We're Like Babies Trying to Learn Calculus
Before reading the Bible, I thought it would instantly make everything immediately clear. Yes, The Bible gives us the best and closest understanding we can about God and Jesus - better than any other book, any blog, any speaker can. But, it is still limited by the bounds of language. There are some things that are difficult (not impossible, but difficult) to express with mere language.
What we need to do is remember that we're like babies trying to learn calculus. We need to slow down and not make any more assumptions than are absolutely necessary. Essentially, the Bible is a message from God. It is the most important message he has for us. A message, by its very definition, is sent through an intermediary. It is not the same as a direct conversation with God. (This is why prayer is also important if you want to find out more about God). Does this diminish the importance of the Bible? Of course not! God evidently felt that we could understand all we needed to from the Bible. I am just outlining the importance that we acknowledge that this is the format God has chosen to impart his message, and that his message has been adapted downward by him to a level that we can understand.
Our minds do not work the same way as God's mind. Ours are like those of babies, by comparison. A lot of people are unable or unwilling to see that (I was one of those until I started reading the Bible!). Some of this is due to the sin of pride (e.g. the false notion that we can understand whatever God can say to us at an equal intellectual level because we humans are are that smart!). Once we accept the limitations of the human mind relative to God's mind, it makes it easier to understand some parts of the Bible.
The chapter of Revelation is a good example. God showed the apostle John a vision (for which no words in the human language can adequately describe). John described this vision using the closest words that he possibly could (remember these came direct from the language and culture of his day). A lot of people, even Christians, criticize Revelation because they get puzzled as to what John was actually talking about. He was simply giving us the closest possible description of what he saw. People tend to jump to all kinds of conclusions about the nature of Heaven, how angels 'should' look, John's mental state, etc etc etc. Bound up in all this is the prideful thinking that they 'should be able to make sense of it all' and when they cannot, God or John are at fault. Instead, the reason it's difficult to make sense of is simply because whatever was seen by John was so 'out of this world' that it was really hard to describe. Revelation outlines important events which are yet to come. Who are we to decide how those should look? How many people would have as much trouble if John had described God looking human sitting on some clouds with some human-like creatures? Instead what John saw was much more unusual (by our standards). Yet it is what he saw. It is as simple as that.
"My thoughts," says the Lord, "are not like yours, and my ways are different from yours. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways and thoughts above yours.
Isaiah 55:8-9
If you found this post interesting, you might also like these related posts on this blog:
What we need to do is remember that we're like babies trying to learn calculus. We need to slow down and not make any more assumptions than are absolutely necessary. Essentially, the Bible is a message from God. It is the most important message he has for us. A message, by its very definition, is sent through an intermediary. It is not the same as a direct conversation with God. (This is why prayer is also important if you want to find out more about God). Does this diminish the importance of the Bible? Of course not! God evidently felt that we could understand all we needed to from the Bible. I am just outlining the importance that we acknowledge that this is the format God has chosen to impart his message, and that his message has been adapted downward by him to a level that we can understand.
Our minds do not work the same way as God's mind. Ours are like those of babies, by comparison. A lot of people are unable or unwilling to see that (I was one of those until I started reading the Bible!). Some of this is due to the sin of pride (e.g. the false notion that we can understand whatever God can say to us at an equal intellectual level because we humans are are that smart!). Once we accept the limitations of the human mind relative to God's mind, it makes it easier to understand some parts of the Bible.
The chapter of Revelation is a good example. God showed the apostle John a vision (for which no words in the human language can adequately describe). John described this vision using the closest words that he possibly could (remember these came direct from the language and culture of his day). A lot of people, even Christians, criticize Revelation because they get puzzled as to what John was actually talking about. He was simply giving us the closest possible description of what he saw. People tend to jump to all kinds of conclusions about the nature of Heaven, how angels 'should' look, John's mental state, etc etc etc. Bound up in all this is the prideful thinking that they 'should be able to make sense of it all' and when they cannot, God or John are at fault. Instead, the reason it's difficult to make sense of is simply because whatever was seen by John was so 'out of this world' that it was really hard to describe. Revelation outlines important events which are yet to come. Who are we to decide how those should look? How many people would have as much trouble if John had described God looking human sitting on some clouds with some human-like creatures? Instead what John saw was much more unusual (by our standards). Yet it is what he saw. It is as simple as that.
"My thoughts," says the Lord, "are not like yours, and my ways are different from yours. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways and thoughts above yours.
Isaiah 55:8-9
If you found this post interesting, you might also like these related posts on this blog:
Comments
Post a Comment