Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Oh Please!
Al Mohler recently tackled a theological "toughie":
I am reminded of the scene in the Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka movie (God save us from the Johnny Depp version) in which Violet Beauregarde, with her finger digging deeply and firmly in her nose, declares, "Spitting is a nasty habit." She sort of misses the point methinks.
Those of us that God has gifted with intelligence need to learn to turn it off now and then. The essence of God lies for me, as a person that over thinks everything, in allowing the mysterious to remain a mystery and in allowing some questions to go unasked. God is not subject to my understanding and I cannot insist that He be so.
There is a mystical side to our faith and no amount of rhetorical gymnastics can make it otherwise. Sometimes we don't need to think or develop theology. Sometimes we need to sit in the presence of the Almighty. Don't ask me how - I am still trying to figure it out. But I have gotten far enough to know that I can't ever really "figure it out" - I have to experience it.
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Is the God of the Bible the supreme egotist? That question arises when human beings contemplate the meaning of the truth that God does everything for the sake of his own glory. Is God then a megalomaniac?Mohler then started in the right direction:
Human beings are trapped in a human frame of reference.Which, from my perspective should be all that is necessary to say. God is incomprehensible on our level and to frame a question in such purely personal terms is to lessen God by the question itself. Yet Mohler finds it necessary to go on for 19 paragraphs. He tires to end up in the right place, but cannot help but try to justify his verbosity:
Is God a megalomaniac . . . the transcendent Egotist? Of course not. In the truest sense, this is an arrogant and irresponsible question. How can God be other than he is in his perfection? But in another sense, the question is helpful, for it directs our thinking to the essence of God's glory and resets our theological framework. [emphasis added]"Our thinking...our theological framework," when you first identify the question as "arrogant"? Isn't that self-contradictory?
I am reminded of the scene in the Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka movie (God save us from the Johnny Depp version) in which Violet Beauregarde, with her finger digging deeply and firmly in her nose, declares, "Spitting is a nasty habit." She sort of misses the point methinks.
Those of us that God has gifted with intelligence need to learn to turn it off now and then. The essence of God lies for me, as a person that over thinks everything, in allowing the mysterious to remain a mystery and in allowing some questions to go unasked. God is not subject to my understanding and I cannot insist that He be so.
There is a mystical side to our faith and no amount of rhetorical gymnastics can make it otherwise. Sometimes we don't need to think or develop theology. Sometimes we need to sit in the presence of the Almighty. Don't ask me how - I am still trying to figure it out. But I have gotten far enough to know that I can't ever really "figure it out" - I have to experience it.
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