Anyone who does not think correctly about God can never think right about the Bible and Jesus. Without God revealing Himself to mankind we cannot know Him. We cannot prove God by comparing Him to us. God is not made in the image of man. God is not a product of man’s creation but rather man is the product of God’s creative powers.
God stands above man in every way in all things that pertain to both the physical and spiritual. We stand as the created and He stands as the Creator. God stands as the standard of authority and we must submit to that authority to be right. He stands as the giver of all physical and spiritual blessings and we are the recipients. The psalmist declared of God, “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” Psalm 8:3-4.
God is more than a projection of our mind. God is not the end product of a process of unaided reasoning. Man did not just create or mentally invent the concept of God and therefore he exists only in the minds of believers. In fact, philosophers, both theistic and infidel agree, that while the imagination may analyze, combine, compound, and modify ideas which are received through the senses, it cannot create any extra sensory ideas. Alexander Campbell in his debate with atheist Robert Owen made the argument for the existence of God:
- The idea of an Uncaused First Cause (God) had always been in the world. I.e. God is eternal.
- It did not originate through reason and could not through imagination.
- The concept of God must have come through communication between the Creator and the created.
- The conclusion therefore is man did not create or invent God in their own minds.
Man cannot find God on his own without communication. So, why has God communicated with man? One of the reasons God has communicated with humanity is otherwise no man could have ever known God nor of man’s lost condition. Man is ignorant of God and he is ignorant of his sin. Without God specific revelation to mankind, man could not have known God in the sense of understanding the spiritual matters that affect man and his salvation.
What was the purpose of Christ coming to this earth? To save sinners. See Luke 19:10; Romans 5:8. The purpose of Scriptures is to save, instruct, and equip us. See 2 Timothy 3:15-16. The Scripture is all sufficient, we have what we need. 1 Peter 1:3; Romans 1:16 (The remedy for man’s sin)
Man needs two things. Man that is ignorant of God and guilty of sin needs Revelation and Redemption. God both Speaks and Saves through His Word. He has revealed Himself to mankind in such a way whereby when we read the Scriptures we may understand what God’s will for man is. See Ephesians 3:3-4.
Is it possible to know God? YES! However, God cannot be known apart from His own revealing of Himself through the Scriptures. Man’s ignorance and guilt cannot be remedied without God’s revelation and redemption He has provided. Therefore, we can see the necessity of God revealing Himself to men in order for man to know Him and have the blessings of salvation.
-Jerry D. Sturgill
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