The Measure Of A Church - Knowing God

The Measure Of A Church - Knowing God

Do you know who God is? Let me say a couple of things before you answer that.

First of all, you can’t really know God at all, can you? God is infinitely beyond our understanding and yet intimately knowable. How does that work?

In the worlds of theology and philosophy, scholars debate about the knowing of God. They have come up with a special phrase to describe this area of theology: God is Other.

That means that He is not like us. In addition to that, He is not knowable by us. We can’t see Him, touch Him, hear Him, smell Him or taste Him. He is utterly beyond our reach. He even says this about Himself in the book of Isaiah:

Isaiah 55:8-9

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

So why do I paint such a bleak picture of knowing God? It’s because in spite of all this, we still know Him and can have a relationship with Him. How?

Because He has revealed Himself to us. We can’t reach Him but He can reach us. He sent His Prophets. He sent His Son and He sent the Holy Spirit to us to break down those walls in order to reveal Himself to us.

Now, let’s ask ourselves the same question about the church. Does your church know God? Specifically, how can a church claim to know God if they don’t believe in the Bible or the Holy Spirit?

Hmm. Good question, isn’t it? We’ll look into that tomorrow.