Ontologist’s Weblog

First of all let me state that I believe that I am a created being. I believe this in my core, and I believe that part of the life process involves understanding the creator and discovering as much truth as we can about this mystery.
I have expended much energy trying to satisfy this burning quest within me and my search has led me to rest on the Bible and Chrstianity as the anwer I was looking for.

However, I find that I am standing on the precipuce of the Christian experience without fully adopting it and it is only with some deep self analysis that I have managed to figure out what it is that is holding me back.

1] I don’t know whether the garden of Eden story is literal or not but I have come to the conclusion that it has been added to the Bible because there are things within that story that we are meant to learn and understand about ourselves and God. And yet I cannot see how it could not be literal when one cosiders how it is so interwoven into the genealogies.
Anyway I digress….
If God did indeed banish Satan, why did he banish him to earth – the very place that his dear children would exist in? If I find a venomous snake in my home I do not pick it up and throw it in my kids’ bedroom – I remove as far from them as possible. And yet God sent Satan to earth – and stranger still – gave him access to the garden. This just puzzles me.

2] The Bible says, and evangelists proclaim, that ‘faith’ is the currency of christianity. Anything that gets done can only be done through faith and that without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who wishes to come to him must believe that he exists. This is defended as ‘part of God’s divine plan’.
I must admit that that does not make sense to me because Adam would not have required faith in the Garden of Eden. He could see and interact with God directly and yet he must have been pleasing to God. But now that we can no longer see the manifest presence of God he can only be pleased with us if we believe – this seems somehow wrong to me.

The ultimate goal of the human soul is to find peace. We’re all doing it all of the time, and a careful analysis of one’s life will show this statement to be true.
The search for truth is ultimately driven by the fact that once we find it we will have peace, that we will have knowledge and understand the purpose of everything – and in that sublime state we shall find rest.

However, the source of this peace is perceived as somewhat elusive, after all, thousands of generations across thousands cultures have all offered a solution to this quest in one form or another.

It was along these lines that I have started to read the Bible. To try an understand what ‘point of view’ the author(s)  offered on this topic. I have found profound truth within the pages of that book … to sum it up in a sentence …..

2 Peter 1:2
Grace to you, and peace be multiplied by a full knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.

This particular tract of scripture was a revelation to me. I had to re-read it to absorb the impact. Basically what Peter is saying is that peace is acheived through the knowledge of God. And as I sat back and let the revelation slowly work within me it became obvious that this was indeed something that mankind had been doing throughout the ages in the form of many religions and faiths. It seemed to be understood that true meaning, purpose and peace could only be acheived through an intimate knowledge of our creator.

I am reminded of the countless stories I have heard about adopted children who feel the need to track down and know/understand their true parents, their true identity  and origin and seem to only have inner peace of a sort when they have expended suffiicient energy in persuing this endeavour. So why should we, created beings, with a spirital heritage be any different?

Once I started to read the scriptures through the understanding that they were ultimately teaching us about God, many things started to fit into place. What was the ‘Gospel’ that Christ was teaching? He didn’t seem to harp on about the crucifixion story too much in the presence of the crowds and whenever he did mention it it seemed to be in some sort of code which would be deciphered after his death – and yet he taught and spoke to many people in many situations. So what was he on about? I think that he was trying to bring them ‘knowledge of God’ and that was how he could claim to offer a ‘peace which passes all understanding’. Philippians 4:6-7

If peace, as Peter suggests, comes from a knowledge of God, and Christ could offer the ulimate insight into God himself, then Christ truely could offer a peace that no one could comprehend.

So herewith starts my journey. As my name suggests  I am a seeker of deep understanding and truth. May God be with me on every step as I endevour to increase my understanding of who he really is.

God Bless
Ontologist