Matt Chandler* says that lack of mental effort causes problems for understanding God’s Word.  Christians “assume” they have knowledge of the Gospel but in reality, the “explicit” Gospel has not been taught, proclaimed or studied.  Consequently Christians actually don’t have much knowledge of God but they really don’t want to admit it.   Many just give up on the Gospel message and they turn to Isaiah 55:8 which states that God’s ways are not our ways: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are My ways your ways declares the Lord.”  That Scripture provides a convenient excuse for people who are not inclined to devote much time to God’s word to begin with.  See, God’s ideas are too hard to understand!  Consequently many Christians don’t have “the ears” to receive God’s Word.  

So where do we start if we are trying to open the ears of Christians so they can receive the good news of The Gospel?  Chandler says we have to talk about who God is.  “What is He like?  How big is He?  How deep and wide is his power?” [21]. Chandler is advocating a difficult discussion here because these are cosmogenic ideas, meaning they are ideas about the origin of the universe.  He wants to open the ears of his readers, not close them due to dense, difficult material. 

He tries to keep it light by discussing “raw material.”  When Chandler uses the terms “raw material” he means the essential building blocks of the existence of things.  Chandler explains that creative people use artistic materials but they are limited to using what is available.  At best, when we are creative, we can only be “sub-creators.”  The best we can do is “sub-creation.”  None of us are using the raw material provided by God.  Theologian R.C Sproul explains it like this.  As he attempts to paint, he uses brushes, paint and canvas.  He may get something down on the canvas but he did not make the raw material he has used to express himself.  He did not make the essential materials that go into the paint.  He did not make the essential materials that go into the making of a brush.  He did not make the essential materials that go into the making of the canvas.  The originating essence of those three things comes from God and God is in the business of creating “essence” out of nothing.  Again, God makes raw material.  He is not limited to using what is available.  He is the maker of all things.  “God’s creativity is so rich, so expansive, and so far above us that He simply says, “I want this,” and there it is” [25].  Maybe this explanation will help: “Maybe you’ve heard of scientists creating life in a laboratory, but that will never happen.  No scientist has ever been able or will ever be able to stare into an empty petri dish and with the nothing it holds into something.  Whatever it is scientists do, they do it with raw materials already created [by God] [25].

Let’s go one step further with this idea.  If the essential nature of “things” comes from God, then it follows that everything that is in the world is owned by God.  It is timely that I talk about this as I have recently been in charge of selling my Mother’s possessions [see “I Have Never Done This Before” St. John Studies, October 22, 2025].  Mom is almost 96 years old and suffers from dementia.  Her massive home and all that is in it has been a burden to her for years.  Yet, she could not manage all her possessions in recent years and she knew it, but she was not capable of letting anything go.  The idea of God’s ownership of everything is foreign to her [pre and post dementia] but that idea is inherent in Chandler’s use of Psalms 50: 10 “For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.”  Deuteronomy 10: 14 says, “Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.”  In other words, God owns it all.  We are merely stewards of what we “own” while we are here on earth.  God intends us to care for what we have but it is only ours for a short period of time [our lifetime].  Then our possessions pass on to others. 

These are big ideas.  God as the Essential Creator of the raw material of the world is difficult to conceive.  God as the Owner of everything in the world is not only is hard to conceptualize but that idea also rankles people who buy into the American focus on materialism. 

Chandler uses the word “transcendent creativity” to describe this characteristic of God.   To transcend is to “go beyond the range or limits of something abstract.”  In this case, God is above all that we can know, create or own.  To know God is to make an attempt to understand His transcendent creativity.  Chandler writes “There is nothing confining God.  His creativity is transcendent because His very being is transcendent.  Everything that is is His, and He can make more of anything He wants out of nothing at all.  There is no human category for this kind of richness.

Is transcendent creativity hard to understand?  Of course it is, but lack of knowledge of God’s transcendent creativity leads to a very poor understanding of God and His word.  Chandler has clearly told Christians in The Explicit Gospel that they rely on assumed knowledge too much and that is the reason we don’t have explicit knowledge of the Gospels.  God is not simple.  He is so complex that it is hard to grasp His characteristics but it is worth the effort.  Chandler says “Most church folk today don’t have the background to really understand the importance of knowing God” but knowledge of God is essential for us to have open ears to hear His word.

Chandler wants us to open our ears, to receive the good news of the Gospels.  Will ideas like “transcendent creativity” hurt our brain?  Maybe…but Christians don’t need to shy away from difficult material.  We need to embrace it, work with it…until we begin to know God.

God knows and Chandler knows…

It will be worth the effort.

*author of The Explicit Gospel