THE MEANING OF LIFE

by Roger Hathaway   (October 23, 2006)

        The popular gospel of our day is that because God loves me He wants me to have all the wonderful things of the good life. Like any loving Father, He wishes only peace, happiness, security, and prosperity for His children.

        That sounds good, doesn’t it? It is pretty nice to envision that kind of God. How can anyone argue against such a loving message, one that seems so appropriate about the God we have been taught by our preachers. Oh, it is true that some preachers emphasize the contrition of repentance, as though God will only love those whose face is embedded into the ground. But they admit that this God is then a loving God who will bless His children with health and prosperity.

Such is the God of modern Christians. Anyone who tries to tell them differently will be scorned. The people know their God of love and they bow to Him so that He will be able to bless them and grant them good health and good wealth and happiness.

        What’s wrong with that picture?

        It just happens to be the very opposite from what Jesus taught. Yes, the very opposite! Not that God doesn’t love, but that God’s love takes a very different course from providing worldly happiness. Jesus called some to follow Him, and those whom He called were required to abandon all the things of this world: families, possessions, friends, jobs, everything but the clothes they were wearing. They turned from their parents and jobs without looking back, and followed Him as their Lord.

        Later, Jesus made it clear in even more explicit statements that unless they abandoned their loved ones and all earthly possessions they could not be His disciples. He said that while foxes have holes and birds have nests, He didn’t have a place to lay His head, and they should follow Him. He told them not to think that He came to bring peace because He had come to swing a sword instead. He called them not to a wedding but to a war. He said if they loved their own lives more than Him that they weren’t worthy of Him. He told them to not worry about what they might eat or wear tomorrow; just follow. Where were they supposed to follow Him? To crucifixion, of course. He told them that all the things which would happen to Him would also happen to them. He taught them to let go of this world and of all desires for worldly satisfactions. He told them to seek death just like other people seek worldly life.

        Why? Who would follow a leader who said he was leading them to their death? What purpose could our loving God have in setting forth such an agenda? How can a loving God permit His child to suffer tortures and agonizing death? What is going on here, anyway? Why would anyone be a Christian if he knows that plan for him?

        Because those questions have not been answered by traditional Christianity, the centuries have watched the Christian religion present a God who is little more than compassion and who wants to mother you and keep you from all harm and to help you in your quest for the good life of worldly happiness. For most people, their religion is as simple as the statement, "God is Love." And Jesus is the messenger of that love and the one whom the Father sent to lead you to prosperity and happiness if you will but follow.

        Astoundingly, that is the very opposite from what Jesus taught! Most Christians refuse to consider what He really said because they want a religion which satisfies them and makes them feel good. Any preacher who teaches otherwise won’t have anyone in the pews to listen to him! So, none teach otherwise.

        Except Jesus, of course. For much of my life I have pondered and questioned why this is so. Only after insights into the Great Plan of God, when I could see the Big Picture, have I come to understand that Jesus was saying exactly what has to be. Now I can see that the greatest joy and satisfaction and thrill and happiness results from yielding up this life on God’s altar as a sacrificial offering. There is no other way to realize God, and I hope to explain why that is so.

        For countless centuries, philosophers have sought answers to the questions of whether life has meaning or purpose. "What is man that Thou art mindful of him?" Serious and sincere men have studied the Bible and sought answers there, but in vain. When the great theologian, Thomas Aquinas died, he had some kind of epiphany and then said that all he had ever known was but straw. Perhaps he saw the Big Picture, but he died without being able to tell what he saw. Now that I have seen the Big Picture, it is clear to me why God has kept it hidden until the very end-time of the kingdom of World. If God’s people of Israel had known it before now, we would have prevented Satan from his rightful dominion, thereby wrecking the Grand Design of God’s plan. I can tell you that Christians are looking toward their Father through the eyes of kindergarten children; they have not yet seen the great treasure that awaits them. I have seen that treasure and I want desperately to paint it for you in brilliant living colors. But, I am being blocked from doing that. I can, however, tell you many keys to the mystery of it, so that if you really search you can find it for yourself. Actually, I feel that I have spelled out the details quite clearly, but there is a second difficulty: you are also being blocked until the time is right for you to receive it. My feeling is that I am offering you heaven on a platter, and you need but take it. But, you look and see my words as dry, as intellectual, as irrelevant to your world. You turn away very easily because I am not relating to you meaningfully. There is a gulf between my words and your understanding, and I have been unable to bridge it.

