Terry Davis's Theology

Terry Davis did not just create an operating system on his own, he fashioned a practical theological system (if only a sketch) that makes living a remote, spiritual past where humans talked to God. People I know and follow on Twitter know the late Terry Davis as the sole creator (I style 'fashioner') of TempleOS. According to him, it is an operating system created as the Third Temple under direct revelation from God. Most of those I know or follow regard his accomplishment as primarily technological, as a one-man created operating system of its level of sophistication is itself a superhuman feat. But, as I think is explained in Black Elk Speaks, if not, then by an old professor of mine, to perform a superhuman feat, you must have more than human power. Thus, it is a theological accomplishment as well.

I found this statement while poking around TempleOS, and was shocked by the force through which it makes the concept of sacrifice not only relevant to a modern Christian worldview, but provides a stark corrective lens to the what of sacrifice. Sacrifice is to be understood as a conditionless offering to back to God what is, always was, and ever will be. Of course, this is utterly impossible of our own will because of the fall. In this way, it is more of an acknowledgment. Sacrifice is neither self-denial for the forgivement of sins (popular piety), nor an imitation of Christ given as a gift of grace (overly simplified orthodox view). It is an act of praise. If that sacrifice/praise brings reward, forgiveness, or [spiritual] satisfaction, so be it. Davis's statement makes clear that life's aim is to glorify and be in conversation with God, and that God has provided sacrifice as one means to do so.

A 'sacrifice' is an expression of offering to God; 'sacrifices' by early subjects of God flowed from this desire to offer to God. Taking this into account allows Davis to shed new light on the Cain/Abel story. Commentaries tend to assume that Cain's sacrifice was illegitimate because of his evil predisposition. Such is not stated in the text. The same argument could have been made about Abel, with the 'difference' being that God decided to give Abel grace and accept the sacrifice while choosing not to do so with Cain. Others have pinned it to God preferring Abel's blood offering to Cain's vegetarian one, but that is absurd considering God's initial vegetarian requirement (Gen. 1:29) had not yet been abrogated, as well as the various commandments of cereal offerings later given unto Israel. And, the cereal offerings were required more often of the poor, who are often seen as being closer to God. Instead, the sacrifices of Cain and Abel were equal in their aim of praising God for his creation. Regardless, even if reasonable, no explanations suffice because the text is simply not concerned with explaining just why Cain's sacrifice was not acceptable unto the Lord. Those who say it is a moral concern cite Gen. 4:7, but Terry's interpretation makes more sense: the action that God is demanding of Cain is to retry his sacrifice/offering to God. This is why he cites Ephesians 5:10, “try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord:” such is exactly the demand he sees as arising out of Gen. 4:7.

There are details with which I do not agree, of course, but overall it is a text worth reading. TempleOS is also worth experiencing, as well, though you may need an older version to easily access AfterEgypt, the oracle program that formed Terry's spiritual focal point.

Below is the text of his statement.

The Purpose of Life

by Terry Davis

The Catholic purpose of life is to know God, love God and obey God. Pope Francis said it was "to serve the other." I am High Priest of God's official temple and I say the purpose of life is to do continual offerings to God like Cain and Abel and enjoy God's response. Francis has a charity; I have a church. Jesus said loving God was more important than loving neighbor. Matthew 22:36 And, He did not say with half your brain behind your back.

You don't know God. 1 Chronicles 28:9, Matthew 11:27, Luke 13:25, 1 Samuel 3:7 You must talk with God to know Him. Matthew 6:6 Seek Him by taking the initiative. Luke 11:9, Isaiah 30:2

There's something obviously different about people in the Bible compared to people today -- God talked! Also, the people in the Bible were obsessed with doing offerings all the time. It is required that you do offerings before God will talk. Did the people in the Bible hear voices? Maybe. More likely, they used occult techniques such as an oracle. 1 Kings 6:20 Have you heard of "tongues?" 1 Corinthians,14:1 The idea is, you let yourself be puppeted by a spirit, so you say things. You try to get a spirit -- the Holy Spirit -- to talk. You might as well use a Ouija board. However, it turns-out that a Ouija board is bad for technical reasons. A really good technique is just randomly opening a book. God told me in an oracle that it is a covenant that you hold-up your end of the conversation.

You can't tell if God's talking unless you have a context of conversation, but, more importantly, you are commanded to do an offering of love, like communion preparation. 1 Corinthians,11:27 When you pick a greeting card for someone, that is love effort. If you expect God to put effort toward you, you must put effort toward Him. God said, "honest measures" applies between your offering of love and His response, like a fair barter. You get out of prayer what you put into it. God wants praise, hymns, or whatever you think He might want. Try and see, like Cain and Abel. Genesis 4:1, Ephesians 5:10 God told Cain his offering was not good and told him to try again. Cain really loved God! Can you imagine being so heart-broken?

