"the time they were carried away to Babylon" - Not Material Civilization but Mercy of God

Tokyo

Not Material Civilization but Mercy of God

The trend of the human civilization can be first observed from the trend of energy use, because human civilization depends on energy.


https://ourfiniteworld.com/2012/03/12/world-energy-consumption-since-1820-in-charts/

Civilization destroys, changes, and utilizes the nature, although it has not yet ability to modify natural environment according to its will; for example, the mankind cannot change the climate or increase/decrease ambient temperature as it wants.  Destroying power of civilization against the nature can be seen in trend of deforestration.

Longer term, the outlook is even worse. If humanity continues its pattern of endless consumption, their research indicates that less than one-fifth of Asia and Latin America's forest cover may remain by 2200.

https://www.thecoli.com/threads/studies-highlight-deforestation-risk-in-the-21st-century-and-beyond.351057/ 

It is well worried that temperature increase in the global ambient air might cause grave damage on peoples.  However, use of energy in whatever form would discharge used energy into the air, thus increasing temperature.  CO2 emission cannot be the only cause of temperature increase.  However, if forest areas in the world dwindle, a less amount of CO2 is absorbed and a less amount of O2 is discharged into the air.

It is also important how much development of civilization has contributed to increase of global human  population.

Then, what about production of cereal crops in the world?


http://www.jiid.or.jp/ardec/ardec46/ard46_food.html
(The upper dark-green broken line is the total amount (in million tons) of cereal crops produced globally; the lower light-green broken line shows the yield amount per unit area of farm land (tons/ha).)

So, population is rapidly increasing; accordingly energy use and food production are also increasing while the natural environment is globally being destroyed.  Future of the mankind or civilization cannot be rosy.

However, the leading country, the US, still has plenty of lands for agriculture and residence as well as natural resources.  No Americans are afraid that their civilization will face a catastrophic crisis in decades or during this century if outer world should suffer any.

However, this global civilization is based on economy supported by high technology and financial systems.  It cannot be thought that catastrophic change will never occur in or will never be generated by high technology and financial systems even in the US.

  https://ourworldindata.org/technological-progress

The functional chips, that is the microprocessors,  used at the core of high-tech products have been ever increasing its density or complexity.  This trend is not expected to cease soon.  More products, including cars and phones, will be equipped with AI.  And power of computation and communications will go on expanding in various sectors of human lives.  And even financial transactions will be further upgraded along with this technical trend.

 

 In January 1900 the DJIA had a value of 66 points, and in December 2017 (the time of writing) a value of 24,651.
http://stockmarketalmanac.co.uk/2017/12/long-term-trend-of-the-dow-jones-industrial-average/

Generally speaking, as seen in the above figure of Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), the US is getting richer, over some economic crises, all through the 20th century onward although the gap between the poor and the rich is expanding.

If advanced technologies continue to solve problems related to food production, disaster prevention, human health, social safety and security, expansion of trade and economy and so on, the earth is finite.  And the mankind cannot control the natural environment 100%, for example, such as prevention of dangerous global warming and occurrence of other great natural disasters.  And development of technologies itself is based on commercialism-based economy.  In other words, human desire-driven economy supports development of technologies.  It is not respect or good-will for humanity that is driving civilization but desire of people.  There is no assurance that this civilization will never encounter catastrophic events of any kind to the degree so that existence of the mankind will be at risk.

This material civilization might continue further for a few centuries without decisive catastrophes.  However, it is difficult that the mankind will survive and prosper further for 1000 years in the increasing trends of those various factors of the civilization.  For example, robots with super AI might take over.  And there will be nobody who will remember the mankind.

So it is said that everything goes by but the word of God is forever.

For the mankind to have true civilization that can continue for 2000 years or more, from now on, we have to set our civilization on true religion, specifically true Judaism, true Christianity, true Islam, etc. since salvation of minds and spirits of people should not come from development of material civilization but realized by mercy of God. 



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Mat 1:11 And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon:
Mat 1:12 And after they were brought to Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel; and Salathiel begat Zorobabel;

"the Spirit like a dove descending upon him" - God is Spirit, though, Creating the Material Universe

Asuka Area, the Original Place of Yamato Imperial Regime in the 4th Century or Before, Japan

God is Spirit, though, Creating the Material Universe

It is said that God is spirit; accordingly we have to show our respect to God with our spirit.

No matter how much we study the world and the universe, we cannot find material God, or we cannot see God in the form we can understand.  However, we can feel interference with the nature around human beings by God.  As an example, the sun and the moon look in a similar size to each one from the earth.  There is no scientific reason for this phenomenon, but due to this configuration in the sky with the similar sizes of the sun and the moon, human cultures and religions have been influenced.

The universe is based on a theory that the absolute magnitude of charge of an electron is equal to that of a proton, thus assuring formation of an electrically neutral atom.  It is unknown why this theory is possible in the universe, whereas without it or with a different theory, no substances are possible in this universe.  In other words, if another theory is true in this universe, no atoms, molecules, and matter can be possible.   

What we have to think is only that God made this universe based on arbitrary physical theories to make the universe constituted in a way suitable for emergence and development of human beings.  The more scientists learn, the more they should find traces of interference by or influence of God.

