The path from Darkness to Light ends only at Eternity. So long as we breathe on this fallen earth, we have not arrived. The objective of this course was not to get you there, but to help you find the path. That journey will ever reflect certain lessons we have learned.
We must cultivate a reliance on that spiritual faculty. It is not for detailed directions so much as shaping the process of decision making. Within each of us is implanted a core of commitment, brought to life by the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Person of Christ reincarnated inside us. A primary task is clarifying that core of commitment by sweeping away the layers of sinful deception planted there by Satan, using the context in which we live.
A primary element of defining that core of conviction is retraining our minds to accept input from the Spirit. That input cannot be confined to what we normally consider reasonable under the conditioning of our culture and society. Rather, we embrace a far older cultural matrix, the one in which God chose to reveal Himself, the culture He built Himself by the guidance of His divine hand. Sadly, our modern materialistic Western culture fights such a change of heart by slandering God's own biblical culture, calling it "primitive mysticism" and making the logic of Heaven seem illogical.
Our embrace of the culture of Christ will thus constitute a revolt against the world in which we live. It is a rejection of this world and all its treasures for that Other World Above, and treasures incomprehensible to this one. While we may attempt to explain Heaven and God in terms of this world, it is generally impossible. We are required to use the parabolic and symbolic language and logic of the Kingdom, knowing God alone can make that language and logic meaningful in the hearts of those He elects. All things for us remain a matter of responding to God's choices, for He alone initiates all things.
We are the servants of an Eastern potentate, a nomad Sheik of Heaven, for so He refers to Himself. There is much we will never know on this side of our Eternal Home, so we apply ourselves to His pleasure as best we know it. We do so in the promise He measures the desires of our will, and calls us "holy" on that basis alone, not on the basis of action or some mere change in our nature. The concepts of being and doing are both immaterial in light of His emphasis on commitment, and the incomprehensible paradox of His being the Divine Initiator of all things, yet holding us accountable for choosing His will.
Our message to the world is a call for repentance along the lines of the Code of Noah. Whether the Lord brings actual life to one dead spirit or another is beyond our knowing. It is for us, instead, to promote the path by which He has chosen to reveal Himself to all mankind, the path of embracing His Way in the symbolic Law of Noah. Our life as His emissaries requires we keep an eye to those Laws ourselves as the starting point to manifesting His power and grace. We understand the Laws are summed up in the call for undiluted devotion to Our Maker and sacrificial love for others. Our call to a damned and dying world is the loving call to repentance. While the ostensible promise of the Laws is a life here as peaceful as can be after the Fall, we keep in mind it merely symbolizes the full life of the Spirit and Eternity in God's Presence as His child.
This is the path Jesus trod on earth. We seek to walk in His footprints. Our desire is to reveal Him, to glorify His Name in all the earth. For this alone all human life continues to exist. Welcome to the path from Darkness to Light.
Return to Bible Literacy Index
[<-- Previous]
By Ed Hurst
22 May 2009
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: People of honor need no copyright laws; they are only too happy to give credit where credit is due. Others will ignore copyright laws whenever they please. If you are of the latter, please note what Moses said about dishonorable behavior -- "be sure your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:23)