#i wish that i could understand the mysteries of knowledge the mysteries of God's sovereignty of suffering of grace of the Godhead

[queenlucythevaliant]

Do you think Behemoth and Leviathan were actually real and happened to be dinosaurs? Behemoth was a huge and formidable land dinosaur while Leviathan was a pleisiosaur. Technically, plesiosaurs weren't dinosaurs, but you get my idea?

So I've been sitting on this ask for a little bit because I honestly didn't know what tone to take in answering it. I don't know your background, and thus don't know whether to be more blunt or delicate. Ultimately, I settled on blunt, simply because I could not figure out how to answer this question delicately. That said, I hope you take this in the gracious spirit in which I have written it.

SO. That's a hard no from me, friend. Let's discuss!

So typically when you hear people say that Behemoth and Leviathan were dinosaurs (or dinosaur adjacent), it's in the context of arguments in favor of young earth creationism. It's a fairly big talking point with the Answers in Genesis crowd. Basically, they make the argument that Biblical texts referencing creatures that superficially resemble dinosaurs are evidence that humans and dinosaurs could have lived at the same time.

This works out if the earth is only 6,000 years old, but not if we take paleontology, geology, or human evolution at all seriously. The writer of Job would have had no way of knowing that dinosaurs and plesiosaurs existed because they had already been extinct for many millions of years. Even if you want to argue that maybe God is describing creatures with which Job was unfamiliar, it still doesn't track. God's address to Job treats these creatures as something for which he has a point of reference. It also just doesn't make sense why God would choose this moment to reveal the existence of dinosaurs. Talk about a tangent!

I don't know where you fall on the spectrum of Christian beliefs regarding origins and the age of the earth, but I've written at length on this blog about the case for theistic (old earth) evolution, so I won't rehash that here. Check out my all truth is God's truth tag or shoot me an ask if you want more on that. Regarding Behemoth and Leviathan, however, I think some of the same exegetical skills involved in reading (or misreading) Genesis are involved in the relevant chapters of Job.

When God addresses Job out of the whirlwind, he uses poetic language. He's talking about a real thing (his sovereignty over the universe), but it's something that transcends human comprehension on an overwhelming scale. Much like we can't ever hope to wrap our heads around deep time, we're simply not capable of grasping the extent of God's sovereignty.

When God describes storehouses of hail reserved for the day of battle, are we supposed to literally think that there is a giant building in heaven where God keeps all his hail? Or is it a picture of God's might as both creator and judge of the universe? If we know our Bibles, we see that hail is frequently used as a tool of judgement against God's enemies: Egypt, the Canaanites, apostate Israel, and ultimately the rebellious earth. So when God describes his storehouses of hail, we see the reality of his total control over the arc of history, his ultimate justice, his orderliness.

Likewise, Behemoth and Leviathan use the established language and symbolism of Scripture to convey truths for which plain language wouldn't suffice. Behemoth's description isn't that of any real animal, living or extinct. God paints a picture of a creature that no man could ever hope to tame and expresses that he, God, can.

Leviathan is the longer and more interesting image; it's a mighty creature of the deep that breathes fire and cannot be controlled. We know that in Biblical parlance, water is frequently associated with chaos (too many places to enumerate, but Psalms, the Prophets, and Revelation are good starting places). Leviathan is a picture of this chaos: mighty, rearing, deadly, uncontrollable, terrifying. Then God says to Job, "Can you draw this creature out with a fishhook? Can you make a covenant with him? Will he serve you? Can you injure him? Do you have any means at all of controlling the chaos monster? I do." It's poetry used to express a truth that we humans cannot hope to grasp otherwise: We cannot control the chaos of the world around us. We can't even try. But God can, and he does it effortlessly.

So no. Not dinosaurs. And I think that arguing that they are, especially trying to pick through the text and figure out which ones they're supposed to be and using that to argue for literalistic interpretations of Genesis, really misses the point and the power of what God is saying here.

