Don’t you put God in a box!? This is a very common argument, usually seems to face the possibility of knowing clearly and intelligiblely who God is and other implications of this knowledge, does this serve to relativize, or to make definitions of who God or Jesus is?What is the message of the Gospel, how should it be preached, the central doctrines of faith, among many other truths, and its consequences for the Christian life?In another sense, some people use it to say that God is much greater than the Bible. And this is true, because He is eternal and infinite, but there is also a great risk in this statement, because all we can know about God and our relationship with Him is in the scriptures and denying the possibility of such knowledge is denying God. Or to say that God can be or act against what he reveals is to call him crazy.
Some well-meaning people sometimes use the argument in the box, but this almost always only serves to contradict one of the most important aspects of theology and Christian life: the knowledge of God. Although complicated, the term means that although God is eternal and infinite, He can be known to human beings, created and finished, in what is revealed, that is, in your testimony of yourself in the Bible. A key text to assume this possibility is Deuteronomy 29. 29 which reads:
- “Hidden things belong to the Lord our God.
- But the revealed ones belong to us and our children forever.
- So that we may fulfill all the words of this law.
- “.
Once, while trying to warn someone of the possible risks in the doctrine of a liberal pastor well known for his metaphorical videos available on YouTube, I picked up “God’s Argument in the Box. ” Was my argument very simple, that he didn’t believe the Bible? And was it mentioned in any of your books? and therefore it was easy to see that he, like any good liberal, rejected central doctrines of the Christian faith such as regeneration, repentance and faith in Christ, for example. The Bible, for him, was not written by divine inspiration, and the Scriptures are, at best, like Aesop’s Fables [¹]. None of its characters have to be necessarily real, nor their stories, much less doctrines, the sole purpose of the Bible, like that of Aesop’s Fables, is by analogy to draw a moral lesson that makes man better. And it is not a gospel. The person, who was deeply offended, thought he was boxing with God and soon posted a huge text on his blog using the plot in question. In general, this thinking is mainly the result of the anti-intellectual mentality of this generation.
The common use of this fashion word refers to a problem of modern knowledge theory, relativistic epistemology, which assumes the impossibility of the existence of a truth, right?Absolute. This is an obvious contradiction: by declaring that there is no absolute truth, an absolute truth is already affirmed; if relativism were true, it would be wrong. Many Christians, out of ignorance, consider this irrational line of thought to be true of their faith, but relativism is only a variant of skepticism. While the skeptic declares that there is no truth at all, the relativist declares that there is no “truth?”Absolute, but perhaps several, even if they contradict each other.
Doctrinal questions are often overlooked and relativized under God’s argument in the box. Some go further and say they are not concerned about doctrine, because what really matters is loving Jesus and proclaiming him. What these people have to answer is: who is Jesus?Why should anyone love you?Where does this information come from and how do we know it’s true?Replicate starting with? I think it just creates more problems. There are billions of people in the world and each with?Very private. Christians have in this sense a powerful and penetrating weapon, the Word of God, clear and objective, capable of dividing in the midst any unfounded and contradictory affirmation (Hebrews 4:12), but many decide to disagnate the Bible and its affirmations by comparing it to a box.
We can see that Jesus is not in vain declared as the living Word in Christianity. The main defense of early-century Christians against heresies and distortions was to preserve two fundamental and inseparable pillars: the living Word and the revealed Word are not the One who says that he loves Jesus necessarily loves the scriptures, who says that he loves God necessarily loves his Word. Such a relationship is consistent with the words of Jesus in John 5:39, Philip’s statement in John 1:45 to Luke 24:27, among many other texts. There would be no room here to examine the Psalmist’s declarations of love for God’s revelation, his laws, and statutes in Psalm 119.
Therefore, any other information outside this “box”, which contradicts it, diminishes its value or denies its sufficiency, is of evil origin. The Bible and Christ demand authority and exclusivity. Will anyone who love Jesus spend the rest of their lives meditating on His Word?and yet without coming to a perfect knowledge of the scriptures and their implications. Do you realize the term? Box? It underestimates the depth and seriousness of God’s Word, its doctrines, and all we can know about the person of Christ.
It is obvious that we will spend all eternity delving into the knowledge of our Lord, even without reaching a thorough knowledge, such an impossibility for created beings to know exhaustively an eternal being that theologians call incomprehensibility, and it is also an implication of Deuteronomy 29. 29 But for now, all we can and need to know about God and our relationship with Him is in the scriptures and only in them.
The knowledge of God is only possible because He reveals Himself, and the living Word and the revealed Word coincide in one, in the knowledge of God himself, the living God; there is no way to grow in God’s knowledge other than through Scripture. Any knowledge of Jesus that does not fit the Bible is a liar. Any denial of every aspect of God’s Word is by implication a denial of one aspect of Christ’s knowledge.
For Christians, it would be best to avoid the “box argument”, which will always despise what we should be happy, astonished, and still fear and tremble (Psalm 119: 2,16,18; Is 66:2). .
By: Luis Henrique de Paula. Website: voltemosaoevangelho. com and luisvegan. wordpress. com Permissions: You are authorized and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format, provided that you add the above information, do not modify the original content and do not use it for commercial purposes.