How do we know God? Well, I promise I will answer that question in more detail, but the short answer is: through general and special revelation (see previous posts). Sometimes in answering a question of such magnitude one must go out of his way to make sure that he is communicating exactly what he means and exactly what he does not mean. I am the he that desires to be clear on such an important topic. Therefore, before proceeding in an analysis of general and special revelation I want to give you 5 things that I do not mean when I say that we can know God.
I. SAYING THAT WE CAN KNOW GOD DOES NOT MEAN THAT WE CAN KNOW HIM EXHAUSTIVELY
I have already harped on this quite a bit. Nevertheless, I want you to understand this. Just as many today have emphasized God's transcendence (distance) to the neglect of emphasizing His immanence (nearness) in acquiring a knowledge of Him, we do not want to do the reverse. When I affirm, "We can know God", I am not saying that we can know everything there is to know about God. Nobody can. Here are a few verses to support my point (Is. 40:18; Ps. 145:3; Job 37:5). All of these verses affirm a degree of "knowledge" about God right? The Psalm 145 passage affirms the knowledge that God is "great" and "highly to be praised". However, this verse (and the ones that follow) also affirm a degree of ignorance regarding our capacity to acquire knowledge about God. The end of the verse says that God is "unsearchable". In other words, we know enough about God to know He is great and highly to be praised, but this does not mean that we know everything there is to know about God. But just because we do not know everything about God does not mean that we can't be confident that He is "great" and "highly to be praised". These things are true about God and we "know" them to be true. Nevertheless, He is still "unsearchable".
Consider also the Psalm 147 passage. On the one hand, the Psalmist affirms clear facts about God, which prove a certain knowledge of Him, namely that He is "great", He is our "Lord", and that He is "abundant in strength". On the other hand, the end of the verse affirms the fact that our knowledge about God ultimately terminates in mystery. God, says the Psalmist, is "infinite". Now if God is infinite (unlimited in His understanding- knows all), the strong implication is that we are the opposite- finite, right? In other words, we are limited in knowledge. And if we are limited in knowledge then we ultimately cannot know everything that there is to know about God.
A consideration of the Job passage will yield the same result. At the beginning of the verse, it is affirmed that God does "great things", but then says that we cannot "comprehend" these "great things".
We conclude, therefore, that God is ultimately infinite, unsearchable, and incomprehensible. This does not mean that we cannot "know" Him, but it does mean that we cannot "know" Him exhaustively.
Allow me to illustrate. Everyone who knows me is aware of the fact that I love West Virginia University football. I always have, and I always will. In fact, my love for Mountaineer football is so consuming that if I were to ask some people to name one thing that describes me they might say something like, "You are a Mountaineer fan". Consequently, I know a lot about Mountaineer football. I could tell you of a lot about their history. I could name you the coaching staff. I know the players (current and past). I have watched every minute of every game this year (and if it were not for a bad memory) could tell you much of what has taken place. I "know" Mountaineer football. That is a factual statement. However, I do not know everything that there is to know about Mountaineer football. In fact, there could be a thing or two that I do not know that would cause me to dislike Mountaineer football if I were to find those things out (though I can't imagine this even being possible). Surely, there are other fans who know more than me. The coaching staff far surpasses my knowledge as well. However, just because I do not know everything there is to know does not mean that I do not truly "know" Mountaineer football. Nobody would say, "You do not know Mountaineer football" simply because my knowledge is not exhaustive. In the same way, we can truly know God, though our knowledge of Him will never be exhaustive.
Knowing Little But Truly Knowing (by grace),
Andy
p.s. II for tomorrow
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