A Ramble About Rekall

I recently watched the remake of Total Recall. The original with Arnold Schwarzenegger was one of those movies that I saw as a kid at the drive in (when there still was one in Westminster, CA) with my mom, who still happens to be a sci-fi buff and is the reason why I became one as well.

For those not in the know, the premise of the remake is that a master double agent, Carl Hauser, has his memories erased and rewritten by a corrupt future government in the attempt to root out the leader of an opposition cell. Their plans go askew when his new persona, Douglas Quaid (a lowly factory worker), is dissatisfied by his job and goes to a business called “Rekall” to have more exciting memories implanted in his brain. This sets off alarms at Rekall when they attempt to do the memory implantation and find out what happened. From there on it's one long constant chase as he eventually finds the aforementioned cell leader, named Matthias, who it turns out is something of a gentleman philosopher.

In the dialogue of their meeting, something profound is said:

Quaid: “I want to remember.”

Matthias: “Why?”

Quaid: “So I can be myself. Be who I was.”

Matthias: “It is each man's quest to find out who he truly is. But the answer to that lies in the present not in the past.”

Quaid: “But the past tells us who we've become.”

Matthias: “The past is a construct of the mind. It blinds us. It fools us into believing it. But the heart wants to live in the present. Look there. You'll find your answers.”

As I turned this dialogue over and over in my own mind, it kept reminding me of a simple truth. It isn't who we were that God's judgment is based on. It's who we are in each and every moment. It isn't what we've done in the past which matters, but what we do and say right here and right now, in this moment of time. It is who we are at the moment of death (and therefore resurrection) or living transfiguration which matters to God.

In Ezekiel 18:21-28 (ESV), God says pretty clearly,

“But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.”

“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die.”

Again and again in the Holy Scriptures this idea is reinforced. God is merciful and compassionate to all those who turn to Him for forgiveness and follow what He says no matter what they have done or who they might have been in the past. He doesn't care about the person you may have been as much as He cares about the person you are now. All the bad things you may have done are in the past. In the same way, all the good things you've done are in the past as well and don't count for the present (or the future for that matter).

Jesus said “Remain in Me.” He also said that the person who didn't remain in Him would dry up and eventually be burned with the rest of the dead foliage. This is a warning to all those who profess to follow Him. God doesn't remember laurels and gold stars any more than He remembers sins and transgressions. Don't rest on them. He's not concerned with a person who no longer exists. Church was this morning. This morning is in the past and is gone. Who are you right now? He's concerned with the person you are right now at this moment, not who you were in the pews several hours ago.

Are you remaining in Him at this moment? Are you obeying Him at this moment? Are you walking and acting by Grace through faith at this moment? If not, turn around. Draw close to Him and He will draw close to you.

A Ramble About Why God Permits Evil in the World

This is going to be a shorter Ramble than you might think. It is the number one problem of religious studies and the number one question of agnostics and atheists which causes even some of the hardiest believers to pause. “If there is a loving, good, all-powerful God, then why does He permit the evil and atrocities which happen in this world?”

There is a simple answer to this. He permits evil to exist in the world because to do otherwise would mean completely wiping the human race from existence. The human race is, as a species, insane in an otherwise sane and beautiful creation, and it doesn't take much pushing to bring out this insanity in the average person. Just take away the things, people, dreams, security, etc. which they have attached themselves to and it will bubble to the surface as we struggle to cope. It is this insanity which drives people to be selfish and without compassion. It is this selfishness which causes harm to ourselves, those around us, and the creation around us whether we see the immediate cause of the harm or not; and which causes us to blame everyone and everything else around us including God for the harm we do to ourselves. We, the insane human race, are the cause of evil in this world. The only way to totally eradicate evil is to totally eradicate the human race as we know it. In other words, evil is allowed to continue because of His mercy.

Furthermore, God respects our right to be individual beings with our own thoughts, feelings, memories, experiences, and choices. In order for us to continue to exist physically, and eradicate evil, He would have to completely reprogram every one of us into completely different people without each person's individual consent, and this is something He will not do. His compassion for us, His love and respect for us as individual persons dictate that He allow us to be the people we are and make our own choices whether they are selfish or compassionate and to bear the consequences of either. Just as He will not wipe the whole human race from existence Himself, so He will not wipe the individual psyche from existence and forcibly reprogram the individual human brain. That would be tantamount to murder because the unique psyche of the individual person would be lost forever. He asks us to cooperate with Him in being transformed by His Grace, but only with our consent and cooperation; never by force.

