Knowing God (Essay Sample)

Knowing God
Name of Student
Date of Submission
Knowing God
Introduction
When people reminisce about the doctrine of revelation, they seek to know how God discloses Himself to mankind. Revelation refers to how God is exposed or unveiled to mankind without their knowledge. The usual understanding of revelation is actually a kind of communication to human nature, either through actions or wording. The way God unveils Himself to human beings may be on single occurrences, direct performances or even take quite a long time to reveal His will to the people. Indeed, revelation cannot be proved through scientific methods or logical methods but only through God Himself, since it is a supernatural deed from God (Hunter, 2011). It is only through God that the legitimacy of revelation is known, His plans and the knowledge about Him. This is true from the words of Jesus when He said that every thing is known by His father, it is only responsibilities which have been handed to Him (Mathew 11:27).
Part 1: how the doctrine of revelation reveals the issue of knowing God;
The process by which God reveals Himself to human beings is dealt with under the Doctrine of Revelation. As noted earlier the truth of revelation is from God only. Through Devine revelation (the work of the Holy Spirit) Jesus came to be known to people as the son of God (Torrance, 2001). The foundations of knowledge of God are laid by the scriptures; however He has done so outside the scriptures as He did to Moses and Abraham. The scriptures and the presence of Devine Holy Spirit strongly confirm somebody’s encounter with God and not stallion nightmarish.
In theology, manifestation, inspiration and illumination are the fundamental divisions in the doctrine of revelation amongst other events like evangelism, preaching, and missionary which at the same time appropriate God’s word. God controls the processes of revelation which are out of reach by scientists and philosophers to proof Him (Ecclesiastes 8:17) and that He is the treasury of His secrets (Deuteronomy 29:29). God is at liberty to unveil or not to unveil depending on His choice, since His revelation is only made to exalt Him.
Through manifestation God instigates the processes of unveiling Himself through actions. He may perform miracles like the way He did in Mt. Carmel (1 Kings 18) or through spoken words accompanied by a storm (Job 38). Those whom God intended to pass the message could get the exact words/voice from Him but the participators only heard the sound/thunderstorm as it was witnessed by Paul on his way to Damascus (Acts 9:3-8).
God’s manifestation to writers is through inspiration. The inspired puts down what he sees or hears under the power of the Holy Spirit who guides him on the projected understanding of the signs. The processes of inspiration touch a wide area than just mere writing. The wordings may be oral (to be written later) or texts places in canons of the scripture. However the guiding arrow all through is the Holy Spirit; that the originality and meaning of the words from God are maintained as intended by Him (Migliore, 2004). Illumination is the final part in the process of revelation, since the modern-day reader of the bible scrutinizes and makes an effort of appropriating it as God’s Word. The Holy Spirit acts as the pilot to the reader to grasp the full truth (John 16:13). From the scriptures, the Bible is like a sword (Hebrews 4:12) which guides and protects the reader in the translation and interpretation of various events in collaboration with God.
God also continued to unveil Himself through prophets since He at one time told Amos that He could assign him the duty of unsealing things to come by use of prophets (Amos 3:7). Prophesies have always functioned to promises and fulfilling just as the Hebrews believed that God always made and fulfilled His promises. That is why prophesies had the complete meaning in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20).
According to the doctrine of Revelation, the fundamental source of knowing God is the Bible. God has all through revealed Himself in all the books of the Bible. The bible has provided enough evidence to stop people relying on scientific and philosophical theories. God is wisdom and so the pre-eminence is to follow Gods wisdom (Ecclesiastes 7:12). Jesus Christ came to this world to teach people how to know God and save them from their evils by shining into their hearts. The strength and salvation of men lies in knowing God (Isaiah 33:6).
The pursuit to know God these days has been faced with many challenges. This is unlike the past when interaction with the outside world was minimal. Many young people may choose to forego God’s work of spreading the Gospel for other professional jobs. Besides, these professions are more lucrative compared to working for God. The mass media has on the other hand brought a lot of confusion to the young generations. Life images presented on TVs leave most people wondering what is next in life and if there in anything else different that they can do with their life. Romantic pictures on TVs and other mass media have continued to cause confusion (Pittman, 2008). Therefore, the advices from sermons, counselors and speeches lack application in real life situations. This leaves even the genuine Christians confused on which way to go, or whom to follow.
Part 2: weaknesses and strengths of discovering the issue of knowing God through general revelation (creation. natural knowledge) and human experience.
General revelation captures on ideas of how God unveils Himself through natural courses. A number of scripture passages justify the magnificence of God through nature....