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04a Faith
By Bill Collier, Publisher
“Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them. The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. I open my mouth and pant, because I long for your commandments.
“Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your way with those who love your name. Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me. Redeem me from man’s oppression, that I may keep your precepts. Make your face shine upon your servant, and teach me your statutes. My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law.” – Psalm 119:129-136
What follows is a discourse that will mostly center around seeking to reconcile scriptures accounting of Adam and Eve with our material understanding of the world.
The purpose is not to convince you how to interpret Adam and Eve in scripture. Rather, it is to illustrate the salient point I want to make, how to seek to reconcile our understanding of God through scripture with our understanding of him through other sources, like science and logic, or material understanding.
For our non-Christian readers, this discourse also demonstrates how to reconcile Rule of Law understanding, in general, with material understanding.
Reconciling constitutional standards with material reality would look like the process I engage in here to understand the real. Though the constitution is not God-breathed, it is the bedrock of the American republic. Without it, there is no justification for the republic itself. Its “truth” creates the boundaries of our shared union, what makes us a community, a nation, a people.
The “truth” of America begins and ends in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, but in the material, we see the fruit of Americanism and the threats to it, and using logic, reason, science, constrained by our Americanism, our “Rule of Law,” our “sacred script,” we can advance Americanism in our lives, our homes, our communities, and our nation.
Scripture is GOD BREATHED and PERFECT entirely. Our UNDERSTANDING of it, and specific translations, may contain errors, but the SOURCE is perfect.
I believe the unfolding of our understanding of God’s eternal and unchangeable truth is an ongoing process. We must weigh everything, from Scripture to science, history, logic, and experience, to even begin to understand God’s Creation. But the final authority is the Bible, in all things, according to my faith, which I hold without wavering.
There are things I understand now, convictions I have held, that have changed as I’ve gained understanding of the Bible and of science, logic, and history, as well as my own experiences. My understanding of our Regency in Christ, for instance, has changed in different ways over the years as I’ve tested my understanding against all these things, with Scripture as the final authority.
We have tens of thousands of manuscripts for both the Jewish canon and the Christian New Testament canon.
If we don’t seek truth in scripture, then it is our own fault for walking away from it. To say we did not understand God’s laws and His truth when all of Scripture is preserved intact is indefensible: we are without excuse.
Scripture, unlike any inspired writing, is GOD-BREATHED.
Moses wasn’t perfect, his understanding of the very things God wrote through him was never perfect or complete, but God was the author of what was said, and scribes in a continuous line perfectly preserved the writings for hundreds of years, without any substantive error.
I will NOT entertain any notion that the Bible I hold in my hands, the received Scriptures, is not the perfect and entire WORD OF GOD. Period. No debate. For me, after many years of study and weighing every theory, I have settled this matter once and for all, it needs no revisit.
My understanding of many things has changed and will change as I weigh all the sources of truth against the ultimate authority, the Bible. My understanding of the meaning of certain things in the Bible has grown as I’ve learned cultural and language contexts, historical information, scientific information, and more.
I do not believe in a literal 6-day Creation because of the science, and as such I understand that the language here is symbolic of a deep truth which perhaps was not known even to Moses, who wrote Genesis.
I am not certain Adam and Eve are meant to be seen as the first homo sapiens because of the scientific evidence, but I am certain that they were created in perfection and that Adam and Eve’s original sin brought sin and death to a world that had not known sin before. Through this, Adam condemned humanity, as per the Bible.
I could be wrong, but the more essential belief is in the truth of God’s Word, even if I do not understand the process by which it is being worked out or had been worked out: namely the creation of humanity as destined to reign with Jesus Christ and subdue the earth and multiply.
The debates about symbolic versus literal will continue but as we see more evidence from science, we will necessarily see some cases where something we thought was symbolic is literal and where something we thought was literal is symbolic. We will die being wrong about something we thought the Bible said.
But the Bible says to “hold fast the head, which is Christ.”
The essentials of the faith are not up for debate, and my willingness to believe, submit to, and emulate those essentials is the most important thing for salvation, not the debate about who Adam and Eve were or if they were literally the first and only homogeneous sapiens extant at the time of their creation.
