So, we have arrived. We know a little about where we are and how we got here. Where is here?
Here is a planet that we have named ‘Earth’. The Earth rotates as it orbits around a ‘Star’ that we have named the ‘SUN’ resulting in our twenty-four days. The earth, and the other planets of this sun, and the sun itself, form a ‘Solar System’. Our ‘Solar System’ exists within a ‘Galaxy’ we have named ‘The Milky Way’, and this galaxy contains millions of ‘Stars’, and there are millions of galaxies within the ‘Known Universe’.
All of these stars and galaxies are ‘Light Years’ apart. What is a light year? Well, light travels at 186,000 miles per second. Therefore, a light year is how far light can travel in one earth year, which is about 6,000,000,000 (6 trillion) miles.
Therefore, the earth could be compared to less than a pencil point that exists within this enormous universe. And yet, the earth is a very special planet, at least to us, because it is where we are. It is our home, and it is the only planet in this universe that we are sure contains ‘Living Energy’ which is “Us” and lots of other “living things” that exist here.
This universe might someday be considered a modern-day version of the ‘Tower of Babel’ story that is in the Bible, only here it exists in a much more grandeurs scale.
How long have we been living ‘Here’? No one is exactly sure about how long we have lived here, but they think they have it pretty close to right. It was recently determined that the known universe is about 13.8 billion years old and that the earth is about 4.2 billion years old. The earliest living organisms in existence on the planet earth were microscopic organisms (microbes) that left signs of their presence in rocks that were formed about 3,700,000,000 (3.7 billion) years ago. That would be the first sign of “Living Energy” being born into the Universe as far as we humans know, and it happened here on earth. Real evolution works a little slow. It took about 2,900,000,000 (2.9 billion) more years before DNA evidence indicates that the first animals had evolved here on earth about 800,000,000 million or (.8 billion) years ago. However, evolution is stubborn, and it kept at it until eventually we (Homo sapiens) arrived here between 350,000 and 260,000 years ago, and we are still evolving.
Translated into our religion that same documented information would read something like this: Our God began his work of creating the Universe as we know it today about 13.8 billion years ago with what we have named the Big Bang, primarily because we still do not understand exactly what happened. However, we know from more scientific analysis that the planet earth is about 4.2 billion years old, which leads one to acknowledge the fact that the process God initiated to create the Universe took 9.6 billion years to eventually create the earth. It was then another 0.4 billion years before God created the first known living life form and he chose to place it here on earth. It took another 2.9 billion years for the evolution of the first animal life forms to appear on earth .8 billion years ago. Then, finally it took about another 0.4 billion years until our ‘Living Energy’ form (Homo sapiens) evolved and began to appear on earth, and we are still evolving 0.4 billion years later.
Is this new information anymore unbelievable than our previously believed information that God did all of that work in 6 days and rested on the seventh day?
How does the new information affect your faith? Does that information diminish your faith in the oneness of God, and our shared belief that he created the universe and everything in it or does it do just the opposite and actually strengthen your faith.
Doesn’t it make you think that it must be true that God is eternal, and he knows it? Notice his patience with everything he is creating. Notice, how the new information actually offers a more realistic perspective of God, his creations, and puts much more meaning into the word ‘eternity’.
At this point ‘fast forward’, way forward, to about 500b.c. because that’s where we are going begin to talk about something very important. 500b.c. would put us about 500 years before Christ. At that time in history, the Greeks had a polytheistic religion (many gods that ultimately represent a single God), without a book, a church, a creed, or a professional priestly class. This seemingly highly unorganized religious activity, did in fact, already offer the people of that culture a faith based, type of relationship between humans and the supernatural entity or entities or, in other words ‘the Gods’. During the time of the Greeks, it is believed that there were about 150,000,000 (150 million) people on earth.
The point here is that the Greeks, and many peoples before them, acknowledged their belief in some intelligent form of life, more powerful, than themselves that existed in the universe with them, and they maintained a personal relationship with this entity. They were aware that ‘something’ bigger than themselves existed, but in their time in history they still were not clear about just what that ‘something’ was. Mankind had evolved and was evolving, from their basic ‘living energy animal culture beginning’, into a more advanced ‘Living Energy Human’ culture.
