Me, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints and faithful sisters and brothers in Christ in Cyberspace: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
How are you? I am fine.
As I know that you are ever desirous to hear from me regarding the esoteric musings that waft through my brainpan when I am meandering aimlessly in the local wilds which have yet to be cut clear and rendered profitable to the uses of our Enemy, or when I am lying in bed drinking coffee and thinking thoughtsy things, as is my wont, I have set forth to bring a light into your darkness regarding a matter of which I have spoken previously, unless I have misremembered the matters of which previously I have spoken, in which case, maybe not, specifically the possible actions of our Savior, which is Jesus Christ, in the time in which He was descended into death, which by our reckoning, was three days, but which, as I intend to show, was not three days to Him, who is Divine.
First, let us understand that Jesus who is Christ did die upon the Cross, as is stated, “‘It is finished!’ Then He bowed His head and gave up his Spirit”, John 19:30, and that He descended into death, “For Christ died for sins once and for all, a good man on behalf of sinners, He was put to death physically, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water”, 1 Peter 3:18-20. From this also, we see that our Lord communed with “the spirits in prison”, which we may read as “in Hell”, and that He proclaimed, or spoke, with the souls of the departed from former times.
At this point, having established that Christ Jesus did experience death, and knowing that the time that He was dead was, as per the reckoning of those humans who were present during the time, three days, if it may please you, I will now depart from those things which we are given to know by the revelations of the disciples and apostles, as recorded in the Scripture, which is the Word of our Lord, and enter into those speculations which are of my own imagining and therefore to be understood as only the dreams or musings of one who is admittedly a sinner, most unworthy, and which I offer here, not as truth, but merely as thoughts, my only hope being that they may inspire you to marvel at the miraculous doings of our Father, which is God.
For we know that Christ Jesus was and is wholly God, and also that He was, during the time of His earthly mission, also wholly human, which is inconceivable to us, but which is knowable to God, as it is written, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible”, Mark 10:27. Furthermore, we know that God was desirous of becoming human, for so He did and for what other reason should He have done this thing, but that He desired it to be done. And we may guess, though more than this we can not do, that He desired to become wholly human because He wished to have the experience that His human creatures had and have, thus to know what they, that is, we, experience, in order to judge them, that is, us, aright, thus He took upon Himself the burden of flesh, as it is written, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth”, John 1:14. And by this, God had the experience of being wholly human, through the personhood of Jesus, who was of Nazareth, born of Mary, and of the house of David, through Mary’s husband, Joseph. Thus was God wholly within the flesh, subject to the demands of the flesh and knowing also the demands that are imposed upon we, His human creatures, by those others, that is other human creatures, who surround us and also by the laws and demands of the circumstances in which we have our lives and which are largely, if not entirely, beyond our abilities to control, or influence, for example, the laws and customs of the societies into which we are variously born, and in which we have our lives, being subjected to forces that impel us to behave in ways which we might not, were we given to do what we would wish to do.
Further, that God, experiencing wholly in the flesh, the experience of one of His human creatures, namely Jesus, the Nazarene, allowed Himself to be delivered unto Pontius Pilate, judged and condemned, and that He suffered Himself to be crucified on the Cross, as it is written, “who, though he was in the form of God,did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross”, Philippians 2:6-8. Through this experience, He, that is, God, knew the experience of being burdened with flesh and subject to all the demands of the flesh.
Nevertheless, we may also understand that though one human creature may stand for all in some ways, the experience of one human creature is not, of necessity, the experience of all human creatures. That is, the experience of a male is not the same as the experience of a female; nor is the experience of one who lived in the time of Noah the same as the experience of one who lives in our current age; nor again, is the experience of one who is heterosexual the same as one who is homosexual. many more such examples may be listed, but these few should suffice. Thus, the experience of Jesus, though He was wholly human, while also and simultaneously, wholly God, was but one possible experience out of an uncountable store, which is each and every one of the individual experiences of each and every one of God’s human creatures, from the beginning of the world, unto the world’s end.
If it is acceptable to you that I have written what I have, may it also be acceptable for me to write more, and to offer the possibility that, having had the experience of taking on the burden of the flesh and living in the form of the Nazarene, Jesus, who was born of Mary, who was a virgin, that God may also have made it His will to deepen His knowledge of the individual experiences of His human creatures, by so inhabiting, as it were, each one of us? That such a thing may baffle us is no impediment to God, who may indeed, have done such a thing, if He made it His will to do. May I further suggest that, having descended into death, during which time was experienced as three days by those who were present from the time of His death upon the Cross until His Resurrection, but which He may have experienced as a different time, or all time, or no time at all.
Let me explain: as we know that our God is beyond our ability to comprehend, Him being both Infinite and Eternal, while we, His human creatures, are both finite and temporal, we are therefore slaves to the laws of both time and space, while He is beyond both of these and can therefore, accomplish that which we cannot imagine. It follows therefore, that being desirous of having the experiences of His human creatures, that descending into death, and “being made alive in the Spirit”, He communed with those spirits who were alive in the time of Noah, and may have entered into their earthly lives, through His Infinite power and actually and wholly experienced their lives through them. And further, that having so done, that having so taken on the experiences of those who had lived before the time of His earthly mission, that He might have also done the same with those whose lives took place after His earthly mission. That is to say, because God is beyond all limitation of time and space, He could have subjected Himself to inhabit, as it were, each and every one of His human creatures, throughout all of time, both before and after His earthly mission, wholly and completely living within every single human creature in all of time, while doing so in such a way as to have all of these experiences, which would be a measure of time incalculable to anyone, but to then to rise from the grave and appear to Mary Magdalene and the other disciples, after a period of time which to them was only three days.
