The world is not flat

Years ago, a noted prophetic voice told radio audiences that God had shown him in a revelatory experience that outer space was not empty as thought. Because God had created it, it had to have substance. People thought him crazy. Christians called him a heretic. A few years later, science proved him right.

Recently, this same prophetic voice (who accurately foretold the financial collapse in 2008, as well as dozens of other world events) stated that before our lifespan is over (speaking of most people), science will prove that time is a substance. It seems as though science is all but there.

Because time is created, it is not just a concept but a reality. Often we speak of it as if time is simply a law, like gravity, or if the present is all there is. But that can not be true.

Recently, a theology known as "open theism" has grown in popularity. Open theism is promoted because it rightly shows God to be relational, loving, and actively involved with us on a personal level. He chooses to be influenced by us. That's good stuff! Pursuing God for the love He is, is the best of motivations!

But part of its basic idea also has this: God is not beyond time, interacting with us personally within time, but instead God is inside of time - He is not in the future because the future does not yet exist, and He only knows what the future holds because He is infinitely capable of figuring things out. He has a big brain.

At first, this may not seem like a big deal. So what if the future isn't here yet, and the God we believed could see the future really can't?

The deal is this: If Christianity defines God as being inside of time, while time is not infinite but a substance, then our problematic conclusion becomes this: time is bigger than God.

However, God is beyond time - just as He is similarly unaffected by gravity.

Leaders of nations and the Church were confounded when the solar system was discovered to not revolve around the Earth. Church hierarchies were angry and their doctrine was humiliated. Their worldview assumptions had informed their interpretation of Scripture, and Galileo unwittingly proved their Earth-centric doctrine to be wrong (though it took them years to come to terms with it).

Just as the church erroneously interpreted Sacred Scripture as saying the Earth is the center of the universe - because the view confirmed their worldview - so the church is in danger of a similar misstep today. If we hold the doctrine of open theism, the legitimate scientific discovery of time as substance will either humiliate our doctrines because we made God smaller than time, a created substance - or science will again laugh, because our doctrines will seemingly prove to them that our God is not god, but another figment of religious imaginations, held within the greater universe. He becomes simply superhuman, devoid of the attributes of deity.

To use another illustration: We know the world is not flat. Yet, world leaders and explorers were confounded when the world was proved to be round. However, the round-Earth discovery forever changed world exploration, because explorers then knew their ships would not fall off the side of the ocean. It opened the horizon to them, literally. A correct view of the Uncreated God, who, while moving in time with us and filling our lives with His life, holds Him as beyond time. And just as the round-Earth discovery transformed world exploration, our knowledge of an infinite, all-present, beyond-limits God will transform our personal exploration of Him.

Notice, I did not call this correct view Calvinism. Nor did I say it was not Calvinism. I do not support any theological bent that would attempt to explain away our responsibility as God's children, as messengers, as ones who love those in the world. Or any "belief" system that says the gospel is not power to effect the human heart and history. A true understanding of God's nature, however partial ours is, will always expand our ability to follow Him, to fulfill responsibility and change history.

I am not attempting to resolve mystery, or remove the seeming tension between an infinite God and having the ability to influence Him. Instead, the nature of God could in fact make us more uncomfortable, the mystery could grow and feel even more unresolved. Maybe that's how He likes it.

The Invisible Series

The college I went to is unique. It is a Christian college, yet also held the privilege of being the most socio-economically and racially diverse private college in America, and probably still is. It is a given that different types of people have different perspectives on life. At school, some of these differences manifested in humorous ways - such as, a friend of mine who grew up in New York City was scared of forests.

Actually, you could say he feared rural areas because they had too many trees. Another friend of mine, this one from the Midwest, was afraid of New York subways. Both friends feared what they did not know - or more correctly, they feared what they knew from the movies!

All my city friend knew about rural areas probably concerned big bears in the woods and monsters eating rowboats. My Midwestern friend's knowledge of New York City was probably limited to Wall Street, Gangs of New York, and stories of Times Square from the 1970's.

We operate the same way when it comes to our perceptions of God. The world around us is the movie from which we have gleaned inadequate and wrong ideas of God and what His world is like. We may have mean-spirited authority figures (often this includes the religious) in our lives and in our past have heard messages teeming with unholy judgments. Thus, we think of God as being mean, critical and judgmental. 

Besides, God is supposedly bigger and more powerful than anything, so it only makes sense to us that He is the archetype of such behavior. After all - He created this whole thing, DIDN'T HE?! 

We are used to having secondary motives to our own actions, selfish slants in every opinion, and a hope that we can control our lives long enough to either have some happiness, more happiness or at least survive a bit longer. We also tend to form whatever we serve - our "god" -into our image.

The good news is my friends visiting the country have really no chance of being mauled by a bear while driving in upstate New York, my friend visiting Manhattan is more likely to get lost on the subway system than robbed, and we have made God the target of far more criticism than He has given us. In fact, He is not nearly as critical as we assume. His root is love; His anger is only momentary - and primarily concerned with that which separates us from knowing His love.

The problem isn't that The Invisible God doesn't make Himself clearly known; the problem lies in our constant inability to listen to Him, or - to put it another way - our pension to listen to everything but Him.

We know He (The Invisible) has sent an Invisible Man to lead us into the entirety of Truth, who teaches us about Himself (Jn 15:26) and is always present, everywhere. He Himself is an Invisible God that displays Himself through every seen and created thing. He made Himself touchable and transparent in an only son and now through many sons and daughters, as Invisible Diety placed in obvious frailty. Each of these are clear and indisputable displays - yet each requires us to stop, listen and press through the veneer of learning, piety, perception and pretense.

Faith does not rest on what is seen. Faith is the conviction of things not yet seen, and this gift of faith opens The Invisible to us. It causes The Invisible to be seen, to become tangible to us as conviction becomes substance. This happens because we realize that true faith is not just from Him, but of Him, and as it expands, He expands in us and what we thought was intangible has become tangible. This happens spiritually, emotionally, in our minds and physically. It happens to you as an individual, or it can happen corporately - in any setting.

Since the beginning, God has been clearly seen through what is made. It is only because we give ourselves over to twistings (perversions) of pure desire - feelings that are foreign to our eternal selves - that we do not see, hear, or comprehend that The Invisible really is The Visible and revealed.

As it stands now, we only know of Him as Invisible, so we might understand which of our gods is being represented. To us, lust seems visible and tangible, yet committed love is somehow distant and slippery. Entertainment is fun and in-the-moment, while true fulfillment is unattainable or a metaphor for something else. We feel shallow relationships help us for the moment, but as trust and intimacy start to open their reality, their tangible nature scares us - so we revert to what we've always known and our current life becomes what is bearable, what is normal, what is within reason. And what is visible and apparent to us in this state is not love, not hope, not reason, not anything like what we were made for. And nothing like what we've dreamed.

Thankfulness opens our eyes. Hope brings light into our squinting and dim perception. Faith focuses this enlightened perception, turning intangible concepts of shape and color into definite lines that can then be moved by love, and love is a man who you can only come to see as you allow Him to be visible in your heart.

In the The Invisible posts, we will explore the nature of The Unseen One, and how that which we call invisible becomes vicerally palpable, touchable, and seen. He becomes intuitively obvious as we press forward and into Him.

The first post you can find right below; it was written just a month prior to this post.

Rewritten and reposted December 2008

The Invisible Man

Hey, I need to let you know - there is an invisible man in the room with you right now. He's probably standing next to you, reading with you, and he can actually do anything to you he wants. In fact, he's probably getting ready to do just that.

Now, don't freak out - He's a good guy. Actually, you and he are very good friends, but you just seem to have a bit of amnesia and don't remember all that he's done for you. Or you may not remember it because you've fooled yourself into thinking all the things he helped you with, you did on your own - which isn't very nice.