I think Job's words back to God at the end of the book actually give us a remarkably important principle when it comes to Biblical interpretation: "I have uttered what I do not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know." The whole Bible is too wonderful for us. God condescended in order to give us his truth, and he had the magnificent grace to give it to us in ways that we can begin to grasp.

I think a lot of really literalistic reads on Scripture (Job, Genesis, Revelation, and elsewhere) are a kind of grasping at control. There's an assumption in it that God gave the ancients an exact accounting of things that humans just aren't equipped to fully comprehend.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't try! But it does mean that when we read Scripture concerning the Big Things: the Sovereignty of God, the creation of the universe, the origin of life, eternity, infinity, even spiritual mysteries like the Trinity and the nature of the Incarnation, we have to approach it as something fundamentally beyond our comprehension which God is showing us the edges of. We can see other, different edges of many of those same things through scientific observation (or philosophy, or whatever other disciplines-- not all of the Big Things are scientific in nature.)

It's like Isaac Newton said: "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

[wearepaladin]

Unconquered

A story of Primeval Thule

Three things cannot be long hidden. The Sun, The Moon, and the Truth.

-Buddha

On the continent of Thule, in the age after Atlantis was consumed by the depths, and before the time of all consuming ice, magic was a force feared and little understood by humanity at large. For most, what little that was understood fell under the domain of superstition and fear, for it was a force not natural to humanity, and those who did seek to understand and wield it would be considered outcasts by most, their souls forever corrupted by the taint of the arcane.

The argument could be made that this belief was born of prejudice and superstition, and that magic, like any form of power or knowledge, depended on who grasped it to be considered good or evil. It might even be true. But those who make that argument find it little comfort in the conquered city of Thran, where those with arcane power rule unquestioned.

The origins of the Black Circle, the cabal of arcanists that hold sovereignty over Thran is a deliberate mystery, with those seeking answers often unsatisfied or left in no state to share what they learned. What is certain is that one day, the old leadership of Thran vanished in a swift coup, and rising over the city appeared the Orb, an obsidian fortress sphere that put the city in a perpetual state of eclipse. From there, the will of the Black Circle enforced itself on Thran, subduing the city by way of spell, legions of undead and other monsters that found no sunlight to burn or hinder progress, a terrifying display of arcane and necromantic power that has instigated a Long Night upon Thran.

Now, whenever people question the danger of magic, they need only cite Thran as an example to chill doubting hearts. The city has been under the thumb of the Black Circle for nearly a decade now, with those who challenge them quick to disappear...

Or be made an example of.

Deep beneath surface, in the heart of Thran’s Iron Colliseum, an arena crafted by the will of the city’s master, a solitary soul awaited his end. He could feel the crowd before he heard them, their enthusiasm a palpable thing even deep beneath the arena. The prisoner had long grown familiar to the roar of bloodthirsty enthusiasm, and it no longer evoked either the fear or excitement it once did.

For the crowd desired only his blood now.

“Up, Lemurian.”

The guard who spoke emphasized his comand with a meaty kick upon the cell door, the sound doing more to rouse the prisoner from his thoughts than anything spoken. The prisoner met the guard’s gaze squarely through his one working eye, the other red and swollen from being struck an hour before. The “Lemurian” rose with an effort that barely betrayed the presence of the many bruises and wounds that currently decorated his form.

“It’s time. Come. Better to meet your fate in the arena than down here.”

The guard chuckled, and the Lemurian grimaced in agreement, despite himself. The alternative of being slowly beaten to death in a cell was only slightly less appealing than being made a spectacle of in the arena. 

--------------------------

In another time, in another place, another prisoner waited in the dark. She was draped limply upon the floor, her arms and torso held aloft by great chains of metal that she no longer had the power to strain against.

Once, she might have willed those chains to less than ash, such was her power in times past, or simply made herself elsewhere. Even now, she might have strained and heard iron scream and submit to raw force, but those who kept her prisoner had prepared for her confinement. Runes of Eclipse of and Cloud kept her dim light smothered, and here, deep beneath the earth, moonlight would be hard pressed to find and restore her.