There has been one time in our distant past when He nearly did eradicate evil from the world. It's an event recorded in every human cultural memory. The great flood almost completely destroyed us, and yet He chose to stay His hand from our annihilation. There have been times when He has culled us and our inventiveness in order to keep us from destroying ourselves and the rest of creation faster than it could have been, but He has never completely destroyed us.

Ultimately, we will end up destroying ourselves and the habitat He created for us through the consequences of billions if not trillions of our selfish choices over the last tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years of human existence. Until that happens He will continue to prune and cull to stave it off until there is nothing left to prune and cull, and He will continue to offer us a way to cooperate with Him with the end result of our individual salvation from destruction at our own hands.

The just judgment of God is to let us stand or fall by the consequences of the choices we make. His mercy is when He does damage control to mitigate those consequences so we don't end up completely destroyed either individually or as a species. But if we refuse to cooperate with Him, He respects our choices and lets us fall on our own swords, tears in His eyes as he is forced to watch it.

The worst part about our insanity is how it affects Him. We blame Him. We curse Him. We deny His very existence. We bring harm and violence to His good creation, and inflict it on ourselves, each other, and the non-human innocents and He is forced to watch it all, to know exactly what it feels like every time it happens to everyone and everything it happens to. We inflict our evil on Him too, and He continues to love us and show compassion and mercy even as we are hurting Him mercilessly.

God allows evil to continue because He loves us and cares about us, not because he doesn't. We're the ones who twist it around and blame Him for our own individual and collective evil.

A Ramble About Maleficent

I have known a great many women, at various stages of my life, who have been through abusive relationships and come out the worse for it. It has been my observation that women in general, no matter who it is, are protectors and nurturers by nature and it is only through pain and violence that this is twisted in them so that they become abusive and destructive.

I recently saw Maleficent, two or three times. I admit, I really liked this movie. It's a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story from the viewpoint of the villain, giving it a twist. Maleficent is, after all is said and done, the story of a woman abused by the man with whom she had a romantic relationship who finds redemption, forgiveness, and freedom in the love of her “goddaughter.”

In the movie, Maleficent starts as a little girl who befriends the boy who would grow to be the man, Stefan, who abuses her. We also see the imagery of horns and wings, symbolizing the capacity of this young girl to be either angelic, compassionate, and loving or demonic, angry, and vengeful. The two spend time together as they grow from pre-teen to adults over a period of several years.

But this young man has his own ambitions, and in order to achieve them he is willing to use their relationship to get close enough to her to kill her. But then, unable to go through with it, he saws her wings off while she is drugged to offer “proof” to a dying king that she has been killed. And then he leaves her damaged, angry, and in pain.

As she began the story with the potential to be either angel or demon, her wings are torn from her and she is literally an outcast from heaven through no fault of her own. Angry and bitter she lashes out at the man who hurt her by cursing the daughter, the product of Stefan's ambitions, he has with the woman who replaced her.

This unnamed woman is the daughter of the king whom the man married in order to become king himself. So she is also the incarnation of the man's ambitions. How many men throw their wives and loved ones away for the sake of their careers? It wasn't the woman he wanted as much as the kingship she represented, and, when he has what he wants from her, he throws her away too and leaves her to die from an unnamed illness while he himself descends into madness.

As the young princess grows up in seclusion, Maleficent finds herself caring for the girl throughout her life (because her three fairy “aunties” are completely inept), making sure she is fed and kept safe. A maternal bond forms between them and the girl's love and compassion becomes Maleficent's salvation as she begins to open up her heart again to let the girl in. Maleficent tries desperately and powerfully to revoke the curse she has placed on the girl, but as is so often the case in life, what she set in motion through her bitter desire for revenge against Stefan and his ambitions can't be undone so simply.

In turn Maleficent's maternal love for the princess she cursed becomes the girl's own salvation from that curse. In this story, the kiss of true love doesn't come from a prince Aurora met only once, but from the single motherly kiss on the forehead of her “godmother” who loved and cared for her all of her life.