By the time of Jesus, 500 years later, that ‘something’ had become much more clearly defined. Jesus Christ was born into a culture in which the religion was and still is Judaism. Jesus was born, lived and died as a Jew. In the Jewish religion of that time ‘Jesus’ would have been considered a ‘prophet’ and only a ‘prophet’. The Jewish religion never considered Jesus to be God. The Jewish religion believes that there is only one God. He alone created the universe. He has no physical body. They believe that God is transcendent. He rewards good deeds and punishes evil. Their faith in God requires them to demonstrate Love and Kindness in their daily lives.
Jesus was a Jewish prophet who proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom of God. Jesus sometimes referred to himself as being the son of God. The teachings of Jesus were derived from the Torah, the Jewish bible. After his death and resurrection, Jesus became a martyr, and some people of the Jewish faith believed that Jesus was more than just a prophet. They believed that he was born of the Virgin Mary by an act of God, and therefore the true son of God. The beliefs of this group of people of the Jewish faith eventually resulted in the basis for and the ultimate formation of the Christian religion. The first followers of the Christian Religion were all Jewish. At this point in time, it is believed that there were about 300,000,000 (300 million) people on earth.
The Christian religion believes that there is only one God the creator of heaven and Earth. That Jesus Christ is an actual son to God because of his ‘Unique Virgin Birth’. The necessity of salvation for eternal life. The Resurrection and the Second Coming, and the Inspiration of Scripture.
Catholicism is the largest of the three major branches of Christianity (Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox). Catholics believe in the oneness of God and the Trinity (The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirt). They believe in the incarnation of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. The person and work of the Holy Spirit. The church as the Body of Christ. Sin and the means of salvation, and Judgement and the world to come.
Islam beliefs, Muslims are monotheistic (monotheism is a term used to refer to the belief in the existence of only one ‘God’). Therefore, they worship one all-knowing God, who created the universe and everything in it, and in Arabic he is known as Allah. Followers of Islam aim to live a life of complete submission to Allah. They believe that nothing can happen without Allah’s permission, but humans have free will. They believe in the day of Judgement and Resurrection after death.
Judaism, Christianity, and Muslims all have faith in and worship the same God. However, each of them believes, lives, and implements their faith in different ways.
Hinduism is monotheistic (belief in one God) and polytheistic (belief in many Gods as manifestations of a single unity). Hindus view the entire universe as God’s and everything in the universe as God. They believe in reincarnation and that each person is intrinsically divine, and the purpose of life is to seek and realize the divinity within each of us. The Hindu belief is totally non-exclusive and accepts all other faiths and religious paths.
Buddhism originated in India about 2,500 years ago. Buddhists believe in the existence of one God, but they do not believe in a God that created everything, and they do not believe that it is necessary to seek God. Buddhists believe that worship is important. They believe that human life is a life of suffering. They believe in mediation (meditation is listening within yourself to achieve enlightenment) as opposed to (prayer, speaking with God) or (worship, being thankful to God). They believe that spiritual and physical labor, and good behavior are other ways to achieve enlightenment.
Important Note: The comments and the definitions presented here represent an effort to provide each of you with a very basic understanding of these famous religious beliefs and by no means is it a definitive representation of any of them or the completeness that each of them actually present or bring into the world and the universe.
There are thousands of other religions and denominations in the world, and as long as they each, believe in and worship the one and only God of the Universe, and that he is the creator of the Universe, and they try to do only that which is right, then we are sharing and worshiping the same God. We simply implement our faiths in different ways. Most of the religions presented here obviously share their most important basic beliefs: ‘There is only one God, and he created the Universe. They also usually support a form of the Living of a life of love, righteousness, kindness, sharing, and peace, that will lead to a better eternal existence with God after his day of Judgement’.
Are the different ways we choose to worship the same God, really all that important to God or is it only important to us humans (his children), fighting to be able to falsely claim which of his children God loves the most, for childish reasons with childish logic. Is it possible for a person to really ‘love and worship the one and only God, and be trying to live a righteous life’, and be doing it in a wrong way? Is there a ‘wrong way to love and worship the one and only God’?
Perhaps, but the only one that comes to mind is to worship him selfishly like a child. No one owns God. ‘Only God is God’, and he refuses to be owned or controlled by anyone, including his individual children or his collective churches.