        This article is one more attempt to bridge that gulf. You might consider this to be empty arrogance right now, but I can tell you that I know what I am offering you, and I know the value of it for the future. I have provided a foundation for the building of the kingdom of Heaven, a simple foundation upon which inspired men will continue to build for the next several thousand years. Whether I live to see it begun or not is not my concern. Whether my name is even remembered is not something that I care about one whit. Whether I die tonight, or am blessed with an opportunity to bear a cross is up to the Father; it is not my concern because I’ve already offered this poor life to Him for use as He wishes. Whatever awaits me around the next corner is up to Him, so I will turn it eagerly and unafraid. Each day of my life belongs to Him, and I see my task as simply trying to do my best with whatever task comes next to my hand. I feel sad that I have not done better, for I believe I have failed to live up to the full potential He gave me. Pride is a liability. Vanity is a fatal temptation; something which repulses me. The Big Picture of God’s Divine Pageant is everything, leaving me feeling very humble that I’ve not been a better messenger.

        Okay, enough on that. What is the Big Picture? It is His Kosmos! The Greek word "kosmos" means orderly design. God lives by expressing Himself into manifestation as an orderly design. His children, the genetic descendants of Israel, possess spiritual natures which enable us to seek Him, find Him, and know Him. Only His own race can do that; other races venerate earth-forces. The Bible translates kosmos as "world," but our present world is not a very good representation of orderly design. Our world has been under Satan’s dominion for twelve thousand years, and is quite corrupted and perverted. The lord of chaos has made it a terrible place for God’s children, a virtual hell. Yet, in nature, we can still see evidence of His natural order, and it offers us many signs to guide us in the search for Truth which Jesus commanded. And, in our search for His Truth, the Bible is the reference book we keep always at hand, for it is the scale upon which our notions must be weighed.

        First, the Bible is consistent in its theme of dualities. In the very beginning Light was separated from darkness. Truth versus falsehood. Good versus evil. Christ versus Satan. Heaven versus hell. Life versus death. Love versus hate. Righteousness versus sin. Order versus disorder.

        In the physics of nature we see that positive versus negative. Growth versus decay. Health versus sickness. Acid versus alkaline. In society we can see that compassion versus killing. Charity versus selfishness. Knowledge versus ignorance. Thinking versus stupidity. Friendship versus hostility. War versus peace. Happiness versus sadness. Joy versus anger.

        Our dimension of reality is founded on this binary function, like computers, having two polar values, positive and negative. Always there are two opposites in relationship. Always one value is relative to the other. You can think of these two opposites like the two posts of a car battery; one only has force equal to the other; one cannot exist alone - there must be a completion to the circuit so the dynamic energy can return to its source and then cycle again. In general, an energy continuously increases toward a positive apex and then must begin a gradual decrease toward the negative nadir of a cycle. Always the two energies are relating to each other by pulsing in gradually changing polarity. That is the basic cyclic pattern, a pattern which is the essence and substance and nature of all existence. There is nothing in the universe that does not pulse in cycles, like the light bulb in your lamp which pulses at a rate of sixty cycles per second (cps or Hz). Atoms pulse several million times per second. Molecules pulse at beat frequencies of perhaps thousands of times per second. Even your body has a general pulse rate of around seven cps. Our planet pulses at about 7.7 cps. An energy is always changing from one polarity to the other and then back again. That cyclic pattern is the basis of God’s Design, His "Kosmos." Here is the foundation for the Orderly Design, in which each of us has a role.

        Other meaningful cycles give us "time," namely the passing of moments of awareness. One such cycle is the day, half of which is dark and half of which is light, always changing gradually. This is perhaps the best model of a cycle which we might visualize. Other cycles are the year, half winter and half summer; another is the hour, half being after and half before. We might consider one’s lifespan, half is growth and half decline.

