The meaning of life the universe and everything (42 ;-)  ) 

What the bible says; the good news for "you".

Firstly, to understand the good news for "you", you need to understand who "you" are. 

The Bible explains who “you” are, what is meant by “you”, when you say “you”.

Irrespective of your actions, beliefs or decisions, the bible says the below of all humans:

Below is a diagram that depicts these components, and what's happening when you live a normal life vs one "by the Spirit"...

Our Spirit, Soul and Body are designed to operate more like a pipeline for God’s Spirit, rather than a bucket for it, that is merely filled.

The Bible also explains why things aren’t as they should be.

However, you will have noticed that this is not the default mode of operation we’re born into. The world can seem like a bad place, you don’t feel connected to God, and you do things you don’t want to.

When the first humans were created, there was no separation between Heaven and Earth. Both could be perceived equally well by the first two humans. They were “in” both. A portion of the Earth was ordered as God wanted, and the first Humans, getting their knowledge and identity only from God in spirit, were assigned to bring similar order to the rest of the Earth.

Simple enough, and not “work” for them, they and us were (remain), cocreators with God, made in His image, a part of Him. 

Creation should benefit from our existence.

God loved them as if they were Himself, because in fact we are, in a way. The description used of this part of God, us, is “sons” or “heirs”, due in His inheritance, owning all, as likely to be hurt by God as God is likely to hurt Himself, so not at all.

In fact the Hebrew word for "image", as in made in his image, means more than simply like a photo; it implies presence and the power of the creator. 

The bible says we are God's presence and power on earth.

When God wanted to demonstrate His glory (to Moses) he presented a depiction of Human history to that point. He thinks we are His glory.

Human beings are not God’s only created beings. He also created Angels and some of these rebelled against God and are called Fallen Angels, or Demons. These are direct creations of God, but not Sons of God, not “made in His image”, like Humans. They reside in the Heavenly part of creation, they have greater power than us, in that regard, but less authority on Earth than Humans, since our commission from God (to the first Humans), to manage the Earth, never went away. They are all in awe of us, because of our Godlike spirits. The Angels look out for us; the Demons act against us.

Amongst these creations there was a rebellion against God! There came a point (not in time, because this was/is outside of time) that the rebellious ones were cast out of Heaven. Earth, our limited dimensions and time, became their prison. A prison that Humans were managing, whilst still permanently connected themselves, to Heaven.

One of these Demons, called Satan, appeared as a snake, a part of creation that was to be managed by us, visible so appearing sensually, not spiritually. This snake spoke to one of the two first humans. He tricked her. He suggested that they weren’t like God yet, that they needed to do something to be like Him and to please God.

Doing what the Snake suggested had a profound effect on the earth part of creation.

At that moment, the rule of the Earth, which was God’s through Humans, was seeded by Humans to Satan.

Satan became the rightful ruler of his own prison.

God couldn’t revoke this, He had allowed us (a part of Him) this rule, this decision.

Satan, being destructive and about creating disorder, and decay, was about to set about what we see around us in the world today, both in terms of physical dangers and pain, natural disasters, and social dangers and pain.

It’s important at this point to remember that those two Humans and all Humans now, were still made in God’s image, meaning a part of Him and being His presence and power to earth.

God was not made angry towards them (an autonomous part of Himself) by this action, or any other actions since. He was, and remains, angry with Satan and his demons only. Not Humans.

Satan will (and does) accuse Humans and ask God to judge and punish us.

God refuses to critically judge and punish us. He recognises only our perfect eternal Spirits. When He judges “us” it is for our success, to edify and improve our Souls, to be more as He sees us and less as we’ve been seeing ourselves.

However, God will judge and punish Satan and the demons and reward the Angels that looked after us.

Much like a doctor, telling you, you have cancer, isn’t giving you the cancer itself or punishing you with the prescriptions to lessen the symptoms, God then explained the results to the first two humans and put in place limitations on their impending suffering.

What we were meant to rule over (creation), would now rule over us, whilst it and us would simultaneously being eroded and undermined by Satan and the demons.

Getting our knowledge and identity from our perceptions, outside in, instead of inside out, deciding separately what was good and what was bad, was going to cause us to become individualised, we’d worry over what other thought of us, bringing shame. Our Souls, not our Spirits, would become damaged and hurt, would suffer and make others suffer from fear, anxiety, depression, envy and anger etc. We would hurt ourselves and each other physically and emotionally.

