Knowing God
Introduction
When people reminisce about the
doctrine of revelation, they seek to know how God discloses Himself to mankind.
Revelation refers to how God is exposed or unveiled to mankind without their
knowledge. The usual understanding of revelation is actually a kind of
communication to human nature, either through actions or wording. The way God
unveils Himself to human beings may be on single occurrences, direct
performances or even take quite a long time to reveal His will to the people.
Indeed, revelation cannot be proved through scientific methods or logical
methods but only through God Himself, since it is a supernatural deed from God
(Hunter, 2011). It is only through God that the legitimacy of revelation is
known, His plans and the knowledge about Him. This is true from the words of
Jesus when He said that every thing is known by His father, it is only
responsibilities which have been handed to Him (Mathew 11:27).
Part 1: how the
doctrine of revelation reveals the issue of knowing God;
The process by which God reveals
Himself to human beings is dealt with under the Doctrine of Revelation. As noted earlier the truth of revelation is
from God only. Through Devine revelation (the work of the Holy Spirit) Jesus
came to be known to people as the son of God (Torrance, 2001). The foundations
of knowledge of God are laid by the scriptures; however He has done so outside
the scriptures as He did to Moses and Abraham. The scriptures and the presence
of Devine Holy Spirit strongly confirm somebody’s encounter with God and not
stallion nightmarish.
In theology, manifestation,
inspiration and illumination are the fundamental divisions in the doctrine of
revelation amongst other events like evangelism, preaching, and missionary
which at the same time appropriate God’s word. God controls the processes of
revelation which are out of reach by scientists and philosophers to proof Him
(Ecclesiastes 8:17) and that He is the treasury of His secrets (Deuteronomy
29:29). God is at liberty to unveil or not to unveil depending on His choice,
since His revelation is only made to exalt Him.
Through manifestation God
instigates the processes of unveiling Himself through actions. He may perform
miracles like the way He did in Mt. Carmel (1 Kings 18) or through spoken words
accompanied by a storm (Job 38). Those whom God intended to pass the message
could get the exact words/voice from Him but the participators only heard the
sound/thunderstorm as it was witnessed by Paul on his way to Damascus (Acts
9:3-8).
God’s manifestation to writers is
through inspiration. The inspired puts down what he sees or hears under the
power of the Holy Spirit who guides him on the projected understanding of the
signs. The processes of inspiration touch a wide area than just mere writing.
The wordings may be oral (to be written later) or texts places in canons of the
scripture. However the guiding arrow all through is the Holy Spirit; that the
originality and meaning of the words from God are maintained as intended by Him
(Migliore, 2004). Illumination is the final part in the process of revelation,
since the modern-day reader of the bible scrutinizes and makes an effort of
appropriating it as God’s Word. The Holy Spirit acts as the pilot to the reader
to grasp the full truth (John 16:13). From the scriptures, the Bible is like a
sword (Hebrews 4:12) which guides and protects the reader in the translation
and interpretation of various events in collaboration with God.
God also continued to unveil
Himself through prophets since He at one time told Amos that He could assign
him the duty of unsealing things to come by use of prophets (Amos 3:7). Prophesies
have always functioned to promises and fulfilling just as the Hebrews believed
that God always made and fulfilled His promises. That is why prophesies had the
complete meaning in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20).
According to the doctrine of Revelation, the
fundamental source of knowing God is the Bible. God has all through revealed Himself
in all the books of the Bible. The bible has provided enough evidence to stop
people relying on scientific and philosophical theories. God is wisdom and so the pre-eminence is to
follow Gods wisdom (Ecclesiastes 7:12). Jesus Christ came to this world to
teach people how to know God and save them from their evils by shining into
their hearts. The strength and salvation of men lies in knowing God (Isaiah
33:6).
The pursuit to know God these days
has been faced with many challenges. This is unlike the past when interaction
with the outside world was minimal. Many young people may choose to forego God’s
work of spreading the Gospel for other professional jobs. Besides, these
professions are more lucrative compared to working for God. The mass media has on
the other hand brought a lot of confusion to the young generations. Life images
presented on TVs leave most people wondering what is next in life and if there
in anything else different that they can do with their life. Romantic pictures on TVs and other mass media
have continued to cause confusion (Pittman, 2008). Therefore, the advices from
sermons, counselors and speeches lack application in real life situations. This
leaves even the genuine Christians confused on which way to go, or whom to follow.
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Part 2: weaknesses and
strengths of discovering the issue of knowing God through general revelation
(creation. natural knowledge) and human experience.
General revelation captures on
ideas of how God unveils Himself through natural courses. A number of scripture
passages justify the magnificence of God through nature. The existence of God
as a concept has strong (strengths) and weak points. In the books of Romans 1
and psalm 14 (among other books in the Bible), man is able to proof and
understand that there is God who is superior to him. Therefore failing to adore
Him means that human beings are lost in pools of sin. These are oblique
affirmations that man has the duty of accepting and living in God. However
these proofs have the weakness of not explaining who this real God is, and how we
become affiliated to Him. It fails to tell how our past failures in life have
not been addressed by Him and how He has not been able to surface our future
ambitions (Bickel & Jantz, 2004). Therefore according to the general revelation
we are only left to make interpretations on evidences based on our abilities on
the things around us. However emerging questions still ponder around people’s
minds especially when they view the scientific technologies on things like the
discovery of microscopes which aid in observing simple things like the cell. Designers
of complex scientific machines fail to comprehend God as the designer of such
things. Either way people always wonder about the beautiful things around them,
the beauty of the stars, the strength of tornados and even unchanging waters of
the oceans. The failure of general revelation to address all these limitations
can only be supported by special revelation, revelation from God which helps us
understand God’s nature.
References
Bickel,
B. & Jantz, S. (2004). Knowing God
One Hundred and One. New York: Harvest House Publishers.
Hunter,
J. (2011). Knowing God’s Secrets.
Fort Washington, PA: CLC Publications.
Migliore
L. D. (2004). Faith Seeking
Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology, Cambridge: Eerdmans
Publishing.
Pittman,
L. S. (2008). Attachment Issues,
Self-Esteem, and Sense of Symbolic Immorality. London: ProQuest.
Torrance,
F. T. (2001). Christian Doctrine of God, one Being Three
Persons. London: T&T Clark Ltd.
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