Kingdom Come

I work with dementia patients, many of whom required being in a locked environment for their own safety. They are firmly convinced that that know how to get home, but will only wander if let out of the building.

Once we accept that science cannot investigate what happens after death, we are left with two options:

1. remain in ignorance of how to find our way to a forever home while blindly hoping for the best,
2. or make a plan based on information provided by someone who has gone there and back and can give us directions.

Ancient legends, the biblical account, and physics all agree. Once created as a pattern of electrical energy by the brain, the unique individual defined by his/her soul is fixed, cannot be destroyed and therefore exists forever.

But many people simply refuse to believe in existence after death. Most especially the idea of judgment for how one’s life was lived while in the body.

On what do you base your belief? Identifying with the cool kids who wouldn’t have anything to do with you if they even knew you?

Whatever abates your anxiety? Defense mechanisms are notorious for worsening, not solving, problems.

The current popularity of the zombie genre is actually tied directly to the belief that there is no resurrection of the dead to new life with an intact soul.

I’m going to…tell you exactly why people like zombie movies. The ugly truth no one wants to admit. The fascination is not because of the zombies themselves, they are merely the catalyst; the real fascination is with surviving a zombie apocalypse.

Being a survivor, playing the odds, making your own rules…The zombie apocalypse scenario changes all the rules for the people who must live on afterwards. And compared to other apocalypses that could happen, it remains the most appealing…

The other apocalypse scenarios basically all involve deities presiding over the fate of mankind. So it’s important to be good now so that you’ll be okay on Judgement Day. It’s all out of your hands…

The zombie apocalypse is the only end of the world scenario with real appeal, because it’s all up to you.

No rules. Back to the serpent’s first lie.

The opposite of belief in God’s revelation of his power and desire to bless us is not science. It is schizophrenia – AKA insanity by laymen – demonstrably inaccurate conviction in one’s own perception of reality, which bottoms out to utter arrogant rebellion against all authoritative explanations of reality in both spiritual and physical domains.

Nothing is more vital to life, freedom, preventing pain and tragedy than truth and following it... Dr. Sean Illing from Yale said that the best way to enslave people is by smashing truth and this is what totalitarians have always tried to do…

Throughout history…many cultures have said that truth describes reality accurately. This means truth can have many aspects, rational, scientific, personal, relational, emotional, supernatural, material, objective, subjective…Some of the most respected scholars who specialize in figuring out how to identify truth fairly, say that there are 3 effective ways to find truth… [Emphases below added.]

CORRESPONDENCE TRUTH
Correspondence truth tries to gather evidence from people’s experiences so we can understand reality accurately…
1) Correspondence truth treats all experiences from everyone as evidence (assuming innocence unless lying or some other deception is proven)…
2) Correspondence truth treats all observations in scientific experiments as evidence (assuming innocence unless lying, corruption due to greed/pride, mistakes in setting up experiments is proven)… 

COHERENCE TRUTH
3) True claims have the best track record of accuracy in describing reality over time.
4) True claims have clear (or the best) cause and effect mechanisms.
5) True claims makes predictions that are confirmed by observations.
6) True claims explain and harmonize all evidence from all categories best. This often is called a theory, like the theory of relativity or germ theory.

WHY DOES THIS MATTER? Sometimes we can’t see whether something is true with our eyes directly, or an issue covers long periods of time or covers many types of evidence and truth is not simple to figure. In these cases, we often use coherence truth methods like the above to help us make the best choices.

PRAGMATIC TRUTH
7) Pragmatic truth uses information gathered from correspondence and coherence truth to help people make choices that brings the best quality and quantity of life at all levels of society, from individual to community to nation and worldwide, as well as nature… 

The goal of all science that relates to humans is also supposed to be to do good to all levels of society.  But because humans do science, it can be very fallible at times for various reasons:

A) CORRUPTION: Harvard mathemetician Samuel Arbesman and others have found that up to 50% of “facts” in academia are found to be partly/wholly wrong within 50 years…This is partly because greed and bribery (often from corporations) can corrupt scientists just as they do anything else.

B) FALLACIES: False ways of reasoning like the a priori fallacy of materialistic methodological naturalism (which denies that any evidence can point to God) or theistic presuppositional apologetics (which denies that any evidence can point away from God or away from one’s denominational beliefs) can also pervert and end a genuine search for truth…

The universal experience of death as much as the complexity of life is a reality that should direct our attention to the reliable and validated message provided to humanity since the beginning of history that there is a Creator and sustainer of life who gives humanity hope for a blessed eternal life. Not a pointless existence now nor an undesirable immortality of the soul ranging from a boring to an excruciating endlessness.

And that blessed hope is not immortality of the soul.

It is transformation of the soul – the essence of the being – and its physical casing.

Religious belief or scientific fact?

Look all around at nature. 

