Is God In A Box?
What does it mean when people say “God in a box?”
What’s in your God-box? Each of us, says author Anne Robertson, builds our own way of understanding God—our "God-box"-- and fills it up with bits of scripture, wisdom, and our experiences of God at work in our lives. It’s a perfectly good way to puzzle out what God means to us. Encountering God through our human limitations, we learn something about the meaning of Incarnation.
But to say that our experience of God is the only valid one is to put a lid on the box and create an idol.
Author Anne Robertson from the introduction to her book: Blowing The Lid Off The God-Box: Opening Up To A Limitless Faith.
So when one hears, “You’re putting God in a box,” or “Your God is in a box,” or “You have to let God get out of your box,” or many other similar statements, they are essentially stating that it is your idea of God and who He is.
Is this right or wrong?
We must ask ourselves if we believe absolutes exist. In this day/age it is the common mindset that there are no absolutes, even for those who say they believe in them. Today the mindset is pragmatic relativism. The pragmatic means “whatever works”. Encarta® defines this as “
1. way of thinking about results: a straightforward practical way of thinking about things or dealing with problems, concerned with results rather than with theories and principles
2. way of evaluating theories: a philosophical view that a theory or concept should be evaluated in terms of how it works and its consequences as the standard for action and thought.
Encarta:
Relativism means “what is true for you”, but it “might not be true for me.” WordWeb® defines it as “ the philosophical doctrine that all criteria of judgment are relative to the individuals and situations involved.”
There are absolutes however. To best see this read Francis Schaeffer’s book: The God Who Is There
Is God in a box?
Yes.
God has absolutes.
1. God cannot lie.
(Titus 1:2 [HCSB])
in the hope of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.
2. God does not change.
(Malachi 3:6 [AKJV])
For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.
God is in a box--a box He has made. The attributes of His character do not and cannot change. If they did, we would never know what He wants from us.
His word--the Scriptures--also do not change.
For ever, O LORD, your word is settled in heaven. Your faithfulness is to all generations: you have established the earth, and it stays. (Psalm 119:89-90, AKJV)
The word “settled” has the idea of fixed and permanent. Note, too, that His faithfulness never changes either.
Another verse:
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. (Matthew 24:35, AKJV)
God does not change. His methods do not change. His gospel does not change.
Whenever someone challenges you this way, tell them that God is in a box, that He never changes. Our ideas of Him may change, after we read the Bible, but God never changes.
