Posted on by Abe Austin

A Slight Change of Idea

A slight change of idea can be the difference between prevailing peace or rolling horrors upon the Earth.

Every great ideology, philosophy, pattern of government, and conception of reality began as a mere idea in the mind of a man. They are but small things, and a man can turn his mind from one idea to another with little consequence. He has but simple thought experiments, ideas of how things could be. And in the simulations of his mind, his ideas may all seem correct, innocent, and only geared to the good of mankind.

But as the idea grows, and leaves the mind, and takes hold of the masses, then it becomes argument, then creed, then party, then nation. And as it grows, so do the consequences, and so some ideas become the foundation for flourishing and joy, and some become the foundation for purge and war.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 36:1-4

1 Then wrought Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whom the Lord put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the Lord had commanded.

2 And Moses called Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom, even every one whose heart stirred him up to come unto the work to do it:

3 And they received of Moses all the offering, which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary, to make it withal. And they brought yet unto him free offerings every morning.

4 And all the wise men, that wrought all the work of the sanctuary, came every man from his work which they made;

A theme in the Bible is the spiritual and conceptual manifesting in the material. The book even begins with it in the story of creation. On each day God expresses the idea of what He wants, and then it becomes a reality. “God said, Let there be light: and there was light,” (Genesis 1:3). At each stage, “God said,” and then it was so.

This theme most famously manifests in the birth of Jesus, which is the unseen, conceptual God becoming mortal man. In Jesus we see the idea of the law being lived out in perfection. In him we see the concept of perfect love made real upon a cross.

This same pattern of concept-to-reality has been playing out over the last ten chapters of Exodus. We have seen how God inspired Moses with the vision of the tabernacle, how Moses expressed it to the Israelites, and how it now becomes a reality. Accounts like these acknowledge and describe the process by which the metaphysical becomes the material, the vision becomes the work, and the idea becomes the creation.