You are currently viewing CHRIST The Original Matrix God Face-to-Face

CHRIST The Original Matrix God Face-to-Face

The first chapter of Timothy D Carroll’s book Christ – The Original Matrix describes his concept of the Matrix: Carroll proposes that the universe is a matrix of ideas which are an expression of an infinite God, a source of life that holds all things together, and that the original matrix is Christ of God. He states that the mystery of Christ in you is that God resides deep in the soul of everyone. Carroll goes on to explain that we are never separated from the Spirit of God. Humanity and divinity are forever connected, as humanity is part of the life of God and being outside of the Oneness of God is not possible. Carroll believes, “certain parts of Christianity got it more accurately than other religions.”

After the first chapter the book becomes very similar to other books asserting Christian Universalist concepts. It may be a good choice for someone interested in Christian Universalism who wants a concise Biblical overview of CU, including many quotes from early Christians, as well as later theologians.

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Timothy D. Carroll

    Thank you for the kind review and including the book among recommended readings by CUA.

    The book starts with a “telling” foreword by Richard K. Murray.

    The book proceeds to explain God revealed as that womb “matrix” of all beings, of which most of humanity is not conscious of its own origin or destiny, and that we have something in common from whence we came as well as one another. The relationship is there whether we realize it or not, as described in chapter 1 – ‘The Idea of Matrix’.

    Chapter 2 addresses ‘The Fatherhood of God’, revealing him as the father of humanity, while showing how the prodigal son “came to himself” as well as how the devil was ‘not the father’ of those that opposed him.

    Chapter 3 is called the ‘Divine Logos’ and shows how God was face-to-face with himself, reflecting upon himself, an idea that is seldom explained elsewhere.

    Chapters 4 is titled ‘The Word of God’ and continues to emphasize the divine logos, and while highly esteeming the scriptures and their rightful place, it makes the statement “I dare to say, even though we tend to think of such things as the spoken Word and the written Word, however there is only one Word, not two. There is not a greater and a lesser Word, namely non-written and written.”

    Chapters 5 ‘In His Image’ and 6 ‘After His Likeness’ emphasizes that God has imaged himself in man, and continues form him after his likeness through the crucible of human experience.

    Chapter 7 is called ‘The Humanity of the Divine’, offering a history of the church on ‘hypostatic union’ while pointing out our own mystical union and how the humanity of the divine continues his incarnation today.

    Chapter 8 ‘The Doctrine of Hell’ starts with the Holocaust and its monstrous acts to challenge those embracing eternal conscious torment (ECT) and annihilation. It continues to explain how the Old Testament Jew thought of any continuance of human personality beyond physical death. As with other Universalist teachings, it follows with explanations of New Testament words like hades and Gehenna.

    The book closes with chapter 9 ‘Ninety-Five Theses’ which is an explanation of 95 points defending ultimate reconciliation while protesting opposing views. including several scriptures and quotes of others.

    In Christ
    T.D.C

    Chapter 3

  2. Tim Carroll

    Review by Michael Rans
    https://www.reddit.com/r/cruciformity/comments/oi9rx3/review_of_christ_the_original_matrix_god/

    Review of “Christ – The Original Matrix: God Face-to-Face” by Tim Carroll

    It was inevitable that the first thing that came to my mind on seeing the cover and title of Tim Carroll’s book was the film starring Keanu Reeves. The author even eludes to his desire to write a trilogy in the prologue. However, the matrix to which Tim refers is a “myriad of connections” which relate to one another in a way that is “dynamic, personally intimate and even life-giving”. The “Original Matrix” is Christ who connects creation, humanity and God and even those in the afterlife. What a beautiful picture it is that each one of us is meant to have a place within this matrix.

    There are times when we stray and our connection becomes weak, but the Parable of the Lost Sheep demonstrates how God is and will always be our loving Father and that it is the Christ in us that will bring us home. We belong to God because of the divine Logos, the Word of God which is not the Bible (or word of God), but Jesus. The Bible serves to point us to the Word of God who is the divine logic and precepts of God – God reflecting upon Godself. He is “of one essence with all of humanity and of one essence with God the Father” and “in perfect harmony within himself, is never simply a human, never only divine.”

    Humankind is created in the image of God, specifically Christ, “as something would proceed out of a matrix, yet far more dynamic and personal”. That image is buried deep within our redeemed soul which we receive in exchange for our rejection of the selfish desires of the lower soul. Carroll strongly argues that this restoration is universal. Since Christ is “victorious over all of creation”, this precludes the possibilities of eternal torment and annihilation for any of humankind, a universalist view which Carroll champions by providing 95 convincing theses many of which reference Bible passages.

    Tim quotes mostly from the King James Version of the Bible. It isn’t my favourite translation as I prefer more modern English but I surmise that he used that version so that his book might be read by some for whom that translation is the only acceptable one. If my guess is right, I hope that they will study it carefully because if they do, they will draw from it pearls of wisdom and a joyful view of our eventual fate backed up by solid theological and Scriptural support.

    Disclosure: the author gave me a copy of the book which is available from: https://amzn.to/3gm8hMA

Leave a Reply