Sunday, October 10, 2010

Refractions

You know something like this would typically be called something like "reflections" But i'm not going to call it that for a couple reasons. One, because that's the name that Rob Reid wants to give to his first album that I was just working on a cover for, and if I took it I would likely be accused of some form of plagiarism.  Secondly, I feel like I am taking the thoughts of others and bending them slightly like refraction as opposed to completely reversing their direction as is implied by the term reflection. First of all, I would like to prepare you for a paradigm shift by allowing you to meditate on this picture for a moment.


I am hoping that this sufficiently disturbs everything you ever thought about Alcohol and church in preperation for a few thoughts on general theology. 
I recently was reading Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology for my Prologomina, Bibliology, Theology Proper class, (interpretation: I was reading people's understanding about God who have been thinking about Him for a lot longer than I have) and came across a concept that captured my attention, 
God is Omnipresent (existing at in all places at once) to which he tagged on a little comment that this also included all points in time... minor detail... Well at that point, I quickly had a deja-vu experience in which I was swept back into my physics class at Mat-Su community college in 2005 (I know that seems like a long time ago, but in case you are wondering, No, i'm not old). We were working through the formation of formula's for trajectories and such, (figuring out how things fall in style) and I suddenly realized that we were essentially using time as a 4th dimension along with XYZ! So now my world was all of the sudden seen in XYZ and t. I didn't just exist at a specific set of points in space, but also in time. (this concept came in handy when I later learned about how GPS units use all four dimensions to solve a trilateration equation which then in turn gives you those annoying directions from the little box thingy hanging on your windshield.) So now, here I am in my Theology class, reliving this experience except realizing that my God exists at ALL points in space and time at once. 

That however was just the beginning of my realizations because shortly thereafter I posted the simple phrase "is God omnichronological" (Is God existing at all points in time) on my facebook status and got some interesting thoughts to add to it. We had talked in class about how God has chosen to exist in time in order to act in our world and pull of small tasks that have to do with us humans such as redemption, but I didn't quite agree because after all, he was the creator of time and therefore had to exist outside of it as well right? Not just at all points in time? well that implies that God would be supra-chronological. (existing above and beyond time itself), but Ian graciously pointed out that God existed before time and therefore at least at one point was achronological (outside of time altogether).  
Then I sat back and thought about all these concepts:
omnichronological? yes
supra-chronological? yes
achronological? well yeah, that too. 
Wow, God is big...
And I'm just touching the surface...

4 comments:

  1. Oh, btw, I took that picture at the Greek festival in Portland last week.

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  2. I think I've seen this banner before...hilarious! :)

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  3. Ah, a window into my brother's mind. I may have to become a follower...

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  4. supra-omniachronological
    He also made time

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