DEATH, CONSCIOUSNESS, AND TRINITARIAN PANENTHEISM

(Some rambling thoughts today.)
1.      I like the concept of panentheism.  That is, all that exists has its beingness within God, but with God still being distinct.  (This is different than pantheism in which all that exists is “God.”)

2.      I like the concept of the Trinity being like an eternal system, in which the “parts” exist only in relationship in the whole (systems theory).

a.      There are many analogies for trying to comprehend the incomprehensible relationship of the Trinity, but one I like most I find/infer in John 1:1 and Genesis 1.  (Background: in this oral culture, what one uttered was by one’s breath/spirit.  Therefore, words had a vitality to them such that they could bless or curse.)
The Father, is the one who utters the Word/Logos (Son) by his Spirit/Breath.
The Spirit is of the Father and expresses the Word/Son.
The Word, through the Spirit, is of the being of the Father and communicates the Father.

3.      Since God “speaks” by God’s Breath/Spirit all that exists into creation (Genesis 1), and through God’s Logos/Word all such things were made (John 1:3), a panentheistic way of looking at creation makes sense to me.  Moreover, that leads me to think about how creation as I know it seems to exist and develop in a similar “systems-theory” approach as the Trinity.

4.      It seems to me that consciousness of our being-ness and consciousness of God are aspects of our nature as emergent systems.  As I mentioned in a note in the previous post, an experience of the Presence of God could be a real neurological event initiated by God in whom we all exist (panentheism).

5.      This leads me to be comforted about the death of ones I love.  I believe I picked up in a writing by John Polkinghorne the idea that who we each were in our consciousness at death exists in the “memory” of God, awaiting to be restored at the resurrection of the dead.  I like that idea but would extend it to saying that who we are exists within the “memory” of God throughout our lives as well as after our physical deaths.  Thinking about how I and my loved ones exist in the “memory” of God, then, comforts me with the promise that I will continue to have relationship with them at the resurrection of the dead.

Application:  Thoughts like this fill me with wonder.

Praise you LORD!  I will extol you with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly.  Great are your works of the LORD; they are pondered by all who delight in them. (adaptation of Psalm 111:1 – 2).  Amen!

 

A DEVOTIONAL TESTIMONY

[A daughter subscribed me to a story site that sends a prompt to write about each week.  This week’s prompt was, “Have you ever had a "supernatural" experience, or an experience you can't explain?”  Here is my reply.  I hope it serves my few readers.]

Yes.  My “conversion” experience happened when, out of a general religious interest, I attended a Christian tent-revival meeting as an observer.  (I was in California at the time, hitch-hiking around the country.  I had dropped out of college in Michigan and dropped in on my grandparents.)  At the end of the service, there was an “altar call” to which I wanted to respond but was too proud.  Still, I stayed for what they called an “afterglow” time of worship.  I did not want to leave the place; something was too attractive.  During that “afterglow,” someone spoke what I would later learn was called a word of prophecy in the name of God.  However, although it was a real person speaking, I felt/heard what was like being enveloped in 3D sound and I was being told very personally that I was loved.  I responded, “Jesus, I am giving my life to you for you to put it back together.  I cannot.”  I felt – true to the expression – like I was walking on air.  When I got back to my grandmother’s place, she looked at me, smiled, and said that now I knew Jesus.

Reflections:
If a skeptic would challenge my experience and say that a person spoke, but my auditory experience was merely neurologically aberrant, a momentary psychotic experience, I would agree that was possible.  I could have been fooled by a physiological anomaly.  However, this event was just the beginning of my faith story.  That experience prompted me to seek God in a new way.  I began praying, worshipping, reading the Bible, meeting with Christians for fellowship and accountability to be obedient to God – even went on to be a Bible scholar.  My sense of relationship with God in Jesus grew and has only kept deepening for decades now.  Of course, I would be lying to say that being in right relationship with God resulted in a utopian life.  All the chaos of normal life is still present.  What is different is that Jesus has walked with me through that chaos.  The qualification I would add is that obedience to God dramatically reduces self-afflicted chaos!

In retrospect, I believe that my “supernatural” encounter happened the way it did because of my stubbornness.  Although I was seeking God in my own way, I believed that I needed rationally to understand everything first.  Jesus encountering me penetrated that barrier of the limits of human reason.#  At the same time, as I think about my Christian worldview, I find that while it transcends the rational, it is still rational and not at all irrational.*  As I now rationally assess my spiritual worldview, I see it not only as reasonable, but aesthetically beautiful, emotionally joyful, psychologically fulfilling, and above all pragmatically successful – walking with Jesus has made my life go better.

Application:
A repeated theme in my devotional reflections has been both the OT and NT commands and invitations to seek God – that God is there to know.  When I have had the opportunity to address sixth-grade students in church confirmation classes, some of whom do not want to be there and pay little attention, I tell them this:  There is only one thing to remember from all of the sessions, something they should keep tucked in their hearts.  Whenever they come to realize that they cannot run their own lives successfully, they can seek God.  Jesus is knocking and waiting for them to answer.

Thank you, Lord, that you are always there, always knocking, always ready to respond.  Amen.

# Going back to the admission that my experience may have been a momentary psychotic event, there is another way to look at it reasonably: How could God penetrate a person’s experiential perceptions without the event being a neurological anomaly?
*I have written previously about how this limitation of human reason to “prove” the divine realm that, therefore, necessitates seeking God relationally, is what “Pascal’s Wager” is about.