Good News - September 2019

en GAGE www.goodnewsfl.org 25 SEPTEMBER 2019 Gods were beyond the validation of reason. The poets re- mained theists, composing “images” of the Gods. There emerged the ancient quarrel between philosophy and poetry, two camps divided over the possibility of knowing God. Philosophers said we can only know truth by reason. Poets offered the rival claim that we can know truth by contemplat- ing images of the beautiful. Reason, however, has limits. Our senses can deceive us. A stick in water refracts the image of brokenness. Amirage in the desert gives the thirsty an image of false hope. Further, Xenophanes taught that our time on earth is too short and our experiences are too limited to have reasonable knowledge of anything. Inmodernity, Baconian scientific method has yielded much to improve the conditions of life. But it too has recogniz- able limits. It cannot address anything not repeatable or testable, like creation, the eternality of matter, or the begin- nings of life — that is, anything in the realm of the divine. 6. Can we know God by revelation (poetry)? Are there limits to revelation? There are limits to revelation (poetry) as well as limits to reason. One obvious limit is the multiplicity of poetic images of God. How can we falsify them? There is also transcen- dence and imminence. This leads to “mystery” in Christian theology, the realm where logic ceases to be knowable. How can God, who made man in his image, become man himself in the incarnation of Christ? 7. Who is God described by reason alone? By revelation alone? The pre-Socratic philosophers were looking for the “first principle.” The “indivisible.” The “atomic” (Gk. “that which cannot be subdivided”). Philosophers, like the poets, offered different elemental theories. Thales sug- gested water. Anaximenes set forth air. Others examined fire and earth. They called the quest for the beginning the search for the “Arche,” or the beginning of the cosmos. Yet no consensus emerged. But there is no consensus among the poets either. The ancients imagined the God(s) to be projections of human families. Creating the Gods in the image of mankind, they worshipped Gods who warred against each other, were jealous, unfaith- ful, and vengeful. The Hebrews, on the contrary, claimed that the true God revealed himself to the patriarchs and prophets of Israel through his Word, the “Logos.” This God made man in his image, but forbade man from making any image of God in turn. Aristotle reasoned that when we see a house, we imagine a house builder. When we see a palace, we imagine many builders. When we see the world, we imagine many Gods creating it. Monotheism, in this sense, is contrary to reason. It can only have come from revelation. 8. Who is God by reason and revelation together? The Gospel of John opens by claiming that the Word (Logos) was in the beginning (Arche) (John 1:1). The divine Word is thus the synthesis of reason and revelation, the One identified with God and yet, as in the Genesis account of the beginning, differentiated from God (John 1:1). In the Hebrew Bible, the word for thunder (Qol) is also the word for voice. The voice of God, which reveals truth, was heard in the thunder of Sinai. Perhaps the most beautiful and reasonable revelation of God was given to Moses, “I Am that I Am” (Exodus 3:14). Here is a God who is transcendent (eternally existent) yet who hears the cries of his people suffering in bondage (Exodus 3:7). Here is a God who loves liberty and who saves the downtrodden. We can trust this God to drive our planetary vehicle to safety and to bring his hitchhikers home! Next month: What is Religion? Dr. Warren A. Gage, Th.M., J.D., Ph.D. is president of The Alexandrian Forum, which provides life-changing Biblical teaching. To learn more, visit alexandrianforum.org