A biblical commentator once wrote, “Without Einstein we would not have an understanding of our world. Without God, we would not have a world.” Most of us would agree on the Einstein part of this statement but many of us would disagree on the God part. How then can we argue the case for God if He isn’t willing to be a witness in His own defense?
The premise of monotheism and faith is that God is omnipotent, all powerful of infinite intelligence; omniscient or all knowing; and omnipresent as He was, He is and He will be and He is therefore not subject to time or space. God Himself tells us through the prophet Isaiah, “As the heavens are higher than earth, My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts are higher than your thoughts.” How much higher? Man is limited in that he can on his own only achieve the possible, but God is limitless as He accomplishes the impossible.
Einstein is also attributed to saying, “We cannot find the solution to a problem at the level at which the problem was created.” The human brain is powerless to understand God’s Essence, which may not be fair since the human brain is all we have. We don’t believe what we can’t see or can’t experience, and therefore the human intellect can prevent us from believing in God or cheers us on to uncertainty and disbelief and perhaps to even become anti-God.
-2-
Creation according to ancient Jewish scholars began with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden 5,770 years ago while Evolution started 3.8 billion years ago when the first microorganisms mysteriously appeared on earth. In man’s limited view, therefore, Creation and Evolution are different. However, if we could accept God as the master scientist and see through God’s “eyes”, then the Seven Days of Creation and the billions of years of Evolution are the same, mirror images of each other. The human brain normally seeks to differentiate time. God is not bound by time and sees these very different time periods as the same.
God’s miracles cannot be explained by science. He uses His infinite wisdom to stimulate man’s intellectual interpretations in life. We could easily solve our unemployment problems if God were at the helm, since He has created a plethora of occupations here on earth by creating a dynamic diverse world. He gave us emotions and a brain that fantastically allows us to fantasize. He gave us the gift of free will and we can doubt even God the giver.
After the Flood some 4,213 years ago (according to Josephus the Jewish biblical historian), God tells Noah that He never again will destroy all of humanity because man is evil in the imagery of his heart from his youth. To clarify, the Flood takes place in the then civilized world as humans outside this geography of the Middle East have long evolved and lived as species of Darwin’s evolution. With the miraculous Creation of Adam and Eve 5,770 years ago, God begins geographical civilization just as He jumpstarts evolutionary civilization 3.8 billion years ago and the universe approximately 14 billion years ago. It wasn’t until some 900
-3-
years after the Flood that God begins spiritual civilization, and the hopes of any possibility of any civilization, with the giving of the Ten Commandments to the ancient Israelites at Mount Sinai.
The Ten Commandments level the playing field of good and bad in bringing good into balance with the evil imagery in man’s heart. The Garden of Eden is looked upon in Christianity as the Original Sin of Adam and Eve. The sin is of such magnitude that Christians cannot atone for their sins. Only Jesus can do this through his dying on the Cross and his ultimate resurrection as the Messiah. Orthodox Judaism too believes in the Original Sin although Jews believe that sin can be defeated in one’s lifetime or at least kept at bay. All may be a metaphor, but the beliefs of both Christians and Jews lay the blame for sin at the doorstep of imperfect humankind because God is good, perfect, and free of sin.
What if we accepted a third possibility where God can still be good, perfect and free of sin? What if God used an evil serpent, Satan, to entice Eve to commit the sin of eating fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil? What if the Garden of Eden not only represents the gift or the curse of Free Will, but also the creation of imperfection? Does God have a duplicitous role or has God always sought not to be a puppeteer but a partner with humans in the covenant enterprise? What would be God’s purpose? Could it be to create a more perfect union?
-4-
It does make sense to create imperfect beings to give them the opportunity in their lifetimes to become less imperfect and strive through good moral choices and decisions in life to be better persons. However, what’s the angle? The reward is God’s fail-safe plan for humanity whereby we live again in a second Garden of Eden, the Messianic Age at the End of Days. It’s an age of hope, not despair or Armageddon, where spiritual life begins for all of civilization including for resurrection of the dead.
There is one more lesson to be learned from the first Garden of Eden. God made Adam and Eve accountable for their sin. They were commanded to leave the Garden of Eden, an act which symbolized human struggle. It is promised that with the coming of a Third Temple on earth and a Messiah to lead God’s charge, redemption of a second Garden of Eden will be eternal because God will purify our hearts and instill in us a new spirit without the evil inclination.
If you were judging yourself and taking accountability for your moral choices in life, do you think you would be accepted into the Messianic Age? Have you been a good and righteous person? What if God were the scorekeeper?
Through the words of the prophet Jeremiah, we read, “I am God who examines the heart and inspects the recesses of the mind.” Whether you believe in God or not, what’s in your heart will determine whether you enter bliss or not. Religion will not save you unless it’s part of your spiritual goodness. A religious person
-5-
may well be self-righteous and not righteous. Isaiah’s words accurately describe God’s feelings, “These people draw near to Me with their mouth. They honor Me with their lips but their heart is far from Me.”
Is it worth it to improve your character? Only you can answer that. The Messianic Age will be a time of peace and harmony, a time of healing of diseases, a time of abundance of food, shelter and clothing, and yes even a time of useful employment and contribution to society. Most important, life will be so long that it will seem like an eternity. Will you be there?
May the Shechinah (Divine Presence) be with you.
Leave a Reply