All the world's a stage; and salvation, when viewed from the world as a backdrop, makes of the play an the infinite convergence of the tragic and the comic. With any life lived in the world, there is always the irony "To think that what they were seeking, in so many things and with so much suffering, was right there all time, but they did not have the wits to see it!" To this the tragic adds the rejoinder "and now its too late..." But there a comedic aspect, too, like someone searching the house high and low for the keys in his pocket.
The eschaton, too, is a backdrop, and it cooperates with salvation in being an ever-present, offensive indictment of the world; to think of the milieu's ending is to violently rip one's self out of it; to not be able to care anymore about titles and trinkets. In this way, the backdrop reveals itself as a mirror for the players, who see "through a glass darkly" and hence gain a self consciousness, and some dim insinuation of the place of the spectators--that chorus who sings "holy, holy, holy is the lord almighty." This, however, as any actor would surely tell you, is the death of acting to think of one's self, and to think as well of the audience watching you. One would freeze; forget one's lines; stumble in the midst of the action. Be dumbstruck, and play the fool.
Before such a spectator this is quite understandable. Is the spectator none other than God, though? The throne of God, indeed! But there is something wondrous and monstrous that we see in the mirror, when look at us looking at ourselves; what revelations portrays:
"At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it . And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."
Now, it seems to be a consensus that this is a description of God the father. And, in fact, it is the only direct description of the experience of God the father that I know of. Not just attributes, not just a description of what he does. And not a metaphor. I've never been able to understand Revelations, but feel like I've stumbled upon something here. I'd like to explore the passage in more detail. It seems to me as if what we find imbedded near the center of this vision is something like the sphinx "with the face of a man." But this vision is immediately multiplied into other creatures, who are then said to be "covered with eyes" (c.f. Deluze and Guattari on the face, and its multiplication through the addition of borders, or "wings" (really, these are folds) on page 183 of A Thousand Plateaus.) On top of that, we have a throne with someone made of precious stones, a green-colored rainbow, seven lamps, lightning, a sea of glass--and, finally, the spirit who encompasses the whole thing. The passage is puzzling.
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