WORLD AS A SYMBOL
In the historical process of the philosophers' search for meaning, for truth, for God
& men have come to the quest from many directions. They have looked under all the rocks, examined the skies, and probed the depths, but the puzzle still befuddles them. I have read their works and loved the searchers, reveling in the idea that I am blessed to be of the same race as such men of great hearts. I'm 59 now (1997), forty years on this quest myself. I've searched all the nooks and crannies, checked out the scientists, the historians, the theologians, the world's religions, granting both them and their critics fair hearing, and thirteen years ago pieces of the puzzle began falling into place. Most of the insights which came my way surprised me greatly. Many of those I recoiled from at first, only later to find they were important rungs on the ladder of my climb.You see, I had always considered myself ultra-conservative, orthodox; it was never my wish to react against my beloved Lutheran church. Radical notions persisted to flash like neon signs along my path, saying, "Look, Look." It did me little good to resist looking, for I would be led to see it from another angle anyway. It disturbed me a lot to find myself drifting away from orthodoxy, as though riding a horse which wouldn't stay on the trail. But each time I discovered something I hadn't known before, I got excited and rushed back to fellow theologians with the thrill of a gold-miner at his big-find, shouting, "Hey, look at what I found!" I thought others were questing for answers too, and it took many years before I could admit to myself that my fellows weren't searching at all. Seldom did anyone ever try to refute my findings; occasionally one would get angry; most just turned their heads with no response at all. One professor whom I esteemed most, responded with, "why do you nuts always come to me?" For that question, I had no answer. As the years passed, I quietly drifted away, languishing over my loss, and ever since have walked alone, the path of the solitaire. A few times I tried to abandon the quest, only to have my leash jerked by some new insight that appeared from nowhere. Excitedly, I would write it out, sometimes a page, sometimes several pages, and each time I just knew that, "now they'll be able to see what I see!" And each time, they only turned away without comment.
Nearly thirty years now I've been alone on this quest, unable to get a simple critique from men whom I admire. I've pleaded with some, begging, "Tell me where I'm wrong, please. If I've gotten off track, tell me where I've gone wrong. As a Christian brother, please tell me." This I've asked of my old philosophy professor, and of a prominent minister (cousin), only to get no responses at all. Those were men whom I admired, men who had time and compassion for the lowliest person on the street - but not for me. A fellow minister, who works with my minister cousin, said I'm a "genius run amuck." But no refutation or critique was offered.
So, I've agonized over my situation, re-examining the basis for everything I've ever believed or written. I've searched the scriptures, done critical exegesis, and searched ever more deeply to prove or disprove my theses. If I can prove myself wrong and find the truth, then I've also won; only Truth matters to me. There is no value in successfully defending an invalid thesis! So, I pray fervently to be protected from error, to be led into truth, and for God to preserve me from vanity and pride. This is the path of the solitaire, of Nietzsche, Kazantzakis, Hesse, and so many others. I know their path, and know it wasn't of their choosing to be so alone; they were compelled by God's spirit, a call they couldn't resist, as they all had tried to do at times.
Many years have now passed, and the quest is still my path. It's not that I consciously pursue this path, but that the path and I are one. I've accepted it and don't resist anymore; no longer do I ponder why, but just live my own nature as forthrightly as possible, toward my own destiny. God gave me a life to spend, not to keep. How I spend it will determine its value in the end.
And now I have come to realize something of my destiny that leaves me awestruck. I think I must be one about whom God is speaking in Isaiah 49. He says,
"Hearken to me, you islands; and attend you ethne, after a long time it shall come to pass, says the Lord: from my mother's womb he has called my name: 2and he has made my mouth as a sharp sword, and he has hid me under the shadow of his hand; he has made me as a choice arrow, and he has hid me in his quiver; 3and said to me, 'You are my servant, O Israel, and in you I will be glorified.' 4Then I said, 'I have labored in vain; I have given my strength for vanity and for nothing: therefore is my judgment with the Lord, and my labor before my God.' 5And so, thus says the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his own servant, to gather Jacob to him and Israel. I shall be gathered and glorified before the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. 6And he said to me, 'it is a great thing for you to be called my servant, to establish the tribes of Jacob, and to recover the dispersion of Israel: behold, I have given you for the covenant of a race, for a light of the ethnon, that you should be for salvation to the end of the earth.'"[This translation is from the Greek Septuagint of 285 B.C., differs from the Masoretic Hebrew text of 900 A.D. (the basis for our English Bibles). Hebrew was never the language of Abraham or Moses. Our fathers used Phoenician, from which Greek later developed. The Greek word ethnos (
§θvoς) is the root word for the English "ethnic" and is used throughout the Bible as reference to one ethnic race of people: the white race from Adam, and later from Jacob, separating out from it the evil race of Esau/Edom who have usurped the name, "Jews," fraudulently, and are still known today as Jews. English translators mistranslate this word §θvoς as "gentile," meaning "non-Jewish." Whenever you read "gentile," read it as "our race from Jacob," or "fellow Israelites, or "our ethnic group," or sometimes as "that ethnic group." A comprehensive study of this word makes one chapter in my book, CHRIST'S NEW COVENANT: titled GENTILES.]That passage describes me perfectly. God has granted me great insights, has made my mouth as a sharp sword, has polished me as an arrow, and has hid me in his quiver. He has shown me his divine plan for this world, which I've laid out in a diagram revealing the patterns of history and the actual meaning of
