Unfortunately, too many Christians focus on an individual's understanding of who and what God is as the thing which defines whether or not they are truly a follower of Jesus Christ. The reasoning goes something like this: "If a person doesn't understand who and what God is, then they can't really be a Christian." Of course, the flaw in such reasoning becomes immediately apparent when you begin asking Christians what they believe about who and what God is!
For instance, although most Christians would employ some of the same adjectives in describing their beliefs about God's characteristics (omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, self-sufficient, good, immutable and immortal), it would be very inaccurate to say that there is any widespread agreement or consensus among Christians regarding who and what god is. Indeed, it is generally recognized that Christian beliefs about God fall into three basic categories: Trinitarianism (the most popular), Binitarianism and Unitarianism. And, those broad categories don't even begin to address what different Christians believe about biblical terms like Spirit, YHWH, Elohim, Creator, Lord and heaven.
To be sure, Christians love to take positions on all of these topics and to claim that they understand God. Likewise, a great many Christians like to use their understanding of God to exclude those whose understanding of Divinity differ from their own. "They don't even understand who they're worshipping!" is a commonly heard statement when pointing the finger at folks in other denominations or churches.
It is clear, however, that the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews felt that seeking to understand God was much more important than the actual understanding! In the King James Version, we read: "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Hebrews 11:6) So, for this First Century Christian, it was essential that: 1) a Christian must believe in God's existence and 2) that God rewards those who "ekzeteo" him. According to Strong's Concordance, the original Greek word is a compound of two words that mean "to search out, i.e. (figuratively)investigate, crave, demand, (by Hebraism) worship:—en- (re-)quire, seek after (carefully, diligently)." Likewise, Thayer's Greek Lexicon suggest four different shades of meaning for this word: "a. to seek out, search for; b. to seek out i. e. investigate, scrutinize; c. to seek out for oneself, beg, crave; and d. to demand back, require."
Some of the more modern versions of these verses convey the same sense. It is the people who "sincerely" (NLT) and "earnestly" (NIV) seek God. Other modern versions drop the adjectives, but they continue to convey the sense that it is those who "seek" after God. Hence, for the author of this epistle at least, the pursuit of God is essential - a correct or complete understanding of "him" is NOT!
I disagree with you on this. A diligent act of seeking is eventually going to find something. And as diligence continues, more will be understood. But there will develop an understanding that has some measure of stability. Otherwise, we would never know anything univocally about God on which we could form a consensus. There is a difference between Yahweh and Baal. The Patristics in the early church knew God to a remarkable depth and what many of them knew is still with us.
ReplyDeleteContrast this with a group of people who doggedly hang on to a mis-characterization of God based on their contravention of scripture. This is not just cheery and good hearted naiveté; this borders on character assassination. Yet almost everyone would concede that many Calvinists are Christians. I believe Calvinists even seek God not to establish his nature (which they will tell you that they already know very well) but to conduce to his engagement in their lives.
What I will agree with is that searching for God is important. I will also concede that in the early church, before there was a New Testament, people may have had some odd notions about God and God probably winked at this. I believe we still have some odd notions about God and God winks at this.
A survey I have around someplace indicates that Americans believe in four different and well defined profiles of god. But this focused on a broad sample that included many people who were not Christians. Lots of people have an opinion about the Christian God without knowing remotely what they are talking about and without any desire to validate what they espouse against the writings of the Christian Ekklesia.
In summary, I believe people who diligently seek God and are reasonably educable, will converge on a stable consensus that will nevertheless continue to progress. I also believe that humankind is limited in what can be known about God and the progress will one day stop.
NEO,
DeleteI appreciate your perspective, but we may not be as far apart on this point as you think. I agree with you that diligently seeking God will eventually be rewarded with greater understanding. However, as your comments also suggest, our humanity limits our ability to comprehend that which so completely transcends our own nature.
Personally, I think that Paul's explanation of God to the people of Athens is the best summary of this subject that is available to us. We read in the book of Acts: "Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about. He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries. His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone. God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead." (Acts 17:22-31)
Paul identifies God as the Creator and proceeds to tell them that "He" is also greater than the Hebrew notion of a temple God - that "He" is a God who cannot be contained. The apostle also makes clear that God intended for people to seek after him - to seek to have a personal relationship with him, and he makes plain that the Jesus Christ is the proper way for that to happen.
I suspect that Paul and the other apostles would have been mystified by much of modern Christian theology, and the elaborate arguments which it has engendered among the saints. And, if modern theologians had a chance to present their arguments to Paul and his associates, I'm also confident that he/they could have found many statements to agree with among the positions of Trinitarians, Binitarians and Unitarians. Paul told the saints of Corinth that "we (it is interesting to note that he included himself in this thought) see through a glass darkly" - that in the present we know only in part.
Again, Scripture informs us that Jesus Christ is the most perfect revelation and representation of God that humankind has ever had access to. Hence, the conclusion that seeking to have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ is essential, but an error free understanding of God's nature is NOT. The notion that understanding is one of the hallmarks of a "true" Christian is a Herbert Armstrong heresy.
I was with you until the last paragraph. I would rejoin that I do not advocate the benefit of an "error free" understanding. In fact, I do not believe we will ever grow into a complete understanding of God. Ever. He will be a mystery in eternity as he is in the present. But I do believe it is both possible and important to have an interim understanding of God. And epektasis will lead us further. The idea that God is all the OT anthropomorphisms rolled together is the first concept that should die in any Christian's seeking.
ReplyDeleteSomeone can claim to be seeking but it is clear that they are not if they are stubbornly and immutably committed to inapposite notions.