Understanding God, part two

This is a continuation of my “Understanding God” explanations and stream of thought. I want to build on the lengthy first post by addressing a specific point and caution that one must be aware of when reading any holy scripture, whether the Bible or the Qur’an, since it has a direct bearing on one’s ability to “understand” God.

People spend a lot of time studying, and arguing, about problems that are introduced when translating from one language to another. That is a problem with the Bible, although not the Qur’an. However, it seems that no one has recognized that there is a “problem” when translating what God “says” into human words. This is not saying that God cannot use the Lingo Franca quite clearly when providing his divine word to the Prophets, authors or scribes of his utterances. Sometimes God uses actual words when he speaks, and other times he puts thoughts, dreams and visions into the heads of his Prophets and others. I’m not going down the road of saying there is a difference between writing on paper what one “hears internally” from God versus hearing his actual voice, since that is not a problem. Why? It is because genuine Prophets are guided into correctness in either case by God. It is the false prophets who imagine God saying something when in fact he is not speaking to them. Therefore, true Prophets who hear God internally and then record his sayings using words of human language are guided by the Holy Spirit of God against error.

What I am saying is that there is a problem with even correctly recording an actual word that God uses. I’m obviously not saying that it has no value, but I’m going to teach you a way to read that minimizes the possibility of interpretive error.

I don’t want to use actual Bible or Qur’an examples at this point, because it is too easy to fall from that into controversy over interpretation of the phrase I select, and thus miss the general cautionary lesson. So I am going to use some words that may or may not actually appear in key parts of the scriptures, just to illustrate my point.

Suppose that God uses the word “everything.” What does everything mean TO GOD? Of course you rely on the context of his use of the word, just as God intended. If God meant for his scriptures to be unable to be understood, he would not have provided them. So God does intend to use correct words to convey correct teachings. But when humans become less pious and believing in God, an intellectual habit slips into place when they are reading and listening to his word. Humans, as they became more “technical” and “advanced” are less open minded to the possibilities implied in words of their own language, because they are more “rationalistic” in what the words “mean.” They don’t even know they are doing that. Like I said, it is a habit that has crept into modern humanity’s mindset and way of thinking. Earlier humans, even those who were “intellectuals” of their time, were much more open minded to what God might mean, even when a word seems kind of obvious in its vernacular meaning.

So when God says “everything,” God might very well mean literally everything that ever was and ever could be, including in the realms that humans cannot understand. God of course wants humans to have things easy to understand and be accessible, so God is not trying to be mysterious. The trouble comes in when people assume they know the FULLNESS of what God means. So one person may read God’s use of the word “everything” and think that means all material things. Another person may read God’s use of the word “everything” and think it means the universe. Yet another person may read God’s use of the word “everything” and think it means every topic that is being discussed in that section of scripture. Yet another person may envision every person and animal and life form when God uses the word “everything.” These are examples of how each human’s brain is so individual in how it processes language and concepts, and it is perfectly natural. However, it has become much distorted in modern times because as I pointed out, humans tend to “limit” what God might mean to what their own understanding of the world is, and also humans have become very undisciplined and hasty in their routine thought processes. They rarely pause and think, “Hmm, God might mean that in a few different ways, let me think about that.” And our society is so fast paced with information that people are rarely given the chance to actually “ponder” an individual word or sentence.

I myself can read very quickly, but rarely allow myself to do so, especially if I am reading someone else’s opinion. Many times when I listen to the radio or TV, and hear something that catches my interest, I find myself pondering it, only to find I missed the next few sentences or even minutes of presentation. Who knows; what I was wondering might have been answered there, but it’s not likely. People jump to conclusions in their speech and their thinking in epidemic proportions in this society. They literally cannot hear what someone else is saying, and often don’t even understand all the ramifications of what they themselves are saying! I’m not blogging to fix THAT problem here! But what I am pointing out is the danger of doing that sloppy thinking in reading God’s words.

So what if God says “Everything will pass away.” How does anyone really know what that means? Does that mean everything of the human experience, the universe, or even that God will cease to have a relationship with anyone or anything in the future that resembles what was in the past or here and now? God does not mean to be mysterious, and usually he is being very clear in how humans should understand his choice of words. But it is very slippery slope indeed to start to “interpret” “exactly” what he means, and worse, try to ascribe prophetic utterances or law giving by you based on that word. That is actually the height of risk.

