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A TRILOGY ON METAPHYSICS AND THE HUMAN SOUL
(Dedicated to the Honor and the Glory of God)
---------------

A SHORT TREATISE ON THE REALITY OF GOD

God is the ultimate reality. He has spun the universes into existence
and has created all other beings. As humans, we too had our beginning
from God. Like Plato and Socrates, I believe that we pre-existed in a
spiritual realm prior to being born into this world. Unfortunately the
church fathers, with the exceptions of Origen and Augustine, rejected
this view as an overreaction to the heresies of gnosticism and
neoplatonism that threatened to subvert the Gospel. How do I know of
this pre-existence? I have very faint memories of a spiritual existence
before being born into this world. My children spoke of this of this
existence when they were small. I have heard of other 2-4 year old
children being able to talk of their own pre-existence in the spiritual
realm prior to their earthly birth, when carefully questioned about it.
One couple I know of had three boys who each spoke of having been with
God and the angels prior to birth without any prompting from their
parents when they were small. Evidently as people age and develop,
these memories are overlaid with countless earthly memories and are
largely forgotten.

Why don't you think that those memories come from their previous bodily
lives and experiences on Earth? Why don't you think that modern
geneticists may have already discovered the part of the DNA, responsible
for the feeling of "I", which assures that you are who you are, that you
are not me, not your wife and not your dog or my cat? And that they might
have discovered how that particular part of the DNA is transferred to our
future generations, to be sprouted out in one of our future offsprings,
born after our death and having the part of our DNA, which makes you
feeling you, and me feeling me? Just a simple nature's way of renewing
worn out bodies.

Why don't they announce that discovery, you may ask? Because of an
enormous turmoil it would cause, with unpredictable and possibly very
violent results. Scientifically dismantling all major religions, except
Buddhism, would backfire badly, that's for sure. I can't imagine
Christianity and Islam going down the drain peacefully. Can you? And
desire to increase the probability of reincarnation into another human
body, by means of spreading our DNA around the world, could trigger an
enormous growth in births, mass promiscuity, violent competition for
females (pretty much what instinctively all animals, birds, insects and
fish do), overpopulation and related famines, diseases, illnesses, wars
caused by all that predictable craze.

DND

One may ask why are we here and forced to leave that spiritual realm. I
believe that the answer lies in the fall of Lucifer from Heaven along
with a third of the angels. It is my own belief that human spirits were
originally intended to be part of Lucifer's cadre in the spiritual
realm. Once Lucifer fell, there was no further need for our existence
in the spiritual realm, since we had been created to serve Lucifer in
carrying out his heavenly responsibilities. Lucifer's disobedience
led to our own eventual banishment from Heaven, even though we were not
involved in his revolt against God. God in His infinite mercy has
brought us to this world to perfect our redemption. He is bound by His
own spiritual laws in the eternal realm, but at the temporal level, He
can rewrite our destiny through His plan for our redemption. Had not
Adam and Eve disobeyed God, this plan would have been much simpler and
salvation would have been universal for all mankind. When that couple
listened to Lucifer rather than obey God, suddenly salvation became
much more difficult. Man had chosen sides and was no longer just an
innocent bystander thus bringing condemnation on all mankind who was to
be born on earth from that time forward.
Man himself had sinned against God and lost his opportunity for an
easier salvation. To put it in the vernacular, man really blew it. Now
man's disobedience had to dealt with in a manner satisfying God,
fulfilling the new parameters now required for our salvation and permit
our return to the spiritual realm (Heaven) after leaving this earthly
sojourn. Christ, the second person of the Godhead, came to earth in the
form of a man to die a sacrificial death for our redemption so that by
believing in Him and on His death, we can be redeemed and made new
spiritual beings fit for His kingdom. Through Christ, the Holy Spirit
creates us anew and we are reshaped into His image, no longer designed
to follow after Lucifer and his entourage.
Praise be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for their gift of
salvation through the Son's loving sacrifice of Himself on the cross,
the Father's willingness to send Him and the Spirit's perseverance
in causing us to believe.
Some have a difficult time grasping the concept of the Trinity. The
Trinity is the three distinct, separate, yet simultaneously occurring
dynamic states in which God exists and through which He expresses
Himself. It may be easier to understand the Trinity by the functions
they perform. The Father is the Creator of His creation. The Son
controls the interface relationship between the Creator and His
creation. The Holy Spirit permeates the creation carrying out the will
of the Father and the Son.
Others may ask how does God create worlds and universes, i.e. this
temporal existence. I believe the new physics gives us an insight into
God's methods. The big bang which began our universe was caused by a
large quantum fluctuation. These fluctuations are believed by some
cosmologists to be power spikes in a tremendous quantum field of
incredible intensity. Since there are undoubtedly many of these power
spikes, and at the top of each powerful enough spike is a created
universe, there are probably many overlapping sister universes to our
universe in existence at this very moment. They are separated from each
other only by the different quantum time value that each universe
possesses. Thus we can not see or sense them nor can they see or sense
us. You may ask how does God fit into the overall scheme of these
things. I truly believe that the energy that creates and drives this
quantum field issues forth from the mind of God even as He speaks the
Word. The beauty of God and His methods is that while we may seem far
removed from where God is, He is only a prayer away. He loves us and
cares for us, who believe on His dear Son, and longs that all mankind
will come to a saving faith in His beloved Son; but God wants our love
freely given and not given through coercion. He gives us His Holy
Spirit to guide us and lead us into paths of righteousness for His
namesake. All that is required of us is simple faith in our living Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ.
I look forward to the day that I return to the spiritual realm from
which we have come and can worship, adore, praise and glorify Him
forever. Our Lord made a way back where there was no way, so that we
may dwell with Him and enjoy Him forever. Praise be to God that He has
not left us nor forsaken us, but through His death established His plan
for our salvation when we come to believe on His shed blood.
Hallelujah, God is truly great and greatly to be worshiped in spirit
and truth.