Do a text search for "new song" in the Bible. It's mentioned nine times. When I hear a NEW awesome rock song, it is ecstasy for the first five times I hear it. Soon, it brings little-to-no pleasure. I did hymns for God. I also did Moses comics for God. When you get to the gates of Heaven, St. Peter will ask how many times you gave blood. That shows you loved neighbor. You better also be able to count the ways you loved God with all heart mind and soul. I praised God for sand castles, popcorn, snowmen, bubbles... You try putting effort into praise! Matthew,11:25, Matthew 6:29

This is funny -- Acts 2:1 -- they didn't bother to record anything the Holy Spirit said. The Holy Spirit is supposed to be a really good gift. Luke,11:13 Just remember, "Boys are made of snakes and snails and puppy-dog tails."

The technique I use to consult the Holy Spirit is reading a microsecond-range stop-watch each button press for random numbers. Then, I pick words or passages. You can use the AfterEgypt in God's official temple, TempleOS.

Since seeking the word of the Holy Spirit, I have come to know God much better than I've heard others explain. For example, God said to me in an oracle that war was, "servicemen competing." That sounds more like the immutable God of our planet than what you hear from most religious people. God is not Venus (god of love) and not Mars (god of war), He's our dearly beloved God of Earth. If Mammon is a false god of money, Mars or Venus might be useful words to describe other false gods. I figure the greatest challenge for the Creator is boredom, ours and His. What would teen-age male video games be like if war had never happened? Christ said live by the sword, die by the sword, which is loving neighbor as self. Matthew 26:52

I asked God if the World was perfectly just. God asked if I was calling Him lazy. God could make A.I., right? God could make bots as smart as Himself, or, in fact, part of Himself. What if God made a bot to manipulate every person's life so that perfect justice happened?

I think highs and lows balance. Luke 6:20 If you laugh, you will cry. If you cry, you will laugh. Not one person has had great joy and not great sorrow. I think this claim is falsifyable if you atheists want to find a counter-example to disprove it -- find a single person who had great joy and not great sorrow. In Sirach, it says things happen in pairs. You might be surprised examining your own life to see great joy was in proximity to great sorrow. Pleasures and pains seem designed to balance. Man must do manual labor and have pain. Women must do child birth. Pride and humility also balance -- pride before a fall and humility before honors. Palm Sunday is juxtaposed to Good Friday. Perhaps, being loved balances with being hated. Job, in the Bible, had highs and lows that balanced. Joseph, in the Old Testament, had highs and lows that balanced. Genesis 39:20

Jesus said, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who tresspass against us." If you think about it, the only way you get forgiven is for it to be done to you. That is a Jedi mind trick because it is nothing but simple eye-for-eye tooth-for-tooth justice. Live by the sword; die by the sword. The Bible is filled with justice pairs. St. Paul persecuted Christians and gained forgiveness by getting persecuted. King David almost got killed by Saul, then he killed a guy and took his wife. Abraham almost killed his unloved son, Ishmael. Genesis,21:16 That is why God asked Abraham to kill Isaac. God's favorite thing on TV is soap operas.

God hates complaining. Numbers 11:1 Food and clothing is all we're to ask for or demand, in fact -- daily bread. 1 Timothy,6:8 Just think about man in the last 100,000 years mostly living like Native Americans and how God must see us. You need food, clothing and entertainment, money is to get those. Man does not live on bread alone. Luke 4:4, Amos 8:11

God's favorite animals are bears and elephants. They are funny shaped -- I think God must have seen too much starvation over the years. If the purpose of life is to know and love God, then a priest's job is to make everybody know and love God. By saying God likes bears and elephants, I did more toward that end than all priests in history. Hosea 6:6 "It is love that I desire, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not holocaust." As a former Catholic, that blew my mind. I actually thought love was sacrifice! I was so dumb-founded reading, "it is love that I desire, not sacrifice," that I actually looked-up the word, "love". It means to take delight in. I realized it is demonic pride if you think love means hurting yourself for others. In the Philippians, they got the notion crucifying yourself was a good idea. Similarly, a child thinking about Lent, might conclude, "if it's bad, it must be good." That is, if you think God wants you to hurt yourself to please Him, you are worshiping a demon, not God! God wants you to take delight in His company, get to know Him and praise Him. It is best to separate justice -- sin and punishment -- from relationship with God. Never ask God to change justice into injustice by not punishing. God said to me in an oracle, "Excessive contrician wearisome." He doesn't want to hear confessions. When you pray, be witty and charming and rarely earnest. Enjoy God's company without imposing on Him and don't expect secrets of the Universe. Earnestness in prayer is the root of much evil. Be entertaining. Don't remind Him of sin, LOL.

