ΑTheology of the AgesΩ

A Theology of Christ's Crucified Feet

A Theology of Christ's Crucified Feet

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:

  1. The Trinity and Incarnation
  2. The Supreme Apostolic See [the Pope]
  3. The General Apostolic Succession and Oral Tradition
  4. The Written Tradition [Scripture]
  5. 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 Reveal the Five Great Sources of Catholic Truth

Note, there is a prerequisite:

Catholic Doctrinal History Imaged in the Pyramid and Apocalypse

Recall from the above prerequisite, Catholic Sources of Truth on the Pyramid, the sources of the Church's fountain of mysteries can be stacked upon one another 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:

  1. Trinity and Incarnation Attacked:
    Initial Christological and Trinitarian heresies, 300 - 600 AD~
    Islam 600 AD~
  2. Supreme Apostolic Successor, Peter, Attacked:
    Great Schism, 1000 AD~
  3. General Apostolic Succession and Oral Tradition, Attacked:
    Moral fall of Catholic Hierarchy, 1300-1500 AD~
    Protestant Rebellion, 1500-1700 AD~
  4. Written Tradition, or Scripture, Attacked (and all Divine Revelation):
    Enlightenment [Deism, Rationalism], 1700 AD~
  5. Reason Attacked:
    Modern Minor Secular Apostasy [Atheism, Relativism], Latter Mid 20th century to Present

Now, try chewing on this. Each of our members has five appendages. They are symmetrical. There are also five sources of Divine Truth. They are:

  1. The Trinity and Incarnation
  2. The Supreme Apostolic See [the Pope]
  3. The General Apostolic Succession and Oral Tradition
  4. The Written Tradition [Scripture]
  5. Reason

Of course, I intend to parallel the appendages to the sources, which will eventually mean that just as a human foot has five toes, so there are five sources of truth in the New Covenant.

Now, as I've pointed out before in other writings, 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.

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?

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, for only Catholics and Orthodox have that.

Similarly also, in the Writings of Tradition, Apostolic Succession in general is much more evident than the supremacy of Peter. Which is to say, to work out Apostolic Succession is easier and clearer than 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.

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.

Now consider the following that is mind blowing. The toes of the human foot are symmetric in descent. Now, the right foot is crucified on top of the left foot. When the right foot of Christ is placed on top of the left foot, an inverse proportional one to one correspondence exists, in that the longest toe of the right foot is directly on top of the shortest toe of the left foot. Then, the inverse proportional 1-1 mapping works down to the shortest toe on the right foot on top of the longest toe of the left foot.

Therefore, if the right 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, or more important, characteristic of a source, degree of truth) and the left symbolizes evidence (again, 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!

The Sequential Pictures Showing the Graphic Analogy