AshvinP wrote: ↑Fri Apr 02, 2021 11:01 pm
This ties into what is being discussed on the "free will" thread about how we must view the human being and humanity in their evolutionary-developmental context. If we take a static framework for scripture, then none of it will really make sense as a whole. Why did God give Moses the commandments if He knew man could never live up to them and the incarnation of Christ would be necessary? These things only make sense in the developmental perspective.
Clearly there is a shift away from strict obedience and dichotomy of God-man from the OT to the NT.
That seems to me a very human way of interpreting what god is doing, and not what god says he is doing in the scripture. Yes there is a sense in which god needs to bring us along on a developmental journey, but if you look closely, from god’s perspective the plan is clear from the start. Like with any plan to build something, you start with a foundation. You also have some elements that are part of the construction process rather that what you are building, such as ramps and scaffolding.
Take the two central sacrifices in Genesis, both at a place called Salem (“Peace”) that would become Jeru-Salem (“City of Peace”). The first is the priest and king of Salem called Melchizadek. Untypically for the time, the sacrifice made by Melchizadek was not of animals, but of bread and wine. This story would have been well known to early christians, and would have been in their minds when they reflected on the last supper – where the “Prince of Peace” offered himself as a sacrifice, to become bread and wine to us.
After Melchizadek offered his sacrifice, he made a blessing on Abraham. Years later, god asked Abraham to return to Moria (the site of the future Temple in Jerusalem) to make another sacrifice. Abraham’s son Isaac travelled with him and when they arrived Abraham gave Isaac the wood for the sacrifice to carry to the place where it would take place. When Isaac asked where the lamb for the sacrifice was, Abraham answered “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering”. By itself the story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son makes no sense. It seems strange and cruel, despite the fact that God did not ask Abraham to go through with it. However this is clearly an incredibly important part of the story – this is when god made his “everlasting covenant” with Abraham through which “all nations will be blessed”. As the writer Scott Hahn points out, because the Hebrew text did not contain punctuation, another reading of Abrahams statement to Isaac could be written as “God will provide himself, the lamb, for a burnt offering”.
So from a human perspective, you have this very strange story where god starts something in human history by asking someone he trusts to sacrifice his son, even getting his son to carry the wood for his own sacrifice on his back. God stops him from actually doing the sacrifice, and then says;
By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore... through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
This is not some short term plan where god changes his mind later. You talk about Moses getting the commandments as if this was separate from the overall plan, but this is no different from Abraham’s (almost) sacrifice of Isaac, something a bit like an architect showing the plans on paper (or stone!) beforehand.
God later asks for these stone tablets with “the law” to be put into an ark, with manna (the bread from heaven), and this would be his ‘dwelling place on earth’. Again, by itself this seems like a strange thing, why would the creator of the universe want to live in a box within his creation?
Although the revelation of the overall plan is gradual, comprised of separate promises, each is a very clear and static foreshadowing of an element of gods own telos. Some of these are more obvious, such as the passover lamb, based on gods promise to Moses which freed his people from their slavery in Egypt. For the tablets of the law, god explains in Jeremiah;
I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people
Which is why we call Mary the Ark of the new covenant. She contained the ‘bread from heaven’, by which the laws would be written onto the hearts of those who choose to eat this bread sincerely (as an aside, god was clearly prepared to break the tablets of the law when it’s not sincere).
I could go on with many examples through the old testament to show that none of this was a trial run that had to be updated. It was all a very deliberate plan. It started as early as it could in human history, just before the crossing from pre-history into history, so that it could be recorded. It culminated at a place and time of the roman empire, of diligent and independent record keeping, where there was a context that could stand the test of time. You can learn a lot just by thinking of all the ways it could have been done differently. It clearly was important that the birth of the creator of it all was humble, not in a palace but in a stable in a backwater, but equally it seems deliberate that the death was open, visible, and witnessed by an independent and educated arm of a highly literate empire. If the culmination of the revealed plan had happened in the desert with only Moses and the Hebrews present, it would have been very different.
So I don’t see any trial run, followed by a change of plan because it didn’t work. I see a very deliberate plan from the start, to create a narrative that is open, clear and self evident as soon as you give god the benefit of the doubt.
And to be clear, I am
not claiming
theosis is a merging and smearing out of our unique individuality into undifferentiated whole. You quoted St. John of the Cross, but how about the Gospel of John (17)?
I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me
Amen, the culmination of the plan from the start