Pregnancy, Wonderful and Beautiful! Revelation of the Developing Old Testament?

Summary:

God gives to woman an ineffable gift: to carry a wonderful child in gestation, in her womb, growing from a tiny cell--slowly, wonderfully--into a little fully formed babe, for nine precious months, till it pours forth into the world as new life at birth.

Is it is possible that there is an utterly profound theology and meaning to these incomprehensibly beautiful and loving moments that are shared by a most blessed lady, to partake of bringing life into the world? I truly believe in my heart that there is, and this, precisely in the reality of the Old Testament.

More specifically, just as a beloved lady must carry a child in her womb for nine months, so, in any world that would happen to Fall and that was to then receive an Incarnation from God, I believe that there would need to be the same nine theological phases of history to prepare for Incarnate One.

Nine ages of Preparatory Development are Necessary in any Fallen World before it Receives an Incarnation

Early Man, Tending toward Paganism, is Not Ready for the Trinity and Incarnation

An Old Covenant that Emphasizes God’s Oneness and Spiritual Nature is Necessary

Early Man is Materialistic, and so Needs a Covenant of Pictures of What Really Matters

The Prefiguring Covenant cannot Come Immediately

Man will First Turn Heavily Toward the Fall

The Lies of the Fall will be Digested

The Lies are Two, against the Two Great Reasons We Exist

The Two Great Lies: Anti-Baptism and Anti-Marriage

The First Four Ages of Humanity

The People of God should Journey the Way of the Saint Historically

The Three Ways can be Broken Down into Five Parts

From these theological arguments, Old Testament history consists of nine total parts, like the nine months of gestation.

The Loving Beauty of Pregnancy, the Beautiful Baby in the Womb, and the Developing Old Testament

The wonder and beauty of our God, that from the total love and exchange of two persons, wholly to one another, reckless abandonment into each other’s arms and bodies, can come a third priceless person, a child, is an immeasurably splendid gift from our Creator, in that it images the very Triune Nature of God Himself: that just as woman proceeded from man, of equal substance and priceless worth, so the Son, of equal substance and Divinity, proceeded from the Father; and that just as the total self-giving, cherishing love between man and woman becomes another priceless person, a third cherished person, a child, so also the totally reckless exchange of love and gift between Father and Son became, from all eternity, the Holy Spirit, a third Person of equal substance and Divinity.

And were that not enough, God gives to woman an ineffable gift, to carry a wonderful child in gestation, in her womb, growing from a tiny cell, slowly, wonderfully, into a little fully formed babe, for nine precious months, till it pours forth into the world as new life at birth.

Is it possible that there is an utterly profound theology and meaning to these incomprehensibly beautiful and loving moments that are shared by a most blessed lady, to partake of bringing life into the world? I truly believe in my heart that there is, and this, precisely in the reality of the Old Testament.

More specifically, we know from Catholic mystery that God could never just spew out in fullness the God-man into the world from the beginning of history. Rather, ages must develop until the Eternal Son can come down from heaven and enter human history as a creature like us. There would need to be preparation, just as a baby must prepare in his mommy's womb to come forth. And so, in this regard, I will state something very bold and then offer profound argumentation to support it: Just as a beloved lady must carry a child in her womb for nine months, so, in any world that would happen to Fall and that was to then receive an Incarnation from God, I believe that there would need to be the same nine theological phases of history to prepare for Incarnate One.

Sound crazy? Come and see!

Early Man, Tending toward Paganism, is not Ready for the Trinity and Incarnation

Firstly, is it not true that if an arbitrary world falls, the beginning rational creatures who are fallen will be primitive and subject to paganism? Indeed, when man is fallen, he makes himself God (“You shall be like gods, knowing good and evil”). And so God, or the Divine, as man sees it, becomes like fallen man. Hence the divine is in multiplicities, and with constant conflicting passions and desires, that is, polytheism. Also, humanity deifies itself and Creation, since he does not regard God in His proper place. Therefore, we ask, could God reveal the Trinity and Incarnation at this point? No way! Man would think, first of all, that the Father, Son, and Spirit were three little g gods, like Mormonism. And since they still very much regard power as something to be grasped at, they will not be impressed with the suffering servant God-man. They would rather say, Show us your infinite power.