Could I find evidence that every human being is genetically descended from Adam and Eve? Perhaps. But what is essential is that Adam and Eve were real, they were created as perfect beings, their fall resulted in humanity being trapped in a sinful nature, and that through Jesus Christ, the second Adam, all of humanity can be saved and restored to Paradise.
Estimates are that 6,000 years ago some 5 million people existed on the whole planet. 20,000 years ago, there were perhaps 1.5 million. This is assumed fact according to current scientific proofs.
If Adam and Eve were created some 6,000 years ago, and I’m not sure about that myself, then there had to have been other humans, who had naturally evolved; yet God created two perfect humans, not through evolution, and placed them in Eden, which we call a garden, but was more like a whole mini world.
How then did all humans become slaves to sin and subject to spiritual death because of Adam and Eve?
This is difficult to understand in temporal terms. We start looking up DNA to find where this man lived and when he was created. We assume that the linear path of succession, from Adam to us all, has to be genetic or has to mean he appears before any homo sapiens appeared in order for him to be counted the first man.
But Adam and Eve were the first humans in God’s Creation, regardless of when they appeared in our temporal existence.
We cannot base our understanding of anything on the purely temporal reality we are restricted to, e.g. the time-space continuum. But we can use science, logic, our experience, and history to understand events and processes that may be symbolically described in Scripture. Indeed, I believe we should do so.
I am not a direct descended of Jesus or even of the Jews, God’s chosen destined to be united with their G-d in true faith as they see their Messiah.
But Abraham is also my ancestor by adoption through Jesus Christ, regardless of my genetics. I may not be genetically related to Adam and Eve, and yet I inherited my sin nature from them and in his sin, I became a born sinner.
If the inheritance of Christ’s nature was not genetic, we should not be surprised that the inheritance of Adam’s sinful nature was not genetic. Even people alive when Jesus walked this earth after the resurrection could all be His heirs without being related to Him genetically.
So, what happened?
My theory, and I could be completely wrong, is that before Creation, Adam and Eve were, in the heavenlies, the first humans. However, their appointed time was not before, but after what appears to have been a process of evolved creation.
Adam and Eve did not evolve, they were created as perfect beings set in a paradise to be inhabited by themselves and their offspring, unlike the rest of the humans who were created in an evolved process.
Adam and Eve were to subdue the earth and bring order, and this would mean that if it was 6,000 years ago, they and their offspring, who would not die physically IF they ate of the tree of life, would eventually have to bring order, and blessings, to all the other humans who would inherit perfection from Adam and Eve.
ALL of humanity was represented in Adam and Eve, and we failed. I like to say, “if ANY human being was in the same position, we would all have made the same rotten choice.”
This begs the question, why did God create humans whom He knew would sin? How is that just?
It is just because this is what God did and what He does is just because HE IS THE STANDARD. We cannot do what God does, that is a grave sin to even try. But He can do anything, beyond our understanding of space and time itself.
Here we continue to wrestle with God, for seeking greater understanding of His way is never a sin, but seeking your own resolution before that understanding comes is what happened in the book of Job with Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar
For me, I rest in my limitation and assume:
Adam was intended to bring righteousness to all humanity, but when he failed, humanity, as it became aware of God, like Adam, failed as well.
When Cain goes off to a distant people, he takes with him sinful knowing, not righteous knowing, and his kin will do worse than him. Remember, he killed his own brother merely because God showed him favor.
Humanity inherited the sin of Adam by the failure of Adam to bring righteousness to them through his demonstrated righteous life.
Even when God created PERFECT humans in a paradise and gave them the tree of life to eat from so they would not die spiritually or even physically, humans yet wanted MORE.
It is not necessary for us to be blood-related to Adam and Eve to inherit their sin nature, nor to be related to the second Adam, Jesus Christ, to inherit His nature.
The essentials are that in Adam all sinned and humanity becomes sinful beings in need of a Savior, the second Adam. Jesus came as a man in the flesh, perfect spiritually.
God’s eternal purposes are vast and span ETERNITY.
Homo Sapiens have only been in the temporal universe for a tiny fraction of the time. Science assumes, at present, that time began with the big bang. But we were created, in the Divine order, well before we appeared, well before the first hominids showed up in the temporal timeline.
