Friday, September 17, 2021

day no. 15,670: poetic potential

Colossians 1:16-17
By him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

The thought occurred to me today (April 27, 2020) that history may be a chiasm. This is not a prophecy or meant to imply any particular course of action, but only to document a particular poetic possibility that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, may be the pivot point and hinge of all chronological human history. 

In a chiasm, the center point is typically the main point. So when the set up is 1, 2, 3, 2, 1 for example, 3 would be the pivot point and emphasis of the entire chiasm. It would be the hinge on which the whole thing turned, the pivot point on which all the pressure is emphasized and realized. It is the point which everything before it lead up to and the point from which all things afterwards extend from. It is the center of gravity of the entire endeavor. 1 and 2 build up to 3 and 2 and 1 flow immediately out of it. The symmetry of 1 and 2 being reflected in 2 and 1 demonstrate how the build up complements the release and how the trajectory of the one produced the momentum of the latter.

All that to say, if Christ's life, death and resurrection occurred roughly 4,000 years into history, that would lead to 4,000 years to follow. Again, this is not a prediction and not meant in any way to imply this is what God is up to or something He has told or revealed to me. This was merely a passing thought about poetry and how the beauty of a chiasm would be evidenced in the return of Jesus roughly 4,000 years after His ascension in order to make His time among us as the Word made flesh in His living, dying and rising again the pivot point, linchpin and hinge on which all time and eternity turn. 

That is to say if it manifested itself in the form of a chiasm. The fact of that matter is already determinedly, fixedly, inexorably true: Jesus' life, death, resurrection and ascension is the center and watershed of all time and history. Whether or not God were to write the story of earth in this particular poetic fashion, two facts still remain: (1) Jesus' life, death and resurrection are the focus of all existence and (2) our story is being written in beautiful prose. In other words, a chiasm is not the only poetic possibility, but Jesus is the only possible point on which everything turns. This form of poetry may not be how our story ends up being written, but our story is being written poetically, one way or another.

Romans 11:36
For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

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