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II. Part One
MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING
“Life is a continuous search for knowledge, for the truth, and for God.”
(Excerpts from the First Part)
IN SEARCH OF GOD History is the summation of our cumulative consciousness. As long as mankind exists history always repeats itself to remind us of the same consciousness perpetuating our evolution on the horizon towards the same end. As one old saying goes, “We are at a re-play phase of the act as history repeats itself because we were lost on the first act.” The purpose is to let us know which part we were redirected off beam. Or, better yet, we are left at the center of a maze sketching the way back so we can proceed to the right direction and find our way out. In our quest, our primary concern is to find God, to know Him, and to understand our relationships with Him so we can better serve Him. But one may asked, “how can we know God if we don’t even know ourselves?” The same idea goes when we say, “we cannot claim an authority if we are not in the position”. Thus, our search for God is likened to knowing the tree only by its fruit - for God is the tree and we are the long time been-picked fruits, too far away from the tree-source or better yet our search is tantamount to looking for a single grain of diamond in a mound of sand. God is not of our kind yet He is the one who created us and everything around us. He is invisible yet we always see Him manifesting through His creations. And be that as it may, few references were laid down, like riddles or pieces of a puzzle waiting for a wise mind to put them together and complete the picture, to uncover the mysteries and figure the way back to Him. ON GOD’S OMNIPOTENCE The first thing we are going to deal with is to find clues where God is. Like in a jig-saw puzzle, we have to pick those pieces with remarkable clues first then putting them together in their respective places. Now, ask yourself where God really is. We have already established this common conception that God is omnipresent, meaning He is all-present. Now if God is all present He must be here. And if God is here we don’t need to look for Him. But where is God in here now? How can we justify His presence? For sure, we cannot find God as we confine a material thing to its location because God is not an object subject to uncover. God exists outside our dimensions. His existence is outside our time and space as we know it. Therefore, it is impossible to see Him with our very own eyes. Our material body and limited senses could not thoroughly penetrate His greatness for He is not one of us, but to some point we can at least extend a slight beyond our human perception in order to understand Him and His nature. Thus we must begin our search subjectively onwards; like giving more emphasis first on His known natures so we can establish a point where to start our search for Him. However, the material heart of man cannot enfold the entirety of God because he is bigger than the cosmos. He encompasses everything because He is bigger than anything and nothing is bigger than Him. “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?” (1 Kings 8:27). God can only manifest His presence because of the love in man’s heart. So, if the material heart cannot embrace the entirety of God, figuratively there must be a bigger material heart that can embrace Him. Because it will never be a truism that God is in the heart of man if there is no heart that can embrace Him. Thus, we must search for the figurative bigger heart in order to find where God is. The Fall of Man. Did Adam and Eve really eat a real fruit which God had forbidden them not to eat so they were cast out from the Garden of Eden? How could a very loving God have created such kind of tree that only by eating its fruit you will be chastised? It must be a different kind of fruit of very high importance and significance. But why God had put it in a place so accessible and without a guard, a fence or a cover? Besides, if it was a fruit-bearing tree why its fruit is forbidden to eat? And if the fruit is forbidden to eat, when can it be taken or for whom or for what the fruit is then? Amongst all the creations of God, man is so different and the most unique. Man possesses all the characteristics and qualities of both his creator and the creations. He is so special because God’s love is centered to him and everything was prepared for his coming. But what made him fall? What really did really happen in the Garden of Eden? Was it really a fruit they have taken or just something that was resembled only to a fruit and not a real one? We have to know what kind of tree it was. There were two special trees God put at the center of the garden, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Among these two trees, the tree of knowledge of good and evil was the only tree God had commanded Adam and Eve not to eat because accordingly, they will surely die. And how about the tree of life? If God had let them take part from the tree of life, then why not let them also take part from the tree of knowledge? Is it only life that is important for man’s existence? How about wisdom or the knowledge knowing between good and evil? The trees mentioned were not actually literal ordinary fruit-bearing trees but the two important phases in the lives of Adam and Eve. They must go through of these two phases before they can attain total immortality, as designed by God. Only the tree of knowledge of good and evil was commanded by God not to be taken because Adam and Eve have yet to wait for the proper time. They must first attain maturity before they will be allowed to take for it. The tree of life was not forbidden because from the very beginning of their existence they were already