Satan and his demons would be there as well, encouraging all this. They couldn’t and can’t read our minds, but they’re outside of time and can see / have seen and heard all of time, so can make very informed interventions to mess us up more. They could/can even take further control of an individual’s choices, should they inadvertently or on purpose agree to it.

The first two humans were set to go down this road, with no time limit on the expiry of their bodies, their now one way “perceivers”. They were also still connected with Heaven, a part of creation that Satan and his demons were banished from.

Accordingly, God separated Heaven from Earth, (but not us, our Spirits, from Him) and rather than give up on the earth part of creation, by taking their Spirits back into Himself and giving up on their Bodies and Souls all together, a few generations later, God set a limit on the length of time their Bodies and Souls would exist, before bringing all Spirits back into Himself.

Things persisted like this on Earth/the Universe (the only parts of creation where time is a thing) for about 4000 years!

Then (or technically speaking, “all along”, since He operates from outside of time) God intervened.

He demonstrated to humanity that the full image of God can be manifested in human bodies, by becoming one Himself. This was necessary because by this point, we were a long way from imagining this to be the case, we’d gone from hiding in a Garden to much bigger and more elaborate ways of feeling separated from Him and come to believe that somehow, He was angry with us.

He demonstrated that a Soul (any Soul) that gets its knowledge and identity only from Heaven, from inside to out, can have profound (miraculous) effects on creation, to the extent that the environment does what it is told, and even the body can be stopped from expiring.

It also served another purpose. He also “won back” or “redeemed” part of creation (Earth, our Souls and Bodies) from Satan with that body.

They were “rightfully” Satan’s, albeit won through deception, so only "rightful" in as far as anything stolen can be said to be owned by a thief, and said "ownership" requires us to continue to believe it to be so, even now it isn't - which most people do....

However, Satan forfeit them back to God, by thinking he had engineered Jesus’ death.

Jesus (God the Word, being a human) had never taken an instruction from Satan and so wasn’t under his rule and so not his to kill.

Whilst Satan and humans influenced by him, didn’t actually kill Jesus (He let them), they thought that’s what they were doing.

So it was, Satan’s will, and that broke the Heavenly rules of reigning over a given kingdom.

About 2000 years ago, Satan and his demons, lost their rule over us and creation because of Jesus’ death on a cross outside of Jerusalem in Isreal!

Our perceived separation from God was removed, for any human who looked His way. Anyone but Satan and the Demons.

Whilst that’s an eternal (outside of time) reality, time and creation wasn’t ended at that point, but it will be and it will be replaced by a new connected Heaven and Earth.

Until time ends, humans have a choice how they operate, get their knowledge and identity, before their bodies expire. (“Technically” with the right beliefs and choices, all inside to out, our bodies won’t expire, but this has remained elusive to all but Jesus, and some unverified outliers.)

This choice isn’t to escape judgement or punishment, here or when our bodies expire, but to experience freedom and fullness of life now.

There is not an eternal component of your humanity that needs to be rescued.

The eternal component of your humanity does the rescuing!

The components of your humanity that need to be rescued, are bound to time and space.

They only exist while you're on Earth.

Salvation is like being rescued from drowning, not being let off from a so-called deserved punishment, or something bad people do to become good.

Saved is something that a rescuer does to things that he loves.

Saved means preserved, delivered, kept safe and sound, absent of all things harmful and the presence of all things beneficial.

In this body in this life.

God saving us means:

·      He has saved your spirit from separation (done)

·      He is saving your soul from delusion (currently)

·      He will save your body from decay (future)

You don't have to suffer until you make it into heaven and glory someday.

It is a lifelong endeavour, (for your Soul) effective only whilst you are believing, so receiving your knowledge and identity from God.

The gospel is not about afterlife rewards and punishments, by good behaviour or believing the right thing, if but for a moment, in this life.

Salvation of the human soul isn’t repeating a prayer, joining a club, dying and having a preferential afterlife!

There is an afterlife. You do go somewhere and there is a heaven when you die, but the emphasis of the gospel, the good news is that:

·      You are one with Christ, and that reality can be had in your mortal body.

