Reality is fundamentally composed of events. Among those events, encounters are theologically significant because they involve participation and response.
An encounter is not two separate events—an event followed by a response—but a single unfolding event with two inseparable aspects.
- The first aspect is pure experience: the immediate participation in reality before reflective interpretation.
- The second aspect is disclosure: the manifestation of the participant's orientation through their response.
Every encounter therefore possesses both an objective and a subjective dimension. It is something that happens to us, and simultaneously something through which we become manifest.
The Structure of an Encounter
Every encounter consists of one unified event.
Within that event:
- reality addresses us through pure experience;
- we necessarily participate;
- our participation takes the form of response;
- that response discloses our present orientation;
- and leaves an impression that shapes our future orientation.
Response is therefore not a second event.
It is the completion of the encounter itself.
Disclosure
Every response is simultaneously
- diagnostic
- formative.
It tells the truth about who we presently are.
It also contributes to who we are becoming.
Character is therefore neither static nor hidden.
It is the cumulative pattern disclosed through countless encounters.
Formation
No encounter is neutral.
Every encounter leaves an impression.
These impressions gradually shape orientation.
Future responses therefore arise not from an isolated will but from the character continually formed through previous encounters.
Sanctification is one example of this universal structure.
Human becoming itself is governed by it.
Revelation and Disclosure
Divine revelation is a particular instance of the universal structure of encounter.
God addresses humanity.
Humanity responds.
The encounter simultaneously reveals God and discloses humanity.
Hence the principle:
Every divine revelation is simultaneously a human disclosure.
Luke 2:34 becomes paradigmatic.
Christ is appointed
"...so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."
The revelation of God inevitably becomes the disclosure of human beings.
Scripture
Scripture is not primarily the communication of propositions.
It is God's continuing work of creating encounters.
Its purpose is reorientation.
Speech acts create encounters.
Those encounters disclose persons.
Those disclosures make transformation possible.
Judgment
Judgment is not primarily future.
Judgment is continually occurring because disclosure continually occurs.
Every encounter is a present disclosure.
Every response reveals present orientation.
The future judgment is therefore not the first examination of a life.
It is the final unveiling of what life has already disclosed.
The Books
The books of Revelation are not best imagined as divine ledgers.
They are the unfolding narratives of persons.
Each person is, in a sense, their own book.
Every encounter writes another page.
Every response contributes another chapter.
When the books are opened, the question is not:
"What rules were broken?"
but
"Who has this person become?"
Time
Time is not merely the passage of moments.
Life is the succession of encounters.
Each encounter is always a present reality.
The expectation that "I can change later" is itself a present disclosure.
Judgment is therefore always now.
