75 Chaos: Two References

Remember! When I refer to person in the Godhead in any blog, I am referring either to singular person (one-of-three) or to the collective person (three-in-one) of the Triune.

Dear tour companion, let’s look at two Biblical references to chaos concerning God’s interaction with chaos:

Genesis 1:2 The earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

“We are given here the consequences of God’s first creative act—the earth was without form (lacking the order it would have when God’s commands were complete) and darkness was on the face of the deep (a further description of the lack of complete order and beauty that would emerge within six days). Both statements reveal that creation reflected God’s normal process of bringing order out of chaos. The deep is the primeval ocean that underlies the Earth (see 7:11). Hovering connotes “sweeping” or “moving” rather than staying stationary. The Holy Spirit is the executive arm of the Trinity, so He was quite active as God spoke each word. An alternate view, which recommends the possibility of the initial Gen. 1:1 creation becoming disordered (possibly by reason of Lucifer’s fall), is not biblically objectionable, but neither is it verifiable. “ (NKJV, footnotes, p. 4)

Genesis 1:3 Then God said, “Let there be light” and there was light.

“God’s first divine command begins the process of transforming the chaos. God said will occur 10 times in ch.1 as the means of bringing about life and order.” (NKJV, footnotes, p. 4)

It is evident from either reference that chaos is an ingredient of God’s consciousness with which God must and does deal from Pre-Creation. It is evident from these references that scripture portrays God as master of chaos, interacting with and using chaos creatively.

It is further evident from the references that chaos in God’s consciousness presents both potential and handicap. Potential in that the person of God has-at-ready access to all that has can be. Handicap in the sense that the person of God must continually rule over the formidable beast of chaos in order to harness and direct its raw potential to His Will for His Good Purposes.

In other words, ways are needed to tame and orchestrate chaos to the designs and desires of the persons of the Godhead. And of course, such ways are there, though their proportions are difficult for mortals to grasp, their enormity far beyond our reach. Thus they are largely secret ways, ways charged with mystery.

But, fear not, gentle soul, some useful observations can be made: Such as—For God, Mind is a whip against chaos. Such as—For God, Will is a chair against this formidable beast.

To be continued . .

74 Chaos: Background

Remember! When I refer to person in the Godhead in any blog, I am referring either to singular person (one-of-three) or to the collective person (three-in-one) of the Triune.

We ended last blog with the question, Chaos, what’s with all that?

To talk about chaos, patient reader, we first need to see that humankind, until recently, viewed chaos entirely negatively. Chaos was seen by humankind as a disruptive, disorderly and distinctly unpleasant process. Encarata defines chaos as “a state of complete disorder and confusion.” In fact, since earliest Biblical times, only God has been seen as the master of chaos, specifically of the chaos seen as the earliest condition of the universe—“COSMOLOGY the unbounded space and formless matter supposed to have existed before the creation of the universe (Encarta)”. However, in the Twentieth Century, new theories of order, or the lack thereof, appeared— among them the theory of what Encarta calls “apparent disorder”.

Well, gentle reader from this brief background, I think you can see that the story of chaos all starts with plentiful unknowns. So plentiful are they, that if I now wrote calling chaos a mega-dynamic composed of unlimited fragments, that would not be a far-fetched statement, regardless of what view one takes on chaos (that’s if I should choose to say that). That idea has a certain clarity to commend it, actually. But instead, I will choose to call chaos God’s secrets, much simpler. Bet you thought I had forgotten about that phrase taken from the Title of last blog. But no, I haven’t. Timing is everything, dear tour companion, and waiting for answers sometimes makes the answers more dazzling, don’t you think? So, yes, God does keep secrets. And the secrets of chaos figure large among them.

Examples of God’s general secrets include, for one, how He does not let us know the day and hour of our death.

He does not let us know the day and hour of the final day of the end of times (Matthew 24:36: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.”).

God The Father gave Jesus a veil of forgetfulness for those years prior to His ministry, so that He would not unduly suffer for the goodness He was sent to deliver for us.

Scripture itself is exact in its content but not exhaustive, kind companion—not all is revealed, much remains secret from us.

Scripture calls God’s secrets His mysteries (Colossians 1:26: “the mystery which has been hidden for ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.”).

So how does chaos abide in God’s secrets?

