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I wonder how many assumptions I have about God that are not necessarily Biblical? In taking my first theology course at Fuller Seminary (even though I am nearly done with my program), I am challenged to reflect on my assumptions about God’s nature.
Why do I believe that God is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent (among the other omni’s that are classically attributed to God)? How do these omni’s or other beliefs shape how I connect with God and how I teach about God? For example, do I explain prayer in terms of the classic analogy of the child who asks her parent for something and the parent already knows what the child wants but delights in the process of the child asking? Or is prayer an appeal for God to change circumstances that seem hopeless and perhaps the answer to prayer is conditioned on the ask itself?
About 10 years ago, I read John Stott’s The Cross of Christ for the first time. That book deeply shaped my understanding of the cross, but what it also did is give me a deep appreciation for the thinkers and shapers of Christianity for the past 2000 years. They spent energy articulating doctrines we take for granted as being essential and orthodox to the Christian faith.
To solely rely on the work done with these thinkers will eventually test and challenge our faith. When The Da Vinci Code came out in 2003, many Christians found themselves unable to interact with author Dan Brown’s heresy. While some pastors took the time to educate their parishioners about the nature of Christ and the reliability of Scripture, many others shunned the book as heresy, not equipping people to interact with our culture about God who is far superior than what Brown paints in his book.
I am thankful for the ancient shapers of the faith and I pray to enter with them in the dialog rather than to take their conclusions as ‘gospel truth.’
If what I assume about God influences how I teach, lead, and preach, I want to make sure that I am growing on a trajectory to adopt right concepts about God. My hope relies on a growing relationship with God who will surely surprise me by his character. And rather than ignore everything I know about God and start over, I pray that as I grow in my relationship with God and my dedication to study and know the Scriptures, my understanding of God’s character would be more and more clarified.
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