Traditional religions and spiritual philosophies have "all" saddled themselves with underlying metaphysical assumptions that render significant-human-aspiration a delusion.
When the power of God is infinite there is literally nothing for us to do.
The offer is (perhaps) one of blissful contemplation of the perfection of an infinite creation. But because creation is perfect and infinite there is nothing for us to do about it. We cannot add to it in any way At All.
Indeed even our obedience, adoration, and worship adds nothing since it is already a part of the whole.
There is nowhere for an infinite perfect creation to go, nothing can really happen - indeed the only "sand in the gearbox", the irrational and inexplicable "fly in the ointment", is the apparently persistent human delusion that we matter at all!
And that we even exist, as separate beings with a significant role to play.
Far too many Christians, and nearly-all other religions and philosophies, have painted themselves into a corner of personal futility.
All possible human thought, action, achievement is pointless; because creation is already infinite and perfect.
(And always was and always shall be infinite and perfect - some will add; diminishing our utter significance even further - if that were possible!)
While I fully acknowledge that contemplative bliss is a very pleasant thing to feel for a while, it is negative and just does not constitute a purpose.
Beyond contemplation is creation, and creative joy in a spirit of love is the greatest thing we can know - and far greater than a contemplative bliss that is (by its own definitions) irrelevant to reality.
Surely we know this?
We know it, but our fundamental assumptions about the nature of infinite perfect creation far-too-often render our hope of creating into a mere delusion, of which we are supposed to rid ourselves.
Yet we want to make a difference; and it feels as if this is possible!
And those of us who have chosen to affiliate with the creator want to make a positive difference, we want to add to ongoing-divine-creation; such that "creation" needs to be replaced by something like "create-ing" to recognize it is continuous, open-ended, always expanding.
Divine creating is always expanding, and we want to join with God and be part of that expanding.
So: Divine creating must be expanding, potentially forever.
Also, that expansion must all be Good - anything we and others add to creating it must all be in harmony with God's purposes...
Which means it must all be done from love.
Which is where Jesus Christ comes in.
On the one side ideas about God and Creation; on the other side Jesus and Salvation.
Individual, serious, Christians must Make Sure that their assumptions about God and Creation do not logically-block their highest aspirations concerning Jesus and Salvation and our ultimate hopes for eternal life; because at present official Christian theologies of God nearly always do logically-block Jesus, Resurrection, Heaven.
2 comments:
If creative participation in an expanding creation, as you have described it, is not a purpose or *the* purpose of Creation, then Creation really has no purpose, at least not in any meaningful sense.
To spend eternity in contemplative bliss and worship of an infinite perfection in which we are/were utterly unnecessary doesn't exactly fire up the engines of motivation -- neither for man nor God (I mean, what kind of God would desire such a thing in the first place)?
@Frank - That's how it also seems to me. But I was not able to clarify this until I had read Arkle on this subject.
I think what blocks this, apparently obvious and clear, analysis; is this historically induced sense of worship/ service/ obedience as the Only appropriate attitude to a (by dogmatic definition) incomprehensible God.
This acts as a double-defence - proper attitude prescribing not to think about such stuff (as prideful presumption); combining with the the priori guaranteed futility of mere Men thinking about such stuff.
It is also, I think, because of the very long tradition (but not, I think, part of Jesus's true teaching or work) that we cannot be confident of salvation nor expectant of it - salvation being anyway primarily out of our hands (as something *awarded* to the eligible, herefore not much chosen (or not chosen at all in some predestinarian traditions) - and on the other side of satifying "the" church of our eligibility.
Incoherence such as you desribe only becomes apparent if we allow ourselves to consider the nature of *eternal* Heavenly life as something real and possible IF we personally desire it.
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