He Speaks-

Language of the Holy Spirit: Signs

(An excerpt from the book The Ikon of God)

One key to understanding Scripture is to know the language of the Holy Spirit. St. Augustine (AD 354-430), a bishop in Northern Africa, taught that the interpretation of Scripture as a process of dividing its elements into “things” and “signs.”

For a sign is a thing which, over and above the impression it makes on the senses, causes something else to come into the mind as a consequence of itself: as when we see a footprint, we conclude that an animal whose footprint this is has passed by; and when we see smoke, we know there is fire beneath; and when we hear the voice of a living man, we think of the feeling in his mind; and when the trumpet sounds, soldiers know that they are to advance or retreat, or do whatever else the state of the battle requires.^[i]

“Signs” are references in Scripture that point to something else by having a different (and higher) dimension of meaning than just what is indicated on the surface, e.g. footprints tell us that an animal has left them. “Things” are items in Scripture that are to be taken at face value.^[ii] Properly interpreting

Scripture can be described as reading the “signs” employed by the Holy Spirit. It is that simple. Reading Scripture is not like reading the periodic table: it is more than numbers and values. It is about many voices of meaning; it is the metanarrative of God’s dream. It is important to understand this presupposition because we will be interpreting signs— the meaning of figures and types— in this study on Man and his relationship to God. Reading Scripture is a treasure hunt!

Augustine goes on to say:

For among men words have obtained far and away the chief place as a means of indicating the thought of the mind. Our Lord, it is true, gave a sign through the odor of the ointment which was poured upon His feet; and in the sacrament of His body and blood He signified His will through the sense of taste; and when by touching the hem of His garment the woman was made whole, the act was not wanting in significance. But the countless multitude of the signs through which men express their thoughts consist of words. For I have been able to put into words all of these signs, the various classes of which I have briefly touched upon, but I could by no effort express words of those signs.^[iii]

Think about what Augustine is saying: that all words are signs because they point to a meaning. All communication is based on signs (words) that have meaning. Take for example the word “dog.” The word “dog” is not the dog itself, but it points the individual toward the actual object. The word “dog” is a sign that points us to the object (the golden retriever chewing on your rug). Hence, communication is  inherently a signed based action, and without  signs, communication would be impossible. Scripture takes this same principle a level further: that objects in Scripture have more meaning that what is suggested at face value.

Jesus refers to Himself as the “Good Shepherd.” (John 10) Was Jesus talking about His occupational skills related to getting a job looking after somebody’s livestock? No, He was speaking about how He relates to His followers. “Good Shepherd” is a word picture to communicate something very meaningful about Himself. Jesus could have spent a lot of time explaining how you can trust Him with your life , but the picture communicates clearly what He is saying, particularly to an agricultural people. Entire books have been written expounding the depth of meaning to the believer regarding the Good Shepherd as we know Him.    

Another way to describe Augustine’s thinking about signs is to see that Scripture is laden with symbolism, or hidden messages and meaning. The Holy Spirit speaks, very often, through symbols that go beyond the words employed. If you are familiar with liturgical worship, you know it is more meaningful when you understand what all of the items and actions are saying. Understanding both Scripture and Liturgy involves the proper handling and understanding of the symbolism or signs employed.  

Symbols (signs) provide word pictures for the believer’s understanding, but the symbols employed can have multiple meanings. This makes it possible for Scripture to have so much meaning in a short volume: no other book on earth works like this. 

Let us consider Christianity’s most basic symbol, the cross. It is the faith’s universal sign, symbol, and even motif. But, what does the cross mean? It means many things that are all related to Christ, His passion, and the Church. From a theological point of view, among other things, the cross means that a price was paid so that my sins could be remitted and not counted against me in my relationship with God. From a devotional point of view, one may wear a cross or bow before a cross as an act of devotion to Christ. From a personal point of view, we can see the cross as referring to a lifestyle. After all, Jesus said we are to take up our own cross and follow Him. Here the meaning becomes even more personal: it suggests something about my own actions and attitudes. No symbol has received such universal proliferation throughout human history.

Very few things speak so much about the Christian faith, but to the common Roman soldier of Jesus day, the cross was an instrument of execution, the ultimate humiliation, and a demonstration of Roman supremacy. To him, all crosses upon which criminals hung were the same; there was no other meaning for him. For the believer, the cross upon which Christ hung is the epicenter of meaning. It is humanity’s only ticket to freedom out of bondage and into regeneration, into right relationship with God.

Symbols are like love letters passing through the mail system to be opened by certain people, obscured from public view. They are like arrows passing through time and space, landing on their intended targets, bringing tremendous import to the heart. This is how God speaks: the Holy Spirit works in conjunction with signs in communicating Grace to His people.   

