My journey to understanding God interacting with God
God. 3 Persons, 1 God. Totally dedicated to each other. Want glory for the others. I exist to get them more glory. They are united and they unite me to them.
Al's theology journey
to understanding
God n God
There is only ONE God. Unfortunately we focus so much on this that we miss the God AND God and the God IN God realities. I better start at the beginning.
When I became a Christian (1970) I had the fortune of receiving a thorough introduction in conservative theology. A retired pastor led a Bible study on Wednesday nights for 2 hours. We rarely missed. Over the period of 3 years, with no book used but the Bible, he led us through topic after topic. We looked at verse after verse, in context. I never heard the term “systematic theology”, he never brought out a theology book, and in 3 years I became a theologian without realizing it.
About 2001 I heard a sermon by D. James Kennedy on the Trinity. The example given of the Trinity was fascinating but complex. A week later it suddenly occurred to me: I knew a much simpler way to explain the Trinity, using graphics. I drew it out, and wrote a simple explanation of how it shows the Trinity idea. A week later I decided I needed to write some info on the Trinity to go with the graphic. That took a week. About a week after that I wrote more info, and soon had an entire theology book based on the idea of the Trinity, showing how each member of the Trinity plays a unique individual major role in the various aspects of theology.
It shows how each member of the Trinity is important to the other 2 members, what they are doing for each other, and how that is important to us. This is the God and God reality of the Trinity, since each member is fully God and each one is the fulness of all that the ONE God is. Three members, One God, acting for each other.
Basically, each member is totally dedicated to the other ones receiving maximum glory. He will do anything ethical to achieve more glory for the other two. That's why this universe- and we- were created. Our suffering, receiving forgiveness of sins, being transformed so we live by God's lifestyle principles, living forever - this is all so each member of the Trinity gets more glory.
About 1995 I saw an ad in the newspaper about a seminar by a local pastor on Blood Covenant. I had no info on this topic, and was possibly the only person at the seminar that was not a member of that church. But the hunt was on. I knew this was a topic too big to ignore, and unfortunately it was not covered in the theology books.
I found and read The Blood Covenant and The Threshold Covenant by H. C. Trumbull. In the late 1800's He discovered the idea of blood covenant throughout history and all around the world. It is the idea behind John 6, and behind communion, stretching from Genesis to Revelation.
A blood covenant involves the intermingling of the natures- the very lives- of the parties involved. When someone enters into a blood covenant he is part of a group, with a common bond, participating in what the group does, along with it's problems and blessings and joys. The parties share resources, responsibilities, traits, capabilities, and a common set of goals. They share life. They take care of each other.
Jesus is in a blood covenant with God. God injects Himself- His lifestyle principles- into Jesus via anointing, which is an enabling endowment. This is why Jesus is called the Christ, the Anointed One. The Father passes the lifestyle principles down to the Anointed One- Jesus, (and Jesus passes them down to us- the anointed ones), and He lives by them. And one of God's lifestyle principles is “the unconditional commitment to others”. God's nature is commingled with that of Jesus. Jesus has an “enabling endowment” (anointing) of the lifestyle principles. He lived- and lives- by them. (Jesus is also IN the Father, as in seen in the Father responding positively to the prayers of Jesus.) This is the God IN God reality of the Trinity.
I have wandered into a new theology system. It can be called Anointing Theology. I didn't set out to do this. To God be the glory.
4-25-2022