So true, Peter1, “So, everyone should vibrate the names of God on their “rosary”, on their “tasbhi”, on their “mala”, so that the dark atmosphere of the material realm becomes transformed into the light of the spiritual realm……”on earth, as it is in heaven.” Amen.” Peter1
From the Animal Sacrifice, the New Living Sacrifice is rebirth becoming new life immortality from Family Spirit incorruption resurrecting all out of the Bosom of Abraham becoming again for all through the flesh of The Christ becoming again in all One Holy Spirit Family One God in being.
Jesus objected to two main commercial activities in the temple courts: the selling of sacrificial animals and the practice of money changing.
Maria writes:
“Jesus addresses the lamb vendor: «Change this lamb for these
believers. It is not worthy of the altar, neither is it fair that you
should take advantage of two poor old people, only because they
are weak and unprotected. »
«And who are You? »
«A just man. »
«By Your way of speaking and Your companions’, I know You
are a Galilean. Can there be a just man in Galilee? »
«Do what I told you, and be a just man yourself. »
«Listen! Listen to the Galilean Who is defending His equals!
And He wants to teach us of the Temple! » The man laughs and
jeers, imitating the Galilean accent, which is more musical and
softer than the Judaean, at least I think so.
Many people go near them and other merchants and moneychangers take their companion’s side against Jesus.
Amongst the people present there are two or three ironical
rabbis. One of them asks: «Are You a doctor? », in such a way that
even Job would lose his temper.
«Yes, I am. »
«What do You teach? »
«This I teach: to make the House of God a house of prayer and
not a usury or a market place. That is what I teach. »
Jesus is formidable. He looks like the archangel posted on the
threshold of Eden. He has no flashing sword in His hand but the
beams from His eyes strike the impious mockers like lightning.
Jesus has nothing in His hands.”
«I am He Who is Mighty. I can do anything. Destroy this true
Temple and I will raise it to give praise to God. I am not upsetting the holiness of the House of God or of the ceremonies, but you are perturbing it, allowing His House to become the centre of usurers and merchants. My school is the school of God. The same
school that the whole of Israel had when the Eternal God spoke
to Moses." From Jesus to Maria Valtorta, I believe.
“So, everyone should vibrate the names of God on their “rosary”, on their “tasbhi”, on their “mala”, so that the dark atmosphere of the material realm becomes transformed into the light of the spiritual realm……”on earth, as it is in heaven.” Amen.” Peter1
Oh Peter, my goodness….you need to message me your information again, cause I would love to have conversations with you about Spirituality (or what I call Spirituality, even though technically I don’t really care for labels cause it’s just another form of division.).
In response to some of the things you said:
This has always bothered me. Why would you want to be a member of a business that literally twists and skews values that all huemans hold in their hearts dearly? Why would you even make a business out of something that’s supposed to be sacred? I’m sorry, but you’re not doing yourself much of a service if you have to rely on Priests or anything in your external world. Yes your external can tell you all sorts of things about yourself, including what you actually believe in and what inner work you need to do, but your external is really an illusion. And, most people don’t realize that it has to be this way. I’ve always said, the 3rd Dimension is built for learning. There are so many things a hueman can do on this Earth, I mean, even if you wanted to test something out Spiritually, you can. And you don’t even need Spiritual gifts to test it out (even though everyone is Spiritually gifted, most people’s gifts just lie dormant). You just have to think a little outside the box is all. But everything about this reality can be tested, and there’s a reason for that, cause once again God loves us and He loves us so much that He has given us some of his divinity to be able to figure this stuff out for ourselves. All of our souls came straight from God Himself, so if you wanted to know something about this reality, and you’re struggling with believing in something, you can tune into Source Frequency and get your answer. It’s really not that hard, but everyone is still under this trance that the things we talk about are “New Age” and that way of thinking is very “archaic” when honestly, these teachings have been around for a long time. The problem is huemanity has decided to do away with these teachings, so when someone like you or I come along, people just look at us like we’re from another planet (although, there is some truth in that believe it or not. I know my soul is alien, same as yours).
