God Speaking through the Ages

A newborn child is one of God's blessings. Given the benefits of our modern age, the child will likely develop into a productive member of our society. One of these benefits is an understanding of communication through language, both verbal and oral. This communication technique through language is something we teach to children from a very early age, and it is necessary because without it, the person could not convey their thoughts, wishes or desires to anyone. Therefore, we have to assume that humanity is compelled to teach each other how to communicate with one another and the methods of teaching communication have evolved with humanity through the ages.

Before our modern age of language and literature, how did God communicate the message of salvation to humanity? (In this context, salvation is simply a relationship one has with God on a deeply spiritual level. It is not a reward for good behavior and a Christ-like lifestyle.) In Biblical tradition, God created man and the first man was named Adam. Somehow Adam and God communicated with each other even before Adam received an education in an oral language. Traditionally, Adam has been credited with the naming of all the animals and creatures of the earth! (Gen 2:19) Apparently even God wanted to know what Adam would call each creature! This story from the Bible was orally passed on from God's "lips" to Moses ears, and was passed on orally through generations, long before any written record was transcribed to scrolls. Moses, in contrast to Adam, was highly educated in a very sophisticated polytheistic society. We can conclude that God provides the means to communicate with humanity regardless of past education, or knowledge of his (Gods) existence. God makes sure we can have a relationship with him.

Does God wish to have a relationship with only a selected few, and exclude others that haven't received the exact same education as the people of Moses? Many argue that 'the message' (education) they have is the 'only' message that God honors with salvation. This standpoint appears to be in direct contradiction to Gods ability to make sure he can communicate with humanity regardless of past education, or knowledge of his existence. While it's well known that mans religions are exclusionary, it's more likely that God is all inclusive than exclusive.

Astrology is the study of the stars and heavenly bodies. There was a time when man looked at the stars and created a unique understanding of the alignments and movements of the heavens above them. Stories of battles and triumph and balance and peace, all came from mankind studying the heavens attempting to make sense of it all. Could God have spoken to humanity in those times about his message of salvation? Very possibly so. In the time of Joshua, we witness the sign of the ram through ram's horns trumpets. (Josh 6:4) Then Jesus with Simon Peter creating "fishers of men" the sign of the fish and finally the sign of water in reference to "the free gift of water of life." (Rev 22:17) These signs are noteworthy because they occur in the procession of the signs of the stars as they move through the sky as studied by astrologers. The ram is Aries, the fish is Pieces and the water is Aquarius. There are these 12 signs the astrologers assign to the 'Zodiac' as there are 12 disciples and 12 tribes of Judea. Is this an interesting coincidence or possibly God speaking to humanity through the story of the stars as told through astrology?

Much of this study presupposes that God is unchanging, and that we evolve to greater levels of understanding as time progresses. From the beginning, God created man and God spoke and man understood. God spoke to the prophets, and prophets understood. As God is unchanging, it is likely God continues to speak to man in a spiritual level as he has through the ages. Hopefully we are all listening!

Does God need Satan?

Once upon a time... No, that's our story. As we learned earlier, time was created for our physical universe, but God does not exist in time, but beyond time. That is to say that time for God would likely be multi-dimensional as we can understand it. Similar to our physics having 3 dimensions of movement plus time, God exists where time is not only linear, but overlapped, stacked, and both forward and backward.

This digression of time helps set the stage for an interesting creation- Angels. The Bible does not place a time when God created Angels, we only know that God possibly created them before building our universe. (Job 38: 4-7) We also know God had Satan, AKA Lucifer (a fallen angel) roaming around in the Garden of Eden. (Gen 3:1)

Now, with all the entire physical universe to dwell, Satan resides about Earth, or as an influence on mankind, where ever mankind exists. An interesting coincidence that Satan would be influencing mankind? It doesn't appear coincidental, but planned to give mankind some options. God's plan is no doubt perfect, and God picked the perfect candidate (Satan) to drive mankind through this physical journey.

God created mankind with an interesting brain that operates with millions of neural synapses, creating memories, adapting to environments, and processing decisions based on previous synaptic stored experience. Our brains are also difference engines that requires a balance of both positive and negative reactions to keep its neurons from saturating. Saturation comes when the neurons are overloaded with one charge and cannot process regular brain functions until the overload is cleared. This is precisely why we sleep, to discharge all the activity processed while awake. Wine tasters or food critics will routinely cleanse their pallets in order to remove the influence built up from their previous tasting. If we stare at anything too long without moving our eyes or blinking, blackness will start to creep in as our retina and its neurons become saturated within minutes.

Our healthy existence requires change and our mentality requires choices. Before Satan's influence, Adam and Eve were the equivalent of infants in a nursery. They didn't have knowledge of right or wrong, love or apathy, they simply existed to work the garden. (Gen 2:15) It was necessary for Satan to coerce Adam & Eve to choose to partake in the tree of knowledge, otherwise God's plan of salvation for humanity would occupy some different reality. However, God knew perfectly well Satan's mission would succeed and instead of banishing Satan to the dark side of the moon, Moses tells us that God cursed Satan and turned him into a snake. (Gen 3:14) Apparently, God and Satan made some revisions to the account of Moses, because in Job 1:6, Satan is clearly no longer a snake. And once again God uses Satan to help Job learn to love God for who God is, not what he can do for/to you.

