Recently, I heard about an argument between my siblings-in-Christ, with each insisting on the validity of their interpretation of Scripture. In anger, one of them remarked that "no one can know everything about God, therefore you could be wrong!"
Anger issues aside, I want to be academic about the statement, which echoes shades of Isaiah.
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
Neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the Lord.
"As high as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts."
-- Isaiah 55:8-9
Impossibility of knowing God fully
Firstly, I would agree that it is impossible to know everything about God. Since God is limitless, knowing God fully would require omniscience. However, only God has the quality of omniscience.
There are some things we can know for sure
That said, my friend's retort misses the point. While it is true that it is impossible for us to know everything about God, we can do know some things. For instance, though careful study of the Bible, we can know that God is plural (Genesis 1:26), God loves us (1 John 4:7-12) and that Jesus is God (John 1).
In fact this line of logic applies to every aspect of academia, not just theology. For instance, while it is currently impossible for us to know the exact number of people who ever died, we are pretty sure the answer is not two.
Conclusion
While it is impossible for us to know everything about God, that statement should not stop us from attempting to know God better.
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