Is that really common knowledge? Cause most people I know like to eat meat….I guess it’s common knowledge to you and I but not for others.
Because Churches are businesses, and Churches are run like businesses. And most businesses value customers cause that’s where they get their money from. I’m not saying all businesses are terrible and that we shouldn’t have them, we NEED businesses for so many reasons, even small Mom and Pop stores are good. But if you’re gonna run religion like a business, you’re gonna treat it like a business. There’s a reason why Jesus flipped tables over in the Temple, because it’s a house of worship, not some place where you spend money to get the word of God. I think Jesus would even be against tithes…that’s a Church thing, that has nothing to do with salvation LOL. And not to mention all the corruption that comes with a business too, cause let’s be real here, every business is corrupted, some more than others, but that’s because we have very rich and powerful people who basically want to treat us like cattle, so they’ve basically infiltrated everything to keep us in line and be obedient. It’s sick, but this is the truth of the world we live in, and most people are in a trance and they think everything is ok, when everything is clearly not ok!
And people have become so desensitized that they keep going to Church. Sorry but by going to Church, whether you want to admit it or not, you are handing your hard-earned money over to people who sexually abuse little boys and sometimes girls (and in some cases traffic little boys, and sometimes girls) and you are only perpetuating this blatant crime that happens every single day. But nope, I’m gonna be a good little Catholic man or woman, and I’m going to continue giving my money to these people who should be in jail or in some correctional facility. Like….I’m sorry, and I think you’ll agree Peter, that most people either don’t really know the truth, or are so ignorant that they choose to ignore a blatant problem among the masses. It’s mindblowing some days, it really is.
Cause most people don’t want to do the digging to find the truth. And, in a sense I get it, because the truth is a very ugly thing. There’s nothing beautiful about this planet, other than the nice outdoors aesthetic, but the amount of ignorance that goes on is unreal. But again, the problem is, we were not raised to question anything. Look, the truth is not completely buried, really what it boils down to is we’ve become apathetic to where, even though something deep inside says that something is really off about this reality, most people will attribute that to a demon putting doubt in their minds, when really, it’s your spirit telling you that something isn’t right about this world. But most people will just go on with their lives as if nothing happened. And what they don’t realize is that, that’s their spirit telling them that something isn’t adding up. This is why you question everything, because after you question everything enough, you realize that literally at every moment of your life, your being manipulated in some way, shape, or form, and it always happens out of subtlety. Evil is actually very subtle. How do you think we got the LGBTQ+ people? It’s because LGBTQ+ people started out very subtley. Most people in like the 60’s or 70’s just didn’t really talk about it, but those people knew that there were people out there that were like that. And then all of a sudden LGBTQ+ communities started becoming popular, all because it started out very subtley. I’m telling you, evil is the fine print on a contract, and what happens with most people when they sign a contract? Very seldom do they read the fine print! Hence why we have all of this madness going on in our world today!
@StephenAndrew Is a mystic, hands down! And I’m glad to be one of his friends!
When Jesus said He’s the Son of God, He did not mean that he is the literal Son of God. He simply means He’s a Creation or an extension of God. That’s a poorly worded phrase in The Current Bible. We are all daughters and sons of God because we all come from God. It’s not like Jesus is this special hueman being that is the one and only literal Son of God, Jesus was trying to get people to realize that they have more power than those in authority. Jesus was trying to get people to wake up and get them to realize they’re being manipulated by these evil rich people who is trying to use the divinity that everyone is born with and use it towards their destructive ends. These 7 families knew how powerful hueman beings are, so they’ve done everything they can, and have infiltrated literally everything to suppress, dull down, and snuff out the light within us. As long as people keep being manipulated, you can get them to do anything you want them to do. It takes people like you and I with a strong mind and a strong will to break out of this trance and realize that the world is basically a cesspool. It’s one big dumpster fire, and if people keep going the way they are things will only get worse before they get better….
