Churchwork
12-22-2005, 03:50 PM
Tracing the Source of Our Existence
The Biggest Question We Can Ask
God is living and He interacts, but in so doing, He also foreknows omnisciently all that takes place in that interaction and forsees our choices in our interactions with Him. It is like a parent who knows exactly what his or her child is going to do next, but the parent still says to the child, don't do that, because the parent loves him, but doesn't want to force him not to do it. And when the child asks the parent for something, if asked rightly, the parent provides.
Is this not true? How much more would it be true of God even infinitely?
This concern is not my concern for this problem is solved for me. My concern goes beyond this and asks about this most amazing statement: to say there is the Godhead in the eternity of the past who was alone. How can this be? How cant there be this being alone and nothing else? Nothing else! Just Him!!
It blows the mind to fathom. I have come to the conclusion, because it is the only way I know how to explain it, what you and I and the whole world know of time, space and all things knowable is a construct devised for our habitation for eternity which will never be extinguished.
Therefore, our concept of time, space, even the idea of eternity are implanted into the sphere of your existence in the construct, but what is above that and beyond could be something else which is not bound by these ideas in the construct. Nor are we even able to understand such things because our brain is bound by the soulical and our intuition is bound by the spiritual.
This is why we are left a question (the biggest of all questions), how can a being exist in the eternity of the past all by himself alone as the Trinity? It is amazing. It is the most fantastic thing I have ever known. He is my God who reveals Himself through Jesus Christ. There is none other. This is one question we will never know the answer to because we are not designed to know this information (or should I say at least, not now). Humbly, we must accept this, and let it go because to obsess on a question that is incapable of being answered is not God's will.
What we must do is continue in obedience to the Father's will through the Word Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit indwelling the spirit of our quickened and regenerated spirit. I love you God so much, you are so amazing! :shocked: :eek:
Watchman Nee is always ahead of me in my thoughts, for he wrote as follows:
The Way of the Lord (http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/Christianity.htm)
Spiritual Authority, CFP, 47-48, Watchman Nee
“As regards to the Godhead, the Son and the Father are co-equal; but His being the Lord is rewarded Him by God. The Lord Jesus Christ was made Lord only after He emptied Himself. His deity derives from who He is, for His being God is His inherent nature. His being Lord, though, issues out of what He has done. He was exalted and rewarded by God to be the Lord only after He forsook His glory and maintained the perfect role of obedience. As regards Himself, He is God; as regards reward, He is Lord. His Lordship did not exist originally in the Godhead.
The passage in Philippians 2 is most difficult to explain, for it is most controversial besides being most holy. Let's remove our shoes and stand on holy ground as we review the Scripture. It seems as though at the beginning a council was held within the Godhead. God conceived a plan to create the universe. In that plan the Godhead agreed to have authority represented by the Father. But authority cannot exist alone. God must therefore find obedience in the universe. Two living beings were to be created: angels (spirits) and men (living souls). According to His foreknowledge God foresaw the rebellion of the angels and the fall of men; hence He was unable to establish His authority in angels or in the Adamic race. Consequently, within the Godhead perfect accord was reached that authority would be reached by the obedience of the Son. From this come the distinctive operations of God the Father and God the Son. One day God the Son emptied himself, and being born in the likeness of men. He became the symbol of obedience. Inasmuch as rebellion came from the created beings, so obedience must now be established in the created being. Man sinned and rebelled; therefore the authority of God must be erected on man’s obedience. This explains why the Lord came to the world and was made as one of the created men”.
Phl 2:5 Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Phl 2:6 who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,
Phl 2:7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men;
Phl 2:8 and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient [even] unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
Phl 2:9 Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name;
Phl 2:10 that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of [things] in heaven and [things] on earth and [things] under the earth,
Phl 2:11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The Biggest Question We Can Ask
God is living and He interacts, but in so doing, He also foreknows omnisciently all that takes place in that interaction and forsees our choices in our interactions with Him. It is like a parent who knows exactly what his or her child is going to do next, but the parent still says to the child, don't do that, because the parent loves him, but doesn't want to force him not to do it. And when the child asks the parent for something, if asked rightly, the parent provides.
Is this not true? How much more would it be true of God even infinitely?
This concern is not my concern for this problem is solved for me. My concern goes beyond this and asks about this most amazing statement: to say there is the Godhead in the eternity of the past who was alone. How can this be? How cant there be this being alone and nothing else? Nothing else! Just Him!!
It blows the mind to fathom. I have come to the conclusion, because it is the only way I know how to explain it, what you and I and the whole world know of time, space and all things knowable is a construct devised for our habitation for eternity which will never be extinguished.
Therefore, our concept of time, space, even the idea of eternity are implanted into the sphere of your existence in the construct, but what is above that and beyond could be something else which is not bound by these ideas in the construct. Nor are we even able to understand such things because our brain is bound by the soulical and our intuition is bound by the spiritual.
This is why we are left a question (the biggest of all questions), how can a being exist in the eternity of the past all by himself alone as the Trinity? It is amazing. It is the most fantastic thing I have ever known. He is my God who reveals Himself through Jesus Christ. There is none other. This is one question we will never know the answer to because we are not designed to know this information (or should I say at least, not now). Humbly, we must accept this, and let it go because to obsess on a question that is incapable of being answered is not God's will.
What we must do is continue in obedience to the Father's will through the Word Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit indwelling the spirit of our quickened and regenerated spirit. I love you God so much, you are so amazing! :shocked: :eek:
Watchman Nee is always ahead of me in my thoughts, for he wrote as follows:
The Way of the Lord (http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/Christianity.htm)
Spiritual Authority, CFP, 47-48, Watchman Nee
“As regards to the Godhead, the Son and the Father are co-equal; but His being the Lord is rewarded Him by God. The Lord Jesus Christ was made Lord only after He emptied Himself. His deity derives from who He is, for His being God is His inherent nature. His being Lord, though, issues out of what He has done. He was exalted and rewarded by God to be the Lord only after He forsook His glory and maintained the perfect role of obedience. As regards Himself, He is God; as regards reward, He is Lord. His Lordship did not exist originally in the Godhead.
The passage in Philippians 2 is most difficult to explain, for it is most controversial besides being most holy. Let's remove our shoes and stand on holy ground as we review the Scripture. It seems as though at the beginning a council was held within the Godhead. God conceived a plan to create the universe. In that plan the Godhead agreed to have authority represented by the Father. But authority cannot exist alone. God must therefore find obedience in the universe. Two living beings were to be created: angels (spirits) and men (living souls). According to His foreknowledge God foresaw the rebellion of the angels and the fall of men; hence He was unable to establish His authority in angels or in the Adamic race. Consequently, within the Godhead perfect accord was reached that authority would be reached by the obedience of the Son. From this come the distinctive operations of God the Father and God the Son. One day God the Son emptied himself, and being born in the likeness of men. He became the symbol of obedience. Inasmuch as rebellion came from the created beings, so obedience must now be established in the created being. Man sinned and rebelled; therefore the authority of God must be erected on man’s obedience. This explains why the Lord came to the world and was made as one of the created men”.
Phl 2:5 Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Phl 2:6 who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,
Phl 2:7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men;
Phl 2:8 and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient [even] unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
Phl 2:9 Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name;
Phl 2:10 that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of [things] in heaven and [things] on earth and [things] under the earth,
Phl 2:11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.