Hebraic Theology
Being the Church in Creation
Cosmology is about the design and purpose of the universe. It’s a heated topic; with lots of people laying claim to their take on all things. The thing about cosmology is that it sets the underlying patterns for the way we think and engage life on earth. For example, if we hold to a ‘time plus matter plus chance minus God’ evolutionary cosmology, then we will think and live accordingly. In relation to Christian and Western European history, two major cosmological options have predominated (this, of course, includes those nations whose present and dominant culture originated in the West – eg. America, Australia). One derives from a fifth Century BC philosopher from Athens by the name of Plato. The other is drawn from the vision or understanding of creation held by the ancient Hebrew tribes. In the first three centuries of the early church, Abraham’s and Plato’s cosmologies intermixed to construct an uneasy hybrid that ended up forming the basis of the Christian and Western mindset. The following presents a brief summary of these two worldviews.• Plato’s version of the eternal or divine realm (which for the early Gentile church was identified as God’s heaven) was located ‘outside’ of the present creation. For the Hebrews, the heaven of God existed over their earth in the dimensions of space and time; this heaven existing in relationship to the earth and interacting with it.
• For Plato, the created realm was only a corrupted copy of the real deal that existed in the eternal spiritual realm that was removed or divided off from that creation. As such, Plato thought that the material and physical realm did not contain or express the divine or eternal nature. The Hebrews, on the other hand, believed, as Paul declared, that ‘since the creation of the world [God’s] invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made’ (Rom. 1:20). • Plato saw the divine, or God, as being, for the most part, separated from life on earth. The Hebrews were taught to see and engage the ‘one God and Father of all who is over all [things] and through all [things] and in all [things]’ (Eph. 4:6) in all of their life, work and worship in the present creation. In a situation like this, it stands to reason that over time a struggle for supremacy would have arisen between the two. But it didn’t. The reason for this was that Plato’s world vision tapped into lots of cultural reservoirs in the Gentile (non-Jewish) world of that time. As a result of this, as Gentiles converts to Christ were made, they came in already primed to accept what had also become the dominant cosmology of most all of the Gentile teachers and ‘Fathers’ of the early church. As a result of this history, the present day church finds itself today mostly identified with a constructual form, wherein the congregation gathered under leadership;
1. operates as a mediating institution between this life and the next.
2. takes to itself the central role of directing and enacting the will of God on earth.
3. relegates the present created order to the background, and believes that its ultimate destination is found in a heaven of the next life.
Once you shift the cosmology, you shift your understanding of church; in both its location and its purpose. What we will call, ‘the church in creation’:
1. stands in Christ - our mediator - right through the created order (1 Timothy 2:5, Ephesians 1:22, 23).
2. places the focus of the ministry of the saints in their every day work in creation (Matthew 5:16).
3. sees the present creation as holding within it the eternal inheritance God wants to give to his children (Romans 8:20, 21).
4. sees the body as growing up in all things of creation through to the heavens of God over the earth (Eph. 3:10 and 4:15).
5. sees the church gathered as a pillar and support of the church standing in creation (1 Timothy 3:15). If we are to really change the way we see and do church, we cannot keep changing the format of our meetings. We need to address the issue of cosmology; as in: is it the likes of Plato or is it our father Abraham that we are following in regards to creation’s design and purpose. Teleios is about bringing to the fore an understanding of the nature and purpose of the church now standing in creation; helping to bring wisdom and understanding to the body of Christ at work in every sphere of creation.
