I have been sharing with you my thoughts on Theology in a system I call “Woven Theology”. The thoughts aren’t new, I am sure that they have been thought and spoken before, my goal is to place them all into order and structure. I have found that the existing theological systems have become so clouded they have stopped conveying a clear idea. There are varying degrees of Calvinism and Armenianism where those systems have stopped having meaning. You can’t tell someone’s theology by the word “Protestant” or “Calvinist” or even “Baptist”. My aim is to communicate my theology clearly, and receive your feedback.
In my previous posts, No More C Word, and Woven Evangelist, I have gone over some of my thoughts on how this system works. The main tenant is that God is an eternal being, who exists outside of time/space and is completely sovereign. As God holds the universe together and directs each action, He also interacts with us temporally, in a way that we can experience Him and know Him. Simply put, God comes to us in a way that we can relate and interact with Him. He has discussions with us, He relates to us, even places in scripture where He changes His mind based on our pleading (Gen 18:22-33, Exodus 32:14, 2 Kings 20:5-6). We know that God does not change, so these actions are done in relationship, and for our benefit.
This relational aspect of God’s character, this temporal part of who God is takes the most radical step in establishing relationship. He empties Himself of divinity, takes the form of a servant and becomes obedient to death on a cross. God becomes man in the person of Jesus Christ. God then experiences those things in this aspect of His nature that His eternal nature doesn’t experience. The Father in His glory does not experience want or need. The Father is not subject to anything, but the Son was submissive to the Father, and learns obedience (Philippians 2:6-8, Hebrews 5:8).
In these two persons of the Trinity, we relate to a God who knows, sees and understands all things through time and space through God who experienced life as a man, who was tempted yet did not sin, who experienced want and need, who suffered and experienced pain and struggle and death. No other religion can speak of a God who experienced life as a man, yet remained fully God. The temporal nature of God can relate to us in every possible way through the person of Jesus Christ.