I've been trying to get this post finished for weeks, and I guess it's finally here, finished or otherwise.
It came from a conversation I had with someone whose basic problem with religion was along the lines that if there is a God, he must be so far beyond our understanding that giving him a name (or a gender for that matter) is somehow constraining God.
My issue with that point of view is that, basically, it's true. I have met religious people who believe it's their purpose to understand God (that's for another post), but I'm not sure I'd want to worship any deity that could be fully understood by some chick with a couple of mediocre A-levels, none of which are in theology.
Yes, God is outside our understanding. Of course he is, he's God. But just because he doesn't fit into our human ideas of gender or indeed anything else we may try to use to describe him, does that mean we stop referring to him? That doesn't seem to make any sense. Any conversation about - or with - God, by definition needs a term for God. We need a name for Him, it's as simple as that.
Aside from the practical issues, God wants us to speak to him. I don't know how many times in the Bible he urges people to 'call on my name', but I bet it's a lot. And he gives us plenty of names to use - but that, too, is for another post. I suppose it's something of a quandary: God knows we cannot fully understand Him, but neither does He want us to constrain Him in any way. He doesn't expect us to understand Him (except in as much as He reveals of Himself in the Bible or personal experiences) but He longs for us to know him.
And I think that's what I came away from that conversation with. Maybe there is no name that can really encompass who or what God really is, but there is a name that he invited me to call him, a name that he loves to hear from anyone who will use it.
God just loves it when I call him Daddy.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I am afraid that you and your friend are quite wrong in this matter. If you are really interested you should go and read the bible (start with the new testament, it is easier). God is clearly a man (Jesus Christ) and his Father is a man - the clue is that he refers to him as his father :)
ReplyDeleteJesus says this "for this is life eternal, to know thee - the only true and living God", so he is telling us this is one of the main reasons for life - and the result of gaining eternal life will be to live with God.
You are right in as far as you say he knows we cannot fully understand him - we can't, but he does teach us a lot, and does invite us as you say to call on his name and get to know him as best you can while still in this mortal life.
I like your last sentence - you are spot on there :) God is our Father (quite literally - of our spirits).
We therefore look like God - Read Genesis and John - it tells us we were created in his image.
So yes, Daddy is quite apt.
Any father wants the best for his children right? And any father wants his children to grow up to be just like him right?
Think about that one for a bit!
www.mormon.org
Nice of you to stop by and comment, although I'm not quite sure what you think I'm wrong about.
ReplyDeleteYour assertion that 'God is clearly a man and his father is a man' seem to contradict the fact that we cannot fully understand him, that he is the father of our spirits, or that we were created in his image - all those things suggest to me something more than a mere man.
And, for the record, I have read the Bible.
God bless.