spauline
August 21st 2007, 03:09 AM
OK, you can take all five of the following posts of mine and correlate them:
The Seven Heads and Seven Days (http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-7HJjW9kieKlaV2usQKhFiwefjXc-?cq=1&p=108)
Final Jewish Conversion, a hypothesis (http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-7HJjW9kieKlaV2usQKhFiwefjXc-?cq=1&p=116) and an Additional Reflection (http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-7HJjW9kieKlaV2usQKhFiwefjXc-?cq=1&p=97)
False Prophet Prelude (http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-7HJjW9kieKlaV2usQKhFiwefjXc-?cq=1&p=91)
The False Prophet as anti-Sacramentalism, part I (http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-7HJjW9kieKlaV2usQKhFiwefjXc-?cq=1&p=122)
and combine them for interesting and profound meaning (IMHO !):
Here goes, from the first article about the beast and days of creation, there are presumably eight total stages of salvation history, 5 in the OT, and 3 in the NT.
From the article on the Jewish Conversion hypothesis, we see that the 3 stages of the NT are really just the intrinsically necessary fulfillment of the 3 stages of the Jews of the OT, both of these being the three-stage way of the saint in Catholic spirituality (purgative, illuminative, and unitive stages), which, according to the hypothesis, are themselves simply a microcosmic example of what the General People of God must pass through in the general journey of a major Salvific Covenant.
This leaves the very first 2 stages of salvation history unexplained. Are they then arbitrary? By no means! The solution to these stages, and of the whole collection of stages is filled in by the false prophet! Indeed, Augustine, in the quote of the second essay, hints at the two preliminary stages as having a special preeminence:
Of these ages the first is from the beginning of the human race, that is, from Adam, who was the first man that was made, down to Noah, who constructed the ark at the time of the flood. Then the second extends from that period on to Abraham, who was called the father indeed of all nations which should follow the example of his faith, but who at the same time in the way of natural descent from his own flesh was the father of the destined people of the Jews; which people, previous to the entrance of the Gentiles into the Christian faith, was the one people among all the nations of all lands that worshipped the one true God: from which people also Christ the Saviour was decreed to come according to the flesh. For these turning-points of those two ages occupy an eminent place in the ancient books.
The first two ages then, are precisely correllated to the two primary lies of the dragon that are typified in the false prophet's two anti-sacramental horns.
Simply look at the history:
In the first great age of sin, we have the Fall and near total wickedness of the pre-Flood humanity. That is, in this first great age, humanity is mainly buying into the first lie of the dragon, which, as we have seen, is the anti-thesis of Baptism: You do not need to believe in God nor obey him ("wickedness").
In the second great age, Babel, it is appropriately the second primary lie of the serpent that is believed, "You shall be like gods", that is, the antithesis of Marriage. More specifically, whereas in marriage, we have the ultimate calling of our existence manifested-- to live in total, intimate union, penetration, gift and reception of love, of intellect and will, forever, that is, that God has made the Creation, in marriage and many other ways, to image to us the sacramental mysteries of faith and love and meaning--, in contrast, in the antithesis of marriage, the Creation is "taken" from the "tree of life", thereby divorcing it from its life-giving, teaching, loving catechesis, and made to become a superificial end in and of itself. Hence, "let us build a Tower to heaven", that is, the Creation alone can bring us ultimate fulfillment. It does not have sacramental meaning of love and spiritual mystery, it is not a means to a spiritual end, but an end in and of itself, physically. Hence, the lie of secular and materialistic messianism.
And so the first two ages of salvation history indeed have preeminence, seeing as they form the basic essence of ALL iniquity in human history, these same two lies being the essence of all subsequent stages of sin in the Two great Covenants that follow for the People of Old and New, respectively.
The Seven Heads and Seven Days (http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-7HJjW9kieKlaV2usQKhFiwefjXc-?cq=1&p=108)
Final Jewish Conversion, a hypothesis (http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-7HJjW9kieKlaV2usQKhFiwefjXc-?cq=1&p=116) and an Additional Reflection (http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-7HJjW9kieKlaV2usQKhFiwefjXc-?cq=1&p=97)
False Prophet Prelude (http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-7HJjW9kieKlaV2usQKhFiwefjXc-?cq=1&p=91)
The False Prophet as anti-Sacramentalism, part I (http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-7HJjW9kieKlaV2usQKhFiwefjXc-?cq=1&p=122)
and combine them for interesting and profound meaning (IMHO !):
Here goes, from the first article about the beast and days of creation, there are presumably eight total stages of salvation history, 5 in the OT, and 3 in the NT.
From the article on the Jewish Conversion hypothesis, we see that the 3 stages of the NT are really just the intrinsically necessary fulfillment of the 3 stages of the Jews of the OT, both of these being the three-stage way of the saint in Catholic spirituality (purgative, illuminative, and unitive stages), which, according to the hypothesis, are themselves simply a microcosmic example of what the General People of God must pass through in the general journey of a major Salvific Covenant.
This leaves the very first 2 stages of salvation history unexplained. Are they then arbitrary? By no means! The solution to these stages, and of the whole collection of stages is filled in by the false prophet! Indeed, Augustine, in the quote of the second essay, hints at the two preliminary stages as having a special preeminence:
Of these ages the first is from the beginning of the human race, that is, from Adam, who was the first man that was made, down to Noah, who constructed the ark at the time of the flood. Then the second extends from that period on to Abraham, who was called the father indeed of all nations which should follow the example of his faith, but who at the same time in the way of natural descent from his own flesh was the father of the destined people of the Jews; which people, previous to the entrance of the Gentiles into the Christian faith, was the one people among all the nations of all lands that worshipped the one true God: from which people also Christ the Saviour was decreed to come according to the flesh. For these turning-points of those two ages occupy an eminent place in the ancient books.
The first two ages then, are precisely correllated to the two primary lies of the dragon that are typified in the false prophet's two anti-sacramental horns.
Simply look at the history:
In the first great age of sin, we have the Fall and near total wickedness of the pre-Flood humanity. That is, in this first great age, humanity is mainly buying into the first lie of the dragon, which, as we have seen, is the anti-thesis of Baptism: You do not need to believe in God nor obey him ("wickedness").
In the second great age, Babel, it is appropriately the second primary lie of the serpent that is believed, "You shall be like gods", that is, the antithesis of Marriage. More specifically, whereas in marriage, we have the ultimate calling of our existence manifested-- to live in total, intimate union, penetration, gift and reception of love, of intellect and will, forever, that is, that God has made the Creation, in marriage and many other ways, to image to us the sacramental mysteries of faith and love and meaning--, in contrast, in the antithesis of marriage, the Creation is "taken" from the "tree of life", thereby divorcing it from its life-giving, teaching, loving catechesis, and made to become a superificial end in and of itself. Hence, "let us build a Tower to heaven", that is, the Creation alone can bring us ultimate fulfillment. It does not have sacramental meaning of love and spiritual mystery, it is not a means to a spiritual end, but an end in and of itself, physically. Hence, the lie of secular and materialistic messianism.
And so the first two ages of salvation history indeed have preeminence, seeing as they form the basic essence of ALL iniquity in human history, these same two lies being the essence of all subsequent stages of sin in the Two great Covenants that follow for the People of Old and New, respectively.