Knowing God

In these studies we look at the multi-faceted Biblical concept of God. These studies are barely an introduction to this topic, for here we endeavour to speak of him who is eternal and infinite. Here we seek to understand something of him who is beyond human understanding.

Yet we can look and speak and understand, because the God whom we are studying is the God who speaks. As Francis Schaeffer has indicated in the title of one of his books, ‘He is there and he is not silent’.

We can know God because he has revealed himself in creation.

We can know God because he has revealed himself in and through the history of Israel.

We can know God because he has come to us and dwelt among us and talked to us in his Son, Jesus Christ.

We can know God because he has given us his written word, the Bible, which affirms each of the above, and which is confirmed by each of the above.

We can know God, through the totality of these four ways, because he, in an act of indescribable mercy and compassion, has regenerated us by his Spirit, giving us spiritual life where once there was spiritual death, giving us sight where once there was spiritual blindness, giving us understanding where once there was ignorance, giving us a teachable heart where once there was the hardness of stone. Not only this, but this awesome God also comes to us and makes us his dwelling place.

So here we stand, here we study, here we think and question, knowing that the quest to know and understand God is not a pointless quest but a quest with an attainable goal, for we are not alone. We come to this study totally dependent on God: Father, Son and Spirit to teach us of himself.