Read Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy, chapter 2. Read Grudem, Systematic Theology, chapter 10. God is constantly revealing Himself to us Chafer, Four sources for knowledge of God A. Intuition Theology Notes Class Two: The Knowability of God What do these verses tell you about the knowledge of God? (Psa 14:1; 53:1). Calvin Those who rightly judge will always agree that there is an indelible sense of divinity engraved upon men s minds (cited by Chafer, Theology Proper, 131. How does one know if the truth is intuitive? The tests, says Chafer, are: are they universally recognized; are they necessary in that they are wrought into the constitution of every normal person; are they self-evident, not depending on any other truth for existence? B. Tradition C. Reason Chafer, Theo., 135. D. Revelation We studied this in Bibliology: review the following ways God reveals Himself to us: write down a thought beside each one regarding the effectiveness of this form of communication. General Revelation 1. Creation Psalm 19; Rom 1 18
Matt 6:25-34 2. Organization or Design Acts 14:15-18 Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. 16 In the past, he let all nations go their own way. 17 Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy. 18 Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them. NIV 3. Man Psalm 94:9 Does he who implanted the ear not hear? Does he who formed the eye not see? NIV Acts 17:28-29 For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, We are his offspring. 29 Therefore since we are God s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone an image made by man s design and skill. NIV 4. Conscience Rom 2:12-15 Special Revelation 1. Theophanies Gen 12:7; 18:1-2,22; 19:1; 32:24,30; Exod 3:2-4; Judg 13 2. Dreams/Visions Gen 28:12-16; 35:7-9; 1 Kings 3:5; Matt 1:20; 2:13,19 3. The Lot Neh 11:1; Esther 3:7; 9:23-26; Prov 16:33; Acts 1:21-26 4. Urim and Thummim Exod 28:30; Numb 27:21; Deut 33:8; 1 Sam 28:6; Ezra 2:63; Neh 7:65 5. Prophets 2 Sam 23:2; Zech 1:1; Eph 3:5 19
6. Events Mic 6:5; Ezek 25:7 7. Direct Communication Numb 12:6-8; 1 Sam 3:4,6,8,10-14; Acts 8:27; 9:4; 10:17; 13:2 8. Angels Luke 2:10,13; Dan 9:20-21; 10:10-21 9. Miracles Acts 2:22 10. Person of Christ Heb 1:2; Col 2:3 11. The Bible Guinness, The Call (p. 13-14), We cannot find God without God. We cannot reach God without God. We cannot satisfy God without God which is another way of saying that our seeking will always fall short unless God s grace initiates the search and unless God s call draws us to him and completes the search We start out searching, but we end up being discovered. We think we are looking for something; we realize we are found by Someone. C.S. Lewis describes his conversion as, God closed in on me. He wrote, Amiable agnostics will talk cheerfully about man s search for God. To me, as I then was, they might as well have talked about the mouse s search for the cat. Then he added these humorous words as he reflected on God s pursuit of us, Really, a young atheist cannot guard his faith too carefully. Can t know God fully What does Job 11:7-9 tell you about the knowability of God? Tozer (Knowledge, 6) The child, the philosopher, and religionist have all one question, What is God like? This book is an attempt to answer that question. Yet at the outset I must acknowledge that it cannot be answered except to say that God is not like anything; that is, He is not exactly like anything or anybody. What does Galatians 4:9 tell you about knowing God? Can t know any single thing about God fully (Grudem, 150) 20
Read the following verses. What are some of the things we can t know about God? Psa 145:3 Psa 147:5 Psa 139:6 Rom 11:33 Isa 55:9; Psa 139:17-18 Job 26:14 The best we can do is say what God is like Reread Ezekiel 1. How would you put into your own words what Ezekiel is trying to say that He saw of who God is? Tozer (Knowledge, 8) When we try to imagine what God is like we must of necessity use thatwhich-is-not-god as the raw material for our minds to work on; hence whatever we visualize God to be, He is not, for we have constructed our image out of that which he has made and what He has made is not God. If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts; and an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand. Athanasian Creed The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone, not made, not created, but begotten. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and the Son; not made nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding. Our tendency is to shape God after our image, into our likeness, and for our benefit Tozer (Knowledge, 8) Left to ourselves we tend immediately to reduce God to manageable terms. We want to get Him where we can use Him, or at least know where He is when we need Him. Tozer (Knowledge, 43) This God we have made and because we have made him we can understand him; because we have created him he can never surprise us, never overwhelm us, nor astonish us, nor transcend us. We can know God truly (Grudem, 151) How do the following verses confirm we can know things of God that are true? Jeremiah 9:23-24 John 17:3 21
Hebrews 8:11 1 John 5:20 Galatians 4:9 Philippians 3:10 1 John 2:3 1 John 2:13 1 John 4:8 We will increase in the knowledge of God for eternity What do we learn from Colossians 1:10? Read Grudem s last full paragraph under the heading We can never fully understand God, beginning with If we ever wished, p. 151. What is your response to this truth? 22