What History would Always be in a Fallen World, Part II: the Preeminent Ages
Theology of the Body Extended Again: Christ's Crucified Feet, an Analogy
Photo By: Flickr/Amelia Wells
Summary
Our feet walk the Way of Jesus, the Way of truth
Our feet are meant to walk in the path of the way. The way is lit by the truth. Christ is the truth! Hence, why shouldn't the details of Jesus' crucified feet reveal deep specificity of the truth of Christ, manifested in five great fountains, as the five toes of the human foot:
I. The Trinity and Incarnation
II. The Supreme Apostolic See [the Pope]
III. The General Apostolic Succession and Oral Tradition
IV. The Written Tradition [Scripture]
V. Reason
And just as there are two feet, two sets of toes, so there are two substantial characteristics of God's Sources of Truth: Degree of truth that can be obtained from the source, and Evidence to support the source as authoritatively legitimate. For, the child of God cares about the first aspect more, how much treasure he can get from the source. The unbeliever, however, the skeptic, only cares about the evidence (show me the evidence that this source is true and reliable!) But then, the greatest treasures are the most hidden, and the cheapest goods are out in the open, for to all to see.
Christ's Crucified Feet and Toes Reveal the Five Great Sources of Catholic Truth
Now, God came to reveal things to us.
We know, rudimentarily, that there are 3 Sources of truth:
Scripture
Tradition
Magisterium
However, the Trinity and Incarnation are sources of truth, too, even if they are no longer here in direct presence. Too, Reason is a source of truth, since even from natural wisdom, we can know monotheism and natural law in some sense, if even with difficulty in some cases.
Moreover, the Magisterium has two degrees to it: General Apostolic Succession, or the collection of regular Bishops, and then the supreme Apostolic Successor, Peter. Also, Tradition NEVER exists apart from a valid Bishop. Where the valid Bishop is, there also is Tradition. And Tradition is the property of the Bishops, who are its custodian. Hence, Bishops and Tradition go together always. Hence, a more accurate rendering of the sources of truth is not merely THREE but FIVE, like the toes of the human foot:
I. The Trinity and Incarnation
II. The Supreme Apostolic See [the Pope]
III. The General Apostolic Succession and Oral Tradition
IV. The Written Tradition [Scripture]
V. Reason
Note, too, something very important about the above order in which the sources are listed: these fountains of the Church's mysteries are stacked upon one another above in such a way that the higher up the stack you are, the greater treasure of truth one can obtain from the particular source at that level, yet, at the same time, the higher you get in the stack, the less evidence there is for the source as legitimate.
If we look at the history of the Church and consider the greater phases of doctrinal development and assault on the Church spiritually, it is no surprise that the dragon has instigated attacks precisely in the order of the pyramid, from top to bottom, meaning, from the most reliable source to the least reliable source, and, at the same time, from the least evident source to the most evident source. That is:
Trinity and Incarnation Attacked:
Initial Christological and Trinitarian heresies, 300 - 600 AD~
Islam 600 AD~
Supreme Apostolic Successor, Peter, Attacked:
Great Schism, 1000 AD~
General Apostolic Succession and Oral Tradition, Attacked:
Moral fall of Catholic Hierarchy, 1300-1500 AD~
Protestant Rebellion, 1500-1700 AD~
Written Tradition, or Scripture, Attacked (and all Divine Revelation):
Enlightenment [Deism, Rationalism], 1700 AD~
Reason Attacked:
Modern Minor Secular Apostasy [Atheism, Relativism], Latter Mid 20th century to Present
Higher Up, MORE Reliable
So, again, the higher on the list a source of Divine Truth is in the list above, the more reliable the source is.
We can verify this by walking through the sources.
Let us start with the Trinity and Incarnation, the highest source of God's truth, God Himself in His Ultimate Mystery. To behold God face to face is to know all truth.
Next, with Peter is the fullness on earth, Catholicism.
Next, as with the Orthodox, the General Apostolic Succession and Oral Word of God is almost as good as Catholicism, lacking only Peter.
To move on to Scripture, we see that Scripture taken apart from the Oral Word of God is much less trustworthy than the Oral Word of God, for Scripture is easily misinterpreted without the Oral Word, or Tradition. This is why Protestants fare much worse than the Orthodox, lacking Apostolic Succession and the Oral Word of God. For they have only Scripture and Reason.
Finally, without even Scripture, the Savage can only use Reason, and will understand only the natural religious truths (if that, ha!), lacking so much from the heretics who at least possess [most of] the Written Word of God.
