Theology of Nuance; Struggling with God and Man and Overcoming

This post is a simple expression of emotional and spiritual isolation.

I believe that much of what I do, devolves from avoidance and/or fear of pain.

I further believe that my perpetual appetite for obsessive behavior, which inevitably consumes my time and energy, is the result of my attempts to cover my shame.

I hide myself behind Spiritual Fig Leaves.

I am eager to provide this analysis, because it helps to solidify my understanding on these issues. To explain these things as you (Matt) have asked is a real blessing to me. I deeply appreciate the questions that you asked last fall. I keep these things in my mind and try to work through my understanding as I go about my day’s activities, and that is one reason it takes me some time to respond. I feel these things in my soul.
The Trinity issue is extremely important for disciples of Jesus to understand. I am afraid that too many believers in Jesus’ divinity, don’t understand what exactly, they believe. It is daunting to sit down with a Muslim, who is vehemently monotheistic, and explain how One God equates to a Father, Holy Spirit, and Son. The confusion for the Muslim is usually magnified by the power of three, in the disciple of Christ.

The nature of the three individuals of God, also explains another issue for which most Christians are uncomfortable in discussing.

The fact that God can forgive ANY sin is Amazing. It is Amazing Grace, to be precise.

Christ can transform men and women in miraculous ways.

Yet, Jesus tells us in Mark 3:28-29, “I assure you that any sin can be forgiven, including blasphemy; but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. It is an eternal sin.”

Let me say it…, Nuance & Paradox of God. I am advocating a Theology of Nuance.
God can forgive any sin and blasphemy except blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
There are NO “hard and fast rules” with God.
Innocence is not determined by strictly following God’s Law and guilt is not determined by “technically” breaking God’s Law (Mt 5:27-30 & Mt 12:1-14). We are disciples of a God who demands a very loose Theology of Nuance.

I want to explain how my understanding of the individual character functions for the Trinity, will shed light on the Father’s inability to forgive blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Look below at the description for how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit function. I had this in the post of March 19, 2007.

1. The Father is executive. He is the planner. He sets the vision. His will be done. He administrates the purpose. He is the Captain of the ship. He is the General of the Army.
2. The Son is the labor. He is the active. He fulfills the vision. He completes the will of the executive. He is the XO for the Captain of Ship. He is the Cavalry and Infantry and Armor of the Army.
3. The Holy Spirit is the material supply chain. He produces & provides the power. He is the materiel supply line. He delivers the fuel to the Armor. He delivers ammunition to the Infantry. He provides counsel and support to the wounded. He is the Navy Corpsman & Army Combat Field Medic.

Now let me make a point from carnal brutality and violence of war. In war, Navy Corpsman & Army Combat Field Medics, will always have insignia on their helmets and arms, indicating their role and position in the battle. They are never supposed to be targeted by combat personnel, nor are they ever supposed to be exploited for combat purposes. It is an “unforgivable” sin to target non-combatant medical personnel. It is also an “unpardonable” sin to use them, hospitals, and ambulances for combat functions. This is in our human psyche. We feel it in our bones. It makes emotional sense, even while we cannot explain it rationally.
This is from God.
This is the design of our Creator.

The Holy Spirit is utterly defenseless in our spiritual battle with the demons and our adversary, Satan.
Just as when the Navy Corpsman steps onto the battle field where mortars are going off just a few meters away, he does not take up a rifle, because he has a nobler calling. So long as he is in an ambulance with a bright Red Cross, he is without protection. So long as he has a bright Red Cross on his helmet and arm band, he is acting as the symbolic equivalent God’s Holy Spirit.
When you take aim on the Army Combat Field Medic, you are shooting at the symbolic representation of He, who is the “Breath of Life” in the nostrils’ of “Adam”, i.e. Humankind. Genesis 2:7

• “And the Lord God formed a man’s body from the dust of the ground and breathed into it the breath of life. And the man became a living person.”

What do you have…, if you take aim at the very “breath of life”? Your heart is beyond repair.

God bless,
DSM

(The Screwtape Letters: A 21st century addendum)

Dearest Wormwood,

What has motivated your doubt in the fact of Human global warming.

The scientific-media has gone to great lengths to console the carnal populace with the knowledge that they may all, individually, have a godlike power over the fact of this Human imposed warmth.

I am concerned that you are giving up on the fact of Human global warming, so easily.