Let no one say that this is not possible, for to say that this is not possible is to impose limitations upon God, whose power is beyond imagining and who is subject to no limitation whatsoever. That this seems incomprehensible to us is of no significance whatsoever. To God it is a feat to be done without effort, if God did desire to do it. I do not say that He did, nor that He did not, but only posit that He may have so done, if it were His pleasure to know each and every one of His human creatures.
But some may ask this question, “Why would God desire to do this thing?”, to which I reply that it may have been God’s intention to know each and every one of His human creatures wholly and completely, that He might judge us aright, for He has reserved judgement unto Himself alone, He alone being able to judge aright. And further, I submit that He may have determined to take account of all factors which may have influenced the decisions and actions of His human creatures. For, though it may occur that any of us may sin with knowledge of our sin, able to choose otherwise, but sinning because we wish so to do; yet it may also be true that we may sin, not of deliberation, knowing what we do and determining to do it anyway, but that we may sin through our ignorance, as did those soldiers of Rome who Crucified Him on the Cross and for whom He desired forgiveness, saying “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing”, Luke 23:34, which judgement may be applied to all human creatures. But God, knowing all things, may also take on the ignorance, as it were, of any given individual, while also retaining His knowledge of all things, thus knowing when we sin out of ignorance. Or again, having had the individual experiences of every human creature, He knows when we have sinned because of the demands of the flesh, whether of the need for food or shelter or protection from elements; or again, He knows when we have sinned because of the demands of the circumstances in which we have lived or lives, whether these were the result of poverty, or of unjust laws, or sickness, or of any other circumstance which was beyond our ability to control or influence, which caused us to sin or contributed to our acts. Or again, we may have sinned as a result of addiction, either of addiction to substances or addiction to behavior, which impelled us to commit actions beyond our ability to control or influence, and which we would not have done, were we not slaves to these addictions; or again, we may have driven by madnesses, which in prior days were perceived to be devils, and which may have caused to commit sins which we would not have done if we had not been so bedeviled. Or again, we may have acted out of the demands of our bodies and committed actions which were injurious to ourselves or to others, or if not injurious, were nevertheless improper, but which we were driven to commit by the demands of our flesh, coupled with ignorance of God’s desires for us. Or again, we may have acted rightly, but have misunderstood laws which were given by God to an other people at an other time, which did not apply to us in our own circumstances, and having thus falsely believed that we were in sin, have despaired and given ourselves over to other sins, which we would not have done, but for being ignorant. In all of these examples, having the experience of seeing what we see, hearing what we hear, and feeling what we feel, God would be able to judge us aright, which no one else could do, for no one but God could do this thing, and therefore no one but God might be able to judge us aright.
We thus may understand how all things may be known to God and also how we may understand that God judges us aright when we do not even judge ourselves aright, as it is written, “whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything”, 1 John 3:20. For God knows both all things and also knows our ignorance at the same time.
And to those who say that these things are not supported by Scripture, I must confess that they are not, but I claim not to have knowledge of the ways and means of God, but only to offer thoughts and imaginings. yet, it seems that there are many places in Scripture when a thing is mentioned that has not come to pass, whether these are foreshadowings or prophecies, which indicates that God, being both Infinite and Eternal, is beyond the limitations both of time and space and therefore able to know all things of all times in one time, though such is impossible for us to imagine. Therefore, whether directly supported by Scripture or no, these notions of my own do not contradict Scripture, and I offer them only as the wonderings of a sinner, redeemed through God’s grace, though feeble.
It should follow then, that if God has chosen to experience with and through us, everything that we experience, seeing what we see, hearing what we hear, feeling what we feel, and wholly taking our own lives upon Himself, that He is also, and simultaneously, though it is impossible for us to comprehend, also wholly present in every other human creature who we encounter and with whom we interact, simultaneously, and that, at all times, we are wholly in the presence of God, whether we are alone or with others. Thus may we understand our Lord when He says, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me”, for whatever we do to anyone, we have done to our Lord, as He is wholly present in everyone, at once, through His power.
If any of this be so, we may thus come closer to having some understanding of our Lord, whose ways and means are inscrutable to us, and thus may we act in greater harmony with His teaching, treating everyone we meet as he would have us do, and withholding judgement of all, including ourselves, trusting that He, who has all knowledge, will judge us aright, taking full account of all factors which have caused us to behave as we have, whether for good or ill.
These thoughts I present to you, that you may be inspired to ponder the majesty of our Lord, and to marvel at His miraculous doings. If you are able to take them further, please communicate to me what you have been given to know, that I may also receive the benefit. If, however, you find me to be in error, I beg you to correct me that I may not persist, but may repent in sackcloth and in ashes.
I am and long to be, you humble servant in Christ.
P.S. Please tell Dorcas I was saddened to hear of her cat’s illness; and that I hope it is well soon.
Luther von Wolfen 