Monday, September 7, 2015

God's thoughts are not our thoughts but that does not mean we cannot think God's thoughts after Him

"As for Deuteronomy 29:29, Matthew 11:27, Luke 10:22, and John 1:18, 6:46 (see v. 45), these verses actually teach that human beings can know God and his thoughts truly to the degree that he reveals himself in his spoken word. Finally, Isaiah 55:8-9 far from depicting 'the gulf which separates the divine knowledge from human knowledge,' actually holds out the real possibility that people may know God's thoughts and urges them to turn away from their own thoughts and to learn ...God's thoughts from him. In 55:7 God calls upon the wicked man to forsake his way and thoughts. Where is he to turn? To the Lord, of course (55:6-7). Why should he forsake his way and thoughts? 'Because,' says the Lord, 'my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways' (55:8). The entire context, far from affirming that God's ways and thoughts are beyond the capacity of humans to know, on the contrary, expressly calls upon the wicked man to turn away from his ways and thoughts and to seek God's ways and thoughts. In doing so, the wicked man gains ways and thoughts which, just as the heavens transcend the earth, transcend his own. Far from teaching that an unbridgeable gulf exists between God's thoughts and our thoughts, these verses actually call upon the wicked man, in repentance and humility, to seek and to think God's thoughts after him." - Robert Reymond, A New Systematic of the Christian Faith, Pg. 101 2nd ed.

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