The Central Core of Christian Teaching - Part 5

References: (1) We could spend the rest of our lives and never know all of God’s attributes. But similarly we could never know all about our parents, our spouses, or our children EITHER. But we can know enough about them to trust them, be comfortable and secure with them, and love them. The same is true regarding the God of the Bible. (2) When Mortimer J. Adler, editor of the “Great Books of the Western World,” was asked why the “God” section of the books was the largest section, he observed that it’s because more IMPLICATIONS flow from that SUBJECT of God than from any other subject. (3) The best description of God is the name Yahweh — I AM WHO I AM. That’s the name God gave to Moses at the Burning Bush in Exodus 3:13-14. Yahweh is usually translated Jehovah or LORD with all caps. He is totally SELF-AWARE — “I AM.” He is totally MORAL — “I ought.” (4) In the United States early in the 20th century, the Swiss theologian Karl Barth was asked during a seminar: “What is the MOST PROFOUND THING you have learned in your study of theology?” Barth thought for a moment and then replied, “Jesus LOVES me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” (5) John Calvin used another ANALOGY than that of Barth. Calvin said that God speaks to us in a kind of “lisps.” But I prefer to use the words “baby talk.” Parents engage in baby talk when addressing their infant children, so God, in order to communicate with us mortals must CONDESCEND to speak to us in a fashion that is somewhat like baby talk. No human being has the ability to understand God EXHAUSTIVELY. There is a built-in BARRIER that prohibits a TOTAL, COMPREHENSIVE UNDERSTANDING of God. God is infinite; we are finite. Therein lies the difficulty. (6) Medieval theologians had a phrase that became an AXIOM for all subsequent theological study: “The finite cannot grasp the infinite.” Nothing is more OBVIOUS than that an infinite object cannot be SQUEEZED into the finite space of a human mind. (7) This axiom conveys an important doctrine of orthodox Christianity, namely the doctrine of the “incomprehensibility of God.” (8) In his book God’s Words: Studies of Key Bible Themes J. I. Packer writes, “Reveal is a PICTURE WORD, and the picture is of God UNVEILING — God showing us things which were previously HIDDEN from us, God DISCLOSES them to us. He brings things into the OPEN which before were out of our SIGHT. God causing and enabling us to SEE what hitherto we could not see by taking us into His confidence and sharing His SECRETS with us. He finds us IGNORANT, and gives us KNOWLEDGE. That is what revelation means.” (9) Packer continues, “What does God reveal? Older Protestant theologians replied: truths about Himself which could not otherwise have known. Modern Protestant theologians, on the whole, prefer to say simply: God reveals HIMSELF. But these 2 answers are COMPLEMENTARY, not CONTRADICTORY. It is true that revelation is essentially SELF-DISCLOSURE on God’s part, and that its goal is to make men ‘know the Lord’. . . . But how does God make Himself known to us? In the same way in which you would make yourself known to me, or I to you: by TALKING. . . . Persons cannot be known unless in some way they SPEAK to reveal themselves.” This is Episode 226.