Restoring Unity

Divided by Language

^{Genesis 11:6}And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. ⁷Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.

I find it interesting that God would confound the language he would later need to rely upon to communicate to his people.

Language is confused on a level deeper than just the variety of tongues; otherwise everyone who speaks English would not be divided. Language is confused at its very core.

The Hermeneutic Circle: The principle that one’s understanding of a text as a whole is established by reference to the individual parts, and the understanding of each part is established by reference to the whole.

Circular reasoning is at the base of this confusion. Definitions derived from usage in text are contextual, and the need for circular reasoning does not stop once the definitions are constructed, but the confusion continues through the interpretation phase. Every time I read something, I must determine the context of each word as I read it. Often I get it right, but often there is ambiguity.

Text can have multiple possible meanings, where it can be unclear as to the true intentions of the author. For example, here is a job recommendation: “No one could be better for this position.” What is the intention of the author? Would it be better to hire no one for this position? Or is this the best person for the job?

We should consider what it looked like before language was confused.

^{Genesis 2:19}And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

Words were meant to represent things. The way language was supposed to work is that text would get its meaning from words, and words would inherit their meaning from the things they represent. This approach significantly reduces ambiguity.

Words in our Biblical vocabulary represent things that can only be found in the kingdom of God. Unless you have seen the kingdom of heaven, the unconfused language will not be within your reach.

This dilemma is explained in more detail in Grammatology

I state this as if it were fact, but I would rather present it as conjecture worthy of your consideration. Rather than presenting it as a thesis, I would rather use the scientific approach and state it as a hypothesis, subject to testing. This hypothesis may sound like an abstract concept, however, as we proceed down this train of thought, it will become clear very quickly whether this concept has merit: whether it should be embraced or rejected.

About Me

Although this is not about me, you should be aware of where I am coming from. I am not a theologian; I am an electrical engineer turned programmer. As a programmer, I learned to use object oriented programming to model the business for which the application was being written. I bypassed the dreaded requirements documents, as it was a tool to entrap the customer – why would anyone base write a program around something as unstable as a requirements document? Modeling the business, I could complete an entire system in a matter of days, not months: less time than it would take a client to write the first draft of a requirements document. And modifications could be made in moments, because the program was not founded on an unstable requirements document.

That said, when it comes to studying the Bible, I bring a different set of skills to the table. The traditional theological approach does not handle the kingdom of God as a system, but as a collection of independent parts. The parts may be consistent within themselves, but from my observation, the parts conflicts, and those conflicts purposely overlooked, left unaddressed and unresolved.

My approach treats the kingdom of God as a whole. I model the kingdom from the scriptures, going wherever the scriptures take me, instead of taking the scriptures where I want them to go. The model is not language based, as language allows for contextual spin. The model is pictorial, the universal language. I call it universal because, when looking at a manual that uses more than one language, the one thing that is the same for all the languages is the diagrams: the pictures. I convert the language to pictures, and the pictures bring clarity.

When using the model as a tool to interpret scripture, I map the words used in the scripture into the model and I can see what the scripture is saying. When doing this, the model brings clarity to the text, but the text also brings understanding to the model. The result is a theology that submits to the scripture, and that theology must remain flexible, subject to further scrutiny as more scripture is considered.

There are no essential doctrines. What you accept as truth is not what salvation is based on. On judgment day, you will not be quizzed on your theological positions on a set of essential doctrines.

I have found that the model provides unambiguous interpretations which are quite different from the prevailing doctrines. It is astonishing to me how effective it is in resolving the conflicts that were baked into the standard theologies.

The bad news is that this approach will conflict with current theology, but then again, current theology conflicts with itself.

What I am presenting is a different system of thought, different from whichever system you have adapted. Consider the new system as being like a different game, where the same terms are used, but the terms have different meanings. Like football and soccer: they both use the term offsides, but the meaning depends on the game being played. When watching a game, your mindset applies the rules of the game you are watching.

When you visit my website, my rules apply. When you leave, you can go back to the rules you are familiar with.

Seek Ye First

The first task at hand is to develop a model of the kingdom of God. Understanding this model is a prerequisite to understanding almost everything else in this website. Please begin your tour of the kingdom of God here.

My approach is that terms will be placed in the model to illustrate their intrinsic meaning, each term having a singular meaning. The one meaning shows up in a variety of contexts, appearing to be something different, but the intrinsic meaning remains constant. I may coach football, or I may play football, but I do not become someone else when I put on different clothes. Grace is found in many contexts, but it is still grace. The question is: what is grace?

Before we can assign terms to the things that exist only in the kingdom of God, we need to become familiar with this kingdom. Allow me to give you a tour of the kingdom of God, so you can appreciate the things that the words in our Biblical vocabulary were meant to represent. I will do this by constructing a model that will help you visualize the kingdom of God.

Untangling the Language

From there, for each word I will begin by illustrating what it represents, placing it in the model of the kingdom. I will do a word study for each word, using the model to illustrate the context in which it is found for each usage. If any conflicts arise, I will make adjustments to resolve the contention. I call this section Visualizing the Language.

Restoring Theology

Finally, I will use the intrinsic meaning of words to explore the Biblical text, and the plain meaning of the text will become obvious to you. This is where I visualize the scriptures. The result of this exercise is an object-oriented theology.

Direct Links

Father Abraham provided a blueprint, a preview of things to come. In Genesis 17, the Lord told Abraham to walk before me. It is fascinating how Jesus followed Abraham’s lead every step of the way. And we are encouraged to follow the steps of faith of Abraham, as did Jesus. And in revealing one of the steps, I must stray from following the deceptive practices that Abraham and the Lord followed.

A Divine Pattern is a non-visual narrative explaining aspects of the kingdom of heaven.

2 Corinthians 4 is an example of visualizing the scriptures using the visualized language.

What does it mean to abide in his love.

Communion is a practical look at what should take place when taking communion.

John 6 explains concepts that became stumbling blocks to many, where Jesus said, Unless you eat my flesh.

Joy is probably not what you think it is.

Lord of the Sabbath deals with entering into his rest.

Forgiveness is something that we all struggle with needlessly.