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How can we know God?

I am concerned with personal knowledge of God. It is a kind of knowledge that is based on acquaintance. In a sense, acquaintance knowledge generally has perceptual element. However, God, as invisible, is not perceptually accessible. So, if the invisible God, who exists, tries to reveal himself, either we do not understand what he tries to reveal or there is a way to somehow understand what he tries to reveal. Of course, it is possible that there is a God who tries to reveal himself and we do not understand what he tries to reveal. If such possibility is in actuality the case, then reflections on God are pretty much useless. It means that this God is unaware of the fact that he is doomed to fail in his attempts to reveal.

Christianity is a religion that assumes that the invisible God tries to reveal himself and there is a way to somehow understand what he tries to reveal. Although God is invisible, God’s revelatory acts in human history are visible. So, his revelatory acts in human history are perceptually accessible. If personal knowledge of God is based on acquaintance and acquaintance knowledge generally has perceptual element, then acquaintance with God’s revelatory acts in human history is the key in the development of our personal knowledge of God who tries to reveal himself. From a Christian standpoint, God’s major revelatory acts are captured by the history of Israel, the life and teachings of Jesus, and the works of the Holy Spirit through the ministries of the church. Whether we like it or not, there’s something spooky about the history of Israel. As a small nation, it continues to have contemporary relevance in world politics (not just in the study of world religions). The vastness of the scope of the influence of Jesus and Christianity in human history is astonishing. If there is a God who tries to reveal himself, it is somehow plausible to believe that the Christian religion is on the right track in assuming that such aspects of human history capture God’s major revelatory acts. From a Christian standpoint, personal knowledge of God must involve an acquaintance with his major revelatory acts in human history, which are primarily preserved in the Bible.

In addition, a personal knowledge of God involves the dialectic between divine leadership and human obedience. Major biblical figures (like Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jacob, Joseph, Jesus, Paul, and others) develop a personal knowledge of God through their acts of obedience in response to what they considered in faith to be God’s leading in their lives. Somehow, in the ongoing process of discerning (by faith) the leading of God in our lives and acting (by faith) in obedience to God’s leading, a personal knowledge of God emerges or develops. It is a kind of personal knowledge that gives rise to a deeper commitment to God and to the vision of his kingdom.

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