The doctrine of emanation
“All the emanations from the Father, therefore, are Pleromas, and all his emanations have their roots in the one who caused them all to grow from himself.” The Gospel of Truth, The Nag Hammadi Library
There are two emanations the first emanation is to about the self-realization of the Uncreated Eternal Spirit the second emanation is the manifestation of creation both the spiritual universe and the physical universe
This study will deal with the the second emanation the creation of the the physical universe
GOD AND HIS SPIRIT IN RELATION TO THE UNIVERSE
What is the meaning of the word spirit? To what language does the word belong? It is a Latin word, as, “spiritus,” a blowing, from spiro, “to breathe, breathe out, exhale.” Hence Spirit is that also which is exhaled. In the Greek, the word which answers to spirit is pneuma, which signifies the same as spiro. In the Hebrew it is ruach. But these words, while they tell us that they stand for something radiated or exhaled, do not tell us what the essence or substance of the exhalation, or radiation, is. It may be air in motion, or wind, breath, electricity, or some other agent. What it is the word represents, depends upon something more than etymology can supply. The words ruach, pneuma, spiritus and spirit do not signify the same thing in all places where they occur; still, whatever the thing is, the radical idea is a motion outwards from, into.
The first place in the Bible where the word occurs is in Gen. i. 2. Here it is ruach Elohim, a principle going out of, or from, the Mighty Ones. What could this be? It may be known by its effects. “It brooded upon the face of the waters,”—of the waters which in the primeval state of the earth, covered its entire surface. This brooding principle covered the surface and penetrated its substance in all its atoms, so that it was only necessary for the word of command to go forth from the Mighty, and whatever might be commanded would be done.
Everything was made by this brooding principle as the executive of divine Wisdom. “By His spirit he hath garnished the heavens;” “He sendeth forth his spirit; they are created,” even all the things detailed by Moses. Hence, Job says, “the ruach of Ail hath made me, and the Nishmah of SHADDAI hath given me life. The Spirit is, therefore, formative. It is creative power. It made the light; it divided the vapours from the waters by an expanse; gathered the waters together in the place of seas; formed the vegetable world; established the astronomy of the heavens; developed the animal kingdom; and executed the whole so satisfactorily that the work was pronounced “very good.”
When we contemplate spirit through these results, we behold an Almighty power which is predicated of AIL—the spirit of Ail. But what is AIL? Etymologically, it is strength, might, power. Hence the Spirit of AIL is a powerful emanation, or breathing forth of power. ALMIGHTY POWER is the fountain and origin of the universe, “out of whom are all things” says Paul (1 Cor. viii. 6). He also tells us that the fountain of Omnipotence is a glorious and torrid centre; a centre that cannot be approached by man, and the dwelling place of an invisible, intelligent, and deathless being (1 Tim. vi. 16).
This is AIL—all-wise, all-powerful, all-seeing, and all-knowing. There is only one such in the wide-extended universe. He is life and incorruptibility, and never was anything else. Here is a wonderful being, corporeal intelligence that hath always existed, and out of whom, as “THE FATHER,” all things have been produced. But of what does his substance consist? What his nature? What is he?
“HE IS SPIRIT.”
These are the words of Jesus, who knew what he affirmed. AIL is spirit, and there is a spirit of AIL—the fountain and the stream are both spirit, and hold a like relation that radiant caloric does to iron glowing with a white heat. But what is the glowing substance of Deity? That which shall be manifested in the saints when they become spirit, for they shall be like him who is in the bosom of the Father. “Deity is spirit,” and to convey our conception to the reader of this substance, we would style it corporeal electricity.
We behold the lightning’s flash; we see its almighty effect upon rocks and trees, and we perceive its universality; still of its essence, we are ignorant. Our words and definitions leave this untouched. But whatever the essence may be, that corporeal essence is God, and the same incorporeal and radiant essence is the spirit of God.
Electricity or lightning is a Bible symbol for spirit. Ezekiel, son of man, priest and prophet, had visions of Elohim, who are, when manifested, spirit, being all of them post-resurrectionally begotten, and born out of spirit, and consequently consubstantial with the Father, who is spirit. In these visions of spirit, then, Ezekiel saw the living ones or Elohim come forth out of the midst of fire and brightness. His description in chap. i. 4, is symbolical of 1 Tim. vi. 16. What we call electricity, for want of a better word, in glowing combustion, he terms “fire and brightness.”