For even the forgotten goddess of the moon still had sway with her domain. But here, in the deep darkness, Selene could find no comfort in the promise of that absent light. Or at least, that’s what her captors believed...

Eyes closed, her body limp with the facade of defeat, she focused herself in the darkness, imagining, remembering, to be a deeper darkness than night, the hidden moon obscured in the shadow the world. As a goddess she’d had many aspects, but in this phase, the umbra, she was the hunter in the dark.

The hunter knew how to be unseen, and more importantly, how to be patient.

-------------------------------

Light spilled into the corridor, prompting the Lemurian to shield his eyes, granted no period to adjust as a guard pushed him forward, his exposed knees scratching themselves on the sand. As he was pushed closer to the entrances, the smell of blood filled his nose even as the roar of the crowd filled his ears. With a will, he stood straight, wincing as one of his recently inflicted injuries found itself pressed down by his escort.

“Will you not allow me even one weapon to defend myself?”

The guard gave another hollow chuckle. 

“The lords of this city desire not to see you fight, Lemurian. They wish to see you die.”

And with that he was pushed forward into the light, the gate closing immediately after, the Lemurian finding himself facing the arena. All around him, the crowd undulated at his presence, pulsing with the thought of seeing him dead. The living and the undead sat side by side, the promise of violence enough to bring both sides of that divide together. Or at least that’s how it seemed.

He looked up at the source of the artificial eclipse that dominated the sovereignty of Thran. The diluted light of the sun seemed more illustrate the dark sphere the overlords of this place resides than provide true illumination to the world below. Others, be they living or dead, tried to avoid looking at it, as though their upward gaze might offend their betters.

The Lemurian glared upward, unafraid.

“Still defiant, even now.”

The voice of the Speaker, the United Presence of the Black Circle, the only evidence of most would ever witness of the people behind the magocracy above their heads, rang over the arena. The crowd was silent, daring not interrupt.

“I defy only what others accept out of fear.” The Lemurian answered, still focused on the Orb, resisting the urge to blink his eyes away. The sun still burned even in this false eclipse, but with death so close, he didn’t want to grant the Circle any perceived submission.

Or at least, that was the image he was trying to project. The sun no longer burned him as it did most, but that was a secret he would not unveil. Not yet.

“They accept the will of their betters. For all you’ve done in resistance to our mastery over this world, you forget that ultimately what we do with our magic is just an extension of our humanity, where it is our nature to submit to greater strength. Be it with spell or axe, we will rule this city and this world to come by making it in our image.”

From the sphere above, a broken sword fell, planted in the sand. Forms of deeper darkness pooled around it, taking the shape of nightmares. The Lemurian recognized them as his executioners. The moment was here.

He stood to meet it.

“And yet for years I have not submitted to you. Through slavery, torture, violence, even trying to force my mind under your chains, you could not break me. I am proof that your shallow philosophy is as thin as any shadow.”

He limped forward, one of the wounds inflicted in his confinement opening, blood draining down his leg. He grasped the broken knife hilt, and turned to face the nearest form of living darkness, meeting its deadlight gaze squarely.

“I need only show these people that they can yet remain unconquered. That there is a light they share that you cannot smother.”

The crowd had gone utterly silent at this point, the nervous tension deep enough to cut. One of the nightmares surrounding suddenly struck the Lemurian, talons as cold as midnight circling his heart.

“And how shall you do that?”

The Speaker intoned, sarcasm laced with a grudging irritation. The talons grew jagged, forcing a rictus of agony on the Lemurian’s face.

A sight that promptly faded into a calm smile, even as his blood pooled on the sands of the arena.

“Like this.”

He raised his knife high. And the sun answered him, the once pale light of the arena banished in favor of a storm of fire and light. A moment later, where a once dying man stood bleeding before a visceral execution, creatures of darkness ready to slowly pull him apart for the amusement of their masters, now stood a man made whole, crowned with a nimbus of light, a once broken knife in hand made unto a solar blade of purest edge.