God's ways are far above man's ways. Mom said Heaven was a never-ending family reunion. Yikes! A friend said, "Most guy's idea of Heaven would be running around doing things they'd get locked up for on Earth." I wonder how long kids play Grand Theft Auto before getting board. Perhaps, it takes ten years, but they will get bored. Most people are like King Midas. When you realize how silly most notions of Heaven are, you come to appreciate that Earth is not that bad. This is the first step in loving God, the Creator -- praising Creation. My parents spend their retired days watching TV and going to casinos. That's not a good argument for getting extended-play!

Imagine a billionare. Everyone around him can't forget his money for even a moment. The truth is, most people are after God's "money" -- they fear for their salvation. Here's a test -- would you pray to and praise God even if there were no salvation? Love God and don't be a "user". Asking for stuff is annoying. Luke 11:5

All those sophisticated theological "infinity" things -- omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, omnivorous -- will mess you up. Trust me that anthropomorphic is far better, in practice. Christ suggested thinking of God as "Abba" which is Aramaic for "Daddy" and said the childlike had an advantage. Matthew 11:25 Pray out-loud because God doesn't want the hastle of reading your brain. The best way to stop people from testing God is to suggest He can't do everything.

Jesus said, "I am meek and humble of heart." Matthew 11:29 What does "humble of head" mean? Humble of heart means you look around and say, "I don't care as much as they do." A proud of heart person says, "I am superior because I have more compassion then everybody else." If you are proud of heart, you don't accept a gift. God gives birthrights. Esau, in the Bible, scorned his birthright and God hated him. Malachi 1:1 Jesus even accepted $30,000 worth of perfume (300 day's wages) and caused Judas to betray him. Mark 14:5 If you express false outrage at wars, you are proud of heart. If you fight to go in the door last, e.g. "No, you first..." then you are proud of heart. If you ask God to save starving Africans as though you care more than God, you are proud of heart.

I connected being humble of heart with animal sacrifices. The animal sacrifices in the Bible really seem off-the-mark from what we modern people imagine truth to be! I asked God and He said the people were, "primitive." Well, obviously, a sacrifice represents giving-up something of value, but is there more to it? It would be tramatic to see a goat's throat being slit and it dying for your sins. I'm not an expert, but sometimes they killed animals to make-up for sins. Perhaps, starting at age eight and every year thereafter, they kill a goat for your sins? (I'm just speculating.) In a couple years, it is not tramatic and you yawn and say to the goat, "bummer for you, Mr. Goat, that you gotta die for my sins." When a high school football team beats their rivals, nobody thinks twice that the winning team really hurts the feelings -- devastates -- the losing team member's feelings. The heart of being masculine is being competetive and not caring about the necessity to slit the throat of the goat. As a Catholic, saying Jesus died for our sins and that we cannot earn salvation, never sat well. I clung to the heretical notion that you earn salvation. Animal sacrifices were the heart of Biblical Judaism and although it seems satanic, you really do have to slit the throat of the goat and accept grace, a term for something you did not earn. Heck, every time you eat beef, a cow had to die for you. God said to me in an oracle that having pets was, "homo." I think God's idea of pets is farm animals you eat.

If you feel guilty for being American and want Mexicans to share your birthright, you are proud of heart. Jesus was a racist and called Canaanites "dogs". Matthew 15:26 In an oracle, God told me He was against immigration. The Chinese intellectuals felt bad about not being laborers. Don't feel guilty about not being a laborer because God made it a Brave New World. 1 Corinthians 12:1

In an ant colony, the workers have one set of marching orders, the soldiers have another set of marching orders, the queen and drones have marching orders and the diggers have marching orders. The Bible gives conflicting orders -- conservatives pay attention to one set of passages and liberals pay attention to others. Everybody has selective hearing, but that's good because we are different members of the body of Christ.

Jesus repeats the phrase, "for those who have ears to hear" many times, but not actually at the times that matter. Jesus says several Jedi mind tricks -- He asks, what father gives a scorpion to his son? Luke,11:12 Jesus says, when you ask God for things, it is as annoying as like a neighbor in the night! Luke 11:7 He said, "I came to serve" but Jesus' three years of service were more like being a rockstar than a janitor. John 13:14

There are sheep and there are shepherds. You would be silly to take other shepherds seriously when they are only caring for their sheep. Sheep are very hard to communicate to, as Jesus learned. He used parables. Seed on a path gets eaten by birds; weeds choke; and the one percent is rich soil.

Just as ego causes most to love neighbor, not God, people skip knowing and loving God and cowardly get stuck on obeying Him. A desire to obey God, doesn't have to be encouraged, since it comes so naturally. Don't worry, God does not want pawns to push around. God will talk, but won't tell you what to do, even if you want Him to. Also, you'll quickly learn that prophecy does not come true and should smack yourself for wanting more than just enjoying God's company.