In beholding the electrically-generated beings born of the Ezekiel fire, he says “Whither the spirit was to go, they went,” because they will be spirit, so that wherever they may be, there, necessarily, corporeal-spirit will be. And, as for the likeness of the living creatures, says he, “their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps; it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning” or flaming electricity. “And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.”
In scriptural discourse, "electricity" is termed spirit, because it is radiated, or sent forth, from the substance of Almighty Power, after the tropical analogy of blowing, breathing, or exhaling. This idea is illustrated by the iron excited to white heat, or the magnet. These are solid substances, but within a certain radius, they are enveloped in an atmosphere of light and heat, or of magnetism. This atmosphere may represent the radiant power, or spirit, of the Deity; and the glowing iron and magnet, the radiating power, or substance, called DEITY.
Here, then, is spirit free, radiant, or uncombined ; and spirit in substance, corporeal, bodily existence. The latter is the original condition of spirit. It was not originally free or diffused through space, and at some particular epoch condensed, reduced to a bodily form, and individualized.
To affirm this, would be to affirm the existence of abstract intelligent power antecedent to the Hypostasis, or substance, the exact representation of which Jesus Anointed is declared now to be. No, the Substantial Father has always been substance, and has had no incorporeal predecessor in wisdom and power.
His nature is the substratum, or basis, of all conceivable existences, animate or inanimate, in all the universe ; for they are all created out of his spirit, and that spirit radiates out of his substance. It is always subordinate to His will; and accomplishes that only whereunto it is sent. Hence, it does not act independently of the radiating power. Nothing, therefore, happens by chance in the operation of the spirit.
The wisdom that ordains is in the Father; and the wisdom that executes is in the power radiating from him. This is illustrated by the fact (and we have verified the fact by experiment) that a man may simply will actions to be performed by another at a distance ; and his will, though unexpressed in words or gesture, will be done. If any action result, it will not be contrary to the will, nor can it be. It is impossible, likewise, for the spirit of the Deity to execute contrary to the will of the Deity. Hence, " THE SON," or Spirit- Emanation from the Father-Spirit-Substance, " can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do," or will; " for whatsoever he doeth," or wills," "these also doeth," or executeth, "the Son likewise"—John v. 19.
The distinction made by "philosophers" between "matter" and "spirit" is artificial, and does not obtain in scripture.The Father is matter, or substance, but he is spirit also; for that matter of which he consists, and which constitutes his nature, is spirit. This being the fact, matter is eternal. But this by no means implies that the forms of matter arc eternal likewise; for that would be to affirm that the Creator was not antecedent to his works. The dispute, then,, upon the question whether spirit existed before matter, or matter before spirit, is a vain controversy; and indicative of the ignoranee of the "philosophers" on both sides.
The one had no precedence of the other, being essentially the same. Hence matter is not essentially evil, or coiTupt and mortal; nor is it incapable of thought. The Divine Power is matter, but, though he creates evil, he is not evil, nor corruptible and mortal. There is,therefore, no force nor reason in the argument that a thing is immortal because it is immaterial, or not matter. Whatever exists is matter. Electricity is as much matter as a block of marble, the only difference is, that it is matter in a different form. Hence the immaterial is the non-existent, or nothing. To say, then, that a thing is immortal because it is immaterial, is to ailirm that it is immortal because it is nothing, or does not exist; which is the demonstration of the wisest thinking of the flesh—" the wisdom of the world " condemned as folly, working death in all that are deceived by it.
There is no part of the boundless universe where the spirit of the Divine Power is not. It pervades the atoms of all bodies and is everywhere. Hence the inquiry of Christ in prophecy, " Whither shall I go from thy spirit ? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence ? If I ascend into heaven thou art there; if I make my bed in the grave, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thine hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I shall say surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thec; but the night shineth as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to thee."—Ps. exxxix. 7-14.
This proves what we have said, and teaches that, in a general sense, allcreatures are in the presence of the Creator; that they arc so in being contiguous to his spirit: for, as fish live, and move, and have their being in the waters, so all animals and men " live, and move, and have their being " in spirit of God. Upon this natural principle it is that Paul declared to the heathen philosophers that God is "not far from every one of us"; and that Jesus said," a sparrow shall not \ fall on the ground without the Father." Hence, in the natural or physical sense, all creatures have the spirit, and cannot live without it; so that as Job says, " If He gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust"—xxxiv. 14. Spirit develops the organism of all creatures, and preserves it from disorganization.
