8 Things Jim Palmer Said About Knowing God and Theology from, Wide Open Spaces: Beyond Paint-by-Number

Christianity Religion teaches that God is synonymous with a specific belief system. Each system claims to have right beliefs about God, which are passionately held by its adherents so much so that hate, bitter resentment, bloodshed, and even war can result from disagreement about God. * But what if God isnt a belief system? What if God is bigger than self, bigger than family, bigger than tribe, bigger than nation, and even bigger than any set of doctrines we try to wrap around him? Whereas religion sometimes brings out the worst in people, could the vision of a bigger God cause us to place higher value on expanding our circles of care and compassion and working toward a more peaceful world? * When the basis for being a Christian is your specific set of beliefs about God, the most important thing is being right. If someone comes around with contrary ideas, the logical conclusion is well, their ideas must be wrong. It doesnt take an MIT grad to figure out two people with divergent views of God cant both be right. Therein lies all the religious conflict; there must be w inners and losers. Its a zero-sum game. The win-win mentality doesnt fly. * For many years, my sense of well-being, comfort, safety, security, identity, and superiority in the world was based largely on being right about God. I was eager to take on theological debates. After I received my masters of divinity degree, I was confident that I was Right about God. When threatened, my response was akin to the little boy yelling, My daddy can whup your daddy! I was happy to be counted among the few, the proud, the saved who could emphatically say, My God can whup your God! My belief system wins over your belief system. My book is better than your book. I win, you lose. Ill pray for you. * God: Jim, do you think knowing me is a matter of having correct theology Jim: As opposed to what, false theology!? Wrong beliefs arent going to get me anywhere.

God: And where do you think your right beliefs are going to get you? Jim: Well, if I believe the right things about you, then well Ill know who you really are right? God: Jim, do you know the sun radiates heat? Jim: Of course. God: How? Jim: Because Ive felt it. God: Are you sure its not because a science book told you the sun radiates heat? Jim: Well, lets just say I didnt need the science book to know it. God: Do you need a set of correct beliefs about me in order to know that? How dare God speak to me, a seminary graduate, questioning the value of my scholarly, airtight, bulletproof theology! I had spent four years and piled up a lot of school debt constructing that theology. Maybe God didnt appreciate just how brutal it was surviving Dr. Magarys Hebrew class! God did seem to have a point, though. If God is real, I should be able to know and experience him directly, not just know about him through some set of theological propositions. If something is really true (or real), it cant just be true because the Bible says so. If there was no Bible to inform me that God is love, I could still experience Gods love since his love is rooted in Truth. Truth is eternal. Therefore, Truth had to have existed long before the Bible was completed and put together into one document, which didnt take place in the third century. This begs the question, what did people do before there was a Bible from which theological propositions could be formulated? Somehow God and humans made due without a well-defined belief system in place. How did that work? For instance, in the book of Genesis, a man named Enoch, only a few generations removed from Adam and Eve, is described as a man who walked with God (5:22) Maybe a well-defined set of truth propositions about God isnt necessary for knowing and experiencing God. * There are an endless number of things that divide people in our world. Im becoming increasingly convinced God shouldnt be one of them. When the Scriptures say, God is love (1 John 4:8), maybe God was offering a center large enough for all people to seek truth peacefully. *

Jesus didnt come to start a new religion; he came to reveal God. Why? Because God knew if humankind could physically experience who he is, we would want to know him, and knowing him would change us. It worked! The love of God on display in Jesus attracted people like a magnet. Hanging out with Jesus began transforming peoples hearts, way of life, and relationships with others. Jesus was so compelling that people left everything to follow him. That is, everyone except the religious establishment. The idea that God could be known simply through interacting with Jesus was threatening. Heck, if you could experience God directly, why would you need t hem and their elaborate system of religious rules and rituals? Maybe God wasnt so complex and hard to know after all. Maybe it just came down to well Jesus. * God is unconditional acceptance. God is perfect peace. God is total freedom. God is unreserved joy. God is continuous life. God is gentle compassion. God is unwavering goodness. God is unbroken favor. God is kindhearted forgiveness. God is breathtaking beauty. God is love. Maybe that is my statement of faith.