Knowing Your God

"If man is not made for God, why is he happy only in God?  If man is made for God, why is he opposed to God?" says Blaise Pascal, quoted by Billy Graham, who calls this our "dilemma." If you've ever felt that God is keeping a low profile like the psalmist in Psalm 89:46, "How long, O LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever?"  "...He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him": (Heb. 11:6).  Francis Schaeffer said that Christianity is "about the God who is there."  If you have wondered about this, read on.

Sometimes God seems MIA or missing in action; even Job replied, "Oh that I knew where I might find Him" (Job 23:3). Also in Job:  "Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs in the night?"(Cf. Job 35:10)   We all have at sometimes wondered of the "whereabouts" of God, but James says, "Draw nigh unto God, and He will draw nigh unto thee" (James 4:8).  It is our fault if we don't find Him.  Isaiah says that God conceals Himself, though He reveals Himself:  "Truly You are a God who has been hiding Yourself" (Isaiah 45:15).   God will be found by those who are not even seeking Him too, according to Isaiah 65:1 which says, "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me: I was found by those who did not seek me."  God doesn't take triflers seriously if you want to really know God.  Your testimony must be:  "I was lost, but now am found."   We do not find God in reality, He finds us!  No one can come close to God and remain unchanged!  "Seek the LORD, and live..." (Amos 5:6).

I quote Daniel 11:32 as follows:  "...but the people who know their God will display strength and take action [other translations render it:  do exploits or firmly resist him, i.e., the opposition]."  To know God is to love God and the highest calling we have is to know God:  "...but let him who boasts, boast in this, that he understands and knows Me..." (Jeremiah. 9:24).  God will authenticate Himself to you because God is no man's debtor.   When we find God--and as Pascal said, "I would not have found Him, had He not first found me,"  We must be prepared for an encounter and reckoning.  How can we know God?  First, we must seek Him with our whole heart-- "Prepare to meet thy God," says Amos 4:12.  This is always true; we never know when or how we will meet and confront our God.

Let us look at the wisdom of Job:  "Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace!" (Job 22:21).  It wasn't until Job actually acknowledged God that he was truly humbled and realized his self-righteousness.  Hosea's theme is to know the Lord, even though we are backslidden:  "Let us know the LORD, let us press on to know the LORD" (Hosea 6:3).  God's main peeve against Israel was that there was "no faithfulness or kindness or knowledge of God in the land" (Hosea 4:1).  What is true worship?  Read Hosea 6:6 which I quote:  "For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings."

To know God we must seek Him with our whole heart.  Jeremiah 29:13 verifies this:  "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart."  Isaiah offers similar advice:  "Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near" (Isaiah 55:6).  Hosea says "...For it is time to seek the LORD..." (Hosea 10:12).  In seeking God, He wants us to acknowledge Him and His presence.  One of God's names is YHWH Shammah, or "the LORD who is there, (Ezek. 48:35). Paul says to the Corinthians:  "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells is in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16).

Some people think that everyone is on a mad quest to find God! In reality, they are trying to get the benefits without the Benefactor!  God says that there "is none that seeks Him" (Rom. 3:11).  The search for God begins at salvation, according to R. C. Sproul, not before salvation, because God finds us, who are lost sheep.  Jonathan Edwards proclaimed seeking God as the main business of the Christian life.

The promise that He will be found is in Matthew 7:7 said by Jesus Himself:  "....seek and you shall find...."  "The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him":  (Lamentations 3:25).  Here are two promises:  "If you seek Him He will let you find Him." and "O LORD, You have not forsaken those who seek You"  (Psalm 9:10b).  A warning to the wise is sufficient:  "He did evil because he did not set his heart on seeking the LORD" (2 Chr. 12:14).  Even Hezekiah, the godliest king of Judah, sought the LORD in 2 Chronicles chapter 20 when threatened by Assyria's armies.