All things that have ever been or will be were created from before the first light appears in the universe. God rested and saw that “it was good.”
He created everything in that instant, but the linear process of time-space is measured in billions of years.
This is how I use Scripture, matching the plain truth and essentials with the known temporal universe, knowing that to try and understand God with temporal eyes alone is pure folly.
My current understanding could shift, because of a new understanding of scripture, or a new understanding of science, but my core understanding of my relationship to the triune God will not.
We are all descendants of Adam and HIS BIRTHRIGHT, which humanity lost. That birthright is being restored to us all through the second Adam, Jesus Christ. This was established before one lone atom ever appeared in the universe.
This wasn’t the plan for the future; this was declared complete and in this brief temporal time, which is but 13.8 billion bits of time against ageless eternity that has no beginning or end, the process continues until the coming of Christ when, after the millennial reign, the temporal burns away into the eternal.
The Bible guides me. It is the final authority.
Every Bible that is a faithful translation (and there are as many as there are languages) is sacred and Holy. This doesn’t mean we worship our Bibles, but it does mean they are THE VERY LIVING WORD OF GOD.
The availability now of many historical documents preserved, of tools that allow anyone to access these sources, and direct-from-the-original translations makes our understanding greater than ever.
To me the Bible has become more fascinating, relevant, and alive thanks to the growth of our understanding of science, nature, and history, including the evolved creation process which, while completed already, appears to still be happening in the temporal.
This greatly fascinates me and strengthens my faith and my adoration of the Living Word of God.
For our Christian readers, I hope this helps you in your own meditating on the Word. For or other readers, I hope this helps you understand how to navigate our material reality with our constitutional ideals as articulated primarily in the Declaration of Independence and our Bill of Rights.
In the wake of a wave of crackdowns on Christians by Chairman Xi’s China, President Trump has successfully convinced the leader to let a Christian pastor go free. The pastor is Ezra Jin Mingri, who appears to have been released as a token “gift” to President Trump. He was released two months after President Trump’s Beijing visit.
Originally published June 26, 2026 for our weekly Issue of Mindful Intelligence Advisor. Subscribe to get weekly issues.
By Bill Collier, Publisher,
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” – Hebrews 11:1
This Final Thought is about faith and the testing of visions, new ones and those already established. While the financial foundation is showing signs of improvement, new challenges are here as well.
On the business front, things are getting back where they were before I essentially was reduced to a diminished capacity while being a caregiver to my wife before losing her. One element of the core business is growing because work I did to advocate for Alzheimer’s testing and early treatment, which gained me notice that has resulted in contracts.
But at the same time, we have some hard news about the Riqueday Castle project and we are appealing for help to the Asian-Pacific Children’s Fund founded by our founder, Don McAlvany, and operated by his son, Scott (and also former Editor of MIA).
The big news is about Riqueday Castle and the needs of the Asia-Pacific Children’s Fund.
Riqueday Castle is officially “organized” as an LLC jointly owned by us Principles. The intention of the LLC is to create a membership community centered around activities in the Castle that will support charitable services for the community.
We are acting as if this is a foregone outcome. This is faith.
What comes before destiny can be a process that tests that faith. It can be a time when, before the vision is made physical, the only thing driving you is what your spirit sees, and we see a thriving community of people using Riqueday Castle to enable and empower themselves to find and fulfill their own God-given scroll of destiny and purpose. We see a refuge and haven of abundance and peace that offers hope to all who see its banners flying.
The physical reality of today, which is, on the surface, not what we desire, does not tell us the ending of our story so much as it is the testing of a vision, which seems too often be the case. Many visions seem to require this testing.
We received news that will try this vision, and we ask for prayer. Our desire, which we believe is Godly, is to create a place that inspires and builds a sense of community through freewill association that has a Christian civilizational paradigm as its standard and foundation.
The news is this: According to an investigation by an HVAC professional, the entire heating system has damage from the winter deep freeze. During that deep freeze, the pump conked out, causing failure during a -10° cold snap that lasted for days. This cost water pipes to break at multiple locations.
While we were just a couple of weeks from an appointment to drain our pipes, fortunately, there was not a lot of water in the system, so there was minimal water damage. This was a godsend.
