FAITHing...

1 Cor.13:9For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. ... 12For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

Every man, every theologian, every apostle is but yet another small mind struggling to comprehend an infinite God’s knowledge and wisdom. The finite simply cannot perceive the infinite. But...

While we may possess the humility to recognize that we are not and never can be “all-knowing” or “all-wise”, we should also never settle for blissful ignorance or unstudied error. There is a carnal tendency to throw up our arms and say, “Then what’s the point? If we are all in error and if we are incapable of ever fully knowing God, then why argue doctrine at all. Why pursue the unfathomable?”

That’s a little like asking the tree, “Why grow toward the Sun? Why stretch to put forth your leaves in its rays if you can never reach it?” We are created to stretch and grow, and we are drawn inexorably toward our God. While we cannot soak in all of His light, we yearn for every ray of truth that can be known, because to cease in putting forth our leaves and reaching toward the light is to die, spiritually.

The premise of this book is that Western Christianity does not fully understand the meaning of the word “believe”, and that our flawed translation of that word has led to numerous false doctrines which plague the Church today. If this were merely a matter of “wrangling about words” then our argument would be of little consequence, but because our very salvation hangs upon the meaning of this particular word, this is one word study which every Christian should undertake.