Excessive Certitude?

[rockclimber]

This came from a commentary that i read. Your thoughts please.
Almost all religions have some creedal statement(s) about the impossibility and implausibility of defining God. Even the Hebraic-Jewish concept was one that was so revered that one could not spell the name, let alone speak it: thus, YHWH was His name. No, you can't buy a vowel! But, we gentiles usually kick in a couple of vowels and make it YaHWeH. Man, and especially religious man, has sought to define God and take away the mystery. As Walter Brueggemann put it, (an Old Testament scholar and author who lives in the United States) "Theologians have practiced the dangerous tendency to domesticate the mystery of God through excessive certitude."



This "need to know" comes from both sides of the isle.

Conservatives claim that God has said and His word is literally true, word for word: though they won't tell you 'which translation' it is, that's true. Liberal theologians bring God down to their level in what they say makes "social sense". Isn't it amazing how simply all this God-stuff really is? You just come up with a definition and VOILA! There you have it. That's "my God".

Our "language" about God defines God with or without our knowledge of it.

The more I have studied "things about God", the more I've "pressed in to the Spirit of God", and the more I've just been "quiet before God", the less I find I know for sure. And guess what! It's so damned exciting I can hardly stand it from time to time. He's the lover that you can ask questions about all day long, all year long, all lifetime long, and there's still more to fathom, discover, and embrace. Only God can do that. I use the metaphor "lover" because most of us can remember when we discovered that "first love" in the natural realm. And if not, just observe your teenage son or daughter when they've "fallen in love" for the first time!

Or, next time.   :bigGrin:

Trivia question. Which book of the Bible was the most popular in the Middle Ages?

Answer- Song Of Solomon. When is the last time you studied that book?

I can't know enough about God, and neither can I say I know anything for certain other than He loves me more than anything in this world, and that's enough to get me through the day. How about you? Do you KNOW THAT for sure? Unfortunately most people "think" they know a lot of other "facts" about God, most of which get in the way of loving Him or letting Him love us. If there's no room for doubt at the banquet table, you're probably going to have a wasted meal.

Comprende?  :Sparkletooth: