So it's been a while since blogspot has been a spot on the radar. But a question that might would do us some good to wrestle with...a food for thought and response type question.
Is mystery to be preferred over academia?
A simple thought on this matter. Sometimes the Scripture can be less-than-clear about something. For instance, the doctrine of the Trinity. The Athanasian creed states "We worship God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity, neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance." Problem is, the Trinity cannot be defined. No logical explanation can tell us how three can be one and one can be three. It just doesn't make sense. So, my question is, is mystery to be preferred over academia?
Now before it comes to this, academia has a place in our lives as Christians. Yes, pursuit of God with the mind is an endeavor we must undertake. To fail to do so would be to neglect a portion of what Jesus calls the greatest command. So, pursuit of the mind toward the things of God is not sinful, but rather extremely profitable. Scriptural study is necessary for the transformation of a believer. Paul exhorts believers to be transformed by the renewing of what? One's experience...no, that's not it. One's heart? After all, we are to love God, right? Now, that's not it either (and our concept of love is jaded anyway, but that's a different post for a different day.) So how are we transformed? Oh yeah...by the renewing of our mind. Let us not forsake the mental pursuit of God, lest we fall short of transformation in our lives.
And Paul again, in his practical counsel to the Philippians, deals with the things that we think or dwell upon. He says that whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable...if there is anything that has moral excellency or is worthy of praise, to think about or dwell upon these things. Engage your mind in the constant remembrance of these things. If I am not mistake, T.W. Hunt's point in his book The Mind of Christ is that proper thinking, learning how to think (how to engage our minds) is the way in which we overcome sin. Now granted, we will never completely overcome sin until that glorious day when we see the King of kings returning for His bride, and while here on earth, we only overcome temptation and sin through the power of the Holy Spirit, but undoubtedly the Spirit works in conjunction with our knowledge of Scripture to rebuke us, to teach us, to correct us and to train us in righteousness. So to say that there is no need for the academic world to commit a grave travesty.
However, in the case of the aforementioned doctrine...mystery is to be preferred. Sometimes, we neglect the fact that God is not like us. Concerning God's "otherness," a friend of mine named Arthur Alligood penned to following words to his song Not Like Us.
"We use His name more frequently than common conjunctions,
A Friend He is, but a Father as well,
We love His ear, but hate the back of His hand...
Most of our songs have that one plea,
We want to see your face.
That was the last thing Israel wanted...
they knew one glance would bring them to the grave...
But I wonder when's the last time you went to church thinking you might...die?
Oh, to tremble
Oh, to quake before the One that covers our mistakes
We'd do good to learn He is not like us
Oh, to shudder
Oh, to fear
The One above, but right here
We'd do good to learn He is not like us"
Now before I'm labeled as a heretic for basing theology on a song, let me say that any of the numerous references to God's holiness throughout Scripture only propagate Arthur's point. He is not like us. And the truth is that in our fallen and broken condition, we lack the capacity to completely wrestle and grapple with certain "truths" about God. Our inability to grasp doesn't deteriorate the truth one bit, it only underscores our great need for a great God that will return for His bride one day, a day that we will finally know as we are known. But until that day, may we as Christians take some time to embrace the mystery of the "wholly other" God that we serve. And when our feeble, broken, inept minds cannot grasp the divine, may we never cease to continue loving with our mind, but also allow these grand truths to reveal even further the majesty of the only-God we serve.
(Thanks to D. Black for opening one Christian's eyes to consider things such as this.)
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