Christian metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that deals with the fundamental nature of reality from a Christian perspective.
It explores the following:
-Nature of being or existence you are, and how you know you exist.
-Causality- what is the real cause of everything you observe?
-Concept of time and its practical values.
-Space (the universe or cosmos)
-Nature and limits of human knowledge, and
-Relationship between the physical and spiritual worlds in the context of Christian beliefs and doctrines.
Concepts
Concepts considered by Christian Metaphysics include the following: God, creation, the soul, spirit, free will, sin, redemption, end-time realities (eschatology), and the afterlife all in the context of Christian beliefs.
Origin of “Meta”
The prefix “meta” comes from Greek meaning “beyond”, “above”, “higher”, and “transcending”. In general, “meta” indicates a level of abstraction, a shift in perspective, often implying a more comprehensive understanding of something.
Depending on the context “meta” can be interpreted as:
-A higher level of thinking as in metaphysics; thinking beyond the physical
-Transition or transformation as in metamorphosis, a change in form, shape, or nature.
Examples of everyday use of the word “meta” include.
Metaphysics-beyond the physical realm or empirical evaluations
Metadata data beyond data, that is, data about data.
Metacognition-beyond thinking, in other words, thinking about thinking.
Metaphor- word or speech beyond literal meaning- advanced meaning.
Sources of CM Teachings
Sources of Christian Metaphysical Teachings include scriptures, theological teachings, and writings of Christian philosophers and theologians throughout history as means of understanding the nature of reality and the place of human beings within it from the Christian perspective.
Unfortunately, metaphysics is often stigmatized by conflating it with the occult, psychics, paganism, or other nefarious and anti-Christian teachings, deliberately or inadvertently by those who claim to know better. This is partly responsible for the general lack of interest in the subject. People are thus hindered from the benefits of thinking for themselves.
Why Study Christian Metaphysics?
Christianity is a lifestyle of faith, and faith is defined as the “substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” As explained earlier, metaphysics is the study of the “unseen.” The essence of Christianity is rooted in the unseen, so studying Christian metaphysics ought to lead to a more in-depth understanding of many of the phenomena of scriptures, especially the supernatural events and occurrences of the Old and New Testaments.
Another reason to study Christian metaphysics is to encourage Christians to think for themselves. Many believe Christians are gullible, believing in what doesn’t make sense just because the Bible or preacher says so. While this may be true in some cases, many think rationally and do not follow blindly. At Mastermind, one of our major goals is to encourage our members to think independently because of the benefits.
95% of the world’s population work for the 5% because the 5% think while the 95% don’t. This statistic has been shown to be true across the world from the least to the most advanced nations, which is why it pays to be able to think, but thinking is hard mental work, which is why 95% of every population avoids it.
We want to encourage our members to join the 5% that employ the 95% by thinking their way out of poverty, hopelessness, and despair by opening them up to the secrets of scripture. Since no one can think for another just as no one can eat for another, you must therefore think for yourself, for that is the only way to take control of your life.
Thinking, Underdevelopment, and Metaphysics
The main reason individuals and nations are poor and underdeveloped is that they do not think, regardless of the excuses made for such conditions. A major purpose of education is to teach people to think, and education that does not do that is a failure, producing what can best be described as “lettered ignoramuses,” who are hardly any better than ordinary fools. Knowing how to read letters and numbers without being able to apply them in one’s life is useless.
When education focuses on simply gathering, storing, and regurgitating information as delivered, with no ability to analyze and apply it to one’s current situation, the result is poverty and underdevelopment.
The best way to keep people oppressed is to keep them ignorant and block every possible access to their ability to think. It is so much easier not to think than to think, so people take the path of least resistance.
There are several ways this is accomplished in societies, but we’ll focus on Nigeria.
1. Make the masses toil just for survival so they don’t have the time to think. They are too busy running around during the day. When they finally retire home, they can only eat, curse their wives and children, and slump in bed only to wake up the following morning to continue the routine. (Okada riders are a typical example of this. The government was smart when they promoted and financed the motor-cycle taxi (“okara” and “Keke”) businesses as distractions to keep the restless population from thinking.
2. Institutionalize an education system that precludes thinking before progressing on the educational ladder. Poorly paid teachers with no incentive for the hard job of teaching can simply hand notes to students, and the exam consists of being able to reproduce as close to verbatim as possible. There’s no need to understand, analyze, or apply any of the information. Good memory is all you need.
3. Reward illiteracy and make getting educated unrewarding. With the allocation of positions, offices, and contracts based not on merit or ability to perform, but rather on ethnic-tribal considerations, there is no incentive to be educated.
4. Failure to fund educational institutions or make education a priority. This can be seen when you compare the education budget of federal and state governments with other departments of government such as humanitarian affairs, aviation,
5. Make going to school unsafe. Notice that since students’ abductions and kidnappings started, the out-of-school children population has increased exponentially, especially in the affected areas.
J. Aremu-Cole Ph.D.
Mastermindgen.com