faith, hope and love - Winchester Cathedral

 

CALLING AND VISION

Winchester Cathedral is called to renew, inspire and unite people in faith, hope and love.

These are the values that we live by:

Openness
so that all may be renewed
Excellence
so that all may know God’s love
Kindness
so that all may find a place

John Lennox on theism

 

Karl Barth on on Theology - Karl Barth

The Swiss Theologian Karl Barth was once asked, "What is the most profound thing you have learned in your study of Theology?"  His response, without blinking an eye was, "Jesus Love Me This I Know, For The Bible Tells Me So.  The student laughed until he saw that Barth was deadly serious. Barth's answer demonstrates two things, First, in the simplest Christian truth there abides a profound depth, that can occupy the minds of the most brilliant.  Second, that even in learned theological circles, we can never really rise above a child's level when it comes to understanding the mysterious depths and riches of the character of God.

No matter how learned we become, there will always be much about the nature of God that we cannot understand.

None of us can understand God in an exhaustive manner.  We are finite creatures and the finite cannot grasp the infinite. This key doctrine, that is the doctrine of God's incomprehensibility should not suggest that we can know nothing about God, but rather that God is beyond our human comprehension.  Our knowledge is limited and partial.

The Omnipotence Aspect

Gen. 17:1 

Psalm 115:3 

Romans 11:36 

Ep. 1:11 

Heb. 1:3

Ji Packer on Bible Study - JI Packer

 

James Packer, in his excellent book, Knowing God, writes: Knowing about God is crucially important for the living of our lives.  As it would be cruel to an Amazonian tribesman to fly him to London, put him down without explanation in Trafalgar Square and leave him, as one who knew nothing of English or England, to fend for himself, so we are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it.  The world becomes a strange, mad, painful place, and life with it a disappointing and unpleasant business, for those who do not know God. Disregard the study of God and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you.  This way you can waste your life and lose your soul.

In a study of the King James Version of the Bible someone gathered the following facts: "The Scriptures contain 3,586,489 letters, 773,692 words, 31,173 verses, and 1,189 chapters.  The word 'and' occurs 1,855 times, but the word 'revered' only once. Ezra 7:21 contains all the letters of the alphabet except 'J.' The longest verse is Esther 8:9, and the shortest in the English language is John 11:35

Knowing miscellaneous facts about the Bible is fine. But far better is the diligent searching of its truths for knowledge.