“Now. Let us begin.”

—————————

Selene heard the footsteps, and girded herself, the power she’d been slowly gathering to strike. It almost hurt at this point, like a blunt knife edging out of her skin, but kept it still. She would only have once chance.

In her focus, she almost did not notice the hurried alacrity of the footsteps, but was barely given to ponder before the door to her cell opened from outside. Her captor, the merchant prince Mheriz, stormed in, a contingent of his guards surrounding him.

“We need to get her out of here. Lock the door, and prep the circle. The buyer is not someone we can afford to allow their prize to slip away.”

He ordered, a pair of his guards swiftly locking the door while Mheriz’s pet mage began activating the teleportation circle beneath her feet.

Selene grit her teeth. The power she’d been saving to break her chains would mean nothing if they could simply whisk her away. But the circle was not something she could break free of...not as easily anyway. She would be exhausted, vulnerable...

Finally betraying signs of life, she looked at the door, willing herself to divine what was behind it...and saw a glimmer of hope.

With a deep sigh, she gathered her power, and with everything she had, the gifts of a scant few believers from every age she’d known, began to whisper the first thing any god had shown mortals.

She prayed.

The circle beneath her cracked in two, three, a dozen pieces, it’s power to ensnare and transport her to wherever Mheriz intended ruined beyond any swift repair, the mage who’d begun activating it sent flying into the wall with a wet crack. Exhaustion racked her body, and the goddess Selene slumped, her power diminished.

She remained conscious only long enough to hear Mheriz howl in outrage, and witness the doors to her cell shatter open.

—————

The sound of battle quieted, and a lone figure stared at the unconscious body of the moon goddess, her form deceptively mortal, if not for her great size. Mheriz’s dying ambition, to use her as a bargaining chip to buy into the ranks of some of the more unholy factions on Thule seemed all the more abhorrent at the sight of her. His fragmented remains seeming a minor punishment for the offense. If he’d had the time, the lone figure might have eaten the man’s heart for this crime. As it was, enough time had been wasted in thought of the dead merchant prince. There was a greater duty to uphold now.

The sword of fire and light ignited in his hand, and cursed iron shattered with each strike. The goddess crumpled slowly, before righting herself with a great deliberation, straining against exhaustion and pain. Never the less, she rose with a dignity the lone figure found beautiful beyond words.

She met his gaze, seemed to look through him, to his heart and soul. A thoughtful frown graced her face. “Your are a warrior of Mithras, the Unconquered Sun. Son of Sol Invictus, in my memory, your people were enemies of my children. The memory of Lemuria and her wars with Atlantis still chill my heart. Why have you assisted me, in this, my darkest hour?”

She asked, trepidation clear on her face.

The lone figure paused, before sheathing his blade, and removing his helmet. His Lemurian features clear in the silver light of her presence. He considered answering with tenets of his oath, of Mithras’ code of justice and light. All seemed inadequate, even in their truth. Slowly, deeper truth bled out of him

“My name is Atreus. I have been made a slave before, and whatever old hatred between my people and yours, I would never wish that on you, or anyone else.”

The goddess blinked, tears precious as crystal briefly escaping her eyes, before she reached to engulf his hand with her own. He accepted it with a smile.

[risalei-nur]

TAFSIR: Risale-i Nur: The Words Collection:The Sixteenth Word.Part 4

THIRD RAY: O my transgressing soul, full of doubts and subject to evil suggestions. You say that such verses as: 

In His hand is the absolute dominion of all things (36:83); 

No moving creature is there but He holds it by its forelock (11:56); 

and: 

We are nearer to him than his jugular vein (50:16), 

show that God is infinitely near to us. On the other hand, such verses as: 

To Him you are being brought back (36:83) 

and: 

The angels and the Spirit ascend to Him in a day the measure of which is fifty thousand years (70:4),

 as well as the hadith: “God Almighty is beyond seventy thousand veils” and such truths as those contained in the Prophet’s Ascension, show that we are infinitely far from Him. I want an explanation which will make this profound mystery understandable. 

