Wednesday, November 6, 2024

An Earthy Animal Kingdom vs A Spiritual Kingdom

 

My nephew Vincent Lee Chin Chai wrote:

“Thank you, Uncle JB for the writeup (my blog articles). An interesting read on scientific and divine medicine. 

You're a God send genius

Vincent.

My brother-in -law, Ong Geok Soo who a Senior Structural Engineer in Singapore has always written to me in WhatsApp Chat pleading ignorance and asking me all sorts of questions for the answer. Among the tens of hundreds of letters he wrote to me, here is the latest one:

My dear brother Doctor 

I was wondering why an imperfect world was created where people can fall sick and die of various medical conditions? Why was it not a perfect world created where there is no suffering but only happiness?

 My Siput and tortoise brain (as he puts it, from my constant reminder we are zoologically animals) is confused. Maybe no brain is a better option. No thinking and no suffering, right?  Then no medicine is needed, and humans can just enjoy. All will live in the garden of happiness until of course the talking snake comes along. So how? Round and round we go. I guess this is happiness. Always on a wild goose chase? Or is it a yin and yang balance? Where one fits into this is just one’s life? 

OGS

In thanking Vincent Lee for his kind words to me I do not deserve, and to Ir. Ong Geok Soo for his “ignorance,” I would like to dedicate this essay in blue below to both of them in return with love.

Since a small child grazing up in heavens at those myriads of twinkling stars while bathing besides a village water well under a clear open 5 am sky as a “cowherd” before cycling together with my Sikh classmate to school at 7 am, after spending the nights sleeping among cows to  help my Sikh schoolmate parents milk the cows in my homestead small town of Batu Pahat, Johore in Malaya then,  it has been my thinking about how godly or angelic beings in other realms or worlds, would likely exist under entirely different principles from those we experience here on Earth.  Their existence would be far removed from the biological requirements—air, food, water—that define life for us and other earthly creatures.

This essay of mine I pen my thoughts today classifies us as belonging to Order Primates among other animals, especially primates like monkeys, chimpanzees, gorillas and baboons. We humans are zoologically animals as scientists classify us, and they too classify themselves as the same.

We cannot demand and order ourselves as anything higher than in the Order Primates. This applies to all humans creeping and crawling here in this worldly kingdom, except Jesus Christ, the Son of God who said His kingdom does not belong to this world.

In short, there is no Godly or Angelic Kingdom here on this “Planet of Apes”

On this introductory note, let me now write under His Guidance. I have always prayed for His guidance and sympathy due to my lack of understanding, knowledge and wisdom in many areas. I need His Guidance how to pen this essay. I shall try. 

Zoologists and taxonomists classify us homo sapiens as one of the animals under the Animal Kingdom here:

Classification of Humans:

Kingdom: Animalia (Animal Kingdom)

Subkingdom: Eumetazoa

Phylum: Chordata

Subphylum: Vertebrata

Infraphylum: Gnathostomata

Superclass: Tetrapoda

Class: Mammalia

Subclass: Theria

Superorder: Euarchontoglires

Grand order: Euarchonta

Order: Primates

Superfamily: Homininae

Family: Hominidae

Tribe: Hominini

Subtribe: Hominina

Genus: Homo

Species: Homo sapiens (humans)

But in John 18:36 in the King James Version Jesus answered “my kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence”  

Does that mean in the Kingdom of God and of Jesus there is no animal or human being there fighting among each other like us here, else Jesus would have told us. Apparently, this revelation speaks of a heavenly kingdom where only godly and angelic live, and there is no animal there like us humans.

My interpretation of John 18:36, where Jesus refers to His "kingdom not of this world," offers me a deep intellectual and theological reflection.

The classification of humans under the Animal Kingdom highlights our biological nature, which places us within the structure of life on Earth, as understood by zoologists and taxonomists. However, the kingdom Jesus speaks of transcends this earthly categorization.

In John 18:36, Jesus is indeed making a distinction between His divine kingdom and earthly kingdoms. He implies that His kingdom operates on a different level, one that isn’t rooted in the physical world or governed by the same principles as human societies. This heavenly kingdom, therefore, could be seen as not populated by earthly beings—humans or animals as we classify them—but rather by spiritual beings, such as angels, and those "transformed" into a state that brings into line with the divine and eternal rather than the temporal and biological.

Many theological interpretations support this idea that in this divine kingdom, the essence of beings is fundamentally different. If we consider this kingdom as a realm of pure spirit and divinity, then the earthly distinctions of species, family, and physical traits would no longer apply in the same way. Some like me believe this kingdom to be one of purity and holiness, where souls are unified with the divine essence rather than existing in forms bound by earthly classifications.

In essence, Jesus' words suggest a separation between the physical, temporal realm, where distinctions among creatures and classifications apply, and a transcendent kingdom where God and heavenly beings reside, bound by divine attributes rather than by the physical markers of earthly life. This view makes straight my strong belief that the soul, in its heavenly state, takes on a different, eternal form that reflects its unity with God, which would be beyond our current understanding of biological categorization.

Furthermore, I think that if there are godly and angelic beings in heaven or in another world, they would not behave like us humans, and neither do they need air, food and water like us and other animals. The Universe is so unimaginably vast with so many other worlds, that we, who have studied and have some knowledge in astronomy, have calculated out (as I did at Oxford as part of my postdoctoral work),  there are other worlds unlike ours to the tune of some 10 trillion, trillion (1 followed by 26 zeros) that it would be very unbecoming and inappropriate for us to believe there are other worlds like us as animals.

The vastness of the universe does indeed open up the possibility of realms or dimensions beyond our comprehension, where forms of life (if we can call them that) are free from the physical needs and limitations of biological organisms. Spiritual or divine beings, if they inhabit such realms, would presumably not have physical bodies – they exist as spirits and as souls of humans without a body who were transported there on their physical death here in this world, and their existence would transcend earthly classifications like those in taxonomy. They might embody attributes such as wisdom, love, and purpose in a purely spiritual or energy-based state rather than a physical one, adapting to a reality where time, space, and material needs are irrelevant.

Considering the universe's immense complexity, it does indeed seem improbable that such beings would mirror our human or animalistic tendencies. Instead, their existence might be more associated with the nature of divinity—pure, unbounded, and unchanging—existing in harmony with the spiritual principles of their world rather than the natural laws that govern ours. This is perhaps why beliefs about heavenly beings describe them as pure, eternal, and transcendent, embodying an existence that is completely unlike anything bound by earthly needs and desires.

 – jb lim

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