The past week I’ve been reflecting on our ability to know God. Recently a Christian thinker and vicor in the Church of God suggested God is unknowable. Well, I wrote this post nearly 8 years ago during a “crisis of knowing,” and I hope it comforts you as much as it did me then and continues to comfort me even still.

The Modern Era (philosophical, not technological) was defined as the Age of Reason, in part, because of a cleverly concocted phrase by René Descartes: cogito ergo sum, “I think therefore I am.” In the face of the epistemological (how we know, and how we know that we know) conundrum of doubt and certainty, Modern thinkers tried to eliminate (or better, lessen the threat of) these twin threats in two ways: 1) elevating mind/reason through the scientific method; and 2) centering the knowing squarely on the individual man. The only thing Man could be certain of was himself and his ability to reason with his own mind. From that self, through engaging his mind and reason, he could know everything outside himself; knowledge begins with the individual’s mind, and works itself outward through the scientific method.

Postmoderns, however, reject a mind/reason centered explanation of our ability to know because outside stimulus can influence our mind and the tools our mind uses to reason (all of our senses: smell, taste, sight, sound, touch) are failable, thus casting doubt on mans ability to know purely through his own mind and reason. Man, however, isn’t removed from the equation, his reason is replaced by his experience. While doubt is actually elevated in the process, we can know because we can feel and experience. But in the face of this individualized experience, truth is once again relegated to the individual. No one, transcendent, knowable Truth Truth Story can exist, because my personal experience dictates and defines truth that story.

Where is this coming from you ask?

I want to confess that I have been attacked in the past few days by Doubt, the Enemy’s crafty minion that began this whole bloody thing called sin back at the start of Creation. Don’t worry, this wasn’t a huge crisis of faith or anything, but was a spiritual attack. While examining and researching postmodernism and beginning to reject much of intellectual and philosophical modernism, I began to doubt and question our ability to know, particularly the reality of God. Especially after reading several things by Emerging Church leaders like Doug Pagitt and Brian McLaren (which I believe have been severely misunderstood and misconstrued, and who are truthful and good), I began to wonder whether we can really know anything about God with certainty, especially in the face of hundreds of denominational versions of Truth.

But this evening, God called me into a run to, I believe, give me some Words from Himself for me and you. He spoke this verse from the ancient Book of Deuteronomy as a reminder of the fact that we can in fact know:

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. Deuteronomy 29:29

What was even more amazing was a single sentence that God spoke to me that countered “I think therefore I am” and affected me as much as “salvation by grace through faith” affected Martin Luther:

Unlike moderns and postmoderns, we begin with God. We begin with a Creator who created with purpose, meaning, and design. He did not create for the fun of it. No, he created our reality on purpose, with purpose. Even more so, He purposefully created Man for the purpose of existing with Himself in an eternal relationship defined by love. Thus, if God created this reality with purpose, it must be possible (and I would say extremely probable) that He purposefully revealed himself to that creation. In designing Man on purpose, for purpose, God would’ve had to have revealed Himself on purpose, to share His purpose.

The things revealed are found in the biblical narrative, a collection of ancient texts, poems, and letters inspired by God for the purpose of revealing Himself and His purpose to Man on purpose. And because God revealed His purpose to Man on purpose, I can know…not with certainty (as in the absolute, propositional sense), but with confidence.

But HOW do we know? That must wait for another post, another night.

be His. know Him.
jeremy