Waiting for Dust-off
Notes From The Real War
The Psychology of Being Christian
By Scout
There are some practical concerns about being a Christian that bother me. The psychological effect of living the Christian life is one of them. We are common clay, but we have stepped into the big-time arena of eternal life and theosis. It transcends all that we do know and can know. It means a re-interpretation of reality. This will have an impact on our psychology. I am going to lift an example of this kind of psychological effect from the war in Vietnam. m.
The Surrealism of Dust-off
Dust-off refers to the medevac by helicopter of wounded soldiers in Vietnam. The U.S. armed forces had the ability to pluck wounded men out of the combat zone very quickly. These men were brought to rear area hospitals for recovery. Sometimes, from there, they would be returned to the United States. The effect was that one moment you are in an intense firefight, and the next moment you are back home. Your reality changed instantaneously.
Though it is not technically dust-off, the same phenomenon happened with men who finished their tour of duty. They would be transported out of the combat zone and were processed out of the armed forces. While this usually took a few weeks, sometimes a guy would be in a fierce firefight one day and a few days later would be sipping beer with friends in a bar back home. Anne Linscott, a veterans disability attorney, wrote this:
Many mental health professionals in Psychiatry attribute the high incidence of PTSD in Vietnam-era veterans to a lack of “decompression” time. During the Vietnam War, it was not uncommon for veterans to be in combat one day and back home with their family a couple of days later due to the availability of jet travel that was not present in previous wars such as World War II.
While lack of decompression may seem like just an odd fact about the war in Vietnam, it has a profound relevance to Christians. It is one of the many practical matters of being a Christian that nobody seems to discuss.
Christians and Dust-off
This World wages war on Christians. It is the real war. The war for the human soul. The siege against all of God’s plans and purposes – prominently, human salvation. Paul refers to the battlefield as the “present evil world.” When Christians die, one day they are combatants and a few seconds later they are at home in paradise sipping a beer with friends. Just like soldiers returning from Vietnam. The change is instant and without decompression, apparently.
What will this sudden change without decompression do to us psychologically? The Vietnam vets did not fare well. This is a problem with many facile answers, but nobody really knows what’s going to happen. It is about human weakness colliding with divine eternity. We are, after all, psychological persons and subject to the ravages of human experience. And there is a further point here that must be made about God and psychology.
God Transcends Psychology
One can readily develop the mistaken belief that we are ready for paradise. That we can embark upon eternal realms without trepidation. Paul does refer to it as “being home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8, ESV), like we are returning to where we should be. But it may not be that easy. If there is anything I have learned as a Christian about living life, it is that many things are not as easy as we might think. My concern about our sudden transition to the afterlife is rooted in the fact that God is not a psychological person, and we are psychological persons. God is at home in transcendental realms, and we are not.
What does it mean when I assert that God is not a psychological person? From my perspective, God is beyond human psychology. You cannot psychoanalyze God. He is not subject to Pavlovian behavioral modification. He does not develop psychoses. He does not develop fixations and tics. He does not engage in manipulation to get his way. Psychology is a vulnerability, and God does not have vulnerabilities. He is not traumatized, nor does he need decompression to process difficult life changes. God creates reality; he is not subject to it as we are. God in perfection transcends psychology. I am not saying that he does not have a personality. He has personality, but he is ever so much more than that. As created beings, our minds are finite. His mind is infinite.
So, we are not ready for God’s realm out of the chute. This caused C.S. Lewis, though an Anglican, to conjecture that there might be some form of Purgatory for us all as a preparation for paradise. I might not align with the details of his view, but I think he must be right in principle. Surely, there must be some onboarding process for paradise that we must all experience and benefit from.
The Armstrongist Counterpoint
Let me not neglect to consider Armstrongism. Just as Armstrongists believe that God has a human-like body, I think they also believe he has a human-like psychology. The God-as-God-is-God idea of human destiny in Armstrongism implies that we as humans have the full Godly nature in just a temporarily attenuated form for now as humans. God, to Armstrongists, is a super-human power. God is simply like us, only more so. Rather than humans having a tiny subset of God’s unknowable, transcendent powers. However, it must be stated that this is implicit in Armstrongist belief and not explicit. This view of a limited God makes the idea that Armstrongists will ultimately become God-as-God-is-God seem plausible.