If you put God in a box, you will not find Him; you are restricting Him, like saying:  "I  just like to think of God as the Great Spirit in the Sky or as the Heavenly Father, or the Man Upstairs--well do you see what I mean?  We must be willing to acknowledge God for who He is and that means accepting the truth no matter where it leads--you will not ever find the truth if you are not willing to go where the facts lead and admit you could be wrong.

The highest calling we can have is to know God and the most rewarding relationship is our one with Him--if we pass this on to our children in passing the torch we have done our duty as a generation. Knowing God makes you strong in your faith and able "to do exploits" and not falter in faith.  The ultimate goal of knowing God is to be like Him or to be sanctified.  Jesus said, that He came "not to be served, but to serve" (Cf. Mark 10:45)  It is the same with us, in that we will have a servant's heart and realize that true greatness is not in how many people serve you, but in how many people you serve.

God is both transcendent and immanent (distant or removed and near):  "'Am I a God who is near,' declares the LORD, 'And not a God far off?'  'Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?' declares the LORD.  'Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?' declares the LORD." God is not bound by the time-space continuum and confined to our dimensions.

The only relationship that fully satisfies and fully rewarding is one with our Maker (we are made for Him and can only find happiness in Him); and we are like a vacuum that only God can fill, according to Blaise Pascal, and Augustine also said that our hearts have a need that only God can satisfy [paraphrased].   Paul said to the Philippians:  "... that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection..." (Phil. 3:10).   The ultimate questions are:  "How big is your God?"  The answer is that to know Him is to love Him!  The biggest challenge you can give is to live for something bigger than yourself and your concept of God affects this--don't think small, but aim high with God on your side!
Soli Deo Gloria! 

We Are All Theologians

"You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine" (Titus 2:1).
"Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding; those who complain will accept doctrine"  (Isaiah 29:24).
"They were astonished at His doctrine: for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes [who footnoted and quoted the authorities]"  (Matt. 7:28,29).
"They devoted themselves to the apostles' doctrine, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer"  (Acts 2:42).
"Watch your life and doctrine closely..."  (1 Tim. 4:16).  BOLDFACE MINE.

Bear in mind that teaching is the same as doctrine, and theology or systematic theology is an organization of doctrines.  You cannot escape doctrine or you commit spiritual suicide.  Read on to see why.

Theology is not an abstract science, but the queen of sciences!   Theology is literally the study of God, while Christology is literally the study of Christ.  If you don't abide in the doctrine of Christ you don't have God (cf. 2 John 9).  If you believe in false doctrine you are a heretic if it is a major  (affirming the deity of Christ is a prerequisite for salvation,) it is a  necessary doctrine--we need to learn discernment and be orderly in our study and benefit from the scholarship of our church fathers--we don't have to start from scratch every generation---the church is Semper reformanda, or always reforming or improving; likewise our doctrine is Semper reformanda.   People sometimes refer to theologians in a derogatory manner, but I want to present them in a new light:

Where would our church be without the church fathers Athanasius, the Father of Orthodoxy, (or right doctrine), and Augustine the greatest theologian, arguably, that lived in the first millennium of church history?  We owe a debt of gratitude to giants such as John Calvin, who wrote Institutes of the Christian Religion, and Jonathan Edwards who began the Great Awakening.  To put things in perspective:  the well-known theologian Karl Barth was asked what was the deepest truth he had come across and he replied, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."  Now, I know theologians get a bad rap, but here's a case on their behalf, since I have been called a theologian myself too:

To quote my favorite theologian, R. C. Sproul:  "To reject theology is to reject knowledge, this is not an option for the Christian."  Also, we cannot reject theology per se, just because there exists bad theology.  "To reject all theology just because there exists bad theology is to commit spiritual suicide," says Sproul.  Theologian is not known to be a spiritual gift because, I believe, we are all potential theologians clerically and actual practical theologians by definition.  We don't avoid theology because we have a distaste for controversy either--we are to avoid godless controversy, not necessary ones.  What if Martin Luther had never nailed his Ninety-Five Theses on the Wittenberg Castle church (All Souls Church) in 1517 to initiate the Reformation?  The spirit of the Protestant is this:  I dissent, I disagree, I protest. Sproul goes on to say that you can have sound doctrine without a sound life, but not a sound life without sound doctrine--think about that!

