The Bible: Commentary and Controversy

Thermodynamics says that without the input of energy, a closed system will become more and more disordered. So the world of Adam and Eve was perfect and orderly, and would have stayed that way except for their exclusion of God as an “energy” source. When they moved into their “God’s not such a big deal” phase, as evidenced by their willingness to disobey Him, they shut off their energy source, and disorder inevitably followed, including sickness and eventually death.

Jesus came into that vastly disordered system bringing a new energy source, thereby increasing order.  Moral standards and laws were largely non-existent or disregarded. Jesus gave the world a new moral standard, i.e., a new source of moral energy. He cured the sick, even brought the dead back to life. He let us know we could do the same, if we reattached ourselves to the source and let the energy back in.

Then he disappeared. His remarkable presence, plus a renewed belief in God, was enough to bring order back into the world, at least for those who believed in him, but not enough to keep the world from falling back into disorder as his memory became less and less distinct.

Which brings us up to today. We have a new source, but one of negative energy, which is accelerating the natural process of disorder. Most of those who see it happening believe the problem is that we have nothing to replace the moral standards we are working so hard to remove, resulting in moral chaos. Which is true as far as it goes, but does not take into consideration that the moral standard evolves from a positive energy source.

It’s not possible to simply install a moral standard that does not spring from a positive energy source. If Moses had brought the ten commandments down from the mountain and said “Here are the rules to live by; I just made them up,” he would have been ignored by the general population. But when he said the commandments came from God, the population – who largely believed in the existence of God – accepted them. Didn’t like them, necessarily, but still accepted them. It was undoubtedly Moses’ presence as a respected leader and their belief that he was in touch with a higher source that turned the trick.

Same as with Jesus. Those who didn’t believe He was in touch with a higher source persecuted Him and eventually crucified Him. Those who believed in God and Jesus’ apparent relation to Him also believed Jesus and so availed themselves of the re-emergent energy source. The believers accepted the moral code he presented – “Love thy neighbor as thyself” – His second great commandment, with which we are all familiar. However, most of us do not understand the importance of the first commandment he presented:

And one of them, a doctor of the Law, putting him to the test, asked him, “Master, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Jesus said to him, “‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind.’ This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like it, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:35-40)

Because in order for us to use the positive energy source Jesus reminds us of – God – we must believe we have access to it: must believe that we are more than just sentient beings – that we are truly God’s creations, related to Him in a very special way. And being children of God, as Jesus was, we could do the things He had done – work miracles, cure the sick, bring back the dead, etc.

This is Jesus’ way of accomplishing His mission. But is God per se really a necessary part of the equation? Would belief in power that comes from an unknown source have the same effect? And finally, could power that came from our own minds have the same effect? Because the power is inherent in us, even though we may not be aware of it or know how to use it, I believe the answer to both those questions could be “yes.” The point is we must believe so completely that there is no room for doubt. And it is so much easier to believe the power comes from an outside source rather than from ourselves.

But I digress. Our powers as children of god (or not) isn’t the issue here. The point is, since we have lost sight of our power source – extinguished it, to all intents and purposes – we have also dramatically accelerated disorder, and we are now on the cusp of chaos.