In the final scenes, Maleficent is confronted by Stefan who is now completely out of his mind and obsessed with destroying her, surrounding himself with steel and iron which she can't touch or else she will be burned. He is completely oblivious and uncaring to the fact the Maleficent is the one who saved his daughter from the eternal sleep. She is surrounded by his iron-clad soldiers who are just waiting for him to deliver the death blow.

It is here also where it is the love of her “goddaughter” which saves Maleficent from murder at Stefan's hands, because it is Aurora who finds and releases Maleficent's wings which, sensing her presence in the castle, fly fast and furious to be rejoined with their owner. And then we see Maleficent made whole and rising like an avenging angel, no longer the villain, trying to protect Aurora from her father's madness. In the final scene is a struggle between Stefan and Maleficent at the top of the castle, and then they both topple off. Maleficent's wings, her angelic nature, catch her as he tries to drag her down with him, but Stefan continues his final plunge alone and dies. Maleficent, and also Aurora, are finally freed from the abuser.

As I think about this movie now, I can't help but think of all the women out there who have, like Maleficent, been abused by the men who had promised to love them. The women who are hurt, and angry, and who lash out at innocents trying to punish the men who hurt them. This is the cycle of abuse, and the only thing which breaks that cycle, as in the movie, is love, forgiveness, and compassion.

Maleficent, who was a protector and nurturer, was abused, and so in her pain she became an abuser instead of a protector. And it was only through the plight of a motherless, innocent girl who needed to be protected and nurtured that she was able to turn back from her destructive path to the light from the darkness. It was only through her choice to love this innocent girl who symbolized everything which had hurt her that she began to heal the damage which had been done to her and the damage which she had done in her bitterness.

After all is said and done, this is truly where healing from abuse must begin. Not with waiting for someone else to love you, but with the hard path of choosing to love in spite of the abuse.  

A Ramble About Evidence

Today I just felt drained. I finally got hired for part time work with an event security company here in Orange County. It's not much, but it's at least a paying job. So, the past couple of days I have been preoccupied with getting to an interview (not realizing that the bus didn't go far enough down the street I needed it to and having to walk the extra mile or two), putting together clothes for a uniform, and attending an orientation yesterday morning. This morning it felt like all I could do to just pray for the two services our church holds on Sundays.

I spent most of today just browsing Facebook, checking the news online, and watching some clips from Youtube. One of the pictures on Facebook caught my eye. It was of a series of chat messages between a friend of a friend and an atheist whom this friend of a friend had never met before. She had posted it for those friends and friends of friends who might find it interesting. I fell into the latter category and read through it.

This person wrote, in reference to religion:

Not exactly, I'm just saying its a flawed system all together and I for a long time felt horrible because I didn't believe in a religion and I tried very hard but I realized that this is who I am and what a believe, beyond that the logistics of religion are ridiculous and illogical, and everyone always says you don't need logic and things but it's important. And I'm not saying that I know exactly what's going t happen when I die if there is a god (which I don't believe there is) and if it's the Christian God I will gladly and easily go to hell because I don't want to be in a heaven that won't accept people for who they are or for what they believe no matter the type of person they are

Everyday because I'm atheist people tell me I'm going to somewhere I don't even believe in, and I would like to think that if there was a heaven I would get into it because I'm a nice person with good morals but apparently not

This what I believe and I get people making assumptions everyday about how I live my life and honestly I don't deserve what I get

(reprinted from a photo posted on Facebook, author unknown)

If nothing else, this is a good, honest explanation of where this person is at. If we were to get technical, I wouldn't classify this person as an atheist, but as an agnostic. They were willing to give the existence of God or a god a shot, and couldn't find verifiable evidence to back it up in their experience. It sounds like the person may still be open to the possibility of God with the right evidence. In my opinion, I don't think the failure is necessarily with the person who wrote this as much as it lies with the “evangelists” who represented the Christian faith and the existence of God to this person.

