Growing up in the southern part of Palm Beach County FL we had an inground pool like many other people. Even though we were just a mile and a half from the ocean, I loved having the pool. Now, I went to the ocean a lot. I could ride my bike and spend the day. But being able to just go out the back door and jump in the pool was great. Having parties with my church youth group made for great memories. I spent many hours watching over my nieces and nephews in the pool, especially when they were just little guys.
One of the best features of the pool for working with little kids in the pool was the stairs. Not a ladder but a set of steps. The little guys could play on the step of their choice, getting deeper and deeper as they were ready. Each kid was different. My youngest niece was a water baby. She was ready to get right in the water. First the shallow end, then you better be watching her, or she would be down in the deep end in no time. She was fearless!
Most of the other little ones took a much more cautious approach. Moving down step by step until they were ready for you to help them to swim. There would always be one that was a little more fearful and less trusting. They had to know they could trust you to not let them go under. If you tried to play by putting water on their face, they would be done with you. You would have to start over to gain their trust. But in the end, I’ve never had a kid who didn’t get to the point of loving the water and swimming like fish.
Thinking of those days so long ago moved me to think about what we are trying to do in the Growing in Knowing collection of posts, especially our first series on the Trinity: The Triune God. All new Christians, whether they know it or not, upon receiving Christ are on the first step of the theological pool. Yes, we are all theologians. Don’t let that freak you out, no one is expecting you to write your dissertation on the ontological nature of Christ within the Trinity and the ramification of eschatology.
But you have entered the realm of theology. Theology is just a fancy way to say learning about God. As you read your Bible, listen to sermons, or participate in Bible study classes, you are engaging in theology. You are learning about God. Sadly, many Christians are afraid to even venture into the shallow end of the theological pool. They get comfortable sitting on the steps and don’t want to venture any deeper. They make claims of “just going by faith” or taking stands against “men’s philosophy” misusing Col 2:8 as a proof text against using their brain for Christ. Yet, Christ told us to love God with all our mind (Mt 22:37).
It is truly sad to see a person who has been a Christian for years, yet is still sitting on the steps. They are missing out on so much that is available to them. If only they would just make the move to the shallow end. We are not talking about the deep end where your feet can’t touch the bottom. In the deep end, you would enter into discussions with others about doctrinal issues, give apologetic answers to those with questions, or counter those who attack our faith. We are not even talking about going to the middle sloping section where you can slowly move from shallow to ever-deepening truths.
The next stage is the shallow end where we gain an understanding of our faith and the doctrine we hold dear. In the shallow end, you will not become an expert but will gain some depth in your faith. You will better understand what is being said by your pastor and in Bible study class. You will have a clearer idea when something you hear is not right, even if you aren’t ready to articulate what is wrong, but you will know it is wrong and can seek further help to understand.
One of the greatest benefits of moving to the shallow end is being able to explain what and why you believe what you believe. You won’t be doing it like a scholar but as a person that owns their faith. You will be able to share it in a meaningful way, to be able to answer many of the questions you get from your kids or grandchildren. You won’t be able to get all the questions—few can answer all of a child’s questions—but you will have many answers. For the ones you don’t know, you can get help and you are more apt to understand the help.
While we are still in the pool metaphor, there is another image I would like you to think about. Imagine the pools you’ve seen at the Olympics. These pools have racing lanes. Stripes painted on the bottom of the pool and ropes with bobbers to keep the rope floating. These lanes mark the area each racer is to swim. You sometimes see this at the Y so people can do laps without running into each other.
The idea is that each lane represents a doctrinal area. Our first lane being the Trinity, then Humanity, Christology, Holy Spirit, the Church, and many other areas or lanes. In time we will seek to cover all of these. The key point to notice is that the water does not stay in one lane. It crosses over the stripes on the bottom. The ropes do not hold it back. The water flows from one lane to the next then to the next and so on. In the same way, what we cover in one doctrinal area is not limited to that area. In fact, the doctrine in one lane affects the doctrine in another. They are all impacting each other. What is true of the Trinity impacts what is true about Christ, the Holy Spirit, and about us as created beings. No position is held in isolation.
So while we start with the Trinity, it is not a study in isolation. Yet at the same time, we can not cover everything at once. We’re talking about the shallow end here. We will be giving you small portions of theological truth a bit at a time. What you can manage, then building on it until we fill the pool. Therefore in studying the Trinity, we will hold off discussing the deity of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. This will be assumed for now. We will get into these topics in our study of Christ and our Study of the Holy Spirit. But, trying to cover all of this out of the gate would be too much and would lead many to be discouraged by getting too much too fast.
In studying: The Triune God, we are studying Theology proper: the study of God. In this study, we will seek to gain an understanding of God and His attributes. We are presenting the Trinity not as an attribute of God but foundational to the essence of God. We also must see, like the water in the pool, that God’s attributes are not isolated elements without connection to each other. God is not a collection of parts or attributes that define Him. He is those qualities. Just as God is not simply loving, but God is Love (I John 4:8). This unity of the wholeness of God is called His Simplicity. We will cover this more in a future post.
Think of a prism. Light goes in one side and then is refracted to its spectral colors (colors of a rainbow). God is simplicity, not one of many parts but a whole. It is impossible to talk of all of His nature at once. Therefore, we will speak of each “attribute” one at a time, but we must keep in mind the oneness of God, the light coming into the prism of our discussion. When we look at God’s omnipotence (all-powerful), it is not as if this is just part of Him, but it characterizes Him in His full nature or essence.
Well, we have covered a great deal in this post. The point to take away is if you are one of those still on the step of the theological pool, come on into the shallow end. You can do it. We will be helping you. You are not alone. If you are already in the pool, join us as we seek to deepen our understanding to make our faith more meaningful and of greater benefit to our daily lives. We want to help you. We also want to give you the tools you need to help others.
The water is fine, come and join us each Thursday as we work together to have a deep, meaningful faith. A faith beneficial to us and to others; but most importantly, we seek to do all to the Glory of our God.
Until the next time we see you here at CultivatingFaith.org, God Bless! #CultivatingFaithOrg
Feature Photo by Taylor Simpson on Unsplash