The Answer: O my soul, consider the following: At the end of the “First Ray,” I said that due to its unrestricted light and immaterial reflection, the sun is nearer to you than your eye’s pupil, your spirit’s window and mirror. However, because you are bounded by certain conditions and imprisoned within matter’s walls, you are very far from it. You can make contact with it only through some of its reflections and shadows, meet with it through its particular manifestations, and draw close to its colors (attributes) and rays and images (a grouping of its names).

If you seek direct contact, you must transcend numerous restrictions and rise above many universal levels. Simply, in terms of spiritual transcendence, only after becoming as large as the earth, expanding in spirit like the air, rising as far as the moon, and directly confronting the sun as the full moon does, could you claim to meet with the sun in person and without any veil, and draw near to it to some degree. In the same way, the All-Majestic One of Perfection, the Peerlessly Beautiful One, the Necessarily Existent One, the Creator of All Things, the Eternal Sun, the Monarch with no beginning and end, is nearer to you than yourself, although you are infinitely far from Him. If you have enough power (of heart and sublimity of mind), try to see certain other realities in the other aspects of the comparison.

SECONDLY: A king has many names or ranks, one being Commanderin-Chief. With this rank, he enjoys full authority in all military offices and ranks from the office of Field Marshall to that of Corporal. A private acknowledges a corporal as his superior, and through him is in touch with one connected to the Commander-in-Chief. If he wishes direct contact with the Commander-in-Chief, he must rise higher in the ranks. This means that the king is extremely close to the soldier in many different ways (e.g., through his name, rule, law, knowledge, and so on). If he is purified spiritually, he may oversee every soldier simultaneously without being seen. Nothing can block him. But many ranks and veils block the private from the king’s presence. Sometimes, however, the king admits a private to his presence out of his compassion, and favors him with his grace.

In almost the same way—The highest comparison is (and must be put forth) for God—the All-Majestic One, the Lord of the command Be! and it is, for Whom the suns and stars are like obedient soldiers, is nearer to all things than themselves, while all things are infinitely far from Him. If you wish to enter His Presence of Grandeur directly, you would have to pass through seventy thousand veils of darkness and light (i.e., material and physical veils as well as those of the Divine Names and Attributes), transcend thousands of particular and universal degrees of each Name’s manifestation, rise through the most elevated levels of His Attributes, and ascend as high as His Greatest Throne, which is favored with His Greatest Name’s manifestation. If God does not favor you by drawing you to Himself, you would have to strive and journey spiritually for thousands of years. 

For example, if you want to draw near to Him through His Name of Creator, you must connect with Him first on account of His being your creator, and then on account of His being the Creator of all human beings, then His being the Creator of all living creatures, and then the Creator of all beings. Otherwise, you will remain in shadow and only find a particular manifestation.

A NOTE: As the king in the above example is relatively impotent, he uses such intermediaries as field marshals and generals to execute his commands. But the Absolutely Powerful One, in Whose hand is the absolute dominion of all things, needs no intermediaries. The intermediaries [like angels and natural causes] are only appearances, veils to His Dignity and Grandeur, and heralds and observers of His Lordship’s sovereignty in worship, amazement, helplessness, and want. They are not His assistants, and cannot be partners in His Lordship’s sovereignty.

[fear-god-shun-evil]

There Is a Time to Sickness and Death

By Su Hui, China

Recently Xiaoxi moved to a house in a courtyard. There was an octogenarian in the landlord’s family, who lived in a side room and whose kitchen was small and shabby. In the courtyard, most times the old woman was seen doing her own things silently: washing clothes, watering flowers, and cooking…. These scenes of her monotonous life were like the silent black-and-white films in the 20th century.

