It's important to note that Rob doesn't say that springs are God or Jesus, instead he makes the distinction that the 'springs' are merely statements and beliefs about our faith that help aid us in our growth and understanding of God.
Now, what I'm about to share may confuse you because I plan to use some terms that are used in the theological arena when discussing God. I decided to do so since Rob brought up Moses wanting proof of God-just like many of us still do and because he shed some light on something I think too many Christians hold to.
First, lets talk about Moses. Here we find him asking God what he should tell the Israelites when they ask 'What is his name?'. Interesting huh? Not much has changed since his day...we still seek proof and reassurances about what's happening with our world, our money, our lives. For example if a friend asks to borrow some money, the knee-jerk reaction is to say: what for? It's a question...we want to wrap our heads around the request-we want to know.
When it comes to God and all these questions we feel we need to answer-like why do bad things happen to good people, we are really seeking comfort to questions we can't fathom. Here's a quote from Job and I know not many will like it: 'Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?' Deep huh?
Boethius is one of my favorite medieval philosophers because he wrestled with this whole God thing-he too tried to wrap his head around the Almighty. While I'm not in my office to give you the name of the resource, I will tell you a brief background-you see, he finds himself in prison and an angel visits him and he has a conversation about how he didn't deserve to be in jail...he didn't do anything wrong (again, going back to one of the major questions everyone thinks and or asks about: why do bad things happen to good people)...during his time in jail he has an epiphany! He realizes that our capacity to know is limited. For example...an ant doesn't know why you're destroying their home while you mow your lawn or water the garden, they just know that you're destroying it-which is why some ants, like red ants attack you while you sit at a picnic, you may have destroyed their home or killed some family members!
And so the application can be made to us...we try to use 'anthropomorphic' terms (ascribing human form or attributes to a being or thing not human, especially in this case God) in order to describe our God-as we try to wrap our heads around His plan. Another great example of using such a way to describe things-even in the Bible would be from Revelation 21:21.
So now you get the idea of why Moses sought to explain God...because we all still do. It's habit for us. Which leads us to the bricks! Of course they too need a bit of an explanation...take for example the story of God creating the world in six days-are those literal days or not? Now, there are some who take a lot of what the Bible says-New Testament and Old, literally, however, I believe we shouldn't otherwise we would have a lot of people with no hands or eyes because of what they've done or thought. Here's what Jesus said-what do you think?
What I'm trying to get at, like Rob was in his book, is that if you defend a 'wall' (a set of doctrines) then you leave no room for flexibility or for God's mysteriousness to exist-instead, you answer it and put Him in a box. The second you rethink or even question one of the bricks-wait did Jesus really say I should cut my eyes out because it caused me to stare and lustfully think about someone?-then the whole wall crumbles. Sure, the wall seems rigid and strong, but it has a falseness to it-people begin to ignore the danger of such thinking...God is bigger than our walls, our doctrines, and our situation.
So the question becomes...are you flexible and pliable-like clay in the potters hands or are you stiff like a brick unwilling to think for yourself or even imagine a God beyond our limited powers and abilities?
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