Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. - Romans 5

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Can we metaphorize God?

"You can’t approach the subject of God without metaphor… literalism like legalism is an attempt to shrink God to recreate him in our own image.”
— 
Bono

I know he meant well, but this quote, if true, means we are still all completely doomed. It only captures half the story, ignoring the Son of God who came so that we can have a literal image of what God is like (John 13-17). He is trying to attack literalism of the Bible, but very few Christians even believe in full literalism, and the parts that are under contention have been under contention for millennia and we will probably never know the truth. In any sense, literalism is not equivalent to legalism. He may also be referring to Biblism, which many people quote him for this purpose. This is another story altogether: a straw hat whose core tenants are disbelieved will lead one to a half-assed Gospel that can be dismantled easily.
Where this falls is without the Gospel, both literalism and metaphor both fail to describe God (subject of God).

Let us take a look at Revelations 1 where John makes a valiant attempt to metaphorized God/Christ.

12 I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

Ya…I really cannot envision what John saw. I can try, but the metaphor will fall short.
Before God’s full revelation in Christ, all we have are facts about God, mainly from Psalms about His omnipotence, omnipresence, and sovereignty. From His care for the Israelites, we got to see His mercy and love, and to the enemies of God, we saw His justice and wrath.

Yes, Adam and Eve got to see God in person in the Garden of Eden, but they were the only ones (maybe Isaiah in his vision). Remember, God told Moses that if he saw the full glory of God, he would disintegrate. We only have other partial revelations of God in the OT in the form of a burning bush, pillar of fire, cloud, a stranger in the night, or a voice. Even seeing God as our Father, something we inherit through Christ, is to help us understand His love. But this is not a metaphor, but a reality.

We know from Romans 1 where though all mankind have seen God in nature, through the life-giving power of the sun or the creation of life through a seed, because all have seen God and then rejected Him, we are guilty of rebellion.

The point again is that all metaphors will fall short of the glory of God. In scripture Jesus makes a point that only He has seen God and know the Father. In 2 Corinthians it says only the Holy Spirit know what God knows, and so through the power of the Holy Spirit we children of God will know God’s heart and Word. The point here is that only God knows Himself, and mankind’s attempts to metaphorize God will all fall short. To use metaphors to describe God is really trying to put God into a box, a box made by our own imaginations limited by what we can perceive in this world. But God is transcendent of this world, and so He sent His son to give us a clear and concise image of what He is like. That is call full revelation. That is the message of the Gospel.

The concluding point is this: we cannot possibly comprehend God, metaphorically or literally, without the power of the Holy Spirit and understanding of who is Jesus Christ.

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