Seeing this old woman before him, Xiaoxi couldn’t help recalling his grandmother, who passed away a few years ago. Xiaoxi remembered: When my grandmother was alive, she used to carry a stool and sat outside the door, watching traffic moving in contrary directions on the bridge. The same and dull scene seemed attractive forever in her eyes. Every day she greeted the people who approached the village and who walked out of the village, and said fairly innocuous jokes to them; if it was during mealtimes, she would speak some polite words. It seemed as if she never felt tired of these things. As her grandchildren, we would return to our hometown from time to time, which made the small courtyard that was cold and lonely at normal times noisy. When we children sat around our grandmother, she would always repeat: “I’m already a person who is near to death. I don’t know whether I can live until this time next year and whether I can see my grandson get married and have my great-grandchildren….” At that time, Xiaoxi was unable to understand his grandmother’s mood, so he always comforted her just with some words and he felt confused why his grandmother had become more and more sentimental. That night when his grandmother passed away, his family surrounded the head of her bed. Even if they pressed their ear to her mouth, they still couldn’t hear clearly what she said; but each of them knew that she was waiting for her grandson she loved most. However, she left the world with regret before she could see the grandson. When Xiaoxi stood in the hall of the crematorium, he saw his grandmother lay down there and was wheeled into the incinerator. Finally, she became a handful of ashes. He sighed with infinite emotion in his heart: My grandmother’s whole life came to an end in this way. No matter how many struggles she had been through, no matter how much unwillingness, joyfulness, and happiness had been involved in her life, no matter how many times she had been numb and forbearing, all passed. And at this moment, all the achievements and errors, gains and losses, and happiness and sadness in her life have been gone like the wind, and there are only ashes left.

Xiaoxi came back from his thoughts and felt a little sad in his heart. Then he went back to his room, opened the book of God’s word and saw this: “When one enters old age, the challenge one faces is not providing for a family or establishing one’s grand ambitions in life, but how to bid farewell to one’s life, how to meet the end of one’s life, how to put the period at the end of one’s own existence. …”

“When one feels one’s body deteriorating, when one senses that one is drawing nearer to death, one feels a vague dread, an inexpressible fear. Fear of death makes one feel ever more lonely and helpless, and at this point one asks oneself: Where did man come from? Where is man going? Is this how man is going to die, with his life having breezed past him? Is this the period that marks the end of man’s life? What, in the end, is the meaning of life? What is life worth, after all? Is it about fame and fortune? Is it about raising a family? …”

“Because they fear death, people worry far too much; because they fear death, there is so much that they cannot let go of. When they are about to die, some people fret about this or that; they worry about their children, their loved ones, their wealth, as if by worrying they can erase the suffering and dread that death brings on, as if by maintaining a kind of intimacy with the living they can escape the helplessness and loneliness that accompany death. In the depths of the human heart there lies an inchoate fear, a fear of being parted from one’s loved ones, of never again laying eyes upon the blue sky, of never again looking upon the material world. A lonely soul, used to the company of its loved ones, is reluctant to release its grip and depart, all alone, for an unknown, unfamiliar world” (“God Himself, the Unique III”). Thinking about God’s words, Xiaoxi finally understood his grandmother’s mood at the time. When her grandchildren all sat around her, she was happy; when her grandchildren left, she stood at the door reluctant to be parted with them and followed them with her eyes all the time until they got on a bus; she shed inappropriate tears and had no choice but to endure those countless boring days. All of these feelings came of an old woman’s terror of death and a feeling of indescribable loneliness and helplessness deep in her heart. Whether a person’s life is wonderful or ordinary, when he faces death, he can no longer stand erect and his willpower can be destroyed at any time, thus ending up with a helpless sigh … Faced with the fact, we had to admit: In the face of death, we mankind are so hopeless and helpless.