An Old Covenant that Emphasizes God’s Oneness and Spiritual Nature is Necessary

So God must first reinforce basic Monotheism, that is, the absolute pure spiritual nature of God, His Oneness, which is to exist, and the emphatic stress that no man can be God, and that man is beneath God and dependent on Him.

Early Man is Materialistic, and so Needs a Covenant of Pictures of What Really Matter

Secondly, doesn’t a child need illustration first before the abstraction of written word without pictures? Moreover, will not man, in this early stage of development, still be, because of the fall, quite partial to the material order and less inclined to the spiritual? How much more, then, will God need to establish a starting, Prefiguring Covenant that will need to use veritable material pictures, or types, of what will eventually be revealed in the New as regards what really matters.

Hence, we have established the absolute necessity of the Jewish Covenant before Incarnate One comes.

The Prefiguring Covenant cannot Come Immediately

Man will First Turn Heavily toward the Fall

Now, we ask, right after man falls, is he ready immediately for such covenant? I argue not! I would argue rather from our world’s experience that before God can form the Prefiguring People (derivatively Abraham and the Hebrews), humanity shall be so privy to the fallen nature that they shall seek to digest its primary lies, each with necessary restraining chastisement, even before the prefiguring covenant can commence.

The Lies of the Fall will be Digested

The Lies are Two, against the Two Great Reasons We Exist

Now, we ask, what are the lies of the fall, and how are they digested?

Here, I appeal to the reasons we exist: If we have a certain definite set of reasons we exist, then clearly the lies of the fall would be to totally negate these. This is a good game-plan, and, in fact, we know these reasons, per the Catechism, clearly, ANY rational creature, human, angel, or rational alien, can only find meaning in these two things:

1. To seek to know, love, and serve God in this life

2. To seek to be happy with God forever in the next life

Now, knowing and loving God is akin to faith and repentance, which are the primary dispositions necessary for Baptism. So the first principle, or reason, is summed up in the Baptismal Disposition.

The second principle, or reason, is akin to Marriage with God, since, collectively, in Heaven, we will all be the Spouse, or Bride, of Christ, where Jesus will impregnate us with the full gift of Himself, His Mystery, His Love, forever, without end--an unending spiritual ecstasy! So the second principle is therefore like a spiritual Marriage.

The Two Great Lies: Anti-Baptism and Anti-Marriage

So then, the lies of the fall would be the devil telling the fallen rational creatures that they shouldn’t seek these principles but rather their opposites, and that, in doing so, they will not only escape the consequences of shirking them but, in fact, will be far more fulfilled in the Anti-Principles than in the Principles themselves.

And therefore, the two great lies of the fall, in ANY world, that summarize everything that has been wicked or will be (Solomon: “there is nothing new under the sun. All that has ever been wicked came before Abraham was…”), are:

Anti-Baptismal Disposition: No faith, no repentance: Seek not to know and love God in this life. Rather believe as you wish, and do as you wish, and you will be fine, and better off.

Anti-Marital Disposition toward God: Don’t seek to live for God in the next world—for beautiful and profound goods of mystery, love, truth, and goodness in Heaven—but seek to live for this world and its brute, superficial goods, or materialism: Living for the pleasures, possessions and accomplishments in this world instead for eternal love and truth with God in the next world--again, materialism.

