“That our idea of God correspond as nearly as possible to the true being of God is of immense importance to us. Compared with our actual thoughts about Him, our creedal statements are of little importance. Our real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional religious notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is. Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God” (A.W. Tozer).
Last time we looked a bit at how it is more important to deal with our actual thoughts of God rather than just creedal statements. We want to look at more of this magnificent statement of Tozer’s. While this may appear tedious and slight in importance, it is just the opposite. If Tozer is correct, this is an utterly vital topic for today. How can it be that “our real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional notions”? One way is for people to hear a statement about God and attach that meaning to the idea of God. For example, what do people think of God’s love today? Usually people obtain their idea of love from the culture or a liberal pastor and simply think of God as love in a diametrically opposite way than He really is. In this sense, then, many have their real notions of God from the rubbish of conventional religious notions. But a second way we can look at this is if people have the truth in their creeds but down deep believe things about God that come from conventional religious notions. A third way is to teach the creeds but in a way that buries the truth about God. This can be done while using the writings of Calvin and other greats.
In the modern day there is a proliferation of tapes, books, Bibles, radio, computers, ipods, and so on. We have information and material up to our eyeballs. However, that can be a curse as well. With so much information within easy reach, we can soak up information and think of ourselves as quite informed and orthodox. However, all of that information most likely will not change the heart and our real concept of God. We can take our basic ideas of God and fit about any theology with them. We can listen and read voluminous amounts of material and yet not have our hearts changed a bit other than to build up our pride. It takes prayer and meditation to reach the depths of the heart. It takes a real desire to have a real and true heart regardless of the pain to reach the heart. Those things take a lot of effort and a lot of pain. It takes God Himself to reveal Himself to us and to communicate His character and glory to and in us. We want to have it under our control.
What is our real idea of God in terms of gaining knowledge of Him? Is it true that we think we can obtain knowledge of Him by reading books and study alone? If we believe as our deepest belief in the heart that He alone can give this knowledge, then we will study in a far different way. We may profess by a creed that He alone can give us a true understanding of Him in the heart, but what is the deep belief in our hearts? If we try to attain spiritual knowledge of God by our own efforts alone we are closer to atheists than robust theists in our hearts. If we want to understand a text of Scripture or of the glory of God, it will cost us much time in meditation and prayer. It might cost us some real rending of our hearts. Are we sure we want to know the true God in reality?
We may believe that God alone builds His Church, but where is the evidence that people really believe this? We seem to think that this is all in our power. So we make our plans by our own wisdom and ask God to bless our plans. Who do we think we are? The Church is His and He is the One who is to give it the plans it is to live by. Do we believe deep down in our hearts that we must wait on God for His plan or are we going to do it by conventional wisdom? Is it really up to us? Are we willing to wait on God with true crying our and submission of hearts?
Reformed churches usually have the ancient creeds and want to stick with them. That can be a very good thing. However, this can be a real problem as well. People can be proud of the creeds and their history of orthodoxy rather than love God and His truths as set out in the creeds. Unless the teachings of the creeds help people to understand Scripture and engage God in the depths of their souls, they are not being used properly. Part of the creeds is usually deals with the importance of Scripture. We must believe from the heart what Scripture teaches. We should only believe a creed or confession if we believe that Scripture teaches it. We must also know that the creeds and confessions teach us that all should be done to the glory of His name. That would also include what we believe about God and the creeds and confessions. Reformed churches will also have the problem of having the true notions of God hidden under the rubbish of conventional religious notions until they begin to teach all that they teach with the glory of God as the center of it all. The heart must be reached or all is lost.
God Loves... Himself 
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