in the simplest manner, they depend on context and affect pronunciation so as to sharpen the meaning. The root word always carries the same basic substance.
The effect of different illumination sources.
° Shining the low beam light on the Burning Bush.
Exodus 3:14 || And God said to Moses, “I am that I am.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”
What, on earth, does that mean?
° Illuminating now with LIGHT.
Exodus 3:14 || And God said to Moses, “I AM (H1961) that I AM (H1961).” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM (H1961) has sent me to you.’ ”
H1961 — hāyâ הָיָה (Inflexion אֶֽ .אֶֽהְיֶה is silent.) = I AM, the verb of existence, the verb of being.
Speech: Verb — action → → It took me years to notice that God doesn’t consider Himself as a noun but an action. ← ←
Person: First Person — God is doing the action
Stem: Qal — true simple statement
Type: Imperfect — an action which is continuous, incomplete, or open-ended. Rather than depicting an action as a single event, the imperfect depicts it as a continuing process. Equivalent to present tense in Greek.
What is God doing continuously? EXISTING.
There is no noun or personal pronoun specifically included in the Hebrew text, here. There are two verbs connected by a relative particle (look up “relative particle” if you need to be convinced). This is a tough ask to say in English.
At the Burning Bush, God identifies Himself as,
“Has Existed Existing continue to Exist”
It made my brain hurt. See if you can do better.
Hāyâ, H1961 הָיָה = I AM.
Yehovah, H3069 יְהֹוָה = HE IS.
So Moses speaks to the One Who is the God of both the Old and New Testaments — YHVH ↔ Emanuel. In case that slipped by — Jesus is Yehovah. This is discussed in the series, “Jesus is cute but Jehovah’s a brute.”
A sad fact of life.
Those whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame — who set their mind on earthly things (Philippians 3:19), have only one illumination source available; low beam natural light.
Even the best of them may be able to see the notes on the page but they can’t hear the melody.
The Saints, however, have a choice of two; LIGHT and light; HIGH BEAM and low beam.
A QUICK COMPARISON BETWEEN ENGLISH AND HEBREW BEFORE EXAMINING GENESIS 1:3.
Genesis 1:3 illuminated by light.
Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
This causes (some) seminary graduates to suffer cognitive dissonance when trying to hold Genesis 1:3 and Genesis 1:14–19 in tension. When considering only English that pain is easy to understand. (I can’t speak for other languages.)
Even knowing about the intricacies of redundancy only gets so far on low beam. Deleting the redundant words to make it flow better in English, Genesis 1:3 || Then God said, “Let light be (H1961)”; and light was (H1961). But that is just linguistic gymnastics and doesn’t help at all.
Genesis 1:3 illuminated by LIGHT
The translation is near-enough the same using the HIGH BEAM but NT Saints have an advantage — Revelation 22:5 gives us the Identity of the LIGHT. And we know that Emanuel Is-Was-Will Always Be, so was not created.
Far be it from me to try and put words in God’s Mouth but it seems that a reasonable person could interpret the translation to be along the lines, Then God said, “LIGHT IS, LIGHT WAS.” Indicating that Elohim was emphasising that He is everlasting.
GOD DECLARES HIS GLORY IN THE OPENING STANZAS OF THE CREATION POEM.
God declares His Glory in the opening stanzas of the Creation Poem.
• In the first, He declares His Abilities.
• In the third He tells where He has been to we who are trapped in Time.
This eliminates the argument that Jesus was created. Also the question of, “Who created God?” Such a nonsense question.
Hermeneutics (the theories of interpretation)
(You are possibly aware of Christian Hermeneutics but the theme of this series is Hebrew so that’s where we’ll stay.)
The Hebrew approach views four levels of this:
1) Peshat, the literal, direct meaning;
2) Derash, the homiletical, or practical application;
3) Remez, a hint of something deeper; and
4) Sod (rhymes with road), the mystical or hidden meaning. (What is Spirit.)
The low beam light illuminates points 1) and 2). Even the most intellectual Free Thinker may possibly be able to see the notes on the page but they can’t hear the melody.
The HIGH BEAM LIGHT shines through to 3) and 4), as is written in Psalm 119:105║Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Science is just beginning to catch up
The late American Bible teacher, Chuck Missler, used the analogy of the hologram to describe the effect of the LIGHT of the Holy Spirit on the Holy Scriptures.
Figure 1 is a simple figure showing the principle of laser light being split and bounced around a target onto a photographic film. (Explanations about laser light abound on the internet.)
When the film is developed it looks as though the development process has been stuffed-up (a technical term in Australia which carries the message of absolute lack of success) because it has the appearance of fog blurring the target. . . . UNTIL . . . . a laser light of exactly the same frequency, or wave length, (or however one describes laser light,) is focused on the photograph. Then a 3-D image appears.
Figure 1: The principle.
It is the Holy Spirit who casts the initial LIGHT when the text is written. The image is very much blurred if natural light is used for the viewing. But NT Saints have been given the Mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16), which is expanded upon in THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS NOT IKEA. Our Gift of the Mind of Christ resonates with the LIGHT → sharpness, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Result of High Beam Illumination on Saint’s level of Bible understanding.
It takes some practice because the experience can be overwhelming — but it is well worth it.
Figure 3 shows an analogy of reading the Bible as being just one of many books. That is, foggy — not sharp. No amount of human intellectual wonderfulness will sharpen the image. In technical terms, the pixels cannot be sub-divided.
Figure 3: Reading the Bible in low beam light
Figure 4 shows what happens when the reader calls upon the Holy Spirit to illuminate the Word of God. It becomes sharp, alive and jumps off the page.
Figure 4: Reading the Word of God illuminated by the Holy Spirit. (HIGH BEAM LIGHT)
Some good advice.
It is written in Ecclesiastes 12:11–12║ The words of the wise are like goads, and the Law of YHVH is like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd. And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh.
Choose your Books carefully. It is written in Colossians 2:18║Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.
The advantages of illuminating your Bible by natural light?
None.
It is written in Ecclesiastes 1:14 || I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is empty and grasping for the wind.
Is it possible to be Righteous with the Scriptures illuminated only by light?
Yes.
It is written in 1 Corinthians 1:2 || To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
sanctified = set apart for God.
The congregation of the Church in Corinth gives hope to us all. They got a whole lot of things wrong but were still addressed by Apostle Paul as Saints.
Well, was the failure criteria mentioned at the start of this blog been met? Only you can decide.
If you have reached this point you may decide that the effort has not been worth it. It may be too mystical for your liking. Apostle John was a bit of a mystic so I’m not embarrassed about being a fool for Christ. For what it’s worth from me, I think that there should be more romance (i.e. love with a spark) and HIGH BEAM mysticism between Christ and His Bride.
If you disagree, the best action for you to take is find the evidence to show me to be in error. Don’t send it, though. Just use it to improve your Theology.
All Glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
(We all have a plank in our eye. It’s bigger than we think.)