For me, the idea the God might not exist is ridiculous. It is more ridiculous than if someone were to tell me my wife didn't actually exist but she was a figment of my imagination (hey, you watch Matrix enough and it can start to play philosophical games with your head about the nature of reality). I've had an experiential relationship with Him now for many, many years and have seen His movements, answers to prayer that cross the miracle border and then some, and sensed and been aware of His presence in ways so deeply intimate and unmistakable that His existence just isn't a question for me. I know Him in the same way that I know my wife, or my kids, or the friend from college that I've known for twenty years (although I hear from Him a lot more than the friend from college). I know Him well enough now to know something of generally why He does what He does, and why He's likely to not do something. I can't usually predict what He's going to do. There're too many factors involved in His decision making for me to handle. He still surprises me all the time, and I'm never going to fully understand Him (that is physically impossible), but we do have that kind of a relationship.

The author of the chat text doesn't. For whatever reason, he or she doesn't have the kind of experience or evidence of God that I and many others do. Just telling this kind of a person to “believe and then you'll see” doesn't fly with him or her. It's a useless, and potentially harmful cliché which, as in this person's case, when it doesn't work in their opinion causes them to distance themselves even further.

This kind of person needs to see the evidence of God. With Jesus, His apostles, and many of the Saints throughout history part of this evidence took the form of demonstrations of power, miraculous healings, even resurrection from the dead. This became undeniable evidence of the truth of what they said. Of course, even this kind of evidence was challenged by those who found it threatening their positions (see Pharisees and the Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit). To this day, even many Christians challenge the veracity of miracles performed by the Saints of the Church because such miracles threaten their interpretation of Holy Scripture and Gospel truth. Here's a question, how can we point to the evidence God supports us with to prove our claims, when we refuse to accept it ourselves?

The other kind of evidence that Jesus, the Apostles, and the Saints of old demonstrated was the evidence of their lives. They weren't just good people. The sacrificed themselves and their desires to obey, move closer to and be with the God who loved them and whom they loved. They did this being motivated and empowered by His uncreated energies which also, coincidentally, powered the more visually flashy evidence of His presence. People saw that there wasn't just something a little bit different about them. They saw they they were from a whole 'nother world and were eager to get back to it. They saw that they refused to be assimilated into this world, this world hated them for it, and the feeling was mutual. They saw the unreasonable compassion, lovingkindness, and self-sacrifice which bordered on insanity to the point that these people were singing praises to God as they were crucified, burned alive, torn apart by lions and skinned alive.

The person who wrote that chat text hasn't seen any of this from those who claim to be witnesses who have evidence of the presence of God and the truth of their religious faith. This isn't his or her fault. He or she shouldn't be expected to want to “become a Christian” based on the strength of someone's condemnation of their assumed lifestyle, especially if the person “witnessing” isn't acting or living any differently than he or she is.

Why would any sane person want to belong to a church or religious group that doesn't have the evidence to back up their claims? Why should we expect them to “just believe” when we don't even pretend to act like we believe, let alone actually believe and act on it? This is not the failure of the honest atheist or agnostic. This is a failure of the dishonest “Christian.”

I do not know if I will ever run into the person who wrote this text, but I want to thank them for their honesty. I hope, I truly hope, that if I ever do meet them that I will not have to say one word for them to understand the presence of God around and within me. If I do have to say anything, then I had better keep my mouth closed anyway. If God doesn't support my claim to faith without my saying anything, then He and I need to have a serious talk, and I have a lot of explaining to do.

A Ramble About Kung Fu Pastors

This is a subject which, in my experience, most people really don't seem to understand or get. There is a profession which really requires years of study and hands on experience. The training for it often requires personal and financial sacrifices which can leave the student in financial debt in the many tens of thousands of dollars. The moral standards to which the student is held are absolute. When this professional level is finally achieved, the person is often asked to work for near minimum wage, or no salary at all, and they are expected to be fine with it. To top it off, just about everyone else who hasn't spent the time, effort and money studying and practicing generally believes they know more about this profession than the person licensed to practice it, and most disregard his advice and instruction when it suits them.

Do you know what this profession is? Talk to your pastor. He'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

Everyone seems to think they are able to interpret the Holy Scriptures, and instruct others in the path of Jesus Christ better than those actually trained to do it, and the less experience they have as a Christian, the more able they believe themselves to be. I know, I used to do it too. Chances are if you're reading this, so did you at one time.

