I emailed recently with a good friend of mine who would characterize himself as agnostic with regard to “religious things.” He was using his agnosticism as an excuse as to why he believed he wouldn’t fit in at the University of the Nations, the Christian missionary training base we are serving right now. As I thought about it I wrote him that I thought being agnostic put him in a great place for learning more about God. In fact, the more I think about it the more I wonder if I shouldn’t think of myself as agnostic – at least in a sense. “Agnostic” simply means “without knowledge.” (I know there are different classifications of agnosticism, but that is not what I am trying to address here.)
Consider these scriptures:
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
Deuteronomy 29:29
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
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
Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:
“Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?
Job 38:1-5
Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm:
“Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?
Job 40:6-8
Then Job replied to the LORD:
“I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.
Job 42:1-3
The point of all of the above is to face the reality that we are not God. If we believe we know everything about God, if we can put everything into a formulaic understanding of theology, then we no longer need God; we are god.
Paul often wrote of how he prayed for a new ekklesia in his letters to them. He consistently prayed that they would grow in their knowledge of God, implying that none of them had a complete understanding and could grow in such knowledge. Moreover, the Greek word he used for knowledge was the word that meant relational knowledge, not knowledge of facts about something or someone. And, as we all know, even those who have been married to someone for 10, 20, or even 50 years know, we never know everything about anyone, even other humans, let alone knowing everything about the God of the universe.
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 1:9-13; see also Ephesians 1:15-23; Philippians 1:9-11
My main point is that we should always keep ourselves humble, knowing that we don’t know everything about God – whatever our doctrinal positions are. We are, and always must be, growing in our understanding of Who God Is. The moment we think we can articulate everything about God is the moment we know God the least of all. That is the moment we have become more like the Pharisees, the ones cursed by Jesus, than we are like Jesus – the One we, as little Christs and followers of Christ, are supposed to be like.
God promises to reveal Himself to the ones who seek Him with all of their hearts. “I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.” Proverbs 8:17. “But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deuteronomy 4:29. See also Jeremiah 29:13 and Matthew 7:7-8.
I encourage anyone who believes they are agnostic to pray and ask the Mystery to reveal the Mystery to him or her. I believe God will answer in a way that will enable you to find God, understand God more, and believe for the rest. I know it.