Posted by Bob on 11/20/2007, 9:43 am
72.243.26.154
The only way we can know about God is if He tells us. And the only way we can understand what God says is if He gives us that understanding.
The human mind is a small subset of reality. The subset cannot encompass the entire set. Only God can encompass all of reality.
Therefore, the human mind can never wrap itself around a full understanding of reality. We cannot describe God, since it is God who ascribes us.
But while a subset cannot encompass the set, the subset can be in and of itself, complete within its own framework.
For example, a set of tools, or a set of china, can be complete in itself, even though it does not contain ALL of the tools, or all of the dinnerware, in the universe.
Therefore, we seek in vain if we seek to be able to set limits on God, if we seek to define Him, or even to describe Him beyond the descriptions He has given us of Himself.
Reason and logic are inadequate tools when it comes to understanding about God. Some people regard reason and logic as infallible, at least in theory. True, God has given us reason and logic as tools for understanding certain things about nature. But despite the best efforts of man to describe nature (through science), the greatest scientific minds have failed to give us a complete and satisfactory picture of gravity, or of how electromagnetic waves propagate through a vacuum.
Science can never hope to give us a complete understanding of nature, because for every question it answers, it opens up ever more new questions to ask. It is as if one were trying to complete a set of china by continually adding new pieces which did not match the old ones.
Therefore, when we look to the Bible for answers, we should not think that God has chosen to answer every conceivable question. Our minds could not contain them.
Instead, we should each seek to complete our own set of tools for life, our own sets of chinaware for the feast.
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