"logos" (Word). The story of the Bible from the beginning has been the nurturing of one special race of people as God's chosen race. While the identity of these people was lost for many years, it has never been totally lost and my research confirms that the white European race is that special European-white-race group, under the throne of David which Jeremia carried to Ulster about 580 BC. The new land that prophets spoke of, "afar off," is America. This is the final promised land. God speaks of "race" in Is. 49:6; it is the story about our race and our destiny that I've written a book: CHRIST'S NEW COVENANT. I cannot help but believe that I am one about whom he speaks in the first verse, saying, "after a long time it shall come to pass." To my knowledge no one else has ever put the pieces of this great puzzle together. I hope I am but one of many.We are now in the end-times and God's plan of destruction for this present ungodly civilization has arrived. It is from the ashes of the imminent world-wide catastrophe that the new
kingdom of God will arise, with the salvation of his children, Israel. It is this information that fills my mind and my soul. It is this with which I seem to be obsessed. The picture is as clear to me as it ever was for any other prophet. But as hard as I try to communicate this information to others, it is entirely in vain. I am blocked! He has hid me in his quiver, continuing to polish me, and will use my work at his proper time. It might be posthumous; I don't know, and don't really care. I am content with the confidence that this arrow will ultimately be used to serve his plan, which will be accomplished.That introduction to myself is a preface to this concept which I've only partly defined before. I see myself as a symbol or representative of my Father who brought me into being by thinking me. I am somehow a symbol of Him. Truly, this world is nothing but a metaphor. Everything in this world is symbolic of God. This is a difficult concept to explain. You might simply look at it this way. It is as though God is having a dream and this world is that dream. We are figments of God's imagination, with no real material reality. Physicists know now that there is no such thing as a particle of matter, but only units of energy which are influenced by men's thoughts. Our world is a mental construct. We believe in our earthly reality because it is important to the dream that we believe we are
real. And, just like in our own dreams, the people, things, and events of the dream are SYMBOLS OF THE DREAMER. If someone analyzes and interprets a dream, that dream will reveal information about the dreamer. It is in such a way that this world is an expression of God, and by knowing that, we can then study God's dream (the world) to learn about God.For instance, the two sexes, male and female, reveal to us that God has a dual nature, both warrior and nurturer. I am oversimplifying for the sake of explanation, and this analysis could be expanded a lot, but this example gives you the general idea of how symbols serve to represent something else. This world is a symbolic representation of God, because it is God's expression of Himself. And that is an important point. While I referred to this world as a "dream" in order to make a point, it is more properly: God's expression of Himself. "Expression" means "Word
" (Λόγoς) in this case. A word or expression is sent forth with some power. A word cannot be expressed passively, but has power, even if it is merely thought in one's mind. This power of God's expression is dynamic, meaning that it is active, not still. We can sum up the previous with this statement: Our reality is a symbolic expression of God's dynamic Being. God is a dynamic process (δυvαμις), expression of which is manifested as our world and universe. [Caution: the pantheists who worship things of this world as God are worshiping the symbols rather than their creator. That is idolatry which God warns against. Today we see radical environmentalists worshiping the planet and scorning its creator. The figments want to usurp the dreamer!]Philosophy is the art of abstracting the simple seed of truth behind what we perceive. The simple seed of truth here is this: this world is a symbol of God. It is like a metaphor or allegory or riddle, the solving of which reveals the truth behind it. This world is not God, but merely symbolic of Him. So, hereby is hope offered, that by analyzing the symbols we can better know Him who expresses them. Simply, we can know God through study of his creation as
symbol.A scientist might say, "that's what we've been doing." Yes, it is what science has been doing, but scientists fall short because they don't acknowledge their work as symbol analysis, and seldom do they search for better understanding of Him who is behind the symbols.
It is our eventual destiny to perfect our race, to achieve the divine potential with which we are imbued, to once again know God. And it is by understanding God's symbolic expression (this world as his Word) that we will return to Him, our source. The previous sentence is exactly what is promised in God's New Covenant. Most Christians could not tell you what the New Covenant is, because it is not taught by religionists; it does not serve the business of religion. But it IS God's plan for us, and describes a new instinct, along with de-emphasizing religion. The prophet Jeremiah stated the promise in his chapter 31, which is restated in Hebrews 8:10.
"I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know me." Christ brought this promise to us, and God's spirit installed this new dynamic instinct within us. It is this New Covenant that will define the coming Kingdom of God, as we come to know God! It is for this one purpose that we exist in God's mind. This is our racial destiny, and anything that does not serve this has no value. The Bible is the story of this one special race, and has one basic theme: don't mix with other races! Today we live in an evil world where the devil's children rule and the Christian religion falls in step to promote the destruction of God's race through race- mixing.After God destroys the shallow practice of religion, then each man will search inside himself for that faint sound of God's spirit speaking in his soul, and he shall find God in Spirit and in Truth. This promise is already being fulfilled for any individual who is willing to undertake the search, for himself.
God be with you, in Christ our Lord.
by Roger Hathaway, October 1997
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