THEATRE OF THE COSMOS

Our text for today is found in the book of First Corinthians in the ninth verse of Chapter four.

1 Corinthians 4:9

1 Corinthians 4:9 KJV 1900

For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.

θεατρον εγενηθημεν τω κοσμω

theatron egenithimen to kosmos

A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible 2302. θέατρον

2302. θέατρον thĕatrŏn, theh´-at-ron; from 2300; a place for public show (“theatre”), i.e. general audience-room; by impl. a show itself (fig.):—spectacle, theatre.

It seems appropriate that as we explore this subject of we being the THEATRE OF THE COSMOS θεατρον εγενηθημεν τω κοσμω theatron egenithimen to kosmos that we consider some words from perhaps the most famous playwright in human history.

In Act V Scene 1 of William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest it is written,

“Oh, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in ‘t!”

-Include image of Miranda

In the play these words come from the character Miranda

“In the play, the character Miranda has spent a majority of her life isolated from society. The only humans she has seen are her father,....and their servant. After being introduced to an abundance of people for the first time, she says this line to emphasis her genuine excitement for meeting more of humanity.

..............The reason Miranda’s words resonate so well with Shakespearean audiences is because it emphasizes an immense amount of naivety to her character. Her innocent outlook towards humanity and her ability to still see people as beautiful shows how her isolation has protected her from the mistakes of mankind.”

https://humanitiescore816.wordpress.com/2017/01/12/titleblog-post-3winter/

Long ago there were individuals who may also have shared Miranda’s innocent outlook towards humanity who had yet to see the mistakes of mankind

The sentiments expressed in these words may well have been felt by the multitudinous angels and created beings of the universe as they beheld the SPECTACLE of this THEATRE OF THE COSMOS. The wide variety of new “goodly creatures” the glory of the freshly formed Adam and Eve might invite the exclamation “How Beauteous MANKIND is!” As the hosts of angels beheld this earth and its inhabitants at its infancy the song of their hearts may well have been “O BRAVE NEW WORLD, THAT HAS SUCH PEOPLE IN ‘T”.

Job 38:4-7

King James Version Chapter 38

4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Declare, if thou hast understanding.

5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest?

Or who hath stretched the line upon it?

6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened?

Or who laid the corner stone thereof;

7 When the morning stars sang together,

And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

O what a solemn thought it is to be a theatron to the kosmos, a spectacle to both men and angels. When we as men and women cast our eyes upon this stage....

What do we notice about this BRAVE NEW MODERN WORLD?

What do we notice about THE PEOPLE IN IT?

Let us endeavor to examine the condition of the world and its people and then consider the remedies.

This Brave New World

A NOISY NEW WORLD, A NEW WORLD IN MOTION

This brave new world we live in is filled with so much sound and activity

Let us seek to respond to this with stillness and silence.

1 Kings 19:12

1 Kings 19:12 KJV 1900

And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

The efficiency of a discourse depends on the application of the truth to the heart by the Spirit of God. When Elijah sought God in the mountains, a devouring fire swept by; but God was not in the flame. A tempest rose, the thunder rolled, and the lightnings flashed; but God was not in all this. Then there came a still, small voice, and the prophet covered his head before the presence of the Lord. It is the still, small voice of the Spirit of God that has power to convict and convert the soul.

The works of Christ not only declared Him to be the Messiah, but showed in what manner His kingdom was to be established. To John was opened the same truth that had come to Elijah in the desert, when “a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire:” and after the fire, God spoke to the prophet by a still, small voice. 1 Kings 19:11, 12. So Jesus was to do His work, not by the overturning of thrones and kingdoms, not with pomp and outward display, but through speaking to the hearts of men by a life of mercy and self-sacrifice. MH 36.1

The BRAVE NEW WORLD screams in a BIG LOUD VOICE live a life of VENGEANCE and SELFISHNESS