It's not a new problem. St. Neilos writes about it in the early fifth century:

There is another thing which in my opinion is truly disgraceful, and for which with good reason we are ridiculed by all. When someone has just entered the monastic life and has learnt merely about the outward practices of asceticism – how and when monks pray, what they eat and how they dress – at once he claims to teach others concerning things he has not mastered himself. He goes about with a bevy of disciples, although himself still needing instruction; he thinks it easy to be a spiritual guide, not realizing the care of all men's souls is of all things the most difficult. … To master any art requires time and much instruction; can the art of arts alone be mastered without being learnt? No one without experience would go in for farming; not would someone who has never been taught medicine try to practice as a doctor. The first would be condemned for making good farmland barren and weed infested; the second, for making the sick worse instead of better. The only art which the uninstructed dare to practice, because they think it the simplest of all, is that of the spiritual way. What is difficult the majority regard as easy; and what Paul says he has not yet apprehended, they claim to know through and through, although they do not know even this: that they are totally ignorant. This is why the monastic life has come to be treated with contempt, and those who follow it are mocked by everyone. For who would not laugh when he sees someone who yesterday served in a tavern, posing today as a teacher of virtue, surrounded by pupils? … If such people realized clearly how much painful toil is required to guide others on the spiritual way, and if they knew the risks involved, they would certainly abandon the task as beyond their powers. But because they remain ignorant of this and regard it as a glory to be the guide of others, they will when the moment comes tumble headlong into the pit. (St. Neilos the Ascetic, c. 415 AD, pp. 215-216, The Philokalia The Complete Text, Vol. I, compiled by St. Nikodomos of the Holy Mountain, Palmer, G.E.H., Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware, ed. and trans., New York: Faber and Faber, 1979)

What is truly exasperating is that when the educated and trained pastor tries to point out his education and training as actually qualifying him to do his job, the uneducated and untrained person uses that pastor's education and training against him as though it disqualified him completely! And heaven help the poor pastor if he makes a mistake like losing his temper!

Here's the thing, the Christian faith and rule of life is, first and foremost, a discipline of practice which has to not only be taught, but learned through experience and repetition like a martial art for example. You have to do it over and over again before it becomes ingrained to where you no longer consciously think about it but you just instinctively react that way. This cannot be acquired instantly or through a brief observation. It would be like the nine year old boy who goes to watch an action movie and comes away believing he knows kung-fu because he remembers more or less the movements which the actors made in the movie. When he attempts to show off his new found skills, the clumsiness of his movements demonstrate to everyone that he has no idea what he's doing. So it is with the “disciple” who merely observes or reads about how a Christian is to act and then believes he has arrived. There is also the added problem of the person only observing or reading about “Christians” who themselves are like that nine year old boy. The rule of faith and practice then degenerates into some kind of ridiculous farce which barely, if at all, resembles the original, “Grace”-ful art.

The nine year old who truly wants to learn kung fu will have his parents take him to a training center with someone who has spent the years necessary to master his art (which is actually what “kung fu” means). He will take his place humbly and patiently as a learner and go through the hard work of learning each movement by painfully repeating it over and over again, programming his muscles to respond without thought. He will make painful mistakes, and likely get hurt in the process. He will learn to heal and go right back into training. He will spend years doing this, disciplining his body and mind to where they act in concert. So it is with the person who truly wants to follow the path of Jesus Christ.

Pastors will make mistakes even though they may have been practicing for many years. This doesn't mean they don't know what they're doing. It means they're still under constant demonic attack from temptations and thoughts trying to insinuate themselves within them, and still haven't reached the full maturity of the resurrection yet any more than you or I have. Even St. Paul in Philippians 3 said he hadn't yet achieved this at the time he wrote it.

It is true that there are some pastors who's heads are filled with knowledge, have gone through all the seminary training, and still don't seem to know what they're doing. It is equally true that there are a few that don't seem to have gone through any formal training at all, and yet appear near Sainthood. From my experience (take it as you will), both situations tend to be in the minority.

Although many pastors today tend to avoid using the title “Reverend”, as a pastor friend of mine once said, there's a reason why it's there. It means that person has dedicated a significant amount of the latter part of his life to studying and practicing the faith of Jesus Christ in the best way he knows how, and has done so all so he can pass what he learns on to you through training and discipleship.

