Will the real generous orthodoxy please stand up?
By Keith Goad September 25, 2008
“What I have learned to grasp from Scripture, I speak with certainty. Since I do not reach for such a high altitude, I reverently adore with humility and trepidation that which is too sublime for even angels. Therefore, I often admonish in my writings that nothing is greater than a wise ignorance. For those who entrust themselves to know more than they should rave like madmen.”
The quote above is from John Calvin’s Secret Providence of God. I had to hold back the tears as I read it because it is so seldom that I read someone truly articulating what faith seeking understanding actually means.
Notice Scripture speaks for itself and there is a full recognition that some things revealed in Scripture are beyond our comprehension. JC keeps going back to Paul’s remarks when writing about God’s sovereignty, “Oh the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Rom 11:33) If the Apostle who was called up into the third heaven cannot even begin to understand much less use words to describe the great wisdom and majesty of God, how can we? The air in most theology today reeks of trying to explain God in whole and reduce his nature, wisdom, and ways to be too much like ours. There is no bold humility that says I cannot know this or that or God is truly beyond me. When this humility is lost, you also lose orthodoxy because God will all the sudden be much too human. Some theologians are no longer obeying the boundaries of Orthodoxy when it comes to God. They rush in and try to explain the infinite Triune God with finite words and minds. This is the raving madness JC refers to.
The irony in all this is we can be much more bold once we realize our limitations and how much greater God is than man. We can accept there are things we will not know until Christ comes back and even then, our limited hearts, minds, and souls will only be filled to the brim with awe and wonder. How we worship in church today should be looking forward to that and yearning for it. Mysteries are largely avoided in worship today because we typically don’t like to talk about anything we can explain in full. Scripture calls us to swim in the deeps that we cannot reach and only here will true worship take place.
Notice also that JC calls for a wise ignorance. Someone please email our church if you have ever heard this advocated. This is different from ignorant wisdom which tries to seek the best life without being informed. Wise ignorance is having the right perception of what is right for us to believe and obey, and to know where we simply cannot go. We are not to follow the motto of the scientific age that says boldly go where no man has gone before.
Contemporary gobbledy-gook has taken us too far in denying certain clear truths in Scripture because they do not sit easy in our culture. This is where I fault the other generous orthodoxy for not having enough wisdom to know what to boldly confess from Scripture. Homosexuality, hell, adultery, divorce, one salvation in Christ alone are examples of pulpiteers punting where Scripture says its 4th and 1 and we have a fullback better than Tom Rathman who can get the yards. Or for those who do not speak football, declare what Scripture declares and trust the Spirit to bless your Words rather than trusting your own wisdom to explain or redefine what Scripture says. Its not easy to confess these things, but its what Scripture commands and the Spirit blesses.