In awe of the Living God,
Richard E. Franing

AN INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS ONE

I've decided to take a shot at this one, so you folks need to get the
stake ready along with the rope, wood and matches because I'm about
to reveal my pet theory concerning the first chapter of Genesis. In
second Peter 3:8, we find the following in the RSV version: "But do
not ignore this fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a
thousand years and a thousand years is as one day." This is a way of
saying that God is the creator and ruler of time as well as every thing
else in this universe and beyond. So even a million or a billion years
can be as one day or one nanosecond to Him as He chooses it to be,
since He is beyond time. With that in mind, lets move into Genesis. In
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. I think that this
represents the start of our universe. The heavens representing space
and the earth representing matter. The earth being without form and
void and the Spirit of God hovered above the waters. The matter had not
coalesced together sufficiently to form large physical bodies in space,
but had coalesced enough that internal heat within the matter was
driving off water vapor that may have condensed on the surface of that
matter. Then God said let there be light. This was beginning of nuclear
fusion in our universe, along with planet building. Where the light hit
these protoplanets, there was day and on the backside of these bodies
was night just as God had commanded. Obviously it took billions of our
years for our universe to reach this stage, but to God that is little
more than a blink of the eye.
God called this time the first day. The morning and the evening being
whatever time that God wishes it to be or when He wishes it to be. I
think it highly unlikely He is saying an Earthday at this point because
our solar system had not been created yet, that did not occur until the
fourth day. On the second day God separated the waters into the seas
and the sky. Evidently certain planets in scattered solar systems had
cooled enough for their atmospheres to start clearing instead of one
big shroud of clouds enveloping these planets from their surfaces
upward. This probably took millions of years to occur. During this day
God formed the land surfaces upon these planets. Again in God's time
there could have been another blink of His spiritual eyes. Evening
could be when He closes His eyes and the morning when He opens them
again. So ended the second day. (I can see that you folks have erected
the stake and gathered the firewood. You're having a cookout!
Right?). On the third day, God brought forth vegetation. There have
probably been many planets within our universe in times past and yet
today that have some forms of life upon them. This is God's universe,
along with any others, and He can do with them whatever He so desires.
Who are we to limit Him to only caring about what happens on our dinky
little planet, as important as it is to us? Don't get me wrong, God
does care about us and this Earth, but We are not His only
responsibility. Again God blinks His eyes and another day is over in
His book, even though more millions of Earth type years may have
elapsed.
On the fourth day God created our sun, the moon and obviously the
planets in our solar system. From this point on, I think that God is
referring to our planet when He speaks of the earth, although He is not
yet talking in Earthdays when He speaks. We tend to limit God into our
way of thinking, not realizing that He is far greater than we could
ever imagine. God also created the land and plants on our Earth in this
time frame. This "day" must have been several billion Earth years
long. It is wonderful that God never gets tired doing all this
creating, because if He did He would probably get worn out just trying
to keep up with all the petitions I offer up to His throne, let alone
those that everyone else bring to Him in prayer.
On the fifth day, God created the animals. Plants were already in
existence on the Earth, being part of his previous day's work. This
time frame probably lasted hundreds of millions of Earth years. As you
can tell by now, I think that God used an evolutionary process to bring
this to past. Not a random type of evolution, but a God inspired and
God driven evolutionary process that only He is capable of doing. Truly
we have a great and awe inspiring God.
On the sixth day, we arrive at the place where the rubber meets the
road so to speak. Did God create man? You bet He did. Did God use an
evolutionary process to create man from the higher mammal animals? You
bet He did. (GASP!) You say what about Adam? I think He came along
later. This day probably lasted several million years. God looked at
all of this creation and declared it good. Who are we to argue with God
about something like that. If He says it is good, then it must be good.
Anyway God decided He needed a little vacation after all that work of
creating. I'll bet my bottom dollar that the seventh day did not last
even two Earth seconds, because God loves what He is doing so much that