We are now considering converting to a forced air system and adding central AC, something we had already planned for the future. This was not our priority. Our first priorities were to make a bathroom with a shower in Paul’s quarters so he and his wife could move in. Also, we planned to create an office/quarters for me to use.
This damage, with a replacement system costing $50k to $80k, makes our current plans untenable before they begin. Additionally, there is a leak in the roof we must repair, probably not costing more than $1,000 dollars, as it’s a small area.
We estimated that we would need to spend over $200k over 5 years or so to fully transform this space to match our vision. This doesn’t increase our overall cost, but it changes the order of the major work we hoped to do.
We have also, as noted, organized as an LLC. This LLC will ultimately own the building and land and be the entity that runs the paid membership program. A non-profit may be created to do the benevolence and outreach, which will be funded by the paid memberships and any other services or products sold.
The for-profit will fund the non-profit using a marketplace approach.
We are all pilgrims in this life. This world is not our home, and for us it may seem our shared vision has taken a detour, but where God leads is never a true detour. It is not a detour or delay; it is an unexpected journey of faith tested through trials and tribulations lest we think that when it is fulfilled that we can claim the glory.
Please pray for wisdom on our part and supernatural provision so we can establish this space where we can operate the membership-based community and the non-profit outreach programs we have in mind to serve the people and represent Jesus Christ.
This will also be the home of our extended family, which will begin with my brother, his wife, and our mother.
We will be getting estimates and plans, while working on the funding mechanism for this work.
By living onsite, we can be effective stewards of the castle, while also assuring that there is always someone available to the members and those we serve through the benevolence and outreach programs.
We are leaning towards a blower system, removing the old system and selling the copper piping, and whatever else we can salvage, so we have a system that cools and warms every space separately. This will be built to be as winterproof as possible.
As we move in, with Paul’s household moving in first and then the rest of the family following, we will always have someone on site to monitor a critical failure before it becomes a disaster, like this one has become.
Riqueday Castle was a United Methodist Church back when that meant integrity to the Gospel. It was an important part of the community, as we have learned from many of our neighbors relating personal stories connected to our castle.
We are honoring and preserving that. The main chapel area, which is 2300 square feet of the 8500 square feet we are converting to a castle design, will be called St. Francis Chapel and will preserve this sacred space for the community at large.
Riqueday Castle is a vision of community building meant to restore a strong social fabric built on what we call a “Christian Civilizational Paradigm” or way of life. This “sense of community” creates a resilience in the face of any crisis that enables people to fulfill God’s best for their lives, which they themselves will define within the context of God’s will.
Often people create organizations that control or try to change people to fit some theory or design predetermined by those on top. Riqueday Castle will build a sense of community that supports and liberates people’s dreams through their own adaptation of a basically Christian worldview.
The idea is to free people to fulfill their own aspirations and potential, while supporting them through the building of a strong Christian worldview foundation.
We have seen that this vision is being tried and tested and we are up to it, by God’s grace and favor. We rely on Him alone.
Just as new visions are tested and tried, so too are old visions.
In that vein, please consider supporting the work of the Asian Pacific Children’s Fund, founded by our own founder and operated by his son, Scott McAlvany. They are in Indonesia now ministering to orphans and to poor and needy families, but funding is tight because of economic conditions. Generally, when gas prices rise too much, donations become smaller, but the work must go on.
You can’t donate to Riqueday Castle, it’s meant to self-fund through paid memberships and other business revenue, but you can support the work of our Founder and his son, which has served thousands of needy families and orphans in India, Myanmar, Indonesia, and the Philippines, to name a few places.
The vision of APCF is something we strongly support. Scott entrusted us with continuing the vision of the McAlvany Intelligence Advisor, which we renamed the Mindful Intelligence Advisor with their blessing. Scott even fought legally to secure the Mindful Intelligence trademark against a claim by the Federal government.
Scott is continuing the work of the APCF, which itself was initially funded by the McAlvany Intelligence Advisor.
Whether it is new visions or continuing established visions, by faith we stand knowing that this is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Vision may be tested but God will always see us through to the end.
When players chose not to wear Pride uniforms or put bible verses on their hats in protest, Major League Baseball warned them to not do that again. The DOJ then warned the MLB it was violating players’ rights, triggering a retreat from the league in response.