Can you imagine if one person thinks that all matter “everything” will disappear, leaving only energy, while another person thinks that “everything” means the universe will shut down? And what if God only meant that everything that one is accustomed to will pass away? What if the “everything” God is referring to means all burdens? In general, the context of the scriptures are quite clear, regarding what caution the person is supposed to receive and how they should behave to please God and serve God’s will in that matter. Where it gets very problematic is being so certain that you know the fullness of what God means, when you don’t even recognize in your own mental neurons the fullness of what is possible, differing even from the silent thoughts of your neighbor as they hear the same passage spoken.

The word I want to point out that is even closer to home as far as ecumenical understanding is what God means when he says “die” or “death.” People quickly assume that God means the death of a person in their body; in other words, a person’s perishing. But is that all that the word “to die” or “death” means to God when he uses that term? Jesus, in fact, warns people not to fear humans, who can only kill the body, but to fear God, who can kill not only the body but the eternal soul. So to “die” or “death” can mean, to God, physical death or soul death. In fact, God, when confined to talking to humans in their own language, might mean a lot of other things when he says the word “death.” God may mean the end of what that person represented. For example, God may say that someone will “die,” and he’s not filling up scripture space just to tell you to dig a grave for that particular man or woman and order their tombstone. He may be making the point that their culture, ideas, politics or belief system may die along with their body, if he even means the body. So when God says someone “dies” or “did not die,” you cannot be at all certain that he is talking about the physical body. “Die” is a fundamental word that has enormous varieties of implications, and God is all powerful and knowing, and great and endless are his capabilities for declaring an ending or a not-ending to something, someone, or a phase of humanity.

Muslim friends, I think you know that I am thinking of you, with the greatest of love and friendship, when I provide this example. While God made the Qur’an very easy to understand, and not a burden, do remember that God is still God and no human words or ideas can limit what he may mean in the fullness of his statements.

Christians need not be so self satisfied on their own behalf, because I certainly see contortionist acts when it comes to interpreting “what God meant” by a word or a phrase. I am advising you to be like the forefathers and foremothers who tried to understand what God was telling them to do, without trying to limit the potentiality of the fullness of God’s capabilities and range of meaning. Such a fundamental argument such as insisting that every Biblical reference to “Israel” must mean a modern day country of that name is the height of foolish limiting of what God may mean in his fullness with a word. That is one of the most egregious examples of “limiting” God that I see, where some Christians insist that every Old Testament reference and prophecy regarding “Israel” or “Jerusalem” must mean the literal governmental entities. What was God supposed to say instead, to refer to the future body of faithful? Should he have said, “Oh, by the way, I’m saying Jerusalem but that is what we call a symbol or analogy. I’m actually referring to the spiritual centers of faith in me, the One True God, in the future?” Of course not. God uses terms that people will understand, like “chosen people,” “Israel,” “Jerusalem,” and “Temple,” but that does not mean that people have the right to now circumscribe what he teaches and prophesies to mean only artificial entities that bear those names!

Think about the phrase “rebuild the Temple.” Here I am not speaking to Jewish readers, but to Christians. How can you limit yourselves to thinking that when God makes a prophecy and uses the words “rebuild the Temple” that he means, yep, even two thousand years from now, sacred or not, I mean that set of building plans and that system of worship. God could very well be exhorting, or cautioning about a “rebuilding” (as in copying an old way OR trying to invent a new way) “the Temple” (a primary place of high ritual worship where God is assumed to be resident.) Humans, especially hasty sound byte jump to conclusion “I’ve got the answer” humans try to box God in to mean whatever their agenda is, and their own neural brain filters let through. That is a very, exceedingly dangerous thing to do. When God says something about “rebuilding a Temple,” Christians in particular need to watch their step. How do you know that God “means” to do it, or not, and what “it” is? God uses words that passive pious people well understand, and by passive I do not mean limp and un-intellectual, but I mean obedient and open minded to God’s will. The passive pious remain open to God’s will and know it is achieved if they remain holy to his word and leave works of divinity to God. They know to, as the Apostles often said, quoting Jesus, to be alert and watchful. The Apostles would never dream of becoming King makers and great “interpreters” of “what God really means,” even though if anyone would have had the correct mindset they would have.

So I started with a very general example of how a common concept and word such as “everything” can mean many things to many people individually, to a more specific concept of what does God mean when he says someone “died” or “not,” to symbolic concepts that were symbolic even when they were first said, and have become even more problematic in interpretation over time as the Christian world passed from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. I hope these are helpful, and at the same time pointed examples of how great care must be taken in assuming full understanding of God’s perfect and precious words…