I like how you make this distinction about vibration. Vibration is everything in this Universe, absolutely everything, and the higher you vibrate, the better your Spiritual Gifts become, and the easier it is to be in a higher density (or Dimension). That’s the other thing…even if you don’t believe in a God, Science can tell you the same d*mn thing! Yes, there’s a science to our souls called “Spirit Science.” Spirit Science explains how your soul works in tandem with your body, and how your Aura is connected to your entire body and when something happens energetically to disrupt the flow of energy in an area of your body, it’ll show up in your aura and that particular area needs to be healed through vibration and sound (at least that’s what works for me).
I dunno. This world is for the birds, cause there’s so much evil that goes on everyday, and most people don’t even realize it. Like for a while there was stuff happening underground regarding children who are kidnapped every year. You wanna know where those kids went? Cause I know where they went. The kids who are kidnapped and you never hear from again are underground with the Reptilian Race and they’re being sacrficed to some demon, or they’re being beat up, or their organs are being harvested. And most people not only disagree with that, but they think I’m making up some story and that I’m dishonoring the families who lost a child. I’m saying this because it’s true. It’s called D.U.M.B.’s tunnels, look it up! D.U.M.B. stands for Deep Underground Military Bases. There are bases where this kind of sh*t is happening to our precious children that you never hear about! That’s the real sad part! It’s terrible, all because some stupid race that has been on this planet since it was first terraformed decided that they want to be superior to us huemans. They may as well be the Biblical equivalent to demons, because the Reptilian Race doesn’t have empathy. If someone gets killed or gets killed cause they are in their way, the Reptilian Race doesn’t feel bad for them. If they want something, they go after it, regardless of how many people die in the process. There’s a reason why some of the most inhumane stuff exists, and that’s because some of the stuff that goes on isn’t being caused by huemans, but by aliens or inter-dimensional beings that are able to shapeshift (Like Reptilians).
We become manifested from the Power of The Holy Spirit Family One God in being “Manipulated” From dust becoming brothers and sisters from cousins through the New Eve becoming sons and daughters for for Jesus in the New Adam for all becoming through the Christ for all becoming again in all One God.
OMNiLogically we see all mankind as Sons and Daughters of God in One Holy Family.
From the God from the Faith of Abraham who promised Eternal Life to Abraham and swore by His Own Name Eternal life to the descendants of Abraham we become One God From One Father through One Mother for One Son in two natures and 2000 years later God fulfilles His Promise through The Christ in all mankind becoming again in all creation One Divine Spirit Family One God in being a Family.
“I would like you all to understand that, both you who are My
relatives according to the world, and you, friends and children
in a supernatural way. Neither you, nor anyone else know Who
My Mother is. But if you knew, you would not criticise Her in
your hearts stating She is not capable of keeping Me subject to
Her, but you would venerate Her as the closest friend of God, the
Mighty Woman Who can obtain all graces from the heart of the
Eternal Father and from Her beloved Son. I will certainly come
to Cana. I want to make Her happy. You will understand better
after the wedding. » Jesus is majestic and persuasive.” Maria Valtorta
From a Father with two Names Abraham and Abram through two different Mothers Sarah and Hagar for Two Sons Ishmael and Isaac who are brothers to each other and cousins to all mankind we become brothers and sisters in all mankind from Baptism through the New Eve for Jesus in the New Adam becoming through the Christ in all mankind becoming Sons and Daughters of God in all from Sacrifice through Penance forgiven for all becoming again in all mankind One Holy Spirit Family One God in being.
Disney World has tunnels beneath it. “The Happiest Place on Earth” Is the most deceptively happiest place on Earth. Even the cast members can’t go through certain tunnels. Where do you think those lead?
And…Disney was a Freemason. If you know, you know!
Telling you man, the writing is literally on the wall, and most people can’t make out what it says……
We have to accept that the material world is hell…….literally. There are worse planets in the material world than planet earth, but still, this is a place of birth and death. There is no death in the spiritual world. We are here. We’re all in therapy. We’re hypnotized, forced to believe that “this material body is me.” Actually we are eternal spirit souls. We never grow old, are never diseased, never die. But we experience these things in the material world. It’s a bad dream. A nightmare. Nothing is happening to the eternal spirit soul. But for us, it all feels real. And the only function, of all of it, is to induce the rebellious spirit soul, to bring him to the point of inquiring after a solution, to begin to ask, “Why am I suffering? What is the purpose of life? What is the solution to this nightmare of life in the material world?”
