"The width of our knowledge about [God] is no gauge of the depth of our knowledge of Him." ~ J.I. Packer, Knowing God Through the Year
Packer makes a great point here. Knowledge of God is vitally important (and Packer is not denying this at all) because without it we cannot love God with all our minds (Mark 12:30). We cannot truly worship God if we do not know Him and the glory of His perfections. However, having pure knowledge about God is not knowing Him. If we do not love God with all our hearts and souls (Mark 12:30) we do not really know Him. We can have every commentary and systematic theology book memorized, but if that mental knowledge does not take root deep in the heart then we do not truly know Him.
God interacted with humanity in a very personal way. The second Person in the Trinity, the very Image of the Father, condescended to personally deal with us, struggle with us, and struggle for us. How much more personal can the invitation be? The God who has dealt so personally with us cannot be truly known by raw data but must also be dealt with personally as He opens up to us and as He opens us up to Himself. Our dealings with Him should be as our dealings with any other person we want to know well. I can know many facts about my wife, there are some who may know as many facts as I do, but I believe I can confidently say few (if any) have the depth of knowledge of her that I do because I live with her, interact with her throughout the day, glory with her, and struggle with her (the reverse is also of course true).
May we pray as Augustine prayed in Confessions, "Let me know Thee, O my Knower; let me know Thee as I am known."
By His Grace,
Taylor
Showing posts with label knowledge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label knowledge. Show all posts
Monday, August 18, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Incomplete II
"One would need to possess complete knowledge and understanding about every complexity of a phenomenon before one could settle upon a unique and exhaustively complete explanation of every detail of the phenomenon. Since only God is omniscient, such an explanation will forever remain beyond the bounds of human knowledge. Another way to put it is that only God possesses absolute proof." ~ Hugh Ross
A few posts ago I presented a quote from John Frame about the limitations of logic. The above quote from Hugh Ross of Reasons to Believe expresses a similar sentiment. The fact that only God possesses absolute proof and the knowledge necessary to create a flawless logical systems or models should humble us. We, and I am guilty of this often, often think we will eventually be able to prove anything absolutely whether it be scientific or theological, but that will never be the case. Our knowledge will never be complete and therefore our proofs will never be either. This does not mean we should pursue knowledge through various disciplines, but it does mean that we should kneel in humility before an Absolute God and be teachable so that we do not pridefully overlook our limitations.
By His Grace,
Taylor
A few posts ago I presented a quote from John Frame about the limitations of logic. The above quote from Hugh Ross of Reasons to Believe expresses a similar sentiment. The fact that only God possesses absolute proof and the knowledge necessary to create a flawless logical systems or models should humble us. We, and I am guilty of this often, often think we will eventually be able to prove anything absolutely whether it be scientific or theological, but that will never be the case. Our knowledge will never be complete and therefore our proofs will never be either. This does not mean we should pursue knowledge through various disciplines, but it does mean that we should kneel in humility before an Absolute God and be teachable so that we do not pridefully overlook our limitations.
By His Grace,
Taylor
Monday, March 24, 2008
Incomplete
"[Logical systems] are fallible systems, human systems. They may not be equated with the mind of God. God's logic is divine; human logic is not." ~ John Frame, The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God
I think it would do all of us good to remember this very important fact. We humans are so proud of what we have accomplished and what we can do, which is not in itself wrong, but we begin to become over confident and think that "science and reason [logic] can accomplish everything" which is arrogant of us to believe. We have very incomplete knowledge of our universe, not to mention our incomplete knowledge of the spiritual realm. We do not know what we do not know. By that I mean that we cannot begin to take into consideration situations, circumstances, and environments we do not even know exist, so how can we possibly claim that science and reason/logic can accomplish everything? Science is constantly being revised because of newly discovered data and refined techniques. Einstein trumps Newton and now even Einstein is being questioned.
God's logic/reasoning systems, however, are of a different nature. God, by definition, is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. He is also the only Being with complete knowledge of all things. Complete knowledge coupled with a perfect Mind leads to complete, perfect, and divine systems.
We need to search, study, and investigate, but we need to also acknowledge our limitations before a limitless God.
By His Grace,
Taylor
I think it would do all of us good to remember this very important fact. We humans are so proud of what we have accomplished and what we can do, which is not in itself wrong, but we begin to become over confident and think that "science and reason [logic] can accomplish everything" which is arrogant of us to believe. We have very incomplete knowledge of our universe, not to mention our incomplete knowledge of the spiritual realm. We do not know what we do not know. By that I mean that we cannot begin to take into consideration situations, circumstances, and environments we do not even know exist, so how can we possibly claim that science and reason/logic can accomplish everything? Science is constantly being revised because of newly discovered data and refined techniques. Einstein trumps Newton and now even Einstein is being questioned.
God's logic/reasoning systems, however, are of a different nature. God, by definition, is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. He is also the only Being with complete knowledge of all things. Complete knowledge coupled with a perfect Mind leads to complete, perfect, and divine systems.
We need to search, study, and investigate, but we need to also acknowledge our limitations before a limitless God.
By His Grace,
Taylor
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