We learned that Christ Jesus was also the subject of Satan's attempted influence. (Mat 4:3-11) Jesus was indeed fully divine, however he was fully human and while Satan knew who Jesus was, Satan was obligated to put the human Christ to the test.

The book of Revelation has a very interesting account of Satan and his ultimate defeat. Satan, referred to as a dragon (Rev 12:7), was back to his usual tricks and influencing and tempting all of mankind. (Rev 13:5)

What have we learned in all this? Does God need Satan? It is very clear that Satan has a purpose for mankind. God likes opposites: Light/Dark, Land/Sea, Earth/Sky... (Gen 1:3-10) It's not too far out to think that God planned the notion of Good and Bad and how it keeps mankind diverse in thought and actions. Consider, a dog loves his master, that's what dogs do, however, a person chooses to love freely and openly. How much more meaningful is our love for God when we freely choose to love him?

God does not need Satan for his being, however mankind needs Satan to ultimately bring us closer to God!

What's in Gods Toolbox?

Every mechanic, builder, inventor and creator has a toolbox with gadgets and tools and materials needed to execute any given task. Most of the tools we use are specialized for a given task. A screwdriver, for example, is perfect at driving screws, however useless for holding nuts.

Tools provide us (mankind) with a mechanical advantage that we would not have without them. Try to drive a nail without a hammer, or chop down a tree without an axe. The genius of mankind to fashion tools to enhance our quality of living, and make our modern lives possible, is truly a gift indeed.

As we have discovered earlier, our physical universe has constants that keep order in God's creation. We are perfectly suited to operate on our world and much of this we owe to simple things like: gravity, friction, momentum, and inertia, to name a few. Even before God introduced Adam to Eve, Adam was making good use of gravity and friction, otherwise, he'd be floating around Eden, and without friction, everything he grasped would slip through his fingers like a wet bar of soap.

Reading Gen 3:17, we can see that God makes it official that mankind has to toil, sweat, and work the soil for the rest of his life. Undoubtedly, after Gen 3:23, Adam makes good use of his newly invented shovel, hoe, and pick, in which to "work" the ground. Before that (Gen 2:15) God had Adam already "working" in the garden. Clearly, God created us here, to work.

What tools then does God use at his disposal? By the strictest sense of the function of tools, it appears that God has no need for any tools. If tools help mankind, perform work, it is because we need help to gain an advantage. Consider the lever and fulcrum for a mechanical advantage! However, God doesn't need help from tools. Read the last few chapters of Job and it becomes obvious that God simply causes everything to happen. The creator of the universe is essentially a General Contractor with infinite control, unlimited budget, and no-one to answer to!

What materials does God use in his creation? While it's unclear through any biblical research, it is written that God simply spoke or formed things into existence. There are numerous theories to attempt to explain how the universe actually became physical, but most scientists tend to explain their theories from within the box.

If we take a beautiful man-made crystal vase and drop it onto a concrete floor, it will shatter beyond its original form and take on a new form using the laws of Chaos to drive it. The crystal vase was created in our 3D + Time universe, but let's think out of our universe and into a realm where the spirit resides.

Take a fraction of God's spirit and drop it into our universe. Like a pebble in a calm lake, the effect is dramatic and the ripples are endless. Everything that has any form in our our universe could easily trace it's very existence to an infinitesimal portion of Gods spirit. Not in an ethereal sense, but literally! It makes perfect sense when we say God is everywhere or God is within us... indeed, we and everything in our existence is literally derived from Gods spiritual gift to our universe.

It's reasonable to conclude that God has no need for tools because God doesn't have to work (toil) at anything. Gods "construction material" comes from his spirit entering our physical universe and is not subject to the law of mans Chaos, rather Gods law of order. Metaphorically speaking, when mankind explodes, he disintegrates, when God explodes, he integrates into greater order.

One More Time...

Earlier, I stated that our physical universe was an iteration of one of Gods creations. With infinity at Gods disposal, undoubtedly there could have been an infinite number of iterations in which universes were created, destroyed, re-created, tweaked, destroyed etc... Finally, the Bible stops and drops into a creation of a universe where we are the active participants.

How can I be so sure that this creation was not Gods one and only attempt at universe building? There are a few clues that are unexplained in the Biblical text itself. Since Gen.1:1 and forward, describe our creation, from little more than the start of light and dark, at what time before that were the Angels created? I can't recall any mention of any dinosaur hunts. But dinosaurs were here and for sure, Noah (Gen 6:9) was not herding pterodactyls on board the ark!

