Monday, February 12, 2007

A wordless God?

The Constructive Curmudgeon provides a full copy of a letter to Christianity Today by Dr. Gordon Lewis responding to an article about the "emerging church" by Scott McKnight:
Commendably, Scot McKnight seeks to practice the way of Jesus; sadly, he fails to follow Jesus' way with words. Does not McKnight's assertion that "no language is capable of capturing absolute truth" contradict what Jesus said to his heavenly Father? "I gave them the words you gave me" (John 17:8). "I have given them your word" (v.14) and "your word is truth" (v.17).

Apparently McKnight's wordless god is not the God who has spoken in human languages. "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son" (Heb 1:1-2).

Like the mystics of the world's religions, as well as Kierkegaard and Barth, McKnight presupposes that God's thoughts are infinitely different in every quality from any concepts expressed in human language. So what God reveals is himself, not information about himself. Apparently McKnight overlooks the fact that God created men and women in his image and that the image includes a mental capacity for receiving revealed information. A believer's new nature is "renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator" (Col 3:10). [the rest]

Source: The Constructive Curmudgeon: Letter to Christianity Today from Dr. Gordon Lewis

1 comment:

  1. I had Dr. Lewis for a history of Philosophy class at Denver. He is a man who deeply loves the Lord, and I tend to agree with him. His wife is a blast. She used to come to class with him and routinely baked the class cookies.

    The 'emerging church' as it has come to be known, leads me ask a bunch of questions. The term is pretty amorphous, because I know some folks who are rock solid who are firmly in the camp, but I also know there are some very liberal folks in the movement. Some clarifications on this type of thing are usually very helpful. Dr. Lewis's letter seems to do that. I'm sure Groothuis is on board with the letter as well. He has no love for the "emerging church" movement.

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