made with the breath of life and the tree of life has nothing sensitive as long as the tree of knowledge of good and evil has not been taken yet. The tree of life was actually referred to Adam, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil was referred to Eve. Adam was the “tree of life” because all the essences of life on God’s creations were all centered to him as he was the first masterpiece. He was the totality of all God’s creations both material and spiritual. He was the first human being to receive the “breath of life” thus making him the “living soul.” Eve was the “tree of knowledge” because she has the key to uncover the secrets how to replicate God’s power to [pro] create human being. Through Eve, Adam could learn the knowledge how to do it, but learning it would be the turning point to their mortality and the beginning of their sufferings. Definitely, if Eve will bear a child, they will experience aging, and death. But how did things happen? After Lucifer was thrown away from heaven, his immediate destination was earth. He wandered a long way but not far from the other spirits and from God. No wonder, despite of being a cast out from heaven he could still be seen in the scenario, even inside the garden. Lucifer was alone at first, like Adam. He also needs companion to share his life and sufferings. So, he planned to seduce other spirits to follow his footsteps and be one of his advocates. Because Lucifer was alone he felt jealous when he saw Adam and Eve happily living together and because God’s love and attention which was first centered to him was diverted to them. Lucifer was the most intelligent amongst all angels prior to the angelic rebellion. Thus he must also be wise and knew what he is doing. But because Lucifer was a cast away from heaven he must hide himself from the eyes of the Lord. So, and then, he assumed the form of a serpent so he could easily move and hide, and for him not to be seen by Adam. When Eve was alone, Lucifer assumed the form of human being and deceived her by convincing that by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they will not surely die but would become like God themselves. After the event, Eve’s consciousness was opened. She convinced Adam to do the same. Adam tasted it, and so they committed fornication. But what is fornication? There is fornication when unmarried individuals have carnal relationships. Adam and Eve’s innocence ended up there. They discovered their nakedness, so they covered themselves. But why is fornication? Was it not that God had created them man and woman to procreate and replenish the earth? Yes! All God’s plans are perfect because they were made by a perfect being. But each plan needs enough time to ripe, to evolve, and to be fully developed in order to be ready for the next plan. This is the law of nature. Adam and Eve must have to reach first the stage of maturity so they can be entitled to receive the blessings of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They have to wait for the proper time. Was it really fornication that Adam and Eve have committed? That was the expected consequence after knowing that they were both naked, without having received first the blessing of maturity. If they have committed a sin by merely eating the fruit of the tree forbidden by God they must have covered only their mouths and not their bodies. There was an indication that what they have done has more on the consequences of the act done and not on the act itself. It was the plan of Lucifer to have companions so he can share his sufferings with the other creations. After Adam and Eve were cast out from the Garden of Eden they begun to suffer the consequences of the act they have committed. Lucifer was so happy at that time for he knew he succeeded on his plan. Then, Eve conceived and gave birth to Cain and Abel. This is how the tree of knowledge of good and evil had worked for them. They began to experience sufferings as they became mortals away from the glory of God. Eventually, their children grew, so they also grew old until they die. Cain grew up with the attitude of the devil for he was the son of Lucifer. Abel grew up disciplined for he was the son of Adam. THE SPIRIT WORLD There is that shared notion that spirits have their own world separate from us. We are, first and foremost, were spirit beings before and confined to this physical world for a purpose. Our life is a continuous learning experience until we are ready to return back to the spirit world. Our consciousness or spirit continuous to exist beyond our physical self and whatever conditions our spirit will be depends on what our physical body had done. The Eden was the Spirit World. Other writers have the notion that this Eden was the same world that ever existed before Adam and Eve, and they call it Lemuria.39 The center of the Spirit World was called Normosom. It is the summation of all the spiritual divisions and dimensions in the spirit world. It has 72 major divisions, ranging from the highest to the lowest hierarchy. Each division is then sub-divided into smaller sub-divisions, and each “sub” has specific task to do and is different from the others – a classification and division of labor. The concept of heaven (Eden or Lemuria, the Spirit World) in relation to earth is like the concept of the duality of man where both spirit and flesh blend together in one entity. Hence, during those days of creation the world of Eden or Lemuria was within the surface of the earth. The earth at that time was so different from its first form, being the world of spiritual beings and the first earth. The Garden (of Eden) was once part of this Spirit World, when all spiritual entities were allowed to assume earthly forms through thought projection and experienced working and roaming around.
THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
The Philippines is been coined by many as the biblical “far east” or often referred to as the New Jerusalem for the obvious reason that it is the first and the only Christian dominant country in the far east. Perhaps it is more fitting to say that this is the only country in the far east where its peoples’ hearts are closest to the Lord than any other east Asian countries as far as Christianism is concerned. Reference to the far east has also been the doctrinal foundation of the Iglesia ni Cristo, a religious organization that was founded by Felix Y. Manalo in the Philippines in 1914. According to this organization’s doctrine, Felix Manalo was the last messenger of God64 as prophesied and Philippines is the far east country, as referred to this verse, in Isaiah 46:11 says, “Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.”
When God vanished away the Garden of Eden from the face of the Earth, he intelligently designed monuments in memory of his best creations – the monuments of Adam and Eve. These monuments are in mountain forms bearing the features of a man and a woman perfectly lying down in the place where God once put the Garden of Eden. Today, these monuments are seen in the Province of Dinagat Islands in the northern part of Mindanao, Philippine. Yes! These are evidences that the heart of the Earth is within the Philippine Islands. It is where God once put his best treasures – Adam and Eve. But how can we prove these mountains are really of Adam and of Eve? Did God really made these monuments and had told to anyone about and for us to know of their first dwellings, or where the Garden of Eden was?
Adam’s Monumnet in the Province of Dinagat Islands, Philippines
God is really a sophisticated being. All his works are interrelated with each others. We never anticipated when he vanished away the Garden of Eden; he intentionally left evidences for us to witness his power and miracles. These mountains are not the sole works of nature because how could nature through its natural phenomenal forces have created land structures exactly of the same features as of a man and a woman? If so, then we could argue that the earth as part of nature could have aided God in his creations of these monuments. In reference to the earlier parts of this book, that man was created in almost the same pattern as the earth, and then we can also conclude that these two creations could have helped God, directly or indirectly, on his works and miracles. Hence, man and earth as both parts of nature must have the same pattern of tasks to do.
Eve’s Monument in the Province of Dinagat Islands, Philippines
The Chocolate Hills in Bohol, Philippines is another evidence of miracle done by nature. These hills are just like ordinary hills, but one thing that made them unique is that these are shaped and scattered in almost the same form. These are to some extent intentionally put there like mounds of soil from a very big container, and the slopes are perfectly almost the same. This is not the work of nature because how could these land masses be so distinct that these are the only kind in this world? How could nature through its forces constantly working from the very beginning of time have created land structures so unique that have never been duplicated ever since? Besides, these hills are not within a mountain range as evidence of diastrophic activity. If this is the sole work of nature it must have been duplicated but why it was never been so? Hence, there must be an intelligent being who designed all these things. But for what purpose? We may not have the right to answer the question raised but one thing is sure, that God made them for reasons.
Chocolate Hills in Bohol, Philippines
Somewhere in the northern part of Luzon in the Philippine Islands lies another wonder that is related to the Chocolate Hills – the Rice Terraces of Cordillera. This rice terraces has no physical feature similar with the Chocolate Hills because these two are so different from one another. However, if we analyze their relationships we can picture an event that took place long time ago. In an ordinary work of a man as he goes on sculpturing a wood, clay, or a stone, there must always be something removed, discarded, or taken off as junks from the piece. These junks are to be thrown out as mere pieces of dirt. The Rice Terraces is a sculpture in itself, and the land masses taken from it were thrown away like garbage to a place now called the Chocolate Hills.
