"Silence is the language of God; the rest is a bad translation."
moksha qigong
In my systematic theology class at the Anglican School of Theology, our very first teaching was that knowledge and awareness of God exists beyond words and every effort to put that knowledge into words, such as in the systematic theology class itself, will be inadequate in some way.
Mystical Christian tradition acknowledges this agreed upon principle by teaching the “Via Negativa” in which the God-seeker, in prayer and meditation, naturally has thoughts about God. Yet every time a thought or image arises about God, the seeker is instructed to remind themselves that this is not-God and to return to the image-less wordless silence to more purely and wonderfully experience God closer to his true essence.
Words, therefore, by their very nature cannot be the final arbiter of the true knowledge of God. Nevertheless, we humans try to express ourselves in words. It is often the best we have try to convey something ineffable and profound that we intuit when we experience God. Yet it is easy to forget the first principles that words are inadequate and start to give words and concepts a more exalted place in our hierarchy of values than they merit.
If we lower our expectations for the perfection of words, it frees us to genuinely react to certain problematic parts of scripture with fresh eyes. Bradley Jersak, orthodox Christian minister and writer, works with many people who are traumatized and new to reading the scriptures.
For them, some of the attitudes of God, especially in the Old Testament, sound a lot like the attitudes of their abusers. Things like God being a jealous and judging force ready to punish and kill when He does not get what he wants are quite problematic. Christians have often struggled with the fact that the Old Testament God does not sound much like Jesus in many places.
In an attempt to clarify how to approach scripture in light of these things Professor Jersak has written his book, A More Christlike Word1.
The forward offers these salient points.
As many Bible readers already know—New Testament writers, when quoting the Scriptures, typically “take it out of context,” meaning the context of the original utterance. The gospel requires creative reframing of Israel’s story.
The Bible can be embraced as God’s word while at the same time unequivocally displaying the mundane properties, cultural infusions, and simple human limitations of any text, ancient or modern. By using the incarnation as an analogy for the Bible, no claim whatsoever is being made that the Bible is a “hypostatic union” or other language normally reserved to describe the incarnation of Christ. It is an analogy, not an attempt at identification. An incarnational model of Scripture accounts better for the Bible’s own properties than do various inerrantist models…
Our understanding always has a provisional dimension to it, and we should expect our views to change over time, as we all change and grow as human beings. Pilgrimage is a metaphor for humility. Pilgrimage encourages us to let go of the need to have final certainty on how we understand the Bible and be less prone to put up walls of division, because we are more willing to discuss, explore, and change than to proclaim, conquer, and defend.
Three Steps for Reading Scripture that Makes the Bible Safe by Bradley Jersak2
Memorize John 10:10-11 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Says Prof. Jersak, “We need to be convinced that God has revealed himself fully in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that he has been revealed as the “life giver” not “the death dealer.” “It is this Jesus who says it is the thief, not the Lord, who kills and steals and destroys. …When we see death dealing, we are seeing the work of the enemy even when the narrator projects that onto God.” (Jersak’s emphasis). Now we can ask ourselves, “What about those passages that portray God as the death dealer?”
Peter Enns, Old Testament scholar, says it this way, “God let his children tell the story.” He let them tell the story even when their best understanding was God as tribal warrior, racist, xenophobe, violent, and wrathful. They at times describe him as without mercy even when Moses and the prophets insist He is abounding in mercy and steadfast love. God’s people are still developing an understanding of God gradually throughout the scriptures. Do not confuse your violence with the will of God like God’ people have done throughout history. Every written word must bow before the revelation of the living Word found in Jesus.
If God seems not good in your personal life, you need a personal experience of the God of love within. Follow these steps to encounter the living God within.
Become silent in your heart, and look at the goodness of God in the face of Jesus (or whomever you can believe in as a loving higher power).
Look at the goodness of God in those eyes; in the smile; behold the one who is in you—who lives in you. He is with you and for you. He/She will never forsake you.
Lord Jesus (or other representative of God’s love), lay your hand of blessing upon our hearts and pour in blessing and love. Let healing light come from your wounds into our wounds.
Jesus looks at the image of God you have in your hearts and he is able to see where it is broken and not life-giving. He is re-forming your image of God. Pray these things.
If there is a God, affirm He/She is good.
Affirm, if there is a God, then, in God is light and there is not darkness at all.
If there is a God, then fill our hearts with that which is beauty, truth and justice.
Ask God to fill our hearts with the mediator of love.
Ask God to correct our hearts and cleanse where we have received distorted images of God. Let those be place by the true Lord Jesus Christ or whichever representative of God’s love has come to you.
Ask God to enable you to live resurrection life within your heart—the life of God, Itself, infusing us with light and love. Touch the little boy or girl that is wary and withdrawn due to fear and fill him or her with your love.
Say to God, “If there is a God______” Now wait for God to fill in the blank. See what you hear or see. What if that’s true?
An encounter with God need not be dramatic. It can be quiet and gentle like what happened for you through the above steps. Regular seeking of God in the heart like this can transform your life toward love over time.
Jersak, Bradley. A More Christlike Word; Whitaker House. Kindle Edition. ↩︎
