23 The Missing Example

Remember! When I refer to person in the Godhead in any blog, I am referring either to singular person (one-of-three) or to the collective person (three-in-one) of the Triune.

I can feel a surge of demand for an example of this contrast between Biblical expression and Modern English expression that I proposed in my last blog.

So, okay.

But I must impress upon you first that, in doing so, I will be discussing the very self of God, so I am extremely respectful when I approach this subject. Here goes with the example:

Scripture quotes God as saying:

“I AM WHO I AM.” (Exodus 3:14 NKJV)

Discussion of God’s self in Modern English outside of scripture employs the pithy term consciousness.

That’s the example.

What? you say.

Yes, I say. Scripture quotes God as saying, “And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.’ Moreover God said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever and this is My memorial to all generations’” (Exodus 3:14-15 NKJV).

And that says volumes!

How? you say.

I say, if you know your verbs, then you know that I am is a form of the verb to be and its correlating noun is being. If you remember how to conjugate to be it is quite varied, to review its variety go to the following link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_conjugation_tables#To_be

God names Himself I am. In fact, He names Himself Who— Being. And in using the name I am, He can connect any number of qualifiers He chooses and concretely identify Himself in that way, such as, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6 NKJV).

Using Modern English, people use the word consciousness to define God. And the descriptive process stops there. Or it should, attentive reader. Rightly nervous to arbitrarily attach qualifiers or words to actually describe God other than what God calls Himself, most people (I should hope) will tread lightly here. So this nervous modern is sent where? Running back to the scriptures, if she is smart, determined to ever-so-scrupulously quote God rightly on who He says He is. Get my drift here?

It’s kinda like the saying, fight fire with fire. Whether we like it or not, we must describe God in the words He uses to describe Himself. There can be no other respectful way. There is too much possibility for inappropriate deviation otherwise.

So I guess you can see where I am going with that kind of thinking. It means that I can construct an outline of self out of Modern English, but I must also use God’s own word to justify it. And actually, this great exercise, as I call it, is extremely helpful to moderns. I know, because it has helped me. It has made it possible for me to see that there can be a reasonable bridge between the expression of God’s truth in God’s terms and the expression of God’s truth in mine. And thus I as a modern am no longer divided from the truth!

To be continued . . .