Opinion
Face the Version of God You Understand
By Dr jalarth Uche Opara
It can be challenging trying to understand God through the lenses of every preacher of the Gospel.
God is beyond human comprehensive and exhaustive understanding. I once considered using the familiar metaphor of the elephant and the blind men to explain this. It may seem the surest way to make my point, but for fear of sounding like a broken record, I have chosen an intentional detour.
Growing up, I was taught that God controls the affairs of the universe. I was equally taught that He is above every being, the Mover who moves but cannot be moved by anything.
The Scriptures also speak of a God who can instantly turn a poor man into a rich one, whose healing hand cures ailments and diseases. I grew up with this understanding of God.
As the world moves from cutting-edge technology into the age of Artificial Intelligence, different versions of the Gospel are emerging, some seemingly contradicting the very foundations upon which our Christian belief system rests.
Suddenly, the God of the Old Testament is presented as different from the God of the New Testament. Suddenly, heaven and hell are no longer physical places but states of mind. Suddenly, Jesus Christ can no longer give wealth and riches; only principles can. Jesus can offer peace of mind, but material prosperity is now explained almost exclusively through human effort and the application of principles.
The growing noise of doctrinal disagreements, conflicting biblical interpretations, and competing exegeses from different pulpits is creating considerable confusion among believers.
Amid all this noise, extrapolation, and intellectual interrogation of the Word of God, I have arrived at a comfortable bus stop: pursue the relationship with God that makes His presence real to you. Practise what draws you closer to Him. Hold on to what strengthens your faith and helps you experience Him more deeply.
Engage with those biblical teachings and spiritual practices, whether from the Old or New Testament, that bear good fruit in your life.
The diversity of human encounters with God is almost unimaginable. No single human principle or revelation can exhaustively capture Him.
Christianity is not merely philosophy, logic, scientific principles, or theories. It is a lived experience of faith, a relationship that transforms life. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to encountering God. What speaks deeply to one person may not speak in the same way to another.
God’s instructions and revelations to humanity are like a flowing river. The portion of the river that C steps into may differ from the one D encounters. Yet both may be touched by the same water.
I have learnt to face the God I have come to understand, regardless of how others describe their experiences of Him. I do not have to abandon my encounter with God simply because another person’s theology presents Him differently.
Understanding God through the agency of the heart can be far more profitable than struggling to comprehend Him solely through the head, with its demands for logic, intellectual certainty, and theological correctness.
After all, knowing God is not merely about winning an argument over who understands Him best. It is about encountering Him, walking with Him, and allowing that encounter to transform who we are.
In all things, try to develop an unfettered faith in God, stick to him in and out of season, regardless of your inability to understand the theological, philosophical, metaphysical etc explanation of creation, biblical stories etc your experience of him and in his presence would be refreshing.
Better have a limited intellectual knowledge of God, but with a deep connection to his mind and spirit where revelation is raw and profound than to know all the nuances of biblical stories from Greek, Hebrew and Latin perspective with zero personal and revelatory relationship with God
Stick to the version of God you know that works for you, every other thing is extra.
Jarlath Uche Opara
jarlathuche@gmail.com