We have had a lot of fun discussing and debating hidden secrets in movie form throughout this blog. Movies with double or triple meanings. Stories beneath the stories. Riddles wrapped in riddles. It is entertaining to sift through a complex story and mine it for the deeper meanings in order to come to some real enlightenment about the story.
And its one thing to do as a lark with regard to movies or books. But its an entirely other enterprise to do it in real life.
Have you ever gone in search of the mysteries of the universe? Or to grapple with the deeper Truths of life? Is this world we walk through just a temporary experience and then darkness? Are we reborn to do it over again? Do planets await where we birth offspring? What is the deeper meaning to the mysteries of this life? Is it possible to know or will they remain elusive until the day we die and experience the answers for yourself?
I believe we can know – and that these mysteries have been revealed and are awaiting your discovery.
By now I’m guessing I’ve been dismissed as a crackpot by 50% of you. Give me a little while longer and I will convince the rest of you! haha. But it doesn’t matter what you think or don’t. The Truth is the Truth and opinion or conjecture won’t change the deeper facts about the mysteries of this life. But to quote Fox Mulder – the Truth is out there.
Blaise Pascal, the brilliant mathematician and inventor, coined this search and desire perfectly in his Pensees 10.148
“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and unchangeable object; in other words by God himself.”
Maybe you don’t believe in God. Maybe you’ve decided He does not exist. And yet, Pascal has coined the problem perfectly. We all have an infinitely deep desire for love – an infinite striving for affection that will never be filled. Does that resound at all? I know that it makes perfect sense to me. When you are alone and the world has slipped quietly to black, what do you think about when confronted with the broadness and vastness of the universe? Or when you were hurt, yet again, by your boyfriend, or your father, your wife – what is that deep ache and yearning saying?
So, What Are The Mysteries of the Universe?
The saddest of all sad things is that most of us don’t stop, slow down and grapple with these deeper issues. We don’t ask the important questions. It seems as though society as a whole is complicit in this massive game of avoidance as well. Movies, books, television, advertisements all point to denial and avoidance as the solution. Very rarely does society take hold of these deeper questions and investigate them.
But you deserve answers to the mysteries of the universe. You deserve to know why we are here and what the goal of this life really is. You deserve to understand what you were made for as opposed to avoiding these questions and just listening to society at large that is telling us all to just avoid these pesky problems. Are you wanting to find the answer to the meaning of life is the only question? Or are you hiding from it? Will it burden you or cause difficulties in your life if you discover it? Are you worried about what it might mean? Isn’t that secondary though to discovering it though? Isn’t it more critical to learn what the mysteries might mean or might entail?
Believe me, the Truth of the mysteries of life will be worth discovering. So much so that seeing clearly will cause you to understand the larger problems you face. It will put into perspective all of life and the chaos of this world. But first we need to discover the mysteries of this life and the meaning of all things. Hehe, not a small thing really. “The meaning of all things”. And a part of me chuckles at the thought of it. Like I’m some late night advertising con-artist trying to get you to buy my weight reduction sweat belt thing. There really is nothing in it for me except that I want everyone to know the mysteries of this world too. Promise.
“I do not want you to be uninformed of this mystery – so that you will not be wise in your own estimation…” says the Apostle Paul in Romans. And In the oldest book of the Bible, Job, it says that God reveals mysteries from the darkness and brings the deep darkness into light. So we must not become wise in our own estimation, but must look to God who can reveal the light from the darkness.
“According to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations…” Romans 16:25-27
Did you catch that? That these things are the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past and that is now manifested. Not only that, but by God’s commandment it has been made known and revealed to every nation. This is enormous. Not sure if you are grasping what kind of enormous insights Paul is laying out for you here. That what was once hidden is now able to be found. That what was once the exclusive domain of one nation is now available and understandable by every single nation.
Congratulations. You can seek out the meaning of the universe. It is knowable by you. You too have been privileged with the opportunity to learn the meaning of life – if you are receptive to the truth that is. This is a longer quote, but its worth the read. I’ll walk you through it afterwards.
“If indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.”
Ok, complicated! hehe. Let’s walk through it step by step. We are born – and we mess up. Everybody messes up. The Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Regardless, our failings separate us from a perfect God. I like to think about it this way – if God were a bucket of white paint, and you are white paint too. Then when we sin even if we become one part per million grey – we are not white anymore. Right. So if you mix your white with God’s white you’ve just made God something other than white, no? Even if only very subtly. We may or may not have started with a bucket of Behr pure white, but that’s not what it is today anyway. No? Does that seem off base? Or does it seem like you have lead a perfectly blameless life? If you do – then boy do I want to chat with you some more offline.
