My Gift to You: Lyle’s Vision of How to Bring Peace and Harmony to Humankind

By Lyle Smith

Author Lyle Smith is convinced a belief in God is still relevant and desirable in the current century, for it is belief in God that gives meaning and purpose to our lives. In My Gift to You, he offers a collection of essays showing how we might conceive and create, within our world of conflicting nations and religions, a worldwide community for all humans working and living in peace.

Divided into two parts, the first section combines faith and science and the second melds philosophy and religion. Both illustrate how people with a secular view and those of various religious beliefs can live together in harmony with each other and nature. The essays address topics such as an imagined dream of what the creation might be made to become, how we might partner with God to extend the dream, and the evidence that God has a goal for the Earth and its intelligent creatures.

My Gift to You shares Smith’s confidence that there is hope if we keep before us a vision of how humanity can learn to live peacefully and trust God to help us with that goal.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504951685

Lyle Smith

Lyle Smith is a 94-year-old lawyer who has read and seen much history and he notes a growing displeasure with Western Materialism. In the past when one civilization gave way to a new one it was usually followed by a new religion but Lyle believes what is needed is a common goal for our life on earth and we have not outgrown the need for religion but our concept of God needs to be more closely associated with what we learn from science and less tied to ancient stories. Smith is not suggesting a new religion, we have active religions now and he hopes they will learn to cooperate in offering guidance on how to live on earth, while continuing differing faith practices and hope after death. He also thinks Jesus’ message and example of how to love our neighbors and ourselves can enrich all religions.

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© 2015 Lyle Smith. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Scripture quotations marked RSV are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission.

Biblical quotations are from the 1947 Revised Standard Version (RSV) unless otherwise indicated. Paraphrases by this author are indicated by see followed by the reference and where a specific translation has been referenced it is indicated thus (TEV or KJV). TEV stands for Today’s English Bible Good News For Modern Man 1972." KJV stands for Authorized King James version.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/28/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5049-5179-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-5168-5 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Part I

God’s Dream

Introduction

1. God’s Dream

2. Partnering With God

3. God’s Plan For The Earth

Part II

The Theology of One Twenty-first Century

Introduction

4. The Creation

5. The Double Search

6. Old Testament Covenant

7. Jesus and a New Covenant

8. Revelation

9. More of What Jesus Said

10. Heaven

Part III

11. Capitalism is Evil

Part IV

12. Closing Thoughts

Bibliography

A LETTER* TO THOSE WHO MIGHT READ THIS BOOK;

As you pick up this book, you no doubt wonder who is the author and what does he hope to communicate to his readers. I will therefore try to give short answers to these questions.

First about the author: I was born on an Iowa farm and our family attended a Friends (Quaker) pastoral church. It was a community Church with people from other denominations too but we had Quaker literature in our home. From this background I acquired a sense of God communicating to humans, and an interest in peace.

During WW II many Quaker boys went to Civilian Public Service camps but all from our church community either went to the service or helped on the farm. When my draft number came up I failed the physical and was sent back to the farm, leakage of the heart they said. There I had time to do some reading and thinking about how the world might become more peaceful. When the fighting stopped they did draft me and sent me to Japan long enough that I had enough GI bill to go to Drake Law School after graduating from Simpson College. Most of my business career has been with insurance companies advancing from claims adjuster to home office supervisor and general counsel.

I had time to read several books in the late 40s and early 50s. I learned that history is not a story of straight development from the most primitive to our modern civilization but about a series of civilizations rising up and falling back and new ones rising up to move history forward again and I concluded that even if our present civilization should crumbled a new one would in time probably rise up to carry on human history. I also learned each civilization had its religion, which helped to unify and motivate the nation. In the most recent civilizations the national religion had often originated among the poorer masses of the previous civilization. For example, Christianity of Western civilization originated among the poorer classes in the later years of the Roman Civilization. During College I was introduced to modern Biblical research and I came to realize my Bible was not a closed document but a guide written by inspired humans to help us in judging old and new truths as we plan and live our lives, creating our future. I came to hope that should our present civilization pass and a new one arise, the teachings of Jesus might be the basis of the new civilization’s religion although the Western Christian Church might not dominate.

