4.1 Defining Heaven-Earth

Here is the place of human habitation. – In the beginning [inside of Christ], God created the heavens and the earth. Then, here is God’s explanation of human construction. – And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground [earth], and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life [heaven]; and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7).

And here is a second large clue for us. – For as the body [earth] without the spirit [heaven] is dead… (James 1). And a third – that …He might create inside Himself one new man (Ephesians 2:15). Finally – Inside of Him all things were created, both inside of the heavens and upon the earth, the visible and the invisible …all things have been created through Him and into Him – (Colossians 1:16).

A Profound Ignorance. As we have seen, for mercy’s sake, God clothed man with the skin of a beast before expelling them from the garden so that humans could no longer see the heavens all around. And thus humans have lived in ignorance of the heavens, even though the realms of spirit are as much a part of earth and the human as physical matter is.

Because of this profound ignorance over thousands of years, human languages developed disconnected and conflicting ways to discuss things we don’t understand. The history of the English language tells us that we are free to coin new words and to add specific definitions to old words in order to better speak about scientific reality.

Four Concepts. Clear communication and understanding can occur only through specific words and shared definitions. For that reason we will specify our words and the definitions we mean. The two largest problems are the words “body” and “heaven.”

You see, we have four mental concepts – form, substance, context and location. These four are all neutral.

Across the span of Old Testament and New, the Greek and Hebrew words for “heaven,” ouranos and shamayim, and the words for spirit, pneuma and ruach, are used interchangeably to mean many very different things. English words for these things are intermingled in confusing ways as well, similar to Hebrew and Greek.

The Study of Symmorphy. When we use the English word “heaven” or “heavenly,” then, we could mean all four – form, substance, context, and location – and thus only confusion prevails and no one knows what another might mean. Even though the Bible uses the words for “heaven,” “ouranos” or “shamayim” to reference location, that is, the physical planets, stars, and galaxies that we see in the “sky,” that is, “far away from the earth,” the study of Symmorphy never does.

In the study of Symmorphy, the ENGLISH word, “heaven,” means only that arena of spirit fused together with the physical earth as one “body” together. And “heavenly” means the qualities or creatures found in the realm of spirit all around us.

Charting the Four Concepts. Here is a list of words and the meanings we have used.
 

	Form	Substance	Context	Location
Further Neutral	Body	Material	Cosmos	Universe
Part 1	Spirit	Spiritual	Heaven	Heaven-earth
Part 2	Physic	Physical	Earth	Heaven-earth
Other Terms	Flesh sometimes	Earthly/Heavenly	Land/World	Planets, Stars

As you can see, however, problems continue. The human body or form is made of spiritual and physical matter fused together. Thus we employ the Latin word “physic” to match the Latin word “spirit.” “Spiritual” then means the material substance of heavenly things. Heaven is the same as “Spirit,” that is, always fused together with earth. It is not a location faraway.

Considering “Gaia.” Earth, then, is a living planet because God breathed a heaven upon it. Life is earth fused with heaven, flesh fused with spirit, dirt fused with the breath of God. And all of this takes place inside of a Personal Living Spirit Word, that is, Christ Jesus.

One continued problem, however, is the term used thus far, “heaven-earth,” meant to denote one place together. A solution could be the word “Gaia,” from the Greek “ge,” meaning earth, but in present usage, “Gaia” means a living earth, that is, earth with a heaven breathed upon it. The truth is that the rules of translation give us full freedom to use “Gaia” to mean heaven-earth. We will think on this.

Male and Female. But more than that, everything, as we have seen, is personal. All things exist by and inside of and out from a Personal, Living, Spirit Word, that is, Christ Jesus.

This brings further confusing terminology, however, for Jesus in present form is a life-giving Spirit, and we are His physical/spiritual body, His heaven-earth form. Then, the Holy Spirit contains the female qualities of God, whereas Jesus contains the male qualities of God. In fact – The Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters, very much means the concept known as “mother earth.” Yet no life happens by Spirit only, life requires the entrance of a male Word.

A Confusion of Language. What I am underlining is that, even as we attempt to clarify our terms, we still find a confusion of language. If you were to write out every New Testament verse containing the word “ouranos” or its derivatives, however, and attempt to arrive at a definition from the context, you would be far more confused than now. And the same confusion exists for all of these other terms as they are used throughout the Bible.

Physics is the study of physical material (should we then say that “Spirits” is the study of spiritual material?). And the two actually operate together, arising as the confusion today called “quantum” mechanics, which really means the impact of spirit upon physic.



Explain This. Explain the crop circle, give me the exact chemical, biological, electrical processes, the “physics” by which a fantastically intricate and precise design like this is formed, almost instantaneously, and hundreds more, very different in pattern, yet the same intricacy. Humans cannot do this, and “aliens” is not an acceptable answer, though true science does allow personal spirits.

Since we cannot give even a beginning explanation, we are then willing to accept that we are ignorant of what heaven-earth might be. And this is just one unknown among many.

