SPEAKING OF GOD A truly eternal God could never be contained in the pages of any book, including the Bible, a collection of literature that is clearly associated with a particular culture's (Israel's) perception of God. I don't think anyone ever expressed it better than Lao Tsu:
The Tao that may be told of is not the eternal Tao.
These are the opening words of his famous (and still popular) book, Tao Te Ching. I wrote an entire book using these words (Tao, A Way with Words), applying them to a whole list of things, including God. What you do, you see, is replace the word, Tao with something else, in this case, God:
The God that may be told of is not the eternal God.
I'm sure you've noticed that a lot of people are talking about (i.e., telling of) God these days, and they're relying quite a bit on the Bible as a source of authority. But according to Lao Tsu, you can't speak of something eternal. It's like the numbers. You can't count them all. You can't speak them. If you could speak them, they wouldn't be eternal (although, when we're referring to numbers I believe the appropriate word is "infinite"). Now it's true, we may indeed speak of God if we wish, but considering His eternality, what kind of significance would those words have? What kind of significance does a thousand have compared to infinity? We could say thousands and thousands of words about God, but if millions and millions of words, even billions and billions of them, could not begin to describe Him, what would be the point of our mere thousands? Why even bother? It's like a drop of water in the ocean. In other words, we should probably never speak of God, except perhaps to say that it's pointless to do so, a waste of time, and so on. Somehow, I believe that God Himself would agree with this. It's another reason I don't believe He had anything to do with the Bible. A true God would never speak of Himself. He would also never inspire anyone else to do it for Him. The inspiration issue is one thing that has always troubled me about the Bible. I could never figure out why God would go to the trouble to inspire someone to write for Him. What's with that? He can't write his own book? He has to go tap someone on the shoulder and say, "Excuse me, I wonder if I might trouble you to take some dictation for me?" Somehow, I don't think so. But without doubt, the biggest reason I don't believe that God had anything to do with the Bible is related to another aspect of His character which has to do with His humility. Yes, even the Supreme Dude has humility, and in His case, Supreme humility. To understand what I'm getting at, consider what a truly humble human being would be like. Just ask yourself one question about them: would they ever come forward and claim to be humble? I don't know about you, but I can't make something that work. If someone were to go around vocalizing about their humlity, it would only mean that they really didn't have any. It is simply not in the nature of humility to boast of possessing it. It is also not in the nature of greatness to speak of that quality. Can you imagine a person spouting off about being great? Wouldn't you think just the opposite, that a truly great person would never say such a thing? If we think this about mere mortals, how much more should we believe it about God? The true God would never step forth and proclaim His Godness in any way. He would always remain hidden, placing mortals in the position of having to believe in Him. Can you imagine God walking right up to you and introducing Himself, or wearing some sort of I.D. badge? How Did We Find Out About God? The Bible: Why God Had Nothing To Do With It
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