In other words, you can excel in the study of doctrine and not know the Lord--it can all be in your head!  The presence of doctrine is necessary, but not sufficient--you must add the Holy Spirit.  Asserting that theology is not important is tantamount to saying:  "It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you are sincere."  However, I want to stress, that as Protestants, we are not at the mercy of church doctrine and have the right to interpret Scripture for ourselves, but with the right comes the responsibility to interpret it right and that means eliminating subjectivism.  We cannot fabricate our own truths because no "Scripture is of any private interpretation" (2 Pet. 1:20).

"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine" (2 Tim. 4:3).  I have just experienced this first hand at a Bible study tonight when the host said it was doctrine itself that turned him off to Christianity and he will have nothing to do with it.  What is doctrine, but teaching:  "All Scripture is profitable for doctrine..." (2 Tim. 3:16).  We all have our viewpoints and way of interpreting the Bible.  Doctrine in itself is a good thing but not an end in itself, but a means to an end and we are warned not to call good evil in Isaiah 5:20.  Knowledge of the Bible is necessary to spiritual health:  "You know not the Scriptures, nor the power of God"  (Matt. 22:29).

No one is perfectly objective except God, but have a school of thought or doctrine that we adhere to.  Examples are Arminian, charismatic, evangelical, Wesleyan, Reformed or Calvinistic, Catholic, ecumenical, and semi-Pelagian, among others.  There are the "freewillers" and the people who believe in predestination and election--that our destiny is ultimately in God's hands.  We all develop a system of doctrine and it grows as we mature in Christ.  One of the most basic doctrines we accept as Christians is the doctrine of the Trinity--so we are Trinitarians!   2 Tim. 4:3 can be translated:  "...Men will bail out theologically."

You are committing spiritual suicide and will never grow up if you ignore doctrine per se.  I'm not saying it is our goal to argue or debate doctrine, but we are to "study to show ourselves approved unto God, a workman that needs not be ashamed."  We are trying to catch people ultimately and win them over, not win an argument. Why do we want to know God?  To know Him is to love Him!   There is a direct correlation between our knowledge of God and our love for Him.  Be not deceived: there is a difference between knowledge of God and knowledge about God.

Systematic theology is an orderly view or presentation of the doctrines of the Bible.  Do you believe Jesus is God--that is basic doctrine and fundamental theology or "study of God" literally.  The childish believer or immature one balks at learning the deep things of God.  The man of God must hold the deep things of the word with a clear conscience (cf. 1 Tim. 3:9).  The milk of the Word is for the baby believer, but solid food or meat is for the mature or the one who discerns good and evil (cf. Heb. 5:14).

The point I'm trying to make is that we are all theologians, it's just what kind of theologian we are! You cannot escape theology or a system of theology--we all understand the Bible in a different light and one part of the body cannot say to the other that he isn't needed.  We need theologians and we are all theologians and this is no contradiction because the word has different nuances of meaning.   Theology is necessary to maturity, but not sufficient.  We can just study theology and not apply it and it will leave us cold.  We need theology but we also need to go beyond it so that we don't put God in a box and say, "I like to think of God as a ...."   We need to apply it and use it to interpret the Word.  If you believe you are saved and cannot lose your salvation you will interpret the Bible in a completely different light than if you aren't sure of your salvation or if you think you can lose it.          Soli Deo Gloria! 

Importance Of Knowing God

"There is no mercy or truth, or knowledge of God in the land"  (cf. Hosea 4:6).  

I'm not writing as one who has the inside track, has had special revelations or visions or has superior training, but I have studied the subject enough to arrive at some conclusions, mostly thankful to J. I. Packer's book Knowing God.

