Various religious systems have been given to humanity at different times, each suited to meet the spiritual needs of the people among whom it was promulgated, and, coming from the same divine source:—God, all religions exhibit similar fundamentals or first principles.
All systems teach that there was a time when darkness reigned supreme. Everything [pg 105] which we now perceive was then non-existent. Earth, sky and the heavenly bodies were uncreate, so were the multitudinous forms which live and move upon the various planets.—All, all, was yet in a fluidic condition and the Universal Spirit brooded quiescent in limitless Space as the One Existence.
The Greeks called that condition of homogeneity Chaos, and the state of orderly segregation which we now see; the marching orbs which illumine the vaulted canopy of heaven, the stately procession of planets around a central light, the majestic sun; the unbroken sequence of the seasons and the unvarying alternation of tidal ebb and flow;—all this aggregate of systematic order, was called Cosmos, and was supposed to have proceeded from Chaos.
The Christian Mystic obtains a deeper comprehension when he opens his Bible and ponders the first five verses of that brightest gem of all spiritual lore: the Gospel of St. John.
As he reverently opens his aspiring heart to acquire understanding of those sublime mystical teachings he transcends the form-side of nature, comprising various realms of which we have been speaking, and finds himself [pg 106] “in the spirit,” as did the prophets in olden times. He is then in the Region of abstract Thought and sees the eternal verities which also Paul beheld in this, the third, heaven.
For those among us who are unable to obtain knowledge save by reasoning upon the matter, however, it will be necessary to examine the fundamental meaning of words used by St. John to clothe his wonderful teaching, which was originally given in the Greek language, a much simpler matter than is commonly supposed, for Greek words have been freely introduced into our modern languages, particularly in scientific terms, and we shall show how this ancient teaching is supported by the latest discoveries of modern science.
The opening verse of the gospel of St. John is as follows: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” We will examine the words: “beginning,” “Word” and “God.” We may also note that in the Greek version the concluding sentence reads: “and God was the Word,” a difference which makes a great distinction.
It is an axiomatic truth that “out of nothing, nothing comes,” and it has often been asserted by scoffers that the Bible teaches generation “from nothing.” We readily agree that translations into the modern languages promulgate this erroneous doctrine, but we have shown in The Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception (chapter on “the Occult Analysis of Genesis”), that the Hebrew text speaks of an ever-existing essence, as the basis whence all forms, the earth and the heavenly lights included, were first created, and John also gives the same teaching.
The Greek word arche, in the opening sentence of the gospel of St. John has been translated the beginning, and it may be said to have that meaning, but it also has other valid interpretations, vastly more significant of the idea John wished to convey. It means:—an elementary condition,—a chief source,—a first principle,—primordial matter.
There was a time when science insisted that the elements were immutable, that is to say, that an atom of iron had been an atom of iron since the earth was formed and would so remain to the end of time. The Alchemists were sneered at as fanciful dreamers or madmen, but since Professor J. J. Thomson's discovery [pg 108] of the electron, the atomic theory of matter, is no longer tenable. The principle of radio-activity has later vindicated the Alchemists. Science and the Bible agree in teaching, that all that is, has been formed from one homogeneous substance.