Deeper Waters

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. We’ve been going through the doctrine of God now, highly important in Christianity after all, and our guide for this has been the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. You can read this online if you go to newadvent.org and click on Summa. Before that, I wish to share my prayer requests. First, I ask that you pray for my Christlikeness that I will realize the truth that is right before me. Second, I ask for prayer with my financial situation. Finally, I ask for your prayers in a third related area in my life. For now, let’s get to the text.

We already found out that we can’t comprehend God when we see him, but can we see all things in him? In other words, will we know all other things even if we don’t know God? After all, God is simple and in him is the ground of all beings and if we can know ourselves in him, why not everything else?

Yet what are we told about the angels? The angels are said to see God, but they do not know all things. Why should we be different? Indeed, we shouldn’t be. Once again, we find the reason we cannot do so is not because of a deficiency in God, for there can be no such thing, but rather it is because we are created and finite creatures and we cannot begin to grasp all things.

I say that we know all things as much as we have had a longing for truth. Many of us today do not have such a longing. We want other things. We want pleasure, money, sex, fame, success, and these are all good and fine things in themselves, but how many of us really want truth?

Many objections to Christianity can come on only a practical level. Now Christianity works on a practical level, but it is not proven untrue there as its claim is a historical one and it must be disproved on historical grounds. Of course, one could set up a disproof of God’s existence and this would be a strange world then if we had reason to believe Jesus was raised from the dead and God didn’t exist, but I digress.

When we become people of truth, we won’t want to believe something just because we like or don’t like it. We will believe it because it is true. In our politically correct world unfortunately, you can speak of a generality about people of a certain sex or ethnicity and you’re automatically assumed to be sexist or racist because that offends people. Well sometimes it could be offensive, but it could also be true, and we need to ask the question of truth before that of offense.

When giving truth also, we need to remember that truth is on the line. Sometimes, we can get too afraid we’ll hurt someone’s feelings. If you’re giving them the gospel, you should expect that. Do you feel good when you realize that you’re a sinner? None of us like that, but that’s part of the gospel. There’s bad news and it’s news you don’t want to hear, but you need it so you can hear the good news, which is also truth.

Therefore, let us be people of truth today. Let us further seek it tomorrow, so that we will have more enjoyment of it in eternity.

We shall continue tomorrow.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. We’ve been going through the doctrine of God lately and our guide for this has been the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. Those who do not own a copy of this fine work can go to newadvent.org and read it online. We are studying the doctrine of how God is known by man. Before we get to that, I wish to present my usual prayer requests. First, I ask for prayers for my Christlikeness in especially that I will realize the truth in all things. Second, I ask for prayers for my financial situation. Finally, I ask for prayers for a third related area of my life. For now, let’s get to the question.

Do those who see God comprehend him? This is something many of us have wondered about eternity. After all, we are told that we will see God, but we wonder what exactly we will see. We are told that we will see him as he is. Add in to this that God is simple as we have seen. It would seem then that we cannot see part of God simply because he has no parts. The conclusion would seem to be then that we can comprehend God.

However, if we can comprehend God, then it would seem that we do not have an infinite God. Will it be that when we come we will see God as he is and then be able to know everything about him and thus be able to say “Well, that’s certainly interesting that that is the way that God is.”

Aquinas doesn’t think we will comprehend God. I agree with him. We do know God is simple and so there can be no parts to him. However, we also know that God is infinite and we by nature are finite beings. If we were made to be infinite, we would have to be creatures without limits. If we were creatures without limits, then we would have to have the other important aspects that are prerequisites for infinity, such as being simple, perfect, and immutable.

Thus, we see God as much as it is that we can understand him. If we comprehended him, we would be saying that our intellect is equal to his being, which is impossible. The problem again is not on God for God is the most knowable of all and infinitely knowable. We just have a finite knowledge and we can only know God finitely.

This also presents a problem for the Mormon concept of deity as in Mormonism, God was once a man and he eventually became God. I would hope that readers who have been reading up to this point, and I hope you will keep reading beyond this point have seen the problems with this as man would have to become an uncreated being, which is impossible. All creation will ultimately always have limits upon it by nature.

We shall continue our study of the doctrine of God tomorrow.

