Does this statement contradict the Bible?

[Simon_Templar]

The idea that we cannot perceive, receive, and comprehend God is a religious and pious-sounding thing. But it does not have an actual practical application in our faith and, in fact, is detrimental and counterproductive to our faith and growth.

It might be better to use the word apprehend than comprehend.

Comprehend means a complete or full understanding.
Apprehend means that we have a hold on something.

We can know things about God, but the very fact that he is infinite and we are not means that we can never comprehend him.

Further, I think this is actually a great thing, and probably the primary thing that prevent eternity from becoming boring. We are made for mystery, to seek and to find. If we found everything, we would lose the pleasure of discovery. God is the ultimate answer to the paradox that human beings love mysteries and love to solve mysteries. God is the mystery that we can solve for all ages of ages. There is always more to experience and more to know. Only infinity can provide eternal satiation of the desire to know.

 

[Salvator Mundi]

There are two types of theology. Cataphatic and Apophatic.

Cataphatic theology uses positive statements to talk about what God is, like "God is Love". These statements are true and they tell us truths about God. However, we must always also be aware that they are limited by analogy. In other words, we are talking about God using our own finite minds and finite experiences. This means that what we say, and the understanding that we derive from it will always be limited.
God is infinite, and as such, it is impossible for us to comprehend him or his nature.

We can depend upon statements like God is Love, God is good, God is eternal. But those things are really very limited and they don't come close to allowing us to comprehend God or his nature.

Apophatic theology relies on talking about what God is not. Here we make distinctions between God and our experiences etc. So we can say that God is love, but he is not love in the sense that humans experience love with need, because God has no need. He is not love in the sense of passion, where we are driven by love and it makes us suffer, because God does not suffer passions.

This is why Christianity necessarily involves a mystical element. We can know God by direct relationship, but we cannot know God by intellectual comprehension.

Think about it like this.
An infant who cannot speak or comprehend speak, with extremely limited mental development, cannot know their parents. In a certain sense their parents are an absolute unknowable mystery to them, completely beyond their comprehension. They also know almost nothing ABOUT their parents.

Yet they are capable of having an intimate relationship with their parents because love transcends intellect and knowledge in that sense. They can have perfect trust in their parents. They can have communion with their parents. All transcending their capacity to know in the traditional sense.

Thank you, I loved the clarity your answer brought to me !

 

[Semper-Fi]

1 John 3:2 (KJV)​

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear
what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear,
we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Psalm 17:15 (KJV)​

As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness:
I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

 

[Aviel]

"You cannot know (in the sense fathom) who God is , you can only know who He is not. "

You can know God... as to be born again, is to become "One with God".

So that's the best way.

But here is another way..

= Jesus said..."if you've seen ME.... you've seen The Father"., because "i and my Father are ONE".

So, when we study the Life of Christ, we witness the essence of God, Himself.

The NT teaches us that "Jesus went about doing GOOD"..

And that is exactly God.
Why?

Because "GOOD" only exists, because God and Christ, exist.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

You can know God better than you can know anyone. He lives in you and you in Him.

 

[fhansen]

"You cannot know (in the sense fathom) who God is , you can only know who He is not. "

I concluded this from Isaiah 55:9-
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

That's been said before by theologians-so you're in good company. We cannot know God personally, directly or "immediately" as they say, by human abilities: reason, etc. We can only know God in that way by His grace, to the extent the He grants it, together with His revelation. So there's "head knowledge", about God, which we can know as others have said here, and then there's personal knowledge, of God (Aquinas said that our faith, itself, as a supernatural gift, is a dim foretaste of that knowledge of Him). And either way we'll only know Him in this life partially.

"For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." 1 Cor 13:12

 

[discombobulated1]

"You cannot know (in the sense fathom) who God is , you can only know who He is not. "

I concluded this from Isaiah 55:9-
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

I don't see how it contradicts theBible and I've read the entire thing, read it .. maybe not frequently but here and there and have for years.

I like this saying. We can only know who He is not.

I think I was, subconsciously, trying to know everything about Him. One day I saw the absolute absurdity of that (once I discovered this illogical thought in my subconscious mind). Well, I wasn't trying to know absolutely everything about Him, just everything that concerned yours truly. I wanted to do what HE wanted, not what I want(ed) with my time/resources.. but that's kind of absurd also. We just have to muck along...