God with us, matter, as time

[Joelthe vicious]

Whose 'theology' it was... I cannot remember, but I see, somehow in the back of my head, this man, philosopher, I cannot even properly remember what he actually was, sociologist, psychologist, physicist, ablate, whatever, but I think he was a Christian... I see in the back of my head vaguely the outlines of his thoughts-world. It was all flat, straight lines, the people of this world of his. Were they squares, or just lines? I don't even remember. But it was a really weird world and its beings-- supposed to be human beings, even weirder. It was a one-dimensional world and existence. It wasn't static, but all movement was like on a mirror's bright side. No one experienced darkness, it was all light. As I say, I do not remember much, because I didn't like what I read and didn't read far before I put down the fiction. But this imaginary world of that writer, got stuck in my mind and I carried it around in my memory ever since. Or shall I say, I carried it square in my head where its lines' points and squares' corners floated and bumped against quay walls when winds chased up unruly waves in bays of cerebral liquids.
It was an impossible world and existence, easy to conceive.

Formed a picture in my mind, this is how Christian perception and understanding relate God to ourselves; in fact, not only the Christian, but all human religious perception and understanding of God. It is superficial, one-dimensional. Size depends on length only, or at best on length times width. But there is no depth. There is no depth, not even in Christianity, because the MOMENT Christian perception of God receive depth, it like water falling onto the mirror of our existence immediately flattens out and takes on the form of the surface of the mirror; and if more water than would cover the surface, it simply will, must needs, fall into oblivion over the edges.

But God did not make nor intended our world one dimensional. This distinguishes Christian faith from any other earthly religion, God came to, and into, and became part of our world and existence and history. God in Christ became God with us. One with us and one of us, to breath the same air we do, drink the same water we do, eat the same food we do, speak the same language we do and think the same things we do.

That then is how our world and existence from God's side of things, got depth: got REAL depth, thus, Substance.

And we immediately let the showers of blessing of God's Presence flatten out and flow away superficially and retain nothing but quickly loose all. We receive depth from above, but never accumulate any. Nothing steers God's Blessing into containers of his mercies. We have no dams in the flatness of our world and existence, not even rivers that could flow through deserts and wilderness. And the rocks lie barren beneath a scorching sun, barely covered with soil or growth that might slow down the flow-off from the showers of blessing from God Above through Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ 'Incarnate', became no more than a two dimensional cerebral image of the Divine Reality, "God with us".

 

[EastCoastRemnant]

I believe you're referring to Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott.

 

[Joelthe vicious]

I believe you're referring to Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott.

Must be, it's such a weird imaginary world, it's not likely anyone else would have created the same thing. So thank you for telling me.

As I spent much time thinking about the one or at best two dimensionality of our Christian worldview, I remembered Karl Barth in his last Credo, which he titled 'Evangelical Theology'. In it he wrote of the perpendicular line intersecting the horizontal line of human existence in TIME, every Sabbath Day! Barth's view though, is also one dimensional and flat, the horizontal simply swung vertical like a painting of a landscape on a wall or a compass of no use with north and south or east and west turned up and downwards. The Sabbath to Barth's viewpoint, my conjecture is, as it were is like a stone dropped out of heaven onto the earth with no noticeable or lasting impact.

The Bible's picture of the Sabbath (for me) though, is depth coming up out of depth like a volcano, with EARTH SHAKING AND LASTING EFFECT. It can both devastate or create, destroy or supply future habitat for survivors. The Sabbath is like "the Day of the LORD" and in REALITY is "the Day OF THE LORD your GOD" man's Creator Redeemer and Judge.

Natural for and typical of our Christian conception of God’s Sabbath Day, is to think of it in the order of 1) "the Day OF THE LORD your GOD" as Creator – Genesis 2 Exodus 20; then, perhaps, 2) "the Day OF THE LORD your GOD" as Redeemer Exodus 12 to 15 Deuteronomy 5; then, most UNLIKELY or never, 3) "the Day OF THE LORD your GOD" as Judge with no Scripture, or, in the hands of the anti-Sabbatharians, for sure with Scriptures like Romans 6 and Luke 6!