COFE-CYEM: The True Path of Knowing God by Not Knowing the False
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Via Negativa and Via Positiva in COFE-CYEM: The True Path of Knowing God by Not Knowing the False
This paper presents a COFE-CYEM reflection on the relationship between Via Negativa and Via Positiva.
While it affirms the historic Christian faith centred on Christ, Scripture, and the gospel, several expressions — including “Fourth Truth”, “singular Reality”, “Melchizedek Priesthood”, and the various interpretive terms — are distinctively used within COFE-CYEM.
They are offered as explanatory language within this framework rather than as part of the historic Christian creeds or universally accepted theological vocabulary.
The Way
Even though the Via Negativa essentially rejects theological understanding in and of itself as a path to God, some have sought to make it into an intellectual exercise, by describing God only in terms of what God is not.
One problem noted with this approach is that there seems to be no fixed basis on deciding what God is not, unless the Divine is understood as an abstract experience of full aliveness unique to each individual consciousness, and universally, the perfect goodness applicable to the whole field of reality.
Apophatic theology is often accused of being a version of atheism or agnosticism, since it cannot truly say that God exists.
This cannot be said of COFE-CYEM theology.
We state very clearly that once Via Negativa is reached through the Fourth Truth, then Via Positiva can be truly experienced and truly knowing God by not knowing the false.
This is one of the main functions and purposes of our own built in system CC7 DS.
Please also see the link below –
The Fourth Truth Via Positiva Cataphatic Knowing through Via Negativa Apophatic Unknowing.
This is the heart of the COFE-CYEM way.
The Via Negativa is not an end in itself, nor is it a mere intellectual negation.
It is the necessary purification that prepares the soul for the full, joyful beholding of God in the Via Positiva. The two ways are not opposed but complementary movements within the singular Reality.
The Via Negativa clears away every “second” so that the Via Positiva can shine with clarity.
The result is the Fourth Truth Transcendence — the soul resting in the living Christ, knowing God by not knowing the false.
The Problem with Purely Intellectual Apophaticism
Some approaches to the Via Negativa have turned it into an intellectual exercise, endlessly describing God by what He is not. While this can guard against idolatry, it often leaves the soul in a barren negation without a positive ground.
There seems to be no fixed basis for deciding what God is not, unless the Divine is reduced to an abstract experience of full aliveness unique to each individual consciousness, or a universal perfect goodness applicable to the whole field of reality.
This can slide into a form of agnosticism or practical atheism, where God becomes so unknowable that He is effectively absent.
COFE-CYEM rejects this barren intellectualism. The Via Negativa is not an end but a means. It is the way of releasing every false image, every dualistic concept, every mental idol so that the soul may rest in the simple presence of the living God.
It is not the denial of God but the denial of every “second” that would stand between the soul and God. The Via Negativa is the practical discipline of Cofemplation: gently releasing every thought that implies separation until only the singular Reality remains.
The Fourth Truth as the Ground of True Apophatic Practice
In COFE-CYEM, the Via Negativa is grounded in the Fourth Truth: there has never been a second. This gives the way of unknowing a clear and fixed basis.
The soul does not wander in endless negation but releases every imagined separation, every dualistic construct, every false self so that it may rest in the One who is all in all.
The Via Negativa is the recognition that God is not ultimately known through concepts but through loving surrender. It is the way through the cloud of unknowing into the clear light of the singular Reality.
The Fourth Truth protects the Via Negativa from sliding into agnosticism or atheism. We state very clearly that God is, that Christ is the singular Life, and that the believer is already hidden with Christ in God.
The Via Negativa is not the denial of God but the denial of every false idea about God. It is the way of not knowing the false so that we may truly know the True.
The Fulfilment in Via Positiva
Once the ground is cleared through the Via Negativa, the Via Positiva can be truly experienced. The soul that has released every “second” can now behold the self-revelation of God in Christ with clarity and joy.
The Via Positiva is the celebration of the living God who makes Himself known in love.
It beholds Christ as the exact representation of the Father, Scripture as the living Word, creation as held within the one Life, and the indwelling Holy Spirit as the power of an endless life.
In the Fourth Truth, the Via Positiva is not opposed to the Via Negativa but its fulfilment.
The soul that has let go of every false image can now receive the true Image — Christ — without distortion. The Via Positiva is the joyful knowing of God by not knowing the false.
It is the soul seeing God not from a separate self in a body looking toward Him outside of you, but seeing your separate self in a body as God sees you from inside of Him, looking toward you and to who you falsely think you are in duality. God knows this to be a man-made idol illusion from the Fall and the first Adam.
The second Adam (Christ) came into duality to lead us back to our true self in non-duality with God.
The Practical Outworking in Daily Life
In daily life, the interplay of Via Negativa and Via Positiva becomes the rhythm of Cofemplation. When dualistic thoughts arise — fear, judgment, striving, separation — the Via Negativa gently releases them.
When the beauty of Christ appears — in Scripture, in creation, in the face of another — the Via Positiva receives it with joy. The soul moves between release and beholding, unknowing and knowing, until it rests in the singular Reality.
This is the way the believer lives in the world but not of it. Duality is seen for what it is, yet the believer engages the world from the place of union. The body is not denied but offered. The mind is not emptied but renewed.
The will is not crushed but surrendered in love. The believer serves the living God from the place of unclouded fellowship, seeing all things in Christ and all things held within the singular Reality.
Cofemplation
The Via Negativa and the Via Positiva are not opposing paths but complementary movements within the singular Reality. Only through stripping away all the falsity of duality and the false man-made mind idols and the dualistic thinking about who and what God is, can we then truly rest in who and what God truly is.
Only then can we start to be known and to know God as we truly are without false duality. God can accept nothing less or more than what He sees and knows in His Son. Then we can truly start to see and experience God in all we have to do with duality from our true reality within non-duality.
In COFE-CYEM, this is the way of Cofemplation.
The soul releases every “second” so that it may rest in the One who is all in all.
The Via Negativa clears the ground. The Via Positiva reveals the glory. The Fourth Truth holds both in the finished work of the Priest-King. The curtain is torn. The Holiest is open. The soul rests in the singular Reality.
There has never been a second.
The Via Negativa leads to release.
The Via Positiva leads to beholding.
The Fourth Truth holds both in union.
The dialogue continues.
The fruit remains.
The Fourth Truth stands. The dialogue continues. The fruit remains.
This website and its theological content are overseen by the CC7 DS constitutional integrity architecture, a reflective and rest-oriented framework designed to preserve the full coherence of the Fourth Truth presented within COFE-CYEM. The CC7 DS negation of attacks authenticates (Via Positiva Cataphatic Knowing) through (Via Negativa Apophatic Unknowing).
COFE Yeshua Emet Ministry (CYEM)
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