This phenomenon of many (more than one) but related meanings is also evident in other symbols: water is a symbol of Life (God’s presence) as in, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38-39), but it also symbolizes death, as in, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:3) The symbolism of water in Scripture is both life and death, and— in each case— the context makes it obvious as to which is the correct interpretation for that passage. But as we mentioned, both interpretations of the sign, “water,” have to be connected, and they are: Christian life is all about Life out of death or, we could say, Life that passes through death (which we call resurrection Life). The Life God gives to the believer is resurrection life, life that endures death to live again. Being filled with God’s life is about “dying daily.” While we are always living out the death of Christ by self-sacrifice, we are being filled with Life, God’s Life. 

There is another way in which the sign of water is used in Scripture, but, in this case, it is set opposed to fire. Both water and fire are used to refer to purification or cleansing.

But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. (Malachi 3:2-3)

In this one verse, the Spirit of God is speaking of how God will purify His people. Two analogies are employed:  that of fire (as it relates to purifying silver), and fullers’ soap (which— with water— cleans many things). Before, we mentioned how water refers to either life or death, but here it refers to cleaning and purifying, and it is coupled with fire which cleanses things in a different way: by burning up the undesirable elements in silver and gold. Searching other places in Scripture, we see two different ways in which God purifies His people. First is water, as in:

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. (Titus 3:5)

Many theologians believe this points to baptism. Washing speaks of cleansing, and regeneration speaks of rejuvenating with Life: both are meanings of water.

The Bible also refers to a cleansing experience in the believer’s life that is brought about by fire:

That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:7, emphasis added)

Fire here speaks of a purifying effect in the believer’s life, but it should never be confused with the eternal fire that the unregenerate will suffer in for eternity.  So, the sign “fire” also has multiple uses.

By using signs to communicate multiple meanings, the whole of Scripture is packed full of significance and expanded meaning.  The sign always implies the natural understanding of a thing, like fire or water, as a spiritual application: this is how signs work. Things of a physical nature point out and describe spiritual Truths.

The Holy Spirit’s usage of signs in Scripture shows us that Truth is very often parallel: water speaks of life because it is, in fact, the essence of all created earthly life (plant, animal, or human). It is irreplaceable. The truth of water being essential to all of life is parallel to the fact that God’s Life giving power (His living water) is also essential to our spiritual life and relationship with Him. Water in Scripture is also used for the cleansing that a spiritual Truth provides for us (as every housewife knows how essential water is to house cleaning). For this reason, God’s use of signs shows us that Truth is parallel.  

Another example of a sign used in Scripture (that is distinctly present in Creation) is that of gender. Reading what the Bible has to say about gender, we immediately see God created Man male and female; this would be what St. Augustine called a “sign,” something that has much greater importance than just the mechanisms of procreation. We would miss something divine, something wonderful, and something foundational if we just take gender at “face value.” Divine and eternal Truths are impressed into God’s image, Man, through gender. We will go into this in great detail later.

If we do not grasp these principles as they relate to signs, much of Scripture will be closed to us, locked up in types and shadows. Understanding this shows us that all of God’s workings can be described as three-dimensional in nature; by using word pictures, God  gives us a fuller understanding of what He is saying. By using signs, His intention is to create a desire within us to seek out the things of God. This use of signs also hides things from the unregenerate; knowing of God’s communications would create abuses by those who are against God and make their sin against God even more egregious. Signs (as well as parables) serve as a form of encryption of what God gives to His people and withholds from the unregenerate (Matthew 13:11). 

However, even though God communicates through multi-dimensional signs, our human comprehension, for the most part, only works in one-dimensional concepts; therefore we have to break it down into bites of information that make it chewable and digestible to us. Even though we are limited in this fashion, God’s desire is that we have a broad understanding of His ways: 

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19)

When gazing into the things of God, we must not limit our observation to our linear thinking but behold the wonder there is in a manifold revelation of Christ in all His glory. As we go through this study, we will be identifying signs (as St. Augustine explained) in Scripture. These signs serve as word-pictures to communicate God’s realities to us.

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[i] Saint Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, trans. J. F. Shaw, (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2009), p. 32.

[ii] Ibid., p. 2.

[iii] Ibid., p. 33.