This fundamentalist view, held by Armstrongists and many others, that God is a psychological being, is inadequate. I believe God is a person and his personhood is perfect. His perfect personhood is reflected in us in a limited form. And this collection of limited traits of mind constitutes what we know as our psychology. The behaviors produced by this limited persona are the object of the study of the discipline of psychology. It is not a surprise that God’s uncreated personhood transcends what we know as the human psychological personality.
For instance, psychology deals extensively with emotion. I believe, like most theologians, that God is impassible. He is the source of love, knowledge, reason, and relationship, but he does not have a fluctuating temperament conditioned by external circumstances like a human being. God creates reality. He has no need to make an emotional response to something he knows fully and generates himself. The language of emotion in the Bible is anthropomorphic, just like the language that portrays God as having a human-like body.
Some will respond to this by asserting that God is then lying if he says he has a hand and he doesn’t have one. Or that he is angry, as we know anger, and he is not. This argument does not have traction. That is because the Biblical use of body parts and emotions pertaining to God is symbolic. They are a vocabulary for conveying principles that we can understand. It is the underlying principle that is the truth. And, further, in theophany, God can appear to be whatever he wants to appear as. If God wants to have a hand, he can have one. If he wants to portray himself as angry in order to communicate sharply that something is wrong, he can do that. But theophany is not his essence. In the last analysis, human emotionalism attributed to God is anthropomorphic.
Summation
We are created beings, and we are not God, who is uncreated and never will be. We will have the privilege of partaking of the divine nature to some degree. The division between God and humans can be seen in the fact that we are psychological subjects and God is not. The limitations of our being psychological subjects present some concern. For instance, how will we cope with the sudden change from life to afterlife? This side of the afterlife, all we can do is render up our opinion. In the meantime, I will be waiting for dust-off.
23 comments:
I like this, Scout. For years, I had a sense of it, but had sorted it out in a less developed fashion, using more primitive terms and concepts than those with which you defined it. The very idea that we would come to an end one day to our regular drinking in of experience on the human plane, and then suddenly, in a twinkling of an eye, would be ruling over cities, nations, or planets always seemed to imply that God would pour His exponentially deeper wisdom, experience, His sense of fairness, and more into a funnel routed to our consciousness seemed like an impossible stretch. Would we even be "us" (ourselves) any more? Wow! Would spiritual PTSD be any less difficult a condition than the physical version? I always wondered about the kids that graduated with honors and acclaim from Ambassador College, and were suddenly thrust into the field with their new wife, getting used to that massive change, and as their first real employment, to counsel and preach to those with decades more experience with life, jobs, family, etc. What a shock to the system!
You have hit upon a hugely expansve topic, one which extends in an upwards and and downwards direction. Throughout life, there are many dramatic experiences with which human creatures must deal! In a sense, those of us who were fans of original Star Trek witnessed a partial application of a viable leap forward through Mr. Spock. Spock was not inhibited by human emotion, and certainly not PTSD. Therefore, he dealt with change more effectively than did his peers. However, he seemed to be familiar with and depend upon psychology from time to time. He also did have feelings for those around him. As Captain Kirk was being consumed with grief over the loss of a woman he loved, Spock was there to listen, and when Kirk eventually nodded off to sleep, Spock reached out, gripped his forehead, and said "Forget!"
Dust off can also occur in less dramatic situations than war, also resulting in PTSD. Loss of a relative, loved one, friend, child. These have been described as life shattering events from which one never recovers. Some have used the vase metaphor, in which the vase is shattered, and then painstakingly glued back together. Like life, it is still there, but never the same. Scar tissue. Loss of a limb, mobility, or one of the senses is another huge change. The wealthy often have specialists who can psychologically take them apart and reconstruct them after such an event, fast forwarding decompression and recovery. Most people deal with these things the best they can, on their own. Loss of a job, bankruptcy, or illness which enslaves one to the medical profession, all have deep psychological overtones. Some still find a way to compartmentalize, to take on a "damn the torpedoes" attitude and to continue to excel. Psychology becomes their ally. It is simultaneously a limitation, but also our friend in combatting incredibly stressful situations.
I'm going to be thinking about this, probably for the next few days, attempting to visualize existence in the absence of psychology. I'd performed a similar exercise after having read a dissertation on the ways in which we are sabotaged by our human emotions, and the two topics are very much intertwined. However, my expectations are that this will run much deeper. We all know that we cannot currently exist separately from our emotions or psychology, but the very idea of God taking us apart, and putting us back together (like rich peoples' life coaches) is actually something very helpful, and awesome to anticipate for the future.
