We’re examining the Nine Pillars that the Emergent church is founded on. The list of foundational points comes from Brad Cecil.
2. Language is limited
I said that I agree with this point in my first post on this subject. I must now eat crow, because I don’t agree with this point at all. This second excuse is also a matter of pragmatism.
God seems to think language is sufficient enough. The Bible comes to us through words. The LORD used language as the primary means to communicate His will and purpose to men for the last 6,000 years. Take a simple phrase like “the LORD spoke”. That phrase appears 143 times in the Old Testament. Revelation came to men as “the word of the LORD” 242 times in the OT and that phrase can be found 13 times in the New Testament. Paul tells that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Rom 10:17).
Satan tempted Jesus after the LORD fasted in the wilderness, telling him to turn a stone into bread. Jesus answered him saying, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Mat 4:4).
Conversation, which Emergents seem to worship, is dependant on language! So, if we concede to this point about language being “limited”, then what is to be accomplished by conversation?
April 15, 2008 at 11:38 am
The thing is, simply saying “Language is limited” doesn’t really say much. We’ve known for a long time that yes there are things are simply cannot be expressed well with words. Any man who’s loved a woman can tell you that if he tries to describe his feelings for her, his words seem small and inadequate in comparison to what he is feeling.
The question is, is language adequate? And I think that you have given a good case for saying yes, it is. If we say, for example, that “God is holy”, we may not be able to grasp all of the heights and depths of what that means, but we can grasp enough to be in awe of what it means. As you point out (and to borrow a bit from Rich Mullins), Jesus thought it quite answer enough to quote Deuteronomy to the Devil, and that was answer enough.