There's such a thing as knowing someone intimately, and knowing facts about them or knowing about them versus knowing of them.  God is so good that to know Him is to love Him, and knowing Him makes us want to love Him and be like Him.

Anyone who says he knows God (especially on the basis of some experience) and does not obey Him is a liar, according to Scripture (not me).   Knowledge of God, not knowledge about God, is a means to an end and we must apply what we know to relate to our relationship with Him--we long for more than just knowing about Him, which would be like having a theoretical cognition.  We find God (and Pascal says he would not have found Him, had He not first found him), and this is the main pursuit of believers, by seeking His face and searching for Him with our whole heart, mind and soul, and strength.

Our goal is knowing Christ personally, which is eternal life (cf. John 17:3),  and not moral perfection, which is only a side effect or result.   Life's major pursuit is seeking God and the first step is to recognize how little we know Him and need some answers and guidance.  Packer says, "A little knowledge of God is better than a lot of knowledge about God."  Note, knowing God doesn't excuse us from knowing about Him.  The goal, I reiterate, is to know God, not knowing ourselves, as the Greeks would say, "Know thyself."   Hosea says, "Let us know God, let us press on to know Him."  God's peeve or controversy with man is that he doesn't know Him ("And they do not know Me," says Jeremiah of God).   God says through the prophet Jeremiah, "Let not a man boast of his wisdom ... but that he knows Me."   This is a command according to 2 Peter 3:18 is as follows:   "Grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ."


Job says, "Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace"  (cf. Job 22:21).  We do good deeds to grow:  "Bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God"  (cf. Col. 1:10).  Titus 1:16 warns of those who profess to know Him but deny Him by their deeds.

Why know God?

 1)  To know Him is to love Him.
 2)  Shapes morals and ethics.
 3)  It affects our response to life.
 4)  It gives strength in temptation.
 5)  It keeps us faithful.
 6)  It enhances our worship.
 7)  It determines our lifestyle.
 8)  It gives meaning to our life and religion.
 9)  It sensitizes our conscience.
10)  It stimulates hope.
11) It enables us to know what to respect and reject.
12) Is the FOUNDATION.

Five motives to know God:

1)  It gives us a desire to be like Him (Jer. 9:24).
2)   It reveals the truth about ourselves (Isa. 6:5).
3)  It enables us to interpret our world (Dan. 4:33-35).
4)  It makes us strong and secure (Dan. 11:32).
5)   It introduces us to the dimension of God and eternal life (John 17:3).

Loving God is the ultimate response, according to Chuck Swindoll.

He lists four things we cannot apprehend and never probably will:  Trinity (His persona); glory (personhood); Sovereignty (plan); and majesty (position).

What are we going to do with our knowledge of God?

--Do we become conceited?
--Do we see others as poor specimens?
--Does it make us toxic intoxicated and sour, as if not applied?
--Do we turn knowledge about God into the knowledge of God?
--Does it remain theoretical or become practical?
--Does it lead us to lead others to God and know the more?
--Do we meditate (a lost art) on the truths?
Paul said in Phil. 3:10:  "I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection...."

Two caveats:  We can know a lot about Him as did ever 17th-century gentleman as a hobby, and not know much of Him at all--even getting A's in theology;  we can know a lot about godliness and be religious and not know God--it is not about being good or talking "God-talk", but being alive in Christ.  Christ didn't come to make bad men good, but dead men alive, says someone.

There are four evidences of knowing Christ according to J. I. Packer:

1)  Exhibiting great energy for God (Dan. 11:32).
2)  Having great thoughts of God (Dan. 4:26; 9:4,7,9,14).
3)  Having great boldness for God (Acts 5:29; 20:24).
4)  Having great contentment in God (Dan. 3:16-18).

Soli Deo Gloria!

Loving Jesus

Every believer will tell you that he loves Jesus--in fact, there is a biblical curse on everyone who doesn't. But how do you know that you love Jesus? You will love the brethren and your brother whom you can see. Anyone who looks down or despises his brother or hates him cannot love Jesus. If we love the Lord we will love the Word. We will also have a burden for souls.