Even if he doesn't appear to have it all together, unless he's in known, serious sin, he deserves at least your respect and has earned the right through trials and testing to be thought of as knowing what he's talking about.

A Ramble About Why God Puts Us Where He Does

Many years ago when I was still in Bible School in Wisconsin, an old friend in my class once told me, “God isn't so concerned about the work of a worker as He is about the work in a worker.” A few years later, he amended his statement to say, “The work of God is the worker.”

I was reflecting on this as I was taking a shower this morning (sorry for the disturbing image). Sometimes it doesn't seem fair when I think I'm doing everything I know how to do to follow Christ and minister to those whom He brings my way, and yet He still won't open up the door yet for a paying job, no matter how many applications and interviews, much less a paid pastoral position. It's still humiliating when someone offers to buy groceries or necessities for my family and I because they believe they have to.

And yet, I am constantly placed into positions where I seem to be at the right place and the right time to give Jesus to the right person in the way they need it. He doesn't need to use me to do this, but He chooses to do so, not for His own benefit, or even necessarily for the benefit of the other person, but for mine.

It is the same with the mega-church pastor of tens of thousands, or the tiny church pastor of mere tens, or the missionary overseas who has malaria and can barely feed his own kids, or the missionary overseas who is living in a two story Victorian home and has a six figure annual donation. No one of us is in the position we're in because we're the most qualified or because we have something better to offer than someone else. God places us into the positions we're in because it's the most efficient way to mature us and bring us closer to His goal of union with Him.

So he places the mega-church pastor where he's at because sooner or later the man will discover he's a sinner and prove it to everyone else who's watching him. In other words, God does this to humble the person towards maturity. He puts me where I'm at so that I'm forced to trust Him, practice moderation, poverty, and obedience under stress, and get to the point where the only home I feel I have is Him. It is the same for every other minister. We don't get the jobs we do because we can do the best job at it. We get the jobs we do because they're the best for us. He doesn't need us to do them. We need us to do them in order to grow. It's a matter of learning obedience, humility, and shedding the attachments to the world which cling to us.

God's biggest goal and concern for us is, and will always be, that we know Him and cooperate with Him. He wants us to be brought to maturity in deification. Compared to this, He could care less about anything else regarding our comfort, stability, or personal successes. As our Father, He really can't do any less. It's similar to me and my kids. My biggest concern for them isn't their happiness. It's that they grow and mature into responsible, compassionate followers of Jesus Christ because I know that in the long view, their happiness and worldly successes are going to come and go, and won't last. So as a responsible parent, my first priority for them has to be what's permanent, not what's transient.

I don't know if I'm really at the point yet where I've got the self-discipline to live how God wants me to live without the external pressures and stresses, but God does and as a responsible parent He acts towards me accordingly. Unfortunately, like a bratty teenager, I kick and scream against His discipline more often than I care to admit. But I can see in my own life that His discipline is beginning, finally, to take some hold on me, and that He was right to enforce it.

We all mature and grow towards His upward calling at our own pace. There really isn't any way to hurry it up. There was a time when I thought that if I just tried to comply and do everything I thought He wanted me to, then I wouldn't have to go through His maturation process. This is a child's reasoning, no matter how well intentioned, and it doesn't work. My kids at times reason this way, and while it may keep them out of worse trouble than otherwise, it won't spare them from having to mature the hard way through time, failure, and experience.

It is through the work God places us in that we learn to emulate our Lord in emptying ourselves, taking the form of a slave, and dying a criminal's death in our pursuit of union with Him. This, and not the “ministry” is the most important work God will ever have us engaged in, and if we don't focus on this first, then any amount of “ministry” work we do is for nothing where we ourselves are concerned, and that is an unacceptable outcome to God.

