Would a ‘high’ view of God necessarily safeguard us from
idolatry?
Looking at the attributes of God, it seems that Systematic
Theology, in its endeavour to give a clear and logic description of who God is
and what he is like holds to a very ‘high’ view of God. For example, God is
described as eternal, holy, unchanging, immutable, impassable, infinite, omnipotent,
omnipresent, omniscient, omniscient, love, just etc. The terminology alone makes
one 'shudder' in reverence – especially if English is your second language.
To be clear, I revere God and hold him in very high esteem –
he is God and not your pal. Furthermore, I agree with these attributes (well,
probably most of them). However, we do have to ask ourselves what do we ‘mean’
by them. If we are not clear in what we mean by them, we quickly run into all
sorts of difficulties.
Let us take Genesis 6:6 as an example, “The LORD regretted
that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled”
(NIV). The question is, “How can an unchanging, immutable, impassable, omnipotent,
omnisapient, God ‘regret’ (or repented) or be ‘deeply troubled’?”
Hi Basie. [The question is, “How can an unchanging, immutable, impassable, omnipotent, omnisapient, God ‘regret’ (or repented) or be ‘deeply troubled’?”]
ReplyDeleteI read a lot of Karl Barth in my day, but the only thing I remember him saying (in his 'Church Dogmatics') was, "Let God be God!" And I always remember this when people say "God is.." or more often, "If there is loving compassionate God, he would never let this [insert disaster of your choice] happen!".
I find most non-believers have a 'high' opinion of God - especially in regards to His omnipotence - when bad things happen; indeed this the most often the reason given for NOT believing in God. A rabbi was once challenged: "If there is a God, why did He let the Holocaust happen?" The rabbi responded, "If there isn't a God why does it matter?"
Sometimes, in being dogmatic about God and His nature we are almost like zoologists describing a new species; we pin Him down to phylum, genus, and species and congratulate ourselves that we now understand God. In this way we can make Him serve us (or at least our purposes)!
So I like Biblical Theology, rather than Systematic; I like to find God where He is in the Scriptures and use the reference of the writer to tell us how he feels about God. And let God reveal Himself to us through the writer(s).
The 'high' view of God must be taken with the 'low' (emotional?) view of God. As for God being "deeply troubled" about mankind? Well, I know just how He feels!