Chapter 2 of The Olive Tree – Towards a Messianic Christian Systematic Theology.
Messianic Theology has as its core principle the doctrine of the Messiah. The OT Saints looked forward to the Messiah. New Testament believers looked both forward and backward, looking backward to the Cross and forward to the Second Coming. The Messiah fulfills all of the Covenants and every dispensation.
All of God’s covenants with man are fulfilled in the Messiah. The Messiah is the Seed of the Woman, The Ark of Baptism, The Son of Abraham, The Prophet Like Unto Moses, and the Son of David. The Messiah is the center of both the dispensations of law and grace, with the law looking prophetically forward to the Messiah and grace looking historically backward and prophetically forward to the Messiah.
Before we go into the nuts and bolts on how God has been working through each of the Covenants and Dispensations to establish the Messiah, we need to establish some foundational truths about Christianity as a world-view. We need to ask questions such as “Who is God?,” “What is the nature of God’s Word?,” “What is the nature of morality,” “What is Creation?,” “Who is man?.” “What is the nature of revelation?,” “Why is the Messiah so important?,” and “What is the meta-narrative of Scripture?”
This volume will not give exhaustive answers to these questions, but will be limited to giving an outline of these answers sufficient to establish a framework for a Biblical worldview from which we can build a systematic theology.
Who is God?
This is an important question because differing religions offer differing conceptions of deity. In many religions the nature of god evolves and suffers change. In some religions gods can die. In others the godhead is simply a divine cosmic principle that is instantiated in material things. In some religions god is non-personal, others impersonal, meaning that while he has the faculties of person-hood, he simply doesn’t care about his creation.
The answer to the question “Who is God” determines the kind of world-view that is being affirmed. The Bible is not silent concerning who God is.
The Bible presents God in both testaments as self-existent. This simply means He needs no Creator or substrate to exist. The sacred name YHWH means the self-existent one.
Exo 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.’ “
In the New Testament, the book of John, this is laid out even more explicitly. The reference to “I AM” was no doubt a reference to Exodus 3:14. The intentional in-congruence of tense between the past existence of Abraham and the placement of the present tense of Jesus existence prior to Abraham signals that Jesus Christ has an eternally existent and unchanging Divine Nature.
John 8:58 Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, beforeAbraham was, I AM.”
Hebrews puts this even more bluntly…
Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
The self-existent nature of God is the foundation for all of the “omni” attributes of God. The self-existence of God means that He is not a being living in a larger realty, but that He is existence itself.
What is the nature of God’s Word?
Very soon in the Biblical narrative we become aware that God speaks. He can think, speak, and write in language. God spoke the creation into existence
Gen 1:1-3 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (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. (3) Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
John makes this clearer, showing that everything that was made, was made through God speaking it forth. This clearly sets forth God as omnipotent, or all powerful. God is all powerful because no power exists outside of God.
Joh 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2) He was in the beginning with God. (3) All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
Hebrews tells us that God upholds all things by that same word
Heb 1:1-3 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, (2) has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; (3) who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
The foundational role of the word of God in creation not only has implications concerning God’s power but also of His mind. If language is the substrate of reality, then reality is constrained by its parameters. Language implies the law of non-contradiction, as that is necessary for the ability to defined distinct meanings to words, sentences, etc. The ability to encode meaning into symbols that obey specified rules of grammar for interpretation is the substrate for specialized use of language in creating systems of logic and mathematics. We get the English word “logic” from the Greek Logos, which is translated Word in John 1.
God is both infinite in knowledge and infallible as absolute truth. As God is the self-existent ground of all reality, He would not merely contain truth, but would be truth – and not a truth relative to some context but absolute truth capable for grounding all particular truths.
Joh 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Heb 6:17-18 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, (18) that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
As absolute truth, God is the source of all knowledge that exists. He is all-knowing, as there is no knowledge in existence that God does not know.
Rom 11:33-36 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! (34) “FOR WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD? OR WHO HAS BECOME HIS COUNSELOR?” (35) “OR WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM AND IT SHALL BE REPAID TO HIM?” (36) For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
What is the Nature of Morality?
As absolute truth. God is the ground of morality or righteousness. God’s moral notions would be necessarily true. Scripture repeatedly present God as holy – separate from sin. It is more accurate to say that God is righteousness than to say that he is righteousness.
