We Cannot Fully Comprehend God

[Depleted]

I propose an alternative (or perhaps supplementary) theory to conflicting dogmas.

Right now we've got the Calvinists against the Arminians, and the Pro-Tongue vs. the Anti-Tongue. Have we ever stopped amongst our bickering to realize something rather fundamental? We can't fully understand God. He is too big to fit inside the confines of our brains. And we will never in our earthly state be intellectual enough to be able to understand all of the intricacies of His Word, either.

Realizing this, we should have a reality check from time to time. What is essential to Salvation?

We all serve the same God here. But we all see Him through our limited lenses for now. Let's remember this as we fellowship here lest we get caught into endless cycles of bickering.

Francis Schaeffer was a Christian philosopher in the 20th century. He and his wife opened up their home to anyone as a place to gather and understand the Lord together, and it was something like those writing groups with several famous writers gathered to talk about the heady stuff of their era. (Minus a pub and lots of drinking. lol)

Their gathering room had quite an assortment of people on any given night, and some became regulars every night. Among the regulars was a couple in the corner forever talking quietly to each other. And they kept right on talking, as the larger conversation or teaching happened. Sometimes the two would leave the larger group and continue to talk to each other.

One night Schaeffer addressed them.

He said something like, "You two are married, and you want to know everything about each other. You never will. It would take the same number of years you've been alive to talk about everything that happened to you before you met, and even then you still won't know everything about each other, but you will be twice as old. Accept that."

They were upset by what he said, left, and never came back. No one will ever know if they got the message.

I agree. We will never know everything there is to know about God. On the other hand, he married us and we love him, so it seems important to learn the important stuff about him.

I've been married to hubby for 37 years now. Last night, we stumbled onto stories neither one of us have told the other before. (Something of a miracle, considering we do talk often. lol) I am glad to learn more about him. It helps me serve/help him in little ways better. Same thing with the Lord. After all, isn't that why God lets us get to know him better?

We won't know all there is to God ever, but we can still learn more and more each day, and enjoy him more and more for the knowing of him.

Oh, and heads up, to many those arguments are sport. That's why they come here. And the topics don't change much over the years. They just rotate. Be glad you missed some of the other topics, albeit, I know they'll return too. lol

 

[Depleted]

To be honest no one here is in danger of coming near to exhausting the study of God (theology). What is "essential to salvation" isn't the end all, growing in grace and knowledge is also a large piece of the journey, as well as study. Through study we understand and know God more intimately.

What it really boils down to are there are some who are deeper in understanding and study, in knowledge of God, in understanding Scripture, and there are those who are not as knowledgeable, hold to errors, equate (at times) ignorance with being spiritual. The former take a contextual and exegetical approach with Scripture and the latter use a proof text approach leading to error.

Nahhhh! Let's be honest here. It often comes down to prove-a-point. Each one is knowledgeable in something, and most feel the need to make sure everyone else agrees. Problem hits when prove-a-point is used as an attack against the possibility that someone else is... WRONG!

 

[beastslayer1970]

What it really boils down to are there are some who are deeper in understanding and study, in knowledge of God, in understanding Scripture, and there are those who are not as knowledgeable, hold to errors, equate (at times) ignorance with being spiritual. The former take a contextual and exegetical approach with Scripture and the latter use a proof text approach leading to error.

This is very true, but it would seem most of the discussions here gravitate towards pointing out someones else error and false teaching, because it disagrees with their denominational affiliations more than really the Word.


We had a thread started by a young female poster, who had just learned about Bible Covenants. The thread was awesome, but as usual,l it was immediately derailed by lawyers, eternal security and works based salvation believers all beating each other up.

I personally believe there is far to many here that cannot go past certain topics because that topics are about as deep as they know and can go.

I would love to see a thread on what personal discipleship should look like and what being led by the Holy Spirit is but will never start the threads, because they will just devolve into another not by works thread.

 

[Magenta]

We had a thread started by a young female poster, who had just learned about Bible Covenants. The thread was awesome, but as usual, it was immediately derailed by lawyers, eternal security and works based salvation believers all beating each other up.

Did you notice the Sabbath keeper in that thread who claimed there was NO truth in what the OP said, but then went on to agree with some of the OP? This person goes around telling many he disagrees with, that they neither read nor know nor understand the Word of God, and has also repeatedly claimed that he is not judging anyone. LOL. Such people can plainly be seen for being blind, and not just to their own folly