        What is the longest cycle we can examine? It is the precession of equinoxes, a period of about 24,000 years in which our sun traverses an apparent circuit of the sky before returning to its starting point. So it is that we can consider half of this cycle to be positive and half negative. Ultimately, where I am going with this line of thinking is to present the theory that half of one of these cycles, about 12,000 years, is negative in nature and the other 12,000 is positive. The negative half is what we know as the Kingdom of World, during which the Truth is hidden and we believe in the Lie. The positive half is the Kingdom of Heaven, during which we know the Truth and thereby experience a very different nature of reality.

        Now, just as any cycle can be diagramed on a piece of paper, we can lay out this one, too. A cycle is illustrated on paper in the form of a sine-wave curve. Draw a horizontal line from left to right across the center of your paper. Next, from the left side of your paper, draw a half-circle which looks like a bubble sitting on top of the line - that being the positive half-cycle. Where that half-circle line ends, continue it across the center-line to create a half-circle below the line which ends near the right hand edge of your paper. You have drawn a sine wave curve.

        Next, along the horizontal center line, from the left end of the curve draw 24 division marks, ending at the far right end of your sine-wave. Those 24 divisions represent 24,000 years. The first 12,000 years are positive energy, as illustrated by the curve above the horizontal line. The next 12,000 years are negative energy, representing the period of World. For the technically minded, frequency intervals are years and amplitude is magnetic field strength As we progress through the years of history on the ascending path toward the top apex of the curve, we approach perfect Order. As we live during the time of the descending path, toward the bottom nadir of the curve, we approach disorder, confusion, chaos, darkness, ignorance, falsehood, rebellion, deceit, pretense, egoism, limitation, disease, and evil. The Lord of chaos is Satan; his work is to pervert the heavenly Order/Design of God. Satan is an intelligent energy force/being that was created by God for the purpose of making our dimension of reality possible. The intelligent energy force/being that rules the heavenly order is God’s representative, His only Offspring, His Son anointed for this purpose: the Christ, which is a race of Elect beings whose head is Jesus.

        The Bible is loaded with a Greek word, αιων (aion or aeon) which technically means during ages. In ancient Greek, the word indicated specific amounts of time, like an epoch. There was never any concept of a timelessness, like we think of with our word, eternity. However, Bible translators always translate that Greek word as eternity or forever. That simple mistranslation has resulted in a Christian religion which looks toward Heaven as a place where there is no time, hence an existence that never comes to an end. Of course, where there is no time, there can be no consciousness or awareness of a moment because there is no moment distinct from all the others. One can’t sit on a cloud playing a harp because one note cannot follow another unless there is a conscious awareness of the passage of time. The Greek word, αιων, properly means "during ages," and refers to ages in the future.

        From some ancient time of pre-record there has been a division of time into twelve parts, with each part given a zodiac name. I am not talking about astrology, which does make use of those zodiac names, but rather about the 24,000 year cycle being divided into twelve zodiac ages. Those zodiac ages, their names, and their symbols, are actually part of the foundation of God’s orderly Design. The twelve tribes of Israel directly correspond to the twelve zodiac ages. Since I have gone into great detail about this in other articles, I will mention only the one most pertinent symbol for our time, the fish of Pisces. The age of Pisces began at the time of Jesus’ birth. Jesus was a Herald of Pisces as He made the fish a symbol of His ministry, and as it later served as a symbol of the early Christian church. He sent His messengers to gather His Elect ones in God’s net. The age of Pisces lasts for about 2,000 years (perhaps 2,024?). Jesus foretold the end-time cataclysmic event in Matthew 24, which is to take place at the end of Pisces, which is imminent.

        Along your sine-wave curve, you will divide the upper kingdom line into six parts, and the lower kingdom line into six parts. Each part is equivalent to about 2,000 years, and each part gets the name of a zodiac Age. From the far left, as you begin the ascent into the upper kingdom, the six ages are, in this order, Aquarius, Capricorn, Sagittarius, Scorpio, Libra, and Virgo. Then, the six ages of the lower kingdom are Leo, Cancer, Gemini, Taurus, Aries, and Pisces.

