How Do We Know God?

One of the classes I am taking this semester is Trinitarian Catechesis and the Baptismal Creed. The professor is using his own book in which he asserts that we should try to teach folks about God on the basis of the "economic trinity" rather than the "immanent trinity." Now, you're asking, what the heck do those things mean? The immanent trinity refers to God as He is in Himself; the Godhead; three persons in one God and one God in three persons. Which is a mystery for us to understand fully. The economic trinity is how God is outside of Himself, or how He deals with and interacts with man and creation. And so we know God as Creator, and as our Redeemer, for that is how He is working outside of Himself for us.

Therefore, I called my professor (at The *Catholic* University of America) very Lutheran! For this is how the Small Catechism teaches God, and Luther taught to begin with how God has revealed Himself to us through Christ and His cross, and not to try to see into the "hidden" God, or God as He is in heaven. And actually, my professor said: "I've been called that before!"

However, we continued our conversation, and I sort of cornered him. He began talking about a time he spoke to a Muslim man in a hotel, and how he believed that with a Muslim, you *need* to start with the immanent trinity. So I asked him: How come you are teaching us (and have written) to teach the economic trinity, and yet here you say start with the immanent? A bit inconsistent, yes? He thought a bit but stuck to his point: With a Muslim, have to start with the immanent.

No, I said. My good friend Pastor Josh Hollmann taught me that there is a way to begin economically. For Muslims believe that the Koran is the living word of God that came down from heaven. Well, we believe that yes, the living word of God came down from heaven, but not in a book, but in a man! In Jesus, the Word made flesh. How come, I asked him, we can't start there, economically, rather than immanently? He thought, but really gave no answer. I still think his book (and I, and Luther, and the Small Catechism) are right. Start with Jesus, God as He has come into this world and revealed His love and mercy for us on the cross. That is how and where we know God and how and where He wants to be known. For as Jesus said, "No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

So I'll keep working on my professor. Maybe he'll come around . . . :-)