The Fathomlessness of God

It has been way too long since my last entry. My schedule over the past few weeks has been crazy. The next couple of weeks may be as well as I finish up my two seminary classes and prepare for all our Christmas music not to mention welcoming our new pastor.

Around A.D. 500 some works were written by one whom many believed was Dionysius mentioned in Acts 17:34. Because he was a follower of Paul, these works were influential throughout the churches of the East and West during the Middle Ages. One incredible thing that came from these works is something called Negative Theology, Via Negativa (Latin for "Negative Way"), or Apophatic Theology.

According to Wikipedia, Negative Theology is the attempt to gain and express knowledge of God by describing what God is not (apophasis), rather than by describing what God is. In Negative Theology, it is recognized that we can never truly define God in words. All that can be done is to say, it isn't this, but also, it isn't that either. In the end, the student must transcend words to understand the nature of the Divine. In this sense, Negative Theology is not a denial. Rather, it is an assertion that whatever the Divine may be, when we attempt to capture it in human words, we must inevitably fall short.

In the church, it more common to seek to understand God according to the tangibles. God is good, faithful, and merciful. God is love. God is Shepherd, Present, Near, and Peace. God works in these kinds of ways and reveals Himself in these kinds of ways. You get the picture. Now all of this is good and vital for our growth in Christ and the magnification of God in and through our lives. Yet, if we only seek to fit God into our understanding, we may loose some of the transcendence of His nature.

Here are couple of examples of Negative Theology in writing. From Orthodox Faith by John of Damascus:

"No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotton Son who is in
the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." The God-head, then, is ineffable and incomprehensible. For "no one knoweth the Father, but the Son: neither doth any one know the Son, but the Father." Furthermore, the Holy Spirit knows the things of God, just as the spirit of man knows what is in man. After the first blessed state of nature, no one has ever know God unless God Himself revealed it to him - not only no man, but not even any of the supramundane powers: the very Cherubim and Seraphim, I mean.

Therefore, we believe in on God: one principle, without beginning, uncreated, unbegotton, indestructible and immortal, eternal, unlimited, uncircumscribed, unbounded, infinite in power, simple, uncompounded, incorporeal, unchanging, unaffected, unchangeable, inalterate, invisible, source of goodness and justice, light intellectual and inaccessible; power which no measure can give any idea of but which is measured only by His own will, for He can do all things whatsoever he pleases; make of all things both visible and invisible, holding together all things and conserving them, provider for all, governing and dominating and ruling over all in unending immortal reign; withouy contradiction, filling all things, contained by nother, but Himself containing all things.

If you're like me, reading the above can be a little "out there" unless you bring it to a more simplified setting. Let me give it a try.

God displays His glory yet is invisible.
God is powerful yet His power has no limits.
God placed His creation in time yet has no beginning or end.
God is beautiful yet is indescribable.
God is Creator yet is uncreated.

Christ is enthroned in majesty yet enbodied in meekness.
Christ is God yet does not consider equality with God something to be grasped.
Christ is pure goodness yet willing to suffer evil.
Christ is eternal yet experienced death.

The Negative Way reinforces the fathomlessness of God. God cannot be placed in the box of our mind's comprehension.

Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens - what can you do? They are deeper than the depths of the grave - what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea. (John 11:7-9)

Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one canfathom. (Psalm 145:3)

May we continually seek to know God while understanding our limits in knowing the fathomlessness of God.