There are people who say that they are happy, content. But they all live in fear. Their houses are insured, their cars are insured, their doors are locked, their computers and phones need passwords, we are all surrounded by scams, pick-pockets, and government leaders who promise “government for the people” but won’t use tax dollars for free medical and free university education. But they uses tax dollars to build bombs and guns. The U.S. has some 750 military bases in different parts of the world…….to protect the economic prospects of multinational corporations.
And God, who is in everyone’s heart, enables the inquisitive soul, that is beginning to question his lot, to become attracted to scripture. Different scriptures for different souls. But the conclusion is the same: surrender out heart to God, with feelings of gratitude and love.
Then the spiritual practices begin. Spiritual practices for purifying the heart. And when realization blossoms, the soul understands by direct perception that, “I am not this material body. I am an indestructible, eternal spirit soul. I am an eternal loving servant of God.” At that time he understands, “I am in this world. But I am not of this world.” At that time he becomes fearless. At that time he becomes indifferent to the so-called pleasures and pains of the material body. His pleasure is an inside job. Sometimes he dances and sings, indifferent to social conventions. And the world sees him as mad.
An honest look at the history of man on planet earth (as much as we have records) speaks only of war, slavery, imperialism in India, in South America, in Africa, Australia, of exploitation, of people in factories, in mines, of people dying is terrible ways, of sex trade rings, of drug rings, of prisons, of millions of innocent creatures experimented on in laboratories in terrible unthinkable ways, of millions of animals having their throats cut in slaughterhouses, where we can’t hear their screams, and smell their blood, where we wear their skins in the form of our shoes, our belts, our wallets and purses, our jackets, and our furniture.
And when God sends his representatives to educate us, to show us how to qualify ourselves for returning to the spiritual realm……their lives are in danger……because they are bad for business……they are trouble makers……a threat to the status quo of institutions that exploit us.
The only way out, the only hope is to accept the understanding that the name of God is “hallowed”, sacred, and that if the people of the planet begin to chant God’s holy name, individually and congregational, the result will be: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done…on earth, as it is in heaven.” The holy name of God is our shelter, our protection, our source of illumination, and the way in which our dormant feelings of spontaneous love for God becomes re-awakened. Love of God is the only qualification for taking our next birth in the spiritual realm. If we leave this body, at the end of this material lifetime, and there are still material desires in our hearts……..we will have to come back, to repeat the course. Because “Home is where the heart is.”
This whole world is God’s Disneyland of make-believe. We are God’s eternal servants who have rebelled, like Adam and Eve, and are placed here for our redemption. Amen.
O.K. we agree on a lot of what you are describing. You speak of “spiritual science”. This is where the conversation has to go. First one has to see clearly the anomalies of life in the material dimension. And he has to understand, as Jesus says, “I am in this world, but I am not of this world.” And then he has to understand spiritual science……..the process by which the dormant love of God in our hearts can be awakened. And then we have to “get down”, and decide how we want to use our time and our energy. We need the basics. Some food to eat, Some shelter from the elements, a change of clothing, 6 feet space to lie down and take rest. But once the basics are in place, keep life simple, and use our energy for spiritual practice, spiritual science. Not wealth, and more wealth. Jesus warns: the wealthy man will not go back home, to the spiritual world, any more than one can pass a camel through the eye of the needle.
You talk about the “hegemony” of the material world. The TV, the news channels, the schools, the universities, the media………all telling us what the powers that be want us to believe, the values that they want us to embrace, so that we stay locked up in the prison of illusory conceptions. Spend the first 25 years going to school, then work very hard, buy a house, a car, raise a family, max out your credit cards, grow old and make a will, and die. Coming into this world naked, with nothing. And leaving taking nothing with us. Sweat and toil. Because we are out of the Garden of Eden, the spiritual realm of reality. People will say this negative. But you are asking them to open their eyes to the reality of the situation. But very few have that kind of integrity or courage. Hard-core prisoners, more intent on how to improve prison life than thinking how to qualify for getting out. Jesus talked about it. He said that if you really want to be a spiritual person, you will receive all kinds of negative backlash from the people of the world.