To understand how God is righteousness, it will behoove us to understand what is meant by morality. When we think of moral laws, we understand law in this context differently than we would in science. The law against murder does not make murder impossible, but provides a basis to condemn murder when it happens. Morality tells us what we ought to do rather than what we are able to do. Morality is an “ought” category rather than an “is” category.
While we think of morals as ought framed in laws, our moral intuitions go deeper than simply anthropology. There are many things that are legal but roundly considered immoral. Morality is not reducible to law or anthropology but has a transcendent nature.
Two seemingly opposite things are at work that under gird morality. One is that it must be of a personal nature, as it requires a consciousness to frame its “ought-ness.” The other is that it requires an ontologically transcendent ground to provide objective force. Morality is not simply anthropology or politics or some arbitrary social construction in the same vein as the guy who believes his gender is a head of lettuce.
Integration of these seeming opposites is a challenge for many world-views. In the Greco-Roman world there were religions with both polytheistic and Pan-en-theistic world views. These world-views had the commonality of lacking an Infinite and Personal God who could provide both the Personal ground and ontological transcendence. The Divine nature was either wholly other and not involved in the world or it was finite agents living in the world and suffering the effects of time and evolution. It was against this background that Euthyphro posed a moral dilemma:
Is something pious because it is loved by the gods, or is it loved by the gods because it is pious.
Euthyphro saw a tension that could not be resolved within the thought systems available to the Greeks. The Pantheon was composed of finite beings who were simply more powerful than ordinary men, analogous to fictional entities today such as the Justice league or the Avengers. Zeus, for example, had sexual needs that he could not only pursue with earthly women but could produce children by those unions. Zeus was no god in any sense recognizable in a Judeo-Christian framework. Gnostic and Hermetic frameworks posited a god in the world who was subject to the elements of the world and evolved to actualize personality through the actions of men who had the divine spark. None of these could grab the dilemma by both horns. In these systems the “God above All” is impersonal, which is why a god in the world had to emanate and evolve to actualize personality in the stead of the god above all.
What none of these could do, the Judeo-Christian God could – and did. As absolute truth, His moral notions are objective truth. As an Infinite-Personal God, he could have personal and abstract moral notions.His moral character is righteousness.
1Co 1:30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—
The idea that God grabs both horns of Euthyphro’s dilemma is not merely philosophical speculation, but is supported by Scripture. Scripture both presents both the idea that Gods loves righteousness because it is righteous and righteousness being righteous because it is loved by God.
These Scriptures present God as loving righteousness because it is righteousness (Objective Ground). Righteousness is the foundation of his rule. God’s rule is based on his authority. His moral notions are objective truth and foundational to all of His laws and judgments. Even when God acts in ways that seem to violate His own rules, it is rooted in the moral notions that underlie His rule.
Psalm 89:14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and truth go before Your face.
Psalm 97:2 Clouds and darkness surround Him; Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.
Psalm 119:142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your law is truth.
As ruler of the universe, He will kill evil doers because He upholds the sanctity of human life. Even in situations where God seems to do morally problematic things such as command the death of “innocent” people, the endgame is upholding the sanctity of human life. We see this most clearly in the Crucifixion of Christ. Jesus Christ was murdered by the state, and this was done ultimately by the command of his Father, to which He submitted Himself by saying “Thy will, not mine, be done!!!” Christ’s death became the means through which the world was saved. An act which could be seen on the surface as contradictory to the sanctity of human life was actually the greatest defense of human life in the history of the world.
2 Cor 5:20-21 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. (21) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
The following Scriptures present righteousness as righteousness because god loves it. God’s moral notions are expressions of his Love, and are absolute truth because He is absolute truth
Psalm 45:7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.
Psalm 11:7 For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright.
Psalm 119:142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your law is truth.
What is Creation?
While we begin with a self-existent God, He chose to Create. He created all created things ex nihilo by speaking his word, and He did so in a rationally ordered way. John 1 simply presents the universe as existing because God has spoken it into existence.
John 1:1-3, 14-17 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2) He was in the beginning with God. (3) All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made… …(14) And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (15) John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ ” (16) And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. (17) For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
In Proverbs wisdom is personified as a woman. Except for the gender, it is a perfect description of Christ as the Living Word of God. Like Christ, she creates an fashions that which is created.