When facing death, for the material world, we still have too much regret and concern, and still have too much unwillingness and reluctance; while at the same time, we have doubt about and really are afraid of the unknown world we’ll go to. Aren’t we really capable of getting rid of the fear death brings us? Thinking of this, Xiaoxi went on looking for the answer in God’s word. God said: “At the moment when a person is born, one lonely soul begins its experience of life on earth, its experience of the Creator’s authority which the Creator has arranged for it. Needless to say, for the person, the soul, this is an excellent opportunity to gain knowledge of the Creator’s sovereignty, to come to know His authority and to experience it personally. People live their lives under the laws of fate laid out for them by the Creator, and for any rational person with a conscience, coming to terms with the Creator’s sovereignty and knowing His authority over the course of their several decades on earth is not a difficult thing to do. Therefore it should be very easy for every person to recognize, through his or her own life experiences over the several decades, that all human fates are predestined, and to grasp or to sum up what it means to be alive. At the same time that one embraces these life lessons, one will gradually come to understand where life comes from, to grasp what the heart truly needs, what will lead one to the true path of life, what the mission and goal of a human life ought to be; and one will gradually recognize that if one does not worship the Creator, if one does not come under His dominion, then when one confronts death—when a soul is about to face the Creator once more—one’s heart will be filled with boundless dread and unease. If a person has existed in the world for a handful of decades and yet not come to know where human life comes from, not yet recognized in whose palm human fate rests, then it is no wonder that he or she will not be able to face death calmly. A person who has gained the knowledge of the Creator’s sovereignty after experiencing several decades of life, is a person with a correct appreciation for the meaning and value of life; a person with a deep knowledge of life’s purpose, with real experience and understanding of the Creator’s sovereignty; and even more, a person who is able to submit to the Creator’s authority. Such a person understands the meaning of God’s creation of mankind, understands that man should worship the Creator, that everything man possesses comes from the Creator and will return to Him some day not far in the future; such a person understands that the Creator arranges man’s birth and has sovereignty over man’s death, and that both life and death are predestined by the Creator’s authority. So, when one truly grasps these things, one will naturally be able to face death calmly, to lay aside all of one’s worldly possessions calmly, accept and submit happily to all that follows, and welcome the last life-juncture arranged by the Creator rather than blindly dread it and struggle against it” (“God Himself, the Unique III”).

From God’s words, Xiaoxi understood that God arranges for each soul with nothing to be reincarnated as a person on earth, and that His purpose is to allow each person to personally experience the joys and sorrows of life throughout their life, to experience how many things can come true as they wish, how many things fail to accord with their will, and how many things develop out of their control, and to experience that the life law of birth, aging, sickness, and death is also not up to them…. Through these experiences, God let each of us practically appreciate and understand: It’s God who rules over the trajectory of each living being, and His arrangements for each person’s fate embody God’s wisdom, God’s will and God’s love for us mankind. Only when we arrive at true knowledge of God’s authority and sovereignty, finally become subject under the dominion of God and no longer have personal choices, sentimentality or fear, can we calmly accept and obey all God’s orchestration and arrangements for us, even death. Then he thought that although ancient people once released a sigh, “Since ancient times one’s rising and falling have been predestined, so are partings and reunions,” they simply didn’t know who rules over these things behind them and how he does so. In fact, as long as we are willing to come before God and pursue the truth, perform our duty that we should perform as a created being, experience God’s work, put God’s word into practice and experience God’s word with our heart, we can little by little comprehend all the mysteries.

With this in mind, Xiaoxi was filled with gratitude toward God in his heart. Before, his heart, like duckweed, was wandering in the world without direction and destination. And he didn’t know where he himself had come from and even more couldn’t realize God’s domination at all but bewilderedly rushed about in the world of men. Nowadays, he enjoyed the watering and nourishment of God’s word as much as he liked like a seed growing in the fertile soil and taking its root deep into the ground. Because he found the source of life, came before God and had true reliance, his heart finally settled down.

Looking into the distance through the window, Xiaoxi saw: The sun is going down. The wind is blowing over the fields, and the fields of wheat are swaying in the breeze and it seems as if they are waiting for the farmers who are coming to reap them …