Psalm 46:10

Psalm 46:10 KJV 1900

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

The Desire Of Ages Page 363

Desire of Ages Chapter 38—Come Rest Awhile

In all who are under the training of God is to be revealed a life that is not in harmony with the world, its customs, or its practices; and everyone needs to have a personal experience in obtaining a knowledge of the will of God. We must individually hear Him speaking to the heart. When every other voice is hushed, and in quietness we wait before Him, the silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God. He bids us, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10. Here alone can true rest be found. And this is the effectual preparation for all who labor for God. Amid the hurrying throng, and the strain of life’s intense activities, the soul that is thus refreshed will be surrounded with an atmosphere of light and peace. The life will breathe out fragrance, and will reveal a divine power that will reach men’s hearts.

THE PEOPLE IN IT

NEO-Pavlovian Conditioning

Pavlov’s Dogs

Ivan Pavlov’s key contribution to psychology was the discovery of classical conditioning, demonstrating how learned associations between stimuli can influence behavior.

His work laid the foundation for behaviorism, influenced therapeutic techniques, and informed our understanding of learning and memory processes.

-https://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html

Insert Pavlov Dog image-

MR. FOSTER was left in the Decanting Room. The D.H.C. and his students

stepped into the nearest lift and were carried up to the fifth floor.

INFANT NURSERIES. NEO-PAVLOVIAN CONDITIONING ROOMS, announ-

ced the notice board.

The Director opened a door. They were in a large bare room, very bright and

sunny; for the whole of the southern wall was a single window. Half a dozen

nurses, trousered and jacketed in the regulation white viscose-linen uniform,

their hair aseptically hidden under white caps, were engaged in setting out

bowls of roses in a long row across the floor. Big bowls, packed tight with

blossom. Thousands of petals, ripe-blown and silkily smooth, like the cheeks of

innumerable little cherubs, but of cherubs, in that bright light, not exclusively

pink and Aryan, but also luminously Chinese, also Mexican, also apoplectic

with too much blowing of celestial trumpets, also pale as death, pale with the

posthumous whiteness of marble.

The nurses stiffened to attention as the D.H.C. came in.

“Set out the books,” he said curtly.

In silence the nurses obeyed his command. Between the rose bowls the books

were duly set out-a row of nursery quartos opened invitingly each at some gaily

coloured image of beast or fish or bird.

“Now bring in the children.”

They hurried out of the room and returned in a minute or two, each pushing a

kind of tall dumb-waiter laden, on all its four wire-netted shelves, with eight-

month-old babies, all exactly alike (a Bokanovsky Group, it was evident) and

all (since their caste was Delta) dressed in khaki.

“Put them down on the floor.”

The infants were unloaded.

“Now turn them so that they can see the flowers and books.”

Turned, the babies at once fell silent, then began to crawl towards those clusters

of sleek colours, those shapes so gay and brilliant on the white pages. As they

approached, the sun came out of a momentary eclipse behind a cloud. The roses

flamed up as though with a sudden passion from within; a new and profound

sigruficance seemed to suffuse the shining pages of the books. From the ranks

of the crawling babies came little squeals of excitement, gurgles and twitterings

of pleasure.

The Director rubbed his hands. “Excellent!” he said. “It might almost have

been done on purpose.”

The swiftest crawlers were already at their goal. Small hands reached out un-

certainly, touched, grasped, unpetaling the transfigured roses, crumpling the illuminated pages of the books. The Director waited until all were happily busy.

Then, “Watch carefully,” he said. And, lifting his hand, he gave the signal.

The Head Nurse, who was standing by a switchboard at the other end of the

room, pressed down a little lever.

There was a violent explosion. Shriller and ever shriller, a siren shrieked. Alarm

bells maddeningly sounded.

The children started, screamed; their faces were distorted with terror.

“And now,” the Director shouted (for the noise was deafening), “now we proceed to rub in the lesson with a mild electric shock.”