Dearest nephew Wormwood, you must be aware of the vast amounts of blood and treasure, (not to mention the “hot air” a.k.a. warm CO2), which has been spilled by our sacred & faithful scientific-media fathers, all of which has been done with sanctimonious piety, (as provided by the pROUD sPIRIT of our father down below), and this hard labor has been done so that these mortals may take a prideful comfort, in the fact that indeed, there exists an Human power to provide global HVAC to the masses.

My dear little worm, I recognize that you, probably, remain hopeful that Earth may be moving into a warming era of Human history, not unlike our blessed home beyond the Styx, however nephew, If you should be so FOOLISH as to deny the fact of Human culpability in the warmth issue, then you are, by necessary inference, denying the almost divine power of the fact of secular Humanism.

My wormy little nephew, you also appear to be denying the fact that secular Human activities holds the power to alternately, provide either perdition or salvation by the shear force of Human will.

Are you daft? Do you not have enough sense to know that Humans must, at all costs, have and hold a proud comfort in their ability to “pull themselves up by their own bootstraps”?

You must understand that any silly little consession by you, (a very junior Tempter), is an unforgivable sacrilege, and the penalty for such heresy is no small matter.

Lest you think that our adversary’s quaint little book should hold any sway over our father down below, please remember that he is only bemused by the words “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.”

Therefore, my most wormy little kin, you must, with all haste, confirm in your patient’s heart & mind, that Human activity is the only physical matter, that holds power to “save”. Whatever “save” means is irrelevant, because Humans rarely take time to consider such words in anything other than a temporal sense.

Carnal blessings,

Your Affectionate Uncle Screwtape

(Part Two)

The family, and how it is a symbol for the unity of God.
There is so very much in this thesis.
If…, this is true, it could help us to understand why the family is threatened by so many temptations.

Consider just a few things that the world can offer us to break the husband’s unity with his wife.

• workaholic/careers threaten it
• pornography threatens it
• blogging threatens it
• infidelity threatens it
• Sports and Recreation threatens it
• Alcohol and chemical dependency threatens it
• Motorcycles threaten it
• Hotrod cars threaten it
• Anything that we can imagine threatens the unity of the Wife and Husband

As a symbol, Satan might see the family as a physical representation of God’s nature.
Therefore, when Satan succeeds in breaking the unity of families, he might view this as a victory over his enemy, God.
It explains Jesus’ words against divorce in Matthew 19

• ·3 Some Pharisees came and tried to trap him with this question: “Should a man be allowed to divorce his wife for any reason?”
• ·4 “Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’
• ·5 And he said, ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’
• ·6 Since they are no longer two but one, let no one separate them, for God has joined them together.”

Note that Jesus does, in-fact, make use of the same language that is recorded in Deuteronomy 6 about Yahweh being One.

This passage in Deuteronomy is difficult for many Christians to understand or explain. But, in the context of a family, we may see a clearer picture of what the Lord intended by the statement found in this Old Testament passage. Look again, and compare/contrast the wording from the old 1901 American Standard Version to the King James Version.

• ·4Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah: ASV
• ·4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: KJV

ASV is a more accurate interpretation of the Hebrew text. The name “Jehovah” that is used by the American Standard Version is carried over from the original German translation, instead of spelling it phonetically.

Therefore, just as the spelled name “John” in Dutch or German is pronounced “Yon” and “William” is pronounced “Villhelm”, we see why Jehovah could alternately be pronounced “Yahweh”. With these differences understood, the ASV is far more accurate in showing that ‘Yahweh is one Yahweh’ or ‘Jehovah is one Jehovah’.

There are three individuals (Holy Spirit, Father, and Son) but only One Yahweh.
The Family of Yahweh may be the most simple way to understand & explain the nature of God.

As an analogy, we might consider personal examples of very strong, even “unified” families. If one is insulted then all are insulted. If you honor one family member then all are honored.

My wife often teaches a weekly Ladies Bible class, people will approach me at worship and tell me how “wonderful” and “inspiring” she is to them. This is an honor to me. I feel 10′ tall, when people tell me about Molly’s gift and the encouragement that she is to them. Molly is an extension of David, therefore I am being complimented, when I receive praise for my wife.

This is not so difficult for us to understand. How many mothers & fathers will beam with pride, as they see their son throw a game-winning touchdown pass or hear their daughter play a flawless piano recital.

