Catholic Fundamentalists visualize God as The Loving Programmer. He has the Power to program particles, and compile them into systems and beings. He did all this to provide us, His most complicated programs, with free will. He has provided us two avenues to learn about and grow closer to Him. One is the teaching of The Church that He left behind, to be guided by The Holy Wireless Connector. The other is the Scripture that He inspired.
The Book of Revelations is the most complicated Book in Scripture. While we may not completely understand it, there are clues within that show us some of the relationships between us and Him.
Rev; 5:7-9: “The Lamb came forward to take the scroll (Program) from the right hand of the One sitting on the throne, and when He took it, the four animals prostrated themselves before Him and with them the twenty-four elders; each one of them was holding a harp and had a golden bowl full of incense made of the prayers of the saints.”
We see from this that our prayers do not go directly to God, but to one of the twenty four Elders whose thrones surround the Throne of God. There, they take actual form, and rest in one of the appropriate Golden Bowls. Some may infer from this that there are twenty four types of prayers, each going to the proper repository.
Though our prayers have taken form in Heaven, they have not yet reached the actual presence of God. That happens in Rev; 8:3-5: “Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. A large quantity of incense was given to him to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that stood in front of the throne; and so from the angel’s hand the smoke of the incense went up in the presence of God and with it the prayers of the saints.”
The verses that immediately follow show how the prayers are returned to earth: “Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire from the altar, which he then threw down on to the earth; immediately there came peals of thunder and flashes of lightning, and the earth shook.”
So, our prayers rise to Heaven, or are taken there by angels, and are deposited into the Golden Bowls held by the twenty four Elders whose thrones circle the throne of God. From there, our prayers go to the altar, to the Very Presence of God. The answer to our prayers is shown by the “peals of thunder and flashes of lightning and the shaking of the earth”. This refers to the re-programming that God does in response to what we have asked. Much of the thunder, flashes of lightning, and shaking of the earth is beyond our ability to sense. It goes on every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year of every decade of every century of every millennium until His Program has run its course.
Our prayers, therefore, become a part of history, prompting the re-programming of all that follows. They are among the most important things we produce.
Additional note: There is a question as to whether or not our prayers are actually “living things” in the Kingdom of God, and they fly to Him as moths to light. It may be that angels take, or guide, our prayers up to the Golden Bowls, and from them to The Altar. Each one of The Elders may specialize in a type of prayer. If so, there may be 24 types of prayers. Most of our prayers are requests for pretty much the same thing. Many of us ask God for health, money, children, help for us and our families, removing physical, emotional, and spiritual pain and impediments, success in individual enterprises, success in battle, employment, marriage, new entities that will help us get along better, forgiveness, joy, and, did I mention money?