He waved his hand again, and the Head Nurse pressed a second lever. The

screaming of the babies suddenly changed its tone. There was something desperate, almost insane, about the sharp spasmodic yelps to which they now gave

utterance. Their little bodies twitched and stiffened; their limbs moved jerkily

as if to the tug of unseen wires.

“We can electrify that whole strip of floor,” bawled the Director in explanation.

“But that’s enough,” he signalled to the nurse.

The explosions ceased, the bells stopped ringing, the shriek of the siren died

down from tone to tone into silence. The stiffly twitching bodies relaxed, and

what had become the sob and yelp of infant maniacs broadened out once more

into a normal howl of ordinary terror.

“Offer them the flowers and the books again.”

The nurses obeyed; but at the approach of the roses, at the mere sight of those

gaily-coloured images of pussy and cock-a-doodle-doo and baa-baa black sheep, the infants shrank away in horror, the volume of their howling suddenly

increased.

“Observe,” said the Director triumphantly, “observe.”

Books and loud noises, flowers and electric shocks-already in the infant mind

these couples were compromisingly linked; and after two hundred repetitions

of the same or a similar lesson would be wedded indissolubly. What man has

joined, nature is powerless to put asunder.

“They’ll grow up with what the psychologists used to call an ’instinctive’ hatred

of books and flowers. Reflexes unalterably conditioned. They’ll be safe from

books and botany all their lives.”

King James Version Chapter 3

14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.

16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

20 Behold, I stand at the door, and uknock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

What might happen when you have an unexpected visitor who knocks on the door and your home is full of noise and activity?

You might not hear the knocking at all and miss the oppurtunity to welcome the guest

GOD in the SAFE and Ford on the Shelves

The Controller, meanwhile, had crossed to the other side of the room and was unlocking a large safe set into the wall between the bookshelves. The heavy door swung open. Rummaging in the darkness within, “It’s a subject,” he said, “that has always had a great interest for me.” He pulled out a thick black volume. “You’ve never read this, for example.” The Savage took it. “The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments,” he read aloud from the title-page. “Nor this.” It was a small book and had lost its cover. “The Imitation of Christ.” “Nor this.” He handed out another volume. “The Varieties of Religious Experience. By William James.” “And I’ve got plenty more,” Mustapha Mond continued, resuming his seat. “A whole collection of pornographic old books. God in the safe and Ford on the shelves.” He pointed with a laugh to his avowed library-to the shelves of books, the rack full of reading-machine bobbins and sound-track rolls. “But if you know about God, why don’t you tell them?” asked the Savage indignantly. “Why don’t you give them these books about God?” “For the same reason as we don’t give them Othello: they’re old; they’re about God hundreds of years ago. Not about God now.” “But God doesn’t change.” “Men do, though.” “What difference does that make?” “All the difference in the world,” said Mustapha Mond

....

