telmar
This morning I went with Luke, Diane and her father to the pediatrician for Luke’s two-year-old checkup. He is an amazingly patient boy, especially for being two. It helped that the doctor was quite helpful, personable, chatty and looked a lot like Diane’s dad (similar build, mustache, glasses), someone with whom Luke is very close. Diane left the room for a minute and her father and I stayed with Luke as he got his shot for the day. It was over quickly; he had three big cries and that was it. We went to Chik-fil-a afterward and all was well. It was a good morning, and an encouraging morning. The doctor was full of good advice about Luke’s developmental progress and for Diane as a parent and me as a possibly prospective parent. Of course we depend on God for everything–our continued health, the future, all blessings and sustenance–but others certainly encourage us when they speak genuinely out of their knowledge, as the pediatrician did.
The theme of Coffee Theology last night was the knowability of God. We addressed the fact we know of Him through the universe He created (“general revelation”), but that the Bible (“special revelation”) is necessary to come to a specific knowledge of His character, attributes, ourselves and His plan for us and the world. The juxtaposition of the facts that He is the Creator of everything that we see and experience and so much more than we know, and that He is a personal God Who we can know and have close fellowship with–it just…astounds me.
We touched on the difference between the concepts of absolute truth and complete knowledge. When we reference absolutes and absolute truth as believers, it in no way means that we presume to have complete “truth” or complete knowledge. There are many absolutes in the Bible, unequivocal statements and principles (no matter your translation or interpretation), and we can certainly come to a knowledge of truth through the Word, but even having complete knowledge of just one attribute of God is impossible for our finite minds. That said, in the Bible we have all necessary knowledge for life and after life, everything that God purposed for us to know and that we need to know (it is “complete” in that sense), but it is far from comprehensive.
Indeed, as an object that exists in finite time and space, in the midst of His creation, it by definition cannot explain Him, an infinite Being, fully. That in itself amazes me. As Brett mentioned last night, every time I read the Word there is something new, a new insight about a passage or a verse that the Holy Spirit reveals to me, even if I’ve read that passage fifty times before. Rock-solid believers and Biblical scholars immerse themselves in the Word their whole lives and still discover new things every day. If something so “incomplete” and finite in its ability to describe God is so surpassingly rich, how many more orders of magnitude must He Himself be?
I’ve thought about that before…finite beings trying to put their arms around an infinite God. Doesn’t quite seem possible. However, it is comforting to know that God allows us to understand what we need to to be able to trust, love, and depend on Him. One thing I’ve been realizing more and more recently is the sufficiency of the Bible. We are so privledged to have the Bible today. Last night there was a show on the History Channel about Opus Dei whose founder created a 999 maxims (kind of like proverbs). They seemed absurd. It’s so neat that we have the very words of God in the Bible. No suppliments needed.
Agreed. And to add to this, I mentioned this the other night–how wonderful is it to have the lens in which to view all things properly? When looking at life and nature and virtue through the filter of biblical worldview, how stunningly, brilliantly perfect everything is! There is a magnificent order (superlative overdrive this morning)to every single aspect of His creation, thus the utter chaos of our culture and others. When looking at things through Man-lenses, how finite it really is! Stars are lovely but lose their mystery…rock formations are amazing but just rocks. People are commodities and the individual is god. But, wow…when seeing it God’s way, through the Word, isn’t the beauty of it all just crazy??!?!?! I mean, we can never, ever, ever get to the end of Him. I think that is when “maxims” can be discerned to be either bunk or acceptable for encouragement when the Word is sufficient for us already. Everything else can only be enhancement if it is sound, you know?
Sorry for the novel. Im having a hard time waking up this a.m. Im glad you and Rachel had a good trip…look forward to hearing more!
Good points made, both of you. David–agreed. It is right and good that we should go straight to the Word for everything we have questions about, knowing that we will find what we need there (not always what we think we want, though). No reliance on church fathers or traditions or things that “seem right” to us.
Diane: Here is that picture I mentioned on Tuesday night. The width and height correspond to one-tenth the diameter of the full moon. And in it there are around 10K galaxies. How’s that for humbling? :)