First Things First-

Authority From Which We Speak

(An excerpt from The Ikon of God)

The first and most basic element any reader would want to examine when reading  non-fiction is authority: how does the reader know that what the writer is saying is true? What does the author base his information on? Essentially, how do you know that you can trust us and what we say? Primarily, our authority starts and ends with the Bible. The first and foremost presupposition is that the Bible is understood to be the inspired, infallible Word of God that does not err. Even if the student does not have all of the theological nuances of what that means, he or she must understand that we are using the Bible as the authority for the way we should think about, implement, and live out a core understanding of Man and his relationship to God. Simply stated, it is through the Bible that we are able to peer beyond the veil of human limitation into God’s wondrous plans. Answers to all of the major questions of life are found in the Bible.

While mainly referring to Scripture as our guide for our study, we also will be referring to theological commentators from a broad spectrum of the Church. Interpretations will be quoted from some relatively new Christian authors and some very ancient writers, theologians, and Church Fathers. The wealth and volume of revelation contained in Christendom is immense and it spans many generations and comes from Christians of all walks of life.  

Our study can be described as your grandmother’s stew. Many things go into that stew, both vegetables and meat. The flavors of potatoes, carrots, beef, and many seasonings, all intermingle when cooked over time.. Here, you will find the Protestant with the Roman Catholic and the Presbyterian and the Charismatic, the new with the old. We will not be camping out in a particular denominational perspective but will be taking from a broad treasure and throwing it into one pot, simmering it until the common flavor exudes from every morsel. Like when the potatoes take on the flavor of the meat and carrots, we see a unity across the division as when we realize how various thoughts settle together from various branches of Christendom.

This melting pot of sources will, as we said, include some of the Church Fathers (by consulting the Church Fathers on matters of biblical interpretation, we are using the  lens of tradition). Many people today would ask why we consult the Church Fathers on Bible interpretation. How could they be relevant in obtaining a deeper understanding of the Scripture? There are two reasons: one, they were closer to the time of Christ and the first apostles. This makes their commentaries more reliable because we are always reforming and referring back to what God had established at the beginning. And two, they express a common thought for the entire, complete, and unified Church. It is hard for us today to think of the Body of Christ in any state other than its current condition with all of its denominations and non-denominations. The modern Church is highly fractured, but this has not always been. The Church developing out of its roots in Jerusalem was one in thought and mission. For 1,000 years (think about that) the Church was, very much a united body. The first major division did not occur until AD 1054 when the Catholic (western) and Orthodox (eastern) churches split. And even then, for another 500 years, the Church was only split in two. With the emergence of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, a fracturing process began to shape Protestant churches, first with the establishment of multiple denominations and— in recent times— a further splintering with the establishment into the “non-denominational/independent church,” each having a customized form of outside oversight or none at all. Modern writings no longer represent the stance of a unified whole, as the writings of the Church Fathers did. We certainly do not consider what the Church Fathers wrote to be of equal authority as the Scripture, but looking back at the Church and its writings in its pre-divided state brings a more accurate interpretation of the biblical authors for the very reason that the Church was completely unified and these men were closer to the Apostles (some, such as Clement of Rome, had even conversed directly with and learned personally from them).

Saint Vincent of Lérins (5^th century Christian writer) articulates why we need the lens of tradition when interpreting Scripture:

If someone wants to be protected from tricks and remain healthy in the faith, he must confine his faith first to the authority of the Holy Scriptures, and secondly to the Tradition of the Church. But someone may ask, is not the canon of Scripture sufficient for everything, and why should we add thereto the authority of Tradition? This is because not everyone understands the Scriptures in the same way, but one explains them this way and another that way, so that it is possible to get there from as many thoughts as there are heads. Therefore it is necessary to be guided by the understanding of the Church ... What is tradition? It is that which has been understood by everyone, everywhere and at all times ... that which you have received, and not that which you have thought up ... So then, our job is not to lead religion where we wish it to go, but to follow it where it leads, and not to give that which is our own to our heirs, but to guard that which has been given to us.[i]  

Basically, we are not saying much that new in this volume. We disclose things already discovered and they can be found in other writers throughout church history. We only hope for a pulling together into one location from across a broad history in order to obtain a better understanding of things already known and understood.

As with the astronauts of Apollo 8, discussed in the “Introduction,” Man needs outside perspective. It is not within Man to discover his origins or the origins of the universe on his own. He needs outside help. He needs God’s help. God provides that help through the Church (as well as the Holy Spirit); without the historical perspective of the Church, most readers succumb to their own private interpretation (2 Peter 2:20), formulating errors.

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[i] Deacon George Maksimov, “Three-Hundred Sayings of the Ascetics of the Orthodox Church,” Orthodox Missionary Society

of Venerable Serapion Kozheozersky, 01-18-2013, http://orthodox.cn/patristics/300sayings_en.htm.