        Right now, we are living at the end-time of Pisces, ready to cross the line from World into Heaven. The supernatural event which will liberate God’s children from the darkness, ignorance, and limitation of World will be the planetary magnetic-field reversal of polarity. The planet will not roll over, but will experience a sudden "twinkling of an eye" reversal of the electro-magnetic field, which will result in the planet wobbling around its axis for a short period of time, slipping of the earth’s tectonic plates, unimaginable earthquakes, tidal waves, and winds, along with skies filled with volcanic ash which will block out the sunlight for some days. Much of the earth’s population will perish. God gives the Kingdom of Heaven a fresh start, and is already preparing some of His own Elect ones for the event by stimulating them to flee to the mountains according to Jesus’ instructions. These will be the ones who inherit the Vineyard which God has already designed for us, a Kingdom of Order rather than chaos, and an energy field where His spiritual offspring will enjoy powers which were terribly limited during World. Jesus hinted at some of our new powers with some of the supernatural things that He did.

        You, as a genetic descendant from Jacob (white race European), being one of God’s chosen race and an heir to the coming Ages, are His representative in the struggle of Life versus death. You were born with Godly instincts of goodness, love, compassion, charity, kindness, justice, and the Golden Rule. You have been limited, during World, from exercising your talents because your counterpart race, which descended from Esau (Edom), has used its rightful dominion to limit you and to persecute you and to deceive you into believing the Lie that they, the Edomite race of Jews, are the chosen race of God. Their native-born instincts are exactly opposite from yours, and they have attempted, over the centuries, to destroy your race. Of course, God would not permit that, but you have suffered and been cheated and exploited and oppressed and hopefully grown stronger in character and in wisdom. You have been a warrior in a serious contest of good against evil. God’s Divine Pageant is a never ending contest in which you are a knight in white, fighting principalities and powers of darkness. Your tournament is nearly at an end, with you victorious, and then, following the great disaster, you will help to establish a new civilization on the planet which is based on Godly principles rather than wicked ones. If you have taken Jesus seriously, and have fled to mountainous regions, away from any cities, where you can survive the Armageddon onslaught in America and then the great disaster, then you will survive to live in the coming Kingdom of God.

        So, what is the meaning of Life? It is simply that you, a spirit-being offspring of God, yield to His will and learn to follow His guidance and become strong enough that you will stand for Righteousness against the evil one, as a representative of Him, the One Supreme Almighty God, your real Father! You were created before the world began, and you have always lived, and always will live. You have just completed twelve thousand years of discipline, suffering, and oppression, for the sake of becoming strong and wise and willing to permit your Father to live through you as an extension of Himself. Like Jesus said, "the flesh is nothing, the Spirit is everything."

        But if you are so attached to your fleshly, worldly life that you won’t release it to follow Him who shows you the Way, then you are a branch which will get pruned from the Vine, to be discarded and forgotten. If you think that your destiny is to enjoy the wonders of this World because God loves you, then you have taken a path designed by Satan, the great betrayer. If you are like the monkey who won’t release the cookie (the good-life in this World) in the jar, then you are already captured by the evil one, and you belong to him. If you value what you can touch more than what you can think, then you have chosen the Lie over Truth. But, if you are willing, even anxious, to reject your worldly life and flesh because all worldly things must die with the World, then that part of you which remains, namely your Spirit, will hear those glorious words from your Father, Come, blessed one, and receive the Vineyard prepared for you."

