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Sunday, April 23, 2006
Closed minds
The pastor said some things this morning that made my mind work. I think he is right. He said, "God does not have to fit into our understanding; we must gain His understanding." He was talking about having "closed" minds and "closed" theological systems. If we have a closed system that is not growing and changing as we study God's word more, we are closing our minds to God's truth. When we say, "God can only work this way," we are putting God in a box. God doesn't belong in a box of our own creation. We as fundamentalists seem especially good at closing our systems, I am sure in the name of all of our personal beliefs being "fundamental." There are some things on which we must never change, but we don't know everything and we don't have it all figured out. I wonder how closed my system really is...
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4 comments:
"God does not have to fit into our understanding; we must gain His understanding."
Oohh! Excellent, and so very true. We are often too lazy to even attempt to grasp the character of God, that we simply put Him in a little box. It blows my mind to think even the God I know isn't even half the God He really is.
It really is a great quote. I rarely take notes in church (naughty me - I am sure it would help me pay attention if I did), but I pulled out the bulletin and a pen to write that one down. I am blown away by God vs. my conception of God. It is hard for our finite minds to even begin to conceive the greatness of the infinite God.
Jonathan Moorehead was blogging about this recently.
Systems have a bad press these days, but as a very systematic thinker, I would say they are very useful.
God's revelation is consistent and we can see patterns in His dealings.
On that basis we need to seek to develope a systematic framework for theology.
Such a system needs to be open to challenge, but only on the basis of very careful and demanding exegesis.
Every Blessing in Christ
Matthew
You are quite right, Matthew. I also think it is unavoidable to have some sort of system. I think perhaps Jonathan's post "All Systems Go" and recent discussion with those with whom I may not agree has made me think about the issue in general lately, which is perhaps why this struck me like it did this morning.
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