Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? It is higher than heaven — what can you do? Deeper than Sheol — what can you know? (Job 11:7-8)
But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. (Titus 2:1)
We have spent a number of blogs telling the Christian story. The discussion has been necessary because everything else about Christianity flows out of that story. The story is the foundation. Now we can start building. We will begin building by talking about Christian beliefs — also called Christian theology. These discussions will be basic. I want to describe God, Jesus, human nature, this world, the church, the afterlife, faith, and much more, and I want to do this in simple terms.
That’s a challenge when you think about it. I mean, how do you describe God in simple terms? In fact, how do you describe God at all? He is incomprehensible. Paul wrote, “How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord …’” (Rm 11:33-34a). It is true. I can’t capture God with my pen. And you can’t fit Him into your brain. He is God! That is a truth we must never forget.
But truth, like a good tool, must be used properly, and many people abuse the concept of the mystery of God. I have heard some theologians say that God is so mysterious that no one can possibly know anything about Him. People who claim that all religions point to the same reality often emphasize the transcendent incomprehensibility of God. To them, the mystery of God is necessary, for if we truly can know specifics about God, then not all religions are equal. Some will reflect what we can know better than others.
When people conclude that we cannot know God because he is so mysterious, they encounter a problem. You see, if we truly cannot know God, then how ever did we discover the fact? Theologians who talk this way do not believe their own theology. If they really believed what they said, they would quickly be out of a job; for if they are correct, we no longer need their services to teach us and write books for us. They would better serve humanity by being plumbers.
In addition, if it is true that we cannot possibly know anything about God, then how can anyone claim that all religions point to him? That claim itself assumes a type of knowledge about God. If you do not know the destination, you cannot know that every map points you in the right direction. We are, thus, stuck with this sense not only of a god but also of specifics. I don’t mean everyone agrees on the specifics. I mean merely that everyone agrees that there are specifics.
Anyone who worships God assumes something about him. We may have different forms and styles, different theologies and faiths, different religions all worshipping a god of some kind. Obviously, all these different worshippers cannot be correct, and they will disagree about issues of no little import, and some will certainly not be worshipping God. Yet every person who attempts to worship assumes that he knows something about God — namely, that He is worthy of worship. And once you begin to look at the various worship practices and traditions, you find that nearly every one of them makes significant knowledge claims about God: He is good, He is powerful, He is personal, He loves us, He is just, etc.
When the average person prays, he assumes knowledge of God, for he assumes God can actually do something, that God is greater than we are, that God listens, that God can be spoken to, that God still works in history. All these statements indicate to us that theists of all stripes believe that we can know something about God. They may disagree about the extent, but even the deists taught that God created the universe. That is a knowledge claim about God and says something significant about his power and provision.
“Ok, Ok,” you say, “all people who believe in a god believe something can be known of him. But that’s not saying much, and it certainly doesn’t help me understand God any better.”
Perhaps. But it is a start. At least it enables us to see through the sort of talk that says we cannot know anything about God but which then proceeds to tell us about him. This beginning may not point us to the right path, but it does eliminate one wrong path. It lets us know that the bridge is washed out on the path that opposes the mystery of God with the doctrines of God. In that sense it is helpful, for that path is well worn. Many moral people travel it, but if we push God’s mysterious character too far, we cut off the legs on which we stand.
God may be a mystery, but you can still know Him.