Pro 8:12-30 “I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, And find out knowledge and discretion… …(22) “The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. (23) I have been established from everlasting, From the beginning, before there was ever an earth. (24) When there were no depths I was brought forth, When there were no fountains abounding with water. (25) Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills, I was brought forth; (26) While as yet He had not made the earth or the fields, Or the primal dust of the world. (27) When He prepared the heavens, I was there, When He drew a circle on the face of the deep, (28) When He established the clouds above, When He strengthened the fountains of the deep, (29) When He assigned to the sea its limit, So that the waters would not transgress His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth, (30) Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; And I was daily His delight, Rejoicing always before Him,
When God spoke the universe into existence, He spoke ex nihilo. He used only His Words. The objects that He created were not made out of preexisting material. The Judeo-Christian worldview has one feature that exists in no other religion: Reality has conceptual foundations rather than material foundations. Plato’s craftsmen, for example, fashioned the world out of preexisting material. The earliest Greek gods evolved out of a primordial substance whose external existence was presupposed. This substance is not eternal in the same sense as the Judeo-Christian God, but suffers from time and evolution. In my book The Conceptual God I give a detailed conceptualist account of Creation. Here I will quote from Hebrews 11 to show that the substrate of material reality is not its substance but proprieties and relations.
Heb 11:3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
The Greek word for visible, Phainos, literally means “to show.” It carries the idea of something formerly being visible and then shining into visibility. This verse is in direct contrast to Platonism, which argued that the properties of particular things that universal Platonic forms that simply show themselves when a particular thing is seen. This world is framed by the word of God which provides a conceptual description of material reality and is the substrate for that reality rather than hidden material forms. Material reality emerges from the properties, methods, and relations prescribed in God’s Word rather than physical substance.
Hebrews 11:3 uses the word Aion for worlds rather than kosmos. Aion literally means age, with age referring holistically to both the specific period of time itself and the objects and events associated with that time. In the context of Hebrews 11, aion would be universal – as in all of space and time. Hebrews 11: refers to God framing a specific and well ordered space-time. Creation involves an eternal decree that sets up our history
Psalm 33 not only presents God as creating by speaking the world into existence, but through that word directing the history of the world. God did not create a static universe but a space-time in which historical events happen.
Psalm 33:9-11 For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. (10) The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. (11) The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans of His heart to all generations.
The New Testament gives extensive details concerning God’s eternal decree in several places. Ephesians 1 declares that God has an eternal decree. The phrase “in Him” in verse 5 hints at foreknowledge of our choices being logically prior to our election.
Eph 1:4-12 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, (5) having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,… …(10) that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. (11) In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, (12) that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
Verse 10 speaks of the “the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ,” suggesting detailed timing of God’s decree. In verse 11, we are instructed that God “works all things according to the counsel of His will,” but what is that. It is a reference to divine foreknowledge. Romans 8 gives a detailed account of foreknowledge
Rom 8:26-30 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. (27) Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. (28) And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. (29) For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. (30) Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Romans 8:28-29 Presents God’s foreknowledge as logically prior to His eternal decree of election. How could God foreknow us before the beginning Creation when Only He existed. What He was knowing here could only be His conception of possible worlds, as no actual world yet existed. What is the scope of these possible worlds. As God is infinite, there is no limit, but would include every feasible world that could be conceived – including worlds where there existed creations with morally significant free will. His conception of possible worlds included not only the worlds, but every attribute and relation that existed in those worlds – including every feasible space-time history. When God gave His eternal decree, it instantiated one particular space-time to become actual. He created a space-time where there would be beings created in His image and bearing free-will – beings created with a very special purpose.
One implication of God’s infinity and human free will is that God has free will. God does not create of necessity but freely. He could have chosen NOT to create, and creation is conceptually represented in an asymmetric relationship where the creation depends on God but God does not depend on the creation. This is a feature of conceptualist accounts of creation that cannot exist in materialist accounts. In a materialist account of causality, the effect emerges from its cause bearing attribute and methods it acquired from its cause. These properties are physically embedded in the cause. Creation through physical causality means that the First Cause created of necessity because the will to create was embedded into the cause. God created conceptually rather than materially (See The Conceptual God for more information).
There is one final thought concerning God’s eternal decree in which we should return to Hebrews 11:3. Where it says “…the worlds were framed by the word of God,” the wors translated “word” is “Rhema” rather than “Logos.” Whereas Logos refer to the whole counsel of god and is identified as God, Rhema would be a particular utterance and would be set apart from the Logos which birthed it. The Judeo-Christian conception of creation posits an ontologically distinct existence of the Creation (and hence contingent) rather than the Eastern concept of creation being merely a thought or dream in the mind of god. In quantum mechanical terms, one could think of it as God conducting a distinct classical measurement over the whole of the wave-function to distinguish the particular and actual space-time in which we now live.