You talk about the meaning of being “a son of God”. The sun in the sky …….. emits trillions of atoms of light energy. They are all sun, in quality. But they are not the Source. We are all God in quality. But we are not the Source. We are like spiritual atoms. And we have an eternal relationship with God. He only created us for one purpose. He enjoys being loved. We are like leaves on the tree of life. In the material world we try to water ourselves. Or water the other leaves. But if one leaf waters the root of the tree, he is the best servant of all the leaves, fruits and branches. Cultivation of love of God is the highest welfare work. When our dormant love of God is reawakened, “our cup will runneth over”. In the material world, without a living sense of our reciprocal relationship with God, we are seeking satisfaction through the service of our senses, subtle and gross. And everyone feels incomplete. The billionaire feels that he needs another billion.
Spiritual science includes the do’s and the don’ts. We have to understand the things, the habits that keep us in ignorance, and the practices that wake up our spiritual potential.
Feel free to connect through peterishandas@gmail.com.
Hare Krishna! (“God is loving, God is beautiful, God is great”)
Peter
“Catholic filmmaker Sam Sorich” is making a documentary to investigate a claim by “a former CIA official that the Vatican holds evidence of the existence of non-human intelligence — and he does not mean angels” (or AI, I guess), according to a new Catholic News Service report published in OSV (Our Sunday Visitor) News ( Catholic filmmaker investigates UFO mysteries at the Vatican - OSV News ).
The Vatican Observatory staff wouldn’t talk to Sorich, and “several professors at pontifical universities in Rome” compared UFOs to unicorns and dragons.
Would the professors say that to aircraft pilots? Maybe.
Pilots’ reports of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) jumped from fewer than ten per year in 2000-2022 to more than 60 in 2023 and more than 80 in 2024, according to the SCU [Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies] Review, 31 Oct. 2024 (https://www.explorescu.org/post/scu-review-5-4), citing numbers from the National UFO Reporting Center, which received the pilots’ reports.
“Of course, all of this is speculative understanding”
It’s not speculative at all.
The same test we use to show human to human lineages, called Single Ncleotide Polymorphisms, shows life is inter-related.
It’s the same test, utilizing the same science, many times done in the same labs as the one that tells you your genealogy is from Scotland or Arabia.
Its simple, and self evident. There’s a pattern of one off changes in the base nucleotides, and if the patterns match, you’re related, and the % match shows how far back in time you have to go to find the genetic link.
If you want a primer on what it is we know now, I highly suggest “The Language of God” by Francis Collins, who there-in describes his evidence for God, but also, the evidence for evolution. Which he can describe quite well, as he was the director of the 1st Human Genome Project – the project to map Human DNA.
Cardinal Ratzinger was also the head of the Congress of the Doctrine of the Faith, and given the position of the “Watchdog” of theology by John Paul II.
He later became Pope himself, Benedict XVI. He’s considered one of our greatest modern theologians.
I see no reason he wouldn’t have known of your objections, he even wrote a book about how to approach Genesis in the 1980s.
“Some Catholics do. I would not make the claim that “Catholics believe this.””
I would, because most Catholic do, and the clergy of the Church admit this is likely the case, for as John Paull II said the proof for it came from multiple directions. The Church has its own Academy of Sciences at the Vatican, and they advise them about these matters.
Once you know what the evidence for evolution is, its easy to see it’s just self-evident. Not only can we say Evolution exists, nature needs it to function, life would have just died out every time there’s a dramatic climate shift otherwise.
We’ve also turned it into tools, that both work and regulate things humans manage. Like GMO crops, the bugs that eat them, and even Pharmaceuticals.
Researchers have also done this:
Kind of hard to explain why genes of dinosaurs would be in chickens, without them being related.
Microbes also have this thing called CRISPR, that does genetic engineering. It’s just in them, we didn’t make it, but we do make use of it.
To me, Athiests have a different Father’s Name for the Same One God in being a Family becoming again in all through three Powers for two natures in One Family Body.
