Can God Be Known?

I will take you as My people,

and I will be your God.

Then you shall know

that I am the LORD

your God who brings

you out from under

the burdens of

the Egyptians.

Exodus 6:7

     God in speaking through Moses to the children of Israel clearly makes known to them that He can be known. One way for the Israelites, God promised to lead them out from their burdens and by that means He could be known. Can we only know God by what He does for us? Is this the only way? Can God really be known? How? How does the mind proceed in forming the idea of a God? How do we know that God really is what we believe Him to be? There are so many ideas of God, who He is, what He is, how to approach Him, etc. In fact there are Pentecostals, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Anglican, Lutheran, Islam, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Buddhism, and many more, all saying that they know God and worship God. We who are followers of the Bible, and believers in the God of the Bible are sustained that God can be known from the Bible itself. In Psalms 76:1a, it is recorded that: "In Judah God is known" (Psalm 76:1). Isaiah the prophet predicts: "For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9b). According to the Apostle Paul even pagans, those steeped in heathenism can know and do have the knowledge of God: "...because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. for since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and godhead, so that they are without excuse., because, although they knewGod, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened....And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting" (Romans 1:19-21, 28). This knowledge of God being so important then how are we to understand what is meant when the Bible says that God can be known? Does this mean that all that can be known of God can be known? Can all things concerning God be discerned by man? No! We cannot know all the things that are true of God. 

     Here then is where problems arise, that in man there is an ability that the nature of God can be fully understood and determined as any object of knowledge as taught and proposed by many philosophers. It is these philosophers that have clouded this subject with their "higher" learning and knowledge who propose from their viewpoint that God can be known. We find that theory, or ideology is prevalent in today's society. Many follow the idea that God can be known and in some cases He can be known, according to them, by the fact that they too are a god. Mormonism is an example of people who believe that they are to become gods, and that this is the role and destiny of man. The philosopher Spinoza gave this proposition; the essential and eternal infinite god can be known in all its ideas that are involved and his being adequate and perfect. This proposition is Platonic and  many philosophers do, they follow Plato and his theories. Hegel, another philosopher states that God is, only so far as He is known. For Hegel sin is that when man denies that He can be known. Cousin, another of men who are philosophic and have laid into man their ideas, agrees with Hegel in that God exists to us only is no far as He is known.  In all these propositions man can only know God if he himself is a god, or God. This is in no way taught in Scripture and the Church. God can be known in as much as He has revealed Himself to man. The Bible never teaches that man can become a god, and in being a god can know fully and comprehend fully, God. 


     As this is the beginning of this study and I have opened it with these propositions, propositions that have been so infiltrated into the schools, and even in some "so-called" Christian churches, inasmuch as this has happened this beginning is designed to open your minds and to deepen your faith in God. Subjects that concern this knowledge are: the inconceivableness of God, that God is incomprehensible, and that our knowledge of God is partial. Then to answer the question: "How do we come to know God?" 


I counsel you to buy from Me
     gold refined in the fire,
that you may be rich: and white garments,
      that you may be clothed,
that the shame of your nakedness
     may not be revealed;
and anoint your eyes with eye salve,
    that you may  see.
                       Revelation 3:18
God Rebukes and Chastens Those He Loves


Richard L. Crumb