Post
by Otherness » Wed Nov 17, 2021 2:02 pm
Dwight>>>I think we veered into that area of which none of us can say we truly know completely what is true or completely what is not true. Isn't this the area of ontology, or the very being of God Himself?<<<
Yes, this is precisely the issue and the very reason we must let the Holy Spirit, through the Scripture, do “our thinking for us” (Isaiah 55: 8-9), especially here where we are completely out of our element (John 3:12; 8 :23).
Paidion>>>As Thomas Aquinas truly affirmed: God cannot be defined.<<<
This Thomistic maxim needs to be qualified with the words “by man” because, of course, God can certainly define Himself, and reveal His identity as He chooses. As a matter of fact, we Christians believe (actually, know) that He has done this very thing in the life of Jesus.
Jesus has fleshed out for us God's revelation of Himself that He gave in Exodus 3. This One Who (alone) IS, this I AM (this “I”) has come to us as one of us. He took the world upon His shoulders, suffered it to crush Him into the ground (mixing the leaven of His life into our death), rose up and lifted it into heaven [for those who accept Him (Ephesians 2:6)]. Yes...He has certainly defined Himself for us : He is Love.
As far as ontology goes He made this very simple for us in His revelation of Himself as YHWH, that is, He simply is “I.” The confusion and complication comes in because the created “i” that “receives” this revelation spins it in its own corruption (self-centeredness) by measuring this “I” according to its intuitions about itself.
In other words, the “created “i” knows that it cannot possibly truly exist in a triune state, and it projects this unto “I.” The “created i” knows itself to be “a person” and in using this definition of person it “naturally” delimits His PERSON(hood).
YHWH IS! He is Who and What He IS because He is (says, decides) Who and WHAT He IS! This is the ontology of God. If (used only for discussion sake), in His Eternal Being, He “chooses” to exist as Father, Son, Holy Spirit then this is Who and What He IS. There really is no suitable word for “how” He does this, so “chooses” was chosen. It is that we, being “from below,” have no analog for the existential quality of a PERSON-al Being Who simply “IS.”
“I” didn't “become triune,” “I” didn't change from being not triune to being triune because IS just IS. This is the quality of the aseity of YHWH.
Why has He “chosen” to exist this way? For us...rather, for Himself (Colossians 1:16) that He might fulfill all the fullness of Himself, Who fills all in all (Ephesians 1:23). 'I” desired this that is the purpose and the fruit of His creative labor : the Body of Christ. We are His magnum opus, and the whole of creation, the entire cosmos, is merely a construct to bring it about. At the moment of His choosing it will disappear (at His word) as easily as He made it appear (at His word). What will remain is the created “i” who abides in Him because this is where He abides. This created “i” is more substantially real than the cosmos in which it was brought forth because it is the one created thing that exists in the image and likeness of “I.”
Love to you my friends.
