Introduction to “ ‘We Will All Be Changed’ ”
Review of Previous Article
The One God is not ultimate substance or essence (Greek, ousia). Rather, God is ultimate relationality. Contrary to intuitive thought, relationality does not emerge from individual entities, but entities emerge from relationality. Moreover, to be true to “human” reality, relationality must be mutual. It also must be free, responsible, and open to endless “others.” Free, responsible and open reality must therefore have the option to deny, reject and eliminate “others.” This posed the ultimate challenge to the God who determined to create a universe of “otherness.” To create enduring, positive and mutual relationality among “others” is to be the Author of “good.” To create the possibility of the rupture, negation and elimination of relationality among “others” is to be the Author of “evil.” Furthermore, God could only create from “nothingness” by initial command, possession and subordination of the “other” — all contrary to mutual, free, responsible and open “human” relationality. It is in this context that Second Isaiah represents God as declaring, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things” (Isaiah 45:7).
While mankind has been able to cope with and acknowledge the presence of evil in the created order, mankind has not been able to accept the origin of evil in God himself. As a result, mankind has persistently devised models designed to terminate the evil of relational Creation by returning mankind to the supposed goodness of uncreated and solitary Godhood. The sole exception to this was the Hebraic model that began with Moses and then David. In this concept God promised to become the Human One and to accept the consequences of evil for himself and on behalf of all humanity.
Overview of This Article
Gnosticism is one of the most persistent and pervasive human models contrived to obliterate the created order and return mankind to its supposed original divinity. “. . . [It] is the belief that the world, and man, was created by a lesser, capricious god, . . . called the ‘demiurge,’ and is utterly corrupt and irredeemable. However, a few human beings have a divine spark of the highest god. This spark is trapped in utterly corrupt human flesh, and can only be reunited, at death, with the highest god, through the acquisition of special knowledge handed down from teacher to disciple.”
“Christian fundamentalism is actually a special case of Gnosticism with . . . added features thrown in for political effect.” The global resurgence of Gnosticism under the guise of “fundamentalism” jeopardizes the created order. Not only is humanity armed with the means for destroying our world, but Gnostic fundamentalism also is now determined to trigger the destruction of the earth in order to return “believers” to their original divinity!
There is only one solution to the threatened destruction of the created order by a nihilistic postmodern fundamentalism. That solution is the One-and-Only Supreme God, who created, sustains and will shortly transform the entire created order. This God alone — who became the God-man as Jesus Christ and, by this once-and-for-all act, became manifest as both covenantal parties — constitutes the covenant for and with mankind.
Like the covenant itself — fulfilled between God and man as Jesus Christ — the created order is an eternal and irrevocable gift. As Lucien Richard beautifully stated, “Creation is . . . a gift. Creation as such, then, is covenantal, emerging from a faithful and free God.”