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THE SPLENDOUR OF THE BIBLICAL COVERAGE

OF THE MEANING AND MATRIX OF MAN

Rev. Dr. Robert E. Donaldson

Published December 2011

ISBN 978-0-9871661-6-6

PREFACE

What is the MATRIX of man ? It is all that most deeply and essentially is his lot, post, position, being, scope and meaning. What is so splendid about the scope of the splendour of the divine coverage of these things in the Bible ? It is manifold, and this book has this as topic; but manifestly at the very outset, it has a vast array of subjects, surveyed in depth, covered categorically, endued with meaning, provided with method, and since freedom is one of these - not autonomy - there is a depth in the coverage.

As to this, it is sublime, but only because the One who made this freedom did it so very well. It is not the freedom of gods, who imagine they are total beings at large, and find they are not; nor is it yet the freedom of serfs, allowed to do what they are told in return for a dubious protection or a specious provision. It is the freedom of a being created in the image of the One whose freedom is autonomous, but not in the bad sense that this term evokes when applied to man's mental mischiefs for himself. When the One IS the creator and maintainer and sovereign and Lord, then being autonomous is merely an objective description of who He is.

If it were not for His love, the freedom would not, for my part at least, amount to much. Some might find it better; but what is the value of being free to choose, unless choice includes what is worth having ? And what is the value, even at that, if the word of the offeror, here deity, is not reliable. A wonderful flight over the Pacific on promise, is one thing; but if it is neither wonderful nor over the Pacific, deceit merely makes mockery of offer, and hence of liberty.

Why is love so important ? It is for these reasons, amid many more. First, if you are not loved, what are you at ? Do you want to strive with incalculable forces all your life, in order to show what a fine macho figure you cut, or what a devious entrepreneur of life, you have become ? What is the good of that ? What good is survival in itself ? let alone in order to satiate pride! You say, I have got much! So be it, but of what ? of a life which ends amid pain and weakness, of a respect which worms consume, of a daring profile which passes with the sweeping of the dust on the desolate lands of your interment ? and if not literally, then figuratively. Gladly does one leave that to those who choose such sudden, intrusive, incursive thrust to cut down the poppies, and sever the flowers. Besides that, what ARE the flowers, which parade their power, seek their respectability and pride themselves on the good reason others have for conferring it, or on their own prowess whether in deceit, pretence or pretension, obscure cunning or manipulative success ? These are no flowers but parasites for psychic self-aggrandisement or social accretions!

Loveless, you are merely a parade. If however you HAVE love, that is, see clearly the need to be willing to sacrifice yourself for whatever is your duty or responsibility, then it has a cause and a basis. Everything does, except the false models which deny it, though at that, their domain is mere imagination.

Love, like loveliness, has a basis. It is incalculable, ultimate, and seen throughout nature in multitudes of parental provisions for their young, care, concern and quest. It is found in many martyrs, and above all in Jesus Christ, whose whole mission of self-revelation of God, not merely in words, but in deeds practical and perfect, prompted by this very love, displayed the sovereign's character who has created us all, and with us, the environment of terms, whether protoplasmic, purposive, positive or negative, mental, psychic, moral, spiritual, in which we work, whether to affirm or deny, to distort or discern. Nothing comes from nothing, and what comes does so for a reason.

Love makes life wonderful. There is a depth beyond mere living which is its base, a meaning which is its point, a willingness which is its attestation of the concern of the Creator, on the one side, as there is likewise a discipline and a disorder which is the attestation of things awry, whether this be so personally or nationally, or generically for mankind. Moreover, there is wisdom far surpassing our own which has limits so obvious when you compare DNA and our best achievements, and limping efforts to copy some for of the exquisite technical feats with which nature is festooned in its creation by a power as unseen by us as is for each his or her own mind, and as immaterial as are our perspectives and deliberations.

Love makes liberty meaningful, valuable, enticing if not entrancing, deep and challenging, hopeful and reasonable. Liberty makes the field personal, with a virtually infinite variety of uses for it. Together these supply a world of vast scope, and it is this scope which the Bible provides in a measure so powerful, broad and yet acutely pointed, which makes one part of its splendour. Time and space are its domain, and the architect behind their architecture, fashioning the fashionable after making it, and granting the psyche of man its reflective and purposive part amid the rest, even the power to reason on demand, to relish and evaluate, and to seek values where they may not be found, as is most usual, or where they are, which does not change, this being but one of the aspects of the Creator-Redeemer, who having made time, for Himself, like those who find His redemption, is everlasting.

Love does not stifle truth, but rejoices in it; for without truth, horror has no hiatus. Sleeping where waking is required is as sensible spiritually as it is to do so when watching on a merchant ship, for danger from torpedoes. Faith is not another name for inaction, but for what gears action; but it rests in the Lord, and does not seek to take over because of fear. Yet the fear of the Lord remains clear forever, a wholesome fear, not terror, for in Him only is there the immovable Rock which does not falter, the indelible doctrine which does not alter and the unswerving reliability in which one rests as a bird in its nest; and no wind can shake this one!

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

Psalm 103

The All-encompassing Grandeur of God in His Glory

CHAPTER TWO

GRACE AND LIBERTY

CHAPTER THREE

THE MORBID FASCINATION WITH MYTHS

CHAPTER 4

PRE-CHRISTMAS SEASON MEDITATION

with Ephesians 2:18-22 in focus

How Great is the Splendour of the Biblical Coverage

of the Matrix and Meaning of Man!