A few words taken from "Jesus, Mean and Wild: The Unexpected Love of an Untamable God", kinda along the same lines as this post.
...."But at its worst, evangelicalism rationalizes the faith- crafts an explanation that 'makes sense', that is too readily grasped with the mind. There is a temptation to systematize...and to explain away all those difficult biblical passages (thus our enduring fascination with 'The Bible Answer Man'....).
And thus the need to explain existence in Four Spiritual Laws. Laws - as if the mystery of God and his relationship with humankind can be grasped by a series of legal or scientific formulas. Where did we get the idea that this is the best way to describe a love affair?
Four laws? As if four, not five, not three, and not six hundred sum up the essence of the gospel. If this really can be done, one wonders why Jesus didn't do it in the first place....Why didn't he just come to the point?"....
Thursday, October 26, 2006
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about me
- javamamma
- I'm passionately in love with Jesus. He overwhelms me. I'm outrageously in love with my husband of 11 years. He stole my heart. I'm giddily in love with my kids. They make me laugh.
2 comments:
I didn't comment on the previous entry, but I'm not sure I'm quite on board with this author. (Although I recognize that I'm not reading this in the full context of the book.)
While I absolutely recognize that God is so far beyond our ability to understand Him and all His glory, and while I wholly agree that the Gospel can not be synthesized (Never been a fan of the 4 Spiritual Laws), I HAVE always been a big fan of the Bible Answer Man.
There are things in the Word which CAN be grasped and understood. There are sometimes very simple answers for the tough questions that people have about this or that passage of Scripture.
I chuckle to myself at the people who think that they have God and theology "all figured out," because it's just not possible. He wouldn't be God if human minds could grasp Him fully, but He has given us His word which CAN be understood to some degree and Scripture does give us some boundaries to understand Who He is and How How works.
God absolutely can not be put in a box, but the danger of going the next step to critique whether God's word "makes sense" and can be understood...well, in my opinion, it opens you up to the potential of relativism and everyone creating their own idea of who God is.
Further, the Holy Spirit inside of us is our Teacher and He can help it to "make sense" but often with an accompanying feeling of AWE!
In response to the previous comment:
I think the point of the post is that when we come to the position of "having all the anwers" and we have arrived with our nice little bucket of theology, Jesus comes along and knocks the bucket over and it all slips away before we can catch it and put it back in. He is FAR beyond figuring out and the longer I know Him the more I realize that I do not know Him. That's the great part! The exciting part! I can be captivated by Him for all of eternity because His beauty and spendor is so vast and yet with one glance of my eye, I ravish His heart. The Maker of heaen and earth, the I AM is mindful of us! I'd rather pursue Him all my days than get all the answers right and live with my findings.
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