Hello everyone. Welcome back to the blog of Deeper Waters where we are continuing our dive into the ocean of truth. We’ve been going through the doctrine of God and our guide has been the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. We are studying how God is known by us and if you want to follow along, you can do so at newadvent.org. Before we get to that, I have my prayer requests. First, for my continued Christlikeness and that that will be what I truly do want. Second, I ask for prayers for my financial situation. Finally, I ask for your prayers in a third related area in my life.

This is a question that we’re going to spend a lot of time on with application. Any capacity we have to see God as has been said previously is granted to us by grace. However, many of us get different measures of grace. Now we’re all equally forgiven. That is not being brought into question.

However, we also all do act differently with the grace we have in our lives and we’re day by day either becoming more accustomed to the kingdom of Heaven or the kingdom of darkness. What we do after salvation does matter. I’m not going to get into eternal security. That’s a secondary debate. However, it is no debate that what we do in this life matters and when we make Christ our Lord, that ought to make a difference in the way that we live.

What we are to do with our lives is to learn to seek the things of Heaven. When we do that, we are preparing ourselves to be greater recipients of the blessing of God. We are opening ourselves up to who he is and coming to know him more and the more we come to know him, the more he can reveal himself to us.

What keeps that from happening now is that we act in a way that we either say we want or don’t want him. It is not a failure on God’s part however if we do not come to him and seek him all the more. It is a failure on our part. God simply guides us step by step and he will lead us as we come to the light that we have.

This is a problem I have with so many atheists that seem to think that God should personally appear to them in some way. Now not all atheists do this I realize, but some do. It is a most unrealistic demand. I would hope I have lived a good Christian life, but I have not come anywhere near that experience. I cannot think of anyone, including many I know far more saintly than I am, which would include several, who has.

So Christian, what are you doing in your life today? Are you preparing yourself for the seeing of God? When you get there, you will realize that ultimately, that was the most worthwhile thing to do. This is not a call to asceticism, but rather it is a call to have God be the most important factor in every aspect of our lives.

We shall continue this tomorrow.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters as we continue our dive into the ocean of truth hoping to find some pearls of wisdom. We’ve been going through the doctrine of God and our guide has been Thomas Aquinas and his work, the Summa Theologica. Readers who do not own a copy of this great work are invited to go to newadvent.org and read along as we study the question of how God is known by man. Before we begin our question tonight, I wish to present my prayer requests. First off, I ask for your prayers for my Christlikeness as I learn to appreciate better the joys around me. Second, I ask for your prayers for my finances. Finally, I ask for prayers for a third related area in my life. For now, let’s get to the blog.

We’ve been discussing just how it is that man will behold God one day and we have determined that man will indeed see God and he will see him as he is.  However, we have also determined that no man or even an angel for that point will be able to see God by his natural powers alone.  Tonight, we’re going to ask if any created light is needed in order for man to see God.

Aquinas says however that our natures as they are are too weak in order to see God. We must be raised up in order to just be capable of this exalted experience. In order for this to take place, the power of understanding must be in some way illuminated by the grace of God so that man will behold God in his nature.

However, isn’t God understandable as he is? If that is the case, why do we need light to understand that which is understandable? In fact, if we’re using Aquinas’s thought, God is the one who we can know the most about as truth is his very nature and something is knowable insofar as it is actual. God is the most actual, therefore he is the most knowable.

The problem with this objection is that the error does not lie in the being of God but in the being of man. It does not matter how bright the room you are in is if you are blind. We approach God the same way as we are blinded, not by darkness but rather by the finitude of our being.

But didn’t we say earlier that God is not seen through a likeness but is rather seen as he is. If this light is needed to see God, then it would seem that he is seen through a likeness. However, the light is not that through which God is seen but by which he is seen. The light enables our intellect to see God. We do not see through it but rather with it.

The conclusion then is that we will need the assistance of divine grace to see God and that will come in the broadening of our intellect in such a way that we will finally be able to see him as he is. Once again, we are reminded, or should be at least, of how awesome our God is and that we should look forward with joy to the day we will see him.

