“ things visible and things invisible” (Col 1:16, ASV)
In the previous teaching we noted that the concept Theophany needs to be explained from Scripture. This word is a combination of the Greek words Theos (God) and phainesthai (appear), thus: The appearance of God. One of Yahweh’s ontological characteristics is that He is invisible (1 Tim 1:17). [Ontology is a philosophical term which points to the study of being, the characteristics of existence of things, that which renders something knowable and discernible.]
In Col 1:15-17 Paul uses this ontological characteristic of God to explain the complex relationship between Yahweh and Yeshua: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” God is invisible; Jesus is the visible manifestation of God. Jesus is thus the ultimate Theophany!
But before Jesus was manifested in the flesh and thus became visible, He had already existed – He is after all the Firstborn of all things (thus also the Origin of Ontology!).
From the beginning of time to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem in Judea, the invisible God thus made himself known through appearing Theophanically, by manifesting in things.
Primitive nations with an ancient image of God gave supernatural manifestations of God, names – this is how mythological figures originated. They would, for instance, see and hear thunder and lightning from heaven and interpret it as godly, and, in this instance, name the god Thor.
God did indeed manifest in thunder, as is for instance seen in John 12:28-29: “’Father, glorify Your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.’ Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to Him.’” And when one reads Job 37:2 and 4 & 5, thunder is clearly one of the Theophanic ways in which God can make himself visible and audible: “Hear, oh, hear the noise of his voice, And the sound that goeth out of his mouth. He sendeth it forth under the whole heaven, And his lightening unto the ends of the earth. After it a voice roareth; He thundereth with the voice of his majesty … God thundereth marvellously with his voice …” But obviously not all thunder is the voice of God.
God has spoken through the mouth of a donkey (Num 11), but this does not make God a donkey, and every time you hear the bray of a donkey, it is not necessarily God who is speaking. And even though the implication is that it is God who opened the mouth of the donkey (verse 28) and that she argued her case (and not God’s case) with Bileam, it makes it clear that the complex conversation between the two is not something which stems from the donkey’s mental capacity but that it is God who, for a specific occasion, temporarily transmutates. But this does not then render the ontological entity, for instance the fire or the donkey, or in Hindu terms, the cow, as holy or Godly.
Perhaps we should say a bit more about the concept of transmutation. We know that the prefix trans implies transference, or to move across a distance (as it is usually used in terms such as Transatlantic or Transkaroo). In Latin the root of the word mutate (mutare) means “to change”. When we say that God can temporarily transmutate, it means that He can temporarily manifest through anything, in other words showcase elements of his ontology (his characteristic being) without Him losing any of those characteristics, and without the vessel which is used (like a donkey or fire) lose any of its ontological characteristics in the process either. The focus here is on temporary manifestation, and that when it happens, the vessel remains the same (that is, donkey remains donkey, and fire remains fire), but that during the theophanic transmutation they gain characteristics which stretches their transcendence. (Don’t worry – this is the last new term which we’re discussing today J). Transcendence means that which stretches beyond our sensory understanding, that which transgresses the borders or your experience of reality. All fire is consuming, but the fire in the bramble bush did not consume it (Ex 3:2)! Moses’ knowledge of fire has him approach the bush with interest: “Then Moses said, ‘I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.’”
The interesting element is to now start pondering about the invisible God in the visible reality, to start seeing him in the world around us. We mentioned earlier from Col 1:15-17 how both visible and invisible things originated, and are maintained, in God. 2 Cor 4:18 tells us a bit more about this distinction between seen/unseen: “For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” There is thus an eternal spiritual realm which exists apart from our visible realm. Everything that is thus visible, is transient. Even the sun will eventually burn out. (The Bible confirms that which scientists would later find out, in Rev 6:12.)
Everything which is visible and thus temporary, has to soak through the invisible and the eternal, so that it can be changed to exist forever! It needs to be an eternal transmutation. To speak in the terms of the empty bronze altar – you, I, and the empty, temporary world in which we exist, has to be fulfilled by the eternal sacrifice of the One who has within himself the eternal fullness – “ye are, in Him, filled full …” (Col 2:9, Rotherham).
But another important question is why God transmutates himself into specific things, like for instance fire? Does there perhaps exist a spiritual, invisible, and thus eternal fire which at times also manifests in our reality as equivalent? And does there exist eternal, invisible things of which we have no equivalent in earthly reality? (As for instance the strange ‘machine’ which Ezekiel sees in chapter 1, or the strange creatures which Daniel, and John on Patmos, saw? We had a physical representation (= a mere image) of the cherubs in the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle, but how do they look in the spiritual realm, and how do they look when they manifest in the earthly realm?
There are key Scriptures in the Bible which explain the detail of these mysteries, and which make clear to us how the temporary world is clothed with God’s eternal presence. Paul states it beautifully in 1 Cor 15:53-54: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
It is of utmost importance to know how this happens.
- Selah: Read 2 Tim 1:10 and pray for revelation concerning this important matter.
- Read: Jer 40-45
- Examine how this has been fulfilled: Jer 45:4 (Tip: Jer 18:7-10; Jer 31:28; Ps 80:8-16; Isa 5:2-
7.)
- For a deeper understanding: Research the term ‘transcendence‘.
