The Unknowable God
Adoniram Judson, father of american missions, said after loosing a third child and his wife in Burma, "God is to me the great unknown. I believe in him, but find him not." This was written under much different circumstances than my own, but I can relate. Unfortuneately, this was the sentiment of many liberal theologians of the late 1800's and early 1900's like Bultmann. Bultmann believed that God was so unknowable, and even unapproachable, that to even speak of him or discuss him was to put him on a human level and thus sinning by doing so. He acknowledged that all of his writings on such were no less than this. Is it possible to know God? Are we, mere creation, able to speak inteligibly of a God like the one (and I confess only one) written about in the Bible. Weren't the writers of the canon able to do what they did for no other reason than it was revealed to them?
I wonder how God feels/thinks when men try to speak intelligibly of him. Bultmann was on the opposite side of the fence but had such an understanding of God that he knew he was limited in his scope of description. I don't mind being limited by words, as long as I know I am limited. My confusion is I feel so limited in understanding. I want to understand God, I don't mean corner him, like a small boy trying to catch a mouse. I mean that I want to be able to look at suffering and have faith that God is sovereign. I want to be able to think about death and have faith triumph my doubt. I want to be in need and be content. I want to suffer and find no reason to complain. I just want to have a knowledge of God that compels me to trust.
I believe I have been found. A common mistake in Christianity is to say I have found God, when in reality God "finds" us. Maybe it is our goal to search after God from the moment he finds us. Maye we are to look for him with all of our might, soul, and strength and be exhausted in pursuit of who he is. Maybe, no, absolutely this is our ultimate and most difficult task. I for one get lost in conversations and writings about God . I get lost in working for him and living a "right" life. I get lost mostly in sin, and all of these make me feel like I just spun myself around a 1000 times and can't even stand let alone begin pursuing God.
A.W. Tozer has a chapter in The Pursuit of God called "Apprehending God." In it, he says that many people's belief in God is based on, "He must be, therefore we believe he is." This is based on a belief that there is substantial evidence to not believe otherwise yet in this view God remains impersonal and unknowable. He concludes by saying that obedience to God's word is what unfolds the trinity before our eyes. I wish it were that easy. I, as could so many, name 1000's who were as obedient as they come and felt as if God were too high and lofty to be personal. They, like I, feel that God is, to some degree, a mystery.
So in this, whether as conservative as Judson or as liberal as Bultmann, any honest man must confess the "musterion" of God. I have been reading books by and about Bultmann, Judson, Wright, Metzger, Bonhoffer, and the like, and all of these would confess they have no grasp on the divine as if he were such. How can a guy like me do otherwise? Is it possible to know and understand God? Is it a worthy pursuit or a fool's quest?
Mark 4:11-12 says, "And He was saying to them, "To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, 12 so that WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN."
This was the response of Jesus when asked why he spoke in parables. Is this meant to be a blessing to the disciples? That they aren't going to be spoken to in parables. Most people think this means that those who are saved get some sort of special insight into God that the world doesn't have. It seems that the parables are somewhat easier than much of the other teachings of Jesus and Paul, most definitely of that of the Old Testament prophets.
This giving of the "musterion" to those who follow Jesus is almost a curse. It is a word that doesn't do justice by saying mystery. Unsolveable mystery is more like it because a mystery will make you pursue, it's the unsolveable part that drives man mad.
Yet madness is what God calls us to. Foolishness is what we who "pursue" God are labeled. So even though God may be unknowable to some degree and I have been cursed with the musterion, I will meddle in the affairs of God and hope to somehow find the trust that I need because I am convinced he is and am determined to find him so.
I wonder how God feels/thinks when men try to speak intelligibly of him. Bultmann was on the opposite side of the fence but had such an understanding of God that he knew he was limited in his scope of description. I don't mind being limited by words, as long as I know I am limited. My confusion is I feel so limited in understanding. I want to understand God, I don't mean corner him, like a small boy trying to catch a mouse. I mean that I want to be able to look at suffering and have faith that God is sovereign. I want to be able to think about death and have faith triumph my doubt. I want to be in need and be content. I want to suffer and find no reason to complain. I just want to have a knowledge of God that compels me to trust.
I believe I have been found. A common mistake in Christianity is to say I have found God, when in reality God "finds" us. Maybe it is our goal to search after God from the moment he finds us. Maye we are to look for him with all of our might, soul, and strength and be exhausted in pursuit of who he is. Maybe, no, absolutely this is our ultimate and most difficult task. I for one get lost in conversations and writings about God . I get lost in working for him and living a "right" life. I get lost mostly in sin, and all of these make me feel like I just spun myself around a 1000 times and can't even stand let alone begin pursuing God.
A.W. Tozer has a chapter in The Pursuit of God called "Apprehending God." In it, he says that many people's belief in God is based on, "He must be, therefore we believe he is." This is based on a belief that there is substantial evidence to not believe otherwise yet in this view God remains impersonal and unknowable. He concludes by saying that obedience to God's word is what unfolds the trinity before our eyes. I wish it were that easy. I, as could so many, name 1000's who were as obedient as they come and felt as if God were too high and lofty to be personal. They, like I, feel that God is, to some degree, a mystery.
So in this, whether as conservative as Judson or as liberal as Bultmann, any honest man must confess the "musterion" of God. I have been reading books by and about Bultmann, Judson, Wright, Metzger, Bonhoffer, and the like, and all of these would confess they have no grasp on the divine as if he were such. How can a guy like me do otherwise? Is it possible to know and understand God? Is it a worthy pursuit or a fool's quest?
Mark 4:11-12 says, "And He was saying to them, "To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, 12 so that WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN."
This was the response of Jesus when asked why he spoke in parables. Is this meant to be a blessing to the disciples? That they aren't going to be spoken to in parables. Most people think this means that those who are saved get some sort of special insight into God that the world doesn't have. It seems that the parables are somewhat easier than much of the other teachings of Jesus and Paul, most definitely of that of the Old Testament prophets.
This giving of the "musterion" to those who follow Jesus is almost a curse. It is a word that doesn't do justice by saying mystery. Unsolveable mystery is more like it because a mystery will make you pursue, it's the unsolveable part that drives man mad.
Yet madness is what God calls us to. Foolishness is what we who "pursue" God are labeled. So even though God may be unknowable to some degree and I have been cursed with the musterion, I will meddle in the affairs of God and hope to somehow find the trust that I need because I am convinced he is and am determined to find him so.
posted by big african at 11:54 AM
2 Comments:
That quote by Judson is poignette. Sometimes I feel that way as well. I once heard a guy talk about why he believed in both ghosts and bigfoot. He believed in ghosts becuase he had encountered one. He believed in bigfoot becuase he thought the evidence suggested it. I'm not sure I belive in either (though I like the thought of bigfoot) but I found his basis for belief in each instance to be interesting. He believed in ghosts because of personal experience. He believe in bigfoot because the of the evidence.
Makes me wonder why I believe in God--do I believe because I've encountered him, or because the "evidence demands a verdict"? Do I believe because the apostles met the risen Lord and have told me about him, or do I believe because I have met him for myself? I know that it is because of the latter, but sometimes it seems so long since I've heard from him.
Nice line about "meddling in the affairs of God." Where else can we go? He has the words of life.
I need Him so desperately at times, and I look for his face and see this vast expanse of the sky and feel so lost and so small. Other times I look at this spectacular masterpiece in the sky and see His face almost in detail. It seems the musterion is our adventure... the thrill of the pursuit never ceases.
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