R.C. Sproul

And so that crisis raised all kinds of philosophical questions.

They weren't new.

These were questions that the church has struggled with for centuries upon centuries upon centuries.

and we look and examine the kind of language that we use to describe God.

And one of the ways in which we use words and human language to define God or describe God is by what's called the way of negation.

what's called technically the via negationis or the via negativa.

The Neoplatonic philosophers, particularly Plotinus, argued the point that as soon as you say anything positive about God, you've missed Him.

If you say, affirm anything direct about God, you're not talking about God.

You're talking about something else because God in His essence is unknowable.

And all you can do is circle about God, but you can never land anywhere concretely without falsifying your understanding of God.

And so Plotinus said the only legitimate way to speak about God is by this way of negation, which is describing God by saying not what He is, but what He isn't.

Now, concretely, we can talk like this.

I can walk over here and say, you see this candle?

What do you say?

You see the candle.

Well, folks, this candle is not God.

Ah, well, okay, well, now we know what God isn't.

He's not this candle.

and we look at this lectern.

I say, God's not the lectern.