Chaos resides in God’s secrets in a well, a keeping place of God’s secrets. God both draws from and supplies this well with knowledge, information and infinite possibilities, practicalities and realities. He governs and imposes order on chaos and all other particulars. God sees chaos positively, as a dynamic because that is the way that He orders it. And under His control, chaos is fashioned as He wills. In the Garden of the New Creation, God’s dominion over chaos is revealed. I do not think it difficult to see that He makes the Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil a containment symbol for His Chaos Management (Genesis 2:9, 16-17).

As scripture insists, in all things, God is sovereign.

To be continued . . .

73 Consciousness, Chaos and the Mind-- God’s Secrets

Remember! When I refer to person in the Godhead in any blog, I am referring either to singular person (one-of-three) or to the collective person (three-in-one) of the Triune.

We have to pause here and talk about something from that last picture, willing tour companion, or else we would miss a most extraordinary glimpse into an aspect of the person, the being of the Godhead, that showcases the supra-normal qualities of the Godhead and defies simple reductionist thinking—that something is chaos.

Furthermore, now seems a good point to explore the challenging subject of chaos in God’s consciousness because we have reached a culmination of what we have so far covered concerning His consciousness and a discussion of chaos can serve as a prelude to our coming areas of discovery.

We have tangentially brushed the topic of chaos in context with other subjects in previous blogs, but not to any great extent. It is a fascinating topic and one which we will entertain here in what I call an introductory manner. If you want to study chaos in depth, I am sure you could easily build a book from your research notes. And then build another one, and another one. So that’s up to you. But we’re not going to do that here.

Instead, by the power of Holy Spirit we are going to see an unsuspected side of chaos. We’re going to see chaos as it’s reasonable to suppose Almighty God sees it. If you are with me on this, then you might want to notice the Consciousness image I have included here from the last picture I just blogged, since most remarkable of all in that last picture is the appearance of the harmless looking little word chaos, used as a descriptive element of the consciousness of the Invisible Self of God.

Note well, gentle reader, the Godhead internalizes all possibilities, brings all possibilities under His/Their purview, even chaos.

1 Corinthians 15:28

Now when all things are made subject to Him (Christ Jesus), then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him (The Father) who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all (NKJV).

Awareness, Perception, Pure Goodness —we have dealt in depth with them all and all are constructs of the Purview (scope) of the Godhead. But now that leaves us with that tiny little word chaos. What’s with that? You might ask, conscientious reader.

What’s with that?

To be continued . . .

72 New Picture

Remember! When I refer to person in the Godhead in any blog, I am referring either to singular person (one-of-three) or to the collective person (three-in-one) of the Triune.

Same subject, just a different viewpoint, dear reader. I am trying to tinker with images and improve the quality. So maybe this one will be better.

I have found that drawing the same subject matter from different angles better suggests the multi-dimensionality of a subject than just more words. Plus the greater familiarity with the subject offered by a 2nd picture expands one's confidence that he/she might actually have understood the first drawing. What do you think?

To be continued . . .

71 More on the Map

Since these pictures of mine do not blog with great clarity, I decided to lift the words off the picture and submit them to you separately. You see, gentle reader, I found the chapter and verse references practically illegible even with a magnifying glass. And, well, I could not just leave matters like that. Exploring the references with the map graphic is the great experience of this journey of discovery, depicted by the map. But as an extra, I'm also going to go ahead and include the verses themselves. There's nothing like the power of the word to call a new year into focus.

Remember! When I refer to person in the Godhead in any blog, I am referring either to singular person (one-of-three) or to the collective person (three-in-one) of the Triune.

Diagram #1: Simple Model Elohim

A. Person: Invisible Self (IS)

Exodus 3:14 And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." and He said, "thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

Isaiah 44:6 "Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: 'I am the First and I am the last; Besides Me there is no God.'"

B. Person: (IS)--*Mind, **Products: Ideas, Designs, etc.

1 Corinthians 2:16 For "who has known the mind of the Lord that we may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

Romans 11:34 "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?"

Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.


Map

Consciousness

• Awareness
• Perception

Seat of Consciousness

• Mind*: Faculties, Operations, Products**

Seat of Mind

• Soul:

Proverbs 10:3 The Lord will not allow the righteous soul to famish. But He casts away the desire of the wicked.

Luke 21:19 By your patience, possess your souls.

Features of Soul

1. Mind
2. Emotion
3. Will
4. Life
5. Personality

Seat of Soul

• Spirit:

Genesis 1:2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Seat of Spirit

• Name:

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Colossians 1:15-17 He (Christ Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

Seat of Name

• Works:

Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,

To be continued . . .