“a corn / grain of wheat fall into the ground and die…[then] it bringeth forth much fruit / comes back to life impressively transformed with increased life.” (John 12:24)

The most scientific generation in known history, the one that grew up when computers were already a routine MO of life, should instinctively understand how intangible “memory” can be created in a physical machine then “stored” in a “coud” to be retrieved intact at a later date, location, and in a new “casing”. And that only by discarding the old are improvements obtained through “upgrades” in both hardware and software.

The regeneration of body and soul from death to new life is clearly seen in our current life condition, providing a basis for believing in the replacement of the entirely dead body with an entirely new body.

• The addition of brand new specific cells organized in the exact pattern required are evident in the growth process of children’s bodies,
• The development of new muscle tissue and physical skills of athletes are evident of replacement of degenerated body and creation of new soul.
• The daily replacement and regeneration of worn-out cells and damaged tissues of all bodies is evidence of a common experience.

Additionally, our essential personhood, our souls, are shaped by the choices we make and the actions we take throughout life. We can change – convert – from one condition to another, throughout life, until this stage of existence ends at physical death. 

But is it only death, through the fundamental condition of change inherent to mortality, that allows transformation to a new and improved quality of life.

Religious belief or psychological fact?

This is achieved through dying in an abstract sense to the body’s unhealthy appetites to divest ourselves of destructive forces / sin, accomplished by overriding our inner program of commands and memories that define our existing sin-sick soul with an upgrade of healthy commands and programs of interaction with each other and with God.

This also occurs in a very material sense, as some neuronal connections in the brain literally die while new neuronal connections are created as the soul thinks through, deliberates, makes choices, and motivates new actions of the body and emotions in social interactions.

Is it not logical that belief in a higher power – a function of the soul – drives the soul’s identification with and transformation into that higher power?

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that

• Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
• And that he was buried,
• and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
• And that he was seen of / witnessed by
  • Cephas / Peter,
  • then of the twelve:
  • After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once…
  • And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.” (I Corinthians 15:1-8)

Religious belief or historical fact?

former atheist and homicide detective J. Warner Wallace has recently released a book and training curriculum called Forensic Faithwhich helps people learn how police verify truth and then shows how by those same standards, Jesus resurrection is proven way beyond any reasonable doubt.

Belief in Jesus’ resurrection is extremely important, not just for eternal life, but for this world. Confidence in the resurrection of Jesus is actually one of the most important facts for human life and the stability and peace of nations. This is because as history shows, if this life is all a person thinks they have, then they often think they had better get every experience they possible can out of it without much if any regard for morality…

A person without confidence in eternal life believes they have only one short life to live and so has a powerful motivation to get all the money, all the power, all the sex, all the fame, all the fun, etc. by any means necessary whether it is moral or not, since death is the complete end and everything they want to experience in life must happen before that time.  For a person who believes in eternal life and knows that one of the most valuable things in this life (gold) is considered just pavement in the next, is far more willing to reorder his priorities and sacrifice for others.

Rejection of belief in God and eternal life often leads to enormous amounts of greed and inequality which are the main cause and factor for nearly all evils in the world, according to both the Bible and a vast amount of science. Confidence in Jesus’ resurrection gives a person solid confidence that they can have eternal life. Because that is far more valuable than anything earthly life can give,  it inspires people to work and live for justice, equality and the good of all mankind more than anything else in history.

A method commonly used today to determine the historicity of an event…begin with the evidence available to us and then infer what would, if true, provide the best explanation of that evidence.” In other words, we ought to accept an event as historical if it gives the best explanation for the evidence surrounding it.

When we look at the evidence…there is solid historical grounds for the truth that Jesus Christ rose from the dead…

we do not need to assume that the New Testament is inspired by God or even trustworthy…these three truths are so strong that they are accepted by serious historians of all stripes.

1. The tomb in which Jesus was buried was discovered empty by a group of women on the Sunday following the crucifixion.
2. Jesus’ disciples had real experiences with one whom they believed was the risen Christ.
3. As a result of the preaching of these disciples, which had the resurrection at its center, the Christian church was established and grew.

the resurrection of Christ is the best explanation for each of them individually. But…when these facts are taken together we have an even more powerful case for the resurrection.

“And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” (I Corinthians 15:17-20)

“I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death…whosoever was not found written in the book of life / connection to the Singularity source of life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:12-15)

Religious belief or physics fact?

This corrupt and decaying world system is doomed. Even Cosmology concedes this much

From a physics perspective, if you define the arrow of time to be the direction of increasing entropy, once you reach the heat death, the arrow of time ceases to exist. 

This “heat death” of the physical universe matches what is described in the Bible as the lake of fire, which can be understood abstractly as a proscribed area in which the immutable laws of nature control the destiny of the individuals who chose to remain disconnected from the Singularity. 

One’s acceptance or rejection of their available evidence for a Supreme Creator God, Singular Source of Life, whether through exposure to documentation of his power over life through this singular resurrection, or through exposure to the evidence of his work in creation realizable by the most uncivilized aborigine, is what is documented for all eternity as one’s estate with God.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” (Romans 1:18-22)