I have a hard time completely buying into any systematic theology. C.S. Lewis likened theology to a map for our souls and contended that we won’t get where we need to go if we don’t know where we are going. I agree with him to a point. Theology can help inform us about God and what He wants, but the way some people use theology, it seems like they simply can’t trust themselves to know God for Himself and want to have all the details nailed down completely.
We can’t understand everything, nor do we need to, because the Christian life is more about knowing Christ than it is about getting to heaven. I’m not sure how much of a map we need if we’re keeping our car between the ditches on this highway of holiness, and the One who knows where we are going is not only along for the ride, but is also speaking to us the whole time.
I’m not saying God can’t speak to us through theology, although we do already have the Bible and the Holy Spirit, but we so often wind up serving our pet doctrines instead of Christ, and every form of systematic theology can obscure our ability to see what’s actually in Scripture. No man-made system of thinking can fully explain the Bible or God for us; we have to simply accept that there is much mystery in our spirituality.
I can’t rationally understand the Trinity, the concept of one God in three persons known as The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. Sure, I’ve heard many lovely analogies using the leaves of shamrocks; water, steam, and ice; past, present, and future; and others I’ve simply forgotten. None of these little brain games does the doctrine of the Trinity complete justice; instead, I accept this idea by faith, knowing it’s all too much for me to comprehend by mere intellect.
This lack of complete understanding actually comforts me because any god I can really size up is a god of my own making, not the God of the universe.