It is what pathologists term the vis medicatrix natwras; and physiologists, " the vital principle." When the spirit and breath of the Creator are withdrawn from a man or a sparrow, there remain no healing power and vitality in their several bodies; and the immediate tendency in them is to corruption and dust. Hence, all creatures in the air, earth, and seas, are spirit-farms. The types or patterns, after which they were created were all in the mind of Deity before they were created; and when they were formed, the formation was out of spirit-matter and by spirit according to pattern. Every creature is therefore a spirit in this sense; but not necessarily immortal because a spirit. The immortality of a spirit depends upon the constitution of the matter or substance of the peculiar form. A spirit form of a flesh and blood organization is essentially mortal and corruptible; for death and corruption are peculiar to that material constitution. The " spirits in prison " Peter speaks of, were flesh and blood organizations turned again into dust, consequent upon the Deity gathering to himself his spirit and breath. ·
His free spirit withdrawn, and the cohesive affinity of their substance departed, and its gaseous elements entered into new combinations, destructive of the forms, termed man, cattle, fowl, and so forth. Hence the Deity is styled by Moses in Numb, xxvii. 16, " YAHWEII, Elohim of the spirits of all flesh " : that is, the spirit self-styled HE SIIALL BE, is the powers of all flesh-emanations of hi9 power. The spirit-power of the lion is the power of Jehovah; and so of all other creatures. Hence the facility with wThich he can open and shut their fierce and voracious mouths, as in the case of Daniel and his persecutors. This universal diffusion of spirit places all created things in telegraphic communication with the will of the Deity. What he wills needs not batteries and wires for transmission. He has but to will and it is instantaneously responded to according to his purpose, though the locality where obedience is required be distant from his throne a hundred millions of miles. Take these two points, the throne of the Universe, and the earth we inhabit, as the two extremities of the line—the Deity at the one end, and we at the other. The intermediate space is filled with his " free spirit," radiant from his substance, and incarnately organic in all his creatures.
What we call "time" is unnecessary for the transmission of ideas. The Deity is not a being of time. He has not to move from where he is to be where he would be; for he is everywhere by spirit, and fills all. Hence his will at the throne is his will at the same instant on earth; for his intelligence and wisdom are as universal as his power and only require his will to be exercised for their manifestation in every part of his wide domain.
Now, in studying the subject of spirit we must consider it severally in its relations to things physical and natural; andto things intellectual and moral, or spiritual in a special sense. As we have seen, all mankind and animals generally are the subject of the operation of the spirit; but it is only a certain class of mankind that is operated upon in the special sense by which individuals are brought iilto harmony with the moral attributes of Deity.
The ideas and thoughts of the Deity are as much spirit as this physical power.His thoughts are moral power breathed forth in his words, and that is spirit, even as the lightning breathed forth, or radiant, from his substance is spirit. His thoughts breathed forth or revealed in any way he may determine constitute uthe truth1*, and therefore the truth is spirit. Hence, the Lord Jesus said,u My words arc spirit"; and the apostle John says, " The spirit is the truth." To produce physical results, such as raising the dead, curing the sick, speaking with tongues, speaking by inspiration, and so forth, material power or spirit is required; but when purely moml results are the things desired, the truth is the spirit that operates upon the heart.
Notes
hypostasis
(Colossians 1:15) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;
Heb 1:3 3 who being the brightness of the glory, and the impress of His subsistence (5287 ὑπόστασις hypostasis hoop-os’-tasis), bearing up also the all things by the saying of his might — through himself having made a cleansing of our sins, sat down at the right hand of the greatness in the highest,
5287 ὑπόστασις hypostasis hoop-os’-tasis
hypostasis
an underlying reality (pleroma) or substance, as opposed to attributes or to that which lacks substance (kenoma)
So the Deity has a substance this substance is spirit
Electricity
from these texts above it appears that God resides in thick darkness and in heaven, so heaven arguably must equate to thick darkness.
dark matter and/or energy in our universe may actually be described as the abode of spiritual creation in the scriptures, i.e. the place where God and his spiritual sons actually live and from where they can observe and interact with us
