Summary
Most of your problems and the world’s problems come down to two main things. They are absolutely of a spiritual nature.
1.Disconnection
2.Corruption
Why This Article?
I’m seeing things a bit differently now and have been working at combining a spiritual and Bible-based perspective with the ideas and concepts from the somatic and trauma world.
Somatic and trauma work and education have opened my eyes to many things, but also created many new questions.
Beginning With Spirituality
I am finding a lot of confusing things out there in regards to spirituality and religion. I have been examining much of it much more deeply the last year or so to compare with what I already believe. There are so many ideas about what spirituality even is and what it means.
Do we need to understand spirituality? Should we care?
Who is God? What is God? Is God just some cosmic energy field, a universal consciousness? Or is God a personal being we can have a relationship with?
Are we divine? Do we have the full power of God within us, if only we awaken to it? Or are we children of God, meant to be in relationship to God? Do we have a divine quality or spark from God in us, but perhaps we are not meant to have our only goal as going inward to reach some sort of “enlightenment”? What even does “enlightenment” or “awakening” mean?
Is Jesus real? Is he a myth? Was he just a good man? Did he go to study other eastern religions in his early years, such as India or Tibet?
Is traditional Christianity true? Is mystical Christianity true?
Is the Bible literally true? Or is it all symbolic and metaphoric for our internal journey?
Is God’s Kingdom really “within us” or is it a literal invisible government that is acive and powerful in heaven?
Is suffering always going to be here? Why do we suffer? Will God end suffering, or are we meant to always struggle?
What about all the other religions in the world? All the other concepts? All the other gods?
What about evil? Does evil exist? Is Satan real? Where did he come from?
Were we created? Or did we evolve?
Is Jesus Almighty God, or is he a powerful being created by Almighty God?
Making it Simpler
I believe there are satisfying answers to all of these questions. I can’t discuss all of these things right now, and that would be too overwhelming anyway.
How do we simplify some things? Where do we start?
My Spiritual Foundations
Well, we all start from our foundation of what we were taught and what we currently believe to be true. So for my articles, I come from the foundation that the 66 canonical books of the Bible are complete and accurate as truly the “word of God”, or God’s letter to us. Again, I can’t go into why or how I believe that, or prove that within this article.
But in short, here are a few foundations I use and the reasons why.
Bible
Nothing else gives satisfying, comprehensive, and logical answers that I have been seeking.
Nobody has yet proved the Bible to be false to me.
Creation
I believe we can learn much from observing around us. The animals, plants, people, stars, natural cycles and seasons, etc.
Reason and Conscience
Also, we have our own internal capacity to use logic and reason and our own conscience.
I recently learned that this is referred to as the Divine Revelation ( directly from God, such as through the Bible), vs the Natural Revelation (things around us we notice and observe and come to understand).
So I will primarily use these things and some other resources as the foundations for these discussions. I believe these are already solid, steady, and unchanging rocks to build on. I have no need to change them or question the validity of them, until someone proves them otherwise. So I will not be trying to make these foundations fit into other peoples’ ideas, but seeing if other peoples’ ideas actually fit in with these foundations.
In this article we are primarily touching on the first foundation, the Bible.
Getting Back To The 2 Problems
1. You and your parents and grandparents and ancestors have intentionally or unintentionally disconnected.
2. There is an active source of corruption that is leading all of us away from connection and toward further disconnection.
This is not my idea. This is thousands of years old.
An Ancient Concept
To start with we can go back about 3500 years ago.
The Law that God gave to Moses told how God would respond to those that love him.
Exodus 20:6 (New International Version)
but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Later on, Moses was explaining to the people about the Law that God had given them.
Deuteronomy 6:5 (American Standard Version)
and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
So we have, LOVE GOD.
In the book of Leviticus we can see another law.
Leviticus 19:18 (Berean Literal Bible)
You shall not take vengeance, and you shall not bear a grudge against sons of your people, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am YHWH.
So here we have LOVE OTHERS and LOVE YOURSELF.
Now we go forward approximately 1500 years after the time of Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
The greatest teacher who ever walked the earth had been teaching, healing, and resurrecting people from the dead. The religious leaders come up to him and ask him a question.
Matthew 22:34-40 (NWT)
After the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together in one group. And one of them, versed in the Law, tested him by asking: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” He said to him: “‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. The second, like it, is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets.”
In essence, they asked, “What should we do? How does God really want us to to obey him?” And what does Jesus say? He simplifies everything into
LOVE GOD
LOVE NEIGHBOR
LOVE YOURSELF
He said it all comes down to those 3 things. All of the hundreds of commandments throughout the Mosaic Law. All of the things the Prophets pointed to. All of the centuries of time before him. It all boiled down to these 3 things.
Problem 1: Disconnection
What happens if we substitute the word “connection” for “love.”? Then we could say Jesus taught us that we should
CONNECT TO GOD
CONNECT TO OTHERS
CONNECT TO OURSELF
Obviously, we would need to understand then, what does this mean? How do we do this?
Who is God? How do we love him or connect to him?
How do we connect to others?
What is self? How do we connect to it?
Problem 2: Corruption
Why does it seem the world is almost setup to make us sick? To make us anxious? To make us depressed?
Why does it seem that we are getting more and more disconnected in very complex ways?
I believe God tells us why.
Foundation 1: Bible
Ephesians 2:2 (English Standard Version)
in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience
1 John 5:19 (New International Version)
We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
So again, importantly, we would want to know, what does this mean?
Who or what is “the prince of the power of the air”?
What is the spirit in the sons of disobedience?
Who or what is “the evil one”?
More Questions
Okay, so the Bible says it. DIVINE REVELATION
But, what about NATURAL REVELATION in regards to connection and corruption?
Do reason and logic and our conscience show that this makes sense?
Are there patterns we can observe around us in the world that match what the Bible teaches?
To be continued…
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AI used to help write disclaimer.
*Notice: I’m glad to provide these resources to empower your personal health journey, not as a substitute for professional medical care. While I encourage sharing links, please respect the intellectual property of Mountain and Meadow Health, LLC. You are responsible for your own health outcomes. Consult with your trusted health advocates before making significant changes. Contact Evan Ritter for professional licensing.”
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