We Cannot Conceive of God

Despite the living example of my friend there remained in me the vestiges of my old prejudice. The word God still aroused a certain antipathy. When the thought was expressed that there might be a God personal to me this feeling was intensified. I didn't like the idea. I could go for such conceptions as Creative Intelligence, Universal Mind or Spirit of Nature but I resisted the thought of a Czar of the Heavens, however loving His sway might be. I have since talked with scores of men who felt the same way.

 

My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said, "Why don't you choose your own conception of God?"

 

"Novel idea" indeed.

 

In fact, the habit of mankind to choose their own concept of God is quite old:

 

"9They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed. 10Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing? 11Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed: and the workmen, they are of men: let them all be gathered together, let them stand up; yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together." (Isaiah 44: 9-11)

 

Whatever ideas we choose to draw on in order to "conceive of God", we will inevitably draw on ourselves: our experiences, hopes, dreams, fears.

 

The God revealed in the Word of God had to tell Moses His Name:

 

"And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? 14And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you." (Exodus 3: 13-14)

 

"I AM THAT I AM" -- YHWH -- This Name above all Names encompasses the Eternal God, He who was and is and is to come, the same yesteday, today, and forever.

 

This God, The God, cannot be understood, let alone conceived, in our minds.

 

We either believe on Him, or we do not believe on Him.

 

Beyond our reasoning, we recognize by faith that God created the heavens and the earth, for their plain existence, with the complexity and beauty and intricacy interwoven with order and harmony, cannot be understood merely in terms of our conception of things.

 

"8For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55: 8-9)