BB
I would imagine that we will have to have a large Angelic staff to pretty much manage us for many years once we are transformed, and to whisper in our ears the protocols for leadership in our role. Sort of like the way when a child became a king, and had to have regents.
You also must take into consideration that Armstrongism teaches that they all will become god's.
As God is now, man will be.
In the twinkling of an eye, when they attain godhood, their minds will instantly be attuned to God. There will be no dissonance to deal with or time to adjust; they will have perfect minds, teach perfect things, and will instantly commit perfect acts. They will have dominion over all things. The planets and stars will be at their command. Nations will bow down before them and listen to every word they teach. They will restore a damaged world physically, mentally, and spiritually. They will be enforcers of the sabbath, even though the Sabbath Rest dwells among them and all humanity. No more pork will be eaten. Society will be vegetarian as it was in the time of Adam, as killing an animal is not permitted (this was actually taught by one of my ministers). The myths that the church created about this are endless.
BB wrote, “These have been described as life shattering events from which one never recovers.”
I attended a security meeting once and the speaker brought up a chilling point. He said that studies showed that someone who experiences three major life changing events within the span of a year will either get very sick or die. The events don’t even have to be bad events. They could be good events. He cited an example of a person who did not come to work one morning. Circumstances did not seem right so emergency personnel went to the person’s house. They found the person sitting on the couch dead with no signs of injury. The person had experienced three life-changing events, some of them tragic, in a short period and simply sat down and died.
I have since read that this is not a hard and fast rule because some people manage to find support in their community or with family. They manage to cope by some means. Change is a serious issue. Humans, I think, became routine-based as a matter of survival. Anything that breaks routine is a stressor.
Scout
What a ridiculous article. God is above reality? No! God defines reality just like computer programmers write a computer language, and then have to religiously obey it in writing useful programs. Likewise God created the periodic table in chemistry, then religiously applied it in his created creatures and vegetation. For instance, the human body is made up of over 2 million different chemical compounds. The "man of clay" label that ministers love to use to put their members down is unjust. Psychology is a study of the mind of God. He has given humans his mind with all its drives and biases. Anger for instance is a call to action, as in the case of Jeremiah 30:24. Calling his emotions symbolic is not what my bible tells me.
Jeremiah 30:24 "The fierce anger of the Lord will not turn back
until he fully accomplishes the purposes of his heart. In days to come
you will understand this".
I think God's got it covered with Jesus Christ from the foundation of the world. Who in their right mind compares the glorious resurection of the dead, the utter defeat of death with the corrupt Vietnam war that none wanted, most of all the American people.
Have you no joy? Have you become a victim of your own hubris? You war against people for what gain?
Anonymous 11:48 wrote, "What a ridiculous article. God is above reality? No! God defines reality..."
Why don't you explain to us how God can define reality without being above it. We can then evaluate how ridiculous that explanation is. And "your Bible" does not tell you whether these things are symbolic or not, that is, if you read one of the commonly published Bibles. What you are actually referring to is your personal interpretation of the Bible.
You might have asked me a question with greater gravitas. Like, if God creates reality is not everything pre-determined like the Calvinists believe. My answer would have been that God pre-determines much of reality but permits us some degree of freedom. But he is never surprised. God created everything and sustains it all. All beings, flesh or spirit, operate under his license. This is what makes theodicy so hard.
Scout
Anonymous 4:51 wrote, "Who in their right mind compares the glorious resurection of the dead..."
Is salvation all just a glorious dreamscape or is it real? When the Bible states that resurrected Christians will reign with Christ during the Millennium is that just theater or will someone actually have to take charge of operating the waste management system for the Decapolis? Saying Jesus will take care of it is just an artful dodge. God could do it all himself, but he is going to give us the dignity of causality. And that causality will be real world. If you are a Christian, you need to adjust your thinking to the fact that there is a real job of service waiting for you in the next life. When the Kingdom of God ensues in its geopolitical form, you are going to see lots of people get killed. You may even kill some of them. You are not going to be reclining on a throne in a palace eating grapes and barking orders to your scurrying minions.
My two cents ...
Scout
""Dust-off"" is the conversion process in this life-time to ...."Christ in you"......Colossians 1:27.
God is not a great dictator, how boring and unjust that would be for God. Free moral will is what it says it is on the box.
Was God expecting Moses to offer himself in place of the Israelites? Was Jesus not stunned with pleasant surprise at the faith shown by the Roman Army chief when he asked just for his word to heal his ill servant? Was Jesus not disgusted with the corruption of the religious leaders in the Temple?