        I first ended this article with the above paragraph. Later, I thought about the question of how one goes about the task of yielding to God’s will and offering up his life on the altar. Jesus provides us an example, and He didn’t sleep out under the trees or starve to death. He had friends with whom He stayed when in Bethany or Jerusalem. His home was in Capernaum, in Galilee, so He had a place to stay there. Also, most of His disciples were from that area, too. They likely slept in their own homes. Peter had a wife; perhaps others had wives, too. When Jesus called His friends to follow Him, the story tells how they left their nets and families to do so. Realistically, they must not have kept that estrangement. So, if we get real about this, the abandonment of families and homes and wealth is more of a spiritual exercise that often sees real application. For me, it has been more than once that I have left everything behind to move to a new part of the country. I once lived out of an old Pontiac while driving trucks in Texas. I lived in an old Ford Van while broke and seeking work in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. I left Mesa, Arizona on a bus with a backpack, and hiked into the River of No Return Wilderness region of Idaho without plans for any return to society. Circumstances didn’t permit me to stay there. When moving to Montana from California, because my trailer was overloaded, I stopped in Bakersfield, California in a poor residential area, and off-loaded several hundred pounds of household goods in an empty lot, telling neighbors to help themselves. I walked away from my 36 foot sailboat, the Iwalani, in Florida and never saw a dollar for it. I quit a salaried position with Lockheed Aircraft company once, and pulled a small trailer to Alaska where I had never been before, just because I felt moved to do that. I moved out of, and gave away, a log cabin that I had built on seventeen acres in Montana because I felt it was the right thing to do. In 1993, since my disabling accident in ‘90, I pulled a small trailer to the remote arctic bush-village of Eagle, Alaska, where Lisa later joined me. We lived in a 16x16ft log cabin (sans plumbing or well – I dipped water through the ice at a nearby stream). During early winter of ‘98 I wrote a translation and commentary for the book of Revelation. I wrote from mornings till night, as fast as it would come to me, diagraming that book as a coherent whole which is easy to understand. While St. John saw it in symbols, I was given the keys to the mysteries there. I had vowed that if God would reveal the secrets of that puzzle to me, that I would not publish it to others until I have permission. Now, I sit on a treasure worth more than the wealth of this World, and I want desperately to share it, but must wait. Perhaps I will die first and it will never be released; I just don’t know, and I am content to not know, for He is the driver of this faltering fellow named Roger. In 2002, we moved to the coal-mining mountains of southwest Virginia where I am content with my milk cow. Lisa’s father is aged and invalid and she wanted to care for him. Not having facilities in our home, I said I would build him a house. We had no savings, so we used credit cards for materials. I began on December 9, ‘05 and Lisa moved him into it mid-February. With a mortgage and credit cards, we don’t have money left over each month, but we are getting by happily. I have lived my life by daring to do each day whatever task fell to my hand.

        What I am trying to relate by telling you the above is that one is never abandoned by the Father who owns everything and who gives freely to His children as they need. I’ve not had any insurance policy (except vehicle insurance) since my accident in 1990 I’ve never had a savings account or investments or a stash of any kind; but rather, have always lived from day to day, rather frugally but adequately. Never could I explain how it all worked out, for I don’t know. At times when out of work I seemed to have more money in my pocket than when settled in a job. I wasn’t playing games with God and my needs, nor did I feel miracles were happening for me. I was merely trying to do each day the best that I could, with a willingness to go wherever I felt drawn to, and to do at each moment whatever seemed right. With that attitude, my needs have always been met. It worked out that a vehicle accident forced me into retirement at 51 years of age, whereupon I had a private insurance company disability check each month. I cannot imagine anyone being more blessed with a life full of rich experiences than I had, and it happened simply because I was willing to step unafraid through whatever door that opportunity put in front of me. I will tell you that I was often fearful, but I never let that fear influence me to live for security. Always, freedom was more valuable to me than security. Security causes one to worry about tomorrow — bad!

        Don’t think that I am suggesting that my path is right for any other person. Each person must walk his own, and let no other person judge it. You are a unique experience of God who lives through you. No other person has the exact same setup as you, regarding parents, relatives, childhood experiences, traumas, influences, etc. So, no one else can ever judge your path through life. None of my brothers or sisters have been so wildly free and radical as I have been. Each must walk his own path. I’m just trying to tell you that the great meaning for your life is for you to be true to yourself and live each moment fully.

        The question each should ask of himself is how best he might live each day according to his Father’s will, and then do the best that he can. At the end of the day, sleep peacefully, caring not whether you awaken in the morning. But, if you do, then charge happily into another adventure with God. That is the meaning and value of your life. Laugh, fear not, seek the Truth, think boldly, act without hesitation, don’t look back, hear Jesus, live the Golden Rule, and know that you are a Prince of the Almighty King.

        If you are not smiling contentedly right now, then you haven’t understood me. Read it again.

                    by Roger Hathaway, October 22, 2006

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