I can only know God in how he reveals himself to me. I can't just study God on my own terms or diagnose God based upon objective observations. God is to me and my understanding, only how He has revealed himself to be. This doesn't limit God, though it does limit my understanding of him.
He has revealed himself through nature, through His word, through humans, and, most passionately, through Christ. (The book I'm reading now called Christ plays in 10,000 places talks about many other areas where God is revealed.) So any understanding or comprehension of God is seen through these lenses, and I cannot understand God without these lenses. Yet God exists beyond all these lenses, as their creator, and He is not limited to our own limitations of His understanding.
We understand this when we speak of God's omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. We understand that God is to big to be grasped, as well as we can grasp it anyway. Yet in the last few weeks I have struggled with something along these same lines, yet different.
We accept that God is limitless, but forget that just as he is limitless so are the qualities that he has poured upon this world. In Hosea God speaks concerning his mercy and love for the adultress Israel. He says in chapter 11,
He has revealed himself through nature, through His word, through humans, and, most passionately, through Christ. (The book I'm reading now called Christ plays in 10,000 places talks about many other areas where God is revealed.) So any understanding or comprehension of God is seen through these lenses, and I cannot understand God without these lenses. Yet God exists beyond all these lenses, as their creator, and He is not limited to our own limitations of His understanding.
We understand this when we speak of God's omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. We understand that God is to big to be grasped, as well as we can grasp it anyway. Yet in the last few weeks I have struggled with something along these same lines, yet different.
We accept that God is limitless, but forget that just as he is limitless so are the qualities that he has poured upon this world. In Hosea God speaks concerning his mercy and love for the adultress Israel. He says in chapter 11,
"My heart is changed within me;
all my compassion is aroused.
I will not carry out my fierce anger,
nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim.
For I am God, and not man."
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Though our understanding of God's mercy and love is limited to only that which he has revealed to us, he is not limited by these same graces. Though I can only comprehend mercy through it's interaction on a human level, which is beautiful to tears as we experience it, how much greater is the mercy and love that is being poured upon this world by a God who has no limits. Just as Paul prays concerning the church in Ephesus,
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"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
may have power, together with all the saints,
to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-
that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."
posted by Brandon Moore @ 8:22 AM
3 Comments:
I used to believe Paul was a great worker for the Lord, but when reading, I saw he taught contrary to Christ and then looked into him seriously:
1. He wasn’t ordained an apostle by Christ (Mat 10)
2. He didn’t qualify to be an apostle (Acts 1:16-26)
3. Paul’s doctrine is proven false:
After Christ died and rose he appeared to his apostles. The gospels record him as appearing to the “eleven” (remember, Judas had died), but Paul’s doctrine is in clear error as he tells us that Christ appeared to the “twelve”:
Paul said twelve:
1 Corinthians 15:4-64And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 5And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve
Mark said eleven:
Mark 16:14: Afterward he (Christ) appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat
Matthew said eleven:
Matt 28:16-18:
Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. 17And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Luke’s mentions the “eleven”:
2And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. 3And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. 4And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: 5And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? 6He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, 7Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. 8And they remembered his words, 9And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest.
Acts mentions eleven:Acts 1:26:
26And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
Paul is a liar, and a proven false witness.
Christ, in Revelation 2:2 commends the church of Epheus for figuring out false aposles. He said, “…thou hast tried them which say they are apsostles, and are not, and hast found them liars. Remember, Paul preached at Epheus.
Fact 4:
The apostles did not believe Paul was a disciple:
Acts 9:26:
26And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple.After Barnabas told the apostles that Paul had “seen the Lord” and that he preached boldy in the name of Jesus, the Apostles didn’t tell him to join them, but they sent him home to Tarsus. Remember, Jesus told us (Mat 13:57) that a prophet is not without honour except in his own country and in his own house . The apostles sent Paul to a place that no one would believe him.
Paul's caught in a lie about his conversion:
There are 2 different stories. In one version he said that Christ told him to go to Damascus and that it would be there that Christ would reveal more to him. In the other version, Christ did the opposite. Compare Acts 22 with Acts 26
Jesus tells apostles to "heal", Paul blinded a man:
Acts 13:11, Paul said:
"11And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand."
Jesus, confirms twelve apostles, not 13:Revelation 21:14:
14And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
To the Church of Ephesus, Revelation 2:2:
2I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
Paul told Ephesus he was an apostle:
Ephesians 1:11:
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus
Paul admits his doctrine had troubles being accepted in Ephesus:
Acts 19:8,9:
8And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. 9But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.
I think I'll follow your example, Brandon, and follow Proverbs 26:4 rather than 26:5.
hi, i'm brandon moore too. looks like we have a few things in common, so i just thought i'd say hi. check out my blog at blog.bmooreonline.com.
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