You don't believe me? Watch for evidence - kind of like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator looking for a light bending, seemingly invisible, alien or Mr. Incredible catching his daughter during her vanishing act. Look for evidence. Maybe you'll see footprints on the carpet, feel a brush of wind from his movement, his hand on your shoulder. Or maybe you just got healed of something that's been afflicting you for years. Test it out and see (no, really, try it). It's not uncommon for people to get covered by a blanket of love and peace, feel warmth like the sun on their face or to get healed - when they're thinking about him. Sometimes people know he's around just because they feel better. This often happens without even noticing he came in the room, yet they'll suddenly stop feeling lonely or may start to enjoy the other people around them.

He's good at pointing out how much more full and rich our lives are in love than we often think, and he's also got a knack for helping you see the best in others, especially those you have a hard time dealing with. It's less common to see a footprint, but hey - it could happen. Did you test your body out yet?

Matter of fact, you probably don't think too much of him. He has all power and love hidden inside of him, though at times will be pretty modest - he only brags about one person, and has been known to clam up when people ignore him. Yet, every good and perfect thing that's happened in your life has happened because he was and is present, though you don't really believe it. Well, maybe you do a little, but not really. How do I know? If you did, you'd have already been talking to him before you read this blog post.

Spirit is here. And Spirit is there, present with you. The One who comes from the deepest parts of the Uncreated Life has walked with you through every moment of your life without ever abandoning you. The invisible, invincible, all-too-easily-passed-by perfection of Spirit who is the friend, confidant and completion you've always wanted surrounds you, now. Not convinced? I know.

But Spirit is. And Spirit is waiting for you.

The Heavens

slight sparkles slice in every hue
by the millions
across universes colored and not,
frescoes of sound unsung
waiting for chords to paint themselves from

unwrapped, unfitting an ear
and beyond the reach of any eye,
7 Eyes spin with spliced sparkles
threading Truth; their strengthened journey
producing thrones for tomorrow

4 creatures alive attend the Eyes,
their own in front, above, behind
below the crystal sea of unmined belief
often thought a frescoed ceiling
wanting to come out, out of impossibility

the Breath they breathe, winds, wheels and trees
all spin with summer leaves not crumpled, or weary
as fall lingers an aside - a fringe concept of worlds ago -
wondering from where faith appeared
"when the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on the earth?"

it is in the heavens

Job 26:13, 2 Chronicles 16:9, Ezekiel 1, Revelation 22:2, Luke 18:8, Hebrews 11:14

Walking With, part II

The Glory of God is going to shake us in every place we are connected to the ways of this present age. It is not until we connect ourselves and are fully connected to the thoughts of Heaven - in body, soul and spirit - that we become bridged to Heaven's reality.

This reality of walking with is not just found in knowing healing, or in knowing the restoration of God's purposes exist in Heaven and then causing a token of them to come forth on earth. It's not just found in believing that angels interact with us and interface with our physical existence moment-by-moment and cause unseen creative expressions to become tangible - such as causing a person's limbs to grow out, a beautiful painting to be painted, or gold and diamonds to appear. We do value and pray for all of these things to be here as they are on Heaven. However, gifts are a token; God is all. Belief is conviction; God is both the only provocation of believing conviction and the only fulfillment of its desire. What we see now are only His outer fringes.

This reality of walking with is first brought forth in the thoughts of the mind and intentions of the heart, finding expression through thinking the thoughts of God and holding His posture of heart. And it is first found in how we think toward Him and toward what He loves most - people.

I recently heard it said that John (the Beloved) had such a radically transformed view of the church after receiving the revelation of Jesus that we know as the book, Revelation. What he saw in Heaven (and we read in Revelation chapter 19) was burned in his eyes and he could no longer view people through his own conceptions, but instead saw what Heaven sees. We see dry bones, but God so loved the world and knew it would change if He sent His Son to believe in, that He sent His One, His only Son, so that anyone who believed in this Son would have an unending existence inside of Him. For God did not send His Son into our hearts that we would condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. This most basic precept of the Christian faith will be formed in God's people. He's going to let us be shaken until we grab ahold of this love which is the foundation for unshakeable truth. The only question is, "How hard will He have to shake us?"

To put it another way: "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me." (Luke 9:48) Those we think the least of - in wealth, in social status, even in holiness - are the very ones we need to receive the most.