Why does God do trials to test his faithful?
Not 11:48.
Never wrote or ever thought I was.
Although I have actually endured a sermon on 'how will garbage disposal, water system and waste management be done in the Millenium' at a feast site in the last ten years. It'll be online somewhere. It was a awful and tedius sermon and I thought I was the only one not liking it, until the next day service when a regional Pastor type took the podium by storm and boomed out at his loudest a sermon about men 'preaching from the figment of their imagination and not the bible during Tabernacles !!!!'
"Why don't you explain to us how God can define reality without being above it."
I did just that. Scientists think the universe is a bout 14 billion years old. What has God being doing this whole time? We can see the fruits of his labor by observing the creation. This includes the various fruits, vegetables, grains, vegetations etc. This includes all the creatures in the air, on the ground and in the sea. There are ongoing documentaries on what God has designed. He created the 118 elements in the period table, and then strained all these years creating everything we see around us. Christ honored the creation many times such as turning water into wine (wine is mostly water) and using a small quantity of fish and bread to feed a multitude (bread comes from sowing seeds etc and fish comes from breeding/catching fish). Notice how God also used natural forces (typically invasion) to punish nations. God does on occasion use advanced technology to over ride the "real world" such as the chains that fell
off Paul's hands in Acts 12:7, but this is the exception.
Your writings typically fail to honor that there is a firm reality. Students that studied physics and chemistry at school have the advantage in understanding this.
Anonymous 10:46, "I did just that."
I don't think you did just that by anybody's definition. You stated, "God
is above reality? No! God defines reality..." I asked you to show us how this can be and you did not. You instead spoke about God's creative activities which does not resolve anything.
Your statement is illogical. The creator of something is always above and superior to the thing created. So, you show us how God is inferior to the creation yet created it.
Scout
Anonymous 10:18 wrote, "God is not a great dictator"
No, he is not a dictator. But he has determined many things about our reality.
But not everything. Like I wrote, he permits us some degree of freedom, particularly in the moral arena. So, I wrote nothing that would lead one to believe that God is a dictator. Do you have me confused with someone else?
Scout
Well Scout,
Mr. Meredith used to say when Christ returns He is returning like dictator, and he will rule with a "rod" of iron.
My 10:18 comment was in reply to the 7:31 comment.
Are you really interested in discussing the subjects you write articles on ? To hear different opinions? I don't think you are actually, seen it too many times. You seem far more interested in stating your opinion in an article and then writing condecending argumentative and pompous, replies to anyone who disagrees with any points in the originial article. Well that comes across as an attitude of a controlling person. You seem to even want to control who dares reads these articles.
This is a very thought provoking comment 10:46. Many thanks for posting.
3.28, You answered with your frequent direct or indirect invalidation of views you disagree with. Logic shouldn't be like some light switch that you turn on or off to suit your beliefs.
Scout
What John calls the mickey mouse Millennium is perhaps the purgatory, the decompression period you speak of for the saints. As you say, we will have assignments, we will be dealing with humans with real human needs and wants. It will be a time of restoring the world (Acts 3:19-21) to God's way of thinking. I see the Millennium as a transitional period for saint and sinner alike!
"Psychology" is a deep subject and your post generates many discussion points for which I wish I had the time to invest. If anyone is interested, I highly recommend David Antion's site at Guardian Ministries (daveantion.com). As a licensed Psychologist, he has a boat load of sermons dealing with some of the very sub-topics you speak of.
Great post Scout!
When I put out a viewpoint, I believe I must defend it. Otherwise, it is clouds without rain. I have been shut down before. Notably, Miller Jones pointed out that I did not understand the Christian doctrine of the Kingdom of God. I was still using the old, erroneous Armstrongist concept. This led me to study and a revision.
I like to read other viewpoints, but I also critique other viewpoints, just as readers critique my viewpoints. Otherwise, there is no iron sharpens iron effect.
When I write something for a blog audience, I understand that I am exposing the writing to review. I think all commenters should understand that.
Scout
God doesn’t need a regent.
"When I put out a viewpoint, I believe I must defend it."
Personally, I feel you are punishing people for not agreeing with you.
Then certainity of your own opinion is a jail you cannot break out of.
I once heard an exasperated Pastor exclaim out loud about his younger Pastor heir apparent: "He never means a word he says." And therein lies a trap of life. Who really means the comments they are making, even on here. Who is genuine? Who is sincere? Who is honest and true? Who is playing a manipulating game? Only the Lord knows. But he does know.
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