Comments on: God Of The Hubble Universe

By: Doug

Doug — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Don’t miss this site if you’re a space fan…

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html

By: VW

VW — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Your latest entry has absolutely blown me away. You have so eloquently put into words my feelings exactly! Amazing! In fact I was printing out hubble pictures last night to take to work to ‘meditate’ on. My current favorite is the Cassiopeia A shot put on APOD the other day (it is breathtakin on my lcd monitor), but I also have a soft spot for the globular clusters as I can make those out in my backyard with my measley 4.5″ reflector. As Douglass Adams would say…Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is….and how small we are. I also love the beehive cluster because in my light polluted backyard there are no stars up there, but look through some binocs or the telescope and the beehive explodes into view. Man I need a bigger scope!
Anyway, sorry to get off topic thanks for the awesome entry. I will be subscribing to your blog.

By: Cultural Savage

Cultural Savage — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

The choice we make to live with God takes us so far into the unknown… truly it is further in and deeper up. I am amazed at a God who creates sunsets to share with me, who creates a beautiful woman that I may fall in love, who makes coffee and pipe tobacco that I might enjoy, and enjoy Him. This is God, the Amen. He will not be confined to our box of theology, nor will He be absent from our wrestlings with philosophy. He is, and too often we limit that statement: He is good… He is great… He is God… all these are true, but inadequate. He is. This is truth and this truth makes Him infinite… and in the limitlessness of God I am safe. Not always sure of where I am, never quite believing that it is real… but I am safe. God calls the stars out by name, and He chooses to know me.
I can’t even truly begin to capture all the thoughts this post has stirred from my soul… I think I will go and watch the stars for a wile, and just get lost in God… in Yahweh. “Your Glory puts me in awe… and I am amazed!”

By: Kent Runge

Kent Runge — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I have a six-inch Dobsonian that opens my eyes to the depth of creation, at least until the mosquitos remind me of the fall. I like where you’re at, it’s a great place for conversation.

By: Bob Thune

Bob Thune — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Mmm… good stuff. An note that desperately needs to be sounded. I would like to see a follow-up post on what role theology/understanding DOES play. For the gospel of Jesus is not a contentless gospel; it does seem to be important to God that we believe right things. The emphasis on those right things instead of the person of Christ has gotten us far from where we should be, no doubt. But what exactly does it look like to know Christ and “think rightly about God” (Tozer) without falling into theological idolatry?

Write more!

By: Brian Pendell

Brian Pendell — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

My biggest problem with this line of thinking is that I’ve heard the same thing from Pagans who sneer at me for believing that God’s revelation is contained in our little book. They encourage me to put aside my dogma and to simply accept that all roads are a path to God, because God is bigger than our “knowledge”.

Of course God is bigger than our preconceptions. But God is knowable, because His Spirit reveals Him to us. The Bible is one of the chief instruments of that revelation.

The wonder is not that God is so beyond us; the wonder is that a God that is so beyond us is willing to make such efforts to make himself intelligible to us that we can have these petty little arguments and actually be fairly close to the truth.

So I think it’s a mistake to get too wrapped up in the idea that God is bigger than our knowledge — this is true, but followed too far it can lead to the denial of ANY doctrine or ANY knowledge as having validity.

I don’t believe you are anywhere near this point — I suspect your background inclines you to the opposite error. But the error does exist.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

By: Big Fat John

Big Fat John — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

While I still believe Theology (fundamentals)get us through adversity in this life, simply because fallen human beings need constant reminding of God’s goodness during tumultuos times, I hope I will continue to absorb theological knowledge through the filter of a perspective akin to that expressed in this essay.

By: Doug

Doug — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Brian -

That error does indeed exist. But the types that gather here are much less inclined to fall into the error you refer to than into its opposite. Hence, iMonk’s article. We often get so busy fighting the opposite side’s error (diluting revelation to the point where it’s everwhere and means nothing) that we miss the truth that is the foundation for their error (revelation *is* everwhere and means *something*). In polemics (especially theological Reformed polemics) its all too easy to draw sharp divisions for the sake of fighting error, to insist on the “either/or” when in that instance a “both/and” might be more fitting. If someone is espousing the pantheistic paganism you describe, by all means hit them with the specific (and salvific) revelations of Christ in the Scriptures. But as I said, the problems here (in modern Reformed/evangelical polemical circles) are more that we get so wrapped up in defining and fighting over the abstract ideas, that we miss the other revelations of God’s glory. We need a reminder that God is Artist as much as He is Mind.

For myself, my theology (and my attitudes toward it) has greatly improved since I took up the pipe. As Gandalf said, “Smoke blown out clears the mind of shadows within.”

By: Rasselas

Rasselas — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I-monks “Hubble soup for the Soul” thanks man!

btw – use this for the next “blogosphere theological” wranglings

Do-It-Yourself Impressive Theological Constructs
http://steve.poling.info/theofun.html

By: Brian Pendell

Brian Pendell — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

So what exactly are you smoking in that pipe to improve your theology ?

Tongue-in-cheek,

Brian P.

– who, being an asthmatic, doesn’t see how coughing one’s lungs onto the sidewalk would improve one’s theology, but to each their own .