May 02, 2007> 10:22 AM
wormholes and stuff > 1
I actually think about things like this often enough. Every time I get into any kind of discussion that includes the concept of heaven or hell or purgatory or those who have physically died, I think in this direction. We have ideas about what these things mean and how they "work." And honestly, the Bible doesn't really give us tons to work with on the heaven front, on the other side front at all. It hints here and there and speaks in earth-rooted analogies in order to help us somehow picture things. Mostly though, Scripture focuses on our life here and how God's Life is invading and interacting with that life. It's all connected for sure, but you know. So, a couple of things... Well, first let me say these are my theological rumblings, philosophical connections I've made - ways of understanding these things and explaining them, educated by Scripture, Tradition and reason. Asking me "where is that in the Bible?" is going to get you next to nowhere here. A 100 places and no place. Implicit more than explicit. It doesn't have to be in there to be True or to help us understand these things. Etc. Etc. So, a couple of things, like I said...
Heaven: a city, a place, a town, a country, on clouds, with walls, streets of gold (actual gold, the element), gates, rivers, a bunch of mansions, houses, God on his throne (with a long white beard of course), a big worship service, lots of harp music --- I think you get my drift here. So, is that it? Is that what this "heaven" is? Well, that's what the Bible says. OK, the Bible says that Jesus was going to "tear down the temple and rebuild it in 3 days" too, but you know, He was talking about Himself, not the physical temple in Jerusalem.
I look at heaven more in this way - as a dimension of reality, where (where, see?) GOD exists in undiluted fullness. That's all, even in itself, very complicated and I'm not trying to fully explain something like that. It could be understood very much like a parallel universe of sorts, if you want to use those terms. And I'm not married to those terms as if they are infallible and others can't be used. I just think, in this place and at this time, these can be fairly helpful terms to use in talking about these very mysterious and difficult to understand things. So, often when talking about it, I use the phrase "heavenly dimension" instead of just "heaven" as if it's a town down the road. As I understand it, heaven is as much right next to me as air. I'm just not fully capable of seeing, experiencing or interacting with that dimension. Notice I said "fully capable." There's where things get interesting.
There's a disconnection between earth and heaven which, I believe, is unnatural and unintended. Just as an example, we see this story of the Garden in Genesis in which Adam and God were freely conversing and interacting with apparently no real barriers. Once again, no great details are gotten into there, so bear with me. Something changed significantly after that whole Fall mess. God was sort of "over there" and we were/are "over here." That's not how it was created to be. That separation is an unfortunate result of the rupture that took place on a deep metaphysical level when we (mankind) looked elsewhere for some kind of validation in our identity. So, there's a dimensional divide that now exists between the "place" where God and His Life exists without measure and this "place" here where we definitely don't fully experience God's Life. Things here kind of suck, in technical terms, because of that. Death entered in.
I said it gets interesting. Well, it does. We're integrally a part of all this wild sounding business. After many many years of dealing with us from the other side of the divide (for His own reasons - leading to something - God is very smart) He then split the divide wide open. That curtain which was torn in two in the temple sanctuary wasn't only about the Law. It was much deeper than that. The dimensional curtain has been breeched by the Incarnation - by the Life of God Himself coming into union with man - and a new Adam was born. Time to get this thing reconnected. Time to set in motion the ultimate dissolution of the heaven/earth barrier. That's what's happening. We tend sometimes to look at this whole Christian "thing" in far too intellectual terms. What I mean there is that we have a system set out in our minds - God speaks, demands, I listen and act, God says "good job" and then rewards. This is very limited and so far from what is actually happening underneath. Through Jesus, a wormhole, if you will, was opened up through which the Life and Essence of God could pour through into the earth, and renew it, revive it, re-fill it. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus, in this way of speaking about it, IS the wormhole. And guess who is now integrated into the Life and Essence of Jesus the God-Man? Guess who shares in the great ministry as Conduit of God's Life to the earth? That would be you and me, all those who belong to Christ in His Church. That's how much of a big deal this whole thing is, we are, in the whole economy of salvation.
See, this is why I've been backed up in the blogging thing lately. When I get started trying to hash out something like that on here it gets way too long way too fast. So, "a couple of things" wasn't even the couple of three points I was going to get into - just one with many sub-points, oh well. I know that was a chunk for a blog post but hopefully it makes some kind of helpful sense to somebody. I said > 1 up there so I suppose that means I'm supposed to have at least a part 2 that goes into some more detail about things. I'll do it. Likely that will be how, in talking about things like this, how salvation works and acts in and through us, etc. It's actually kind of exciting stuff. That's all for today though. Pax vobiscum.
May 02, 2007
> 10:22 AM
038
