Knowing God - Part 7

The previous posts have focused on getting to know God through the most effective and reliable means, the Word of God (Part 2). The Bible includes multiple facets that each give insight into what God is like. God is revealed through His various names (Part 3). God is made known in the Bible through overtly stated characteristics as well as through characteristics revealed in the stories of His dealings with men (Part 4). God's character is demonstrated through His answers to prayer (Part 5). God is further revealed through worship and the influence of others (Part 6). While the authority of these Biblically-inspired aspects cannot be matched, God does not limit His self-revelation to the pages of Scripture. I want to consider two extra-Biblical vehicles for knowing God - nature and personal experience.

God reveals Himself through nature. "The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge" (Psalm 19:1-2). One cannot objectively and reasonably view creation without being exposed to truth about God. Following are several aspects of God's nature that nature highlights.

First, God is eternal. For God to have created the heavens and the earth, He must have existed before they did. Since all things were made by the direct act of God, He existed before all things. (Genesis 1:1, Psalm 90:2)

Second, God is self-sufficient. The fact that He existed through eternity past without the heavens and earth means that He did not need them. Even now He does not need them. The earth depends on God, rather than the opposite. (Psalm 50:12, Acts 17:25)

Third, God is complex. After millennia of study, man still does not fully understand God's creation. Whether it be the vastness of space or the intricacies of human DNA, man keeps on discovering as long as he keeps on seeking knowledge. Man cannot plumb the depths of the systems that God has developed. (Psalm 139:14)

Fourth, God is powerful. God created everything out of nothing, and He did so by merely speaking it into existence. He holds the planetary system in place and provides for the needs of every creature. (Psalm 33:6, Colossians 1:17, Psalm 104:27)

Fifth, God is wise. He created the galaxies with such precision that they do not crash or fall apart. He created the earth with just the right characteristics to support life. He developed all the systems of the human body. If evolution were true, every bit of life would have died off long before it developed the systems necessary to sustain life. (Jeremiah 51:15, Job 38-41)

Sixth, God is orderly. Creation is predictable. There is tremendous consistency in the planetary orbits, eclipses, tides, seasons, and so forth. The earth is filled with systems - the solar system, the water cycle, the planting cycle, the food chain, the migration of birds, the digestive system, the circulatory system, etc. Scientists continually discover mathematical precision in things like number of bananas in a bunch, kernels on an ear of corn, and flight patterns of bees. (Genesis 1:31, Genesis 8:22, Psalm 104:13-14)

Seventh, God is sovereign. He created some creatures as beautiful as a peacock and others as plain as a crow. He made large elephants and tiny insects. He made powerful lions and vulnerable butterflies. He placed each one in the region of the world that He determined and designed. (Job 39:17, Psalm 104:18, Romans 9:20)

Eighth, God is creative and appreciative of beauty. The earth is filled with incredible variety, and each place has its own beauty. This mind-boggling variety exists in the plant and animal kingdoms as well as in geology. God made a world with the beauty of color and the singing of birds. Distinct animals, such as giraffes, kangaroos, lizards, octopuses, and many, many more, are uniquely designed to meet the challenges intrinsic to their habitat and biological makeup. (Proverbs 30:19, Genesis 1:31, Psalm 19:1)

Creation indeed declares the wonders of an amazing God. In and of itself nature does not declare the entire story, but it provides wonderful reinforcement for the truths revealed in the Bible. In addition to the Word of God and the wonders of nature, God also reveals Himself through His work in the lives of individual people. This revelatory channel of personal experience, while real and valuable, is also most susceptible to error and must be carefully restrained by the truth of the Bible.

I believe the key to safely learning what God is like from personal experience is establishing the correct starting point. Instead of looking at the particular circumstances or situations of one's life and asking, "What does this situation show me about the nature of God?" a believer must look first at the revealed nature of God and ask, "How can I see this quality of God illustrated in my life?"

As a believer matures and accumulates additional life experiences, he begins to perceive God's character in new ways and with fuller understanding than he had previously. The Christian's perspective, however, is always limited by his humanity. He cannot see the whole picture nor can he fully understand God's plan; these deficiencies can contribute to a wrong view of God when the believer does not by faith accept what God declares to be true of Himself.

Interestingly, the troubling circumstances over which believers stumble still reveal what God is like, but often a different characteristic than the believer perceives. For example, a trying situation that causes a believer to evaluate God as being unloving may in fact be revealing God's great wisdom. A focus on the Bible guards the believer from a wrong conclusion by reminding him that God cannot be unloving. God is who He is. Man's evaluations cannot change God's character, while the Bible can accurately reveal what God is like.

 

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." Romans 1:20 (NASB)