So we, in our mistakes and failings, are separated from God. But separation isn’t what we were created for. We were created to live in connection with our creator. Genesis seems to indicate that Adam and Eve were in the habit of walking with God in the cool of the morning which seems like an amazingly intimate way to spend time with one’s creator. Pascal hit the nail on the head when he characterized all of us as having a God-shaped hole deep within us.
Let’s head back to the mystery of long ages past from the quote mentioned above. There are several mysteries revealed in this passage. The first is that God wants to draw close to every person on the planet. Throughout the Old Testament it seems as though God is fairly partial to the Jews. But then it is revealed, in quite stunning fashion (a topic for another time), that God desires that none shall be lost. This may seem obvious to you, but it wasn’t for several thousand years before Jesus’ birth. The second, and larger revelation of the mystery was that God Himself would pay the price for our rebelliousness. That He would provide a way back to Him through Christ’s death and resurrection.
This mystery is so counter intuitive and so blatantly bizarre that it is difficult for a small mind like myself to fully grasp this. For the Christ to come and be born in a manger is crazy. That He would come to the world as a poor carpenter, insane. That He would die instead of conquer – completely nuts. God is declaring a completely different paradigm here. This is upside down world in the extreme – and yet His ways are so much higher than mine and yours. He is, after all, the creator of everything. We are talking about someone that has hobbies and meddles in fusion and fission for giggles. The spiral galaxy photo above from Hubble? He created that by speaking it into being. Would you expect Him to restore us to Himself in a way that completely makes sense to us? I hope not anyway. If I understood God completely, wouldn’t that mean I am as smart as Him?
So, back to the mysteries of the universe. First we were united with Him and then we were adrift. God then made a way for us to return to those cool of the morning walks for which were created. Which I for one cannot wait for personally.
Great. All done. Perfect sense.
But wait. So a way has been made. Great. That’s like saying a new super highway was built without on ramps. What good is that if you can’t get on the road and use it? So, where is your on ramp?
Back when Christ was living 2,000 years ago there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus who wondered the exact same thing. What’s most interesting about Nicodemus was that nearly every Pharisee despised Jesus completely. They didn’t like the way He upset their power amongst the people. They didn’t like how He didn’t listen to the rules that they thought He should listen to. He seemed to not care about position and title (which I’m thinking makes sense for the creator of all things not to care about) – and their entire culture was all about positions and titles. So back to the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus.
Nicodemus starts by saying, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” which isn’t actually correct. But it was close enough for Jesus who then responded,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
That’s a strange thing for anyone to say, even for God. It’s confusing at the least, and disturbing in the extreme! But look at how Nicodemus responds: “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Which is probably the most sane response to this sort of a statement. I don’t think I would have done much better.
Then Jesus answers Nicodemus –
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus responds to Jesus with, “How can these things be?”
And here Jesus does the inexplicable. He tells Nicodemus everything…
“Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.”
I have to jump in here before we continue. When Jesus said the Son of Man must be lifted up he is referring to his death on a cross. So He is saying, I must die on a cross – so that whoever believes will have eternal life. The dying is critical for the solution to work. But so is the believing apparently. And with that we have our on ramp. But Jesus isn’t done explaining things to our hero Mr. Nicodemus…
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
Here we have the famous football end-zone Bible verse – but in context it makes more sense. And we also have the refrain of belief repeated as well. So many people think of Jesus as an exclusive and vindictive character. But we see here that Jesus says himself that he isn’t about judging, but about saving. He wants all to be saved, including me. Including you.
So now we’ve seen the mysteries of the universe explained. I know that I haven’t done a great job at it. There is a lot more to it and more scriptures to be investigated if you are interested. But I have tried to be as simple as I can in my explanation. We are separated from God by sin. We have a need for reconciliation to Him. Christ died because of this chasm… making it possible for us to cross the gap. If only we believe. The question is – do you believe?
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Feel free to comment anything you like, you don’t have to agree with me. I actually enjoy a good discussion as indicated by the numerous long running discussions throughout this blog. But please know that I will delete all hateful or disrespectful comments. Fair? Great.