Article 12: Authority

Rule three of the Firmament:

All intelligent races in existence likely stand within one or more of these states

*Primordial
–Made New and Blameless
-Corrupted and Afflicted:
- Recipients of Passive Wrath
- Promised and Waiting
- Justified or Judged
- Made Blameless Anew
-Maturing and Blameless
-Mutually Interactive
–Authoritative

Authoritative

Here we have come, dear reader, to my final state of intelligent life! It has taken nearly half a year to complete this third rule. I hope you have all found it as interesting to read as I have to write!

One of the things that the bible has an awful lot to say about is the matter of authority. Obviously, ultimate authority rests with God, yet we also know that because of this, all authority flows from him(Rom13:1). So to whom does it go, and why? Is it earned? Allowed? Given in judgment, or grace? Or can a creature be born to it? Perhaps some combination of the four? We cannot earn salvation, but our efforts can be rewarded with authority, such as in Rev20:4. Some authority is allowed, such as I showed in my article on passive wrath*. Satan’s authority over the world and his demons are granted while God awaits the fullness of time. Then there is an authority given as judgment, such as the anointing of Saul in judgment over the complaining Israelites who rejected the system of judges. Sometimes it is out of grace such as with David. But what about being born into it? If a creature can be made into it, and not all creation has authority, then it follows logically that there could be intelligent life both with and without it. Creations who are made to, and for, authority.

Our first example of this is found with Adam and Eve. Made in the image and likeness of God, they are immediately given authority (dominion) over the earth and its creatures. It is one of the crucial ways in which they bore God’s image, and as such was intended for them before they were created. While it is hard to say whether that authority would have carried any governmental responsibility, it is fair, given the parental structure laid out by God, they would have been esteemed as Abraham and Sarah are. This authority would have been significant, and unmatchable by their descendants (unless God had intended to continue to create humanity from the dust of the ground). Indeed, if we look at issues of generational sin and inherited sin nature, I think we can assume that the impact of Adam’s fall likely corresponded with the level of authority he had, much like how a CEO’s mistake has a greater impact than a mail room clerk’s.

By all accounts, it seems this authority was meant to be persistent. After all, before the fall they were functionally immortal. They had no barring whatsoever on eating from the Tree of Life. Even after their exodus from the garden Adam lived into the thousands. It was because of this Authority that his fall became our own. And as Paul says in his letter to Corinth, likewise it is Christ taking the place of Adam that his righteousness becomes our own. Clearly, there are types of authority that affect things intrinsically. As well as ones created for it, like both Adam and Jesus.

As we all bear God’s image after Adam, we share a derivative dominion over the Earth and a responsibility to steward it. Additionally, in the future and it is foretold that one day we will rule over angels. So clearly some version of Authoritative can apply to a species as a whole.

Now, in my capacity as a writer, I can extrapolate a little further, into creatures created not to parent any races (like Adam). Creations who are instead meant to be wholly, even holy, creatures of governance. As I discussed in my previous article**, the divine council clearly has some high level of authority, and just by being called a council, we can infer some sort of governing. Creating the category of Authoritative gives me a place to allow for unique entities that perhaps do not reproduce and only exist as their created self. Those among you who are Tolkien scholars might do well to consider the pantheon that Eru Illuvitar made. Different, lower case, “gods” with their own specific duties and commands. Potential one-offs, creatures that might be one of a kind and with specific authority would surely represent a race in and of themselves to some degree.

Now, unlike Tolkien’s universe, I don’t have any specific “Christian pantheon” in mind for the Firmament, but I would not rule it out. If I did, it would not be an Earthly one. We already have a clear picture of who reigns here, and how. My pantheon would be in a loving relationship with God as their king. They would not be the capricious, flighty, whimsical deities of ancient mythologies. Indeed, it seems clear that any such deity who did not point to the one supreme God would be, if existent, nothing more than a demon, as the bible claims them to be (Deut32:16-17, Cor10:20). No, a Christian pantheon would be more like the different Oyarsu from C. S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy, rulers of their realms and worlds yet taught by and under the authority of Maleldil (God). Brought all together they might form some kind of Divine Counsel, but such a thing would differ greatly from what we might think of as the popular notions of a pantheon. Likely they would have different spheres of influence, and different directives they were intended for.

Regardless of specific narrative intention, I created the category of Authoritative because it seems logically allowable, and a story option that I did not want to dismiss. I do believe it is possible, if perhaps unlikely, that such standalone creations exist. A careful writer ought to be able to include them, given the right restraints, in speculative fiction. the goal of the Firmament has always been to explore what might be, given a scripturally grounded worldview. As always, my attempts to do this will be with an open hand, one that can be right or wrong about our reality, yet framed in such a way that they are at least not contrary to it.

Final thoughts

With article 12, we have come to a close on my racial rules for the Firmament. Yet it leaves me in a place where I simply want to reach out to you all with some greater clarity, lest there be any misunderstanding on God’s nature. God can, and certainly does, work on local, national, and racial levels. He even works on the level of a species in its entirety. But there is so much more to this plan of his. His desire to interact is truly, deeply, personal. In order to reach all of us, there can be no question that grand strokes were required: Divine miracles, choices, and demonstrations that flexed the very shape of human history.

For my own edification, and certainly for my creative endeavors, it was important to me to zoom out from this individual relationship. To try to see the broad strokes so that I could seek to apply them broadly. To try to recognize the essence of how God may operate for all of intelligent creation. But Christianity is not a religion of philosophy, application of natural law, or plain kindness. It is a religion whose purpose is to rectify what we have broken so that God can love us in the glorious reciprocation we are welcomed into. He alone can establish or sustain such a relationship. Certainly, if he wished to ignore us, there is no power we currently possess to force his eye upon us, and certainly not in friendship. No more than a child can adopt a parent. We are at the complete mercy of his capacity for love. It is for this reason that I stand in slack-jawed awe at who God is because of his nature, his personality, his very self, one that wants us, wants our very selves, to be with him. To get to know him. To live, to love, to experience His creation as a gift we can enjoy together.

Now perhaps it is unnecessary to clarify this to the people likely to read this article. If you’ve come this far, chances are it is because in some way you already believe. And as this lengthy section comes to a close I want to zoom back into the personal. While the nature of my articles is to dive deep into speculative cosmology, the goal of God is quite different.

His goal is you.

*https://www.pjbenjamin.net/article-7-the-law-keepers-choice/

**https://www.pjbenjamin.net/article-11-what-lies-beyond-maturity/