ANAMORPHIC CHRISTIANITY
I Loved working on my new book: ANAMORPHIC CHRISTIANITY
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the word Anamorphic: It describes an image or an object that is aligned in such a way that only by viewing them from a specific direction, or from a specific angle, will they become recognizable. Viewing them from any other angle will reveal a distorted picture. (See image below)
To get the full value of an anamorphic image there are two basic elements to consider:
Firstly, the CONTENT of the image: All the components to complete the image need to be present and positioned correctly. One missing element, or one misplaced element, will distort the image. If one of the lines in the picture is missing or not positioned correctly, the image will be incomplete and distorted.
Secondly, the VANTAGE POINT of the viewer: Only when all the elements of the image are aligned correctly and viewed from the right angle, will the image appear undistorted. The viewer, therefore, needs to find the one spot that will align the elements correctly and reveal the undistorted image. In the image above the full picture will only be revealed by viewing from the side where the walls, contours, and lines align.
These principles apply to our faith as well: all the truths, virtues, elements, and teachings need to be present, aligned correctly and viewed from the correct vantage point. If not, we distort the image of Christ that we hope to display to the world
I was enthralled in exploring truth, worship, salvation, faith, holiness, missions, love, etc as anamorphic images and discovering the elements needed, and finding the vantage point required, to reveal the undistorted image of Christ. That vantage point is obviously redemption – if you look at truth, love, missions or any other image from any other angle it becomes distorted. It was a fascinating journey.
I realised anew how distorted truth can be when observed from the wrong position. Or even how distorted worship can be if it doesn’t contain all the elements that Scripture designed it to be
Well, the book is nearly ready and you can place your order.
The 12 chapters of the book are as follows:
- An anamorphic view of TRUTH
- An anamorphic view of SALVATION
- An anamorphic view of FAITH
- An anamorphic view of HOLINESS
- An anamorphic view of WORSHIP
- An anamorphic view of GENEROSITY
- An anamorphic view of TIME
- An anamorphic view of WORDS
- An anamorphic view of SUFFERING
- An anamorphic view of MISSIONS
- An anamorphic view of NEWS
- An anamorphic view of LOVE
One chapter that particularly intrigued me was an anamorphic view of TIME. Here’s a taster
Anamorphic view of TIME
Time is probably the one gift from God that we appreciate least. If we valued time as much as we did money, this world would be a different place.
Time is key to faith. The Bible frequently refers to seasons, opportunities, and, when Christ was born, the fullness of time. Time is one of the rarest commodities equally available to all human beings and therefore one of the most important subjects in faith. A second lost cannot be recovered. An opportunity missed might never present itself again. Time cannot be saved, stretched, or recovered. And, the most glorious of all, time is available to every person in the same measure.
But time is not a one-dimensional commodity. It contains elements, according to scripture, that need to be placed and aligned together to provide an anamorphic image that, when watched from the right angle, will open a new world to those who seek to influence the Kingdom.
Before we look at the Bible, let’s engage our scientific brains and listen to Professor Brian Cox, everyone’s favourite softly spoken physicist who appears frequently on BBC with his talks on Time and Space[1] Professor Cox defines time as follows: (we need to read this slowly and more than once to get the full meaning):
“Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to compare the duration of events or the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change of quantities in material reality or in the conscious experience. Time is often referred to as a fourth dimension, along with three spatial dimensions. Time in physics is operationally defined as “what a clock reads”. The physical nature of time is addressed by general relativity with respect to events in space-time. “
In layman’s terms, Cox refers to time as a “forward arrow” with two distinctive trademarks
- Time is irreversible and cannot be made undone
- Everything will eventually come to nothing
Now, as true as this scientific definition of time might be, we have already discovered in the introduction the glorious truth that God is timeless and trans-dimensional. He is not bound by space or time. For God, a moment in time is like a thousand years, or the other way round[2]. How glorious to know that time submits to God and that He exists outside time altogether. He is temporal in the sense that He is with us every second of the day but at the same time everlasting; that is, God never began to exist and he never will go out of existence. He exists at each moment in time.
For us mortals, however, dwelling on earth with no hope of escaping the dimensional boundaries we are subject to, time is simply the watch I wear on my wrist and the clock on the wall to announce it’s time to go home.
Or is it?
Exploring time from a Biblical perspective presents a far greater and glorious anamorphic experience.
Rev. Dr. Peter Leithart, President of Theopolis Institute and Teacher at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, has a different understanding of time[3]. He asks the question: Did God create time? And then concludes with the following statement:
“We want to say Yes. The reasoning is simple: God created everything. Time is a thing. Therefore, God created time. Inspect Genesis 1, though, and you’re brought up short. God speaks light into existence on Day 1, names the light day, separates it from darkness, and sets them up in an alternating dance of evening and morning. Evenings and mornings pass, piling up days, until the end of the creation week. God creates light and the rhythm of days. But what about time?
On Day 4, God concentrates the light of Day 1 into heavenly lamps, the sun, moon, and stars. He places them in the firmament to separate and rule day and night, “for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years” (Gen 1:14). Lights conduct the music of evenings and mornings, the cycles of the seasons, the turning of months and years. Yahweh labours for six days, then enters Sabbath rest, establishing the pattern of a week. Days, weeks, months, years all make their appearance in Genesis 1. But is that time?
We might conclude the Bible is too primitive to offer a “philosophy of time.” But the biblical view of time isn’t childish. It’s just radically different from both ancient philosophical and modern scientific views.”
Leithart then makes this important statement.
“In the Bible, time is personal. (ponder that thought for a moment) Time isn’t an infinite container or a blank colourless constant. It’s shaped by human action and decision and takes on different tonalities, depending on what we’re called to do.
Scripture, in short, invites us into an alternative time-world, a world in which time is finally filled to fullness, until it bursts out in times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.”
The thought that time is personal according to scripture is profoundly powerful. This is distinctly different from the scientific view and provides an anamorphic image that cannot be left unexplored by those who call themselves followers of a trans-dimensional God – who is not bound by space nor by time. We know God views time as a personal possession because we are told to:
- USE IT: Esther 4:14 “… And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
- APPRECIATE IT: Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
- NUMBER IT: Psalm 90:12 “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
- MANAGE IT: John 9:4 “As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.”
- REDEEM IT: Colossians 4:5 “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.” (KJV)
But to use time wisely we are probably best advised to:
- RESCUE IT: Ephesians 5:15-16 “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”
………..
[1] https://hdclump.com/brian-coxs-adventures-in-space-and-time-episode-4-what-is-time/
[2] Psalm 90:4 A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.
[3] https://hebraicthought.org/time-in-the-bible/