This is something of my background and to that I would add that I have for a long time had a desire to contribute something toward a way of encouraging people of all kinds to live together in peace and create a world wide community that could live in creative harmony with each other, with nature and the Creator; for as long as possible. My reason for writing these books has been to promote that goal and suggest how it might be possible,

Western Capitalism assumes our lives are motivated by pleasure and the avoidance of pain, and that pleasure can be described as profit (what can be purchased with money). Human wants however seem to be unlimited while the resources of the world are not. This leads to conflict. Humans, however, are not simply automatons (robots) motivated by our genes and history. We have brains with minds that can imagine different and distant futures and that mind can then guide us in planning and working toward the most appealing future. What I would like to leave humanity is a vision of a more harmonious and enduring goal along with some thoughts of how our religions and philosophies can help us attain such a goal.

Another problem is that some Christians and Muslims try to escape the responsibility of planning for the distant future by predicting that God Almighty will shortly bring human history on earth to an end with a catastrophic event. But, God has impressed on me that humans should think and plan to live together on earth for many more centuries, learning to work together in peace and harmony to bring about an enduring future.

So how do I try to develop and convey those ideas to my readers?

First, in an effort to convince scientists and agnostics as well as religious people that there is logical and good reason to describe God as the source of our existence and the truth we all seek I have given a description of what we know about the creation and its development that might indicate God’s input and a purpose for our being. I describe it as God’s dream to have a planet inhabited with intelligent and creative humans who will share in the Earth’s development for as long as the earth remains inhabitable. I also describe how I think God has been trying to communicate to humanity about a better way of life. I think Jesus was trying to tell us that God is not a monarch legislating righteousness but a loving parent calling us to a partnership in developing and extending intelligent and creative life on earth for as long as possible. Next, I describe what I think Jesus was trying to teach us is the way to live to reach that goal. Finally in Book One I mention some of what I think are wrong attitudes that must be changed and the kind of prayerful activity that has brought about real change in the past.

As I had thought about the goal of encouraging humanity to learn to live in peace and harmony with each other and nature, I first thought of using a logical or philosophical approach to describe that goal and that is what Book Two is about. I came to realize, however, that revelations received by religious groups are also a way we acquire our goals so I try to show how philosophy and religion can work together to define our goal and guide our labor toward that goal.

I may seem pessimistic about the future of Western Civilization but I do not think it is inevitable that our civilization will collapse as have many other civilizations in the past but we need to get our house in order and learn to live and cooperate with other civilizations around the world rather than assume that we should convert them to Capitalism and our brand of Christianity.

The gift I would leave to you, to all humanity, is a vision of a more harmonious and enduring future and encouragement to move toward that goal.

Lyle E. Smith

BOOK ONE

A 21ST CENTURY FAITH

By

LYLE E. SMITH

Part I

GOD’S DREAM

INTRODUCTION

I am convinced that a belief in God is still relevant and desirable in the current century and I hope to show in the pages ahead why this is true, however, the concepts of God and God’s role in human history that have been passed down by some of our religious traditions and theologies of God do not mesh with what many of us have observed and are experiencing in our universe. Some are going so far as to say the idea of God is no longer believable and should be put to rest. I too had trouble meshing the old concepts of God coming from my religious training with the concept of reality attained from science and what I have read and observed but that has stimulated me to reformulate my faith to provide a more believable and useful faith. I think it would be very depressing to imagine the universe without God. If that were true our lives would be no more than a fly speck on the long ribbon of history to be burned up when our planet is absorbed by the sun in a few million years from now. It is our belief in God that gives meaning and purpose to our lives.

From ancient history we know that humans have worshipped gods from the very earliest times and that religions have played an important role in making of nations and larger civilizations. We also know that in the last 5000 years human understanding of the divinity and the divine’s role in human activity has undergone changes therefore we should not be surprised if, as our concept of the universe and human development changes, our concept of God would also change.