He opened the book at the place marked by a slip of paper and began to read. “’We are not our own any more than what we possess is our own. We did not make ourselves, we cannot be supreme over ourselves. We are not our own masters. We are God’s property. Is it not our happiness thus to view the matter? Is it any happiness or any comfort, to consider that we are our own? It may be thought so by the young and prosperous. These may think it a great thing to have everything, as they suppose, their own way-to depend on no one-to have to think of nothing out of sight, to be without the irksomeness of continual acknowledgment, continual prayer, continual reference of what they do to the will of another. But as time goes on, they, as all men, will find that independence was not made for man-that it is an unnatural state- will do for a while, but will not carry us on safely to the end .”’ Mustapha Mond paused, put down the first book and, picking up the other, turned over the pages. “Take this, for example,” he said, and in his deep voice once more began to read: “’A man grows old; he feels in himself that radical sense of weakness, of listlessness, of discomfort, which accompanies the advance of age; and, feeling thus, imagines himself merely sick, lulling his fears with the notion that this distressing condition is due to some particular cause, from which, as from an illness, he hopes to recover. Vain imaginings! That sickness is old age; and a horrible disease it is. They say that it is the fear of death and of what comes after death that makes men turn to religion as they advance in years. But my own experience has gi ven me the conviction that, quite apart from any such terrors or imaginings, the religious sentiment tends to develop as we grow older; to develop because, as the passions grow calm, as the fancy and sensibilities are less excited and less excitable, our reason becomes less troubled in its working, less obscured by the images, desires and distractions, in which it used to be absorbed; whereupon God emerges as from behind a cloud; our soul feels, sees, turns towards the source of all light; turns naturally and inevitably; for now that all that gave to the world of sensations its life and charms has begun to leak away from us, now that phenomenal existence is no more bolstered up by impressions from within or from without, we feel the need to lean on something that abides, something that will never play us false-a reality, an absolute and everlasting truth. Yes, we inevitably turn to God; for this religious sentiment is of its nature so pure, so delightful to the soul that experiences it, that it makes up to us for all our other losses.”’ Mustapha Mond shut the book and leaned back in his chair. “One of the numerous things in heaven and earth that these philosophers didn’t dream about was this” (he waved his hand), “us, the modern world. ’You can only be independent of God while you’ve got youth and prosperity; independence won’t take you safely to the end.’ Well, we’ve now got youth and prosperity right up to the end. What follows? Evidently, that we can be independent of God. ’The religious sentiment will compensate us for all our losses.’ But there aren’t any losses for us to compensate; religious sentiment is superfluous. And why should we go hunting for a substitute for youthful desires, when youthful desires never fail? A substitute for distractions, when we go on enjoying all the old fooleries to the very last? What need have we of repose when our minds and bodies continue to delight in activity? of consolation, when we have soma? of something immovable, when there is the social order?” “Then you think there is no God?” “No, I think there quite probably is one.” “Then why? .” Mustapha Mond checked him. “But he manifests himself in different ways to different men. In premodern times he manifested himself as the being that’s described in these books. Now .” “How does he manifest himself now?” asked the Savage. “Well, he manifests himself as an absence; as though he weren’t there at all.” “That’s your fault.” “Call it the fault of civilization. God isn’t compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness. You must make your choice. Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness.

...

“But all the same,” insisted the Savage, “it is natural to believe in God when you’re alone-quite alone, in the night, thinking about death .” “But people never are alone now,” said Mustapha Mond. “We make them hate solitude; and we arrange their lives so that it’s almost impossible for them ever to have it.” The Savage nodded gloomily. At Malpais he had suffered because they had shut him out from the communal activities of the pueblo, in civilized London he was suffering because he could never escape from those communal activities, never be quietly alone.

....

“If you allowed yourselves to think of God, you wouldn’t allow yourselves to be degraded by pleasant vices. You’d have a reason for bearing things patiently, for doing things with courage. I’ve seen it with the Indians.” “l’m sure you have,” said Mustapha Mond. “But then we aren’t Indians. There isn’t any need for a civilized man to bear anything that’s seriously unpleasant. And as for doing things-Ford forbid that he should get the idea into his head. It would upset the whole social order if men started doing things on their own.” “What about self-denial, then? If you had a God, you’d have a reason for self denial.” “But industrial civilization is only possible when there’s no self-denial. Self indulgence up to the very limits imposed by hygiene and economics. Otherwise the wheels stop turning.” “You’d have a reason for chastity!” said the Savage, blushing a little as he spoke the words. “But chastity means passion, chastity means neurasthenia. And passion and neurasthenia mean instability. And instability means the end of civilization. You can’t have a lasting civilization without plenty of pleasant vices.”