He won't ever give it up and keeps on keeping on.
Getting back to Adam, I believe that Adam was the first human with a
spirit bearing soul. God created him from the dust of the Earth and
breathed life into Him because God had created him for a special
purpose. Adam was a perfect man. He could not say that bad genes had
caused him to sin. Likewise Eve whom God created from Adam was perfect.
These two were to be the first of mankind to enter into this world with
a God created spirit. All men existing before Adam had a soul, but no
spirit indwelling that soul. This leads me to think that the fall of
Lucifer from Heaven occurred sometime after the sixth day. This I have
reason to believe: that spirits of men are leftover remnants from the
old order that existed in Heaven before Lucifer launched his revolt
against God. As beings who did not take part in that revolt, but
nevertheless of suspect loyalty to God, we could not remain in Heaven
in our old form. We have to be transformed into new creatures before we
are acceptable to God again. This is the purpose of our earthly
existence. God knew that Lucifer and a third of the angels were going
to revolt against him. He also had originally created us as subangelic
beings to assist Lucifer in carrying out his heavenly responsibilities,
before Lucifer got the big head and decided to try to take over God's
position. I wonder if that happened while God was on vacation during
the seventh day. It would be just like old Lucifer to try something
like that.
Anyway, once God decided that we subangelic spiritual beings (see
Hebrews 2:7) could no longer dwell in His heavenly kingdom in our then
spiritual form and He began thinking of ways to change us. He could not
do this at the eternal level because He is constrained by His own
eternal laws at that level. He had to bring us to a temporal level to
accomplish that. Since a suitable vehicle (man) was already in place to
accomplish this objective, God decided to piggyback these spirits into
men's souls. This is why our soul also contains a God created spirit
(see Hebrews 4:12). Adam was the first of these spirit souled men. Had
he not disobeyed God, he would have been permitted to eventually eat of
the tree of life and been transformed into an eternal creature, with
rights to dwell with God forever. Adam and Eve were a special test
case. God knew that if they failed the test, then all men from that
point on would fail this test. They were cast out of the Garden and
forced to live among the other existing humans. From that time on all
human beings have had a spirit bearing soul. How long will this go on?
Probably until heaven is emptied of its condemned subangelic spirits or
until the church on Earth becomes so decadent that so few are getting
saved and transformed thru faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that there is no purpose in continuing the process. This why
spirit bearing souls should not be aborted and the Gospel must be
preached with great fervor everywhere on Earth. This is our one and
only chance to be able to dwell with God forever. We pass this way but
once and each spirit bearing soul gets only one chance. There is no
reincarnation. We must not rob ourselves or future generations of this
sole opportunity for salvation. Once Adam failed, only the new Adam
(Jesus Christ) could salvage the situation for us. He is the Way, the
Truth and the Life. He who has Christ has eternal life and this life is
in God's only begotten Son.
I have presented this theory, not as an absolute truth, but as an
attempt to bridge the difference between fact and faith. Many people
choose to ignore the physical facts around us or to twist them to agree
with their particular interpretation of God's Word. Likewise too many
people ignore the Scriptures in a vain attempt to arrive at the facts.
God does not lie nor do the facts lie, and ultimately they are saying
the same thing. (So why are you folks grabbing me, not the stake. Oh
well, let the flames begin. (Arrrgh!!!)

Thoughtfully yours in Christ Jesus,
***** Franing

A SHORT TREATISE ON ORIGINAL SIN

The Lord God took man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and
keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "You may freely
eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you
shall die."
But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die. For God knows
that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like
God, knowing good and evil." .....she took of its fruit and ate; and
she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both
were opened, and they knew that they were naked. .....
Then the Lord God said, "Behold the man has become like one of us,
knowing good and evil; and now lest he put forth his hand and take also
of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"-therefore the Lord
God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from
which he was taken. He drove out the man: and at the east of the garden
of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every
way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
(excerpts from the Book of Genesis, Chapters 2 and 3)

