Nope!
Submitted by Dirk Gently on November 07 1999 at 21:03:54
In reply to Am I too late? Submitted by F.O.D. on November 06 1999 at 15:59:51
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Hey, F.O.D.! I seem to recall that way back when I joined the discussion here, you mentioned you had "a thousand questions." This particular theme is one that I've spent some time thinking about in the past, so maybe you'll get a few answers outta me, after all. :^) Now at this point I can get real heretical ;) Jesus talks about his unity with the Father in the context of the unity of the disciples, "that all of them may be one". But then he also adds "may they also be one with us...I in them and you in me". Does this mean the Eastern religions have caught a grain of Truth? Is Heaven, that which we are waiting for, the union of God with man? Will "Trinity" become "Multinity"? I'm glad you asked! In my opinion (which I think is solidly Orthodox), the answers to your questions are "Yes," "Sorta," and "No." In my post on the Trinity, I mentioned that we are not water droplets, to be absorbed into the Divine. The apparent distinctions between persons are real, and not merely illusory. To that degree, the pantheist religious traditions do not agree with Christianity, but the West for its part has lost sight of the "fundamental interconnectedness of all things." Individualism is antithetical to Christianity. Or, as Simon and Garfunkel put it, "No man is an island." Neither the Western nor the Eastern extremes are correct, but they are not completely wrong, either. As for the union of God with man, that need not wait until "Heaven." One of the passages that blew my mind when I first thought about what I was reading is John 14:23. Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. Then later on, Christ promises to send the Holy Spirit to in-dwell the believer, which looks to me like the whole Three-in-One are/is present and accounted for! If we love him and keep his word. In spite of this union with God, there is and always will be a distinction between the Creator and the created. By grace have we been restored to the fellowship for which we were created. But we will never become the Creator. Even at the wedding feast of the Lamb, God will remain absolutely transcendent in his essence. As Evagrius of Pontus put it many, many years ago, "If God could be comprehended, he would not be God." This statement applies as much to the new age as it does to this present one. I've been thinking about posting a follow-up to my Trinity babblings. If I'm able to sit down for a few hours tomorrow evening, I may post something then. Dirk |