The Genesis account show clearly that the universe was spoken into existence in an ontologically distinct way. In Genesis we see that particular words were directed to the universe as an ontologically distinct entity, resulting in objects coming into existence or those objects behaviors and properties being defined in some way. There are seven “and God said” events, and in each of them the universe obeys God without God becoming physically entangled in the world.
Gen 1:3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
Gen 1:6 Then God said, “Let there be a firmament…”
Gen 1:9 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.
Gen 1:11 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass,…and it was so.
Gen 1:14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens…;
Gen 1:20 Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures…”
Gen 1:24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind…and it was so.
Who is man?
The origin story of humanity is introduced very early in Scripture. The Genesis account show clearly that the universe was spoken into existence in an ontologically distinct entity, resulting in objects coming into existence or those objects behaviors and properties being defined in some way. In each of these seven “and God said” events, the universe obeys God without God becoming physically entangled in the world.
In verse 26, we begin to see something different happen. For the first time in this conceptual creation of the world, God becomes physically entangled in creation when He created humanity.
Gen 1:26-27 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (27) So God created man in His own image; In the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Verse 26 begins with God giving particular utterance. The Creation of Man is not the bringing forth of gods, but special creatures. Humanity would end up in the image, or similar to, God rather than possessing the same substance. We see here that God Himself is doing the work of creation rather than the creation obeying his command and bringing forth according to the Divine command. Genesis 2: 7 gives us additional information that shows that god became directly involved in the Creation of man on a physical level.
Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
God entered directly into entanglement with the body of man to produce a living being. In quantum mechanical terms, the creation of man is a correct description of quantum entanglement. When two particles enter into quantum entanglement with each other, what happens with one is instantly manifested in the other, regardless of distance. Quantum entanglement results in perfect mirroring, as each particle has the opposite charge and has a perpendicular spin to the other. Humanity was created to be a creature that mirrors God.
This condition of humanity being a creature that mirrors God has multiple profound consequences. The condition of being such a mirror means we have categories in our mind that mirror God’s. This correspondence, coupled with the Biblical teaching that God created the universe in a rationally order way means we have just cause to believe we can investigate the external world in a scientific fashion and discover truth about the world. The correspondence of spiritual and ethical categories allows humanity to interact with God in ways that the rest of creation simply cannot.
The fact that humanity emerged as a result of God interacting with creation rather than creation obeying a divine creative command means that humanity is not totally defined by the creation. While we are constrained in the use of our bodies by the laws governing material creation, the spiritual part of man has its origins outside the creation. This is the foundation of free will and political liberty, as we are not deterministic beings. We have free will and as such, political system based on ordered liberty are the optimal polity for humanity.
The condition of humanity as a creature that mirrors God means that humanity can interact in any medium where content is encoded by one to be decoded by another. God can encode information within the wave- function that humanity can decide when people conduct a classical measurement on the wave function. This ability to interact robustly with quantum systems is how the universe can be defined in terms of information but yield the objects and behaviors of real physical experiences when we conduct a classical measurement by observing the universe.
What is the nature of revelation?
The ability of God to exchange information with man via quantum mechanics is awesome. God communicates information about the world, and we can decode it to yield our sensory experience. This same process enables the exchange of propositional communications. God can encode in any language that humanity can decode. The implication of this is that God is not communicating esoterically to humanity in ways that only an enlightened elite can understand, but in plain language that can be interpreted using a grammatical-historical hermeneutic – and has done so by inspiring the production of the Bible.
Humanity can also encode information to be decoded by God. This is done when we praise Him and pray to Him. This allows for a complete communications loop and for communion between God and humanity. There were no errors within the original creation, as shown by multiple declarations that the creation was good (Gen 1:4,12, 18, 21, 25). God Himself is infallible, and as such incapable of sin, evil, or mistakes. This resulted in the creation of humanity as the crowning achievement of a creation that is described in Gen 1:31 as “very good.”
The creation of humanity turned a good creation into a very good creation. While the creation had harmony with God, only humanity had communion with God.The initial communion between God and man was an inerrant communion involving inerrant communication. It was this communion that gave Adam multiple insights in the garden that he could not have had through experience alone.