To know Him is to love Him and our love grows as we grow in Christ. Our goal is to fall in love with Jesus. Jesus said, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." Obedience is the key and the test. Loving Jesus without knowing Him would be mere sentimentality and that is not the goal. Loving Jesus is the ultimate response to knowing Him. We must turn our knowledge about Him to knowledge of Him by applying the Word and being a doer of the Word.  As Richard of Chichester said, "To know Him more clearly, to follow Him more nearly, to love Him more dearly"this goal is ours to aim for.   Soli Deo Gloria!

Knowing God

J. I. Packer wrote a book entitled Knowing God and talks about the difference between knowledge about God and knowledge of God.  We don't just believe in God, but believe God!  We can know a lot of facts about someone and yet not even know them at all. When God supposedly described Eve to Adam, don't you think he wanted to meet her and get to "know" her?  We can know a lot about godliness and still not know God. We may have simply memorized the dance of the pious or going through the motions.  Even the ability to say long prayers can be hypocritical and deceiving.

We know God by having a living and vital relationship with Him. To know Him is to love Him. To know Him is eternal life itself. We can know the Bible, or many Christians and still scarcely know our Lord. It is more than curiosity or a desire to know all the answers, it is a thirst for the living God, to love the truth, to meditate in His temple. We are meant to know God and if we want to boast, it should be that we know the Lord (Jer. 9:24 says, "Let him who boasts, boast that he understands and knows Me...").

Packer lists four propositions that show knowledge of God: Great energy for God; great boldness for God; great contentment in God; and great thoughts of God. Daniel 11:32 says that "those who know their God shall be strong and do exploits." God is incomprehensible because He is infinite and we can only know Him as He reveals Himself to us. He has revealed Himself to us in His Son. To know Jesus is to know God and to be saved is to know Jesus. Scholars seem to know a lot about God and theologians can make you think you are ignorant, but just being an enthusiast for the Bible can give you a more true knowledge of what matters than all the mumble-jumble gobbledygook. We can experience God and He wants us to know Him intimately, but we must be willing.

Knowing about God is not wrong per se, because it is a necessary precondition to knowing Him, so we must not look down on knowledge, for it has its place. Rejecting knowledge is not an option, but it is a means to the end of ultimately knowing God.

Packer says that a little knowledge of God is worth more than a great deal of knowledge about God. Sometimes we really think we know a person, but don't--it is necessary to have a relationship with that person and not just know facts. Just being able to discuss Bible themes or religious topics in itself does not mean we know our God. Our prayer life, our witness, our testimony, our fellowship are better barometers of our relationship. We can have a good knowledge of God with doctrine and we can have little knowledge of God without doctrine; we can also have knowledge of God with little doctrine--our doctrine need not be impeccably correct to be holy.

Let's not be content just to be theologically correct at the expense of living faith and the love that is so important. Being good at theology might be a gift, but it is no sure sign of spiritual maturity. A Christian can get A's in theology and be very immature (don't confuse gifting with maturity, because one can use his gift without being mature).  Some believers are more "blow than go," and are like backseat drivers or "armchair quarterbacks," thinking they know more than they do. "If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know as ye ought to know." (cf. 1 Cor. 8:2)

In the final analysis, it is not so important how well we know God, but that He knows us. (cf. Gal. 4:9 says, "But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God...."  Remember how important it is for Christ to know us: He will say to them "...I never knew you...." On the other hand, anyone who says he knows God because he has had some experience, or boasts that he knows "someone" (like knowing people in "high places") and does not obey God is a liar. Religious experiences and ecstasies are no guarantee of knowing God. Many religious mystics have religious existential "encounters."

Remember: We were made to know God with resultant love for Him. Jesus summed it up well when He said, "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" (cf. John 17:3).   Soli Deo Gloria!