In light of these arguments, we return to the proposition that man must seek to “digest the lies of the fall” before the Jewish covenant can even be introduced. Moreover, since a child cannot be reasoned with in early phases but must be disciplined, we argue that man will need chastisement to restrain his pursuit of the lies, else, no progress toward that same Prefiguring Covenant can be made. Here then, too, we argue humanity, slow like a child, will seek to digest the lies one at a time. Hence the first ages of humanity, the first four are:

The First Four Ages of Humanity

Fall and Anti-Baptism: man is wicked and has no regard for God.

Chastisement: God must kill man off before He does it to himself, sparing a remnant, a Baptism, the Flood

Anti-Apocalyptic Marriage: man turns from a spousal relationship with God to join himself like a harlot to the world, that is, makes himself unfaithful to his Creator in order to flirt with the Creation, materialism: Here we anticipate a phase of history in which man cooperates perversely in selfish ambition toward a society of materialistic utopia and grandeur, as at Babel.

Chastisement: the response from God here cannot be killing humanity off, since that humanity wants to do great things with the Creation is, in and of itself, not wrong. It is rather that they have an exaggerated and disordered infatuation with material progress. Too, since their infatuation is severe, invitation to spousal relationship to God will be ignored. So God must restrain or frustrate the situation to buy time for the Prefiguring Covenant. The solution in our world seems fitting to any: confound communication. This then breaks up the materialistic unity and gives the perfect slot for God to form the Prefiguring People and Covenant by choosing One special nation among many to be His first Bride!

Now, we have that God has, in one and the same phase, restrained the anti-Spousal stage of materialism and formed His Prefiguring People by choosing one special nation of the many from Babel to be His Bride!

Now what? Well, if we have four ages so far, we need five more to make nine. What might they be?

The People of God should Journey the Way of the Saint Historically!

Well, let us look into it. The Prefiguring People are called to journey through a Covenant of Pictures and Types, to mature and grow in knowledge and holiness, until, what would seem clear to be, that at the height of their maturity, Incarnate One should come.

Well… Do we have any frame of reference for growing in maturity and holiness in the Catholic Gospel? YES! We have it in the Way of the Saint. The way of the saint has three general phases with certain parts:

The Purgative Way

The Illuminative Way

The Unitive Way

The Five Parts of the Way of the Saint

And, get this, they break down into five parts! Bingo, we needed five! More specifically, each way has two parts, a general darkness and a general light, except the first one, or purgative, which has only one part, darkness! Here we go, let us remind ourselves how it works:

1. The Purgative Way: Darkness, Beginner, the Spirit has entered the saint to correct his physical lusts, and the flesh does not like it. So it stings the Spirit. This is darkness.

2. The Illuminative Way of Light: Proficiency, eventually the saint conquers the greater sinful tendencies and starts the path of Proficiency, growing in holiness by knowing God deeper and loving Him. There are many lesser desolations and consolations, but in general, this phase has more light than dark.
3. The Illuminative Way of Darkness: Eventually the desolations above culminate in a period of real darkness: all intimacy with God in truth and love seems absent, dry, a lie. This is darkness.
4. The Unitive Way of Light: Perfection, Eventually, the dark night above ceases, and the truths and love found in the Illuminative way of light are vindicated. The saint walks in the path of love perfectly, every step in the will of God. This is the greatest light short of heaven.
5. The Unitive Way of Darkness: Martyrdom: The Catechism tells us that the Church will not escape the final trial, when she must pass through the Passion as Her Savior did. Many, if not most saints, go through this passion at the close of their life, in order that their love and perfection might seal the bond with Christ in full by extreme participation in suffering and death. Here, the martyrdom could be literal, as with many saints, or of the bed, as in great suffering from terminal illness.

Lo and behold, if we look deeper at the history of the Old Jewish People, they indeed journeyed this path:

Follow it!

1. The Purgative Way: Darkness, Egypt, the Holy Ones of the Hebrews entered the world like the Spirit to bless it, and the flesh of Egypt did not like it, for they considered them a threat. So they stung the Jews in oppression:slavery!