We read in Genesis 2 that Adam was able to name every animal, identify what is a woman, and discern the nature of marriage. Adam even knew that a man was supposed to leave his father and mother to cleave to his wife. How could Adam have even understood the concept of ‘father’ and ‘mother’ when he was the very first human. It was through communion with God that Adam had inerrant knowledge of these things.
Gen 2:19-24 Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. (20) So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him…
Gen 2:19-24 …(21) And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. (22) Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. (23) And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” (24) Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
This communion, while inerrant, was not infallible. While God cannot fail, material reality can suffer corruption. Additionally God gave humanity free will that could be used to either commune with Him or separate from Him. As God has freewill, communion from genuine mirroring by a creature would require free will.
Humanity did not remain in this undefiled, inerrant communion. Adam and Eve both entered into rebellions against God, both defiling and attempting introduce error into the communion. Because God is infallible, He is incapable of error. Communion with God was broken, causing dysfunction in how humanity functioned as an image of God. The mirror was cracked.
The cracking of the human mirror has produced significant consequences. The mirror still has the categories that existed in God, but they do not function well. The cracks produce a divided and incoherent image. Humanity is prone to factual, logical, and moral error. The separation from God set up the subject-object problem which asks how can we know what is “out there?”
Genesis 3 tells the story of the fall of humanity. Satan, in the form of a serpent, came to the garden to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Hebrew word for know, yâda‛(יָדַע), can mean entanglement. This same word is used to refer to Adam having sexual intercourse with Eve in Genesis 4:1. Genesis 3:1 records Satan opening lines as he seduces Eve to sin.
Gen 3:1-8 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” (2) And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; (3) but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die…’ “
Satan is now promising entanglement with good and evil apart from God, promising them godhood. This amounts to not less than a rejection of God as the foundation and reference frame of righteousness. Entanglement with the fruit of this tree means disentanglement from God
Gen 3:1-8…(4) Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. (5) For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (6) So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. (7) Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. (8) And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
When they ate, their perception was transformed. They realized they were naked. What happened here? The opening of their eyes transformed how they parse the wave-function. Before this they were still naked, but their communion with God covered their nakedness. The shekinah glory of God covered them so that the shame of their nakedness did not appear. Because they were now separated from God, that glory no longer covered them. Nothing was now covering them because their new entanglement could not do that. Earlier I had written about the inadequacy of moral Platonism or any other theory of morality that posits its existence as a concrete object. Concrete moral objects are canceled out by the concrete existence of their violations. Direct entanglement with good and evil apart from God’s mediation not only involved rejection of God as the author of morality but entanglement with some one else’s morality. Humanity became entangled with Satan.
Disentanglement from God and entanglement with Satan produced profound consequences to creation, as it was defiled by sin. Death entered a creation.
Gen 3:16-19 To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” (17) Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. (18) Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. (19) In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”
God’s answer is to send the Messiah to redeem humanity. Jesus Christ is the Messiah, who came as the Last Adam to bring humanity back into communion with God.
Col 1:19-22 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, (20) and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. (21) And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled (22) in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—
Why is the Messiah so important?
The Messiah is critically important because only He can restore inerrant communion with God. Jesus Christ is the Last Adam. As He was immaculately conceived through God’s power rather than natural processes, he was not born of Adam’s corrupted nature. His paternal DNA was created ex nihilo as God Himself became entangled with the maternal DNA in a miraculous event that bypassed the normal mode of sexual reproduction. Mary’s DNA became transformed into a perfect mirror due to exposure to the Shekinah glory of God. The shining of this glory resulted in not only a particular word, but the full Logos of God instantiating paternal DNS ex nihilo. This resulted in Jesus Christ having inerrant communion with God from the moment of conception.
The state of Christ having inerrant communion with God is foundational to everything. Christ’s inerrant communion with God is the very thing that allows us to be reconciled to God. Christ’s inerrant communion with God is also the thing that allows for the restoration of knowledge.
Approaching God’s Inerrant Word
Because Christ has inerrant communion with God, He speaks inerrantly. This was all made possible through the Lord shining his shekinah glory in the material world, which transforms the maternal DNA as long as it is in the presence of this glory, and created the paternal DNA that is permanently entangled in the shekinah glory of God.