(Bread and circuses and ancient Rome)

“But God’s the reason for everything noble and fine and heroic. If you had a God .” “My dear young friend,” said Mustapha Mond, “civilization has absolutely no need of nobility or heroism. These things are symptoms of political inefficiency. In a properly organized society like ours, nobody has any opportunities for being noble or heroic. Conditions have got to be thoroughly unstable before the occasion can arise. Where there are wars, where there are divided allegiances, where there are temptations to be resisted, objects of love to be fought for or defended-there, obviously, nobility and heroism have some sense. But there aren’t any wars nowadays. The greatest care is taken to prevent you from loving any one too much. There’s no such thing as a divided allegiance; you’re so conditioned that you can’t help doing what you ought to do. And what you ought to do is on the whole so pleasant, so many of the natural impulses are allowed free play, that there really aren’t any temptations to resist. And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there’s always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there’s always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your mortality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears-that’s what soma is.”

“But the tears are necessary.

... There’s a story one of the old Indians used to tell us, about the Girl of Mátaski. The young men who wanted to marry her had to do a morning’s hoeing in her garden. It seemed easy; but there were flies and mosquitoes, magic ones. Most of the young men simply couldn’t stand the biting and stinging. But the one that could-he got the girl.” “Charming! But in civilized countries,” said the Controller, “you can have girls without hoeing for them, and there aren’t any flies or mosquitoes to sting you. We got rid of them all centuries ago.” The Savage nodded, frowning. “You got rid of them. Yes, that’s just like you. Getting rid of everything unpleasant instead of learning to put up with it. Whether ’tis better in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them. But you don’t do either. Neither suffer nor oppose. You just abolish the slings and arrows. It’s too easy.”

...

“What you need,” the Savage went on, “is something with tears for a change. Nothing costs enough here.”

Psalm 119:71

Psalm 119:71 KJV 1900

It is good for me that I have been afflicted; That I might learn thy statutes.

Revelation 7:14

Revelation 7:14 KJV 1900

And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

THE BRAVE NEW WORLD leaves you BRAINWASHED and destined for the grave

Let us rather let our robes be WASHED in the BLOOD of CHRIST and choose to serve having been saved

Joshua 24:15

Joshua 24:15 KJV 1900

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

New American Standard Bible

2 Corinthians 6:2

for He says,

“AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU,

AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU” ; behold, now is “THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,” behold, now is “THE DAY OF SALVATION” —

Steps to Christ (Chapter 3—Repentance) [Page 34]

Even one wrong trait of character, one sinful desire, persistently cherished, will eventually neutralize all the power of the gospel. Every sinful indulgence strengthens the soul’s aversion to God. The man who manifests an infidel hardihood, or a stolid indifference to divine truth, is but reaping the harvest of that which he has himself sown. In all the Bible there is not a more fearful warning against trifling with evil than the words of the wise man that the sinner “shall be holden with the cords of his sins.” Proverbs 5:22.

Christ is ready to set us free from sin, but He does not force the will; and if by persistent transgression the will itself is wholly bent on evil, and we do not desire to be set free, if we will not accept His grace, what more can He do? We have destroyed ourselves by our determined rejection of His love. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” “Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” 2 Corinthians 6:2; Hebrews 3:7, 8.

“Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart”—the human heart, with its conflicting emotions of joy and sorrow; the wandering, wayward heart, which is the abode of so much impurity and deceit. 1 Samuel 16:7. He knows its motives, its very intents and purposes. Go to Him with your soul all stained as it is. Like the psalmist, throw its chambers open to the all-seeing eye, exclaiming, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23, 24.

Let us exchange our self-indulgence for SELF-DENIAL

the CACOPHONY of City SOUNDS for the TRANQUILITY of NATURE

the poisoned air filled with EMFs for the the fresh air of a FME A Forest or Mountain Experience

Let us exchange PORNOGRAPHY for CHASTITY

DREAD for HOPE

ANXIETY for PEACE

Our INDEPENDENCE from GOD for the COMFORT Of His Staff and His ROD

CITIZENSHIP of this BRAVE NEW WORLD for the PILGRIM’s STAFF and the BLESSED HOPE for CITIZENSHIP of NEW JERUSALEM