2. The Illuminative Way of Light: Proficiency, The Hebrews were delivered from that darkness into a Kingdom. They were given the illumination of the Law, and later, the Prophets! However, many lesser desolations came for the prophets, since at each juncture, the Jews resisted the illumination of the prophets…
3. The Illuminative Way of Darkness: Finally, Chronicles testifies that the Jews became so wicked that “there was no remedy”. This was full darkness.
4. The Unitive Way of Light: Perfection, The Prophets warned of the ultimate chastisement from Babylon, and it came, so that they were vindicated. and, in that great exile, the Jews repented. Too, soon after, they returned to their Holy Land and rebuilt the Temple. Their love of God was stronger in this reconciliation than before the Exile.
5. The Unitive Way of Darkness: Martyrdom: The Jews did not escape the Passion their Savior would endure in due time. The final Biblical history of the Old Testament is the Maccabees, and there, sure enough, brutal martyrdom came in the persecutions of OT Antichrist Antiochus IV Epiphanies, who tried to force Jews to apostatize from their Holy Religion and do the evils of pagan Greece, or suffer torture and death. This was overcome, and the next history was then nothing short of what the saint does after martyrdom: he crosses the threshold into a new age. For the saint, it is heaven, for the Jewish People, it was the New Covenant, Incarnate One!

There you have it, nine phases of Old Testament history necessary to prepare for Jesus. The Old Testament developing for nine ages, even as the babe develops in the womb for nine months!

Let us put them all together:

The Nine Necessary Ages of the Old Testament to Prepare for the Birth of God Into History

1. Fall and Anti-Baptism: Noah’s Day, wickedness of man, no faith, no repentance, scoff at consequences

2. Chastisement: The Flood, a Baptism

3. Anti-Apocalyptic Marriage: Tower of Babel, man does not want to marry God but fornicate with the world, materialism

4. Chastisement: Break up the perverse unity of Babel into many nations and call One to be His Bride, to Marry Her.

5. The Purgative Way: Darkness, Egypt, the flesh of pagans oppresses the Holy Ones

6. The Illuminative Way of Light: The Exodus, the Holy Land, the Prophets
7. The Illuminative Way of Darkness: The Wicked Apostasy of the Jews just before the Exile
8. The Unitive Way of Light: Perfection, The Exile vindicates the Prophets, the People repent and return home in renewal, rebuilding the Temple
9. The Unitive Way of Darkness: Martyrdom: The Maccabean ordeal and brutal persecutions of OT Antichrist Figure, Antiochus IV Epihpanies.

Finally, we can ask, are these ages random? Are they arbitrary? Could other worlds that happened to fall and were to receive an Incarnation like us have vastly different histories? Obviously not, for we have shown the lies of the fall for any world are the same two principles. Further, we have seen the nature of the child is to go for the immediate things before him. Hence, with the fall in immediate view, the fallen world would surely turn toward the lies first thing and in full throttle. Hence, the first four ages are guaranteed, the lies of the fall digested and chastised.

And similarly, once the Prefiguring People are formed, a necessary aspect of history before Incarnate One as we saw, so we ask, how can their history be any different than the Way of the Saint historically? For, in our world, it seems that because the three ways, broken down into five parts, are observed countless times in most saints, what else can we conclude except to say that it is intrinsically necessary in any fallen world that these ways are the path to righteousness for an individual fallen creature. Moreover, just as Scripture likens the literal, individual Body of Christ to His Church, which is a macro, historical entity, how much more should this same path to holiness in the individual Catholic saint need to be the Apocalyptic path of the macro People of God! And so the next five ages are guaranteed as well!

And therefore, why wouldn’t God create man so that in woman, the child develops nine months, one month for every phase of Old Testament history, to show us that just as a child must start a tiny baby and develop slowly for nine phases of activity before it is born anew, so also must God start His Holy People in history as a tiny babe and develop them for nine phases of spiritual activity to prepare for the ultimate birth of history, the birth of God Incarnate into the world!

Amen!