This ability to transform the material world in general – and the physical senses in particular, allows for the circle of inerrancy to widen. This was why it was critical for New Testament apostles of Christ and Old Testament prophets to have vision where they receive the word of the Lord while having a vision of the shekinah glory of God (Numbers 12:6-8; Isaiah 6:1-13; Ez 1:1-2:10; Dan 10:1-21; Matthew 17:1-8; Acts 1:21-26; Acts 22:6-11; 1 Cor 15:1-10; 2 Corinthians 3:1-18; Gal 1:11-24; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Rev 1:9-20).
Because of the transformative power of the shekinah glory of God, it is not required that the one approaching it be infallible, but simply that the path by which they approach it be effective at accessing it. There is much confusions here ranging from the Catholic doctrine of the immaculate conception to Gnostic conceptions of the anointing to incorrect approaches to inerrrancy among modern Evangelicals.
The Catholic doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary is rooted in the idea that she must be an infallible vessel in order to conceive and house Christ while He was in utero. If this is true, then Mary’s mother would have to have had her own immaculate conception in order for Mary to be such a vessel. Mary’s mother’s mother would need to be immaculately conceived, etc, all the way to Eve. This would require Eve to be sinless, in contradiction to the Scripture that clearly induct her of sin. None of this was necessary, but only the shekinah glory of God. Catholic theologians have made analogies to the Old Testament Temple, but the Temple was not properly fit until the shekinah glory entered therein to set it apart as holy.
The apostles certainly did not infallibly approach Christ. The Twelve was a very dysfunctional group that involved Peter denying Him three times and Thomas saying he would only believe if he saw the scars. The most jacked-up approach of any apostle to the Lord would be Paul, who met Jesus on the way to murdering his followers. Once they saw the Lord in His shekinah glory, none of that mattered. It didn’t matter how wise, righteous, or anointed they were or not – it only mattered that they approached the place of glory. God did the rest.
As the apostles approached the inerrant Christ in His shekinah glory, they too became inerrant as long as they were exposed to the shekinah glory. They were not inerrant generally, but became so when under the glory cloud in an apostolic vision. It was this that allowed for inerrant Scriptures to be produced. The Apostles wrote the New Testament and bore infallible witness to the Old Testament.
2Pe 1:16-21 For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. (17) For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (18) And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. (19) And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; (20) knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, (21) for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
2Ti 3:16-17 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, (17) that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
For the rest of us who may not have seen the shekinah glory of God, the Holy Spirit leads us to the inerrant Christ by leading us to His inerrant Word. Those who were converted by the apostles approached Christ through the message He gave them. This message has been recorded in the Bible. Today we find the infallible words of Christ in the Bible.
When we come to the inerrant Christ through the Bible, we come the same way that the apostles come to Christ. As they could not infallibly approach Christ but only come to Him and trust Him to communicate inerrantly, we do the same. As we wrestle with the text, concerning both its authenticity and right interpretation, we do not seek to infallibly prove either inerrancy or interpretation, but to reliably point to Christ. If we reliably point to Christ, He will speak inerrantly and guide us to truth and away from error. Many Evangelical feel that they must prove inerrancy of Scripture, when in fact we only need to prove that the Bible reliably points to Christ. It is Christ that certifies and guarantees that the Bible is inerrant, and on His authority that we proclaim Biblical inerrancy.
Biblical inerrancy is not the end of restoring inerrant communion with God. The Holy Spirit seek to lead us into all truth (John 16:13). We have been given precious promises in Scripture that allow us to fully participate in communion with God.
2Pe 1:2-4 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, (3) as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, (4) by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
What is the meta-narrative of Scripture?
The meta-narrative of Scripture begins with God. First that He is an Infinite-Personal God who is absolute truth and the source/creator of everything else. The next chapter in this great story is that He created the universe through his Word and entangled Himself in creation to create humanity as creatures who would be a mirror image of Himself for the purpose of these creatures having communion with God.
Once human broke off that communion with God, the rest of the story would involve God acting in space-time history to restore that communion. The historical processes of restoring this communion would involve both restoring the individual and restoring human communities. It would involve both spiritual restoration and physical restoration. In this process two entities would emerge that would be called the people of God: Israel and the Church.
What is the relationship between Israel and the Church. Are they separate things (Classical Dispensationalism)? Was Israel temporarily the people of God until the Church came about (Historic Classical Covenantalism)? Is Israel an alias for the Church (Modern Classical Covenantalism)? Are Israel and the Church complimentary facets of the same people of God? It is the latter that is the view of this author and the focus of the remainder of this volume.