- The Biblical Teacher who is Jesus, around whose name Constantine built the Christian religion that is now dying, is a genuine historical figure with extraordinary first-hand knowledge. And as we showed in #2 of this series, Jesus did in fact rise from the dead.
- Abundant afterlife research, when combined with recent scientific evidence, has led us to discover that this material reality, no matter how solid it seems, actually is not solid at all. And it is part of a much greater reality which is both infinite and tiny in size. As we ever more deeply study that greater reality, we realize that not only are we eternal by our very natures, but neither size nor time is a relevant characteristic of the greater reality itself.
So this is a pivotal moment toward which human history has all along been moving. We are transitioning from the end of what we might call the material phase of human existence, and toward the non-material and spiritual phase. We will no longer be the mere successors to primitive creatures who once lived in caves and fought one another for our mere survival. We are at last beginning to realize that we are in fact fundamentally spiritual beings. Our transition from being at some evolutionary end-point, red in tooth and claw, to living as an integral part of what is a deeply love-based reality will not be immediate. But if we will follow Jesus as He leads us in this first stage of our transition, we can begin to envision for humankind a much brighter future.
The question of whether there must be an Uncaused Cause is settled. Not even the most closed-minded scientist disputes the fact that the universe exists, so something must have caused it! But scientists refuse to take seriously what seems to be the next big question. When pressed to identify the universe’s Uncaused Cause, their answers generally boil down to “Nobody really knows and shut up.” Or, as the brilliant Rupert Sheldrake sums up the scientific attitude, “Just give us one free miracle and we’ll explain the rest.” But something brought the universe into being! And for the first time, we are coming close to discovering what that Something is.
The pioneering father of quantum physics, Max Planck, said in 1931, “I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness! Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.” And Jesus said two thousand years ago, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth” (JN 4:24). Mainstream science itself tells us that everything in this universe, ourselves included, is 99.9999999% empty space. Put all of this together, and what does it actually tell us about the next and very much improved stage of human existence? We will begin to answer that tantalizing question next week.