Intelligent Design. Different electrical phenomena create different styles of distinct patterns, but nothing as specific and detailed in geometric form as many of the crop circles. The crop circle shown requires intelligent design in its explanation. Nonetheless, saying, “Aliens are trying to communicate with us,” is no explanation at all. Personal and intelligent design, then, is involved with the unfolding of natural phenomena. Yet there is no need to assume direct “communication” since no meaning is conveyed.

Sustaining all things by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). Again, we do not suggest that we know what this means from a scientific and observational perspective; we just know that this word is absolute and that it defines everything.

Thoughtful Reasoning. Our form, spirit and physic together, the substance of which we are made, spiritual and physical together, the context in which we live, the cosmos, or relationship between and among all things spiritual and all things physical, and our location or place, that is, heaven-earth, or “Gaia,” a living planet, are all the same fusion of Spirit and Word together, and all inside of a Personal Christ Jesus.

To keep sense in all of this, then, the learner should always keep in mind these four things – are the words being used referring to form? Or are they referring to substance? Or are they referring to context? Or are they referring to location? And thus language also assumes the intelligent and thoughtful reasoning of the one who is hearing these various words.

Life and Living. Our attempts to reduce the confusion of words, then, are partly hindered by the normal blindness and ignorance that rules human conversation of where we live and of what material we are made.

Let’s go, now, to a simplified definition and description of where we live, our context and location. To start, here is what I said earlier.

Earth is a living planet because God breathed a heaven upon it. Life is earth fused with heaven, flesh fused with spirit, dirt fused with the breath of God. And all of this takes place inside of and out from a Personal Living Spirit Word, that is, Christ Jesus.

Returning to LIFE! You see, even when we reference an organ, such as the heart, the Bible clearly means spiritual and physical fused together. In all this, then, we are speaking of LIFE. And life requires spirit and flesh fused together.

Thus, when Paul speaks of those inside of Christ now existing in heavenly substance only, he calls them “the dead in Christ.” A human as spirit-only is UNNATURAL, contrary to God, and part of the consequences of Adam’s rebellion. All humans inside of Jesus in the heavens-only are not yet saved, they are not yet whole; they are waiting to return to LIFE!

At the same time, angels, which we assume refers to a multitude of differing species, should be part of that which is visible inside of heaven upon earth – as was normal to Elisha.

Intelligent Beauty. If angels are involved with crop circles, it would mean the same as God creating vast fields of flowers where no human eye sees; it would be simply a love of intelligent beauty. Are crop circles the laughing joy of angels? What else can angels do when they are released by humans to be what they are?

If you saw a house, you would say that a human built that structure, and you could identify a personal human by name. But a house has a purpose, whereas the flower garden arranged around the house is only the love of intelligent beauty.

And so nothing, when referencing heaven-earth or the human can exclude the personal or living LIFE. That He might create inside of Himself one new man.

Considering Words. What do we call our home, heaven and earth married together? Ouranos and Gaia were Greek gods, husband and wife. Ouranos in the Greek is a New Testament word – translated into the English “heaven,” but “Gaia” retains the sense of a “pagan goddess.” More than that, every word used in any language seeks to split heaven and earth apart, including “Gaia” as I see now; we want a name that joins them together and without any unclean sense.

Garden of Eden means “a protected enclosure in which is a garden filled with abundance and delight.” Paradise is originally Persian, then it became Greek and Latin, then English. It means specifically, “a protected enclosure in which is a garden filled with abundance and delight.” But are Eden or Paradise the right names? They are not the living planet as “Gaia” is.

Finding the Right Name for our Home. Here is a very interesting article on this same topic. https://www.christianpost.com/news/most-christians-misunderstand-what-heaven-really-is-theologian-nt-wright.html. In fact, he makes clear that “go to heaven” is a pagan concept. To quote the article, “The first Christians believed not that they would 'go to Heaven when they died,' but that, in Jesus, God had come to live with them.”

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth… And I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having been prepared as a bride having been adorned for her husband. …The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will tabernacle with them (Revelation 21:3).

What Name Do We Choose? I keep coming back to “Gaia,” because by it, I think of heaven and earth as one place together, a place that is ALIVE! Is there another name? We are talking about our home, this living planet, this marriage of heaven and earth, a garden enclosed and protected, the source of abundance and delight, the Land that we walk and love and know together.

“Earth” doesn’t work, for it leaves out heaven. “Heaven-earth” is cumbersome and not a name. Eden and Paradise are limited. “Gaia” is pagan, though so is the Greek “Ouranos.” Can we call this entire living planet, “Jerusalem,” the city of peace, our home, our mother, our garden enclosed, our source of abundance and delight, angels and humans together?

Jerusalem Our Home. I am now seeing a living beauty more clearly, this place where we live and this substance of which we are made, spirit and physic, heaven and earth, fused together as personal life inside of a larger LIFE. This is what we are; this is where we live.

How does the old earth and the old heavens become the new? By you and me calling them to be so, for they already are inside of Jesus; the speaking of John 17 has already changed everything.

And what happens when we call every land, rock, animal, and tree together, every peoples and angels together, the entirety of heaven-earth, to be Jerusalem our home? Our hearts go out over all of it, and it becomes as precious to us as any home could be. Jerusalem, a living planet, our Home. – And Father at HOME with us.