We, as parents, know that when our daughters and sons are recognized for special honor, we ourselves are honored.

The underlying Unity between the wife-mother, husband-father, & son/daughter is present in the Trinity. When we accept God’s Holy Spirit, offered by Jesus Christ, we obtain the power to overcome the devil’s scheme to break up the unity of family.

We must accept our role in the symbol of Marriage & Family, however, because when we accept this mission, we have the unique position of fighting the devil on God’s terms, i.e. the terms of Holy Unity, instead of fighting him on his terms, i.e. self-gratification (a.k.a. pride).

*_____*

Back to the scenario that I laid out in my preceding post, concerning God’s creation plan and Satan’s diabolical scheme, it involves some supposition from scripture and from life experiences.

I may be wrong or right.

But, one key debate that I faced was not addressed in the comments to the post. The issue was about Satan’s creation timing. The common supposition is always that Satan was created at the same time that the physical universe was created. But, this cannot be supported by scripture. It is not mentioned, when the devil was created.

The typical texts from Isaiah or Ezekiel or Revelation do not state anything about Satan’s origination. But, since no one has mentioned these passages I won’t go into them now.

But, if I am wrong please show my error, by writing and posting.

Nevertheless, the creation described in Genesis 1 and 2 is a physical creation of the Cosmos. And we needn’t presume that all spiritual beings were created at the same time as the physical Cosmos.

Furthermore, I might point out that the use of the term “time” is utterly useless prior to the physical Cosmos, because time is inextricably linked with space and matter, which are not spiritual, but rather, are carnal.

I will pick-up again later. The time is late for a physical being such as I am.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

God Bless,

DSM

There have been some issues, about which I have written, in many small snigglet-sized thoughts, through many of my essays, but have never addressed directly.
The nature of the family is one such issue.

All human cultures have at their basic civil organization (a.k.a civilization), the family.

The “family” is, in my opinion, the government of humankind, in its most elemental form, and is designed to be so, by the Creator.
God has imbued the institution of “family” with His holy nature of union.

I am convinced that the family is a holy & symbolic representation of the relationship, which exists in Yahweh our God. You may recall that I have written about this in other essays in the past.

While many disciples are reticent to say this, my wife among them, I am comfortable in saying the Trinity represents all positions in a loving and functional family.
Holy Spirit, Father and Son, are symbolically represented by mom, dad, and child, respectively.

I hope to receive opposing opinions on this.
And to the opposing argument, I recognize that Holy Spirit is never referenced as “mother”.
I further recognize that Holy Spirit is always referenced by the use of the masculine pronoun, “he”.
However, I am not saying that God is anything physical.
“Religious” people who think it wise to rewrite the bible, and thus remove all gender from the scriptures, which references God, bemuse me.
However, to be fair, those who think that God is a physical man (”He”) also bewilder me.

I should be clear on what I am saying.

Jesus the Messiah was a physical man, but he is no longer a physical man. (If you have questions about this look at 1 Corinthians 15:35-58, specifically note verses 49 - 50; “49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.”)

If you are reading this, and you are reluctant to consider the notion that the “family” is a physical symbol, which represents the holy Spiritual relationship with and between the individuals who compose the Trinity of God, then imagine this scenario for a few minutes.

1. The almighty Creator, who is made up of three separate and distinct individuals, determines that “He” wants to share & participate in love (Agapē) with a created being.
2. However there are preexisting created beings, which are not invited to participate in this union between Creator and creation.
3. These preexisting created beings are spiritual, but are not participants inside the holy union of the Spiritual Creator.
4. As the Creator completes His plan for a new type of creation, which is not an exclusively spiritual nature, some of those beings, which were created before the new creation, become jealous about the interlopers, who are designed “in the image of the Creator” and for the purpose of union with the Creator.
5. The chief executive officer (CEO) of the created spiritual beings is given a responsibility for the new creation and the divine reflections, which inhabit it. This “prosecutor/constable” is also given the power to imbibe the physical creation, however this power is available only through the consent and will of the corporeal beings.
6. For an unknown price, a certain corporeal being agrees to grant the “constable” the use of its body and form, for the purpose of interacting directly with the divine copies.
7. The jealousy of the spiritual CEO comes to culmination, as the constable/prosecutor of the created spiritual realm actually encourages the divine images to forsake their betrothal with the Creator. The constable engages in an act of legal “entrapment”.
8. As the Man and Woman take the forbidden fruit, they fulfill the constables hope and dash the Creator’s great dream of a marriage between God and humanity, or more properly the Son of God and mankind.
9. The Almighty God & Host of Heaven, Yahweh, has been thwarted by an unholy alliance between a created spirit, Satan, and created corporeal, the Serpent.
10. All Humankind are dupes for the dope of the spiritual war that rages.
11. The dope of the spiritual war, is pride. And Adam and Eve took it in. They breathed these fowl emanations into their hearts and minds before the fruit ever touched their lips, even before the fruit was plucked from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They doubted the love (Agapē) that was promised by the Creator.
12. The Creator, however, knew everything before it ever happened. And, He had a plan for the renewal of the marriage vow between humanity and Himself. (THE CREATOR CANNOT BE THWARTED. Because, LOVE NEVER FAILS. ·

