Greetings
Dear Reader,
Before I
dare say anything on this topic I must put forth a caveat. I do not profess to have any sure knowledge
of the mind of God. I am sure that his
mind is so much vaster than mine that I cannot begin to conceive it. What I intend in addressing this topic is to
show that like God’s existence is reasonable his intellect shows us that we can
reasonably accept that he would wish to communicate with us.
Nothing
in this commentary is new. I am simply
reviewing the journey that took me to the faith I hold. From the outset in Genesis
God makes it clear that he wishes to know us and more importantly that he
wishes for us to know him. The creation account
is obvious in its personal approach to the relationship. The first thing declared not good is being
alone.
I have
struggled with loneliness all my life. God’s
desire for us to have communion with him and to know him well sings to that
empty place inside of me. Nothing about
this is unique to me but rather I feel it so very deeply because it is me. We are designed by God to be fueled by our
proximity to him. This is not a physical
proximity but rather the closeness in which we follow Christ.
I see
the lives of those who have left this following and there is a gauntness there
that I cannot plumb. I can measure my
ability to handle the dark places by my tether to Christ. The mind of God is one that wishes us to know
him. In that knowing is where we find
our way.
His
desire is for us to be in harmony with who he is. That never changes. He promises that we will eventually know him
as completely as he knows us. It is intellectually
reasonable that if the universe has a designer that this designer wishes to be
known by his design. That we have a free
and independent intellect allows us to reason that the desire to know means
that there is something to be known.
Simply
put the mind of God is one that wishes to be known. He wants us to seek him and wishes for it to
be both cognitive and emotive. He wishes
to reason with us and to move our hearts.
He wants our faith to be reasonable and passionate all at once. He wants our spirit to hunger for him but
wants that spirit to be subject to reason as well. As with all things he seeks the fulfillment
of all our being.
I
believe because it is reasonable to seek that mind which is greater than
mine.
Wishing
you joy in the journey,
Aramis
Thorn
Mat
13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a
disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally
hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."
Posts
If the reasonableness of faith is difficult to parse the mind of God is impossible to parse. The first statement of this argument seems to be the way that most people understand divinity. No one can know the mind of God. Sacred texts, inspired commentary, and the history of the world must say something about the mind of God though. In fact, there would be no discussion on the mind of God without these things. And so, for the sake of discussion, it is interesting to attempt an understanding.
ReplyDeleteWe are discussing an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient being in discussing the Christian God and what He is according to The Bible and protestant Christianity. That God is ambivalent toward humanity at best, and an argument could be made that, put into these emotional terms, God regrets having ever created man at times.
The story of Noah and the flood in Genesis is only the first time that God is written to have wiped a human society from the face of the earth on account of their sin. He enacts vengeance against the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Philistines, and several other tribes in the Old Testament stories. His jealousy lashes out against Israel just as much. God blesses those that are said to follow his law and harshly, often horrifically, punishes those that live apart from it. Examples are myriad. God feels hatred, anger, jealousy, joy, sorrow, longing, and so many more things in the telling of Christianity's origin story. He is not simply benevolent or loving. He harms those that harm Him or his people. If The Bible tells us something about the mind of God it certainly tells us that He is not always loving toward humanity. If the sovereignty of God is not assumed, there are even times where He is unjust. If any person were to declare a nation unworthy of existence it would be abhorrent. This, I think, is interesting to discuss: Does God have a change of heart at times?
The only truly great example that exists in The Bible is the story of Jesus. He flies in the face of the eye for an eye ideology that exists throughout the Hebrew Bible. Jesus begs those that will listen to neglect vengeance and embrace mercy. He strives with religious leaders to denounce their holiness and accept that all men are equal in the eyes of God. He teaches that the end of days will bring about justice, peace, and that compassion should and will rule all.
This is what is interesting. He is single minded. He is not ambivalent. Jesus struggles with pain at times, but his purpose remains. God is not this simple. What God wants and what God thinks is impossible to know. What Jesus thinks and what he believes is ceaseless in clarity. Even if everything else can be contentious in the New Testament, what Jesus believes in is something that very few will argue about. Mercy, compassion, love, and non-violence are his message.
There are a small number of exceptions, but most Christian theology accepts that Jesus is God. if that is true, it would seem that God has had a huge turnaround by the time that Jesus shows up. All of his rage and jealousy are not present. The desire to wipe unrepentant nations from the Earth opposes Jesus' teaching. Paul even understands Jesus' role between the Resurrection and the end of days as being a voice that intercedes on humanity's behalf, quenching the wrath of God.
Relying on God does free people from loneliness at times. It does give people inner resolve, peace, and purpose. There are plenty of people in the world who find these things in their own culture and religions that have nothing to do with Christianity though. There are people who have never understood Christianity that have no gauntness in their lives. They thrive and feed the widows and orphans. There are people that have become better for rejecting their traditional religious views in favor of a more loving and compassionate outlook. What do these things say about the mind of God? That is a very interesting thing to think about.