However, in most the periods in these 2000 years ago, people had no such knowledge of modern science, but many people came to believe God through religious traditions of Judaism, through Christ Jesus, or through Quran.   It is because God is spirit, and men had spirits in any old time.

Our spirits and minds interact with matter and with natural, social, and human phenomena.  However, we feel, think, and make decisions following work of our own spirits and minds.  And, in freedom of our minds, we can accept or deny God.  And, as the world and the universe are designed and built according to God's will, it seems natural that men living in this world and universe perceive, realize, find and accept God.

However, to accept God in our spirits, our minds should be cultivated suitably.  As Judaism 2000 years ago lost effect of this cultivation of minds, God sent His Son Christ Jesus for right cultivation of spirits and minds of Jewish people and others.  But as Christianity lost its power of right cultivation of minds of Arabs, God gave Quran to Arabs, etc.

This is one theory, although it is unknown why this theory is possible.   



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Mar 1:10 And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:
Mar 1:11 And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

"Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee" - Christ Jesus and the Temple of Jerusalem

Japan's ancient capital area older than Kyoto

Christ Jesus and the Temple of Jerusalem

According to the Gospels, Christ Jesus did not neglect the Temple in Jerusalem.

However, it is strange that if Christ Jesus had been God as claimed by the Christian churches, God to be enshrined in the Temple was outside the Temple as Christ Jesus.  Then the Temple was empty as Christ Jesus was outside the Temple.     

But Christ Jesus got angry at merchants in the Temple and violently acted to drive them out of the Temple, overturning the desk of a money changer.  If Christ Jesus had been God and not enshrined in the Temple, why did He have to mind those activities by merchants?

Even when Christ Jesus was a Child, He showed respect to the Temple of Jerusalem by calling it "my father's business":

Luk 2:45 And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him.
Luk 2:46 And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.
Luk 2:47 And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.
Luk 2:48 And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
Luk 2:49 And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?

So, it is apparent that Christ Jesus was not God of Judaists who lived in the Temple of Jerusalem.  If Christ Jesus had been God, the Temple should have been empty while Christ Jesus was preaching outside the Temple.  It meant that Jewish people showed their respect to the empty Temple, but Christ Jesus did not tell them to stop praying in the Temple, since God, who was Christ Jesus, was out of the Temple.

Anyway, it was after the Jewish-Roman War when the Temple of Jerusalem was burnt and destroyed that the Christian churches started to define Christ Jesus as God.  As there was no Temple of Jerusalem, the discrepancy between God in the Temple and the man Christ Jesus could be avoided, which is however a kind of trick.

It is impossible that God was in the Temple of Jerusalem and simultaneously God was outside the Temple as the man Christ Jesus. 

It is extremely difficult to regard Christ Jesus as God who should be enshrined in the Temple in Jerusalem, while Christ Jesus, who was God, was preaching outside the Temple.


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Mar 1:9 And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.

"And Jesse begat David the king" - Avoid Thinking that Christ Jesus is God

A Holy Mountain in Nara, Japan

Avoid Thinking that Christ Jesus is God

No matter how much people are taught teachings by God, they cannot necessarily live up to these teachings.

Such a situation is depicted in the story about Moses in the Old Testament.  And another one is seen in the Gospels depicting religious circumstances around Christ Jesus.  In addition, Jewish people have said, in these 2000 years, that most of major teachings by Christ Jesus are written in the Old Testament; Nothing new was especially preached by Christ Jesus, they argue, although Christ Jesus delivered some unique teachings.

There have been crimes and villains among Jewish people as many as those among Christians, Muslims, and pagans.  It does not necessarily mean that a person lives up to teachings by God if the person is a member of a religious community that admits existence of God.

So, it is in such a situation that Christ Jesus appeared among Jewish people.  Jewish people knew, read, and heard about the teaching by God through the Hebrew Bible.   However, their minds were far from God.  Christ Jesus, in a sense, repeated well known teachings by God, but with renewed spirit and in true but forgotten meaning.  In other words, Christ Jesus tried to make Jewish people rediscover the Hebrew Bible.  Or He presented true Judaism while Jewish people at the time forgot the true meaning of Judaism.

However, as the Jewish-Roman War fought, all the Jewish people were driven out of Jerusalem.  They lost the Temple in Jerusalem that was respected by early Christians or Christian Jewish, too.  So, Judaism itself was forced to change, while early Christianity or the Christian faction among Jewish people was also compelled to further change.

But, early Christianity was not accepted by all the Jewish people in diaspora.  Nonetheless, Judaism after the Jewish-Roman War changed.  Jewish people must have been influenced by Christianity.  At least, they could not close their eyes to Christianity.  They must have admitted that the teachings by Christ Jesus came from old Judaism.  If Christian churches did not request followers to accept the ideology that Christ Jesus was God, more Jewish people should have converted to Christianity.

So, the key to understanding and criticizing Christianity is the Christian ideology that Christ Jesus is God, which was however not claimed by Christ Jesus Himself.

To be true to Christian churches, you have to believe that Christ Jesus is God, but to be true to Christ Jesus Himself, you should avoid thinking that Christ Jesus is God.         



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Mat 1:5 And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse;
Mat 1:6 And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;
Mat 1:7 And Solomon begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asa;