Banaue Rice Terraces in Ifugao, Philippines
Remember that the first creations of God were the spiritual beings. Before God had created man greater parts of this earth were already taken care of by these spiritual beings as preparation for his best creation. The sky served as their main thoroughfare with, now the so-called UFO’s (unidentified flying objects) as their vehicles. The earth was so different that time from what it is right now. These spiritual beings were so intelligent and their technologies were so advanced that even the most sophisticated technologies man have ever made pale in comparisons. They were the once responsible in the creations of these wonderful works of God. They were the first beings created to aid God in the establishment of his kingdom on earth.
The first amongst the elements to appear during the formations of stars and galaxies, which is also the most abundant element in the universe, is hydrogen. Our sun and all other stars in the universe are made primarily of hydrogen and helium together with other secondary elements of lesser quantities such as oxygen, carbon, iron and magnesium. Deuterium, also called heavy hydrogen, is a stable isotope of hydrogen with a natural abundance in the oceans of earth of approximately one atom in 6500 of hydrogen.65 Deuterium is said to be the waste of the earth, like the oil deposits in the Middle East, which can be used as fuel of the future.66 The largest deposit of deuterium on earth is found along the Philippine Trench, the deepest trench ever known on earth so far.67 Within this deep, the distance from the earth’s core is the shortest. On the other side of the globe, almost exactly opposite of the Philippine Deep, positioned the mysterious Bermuda Triangle, a perfect imaginary triangular form between Miami (Florida), San Juan (Puerto Rico) and Bermuda Island. The Bermuda Triangle is famous of its extra-ordinary phenomenon of inter-planetary or extra-terrestrial electromagnetic force field that must be responsible in the unexplainable disappearances of ships and aircrafts, such as those recorded incidents of lost ships and planes believing to be drown within the deep of this triangle. To some this place is like a black hole, jamming all communication signals and absorbing anything metal, like a magnet. “During the past century more than 50 ships and 20 aircraft sailed into oblivion in the area known as the Devil's Triangle, Bermuda Triangle, Hoodoo Sea, or a host of other names. Exactly what happened to the ships and aircraft is not known. Most disappeared without a trace. Few distress calls and little, if any, debris signaled their disappearance.”68
The Philippine Archipelago was once part of the Spirit World during the early times of creations. It was once a paradise-like place because the Garden of Eden was once a part of it. We have to consider that through natural forces, such as continental drift and tectonic plates, the Earth is constantly changing, and its appearance today is far different from what it was millions of years ago. Let us elaborate this further. There were four major riverheads flowing within the perimeters of the Garden of Eden – Pishon, Gihon, Asshur (Tigris) and Euphrates. Of all these rivers, only the Tigris and Euphrates were associated to Mesopotamia (now Iraq). No surviving evidence so far had been discovered to conclude that Pishon and Gihon were also in Mesopotamia. It is not also clear how wide the Garden of Eden was and how far was its extent. The only evidences we can consult were the remnants of the garden, and the book bearing its records – The Book of Genesis.
“A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is Pishon, it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold at that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there. The name of the second river is Gihon: it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the forth river is Euphrates.” (Gen. 2: 10-14).
The land of Havilah is already forgotten in our present day generation, but its gold being the treasure of the land must still be there as silent evidence to its extra-ordinary past. But where is Havilah now? Where is its gold?
The Philippine has written stories very similar to Havilah. It was a land once blessed with abundance of gold where the folks can easily pick them like ordinary stones in the river. There are writers claiming that the Philippine Archipelago was once part of the Continent Lemuria, which was destroyed by catastrophic disasters, when the tectonic plates of the Pacific Ring of Fire were so active.69 Some writers are also unanimous that the biblical land being referred to as Ophir where King Solomon mined gold (1 Kings 9:28) was the Philippine Islands. Today, a large deposit of gold has been explored in the Provinces of Surigao70 and probably one of the largest deposits in the world.
Eden and the Garden. Lots of writers have missed Eden on their descriptions of the Garden of Eden and only touched on the garden itself. Their interpretations mislead everyone away from the real picture as described by Moses thus limiting their views on it.
“Now, the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground - trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters.” (Gen. 2:8-10).
The Garden of Eden was just a portion or a place inside Eden because the latter was the term referred to as the Spirit World, or the heaven on earth.
(End of Part One)
Note: Complete text is available upon request from the author).
