KNOWING GOD AS GOD
09/05/24 10:39
KNOWING GOD AS GOD
07/05/24 19:08
Knowing God is both comprehending accurately and the effect of a state of being – namely union with God in Christ. This connotes a knowing that is much more than doctrinal positions, although it is a great advantage when these positions are the fruit of union with God and enlightened understanding.
We have noted in these posts that we cant just make up a gospel or adopt it because we think we have new light or a prophet in our Corner. The Life-Giving Gospel of the Kingdom is rooted in our union with Christ as expressed by the Church Fathers, the Creeds and the tradition of the catholic (not Roman) Church. It is not distorted by cunningly devised fables or sectarian considerations. There are times we may do well to examine our beliefs in order to determine if they are actually Christian.
Myk Habets discussing Torrance observe that, ‘Cognitive union’ with God amounts to another cognate [frame] for theosis within Torrance’s theology. As he makes clear, theosis ‘does not mean “divinisation”, as is so often supposed, but refers to the utterly staggering act of God in which he gives himself to us and adopts us into the communion of his divine life and love through Jesus Christ and in his one Spirit…’. The relevance of this .. is made clear by the words immediately following this quotation: ‘That is what constitutes the sustaining inner cohesion of our cognitive union with Christ… .’ For Torrance knowing God, the cognitive dimension of the faith, is a significant aspect of theosis.” (1)
The kind of ‘knowing’ here is analogous to a husband/wife’s knowing of each other in a good marriage. This is because the living foundation of such a relationship is the Relationship that is the Trinity. They are one with each other, yet distinct as persons. Oneness in marriage has a more intimate/dynamic spirit that many of us have imagined.
INCARNATED VESSELS Leanne Payne – the disciple of the Real Presence/healing Presence writes, “As we learn to invoke the mighty Presence of our Lord, and as we learn to become the vessels through which He ministers in our midst. He can then begin to love the world through us, for we have made ourselves available to Him. His “divine energy,” moving through us who believe (most often when we are the least aware of it), brings life where before unbelief and death have been at work. “To this end I labour,” said St. Paul, “struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me” (Col.1:29). To know the spiritual power that St. Paul speaks of is to know the Presence of God among and within us, bringing us into relationship with Himself and that which is other than the self-in-isolation.”
This is the relationship in which the trinity is with us and in us and so woven into our being that we are the expression of His life as daughters/sons where we are. In this state you are never a ‘dead man walking’. You are a life person distributing Christ’s life. (1) Myk Habets. Theosis in the Theology of Thomas Torrance. 97. (2) Payne, Leanne. The Healing Presence (pp. 35-36). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition
