Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Some thoughts on Philippians 2: 5-11 and its relation to Multiple Universe Theory

Philippians 2: 5-11

 5 Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 


I have been thinking about this passage for years. It is one that holds my interest as it unpacks a little about Jesus’s deity and what He gave up to come to us to save us. There are some tough word choices that I think have messed up many people’s theology. To start it states Jesus “existed in the form of God”. Some take that to mean Jesus was not God but merely a form of God. Jesus was fully Man and fully God. However, this “form”, I believe, is in reference to the pre-incarnational existence of Jesus and not His earthly attributes.

Next, Jesus did not grasp for His equality with God. Why would He? Being God incarnate, Jesus would still be God but only as a human being. However, here is where it gets tricky. Jesus emptied Himself of His divinity to become a human being. This is a bit hard to grasp unless you begin to study about multiple dimensions.

According to science, there are at least 10 dimensions, (some state there is even more). They are 10, according to this PBS article. [1]


I know that is a lot to take in, and I may have lost many of you. However, this is important as I begin to unpack this idea of how/why Jesus emptied Himself by becoming a human. First let us look at the idea that there is a two dimensional person. This person can only see things from the perspective of a plain or two points. It would be like drawing a stick-man who can move right or left or up and down on a page. However, this stick-man cannot move in the 3D world. Now say, this 2D stick-man encounters a simple orb from the 3D world. The stick-man would not grasp what an orb is. Instead, from his perspective he would only see a circle with a dot in the middle of it.

Now, imagine being a 3D being, (as you already are) who wants to show a 2D person what an orb is. In a way, this is impossible. There are two possible ways to do this. One is to become a 2D person and use metaphors and other tools to explain within the 2D world what a 3D world is like. This would be much like how Jesus would state, “The Kingdom of God is like…” Jesus taught in parables that revealed higher meaning to the hearer if they had ears to hear. Jesus also performed miracles within our world. The first miracle being, Jesus emptying Himself and became a human otherwise known as the incarnation.

Another way that a 3D being would show a 2D being is to help the 2D being become a 3D being. I think this is much like the Biblical teaching of the idea of being "Born of Heaven" that is now, and the "New Creation" that is to come. In a sense, I see the idea of the multidimensional universe as an intriguing tool to show that science can open a deeper understanding for our faith. While many who have developed this multiple universe theory are atheists, I see that there is at least the possibility of a higher being that does exist in another dimension that we would not even begin to grasp. In some sense, this being might not be God or a god, but would appear to us as if they were. However, there is in my opinion the huge possibility that if there is a Higher Being it is God the Creator of all.

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