It is an axiomatic truth that “out of
nothing, nothing comes,” and it has often been asserted by scoffers that the Bible
teaches generation “from nothing.” We readily agree that
translations into the
modern languages promulgate this erroneous doctrine, but we have shown in The Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception
(chapter on “the Occult Analysis of Genesis”), that the
Hebrew text speaks of an ever-existing essence, as the basis whence all forms, the
earth and the heavenly lights included, were first created, and John also gives the same
teaching.
The Greek word arche, in the opening
sentence of the gospel of St. John has been translated the beginning, and it may be
said to have that meaning, but it also has other valid interpretations, vastly more
significant of the idea John wished to convey. It means:—an elementary condition,—a chief
source,—a first principle,—primordial matter.
There was a time when science insisted that the elements were
immutable, that is to say, that an atom of iron had been an atom of iron since the earth was
formed and would so remain to the end of time. The Alchemists were sneered at as fanciful
dreamers or madmen, but since Professor J. J. Thomson's discovery[pg 108]of the electron, the atomic theory of matter, is no longer tenable. The
principle of radio-activity has later vindicated the Alchemists. Science and the Bible agree
in teaching, that all that is, has been formed from one homogeneous substance.
It is that basic principle which John calledarche:—primordial
matter,—and the dictionary defines Archeology as: “the science of
the origin (arche) of things.”
Masons style God the “Grand Architect,” for the Greek word
tektos means builder, and God is the Chief Builder (tektos) of arche: the primordial virgin
matter which is also the chief source of all things.
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