We shall continue tomorrow.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. Namely, we’re diving into the truth of God. We’re going through the doctrine of God now little by little. Our guide has been the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. We’re asking the question now of how God is known by us and tonight’s post will actually not be about us explicitly. For those who do not own a copy of the Summa, it can be read online at newadvent.org. Before that, my prayer requests. First off, continued Christlikeness. At this point, I’m talking to a friend now related the need to release a critical attitude. Second, for my financial situation. Finally, for a third related area in my life. Let’s get to the question for now.

We know we can’t see God by our natural powers, but what about angels. Can They? Angels are said to know themselves and insofar as they are they are reflections of the divine beauty. If that is the case, then surely we can make a case that the angels can see God by nature.

Once again, we have gone through these in order and Thomas reminds us that no one sees God by a likeness. If the angels are only beholding a reflection however by the natural powers of knowledge that they possess, then they are not seeing God as he is. Thus, an angel does not see God in this way.

But angels are creatures without defect aren’t they? (For the time being, we are not thinking of the fallen angels.) The reason man does not see God is because he is a fallen creature isn’t it? If that is the case, then since angels are creatures without defect, and a defect would be the inability to see God, then it would seem that an angel can see God.

Now it is true that an angel does possess all the perfections that are fitting for its being, and in that sense it is without defect. However, it is defective in that it is a creature and has privations in the sense that it does not possess the full nature of God. It is lacking in that way.

Why is it that an angel cannot see God? We will start this by looking at ourselves. Our eyes can only take in corporeal things. If I see the proposition 2 + 2 = 4, by my eyesight alone, I can only see lines written on a page. It is when I begin using my intellect that I begin reading a message that is in the text.

However, once I get my intellect engaged, and my intellect is not corporeal, then I can begin to see truths that are abstract. I cannot see the truth of 2 + 2 = 4 with my corporeal eyes for the truth is not corporeal. I apprehend it with my mind however. We can only know something by the mode.

Something can only be known by the mode of the knower. The physical eye can only see physical objects. The intellect cannot grasp by its nature that which is superior to it. Since God is the most superior of all, then if man is to see God, or if angel is for that matter, then it will only be by the grace of God.

We shall continue tomorrow.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters. We’ve been studying the doctrine of God right now and we’re on the question of how God is known by man. Our guide for this study has been the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. If you do not own a copy, and I do hope many of you are going to invest in one, you can read it online at newadvent.org. Before we get to tonight’s question, I’d like to mention my prayer requests. First off, continued Christlikeness, and I am pleased thinking of the way it does seem my thought life is changing and I hope that continues. Second, my finanical situation. Finally, I ask for prayers for a third related area in my life.

Can God be seen by the bodily eye? After all, while Aquinas has said we can know God, it is not enough to say that. We need to know how we can know God.  But won’t we see God with our bodies? Isn’t that what Job 19:26 says? In our flesh, we will see God? Aquinas says it’s not as simple as that and we should agree.

When we consider the text of this passage, (Yes everyone. Philosophers, medievals, and thus medieval philosophers can read the Bible) it does say that in our flesh we will see God, but it does not say that BY our flesh, we will see God. The passage is instead an affirmation of the faith of Job saying that he will live to see another life and in that other life, he will see God. He does not say how he will see God.

But do we not have appearances of God in the Old Testament? What about the many times where someone is said to see God? Indeed, if readers remember our Trinitarian commentary, we looked at those verses. We did indeed affirm that in some sense, God was seen, however, we have to affirm what sense that was.

Every time we concluded that it wasn’t God in his full nature being seen. After all, John 1:18 says that no one has seen God. We instead stated that it was an appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ who has the nature of God. In this case, God is seen through something else in the sense that in our bodily flesh as it is, we could not see God.

The ultimate question however is to ask why it is we cannot see God with our bodies. I hope many of you are having your theological minds turning already and have thought of the conclusion. Our bodies are great with their senses of getting data about sensible objects. God is not a sensible object however and our quest has been to find God by what he is not more often.

How will we see in our bodies? That is something that is to be addressed later on, but it is apparent that we will have to have some sort of transformation, perhaps that which comes about in the resurrection when we have new and glorified bodies, so that we may see he who is.