Logically rebith and salvation can only become from The Family, and The Holy Spirit in Catholicism is the Family of God becoming again for all creation, From the Father through the Mother for the Son becoming again in all One Family.
Has anyone ever tried explaining rebirth and salvation using the Holy Spirit as a person trying to explain the Trinity Family to a child, of God
I know, we just have to rewrite a few books, keep the old as Historical Value, all are reference books following the Logic of “The Mind of God,” I believe.
Can I get a Hallelujah and some Amens, brothers and sisters, God is Good, Amen, yes Lord.
According to the Bible, God created species by a spoken command, with each animal created according to its specific “kind”. Man was created separately on the sixth day, made in the image of God from the dust of the earth, and did not evolve from other animals.
According to the creation story, humans are the only beings who resemble God. They were created “in the image of God” (see Genesis 1:26-28). Since humans resemble God, communication is possible between God and humans. According to the creation story, God looks for a relationship with humans.
If scripture says that God sits on a throne, and wears a crown, I accept that. If scripture says that God created us in His image and that we can have a reciprocal loving relationship with Him, I accept that. This means that God has a form. That form is not made of material energy like our form. But it is an eternal spiritual form. And every spirit soul has an eternal relationship of reciprocation of love between ourselves and God….. in our eternal spiritual forms.
As you inform me, Mr. Ratzinger was appointed to be “the “Watchdog” of theology”. From my point of view, the “watchdog” is the protector. He does not allow trespassers like the “scientists” to impose their speculative concepts on the straight-forward words of scripture.
When I was a science student at university, one of my professors said to me in confidentiality, in his office, “We really don’t know anything. We make up most of our theories. And they change from year to year. That’s why we always tell the students not to purchase last year’s textbooks…..because the theories are always changing.”
If Mr. Ratzinger has evolved from monkeys, I am O.K. with that. However according to scripture, we were created in the image of God for the purpose of having an ongoing personal reciprocation of love with Him. Therefore Jesus has advised those of lesser understanding (the Jews of his time), that the highest rule of all spiritual teachings is to “love the Lord thy God with all of our mind, all of our heart, and all of our strength.” This is a very personal relationship of loving exchange, which the scientists, who put forward the theory of evolution, will never endorse.
In any case, please be at peace with your faith in the innovative interpretations of Catholic clergy. God knows the sincerity of our hearts, and blesses us with revelation, according to our desire to cultivate our love for Him. Respectfully and with affection, Peter
Things are complex, as Genesis says things we already know we can’t take literally.
a firmanent in the sky
corners of the Earth
The Earth at the center of the solar system, or the Universe.
None of these things exist.
St. Augustine knew this in the 2nd century, after Christians confidently used the Bible to claim how stars moved (wrongly), and the Moors looked at Augustine and asked “Are all of you this … dumb?”
And Agustine was livid:
“Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of the world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason?” – St. Augistine of Hippo , Confessions book V
In the end, Fundamentalist is just a modernist Error, it’s not how the Church fathers approached the faith.
”did not evolve from other animals.”
Scientists have already reproduced this experimentally, and certain species have evolved since humans have been around.
Agrobacterium manipulated the DNA of its flower host to create the Sweet potato. It was just a root before.
Also, Ring species (mostly different kinds of lizards) appear when a species figures out how to be asexual, but still reproduces sexually with neighboring species.
And of course, viruses, I’m sure everyone here is familiar with the term “GAIN OF FUNCTION”? That’s evolution.
You do not want to credit God with that, unless your comfortable with the idea of God just making new breeds of viruses, every year, that go after just poor starving kids in Africa.
“To me, Athiests have a different Father’s Name for the Same One God”
I’m not an atheist, neither was the Pope:
”4. Taking into account the state of scientific research at the time as well as of the requirements of theology, the encyclical Humani Generisconsidered the doctrine of “evolutionism” a serious hypothesis, worthy of investigation and in-depth study equal to that of the opposing hypothesis. Pius XII added two methodological conditions: that this opinion should not be adopted as though it were a certain, proven doctrine and as though one could totally prescind from revelation with regard to the questions it raises. He also spelled out the condition on which this opinion would be compatible with the Christian faith, a point to which I will return. Today, almost half a century after the publication of the encyclical, new knowledge has led to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis.
