Have been thinking about semiotics lately, especially in connection with Scripture and Communion and the temple and that sort of thing. It's not mostly original, but...I have been thinking it!
Semiotics is the study of sign systems. The model they work with involves making a distinction between the signifier (the thing being a sign) and the signified (the thing being communicated by the sign). I think the proper way to understand it is Meaning-maker --> sign --> meaning --> recipient of meaning.
God doesn't talk without talking to someone (either us or the angels, or Himself from all eternity), and similarly signs don't just pop up without having been put there by someone, or Someone. God is the ultimate meaning-maker. Without Him, the universe really is meaningless. The whole point of a sign is that it has meaning beyond just existence; nobody but Him could really give it any meaning.
But somehow, we think that the world, stars and trees and mountains and DNA and atoms, should have meaning. This is general revelation. (The heavens are telling of the glory of God/ And their expanse is declaring the works of His hand.) It's the Bible, though, special revelation, that makes the meaning explicit.
I do have more thoughts, but this is all I've got time for just now. :-)
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