How often has man pondered these words throughout the ensuing centuries
and speculated as to their exact meaning. Some say that it was an
actual fruit such as an apple, some look at it as being an abstract
historical event, some think of it as a crisis of the spirit that man
experienced, while others think that these verses represent a
supernatural experience that Adam and Eve had. Some people think that
it represents some form or type of superior knowledge. Still others
think of it as a mythical story told to explain how sin began. None of
these concepts are comprehensive enough to adequately explain the true
nature of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
I fear that I now know the meaning of these verses. The tree of this
knowledge lies deep within the soul of man. It is what the Christian
teacher Watchman Nee refers to as "the latent power of the soul".
So what is this latent power that lies hidden deep within the inner
recesses of man's soul? I believe that it is a type of angelic power,
which might be better thought of as Adamic power.
Man is a sub-angelic being who is endowed with a certain degree of
latent angelic capability. Man is not an angel, but man may be
distantly related to the angels in some manner. Under certain
circumstances, the latent angelic capability of a relatively few number
of people can become momentarily activated for short periods of time.
Probably at least 99% of the human race never experiences any of this
activation and thus are totally oblivious to the existence of the
latent angelic capability within themselves.
Activation of this capability primarily occurs during spiritual dreams
while asleep. The person begins a troubled dream while in a deep sleep,
then slips into a state of spiritual dreaming through which the person
can temporarily enter into the angelic mode. While in this temporary
angelic mode, the person is able to direct the course of future events,
depending what the subject of spiritual dream is. If the person
exercises his angelic powers in concert with the direction of the Holy
Spirit of God, the results will be good and beneficial. If the person
exercises his angelic powers in a unilateral manner, then the results
will inevitably be evil. The person acting in a unilateral way is
trying to play God by usurping God's authority in total disregard to
God's will. This is the reason why Adam and Eve fell in the garden.
As a result, they were stripped of their innocence and left naked
before the Lord. It appears that the ability to be activated runs in
certain families. It may also be that this ability may skip generations
within a family, as well as individuals within an active generation. My
father's mother was an angelically active person, but my father never
experienced activation as I have.
In honesty, I must admit that I have exercised this angelic power both
ways in the past, for the good of mankind when exercised in concert
with the Holy Spirit and to the detriment of man when I exercised it
unilaterally. This was largely done in ignorance before I realized what
the exact nature of this power was and how capricious this Adamic power
can be. It has a Jekyll and Hyde quality about it and must be exercised
with extreme caution and then only under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit. Adam was warned about this danger, but he chose to disregard
God's warning. When God told Adam not to eat of that tree, He was
telling him not to exercise his angelic capability because it would
cause him fail the test and all future mankind with him. After man's
fall in the Garden, this capability became latent. Because Adam sinned,
he was not permitted to eat of the tree of life. The way of the tree of
life would have to be personified in the Way, the Truth and the Life in
order for man to have that opportunity again to gain eternal life and
that life is in God's only begotten son, our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ.
My experience with this phenomenon is that it begins in earnest during
the early teen years, reaches its peak about 30-35 years of age and
then slowly declines until it reaches a point of near cessation during
one's lower fifties. The time of greatest power during a person's
early thirties is also the time of greatest danger because it when the
greatest extremes of good and evil are possible. Momentary angelity can
a potent stealth weapon if used unwisely. Following one's spiritual
instincts can indeed be dangerous, thus the person must stay close to
God and be clothed in His righteousness. The old testament and book of
Acts states that the young men shall see visions and the old men shall
dream dreams. In those days, an old man could be any man past the age
of thirty because life expectancy was not very long in those days. I
have experienced these visions and dreams in the past. The visions are
basically learning experiences while the dreams are basically doing
experiences.
Adam lost any chance to gain access to the tree of life in the garden
when he disobeyed God, thereby losing the opportunity for eternal life
with God in heaven. As children of Adam, we also share that lost
opportunity, but God in his great mercy has created another way for us
to obtain eternal life with Him. God sent his Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, to die and shed his blood to free us from the first Adam's
curse and our own sin. Through faith in the Lord Jesus we are born anew
into God's family and receive the promise of the Father that we will
stand faultless before the throne at the day of judgement. We are no
longer children of disobedience, but we are now children of God fit for
His kingdom. All that is required of us is simple faith in the Lord
Jesus and His sacrificial death on the cross, and to open our hearts
and minds to the working of the Holy Spirit of God.
Man tries his own methods of attempting to tap into this latent angelic
capability that some are vaguely aware of within themselves. Some
gnostics, certain psychics, many new agers, kundalini yogis, certain
mediums and supernaturalists of various kinds are trying in their own
way to regain the power that Adam and Eve possessed, abused and
subsequently lost during the fall. Little do they realize that they are
playing with spiritual dynamite. A few people may try to regain this
Adamic power with an intent of somehow attaining angelic status which
they think might give them access to the tree of life. God has blocked
this route with his cherubim and flaming sword. They would be far
better off to seek the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness as the
path to eternal life. Having experienced this Adamic power first hand,
I am well acquainted with good and evil even as Adam was. I thank God
that Christ is my refuge, that in Him I find forgiveness through faith
in His shed blood and that He sets my feet on the path of righteousness
for His name's sake. Truly He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Praise be to God for His everlasting grace, love and mercy.

Under the Blood of Jesus,
Richard E. Franing