Scripture: The Ultimate Rorschach test

Scripture: the Ultimate Rorschach Test

(An excerpt from the book The Divinity Code)

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband. (Ephesians 5:22-33)

Starting a book on gender with these verses is very risky. Some readers may have already applied their assumptions and put it down. They are thinking, “Oh, I know where this discussion is going. I have heard that all before and I am tired of hearing it.” But, maybe you do not know where this book is going. So, if I may ask you a question? After reading these verses, what do you see? What stands out in your mind as the high points of this passage? Like a Rorschach Test,[1] what one sees in Scripture says more about the reader— particularly his heart toward God— than perhaps any psychological test.

Think about your favorite make and model car. Isn’t it beautiful? When thinking of it, what do you see? Do you see a conglomeration of nuts, bolts, grease, oil, metal, paint, cloth or do you see the finished car standing there, just waiting for an aggressive drive on a winding country road? Obviously, any pile of nuts, bolts, tires, steel, and engine parts could be just about any car, even the proverbial 1952 “Get Out and Push.” If you see only the mechanics (requirements) in these verses: “submit to your husband, love your wife, etc, etc,” you may be missing the whole point. Seeing only the “nuts and bolts” of marriage is like only seeing the nuts and bolts of the Ferrari (or was it a Corvette) that is pictured in your mind. Ok, let us put aside our preconceived ideas about what is here, step back and take another look.

Read the verses again. What do you see? Do you see the romance? Yes, these verses are about romance and not just any romance, but the romance upon which all other romances are based. It is the romance where heaven kisses earth. Yes, passion drives the universe, and it is behind the meaning of everything; there is no practical reason for the existence of anything without romance. A self-existent God does not need, neither does He desire, anything for purely practical reasons. We could ask (tongue in cheek) what do you give the God who already has everything? There is only one thing He wants: you. All of you. And not because you can fill some void, but because He is full of passion for human kind.

All commandments and all  rules are about forming the cosmic romance in the same way that nuts, bolts, tires, cloth (or leather), and electronics make up the Ferrari (or the Corvette). To focus on the constricting nature of nuts and bolts is to lose the greater picture of the end of all things: romance. On the other hand, to toss out any nuts and bolts of romance is to compromise the whole, in the same way removing the lug-nuts from the wheels cause the wheels to come off. No intelligent car owner despises the lug-nuts because they, in themselves, are not romantic, but he understands they contribute to the romantic experience (love affair) he has with his car, and for that he values them immensely.

The mystery of the universe is about experiencing God’s largess, His goodness, and His love, but that cannot happen unless we perceive it.  

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6:22-23)

Here is where our hearts are revealed, this is the Rorschach Test: that if we only see the severity of the commandments in Scripture and think them restricting or laborious, we totally miss God’s heart and fall for Satan’s trap, as Eve had done! And we miss the whole point of God making a man and gifting him with a woman to marry in the first place. As the Scripture says, “if the eye is evil” (to look on disparagingly) then you have nothing but darkness. Commandment is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. Commandments are integral parts of a much bigger picture and that portrait is what nearly every classic western movie portrays: romance. All of God’s commandments are to preserve and facilitate all types of relationship, including romance. They are the components (nuts and bolts) that come together to structure a romantic relationship between Christ and His Church. To be clear, the commandments of God are holy because they issue from eternal realities in God and are in essence part of His very nature, but we must never separate God’s commandments from God’s heart. When you misjudge God’s motives, then you misjudge the meaning of God’s laws. God’s commandments are a part of the romance in the same way that the vows spoken at weddings— “forsaking all others”— allows for true romance to blossom. Law is the nuts and bolts of love because it preserves relationship.  

Where did this romance begin? In the Garden of Eden. With the staging of this divine romance—between God and Man— in the Garden of Eden, not everyone was happy about it. There was one, the quintessential anti-romantic, who seeks to destroy all romance by deconstructions of every kind. He is the killjoy, the spoilsport who seeks to wreck the story for all romantics. He disassembles the Ferrari and forces it into dysfunction and malfunction at every turn. As a culture, we are viewing all of the parts spread out over the garage floor, with no idea where to start putting it back together. Some are picking up a single piece of romance (sex) and they are pretending that it is the whole car. This only leaves emotional carnage, disappointment, and disgust.

Before getting into decoding gender— finding its meaning and origin— as we set out to do, let us first draw a picture of what is the state of things now, not from the close up point of view, there are many books that do that, but from the cosmic perspective.

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[1] German psychologist Hermann Rorschach created a physiological test in 1921 whereby patients were diagnosed based on the patients’ descriptions of what they saw in random inkblots.