Wednesday, July 15, 2015

What Has Been Revealed And What Has Been Withheld: A Quickie Rumination

     At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
     Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.
     All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.

     [Matthew 11:25-27]

     Concerning Christian theology and cosmogony: We know, broadly at least, what has been revealed. The Gospels are there to tell us. But we cannot know what has been withheld, unless we discover it through experience and the passage of time.

     It’s quite possible that a great deal – infinitely more than what has been revealed – has been withheld from us. We might not be the only sentient creatures in the Universe. The laws of physics might be deeper and more complex than we can ever know. They might even be mutable. There might even be realms separated from this one and inaccessible to us, where wholly different laws of physics apply. Indeed, if we’re ever to learn about such things, we’ll probably have to wait for the General Judgment. Why? God alone knows, and what makes you think He owes you an explanation?

     That realization frees a writer like me, concerned with maintaining a Christian feel and flavor to his fictions, to speculate: to entertain possibilities that go beyond what God has revealed, under one condition: my speculations must not contradict what He has revealed. The Realm of Essences series was my first venture in that direction. There have been others. There will be more.

     The glory of Creation is inexhaustible by Man. We can never know it completely. Our senses aren’t sufficient to perceive even the fraction of it immediately around us. We’ve built instruments of inquiry to extend those senses. They tell us plainly that there’s more to reality than we can directly perceive, but how are we to know how much more there is that our instruments cannot detect or measure?

     Yet in the acceptance of our innate limitations lies the ultimate demonstration of His glory, for if the reach of the Universe is greater than we can know, how much greater must its Creator be?

     Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow.

3 comments:

Weetabix said...

Amen, Fran - it's a wonder every day.

On a side note, I'm reading Chosen One again. It's as excellent as I remembered it to be. But you owe me a few hours of sleep. ;-)

Backwoods Engineer said...

Looking forward to more of your speculations, Fran. I hope we see your next novel out before America collapses...

furball said...

Fascinating that you mention the Realm of Essences series. I, too, am rereading it. In fact, I just got to the part in Shadow of a Sword where Sumner is giving his stump speech on the Constitution and the rule of law.

It makes me wonder how he'd react if the Supreme Court had made it's Kelo and two Obamacare rulings on his watch. I know it doesn't fit in that universe, but if you ever feel like writing a short story on something similar, I would *LOVE* to read it!