Where must we learn about God? Do we find Him while going about our daily affairs or from a particular group of people? How does God reveal Himself? Of course, my answer to all those questions is that God reveals Himself in the Bible. Scripture is sufficient.
But some don’t see it this way.
Experiential Theology
These questions after seeing the following question by Kat Armas, author of Abuelita Faith. She asks,
What if the greatest theologians the world has ever known are those whom the world wouldn’t consider theologians at all?
In a Fuller Studio interview she admits that her understanding of God is shaped by her experiences and the community around her. She says this is the key to Abuelita Theology. In a blog post, Armas further claims that,
Scripture feels like a hot mess at times because it’s a story of a God choosing to get dirty and to exist in the grey, among complicated people.
She thinks that this should give us hope and inform Christian ethic: that perhaps it isn’t about making sense of Christianity, and perhaps it’s about sitting with God and others in the muck. To some extent I understand the sentiment. But while sounding empathetic, this is the sort of emotionalism which can lead down dangerous rabbit trails. Scripture (not personal experience) ought to shape the Christians ethic.
God is omnipresent, and yet distinct from creation. He is present in our muck, not part of it. God is sovereign over our affairs, He doesn’t get dirty. Moreover, Christianity is about the fall of Humanity in the Garden, and our subsequent redemption through the cross. It is about the gospel. We can and must make sense of it because it is revealed in Scripture and requires our faith to be applied.
Sola Scriptura
God doesn’t need special people groups. In fact, anything other than His Word must be measured by His Word. True wisdom comes from God as revealed in Scripture. Not only that, but we need the Holy Spirit to discern.
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Co 2:14
Richard Sibbes (A Glance of Heaven) warns that there isn’t any spark of light in nature regarding the gospel,
What world of heresies have proud minds continually started up! This would never have been but that the gospel is a thing above nature… the proud heart storms and loves to struggle, and devises this thing and that thing to commend itself; and hereupon comes heresies, the mingling of natural wit with divine truths.
Jeremy Walker (Passing Through) writes,
Again, we must be extremely careful not to derive our doctrine or form our practice from human wisdom and imagination…. My friend, let the plain matter of God’s revelation be your guide, and not the wisdom of fallen men.
Speaking of wisdom, in The Excellencies of God, Terry Johnson cites 1 Cor 1:18-25, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” True wisdom is only found in the message of the cross.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. James 1:5-6
Dangerous Rabbit Trails
God’s Word as revealed by the Holy Spirit restrains evil and protects Christians. If we don’t believe rest in the whole counsel of God, we can end up believing anything. Essentially, we end up adding our wisdom to Scripture, thereby deceiving others.
A clear example of this is in the extra-biblical pagan-influenced teachings of Richard Rohr. See Marcia Montenegro’s article. See also Doreen Virtue’s video.
Beware! Look for God in His Word!
For You will light my lamp; The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness. Psalm 18:28
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105
Maranatha!
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