Dissecting God

A friend recently described his Bible discussion group as “Dissecting God like a frog staked out on the table.” It struck me as both a challenging analogy and potentially instructive of what our quest to know God should be, or perhaps should not be. This seems relevant as our group embarks on a study of Jesus. Get the gloves, pins and scalpels ready.

What do I learn from my friend’s dissection analogy? First, its not about the frog. Dissection’s purpose is the dissector’s learning. The frog, the subject of the dissection, is destined for the bin at the end of the study. There are plenty more in the pond. It follows, secondly, that the study can destroy the very thing we are studying. Our knowledge is advanced, but at a cost to the subject. Third, there is little or no relationship between the dissector and the dissectee. Sure, no doubt some dissectors develop an affinity for their Kermit, giving his all to facilitate their learning – flippers nailed in place. But the word picture conveys a distant, clinical detachment between the student and the subject of study.

Which brings us back to our study of God ...

• Is it all about us, or about us and God?
• Does our study increase our knowledge, while destroying ‘God’ in our lives?
• Are we involved with the subject of our study?

In light of the analogy, perhaps it is best not to examine God in our study? Maybe we should limit Bible study and discussion to what it might say about our daily life? Yet, God appears to invoke our analysis of Him. He has staked Himself out on the dissecting table, so to speak, in the person of Jesus Christ. In fact, Jesus suggests that seeking a knowledge of God through Him “is life eternal” John 17:3). Jesus asked His disciples to consider who He is (Matt 16:13-17; 22:41-45; Mark 8:27-30; Luke 9:18-20), and I think He meant more than name, rank and serial number. Understanding Jesus’ identity goes far beyond identifying Him as the “Christ of God” (Luke 9:20). That’s like studying a frog by saying, “Yep, it croaks, it jumps, so it must be a frog.”

“Yep, He raised the dead, walked on water, and fed the multitude, so it must be God.”

There is so much more to know about God. What is He like? So, how do we do that? Well, Jesus reinforced that the Scriptures testify of Him (John 5:39). But He does so while chiding the Pharisees for limiting their seeking after Him to just the Scriptures … “for in them ye think ye have eternal life. And ye will not come to me that ye might have life.” As Jesus says in His John 17 prayer for His disciples, experiencing God through Him is life eternal. The Scriptures cannot or should not limit our study of God. John 1 tells us that the Word of God is more than 39 or 66 books. The witness is everything throughout created time that bears witness to God, and that didn’t stop with John the Baptist.

Marriage is a valuable analogy in understanding that there is a relationship dimension to understanding character. How often have I sought to dissect Angela’s character on the basis of the facts alone. Like Sgt Joe Sunday, … “all we want are the facts, Ma’am.” “This is what you did, … this is what you said.” Therefore, as a social scientist analyzing my wife I (incorrectly) conclude that (a) she is selfish, and (b) she doesn’t love me. I call this the Sola Scriptura approach to spousal analysis – clinical, akin to dissection.

Then Angela reminds me that we have known each other for more than two decades, and experience must contradict those two conclusions. There must be another explanation for Angela’s incongruous words and actions. And I reflect on the fact that, yes, it makes sense that my analytical deductions from the recorded facts must also be consistent with my long-term experience of Angela. I look for other explanations.

As in all relationships, the key to knowing God is to move beyond clinical, detached analysis and dare to experience. “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps 34:8).

1 Peter 2:1-5

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.