How Much Can We Know God?

I’m an optimist. I tend to see the good in a situation, or at least try to do so. Quite frankly, I don’t push issues with certain people that I know won’t really listen to what I have to say about a subject, so often when I am around a pessimist, I keep my mouth shut.

I think this has a drastic affect of how I view God and what I teach about Him. Because whether you are or not, I think God is an optimist. (wink) He certainly saw the good in me!

A while back I was a part of a conversation where one person said, “Well, we just can’t know everything about God.” And it struck me in later thought, “Wow, what a statement.” Final. Absolute. And, in my opinion, quite negative in nature. Now, I’m of the opinion that positive reinforcement of an idea always trumps a negative (thank you Inception). And when I talk to people about how loving God is and how much He was willing to pay so that we could be in relationship with Him, it just doesn’t sound right at the end of the conversation to say, “Well, seek to know God, but you’ll never know everything about Him.” God loves you, but is hiding all the best parts of Himself.

Let me first make a distinction. To say that we can’t know everything about God is not to say that we can’t know a lot about Him, and I believe that distinction is important. I’m not concerned with why God does what God does. His motives. I am concerned, in this post, with knowing about God. The knowledge of God. I understand that we will not know why God does many of the things He does simply because He is an infinite creator and we are a finite creation and, quite frankly, He doesn’t answer to us. Quite the opposite in fact. I understand that there are even things ABOUT God we can’t understand because of the nature of that relationship.

I further believe that God is ernestly searching for those who are hungry to know Him and that He is more than willing to illuminate our minds to know and understand those things that we, as finite creatures, are capable of knowing. Therefore, to state it positively, “We can know God as fully as He has revealed Himself to us.” Think about how different that sounds. THAT is something that I’ll go after. If God has revealed Himself to us, and if I can know Him to the extent that He has done so, that gives me a destination. That gives me motivation to study the scriptures. That gives me encouragement to study biology, cosmology, philosophy, even nature itself! God has revealed Himself in so many ways and I am encouraged to seek Him as fully as I can, in every way that I can.

I in no way believe that this takes away from the infiniteness of God. I do believe that it speaks to the loving-kindnesses and grace that God, being who He is, is willing for us, being who we are, to know Him.