More Than Genesis





Seven Heavens

 Religion should be an alternative to materialism. If the Bible is a refutation of the materialist paradigm then Genesis is the penultimate confluence of forces. Without a beginning of thought there is no thinking for humans at all.

The misrepresentation of Genesis as merely a “creation story” is a farce repeated by not only people who should know better but by people whose business it is to create confusion. While many well intentioned individuals find themselves parroting throw away talking points others with evil intent are busy writing those lines.

As the wholesale attack on the Judeo-Christian worldview rages forth it is time to admit that the attempts by many good people to squeeze spiritual thought into the box of rational materialism is now past. Although the attempt to fend off Marxism in the last 150 years or so through the use of “apologetics” and other techniques was gainful for a time it is being over-run.

Although spinning religious thought into a positivistic framework with “creationism” may be a successful instrument to gain government grants in the future it misses the point. Of course, the lessons of Genesis can be retooled linguistically to show their veracity. However, the attempt to “prove” Truth through positivistic means only serves to re-enforce the arguments of materialism rather than attenuate them.For instance, can blasphemy be used to prove God's love?

At this time it is not my intention to elucidate Genesis. I will point out that what we have in the the first book of the Old Testament is both mystery and mysticism; that is a natural fact. Noting that the author of this book is inscribing a legal document not a scientific treatise or a work of opinion. Yet it militates against the modern scholar to envision mysticism as a legal work.

There is a unbreakable partnership between Hebrew tradition and Christianity. Beyond picking out a word or two from a Concordance to ascertain its Hebrew meaning there is a bridge of thinking that must be crossed. However, just as the Haskalah movement has corrupted Hebrew thought with materialism so in turn has rational materialism eviscerated Christian thought.

With a careful reading of even the first few chapters of Genesis a person could spend a life of meditative contemplation understanding the universe without even one more sentence of writing from another source so long as the person had the rudimentary powers of observation. As a part of the perennial wisdom it was designed this way.

Yet with just a fractional knowledge of Hebrew tradition one would understand in Gen 2:1 “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them” (note the plural form of heaven and the use of the word host) there are seven heavens, seven expansions of the firmament, seven “dimensions” if you like, to the comprehensive Creation of God. This example of the unknowable mystery of Biblical writing has been papered over by rationalist ommissions, arguments, and obfuscations. For the record the names of those places are; Vilon, Rakia, Shehakim, Ma'on, Makhon, and Arovot.

When Meister Eckert was alive there were stirrings of faith and scholarship that went beyond denominational authority. The Cabala and other Christians stood shoulder to shoulder in the pursuit of understanding God's reflection. In this world of imperfection the work may have been fraught with tribulations but the work florished.

Today rational apologetics are not enough to save Christendom from its enemies. Being defined by materialism Christians are succumbing to the methodology of their adversaries. Although the contributions of Rushdoony and others are numerous their shortsighted definition of “mystical” is not helpful. Within the Vatican those who have promoted rationalism have done a similar disservice.

If we are without allies in this world then we must look to the other worlds of Creation for help. There is more power in one Archangel than all the nuclear weapons on earth. The sword of Michael gleams with justice while the Mercy of Zadkiel tempers our actions. It may be God's will that guides every angelic movement but our prayers must first reach His ears and convince Him of our cause. No materialist can ever understand these words.

Illustration: Seven Heaven, mixed media, Ann Reif, 2009