It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory.” – John Paul II, Truth Cannot Contradict Truth, 1996.
Seriously, just go look at the evidence he’s talking about. You’ll admit it’s obvious once you do.
I can understand that you are a very well read person, seemingly on the Masters or Phd level of education in these matters.
Actually I am not a member of the Catholic faith. And it would be wrong for me to try to impose the understandings of the scriptures that I follow on you and others who are at home in their own church.
The Vedic scriptures state that there are 14 planetary systems within the universe. They are situated in a vertical arrangement, with the topmost planet being for the most pious souls, and the bottommost planets being for the most sinful. Earth planet is situated (according to this description) in the middle planetary system (as I believe you mentioned is stated in the Bible).
Our scriptures say that the most pious souls (those who are engaged in “good works”) take birth on the higher planets, which are indescribably beautiful, heavenly. And the most sinful take birth on the lower planets. All of this is according to “sewing and reaping”, or as the word is used in our scriptures, according to “karma”. But all of these planets are places where birth and death occur. Even these higher planets are not part of the spiritual realm, the kingdom of God. They are all part of God’s material creation.
Jesus teaches that we cannot enter the Kingdom by being a “good” person. He says, “Not by good works alone…..”. Rather, he teaches that the ticket, or passport, is to love God with all of our heart, mind and strength. This is not about obedience to rules. This is about having a spontaneous outpouring of love of God within our hearts, so that every thought, word, and deed are decorated with this demeanor. This is what Jesus is teaching us. Pure devotion. This is not about asking God for anything other than the ability to love Him.
But the question arises, and perhaps your studies can shed some light on my question. According to the Bible, the heavenly host exists. I am not sure if this means 100 souls, 1000 souls, or unlimited millions or trillions. But the Bible speaks of the heavenly host. They live with God in the spiritual realm where there is no birth, no death, no disease, no process of growing old. The pastime of the residents of the spiritual realm is glorification of God, and celebration of God’s power, God’s majesty, God’s love, things of that nature.
So the question arises: Why would the almighty, unlimitedly gracious Lord cause us to take our birth here in the realm of birth, old age, disease and death? Why would he cause us to be born into total forgetfulness of our real nature as His eternal loving servants? Why would we be born with self-centered, sinful natures, so that we have to be redeemed, rehabilitated?
The narrative of the Garden of Eden provides a clue. That Garden is not to be found on earth, or anywhere within the material creation. According the Vedic scriptures, and some degree of logic, the Garden of Eden is the spiritual realm where the duality of “good and evil” doesn’t exist. But love must include the capacity to exercise our free will. If we had no choice……it wouldn’t be love. God desires us to love Him of our own accord. And what is the meaning of love? “Love” means to desire only one thing: “the happiness of the beloved.” Therefore when God says to Adam and Eve, “Do not partake of the fruit of the tree of good and evil.”, He is establishing a line that we must not cross. And if we love Him, we don’t cross it. And if we wish to seek our fulfillment independent of His wishes, we succumb to temptation. And here we are……in the world of duality, the world of “good and evil”.
There is one verse in the Bible, wherein God says to Jeremiah, “Before you were formed in your mother’s womb, I knew you.” God explains to Jeremiah that He is sending him to this world, to preach His message to the nations of the world. Therefore Jeremiah, like Jesus, comes here not like us who are born into the duality of “good and evil”, but only to preach to us, who are like prodigal sons and daughters of God……we are those who have succumbed to the temptation, and been put out of “the Garden”.
Now, if we are to accept The logic of Saint Aquinas, that we cannot take all of the Bible literally, then why not apply this understanding to the narrative of the Adam and Eve being “deported” from the spiritual realm, and having to live in the realm of birth and death, the material realm?Why not understand that this applies to all souls who, unlike the heavenly host, are allocated to take their birth in the material realm, where we labor and maintain ourselves by the sweat of our brow? After all, the heavenly host resides with God. They don’t sweat. They don’t struggle to maintain themselves. But we are here. And we require serious counseling. Therefore personalities like Jeremiah, and Jesus come here, telling us that they are “in this world, but not of this world.” And telling us not to look for our fulfillment in this world, but rather, “Great is your reward in heaven.”
