Baby Talk
A bite-sized lesson in doctrine: 1 Concept, 2 Definitions, 3 Passages...
Welcome back to Theology Thursday!
Here is your bite-sized lesson in orthodox, Biblical doctrine in 3 simple steps:
ONE concept explained
TWO concise definitions that must be kept distinct
THREE Scripture passages to meditate on
Concept: The Doctrine of Analogy
How does God make Himself known? God reveals Himself by way of analogy. When we say we “know God,” we don’t claim to know Him as He knows Himself or as fully as He can be known. When we say “God is wise” and someone else is wise, we mean different things, since God is infinite and we are finite. Knowing God analogically means He accommodates His revelation to us. Just as I speak to my young daughter in ways she can understand, God uses “baby talk,” as Calvin puts it, to communicate to His creatures. His revelation is an act of love, stooping to our finite, creaturely understanding so we can know Him truly, even if not fully. This helps us avoid mischaracterizing Him. As Stephen Charnock said, “Though we cannot comprehend Him as He is, we must be careful not to fancy Him to be what He is not.”
Definitions/Distinctions:
Archetypal Knowledge: God’s knowledge of Himself. His essence cannot be comprehended by anyone but Himself.
Ectypal Knowledge: Man’s knowledge of God. We know the infinite by the limited human language God uses in His Word.
Passages:
“Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few”
Ecclesiastes 5:2
“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
Deuteronomy 29:29
“God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”
Numbers 23:19
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