Knowing God:

Something To Think About Knowing God:

“Doing Theology” always involves a balancing act.  The first part of the word comes from the Greek word for God.  “Ology” is the study of.  When one sets out to study the God of the universe, they are sure to get to a place where they are over their head.  It has been humbly expressed this way:    “If God couldn’t do anything I couldn’t understand He wouldn’t be much of a God.”   Theologians, both real and would-be have been accused of trying “to put God in a box.”  Clearly, we don’t have a container big enough.  On the other hand, God has revealed himself to us.  While we can’t know God completely, we can know some things about Him accurately.  God reveals Himself, and His ways to us not to satisfy our curiosity, but to give us what we need to know so that we can live our lives as we should.  The New Living Translation does a good job capturing the heart of this from Deuteronomy 29:29.   “The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.” The task of the Theologian—whether amateur or professional—is not theoretical; it is intensely practical.  Doing theology is gathering information so that we can successfully do life.   It’s STTA.

Theological Translation:

Something To Think About Theological Relevance:

A simple definition of Theology that I have used says, “Theology is an all-encompassing philosophy of life that puts God in His proper place.”  It’s more of a statement to be preached, than a formal Systematic Theology definition.  That’s why I allow an obvious problem with the statement to stand.  Nobody puts God anywhere; we can only recognize where He chooses to be.  The little proverb-like definition seems to have more punch, though, worded as it is.  It tells me that there is something I need to do. We find out about God from the Bible, the book where God reveals Himself.  Bringing God’s truth into the realm where I live and thus recognizing the place that God totally deserves to occupy in my little world involves answering some questions.  Millard Erickson calls this process “contemporizing the Christian message.”  At this level everyone who has any concern at all for living a life that is pleasing to the Lord is a Theologian—we need to “put” God in the right place.  Erickson identifies three ways that would-be Theologians do this. There is the group that was quite prevalent in the culture in which I grew up.  Little, if any, effort is put into making the “old, old story” relevant to today’s culture.  The fact is the Bible has universal relevance.  The way we package it, not so much.  These folk recognize that God is in control, but they erect a wall of tradition and obscurity around Him so that contemporary people have little chance of seeing which way He is pointing. Other’s allow the culture to be in the pilot’s chair.  If some affirmation or prohibition found in scripture is not palatable to the ears of the culture in which these so-called Theologians are operating, they simply declare that word to be old-fashioned, irrelevant, or to be based on a primitive view of life.  In essence they say, “Move over God.  We know better about these things.” Erickson rightly points out that the task of the true Theologian is to “retain the essential content of the biblical teaching,” while, “translat[ing] into more modern concepts.” The first group is loud but irrelevant.  The second is friendly, and pseudo-relevant.  Those who speak to the real needs of real people are those who do the hard work of asking, “What does the Word of God have to say to people today, and how do I best say it?”  Kind of like the leaders in the Book of Ezra who, “read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.”   (Ezra 8:8, NIV) It’s Something to Think About. Today’s STTA is drawn from Introducing Christian Doctrine, Millard Erickson, chapter 2.

Only One Know-It-All in the Universe:

It's a bit long for a one-liner, but it does have that "keep it in your pocket it will be handy" quality that one-liners need.

If God couldn't do anything I couldn't understand, He wouldn't be much of a god, would He?  

I enjoy and acknowledge the benefits of modern technologies, but hasten to remind you and me that this world, and especially the God of this world is bigger than my mind can envision.  

Modernism was/is--I don't know whether we are living in a new version of modernism, postmodernism, or an era that defies labels--at its best when it recognized the order and predictability that God, Who is infinitely consistent (Immutable), and applied that to the study of and respectful use of the natural world.  From the technologies that have grown out of the understanding the nature of steam, to the complex calculations that are involved in sending back pictures from distant planets, to this collection of silicon, plastic, and copper on which I am typing this message, science and technology have brought us incredible benefits.  When scientific knowledge and technology become arrogance, the notion that we have it all figured out, that is modernism--or call it what you will at its worst.

The Biblical portrait of this world includes a misty horizon. God has graciously told us a great deal about Himself, His creation, and particularly the portion of the creation known as "me."  To extrapolate from that, however, and claim that I know all that is to be known beyond what God has revealed, is to say the least foolish.  If God is truly God then He is the only know-it-all in the Universe.

God does a great deal that I don't understand.  My mind is not big enough to encompass Him, but He has told me enough about Himself so that I can trust Him.  My point of security is not that I always understand.  It is that I understand enough to know that God is trustworthy.

And that is enough.

 It's STTA. 

God Isn't Lacking in Good Sense:

I recently wrote about the brief summaries that I try to come up with for my Junior High Sunday School class.  In that STTA I mentioned a one-word-er, "Hold!"

I thought I'd explore this a bit.  Here is another.

"God is not an idiot."  (I use that word not to refer to one who is unable to think clearly, but who doesn't, or even chooses to not, act in a clear thinking manner.) 

Certainly no Theist who takes her information from the scripture would ever claim that God acts in a manner that doesn't reflect clear thinking--not in so many words.  However many people claim practical, Divine contradictions that are signs of idiocy. 

• I acknowledge that God tells me to do (you fill in the blank), but I claim I can't do it.  So, God Who made me, and knows me, Psalm 139, has given me a task to do without the corresponding ability to do it?  Doesn't sound like clear thinking to me.
• God has given clear guidelines for living--actually "guideline" is to soft a word--yet I see my situation which clearly falls under the purview of one of God's laws, as utterly unique (Check this out.) and therefore God's law and the associated consequences don't apply to me.  
  It makes the God of the universe look like a despotic and idiotic office-manager who writes grandiose sounding policies that don't apply in the real world.

God is not an idiot.  He did think this through.  It may be hard, but you can obey, and obedience is clearly what is best.

It's something we ought to learn by Junior High.

 It's STTA.