A great war in heaven, (Rev 12:7) was foretold by John, but when did that happen? Must have been before Gen 1:2, because Satan was already prowling around Eden after that. Scholars have proposed that a Gap Theory exists in the Bible, right between Gen 1:1 and Gen1:2. The NIV Bible translation uses the word now to define the end of the Gap. "Now the earth was formless and empty..." (Gen 1:2) this could presumably be the result of the war, or even a new start for our version of Earth, another iteration? Regardless, the use of the word now would seem to suggest a time before now as in, what was then and what is now.

From an engineering standpoint, we already know that God is very accurate and precise with time, and that allows our physical laws to remain constant. Preparing the Earth through various physical transformations would likely give us the perfect construct to call home. Even today the Earth is still changing, shifting, and active to the core.

A blacksmith fashions a sword by applying heat and pounding pressure to shape and harden its edges and core. This operation is performed numerous times on the sword and eventually it becomes suitable to be used as it was intended.

All of this explains another characteristic to learn about God. With the power to create anything by mere spoken word, God chooses to operate within our reality and maintain the physical constants to provide us with an existence in the past, present and future.

It's About Time

An important consideration regarding God is how he is beyond time. It's safe to say, in our limited imagination, that when we confirm that God has always been, always is, and always will be, we place him outside time. But what is time, and is it important to God?

In Genesis 1:1 we get a glimpse into Gods past, or shall I say, our perception of an earlier time of God. In the beginning... does not really refer to God but an iteration of our physical universe. Beginning signals to us a start of something, let's say time. Without time, the physical universe would not exist as we know it. Every molecule in existence moves through time and it either interacts with other molecules or just decays as its half-life approaches. Same for atoms, same for us! Even light, which doesn't have any tangible substance, has a wavelength that travels at 299792.458 km per second.

Is time important to God? For our benefit, he created two time-based events called day and night (Gen 1:3). While the Bible places an order of creation, it suggests that there was morning and evening before the sun, moon or stars were spoken into existence. However, an order of creation would suggest time since there is nothing that says that everything was created in one instant! Therefore God does exist inside and outside of our time-line and he allows it to proceed in a precise orderly fashion.

God has control of time and he is very consistent with it's operation. Our perception of time is relative to our own awareness, however our awareness has no bearing on time as it operates within our physical universe. A real good movie seems to end too soon, while a boring lecture drags on forever. Imagine if God decided to randomly speed up or slow down the constant of time. The infinitesimal tweak of time would destroy our physical universe as we know it. The very movement of molecules and protons and electrons would be altered in time and they would instantly change from one substance to another. If God wants us around for a while in this physical universe, he (God) has perfect and accurate control of time!

In The Beginning...

In order to reverse engineer God, we must first learn or discover everything we can about how God works. This is a journey that can easily last a lifetime, but let's limit our learning to a much shorter period.

Engineering requires knowing how many things already work, how things are structured, and how and where to find additional information to keep from re-inventing the wheel. Reverse-engineering takes something that already exists and through intense observation, prodding, measuring, and holding it up to an existing body of works, all in an attempt to discover how and why it does what it does.

Education and experience will help us satisfy the requirement of knowing how many things already work. In my particular case, as an engineer/inventor, it's my job to know how things work. Take for example a television, while it may seem like magic that makes it work, it's actually a complex system composed of many simple operations. An automobile has many complex systems, propulsion, transmission, drive-train, steering, braking, cabin air conditioning, entertainment, power windows, doors, wipers, etc... the list does end, but it ultimately breaks down into many super simple mechanisms, that when closely examined, is very simple to understand.

The Bible is an excellent guide of reference, since it speaks of God directly. Knowing the Bible verse by verse and in context, is crucial to understanding how and why God does what he does. There are a few principles that are important when the Bible is used to learn about God. After 10 years of scholastic Bible study from a very gifted Bible Teacher, Dr. Bill Creasy (who has spent decades sharing his knowledge of the Bible plain and simple) I tend to acknowledge these very same principles of the Bible as well:

#1 The Bible is rooted in its geography - Everything happens in terms of its locality.

#2 The Bible emerges from history - Events happened and were recorded by third party verification.

#3 The Bible has a linear structure - It starts in Genesis and ends in Revelation, in between is a linear narrative.

#4 The Bible is the word of God - While the stories are written and edited by man, the original intention remains, however translations make for many heated debate and entire religions, we'll undoubtedly research this principle in greater detail, later.


To keep from clouding our judgment, in this reverse-engineering endeavor, I think it makes sense to keep religion, as a personal worship mechanism, off-the-table, so no one is personally offended. However it is perfectly reasonable to use cultural and traditional beliefs to share insight and experience on any aspect of understanding how and why God works. Obviously God works, but it's how and why he does what he does that promotes this entire exercise! Also equally obviously, God is neither he nor she, God is... With that, I'll stick with he since there appears to be a father/son relationship described within the biblical text.

All of this groundwork should setup a framework or structure to begin this journey. We have the experience, to understand complex subjects, and knowledge of the Bible to provide a blueprint and additional information for the task of reverse-engineering God.