1 Corinthians 13:7,8: Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Love will last forever,…

(TO BE CONTINUED)

God bless,

DSM

• 93 Have we grown at last beyond the passions of the primal clan?
• 94 ‘Kill your enemy, for you hate him,’ still, ‘your enemy’ was a man.

This is the crux of the issue for me, my vision, sees far beyond carnal national policies of ‘who kills who’.

Death is not the enemy in the crucial fight, the real “ultimate fight”.

Look at the Does God Exist? website. Mr. Clayton makes a bold claim that he can scientifically prove that God exists.
I want to get back to my answers to Matt, about what I believe and why I believe. (This is the 3rd or 4th part of this answer series, depending on if and/or how you might be counting the parts.)

What do you think about this photo? Is it beautiful? Peaceful? Graceful?
I say God is majestic!
Some say “nature” is awsome!
Did anyone catch the personification of Nature, in the quote from the Scientist, Russ George? About nuclear fusion within our Sun and all other stars in the universe, Mr. George said “Nature, however, does not seem to use it on a very large scale…”

So, you must understand that Mr. George has simply taken the word “God” and replaced it with the word “Nature.”

Nature is personified and given a personal will.
I don’t know Mr. George’s theology, but this same issue arises with many publicly avowed science atheists.
Therefore, simply replacing the word “God” with some other word does not get rid of God, it rather just gives Him a new title.

It is, ultimately, up to each individual to know ‘what’ he/she really believes and ‘why’ he/she has been convinced of that thing.

We may not want to work out our beliefs because the answer is inconvenient.

This issue happens in the news every week.

The story might go something like this: A mother’s “little Johnny” is caught in a tragic incident on a “joy ride” or with a trunk load of illegal drugs or “You Name It”, and the mother goes on Channel 8 news and tells the reporters that her son is a perfect angel.

We choose to believe or disbelieve for many reasons.

But, truth and lies do not exist without leaving their mark. Often times the mark is clearly present, but the evidence is simply ignored because the required action may be too painful.

It is a failing of the individual to not desire the truth.

And when this happens we make ourselves to be fools, by believing our own made-up lies.

We actually see people who can fabricate lies out of whole cloth and then begin to believe the thing they’ve just made-up. We could laugh, it weren’t so sad. This is the very thing that the Apostle Paul wrote concerning in Romans 1:18ff. Look at the following passage and think about what Paul tells us about God and humankind.

18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who push the truth away from themselves. 19 For the truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts. 20 From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.

21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. The result was that their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became utter fools instead. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people, or birds and animals and snakes.

Humans are the same today as they were then, “Wicked people who push the truth away from themselves.”

Pushing truth away about a rebellious and disobedient child will condemn that son or daughter to a life of misery. And yet, we do it.

Pushing truth away about a tire that has a bulge on one side will result in tragic consequences on the highway. And yet we do this too.

Dealing appropriately with either of these two examples will certainly result in personal discomfort, but the alternative is far more lasting and ugly.

My 2nd essay on this subject, posted on December 21 2006, deals with the subject that Paul outlines in the Romans 1 passage above. I made the same point that Paul made. I used specific hard evidence of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, but even non-technological folks from two thousand years ago saw the same truth that remains today.

Please, read Romans 1:19-20 again, and I will meet you up in my next post, to conclude this thought. But, you have got to follow me there.

TO BE CONTINUED…

God bless,
DSM

The title is a variation on the opening for the Apostle Paul’s “Sermon on Mars Hill.”