Higher Up, LESS Evidence
But, in terms of evidence for legitimacy, the opposite relationship exists: That is, the higher on the list you are, the less evident the source is.
Which is to say this: if you place a modern man into the library who has never known religion, how shall we rank the sources of Divine Truth to him, in terms of descending evidence?
Clearly, it is the inverse of what we have done. For if he is to embark on the discernment of the true religion, and never having been influenced by anything, how shall he ponder these questions? How evident shall the veracity of these sources be to him?
Clearly, first, Reason is obviously immediate, common to all men. The most evident.
If there were further inquiry, which is he more likely to say is an evident source from history and reason? Is it not Scripture? For Scripture is common to all Christians, whether they be Catholic, schismatic, or heretic.
Less evident is Apostolic Succession and Tradition, for only Catholics and Orthodox have that. For, the writings of the Fathers are hyper-saturated with Scripture quotes, but far less testify to the equally authoritative Sacred Tradition.
Similarly also, in the Writings of Tradition, Apostolic Succession in general is much more evident than the supremacy of Peter. Which is to say, there are countless quotes in the Early Fathers on Apostolic Succession in general, but much less testify to Peter's special role.
So again, still less evident is Peter, for only Catholicism, of the three big ones, claims the Petrine See as a unique source of truth.
And how shall the man who studies from the outside derive the truths of the Trinity and Incarnation, if he is unbiased? For I can tell you this much. He shall more easily work out the evidence to support the supremacy of Peter as the Supreme Apostolic Successor, than that he shall work, of his own intellect, the intricacies of the Trinity and Incarnation, which are the supreme mystery of Catholicism, and which elude even basic understanding except in the most learned of Orthodox and Catholic Theologians.
Reliability and Evidence in Sources are INVERSELY Proportional
So then, again, the law is this: the more reliable a source of Divine truth is, the less evident it is to the unbiased seeker. In other words, the Sources of Divine Truth have an inverse proportional relationship between reliability and evidence.
The Toes of the Crucified Feet are INVERSELY PROPORTIONAL
Now, try chewing on this. Each of our feet has five appendages. They are symmetrical. There are also, as we have just seen, five sources of Divine Truth. They are:
I. The Trinity and Incarnation
II. The Supreme Apostolic See [the Pope]
III. The General Apostolic Succession and Oral Tradition
IV. The Written Tradition [Scripture]
V. Reason
What if God intended the human foot, which must WALK the way of TRUTH, to have its FIVE toes image the FIVE great sources of TRUTH!!!
Well, just hang on, cuz it darn well works and is mind blowing! The toes of the human foot are symmetric in descent. Now one common form of crucifixion, has one foot crucified on top of the other foot. Now note, in this configuration, an inverse proportional one to one correspondence exists FOR THE TOES (!!), in that the longest toe of the first foot is directly on top of the shortest toe of the other foot. Then, the inverse proportional 1-1 mapping works down to the shortest toe on the first foot on top of the longest toe of the other foot.
Therefore, if the right foot symbolizes reliability (consider also, the right foot is stronger theologically--and He is seated at the right hand of the Father--and so is fitting to reflect a stronger, more important characteristic of a source, degree of truth) and the left symbolizes evidence (weaker foot, less important characteristic: evidence for the source as legitimate), then the most reliable toe is consummate with the least evident toe, and so forth, down to the least reliable toe consummate with the most evident toe.
Profound, isn't it?
Therefore, Christ, in His Crucifixion, bears the mystery of the sources of Divine Truth in His very body and position!
Note, for a full set of images that work this theology out in diagrams, visit my same copy of this article here:
http://www.theologyoftheages.com/home.php?target=theology-christs-crucified-feet
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About the Author
I found that every human creature is priceless when I was about 24 years old, when I was enduring a lot of ridicule.
From there, knowing that every person has immeasurable worth, I could go forward with confidence in the Lord that I am not junk.
I began to listen to Catholic pulpits and so called literature, but it was so liberal and pathetic, I became a Protestant. I thought I knew it all.
Then I realized the Bible has to be interpreted and how do I know what it means; how do I know what I have to do to get to heaven.
Eventually I learned that the Catholic Church possesses the history of succession and can give these interpretations so that I do not have to work out the gospel myself.
This greatly relieved me and now I ponder Catholic theology; you can read my articles on my site if you so wish:
Website: http://www.theologyoftheages.com
