From The Presbyterian Banner: February, 1996.

Some might want to nominate questions like, 'What is the meaning of life?' or 'What is the chief purpose of mankind?' However, I would like to suggest to you that the most basic question of all is, 'Is there a God?' There is a second question which follows on from the first, 'How can we know about God, if one exists?'

The answers to these questions should govern our attitudes to everything else, including the questions regarding the meaning of life, and so on. If there is not a God, then there is no meaning to anything, for, if everything came into existence through accident, then there is no reason at all why we should follow one course of action rather than another - no reason, that is, except our own self-interest, or our fancy of the moment.

Is There A God?

Let us look briefly at the first of these questions, 'Is there a God?' How can we tell?

The atheist assumes that the human brain, unaided, can answer this question, and that the answer is that there is no God!

The agnostic claims that it is impossible to tell - and there is a small grain of truth in this position. It is impossible for the unaided human brain to tell if there is a God, for such a God would be so far different from us that we could not discover anything about him by ourselves.

Human beings are limited in their ability to gather information by the very fact of their humanity: by the fact that, while possessing a soul, they are physical beings of flesh and blood. Science, of all sorts, deals with the acquiring of knowledge, but it can only acquire knowledge about the physical universe in which we live. We are equipped with five senses - sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell - which enable us to relate to physical things, and this is what science does. However, there are many things about which our senses cannot tell us: for example, our emotions and feelings; and any good scientist will recognise this limitation. Now, God is not physical, so physical means cannot tell us anything about him. God is Spirit - and we have no means of relating to the realm of spirits. We do have a spiritual side to us, but we are not equipped to measure or examine anything spiritual. Furthermore, God is a unique Spirit, totally different from any other spirit, so that not even the angels would be able to find out about him by themselves. Of course, there are those who would say that we can employ our brains, and simply work out by pure logic whether there is a God. However, our brains are also physical, with all the limitations that this implies. They are certainly not of infinite capacity - as most of us are only too aware - and so we cannot expect them to comprehend all truth. In fact, the one thing that they ought to be able to reason out is that we simply cannot find about God without some outside help!

God's Revelation

This brings us to our second question, 'How can we know about God?'

Indeed, it brings part of the answer as well. The only way in which we can find out anything about God is if he chooses to tell us! This is what we call revelation. God is Spirit, but he is not limited in any way. We are confined to the physical universe - he is not confined anywhere! We cannot reach out to him in our own power, but he can reach out to us and tell us things that we could find out in no other way. He can tell us about the past, he can tell us about the present (and there are many things about the present that we cannot understand unless he teaches us), he can tell us about the future - and, he can tell us about himself.

Two Kinds of Revelation

God has revealed himself to us in two different ways.

Every time that he does anything of a physical nature, he is doing something that we, with our physical senses, can understand (though not necessarily fully), and so he is revealing himself. This is usually called general revelation or revelation in nature. It comes to us in 'the facts, the forces, the laws of nature, in the constitution and operation of the human mind, and in the facts and experiences of history,' to quote Louis Berkhof. The Bible refers to this sort of revelation in such passages as Psalm 19: 1, 'The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork.'

In addition to the revelation of God in nature, we have his special revelation - which is now embodied in the Bible. Special revelation was always necessary. Right back in the Garden of Eden, God spoke to Adam and Eve - for example, when he commanded them not to eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There were things that they could not know or understand without his speaking to them. Later, God spoke to other people. That word was remembered, passed on to others, preserved and treasured because it came from God, written down, copied and spread. All this process was controlled by God, so that what was recorded was correct and free from error.

While special revelation was always necessary, it became even more necessary with the entrance of sin into the world. God's revelation in nature was obscured and corrupted, and mankind was stricken with spiritual blindness and became subject to error and unbelief. Therefore it became necessary for God to reinterpret the facts of nature and to provide a new revelation of redemption. The Bible is the result of this. It is the Book of God's Special Revelation.

The Bible

The Bible, did not all appear at once as a finished product. It is the accumulation of long ages of revelation from God.

The earliest section to attain its present form was written down by Moses some time in the second millennium before Christ. He may have drawn on earlier written material or on material that had been passed down by word of mouth. We do not need to know how he obtained the information; we believe that it was inspired by God as his revelation and is true in every respect.

The Bible was finally completed when the Apostle John finished his works, probably towards the end of the first century AD. This means that the sixty-six books show differences as the revelation of God was unfolded progressively in them. Not all of God's plan was revealed at once; the earlier writers had some knowledge, but they did not have that clearer view given to those who came later. We have to recognise this as we approach what the Bible has to say.

A Complete Revelation

In keeping with this idea of the unfolding of revelation is the further idea of a finished revelation. There would come a time when God had revealed all that he intended - when the pinnacle was reached. That pinnacle was Jesus Christ! Hebrews 1: 1-2 makes this clear:- 'God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son ...' John even refers to Christ as 'the Word' of God - 'the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.' That no further revelation can be expected may also be seen from the statement of the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews that '... now, once, at the end of the ages, he has appeared (the Greek says has been revealed).' The apostles were witnesses of the life, death and resurrection of Christ. God gave his final revelation through their accounts of these events and the writings that they produced to nurture the infant Church.

Enough to Know

The Bible is a sufficient revelation from God. It contains all the special revelations which he gave and which were designed to be a rule of faith and practice to the Church. Christ undoubtedly did and said many other things which are not in the Bible; the apostles may have done and said other things and have written other letters. These have not been preserved for us and that is how God designed it to be. What he did preserve for us is sufficient to teach us everything we need to know about what to believe and how to act (not necessarily all that we would like to know). It teaches us all that we need to know about God and about his way of salvation, and about how we should live our lives in this world.

It Is Written for Us

This is why the words, 'it is written,' carry such authority, not only at the time that they were written, but in all ages. Those things that are 'written' in the Bible are given by God so that we may learn to serve him, and, in particular, so that we may learn about the Lord Jesus Christ, the highest point of that revelation and also the end toward which it all leads.

Not all of Scripture is equally clear but the basic features of the Gospel message, that sinners need to be saved and Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, are clearly stated so that all who read may understand. The first step for each one is to stop relying on our own thoughts and imaginings about life and about God and to start listening to what he has revealed in his Word. When we make our watchword, 'It is written,' then we are on the way that leads to repentance and faith - the way that leads to eternal life.