As we become more familiar with and actually learn about the different religions, and if we are fortunate enough to encounter a real person of their faith, instead of just hearing about them in the news, we realize that we are in fact worshiping the same God, because there is only one God, and he is presenting himself to each of us in a manner that will enable us to recognize him, be comfortable with him, and believe in him and only in him within our own hearts and subculture, which is now rapidly becoming our world culture.
Now God presents the point he wishes to make with this revelation: Many of our Religious beliefs are being presented to us in a format that is 2,000 or more years old. He proposes that it would be a good, worthwhile and beneficial endeavor to make a grand effort to bring our religions into the twenty first century, in order to demonstrate that these values hold truths and beliefs and ideas that are still viable, necessary, worthwhile, and applicable in today’s world. Our religions should strive to become more relevant to each and every member of their particular faith, by presenting their faith in a perspective of today’s world ‘the 21st Century’ because that is where we all now live, love, and worship the One God together.
The book that each of you carry and share and refer to as your religion’s particular book of faith is more than 2,000 years old. Do not throw it away or even put it away. Read from it on your holy days, and then read from our ‘New 21st Century Bible’; which will bring new information forward presented as the light for God’s new revelations, not threating his truth but in fact supporting it, with current findings of scholars, and scientists, and as long as the new information is believed to be the truth, and does not deny anyone their individual right to worship the one and only God, in their own personal way, as long as that way does not cause physical harm to another person, or group of persons, then it should be considered within the presentation of our shared faith.
Why do we need this? Because there have been many changes in the last 2,000 years, and in that same 2,000 years, the world population has grown from a population of 300,000,000 (300 million) people to a world population of 8,000,000,000 (8 billion) people. The world has become much more complicated, with computers and data bases, that when used to gather information that is then analyzed and explained correctly and truthfully, it will be understood correctly, and it will give the peoples of the world access to a much broader spectrum of cultures and scientific discoveries that actually support our faith in the ‘Oneness of God’, instead of challenging it, the information will ultimately bring us together as a ‘New World Culture’ worshiping the ‘One God’ in ‘God’s Own Church’ or in another language ‘La Propia Iglesia de Dios’ in ways which also emphasize and encourage us to exercise our right to maintain a personal relationship with our God, relationships that will ultimately strengthen the morality of our ‘New World Culture’.
God is Spiritual Energy and the creator of all other forms of energy, Positive energy, Negative energy, and Living energy. Do not confuse Spiritual energy (which is God) with Living energy (which is Positive energy and Spiritual energy which we humans received from God as he gave us life). With the gift of life came his love and everything else we can conceive of, experience, believe, and know, it is a big package and exactly everything that a living human can do that a rock cannot do.
No one person, nor no one church, owns or controls God in any manner. Only ‘God is God’; and through his genius creation of DNA we are destined to continue evolving in the manner and direction he wants us to take in this universe, at the same time he has bestowed upon us the gift of eternal life.
God said tell everyone that has been born, and everyone that has yet to be born that: “I am, I am the One and Only God, and Creator of this Universe and everything in it. I am Spiritual Energy and therefore the only source of Life, no one and nothing lives in this Universe except of me. I am Love. I created each of you. Therefore, I am your Father, and all of you are my children! I hold each of you dear within my Spirit. I love you. I will protect you. I will teach you, and I will hold you accountable for your life, live it by my teachings of love and live only that which is righteous as I placed it your hearts and souls. I am always with you, never doubt it. Call on me! You may address me as ‘God’ or ‘Father’ as is done in your given language, and nothing more.”
“Our Arrival to Our Little Universe” is a true story. This story is about God, the only God of this Universe. It is God repeating his truth, to us his children, teaching us the way to have him be pleased with us, and thereby him offering to share with us an eternal life with him in this universe, and all that he asks of us is that we repay him by always living with love and righteousness within ourselves and for all others in our hearts and our souls, as we live in this universe together.
God’s Own Church
One Universe, One God, One Church.
This Concise 21st Century Bible has been written as God instructed me to write it and give it to you.
Luz, God’s servant
From “God’s Own Church” worshiping together as one church there shall flourish a new “World Culture of Love and Righteousness to be enjoyed by All Inhabitants of the Earth and All of God’s Children.”
May we all grow in “His Oneness”, Amen