·      All of creation is groaning now with birth pains for the manifestation of the sons of God.

Human habits, behaviours and actions are an indicator of how you are oriented; where your knowledge and identity, your governance is coming from, worldly perceptions or Spirit.

Human behaviour and actions (good ones) are not a necessity for your Soul to be saved; they are a result of being saved.

Good behaviours and actions from trying hard, but not having the correct orientation, won’t last long and doesn’t reward you in any way. It will more likely increase your sense of separation, as you’ll never feel good enough and feel shame more easily.

If you don't understand the salvation of your soul, creation will never see your spirit.

Bad behaviours and actions mean you can’t rule like God (inherit the Kingdom of God), not because you are misbehaving, but because you're living by senses and experience.

If you don't understand what it means for your mind, will, and emotions to be rescued, creation will never see who you are in Him. It will only see what you believe through experience. Creation and you will miss out on the best life, and the transition to the next life will be more unpleasant than if you had.

You're not a bad person. You're under poor government!

You must stop believing what you see and start believing what He says.

That’s the Bible.

That is fantastic news!

Part 2.

Why did this need writing? What do most Christians think?

For centuries, we have misunderstood salvation as a future event that happens after death, a ticket to heaven someday. But Jesus revealed that salvation and heaven are both present realities, meant to be experienced here and now.

The gospel is far more about a better this life than a better after life.

What do we mean by life?

A key verse that gets misunderstood is John 3.16. 

John 3.14-16:

14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

15 that whoever believes in Him should [not perish but] have eternal life.

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Life (in English) has one meaning. “Having an animated body, not being dead.”

The word for life, “Zoe” (in Greek), has this meaning, and another: “The fullness of life, real, genuine, vigorous”

·  Having an animated body – Just-Life

·  The fullness of life – Zoe-Life (Think of the French term “Joie de vivre”)

Just-life, is something everyone born has for a finite time.

Just-life, is something everyone born loses at some point.

Christian bodies still lose their animation and die, due to age, illness or injury.

Everyone starts a “just-life”, whether they believe in Jesus or not.

Believing something, or not, has no bearing on just-life.

Believing something, or not, doesn’t make just-life eternal. We are promised new heavenly bodies, in several verses, but these verses aren’t tied to believing and are not necessarily about the afterlife as they on first reading can appear.

John 3.16 isn’t then talking about immortality of our current bodies.

John 3.16 isn’t talking about gaining a positive after life either, because it says it needs you to be “believing”, and that’s something we couldn’t do before we were born, and won’t have need of doing after our bodies die, since all will be revealed, so what we believe won’t change the reality.

So the “Zoe” life, of John 3.16 must mean “the fullness of life”, type of life.

Whilst believing, a verb (not a noun or title gained from once having believed, it suggests continued believing), you will be living/having “the fullness of life”.

Whilst connected, oriented to, getting your reality from, the Spirit of God, gaining your knowledge (of good and evil) and your identity from Him, you will have “fullness of life”.

It doesn’t say, “those who at least once believed".

However, the “impact”, the extent of this “goodness”, is finite; such “improved living” can only affect now, whilst we have a Soul (and a body) that can benefit from being oriented to Spirit, not to Flesh.

So why call it Eternal life and Everlasting life? This implies to most, after-life, to some that and during-life, and to very few, before-life. Eternity, is before, during and after, the time we get.

How can something we believe in the time we get being human beings, affect the before our just-life time?

Why should it impact our after-life, given the enormity of eternity compared to 80 years?

The answer is “it doesn’t”.

John 3.16 isn’t talking about how long, the “fullness of life” will last or be with you, or how long any component of you will last, or when any component of you started.

John 3.16’s everlasting and eternals, are about the nature of the origin of that “fullness of life”.

The source of this Zoe life on offer, is Spirit, it is from “outside of time”.

Hence the use of the words Everlasting and Eternal, refer to the nature of the source of the zoe life, not how long your finite Soul will experience it.

It is an adjective of the type of life, rather than a time frame for your soul experiencing it.

John 3.16 says we can experience something now, whose origins are from outside of time.

It doesn’t say anything of the period for which our Spirit, Soul or Bodies will exist or persist.

As a reminder, we are our Spirits which are eternal, we have Souls which are temporary and these reside temporarily “in” a body.