A Ramble About Permissions

In my previous A Ramble About the Transmigration of the Soul I said this:

“Computer processors are made up of billions of transistors. The human brain is essentially a very complex, dynamic organic computer processor. If you've ever seen a picture of a neuron, of which the brain is made up of billions if not trillions, it resembles and functions much like a transistor. A transistor is essentially an electronic switch that uses an electrical impulse to either permit or deny the passage of an electrical current. It forms the basis of all logic circuits, which are the core of all computing devices in existence. Albeit a very highly sophisticated and complex transistor, the neuron is essentially a transistor nonetheless. Like the computer's processor, it functions by the transmission of electrical impulses along pathways of neurons. Inside a computer, these impulses are coded as “1” and “0” for “on” and “off”, if we could describe the internal coding of the neural pathways, it would probably not look much different in its simplest written form.

This internal coding of the human brain (the electrical impulses which course through our neural pathways) is essentially, for all intents and purposes, the human psyche or soul. It is the set of instructions which are formed from the input it receives through the five senses from its experiences and memories. It is programmed, compiled, and run on a single processor which is absolutely unique in terms of the internal arrangement of its “transistors” because every human brain, because of its organic nature and the way in which it forms and grows and changes throughout the course of a person's life, is absolutely unique.”

I had an interesting thought based on this understanding as to why one has only this life in which to repent and cooperate with God through Jesus Christ. It is only in this life and body where cellular change occurs. This body requires it in order to function normally. An organism which does not have regular cell death and regeneration is a dead organism. And organism with uncontrolled cellular regeneration has cancer.

When the body dies, the "software", that is the electrical impulses which make up the memories, thoughts, and personality of the person, is uploaded into a kind of emulator in order to keep it running until it can be downloaded back into a resurrected body. This much I've already described in the aforementioned Ramble.

One of the properties of certain computer files and programs is called “permissions”, Essentially, you can set a file that you create in such a way so that only you are able to make any changes to it, or even see it at all. This is called making a file “read-only.” On my computer, file permissions can be set so that even the administrator, the person who's supposed to be able to access and make necessary changes to the whole system, may not be able to rewrite them, but only the person who created the file.

In the case of a human being's conscious person, that person's coding is written by the person himself through his interaction with the external world and the processing of his own conclusions and calculations. When the person dies, the only one who has the rightful permission to alter the coding is the person that the coding itself describes. God respects our free will and conscious decisions so much that He will not make any alterations to it that the person himself does not authorize.

As a result, the coding, the software, outside of the natural physical body is "read-only" and unalterable so that the conscious person isn't lost in any way. Once the software is downloaded again into a resurrected, immortal, deified body and brain, it is still effectively "read-only" because the immortal body will not undergo cellular death and regeneration. The resurrected brain is like booting a computer from a live CD instead of from a hard drive. The data on a hard drive is magnetically positioned and so can be rewritten, but the data on a CD is fixed by a laser punching miniscule holes in a thin piece of metal foil. You can use the computer, access the programs, surf the net, play solitaire, etc, but you just can't. save anything or make changes to the OS because the boot disk is unable to be rewritten (a live CD is one option, for example, for using a computer without ever having to worry about virus infection or unwanted changes to the system).

One friend of mine questioned about Alzheimer's or dementia patients being locked into that state after death. But, unless I'm much mistaken, the memories and personality of said persons are still intact, but unable to be accessed as is demonstrated with reported "moments of clarity." Furthermore, if God is capable of uploading a human consciousness, certainly He's capable of repairing coding without making unauthorized changes to it.

This also may explain the reported behavior of ghosts (that is, those that can't be proven to be hoaxes or fraudulent in some way). In most cases, the ghost appears to not be aware that any changes have been made to its surroundings or the people which it tries to interact with. This would make sense if the ghost was a human consciousness uploaded as “read-only”, with no permissions given to alter the coding.

Finally, there appears also to be a difference with those who deliberately choose to follow Christ, giving Him permissions to make whatever changes He sees fit. That process of treatment of the human psyche for its inherent disorder, which requires changes to it, continues past the moment of physical death until the person is completely transformed to be like Christ, that is, deified and ready to be downloaded back into a resurrected body. God had already been given permissions through that person's explicit consent and cooperation to make the necessary and final changes prior to the person's physical death.

Thus, after physical death, the consequences of our choice to not cooperate with God by obeying the Gospel of Jesus Christ become unalterable. For God to "change" the person's software in the emulator or in the resurrected body without authorization would be to alter the person against their will, and He won't do that. It has to be our choice to obey or not.

(possible corroboration - here.)