This kind of understanding makes more sense. God is filled with love for all of us. But He has placed us here. And He sends His representatives to counsel us, to rehabilitate us, to give us a sense of direction, and to take us home, to the spiritual world.
However, not everyone agrees to accept the invitation. So scripture says that they go to hell. Period. This perhaps is based on scripture. But again, let us consider the view of Aquinas. If a boy goes to school, but does not pass his exams, he doesn’t proceed to the next grade. He has to repeat. He’s not sent to hell. He’s given the chance to repeat, to learn, to make advancement. Surely God is more kind than the elementary school system of the material world. Therefore the Vedic scriptures inform us that we have been here before, birth after birth…..until we learn……until we accept the invitation to stop being self-centered little gods of the material world, and begin to open our hearts to receive God’s blessings and God’s grace.
Our hearts are filled with desires. But they are self-centered. Jesus teaches, by his example: “Not what I want, my Lord, but only what pleases You, only what You want.” This is the position that we have to attain before we can return to the spiritual world. In the spiritual world, no one has any desire other than to attain the pleasure of God.
The materialist thinks, “What about me? What about my pleasure?” David answers this in the the 23rd Psalm: “My cup runneth over.” When one’s heart is overflowing with love for God, he simultaneously experiences God’s love in reciprocation…….and he desires nothing more than this. No longer does he require the rules of morality. His very life becomes an expression of love for God, and all of God’s children in this world.
These are some perspectives that one can consider. You are a serious person. You have looked deeply in these matters. I am not Saint Aquinas. But perhaps you can consider some of the ideas that I am humbly placing before you, Peter
Hi Peter. I’m not an expert on Vedic syncratism that you presented, but I’ll try my best.
First, I don’t think you meant “14 planetary systems” I think you meant 14 planes of existence. Something like the “worlds” presented in Norse Mythology, where they exist as separated, independent realms.
To your question “Why would God place souls here in a world of suffering, ignorance, and moral weakness, instead of in the perfect spiritual realm?”, From a Thomistic perspective, the soul does not pre-exist its body. Aquinas is explicit on this in Summa Theologiae, each human soul is a new creation by God at the moment the body is capable of receiving it; it does not exist in a prior spiritual realm nor fall from a higher plane into matter. For Aquinas, the spiritual and bodily dimensions of the human person belong together by nature, my soul is the form of my body, not a pre-existing spirit awaiting a host. Scripture verses like Jeremiah 1:5 (“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you”) refer to God’s eternal knowledge, not personal pre-mortem existence. So within Thomism, pre-existence is incompatible with the nature of the human person.
For similar reasons, Catholic theology cannot accept reincarnation. The core Christian doctrines, Incarnation, Resurrection of the Body, Final Judgment, depend on each person living one embodied life, followed by death, judgment, and resurrection. The Council of Florence (1439) and the Catechism (§1013) explicitly reject the idea that souls cycle through multiple bodies to progress spiritually. Morally, the Church teaches that salvation is the gift of grace, not karmic self-improvement across lifetimes; ontologically, the soul is intrinsically ordered to one body, not a series of temporary containers. Reincarnation dissolves the unity of the person and undermines Christian teachings about the uniqueness of earthly life, the Cross, and the resurrection of the body.
Dd, may I ask you what you believe? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, cause if I’m being real here, I don’t really care for labels which is why I’m not part of any religion or religious belief system. But I’m curious as to what you believe.
Aquinas could not logically understand the God from the Faith of Abraham is the God through Two Natures becoming again for all One Holy Spirit Family One God in being a Family.
God knew failed choice completely before conception from the spirit for the created soul through the flesh becoming again undefiled Choice and the Will of the Father manifesting from the Power of the Holy Spirit Family through the Two Nature Christ Body for all becoming again in all One Family.
