Reply To: Knowing God, Chapters 3 & 4

[Wes]

Chapter 4 – The Only True God

Here Packer unpacks the second of the 10 commandments. I appreciate his effort in explaining how it is different from the first commandment, in that it focuses on not creating images that represent the true God to worship.

I wonder what Packer would think about the hit show “The Chosen” (I’ve not watched it myself). Does he think illustrated Bibles should not be printed? I think there is a space for illustrations of Biblical stories in teaching, and I actually think they can help us have a more accurate understanding of the events that took place if done correctly, if they accurately present the historical and cultural context. For example, seeing Jesus as a Jewish Middle Eastern man growing up in a poor family gives you a different perspective then some of the paintings of Jesus you might see from later centuries.

I do appreciate his discussion on mental images, and I would also say that at some point we do have a mental image of the man Jesus in our heads, right? If I read the Bible and Jesus is talking to someone in a passage, I have a picture in my mind’s eye on what that looked like. I’m not worshipping that image, but I’m thinking about who he is and what he said. When Jesus says “I am the good shepherd” I get an an image in my head of Jesus being a shepherd. I think he’s more arguing when we get a mental image of God that does not come from the Bible; for example, God is some old man in the clouds looking down on us.

From my perspective, there are other areas related to the second commandment that we overlook here as the Church (big “C” church). Probably the two that I’ve seen the most are: 1) pursuing political power at all costs in the name of God to enact “God’s agenda” and 2) making a god who likes the things I like and hates the things I hate, throwing out or trying to fit Biblical passages to make that work.