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OUR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
Howard Taylor.
1. Q. Can we know God? A. Yes, he wants us to know and love him, as he knows and loves us. This is why he created us and gave us life. It was for his pleasure that we were created. 2. Q. How can we know him? A. We know him when he speaks to us and we speak to him. This is how we know any person. But we cannot know a person we hate. There must be love between us. 3.Q. Does everyone love God? A. No, not now. Humankind has stopped trusting God. We have been proud and rebelled against him, and spoiled the world. So when God speaks to us, he tells us about our pride and rebellion, and tells us how to love him again. 4.Q. God is in heaven and we are in the world, so how does he speak to us? A. God began to speak to us through his chosen people Israel to whom he drew near revealing his will. God finally came among us in the person of his Son Jesus so that in him we might know God and call him Father Through the conception, birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, God has spoken to us revealing his heart of holy love. 5. Q. Is Jesus then the way God speaks to us? A. Yes, that is why Jesus is called the 'Word of God'. (a) He is the Son of God, so through him we know God. (b) He became a man and so through him we know about ourselves. (c) He is the very expression of the mind of God and therefore is the source of all the rational structure and beauty of the universe of nature. Knowledge of Christ thus inspires us to learn more of all that God has created. 6. Q. Jesus has gone back to his Father in heaven. How can God speak to us through Jesus since he is not with us anymore? A. He is with us still. Even though he went back to his Father, he still sends his Spirit to be with us. His Spirit is called 'the Holy Spirit' and many other names such as 'the Spirit of Truth'. The Holy Spirit is the bond by which we on earth are joined to Jesus Christ. 7. Q. Are all people in Christ through the Holy Spirit? A. Christ certainly became one with all people but many resist the Spirit and do not put their trust in Him and so do not really know God as Father. 8. Q. How does the Holy Spirit work in our lives? A. When we read the Bible or hear it explained in preaching, the Holy Spirit opens our hearts to receive Christ. If we then do not resist the Spirit, he will give us Christ, and only then will we really understand the Bible. 9.(a) Q. What is the Bible? A. The Bible is the record, in story, poetry, song, preaching, prayer and letters of how God works out his purpose to create and redeem the world in Christ. Some of the Bible is just long lists of names, long descriptions of the place of worship, or geographical places. Such parts of the Bible demonstrate to us that the human writers were very careful to preserve their historical or descriptive accuracy. This is important for us but those parts of the Bible are not so obviously helpful as other parts. But, inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Bible was written either by those who saw what God did and heard what he spoke, or by their companions The Bible is the marvellous true story of God's relationship with his people in whom he works out his purpose for the world. It begins beyond the beginning of space and time and ends beyond the end of history in eternal glory (though its story takes place on earth amongst us). It is a very human story in which every aspect of human character (both good and bad) has its place. Yet in and through this very 'human' book we hear the Word of God addressing us from beginning to end. No book on Christian belief can be any substitute for our continuing encounter with God and ourselves in the Bible story. The purpose these Qu estions and Answers is only to help the Bible reader to begin to understand the wonderful harmony and message of the Bible rather than just be bewildered by its sheer size and variety.
9(b). Q. Some sections of the Bible describe the violent invasion of the Promised Land by the people of Israel destroying the pagan nations all around. Such violent invasions should not be in the Bible should they? A. We know from many sources as well as the Bible itself that all those pagan nations were engaging in massive child sacrifice. Israel was warned that if ever it followed these terrible practices, it too would be uprooted from the Promised Land. That is something that actually happened later in history. This is something we should take into consideration even if we are puzzled by some things we read. 10. Q. Do the church and our own Christian experience add new truths to the truth of Scripture? A. No, all that God wants to say to us he has said in the coming of Christ to the world. The Bible is the complete record of that. However, we cannot understand the Bible properly without being part of the worshipping community that goes back in teaching, fellowship, and worship to the apostles and prophets. All that the church teaches us about Christ and the gospel must be based on the Bible. REFERENCES 1. Eph. 1:12; Col. 1:10; 2 Pet. 1:3, 3:18; Hab. 2:14; Deut. 6:5,11:1; Ps. 31:23; Dan. 9:4; Matt. 22:37; 1 John 4:7; Ps. 5:1, 18:1; Rom. 8:28; Is. 65:18; Acts 17:24-28. 2. Heb. 1:1; Ex. 33:11, 34:34; 1 Sam. 3:9; Ps. 85:8. 3 .John 5:42; 2 Chron. 19:2; Ps. 139:21; John 15:23. 4. Heb. 1:1; Col. 2:3. 5. Heb. 1:1; John 1:1-3,14,17-18; Col. 1:15-20, 2:3; Lk. 22:70,71; Acts 3:26. 6. John 16:12-16; 1 Cor. 6:17; Eph. 3:16,17; Matt. 28:20; Gen. 1:2; Matt. 3:16; Rom. 1:4, 8:9,15; Gal. 4:6; Phil. 1:19; Heb. 10:29; 1 Pet. 4:14; Rev. 11:11. 7. Acts 7:51; John 1:10, 17:25; 1 Cor. 1:21; 1 John 2:4, 3:1, 4:8. 8. John 16:7-11; 2 Cor. 4:6; John 8:43; Eph. 1:13; 1 Cor. 12:13; John 14:16-20; 2 Pet. 1:20,21; 2 Tim. 3:15,16; John 5:39, 20:31. 9(a). Ex. 32:15,16; Matt. 5:18; 1 Pet. 1:25; 2 Pet. 1:20,21; Acts 1:15,16,21,22; 2Tim. 3:15,16. 9(b) Joshua 6:16-17, 21-22. Leviticus 18:21-25, Deuteronomy 18:10, 2 Chronicles 28:3, 2 Kings 17, 17-18, Psalm 106: 37-38, Isaiah 57:5, Jeremiah 7:31. 10. Heb. 1:1-3; John 1:1-3,14; 2 Tim. 2:2; John 5:39, 20:31; 2 Pet. 3:14-18; Eph. 2:20; Rev. 22:18,19.
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