I believe in the Bible thusly, it is the pure light of God as seen through the prism of man's understanding. We get the light, but it is refracted (much the same way that Moses was unable to behold God's face and can only see his back).
What is the highest number that we can count to?
Where does space end?
Both of these things cannot be truly understood because they are infinite and we are finite.
Lol, while I agree with you about Paul writing Paul, I disagree that "most Christians here" would agree with us.
For that to be true, you must think that something is not right. What can possibly be so wrong with the writings of the least prophet.
May I suggest that ProdigalSeeker has made a better point than you are giving credit. The story of Moses seeing God's backside is the very story that introduces Moses carving the second set of tablets for the ten commandments. If you take away the chapter break, which was later introduced, the cleft stone in which Moses is hidden could very well be taken as the
very stone from which Moses extracted the tablets upon which God inscribed the commnadments. The story is not there simply as an amusing interlude to the more prosaic bits but to make the very point that ProdigalSeeker has grasped. The writer of Exodus understood that the scriptures, even if inscribed by God's own hand, did not so much reveal God as hide one from the full glory of God. From the written word, we can gain but a glimpse of the trailing backside of God's passing by.
Interestingly, the old tradition of reading the scriptures as a corporate exercise counteracted this inadequacy to some degree. The coporate understanding of the words, with a great number of imaginations and a great deal of history and experience brought to bear allows for the emergence of a much more nuanced expression of the ineffable truths that the words touch on than do the words themselves.
And the LORD said to Moses, "I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name."
Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory."
And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live." Then the LORD said, "There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen."
The LORD said to Moses, "Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.