7.1 The Nature of Life
When we say, “God,” we mean only the Father, as Paul said. Yet this God is unknowable and unknown; in fact, a “transcendent God” means nothing created exists. More than that, although we know that God is, we also know that we never think of Him as “a long time ago.” God is all here now. And if God is all here now, then the sending forth of Son and Spirit is also all here now.
Time is an unfolding of the All Here Now into the ongoing experience of creation. All of God, then, is touching every moment of created time and found in every point of created space. And if we say, “creation,” we are implying the speaking of Word into the presence of Spirit.
We Are His Offspring. As the Father has life inside of Himself, so He has given to the Son to have life inside of Himself. – It is the Spirit who gives live. – He who has the Son, has the life. – This is age-unfolding life, to know the Father (John 5, 6, 17 & 1 John 5).
God, by His very nature and being, is a Procreator of Life. Let’s paraphrase Genesis 1:1-3 just a bit. – Inside of Christ Jesus, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without life or light, but the [female] Spirit of God was continuously hovering over it. Then God spoke His Word as [male] Seed, “Let there be light”; and there was light… And the earth brought forth life.
To put it simply, God is family, and we are His offspring, as Paul said in Acts.
Shape and Bring Forth. The words in Genesis 1 “create” and “make” do not mean an instantaneous one-time act, but rather, a shaping and forming, and even choosing. We know that this shaping and distinction is intricate down to molecules and DNA. Then, the words, “brought forth,” mean that the plant and animal life coming out from the earth was already written there in its formation.
The word “God” from Genesis 1:1 to 2:3, which is all one manuscript, is the plural, “Elohim.” We do not think of “three working together,” but rather, of One moving through two. In verse 25, then, “Let Us make,” the plural is implied in the context.
Likeness and Image. Then Elohim (plural) said, “Let Us make man (the word is ‘adam’) in Our image (male), according to Our likeness (female); let them have dominion…” So Elohim created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. I did not know that the Hebrew word for “likeness” was female, yet that fits as I have defined it, that we can receive God’s seed to bring forth His life because we are of His same kind.
Then, Genesis 2:4 is the start of a different manuscript, with the primary distinction being the change to YHWH Elohim instead of just Elohim. This distinction signifies nothing other than two different writers, using differing sets of words, that is, “two witnesses” of the creation account.
It Is Not Good. And YHWH Elohim formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul [being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite, emotion].
Then, immediately, God placed this man into a garden, an enclosed place of abundance and delight, a bounded ecosystem, so that Adam might “cultivate and guard it.” But Adam is a solitary individual, which God calls His first, “NOT-good.” And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper of his same kind.” Eve, then, was inside of Adam, the female inside the male, until God brought her out of Adam and gave her to him.
Two as One. Adam then prophesied, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman [the Church], because she was taken out of Man [Christ Jesus]. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” – Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth, subdue and have dominion [over the ecosystem].”
The nature and being of God, the nature of life, and the nature and being of mankind, is the same interweaving of that which is distinctly personal and individual with that which is social and together. In short, God-life is a family in a garden.
God Is Family. Consider – and they shall become one flesh. This line is clearly a double meaning. It means the union of two in intimate delight AND it means the one, specific child who comes out from that union. God is family; Christ is community. And heaven-earth, that is, Jerusalem, is a place filled with many distinct “gardens,” enclosed spaces of abundance and delight, each one containing an entire ecosystem that nurtures and sustains LIFE.
Yet God is also the “I Am,” that is, the distinct and personal. Christ also is “I Am,” distinct and personal, yet Christ is a many-membered body as well, and Christ completion is love one another – that is, reciprocity.
Individual and Together. ‘Individual’ and ‘Together’ are critical parts of God and man. Specifically, in the nature of God, the nature of life, and the nature of the human, there is a continual back and forth between the distinction and importance of the individual AND the togetherness and belonging that is best called ‘family.’ Yet, even though natural families are a distinct unit, especially as the children are growing up, isolated families are not God’s nature of life, but rather several families as a village together inside its own ecosystem.
The rise of the beast in our world today corresponds with the shattering of both family and village and the intrusion of one faraway authority connecting everything with nothing and everyone with no one.
Family versus Collectivism. Family and village on the one hand and collectivism on the other hand are as far apart as God and evil. Family and village honor the individual and give the individual a place of belonging and expression.
Collectivism snuffs out the individual primarily by breaking normal family/village ties and connecting each, in our day, to the world wide web. Consider the present crisis and the role of Amazon and Zoom. People are being pressed into connecting with everyone, yet forced to stay “six feet away” from actual people. And why “six feet,” for there is NO ‘scientific’ reason? Could it signify “six feet under,” that is, the rule of death?
The Importance of Definitions. Part of the victory of collectivism, as George Orwell put it, “a boot stomping on the human face,” is to alter the meaning of words, not with a different clear meaning, but rather with a confusion of meaning. The purpose of the confusion of ‘gender’ in our day, and the assigning of endless required pronouns, is the same as “a boot stomping on the human face.”
And so what we must do, here inside the study and field of Symmorphy, is to delineate and retain very specific definitions for the words that we use. A word can have several different meanings according to context, but the meaning in the context cannot change.
As Different as God and Evil. In fact, fighting for the meaning of words is part of our fight as God made us warriors, and in fact it is why I am always using the 1926 Webster’s unabridged dictionary and have also added this wonderful resource – https://www.etymonline.com, etymology being a study of word meanings through history.
Let me explain. Some like to claim that “Christian Community” is actually “Christian Communism,” even though the two terms are as different as God and evil. But that’s the thing; these same people also like to claim that God does know evil, that evil is “part of God.”
But let’s not get side-tracked; we are interested in specific definitions of individual words in clearly described contexts. ‘One’ is of God, and many as one. Collectivism would destroy both.
Social. Let’s start with what Etymonline says about “social.” c. 1400, "devoted to or relating to home life;" 1560s as "living with others," from French social (14c.) and directly from Latin socialis "of companionship, of allies; united, living with others; of marriage, conjugal," from socius "companion, ally." Then – Sense of "characterized by friendliness or geniality" is from 1660s. Meaning "living or liking to live with others; companionable, disposed to friendly intercourse" is from 1720s.
This wonderful resource than includes a long quote from T.S. Eliot warning, in 1948 (the same year that George Orwell wrote 1984), that the term “social justice” is neither friendly nor just. Thus ‘social’ is a Godly word; whereas ‘socialism’ is evil.
Person and Personal. Then here is person and personal from Etymonline. c. 1200, persoun, "an individual, a human being," from Old French persone "human being, anyone, person" and directly from Latin persona "human being, person, personage; a part in a drama, assumed character," originally "a mask, a false face," such as those of wood or clay, covering the whole head, worn by the actors in later Roman theater. (i.e. the mask as something spoken through and perhaps amplifying the voice).
late 14c., "private, pertaining to the self or to a self-conscious individual; performed by the individual himself," from Old French personal (12c., Modern French personnel), from Late Latin personalis "pertaining to a person," from Latin persona.
Symmorphy. Consider the definition of “persona” as wearing a mask, but in a good sense, as a voice coming through identity, that is, as symmorphy, Father showing His Person through our persons. And so, even though we are not yet defining ‘symmorphy’ in regards to what we are, this entire construct of personal and social is, in fact, the definition of symmorphy.
This is backwards, I know. Technically, ‘symmorphy’ is part of the definition of what we are as humans, whereas “personal and social” are the unfolding, out from symmorphy, of what we do. Nonetheless, I will keep the arrangement of chapters as I have them to see what the Spirit might show us. We are first defining what we are (symmorphic) by what we do (fellowship), and then, we will define what we do by what we are.
Confusing Meanings. Here is one way that the meanings of words are deliberately confused in today’s language. Someone recently said, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Yet the person who said it did not mean a village at all. The person meant “the all-powerful state.” Then, in response to that false definition, rugged individualists claimed, “I don’t need nobody, I can raise my children just fine all by myself.” – Which is, in fact, a really stupid unreality.
Individualism as a philosophy was developed to counter socialism as a philosophy, yet the one is as false as the other. Liberty is entirely a social construct; when someone is “all by themselves” the concept of ‘liberty’ never enters the mind.
Jesus as He Is. Let’s bring all this straight into Jesus, then, who is our pattern of what being a human is. And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me’ (Matthew 25:40). Jesus as each individual person, highly regarded and honored.
…If two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them (Matthew 18:19-20). Christ among and as the gathering of two and of many.
Both directions, individual and together, are of equal importance, and intertwined together.
Life as an Expression of God. Let’s return this discussion to the nature of life. Human LIFE is designed by God as an expression of Himself, first, but also, as that form through which God can enter His creation to be known by all, that is, to bring forth “God-Life.”
And human life is family, that is, several families containing distinct individuals, gathered together as a village inside a bounded ecosystem, an enclosed garden filled with abundance and delight. Each shares with the many, yet a limited and known many; each unique and important in itself. Each regarding each other in the highest respect; each enjoying the sharing together of the whole. There is a phrase in the Bible describing this whole interrelationship – love one another – the completion of Jesus.