We shall continue tomorrow.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. We’ve been going through a study of the doctrine of God now and we’re looking at the topic of how we can know God. Our guide for this has been the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. If anyone wants to read the work and they do not have it, a copy can be found at newadvent.org. Before we begin, I wish to make my prayer requests. First off, my Christlikeness which I notice is coming about more and more in thinking the way that I ought to, though I seek to get my thought life under control. Second, for financial concerns. Finally, I ask your prayers in a third related area in my life. For now, let’s get to the question.

Last night, we asked if it would be possible to ever see God and considered what a huge question this is for us as Christians. Tonight, we’re going to be asking if we will see God as he is or if we will just see some likeness of him. This is an important question for us as well. When we see God, will we see him as he is or will we just see something that gives us some sort of idea of him?

Note I am not saying that we will see God with full comprehension. I do not think that is possible for finite intellects. However, God will appear to us as he is. We will be beholding the real deal and the amount that each of us gets will be however much we can take and I do believe that could be proportional to how much we’ve sought God in this life.

Aquinas says we know God as he is. To begin with, he states that with material things, we do not behold the essence of the thing with our sight. For instance, if I see a rock, the likeness of the rock is in my vision, but the substance of the rock is not within me. That remains within the rock.

Note also that the nature of God could not be known through something inferior. We do see through a glass darkly. Right now, all we see is meant to give us ideas of what God is like. Consider it in a way as if God is flirting with us now. It will not be until we get to experience the consummation of his love as it were that we shall fully see him as he is.

How does he do this? God enables our intellect to be able to grasp him. We are not told how, but we are just told that this will happen. There is something in us however that can correspond to understand the nature of God insofar as we can. We have something in us that can take in the nature of the material and understand it. So we also have something within us that can take in the nature of the immaterial and understand it.

What does this mean for us? It means we really will see God. The Bible isn’t joking on this! It’s a reality! Christian! Grasp that for a moment even and I mean this for myself as well. You will see God. It is a shame we do not get excited about that as we should and I am including myself in that. We worry so much about future events that may never happen instead of rejoicing over the one certainty. We will see God.

Rejoice!

We shall continue tomorrow.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. We’re studying the doctrine of God now and our guide for this journey is the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. Those who do not own a copy of the Summa are free to go to newadvent.org and read the one online. We’re going to start tonight discussing the topic of how God is known by us. Before that, my prayer requests. First off, my Christlikeness in realizing the many great blessings I have in my life at the moment. Second, I ask for prayers for my financial situation. Finally, I do ask prayers for a third related area in my life to both of those. For now, let’s get to the topic.

As I began to write this blog, I really thought about this question and realized just how important it is. I’d like you to consider it as well. Let’s suppose that we answered this question and the answer to the question was “No.” Would you live your life differently? What would you think of Heaven? Could you even conceive that there could be such a place in Heaven if you could never see God?

St. Augustine asked us to picture a scenario where God makes us an offer. We will have eternal life, youth, and health. We will live in Paradise with no pain. We will never be bored. We will be able to do whatever we want. There will be nothing that will be sin for us. God grants us all this on one condition. We may never see his face.

Such a place does not strike us as Heaven. In fact, it could very well be a Hell instead. Thus, it is very important to us how we answer this question and we are quite fortunate that Aquinas does say that the answer to this question is yes.

The answer to this question is more from the faith tradition. It could be tied into the argument from desire used by apologists like Augustine, C.S. Lewis, and Peter Kreeft. (I am sure Kreeft is quite honored to be tied in with the two former) We have all these natural desires in us and there is something that fulfills them. What about the desire for God? Does that have fulfillment? (For those curious about the argument from desire, I recommend Peter Kreeft’s book “Heaven: The Heart’s Deepest Longing.”)

We were created for God as Augustine said. “You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their peace in thee.” We all desire to find the purpose of our lives. Many of us think of “God’s will for our lives” being along the lines of education, career, marriage, etc. Many of us don’t spend enough time instead thinking about the ultimate will for our lives. The ultimate will is that we will see God.

Christian. Whatever you are going through in your life, consider that if it is difficulty, that you should have this sentence going through your head. “I will one day see God.” If it is instead a good thing going on, pause and consider what better joy lies ahead for you can say “I will one day see God and that’s even better than this.”