I start this collection with a creation story that seems more plausible to this 21st century mind, than do the stories of the creation passed down by religious traditions. I nevertheless take from these ancient stories the confidence that, behind what we observe and know there is a creator–a god with a creative mind and purpose. In addition I take from such tradition a belief that the creator tries to communicate to us humans a purpose for our existence on this planet. I, however, turn to science, and to my imagination, for a description of how this might be.

While I look to science for much of my information science can only tell us about what scientists have gathered from the evidence in our Universe. They can not tell us what was before or is beyond our Universe and they don’t seem to have a clear understanding of the spiritual realm although many humans sense its existence. I am therefore not only interested in what science offers but also in what people sensing the spiritual realm have told us. In addition I look to history, along with religious writings, for more information about the human story and how humans have combined the material and the spiritual realms into one through the centuries. From these I also hope to find clues as to what has not only happened in the human community during the past but what might happen in the future.

The writer of the Gospel of John tells us God is Spirit and the time is when true worshippers shall worship God in spirit and truth. I understand that worship in truth means we should base our worship on the latest understanding of the facts and use logic and reason to arrive at a believable faith. On this basis I offer this story. The story assumes that God’s Spirit interacts with the material universe in limited ways but mostly by interaction with the spirits of living, intelligent beings.

While acknowledging Humans don’t have a clue as to what happened before the beginning of Time as we know it or what is happening beyond our Universe, I nevertheless use a dream to start this story. A story needs a beginning and many years ago I read of one who had suggested that the universe was more like a thought in the mind of God than a machine (a watch) made to run until it ran down. This thought appealed to me but it has been necessary to overcome the idea that a thought can easily be changed at any point and any time. It is helpful to think of a computer project. Once the objective and the language has been established only minor changes can be made as the project develops otherwise it would be necessary to abandon the original idea and start over. This I think is the way it is with the development of the Universe. We should not expect that God can make changes in the Universe unless they are consistent with the natural laws, by which the Universe was created, and then only by enhancing or slowing a change in progress.

For the title of this first essay I chose the term Dream not simply because it is started with a dream but for its secondary meaning as an imagined vision of what the creation might be made to become..

Humans have very little idea of what God’s time is. In one of his Epistles Peter says that a thousand years is to God as a day. I don’t think that was intended to give us a formula but to indicate that in God’s economy, time is very different than what we have come to think of as time. By using the time that it now takes for the Earth to circle the Sun and calling it one year we can bring a concept of time into this story that is helpful to human understanding. Thus we calculate that this Dream and the formation of our Universe started a little over 13 billion years ago.

I am indebted to a book entitled Alone in the Universe by John Gribbin* for my understanding about the formation of the Universe and our planet. My use of this material is not to say this is the ultimate creation story. I simply want to encourage thinkers to look for a possible role by God in what has happened and is happening.

The second essay shares how we might partner with God to extend the Dream. The final essay of Part I explores the evidence that God has a goal for the Earth and its intelligent creatures.

Part II attempts to provide a theology to support this "Dream. Part III was added as I realized that our economic philosophy also needs to change. And the last Chapter gives some closing thoughts that come to me as I try to imagine how an enduring future can be initiated.

1

GOD’S DREAM

Our universe began with a small spark of energy exploding like a new thought, expanding with a profusion of objects of light engulfing the void. God determined to keep this dream going and see if it could lead to creation of intelligent life; of creatures that might be able to commune with the Spirit of God and cooperate in the creative building of this Dream.

God could not simply impose a new idea into the Universe already created. Anything new must be developed out of the existing Universe and any thing added must be made out of the materials of the Universe using the laws already incorporated into the Universe. Anything else would destroy the dream and create a totally new one. But a thought or impulse from the Spirit of God might, by working within the laws of the Universe, sometimes influence a slight alteration of the course of events not inconsistent with the Universe’s progress. And, in addition, if intelligent life could be created, perhaps the spirit of God could