This essay continues a sequence. Read the previous one here.
When I was a child,
I spake as a child,
I understood as a child,
I thought as a child:
but when I became a man, I put away childish things.— KJV, 1 Corinthians 13:11
Most of our views of God are childish. They rest neither on Christ’s Word nor on basic logic. The only cure is living The Word – and that is hard.
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We refer to earlier discussions about the mindset required to understand The Word (ref. “We Don’t Understand The Word“), and the fact that we cannot fully understand God as He actually Is (ref. “‘Knowing of’ Is Not Knowing“).
God does not have human traits1
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics to an entity that is not human.
For example we might say that a pet dog “has a guilty look” after some bad behavior.
But dogs don’t experience guilt. That look is a manifestation of the fear the animal feels based on its previous experiences of the behavior of its owner in such situations.
Anthropomorphism is dangerous in the things of God.
In our discussion about levels of understanding (ref. “‘Knowing of’ Is Not Knowing“), we used the gap in nature between animal and man as a rough analogy of the gap between man and God.
We cannot arrive at an accurate concept of God by starting from a human characteristic and trying to “upgrade” it, as if the Creator is merely a super-human-being.
This would be like what animal psychologists tell us about the attitude of dogs towards their owners. To the dog, its owner is the leader of the dog pack: the alpha dog.
In other words, human beings are “super-dogs” as far as dogs are concerned. This is high praise from dogs, but it degrades humanity to the level of an animal.
We can’t blame the dog; that is the highest it can conceive. But we should avoid making similar mistakes in our attitude towards the Creator.
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The Creator does not have human traits. We have a spiritual image of some of the traits that are in Him.
No man knoweth the Son,
— Matt 11:27
but the Father;
neither knoweth any man the Father,
save the Son,
and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him
The Son reveals The Father through The Word (ref. “What Is The Word?“). Unlike human words, The Word of The Son is alive. Therefore, It is not understood merely by reading It (as could be done with human words) but by living It (ref. “Truth vs Human Words“).
The living of The Word results in spiritual experiences that develop the spiritual maturity to arrive at a humanly accurate conception of the Almighty.
Example: God’s Love (vs Santa’s Love)
We tend to envisage God’s Love as a highly “upgraded” version of human “love”.
This manifestation of anthropomorphism is particularly dangerous because a proper understanding of Love is central to understanding The Word.
His Love deals with our eternal, spiritual welfare. But we approach Him with wishlists full of temporal and material demands, and we demand the granting of these as evidence of His Love.
A more appropriate attitude would be one of gratitude and trust:
[Y]our Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
— Matt 6:8
With this attitude, we would put aside requests and focus on penetrating the revelation of Truth given in The Word, and adjusting all aspects of our lives accordingly:
Sanctify them through Thy Truth: Thy Word is Truth.
— John 17:17
Today’s Resolution
- In all our thinking and praying, we shall not “humanize” God.
- We shall not forget that He is Highest Love and Highest Power, existing infinitely far above us, and that he reaches out graciously towards us through His Will only out of Love for us.
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- For the curious reader the book “Thinking About God” by Stephen Lampe provides interesting perspectives on some of the issues raised here. ↩︎
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