We shall continue tomorrow.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. We’ve been going through the doctrine of God and right now we’re studying the unity of God which we will conclude tonight. Our guide for this has been the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. For those of you who do not own a copy, you can read one online at newadvent.org. Before we go to the blog, I have some prayer requests to share. First off, for my continued Christlikeness, such as in handling the many changes of life. Second, I ask for prayers for my financial situation. Finally, I ask for prayers for a third related are in my life. For now, let’s get to the blog.

Is God supremely one? What does this mean? For Aquinas, one refers to an undivided being. In order to be supremely one then, something must be undivided supremely and to be being supremely. God qualifies for this of course since he is simple and based on the other arguments that we’ve seen, we can be sure that he is the only one who matches the criteria.

Interestingly, while he does not go into this now, Aquinas uses a quote from Bernard that says that the divine Trinity is supremely one. When we get to Aquinas on the Trinity, we will see how he handles this, but for the time being, while we may disagree with Aquinas on some points, we can be assured that he was not an idiot not were his contemporaries. If they can easily assert the tri-unity of God and his being supremely one, there is no contradiction between the two.

But are not all things one? How can something be more or less one? When we are dealing with the transcendentals, we must remember that all things insofar as they are partake the transcendentals. Thus, all things are good, true, beautiful, things, and all things are one. If that is the case, what keeps us from being one the same way God is?

Again, we return to the doctrine of analogy. We have oneness in us but not the way that God has it. God has it as the source. We have it by gift. Our oneness is also a limited oneness. We have limitations to our being since we are finite and we can be divided by nature as we are mutable beings.

None of this applies to God. God is simple as Aquinas has said earlier and because of this he cannot be divided. God is also then supremely being due to his perfection as well. He possesses full and unlimited being. Our being is limited by that our natures and by that which is external to us. Our being is a gift and we do not possess it by nature.

We conclude saying that God is indeed one and he is supremely one like no other. While we have written extensively on the Trinity of God, we must never lose sight of the oneness of God either as the oneness of God is essential if we are to even talk about the Triunity of God. Let us not lose sight again of how unique God is in Christian thought.

We shall start the next chapter tomorrow.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters. We are diving into the ocean of truth and into the deepest ocean that we can, the ocean that is the doctrine of God. We’ve been using as our guide the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. Those of you who do not have the Summa in your possession can go to newadvent.org and read it online. We are right now studying the Unity of God. Before that, my prayer requests. First, I ask for your prayers for my Christlikeness as I learn to seek the true, the good, and the beautiful. Second, I ask for your prayers for my financial situation. Finally, I ask for your prayers for a third related area in my life. Time to get to our question tonight!

We’ve been going over the topic of unity and tonight, we’re going to bring God into it. Is God one? Aquinas says he is of course. He draws this from a number of points and as we can expect from Aquinas, he will be building on the earlier points he’s established in the doctrine of God.

To begin with, he starts with God’s simplicity. He uses Socrates, the classic example in philosophy, saying that which makes Socrates a man is had by many. Because of that, there can be many men. However, that which makes Socrates Socrates is particular to him. If he was Socrates by what makes him a man, then there could not be many men. However, God is God in turn by his nature being his essence. Because of this, there cannot be many gods and God is one.

This is also shown by his infinity. Because God is infinite, he possesses in himself all perfections of being. This is an important argument and one in fact that I am dialoguing on with a Mormon at this point as Mormon theology is quite lacking. In it, God only differs by degree and not by kind.

Let us then take Thomas’s idea that God has all perfections fitting of being. Let us suppose there was another God who supposed had the same. How would the two differ? Would it be by one having an imperfection? Then the other isn’t perfect. Would one have a perfection the other lacked? Then that other one isn’t perfect. In the end, it would seem that the two would have to be absolutely identical. However, if they are absolutely identical, they are not two but one.

Thomas’s third reason is the order of the universe. For Aquinas, it is easier to have one being the source of order rather than many for even in the multitude, there must be something that makes the multitude one. Oneness is the greater of the two principles. One is the cause of oneness by nature, but there are only many by accident, when there is a division in the oneness. Thus, since there is order in the universe, it follows that that which is the cause of the order is one rather than a multitude. (We will later on see how this works with the Trinity.)

We shall conclude the discussion of God’s unity tomorrow.