Knowledge opens the door to life, and any theological study should include a discourse on the knowability of God near its beginning. But what does it mean to “know God?” Is God even knowable?

Knowledge comes in many forms. We can know facts, some thing’s existence, or even how to accomplish a task, but is that what it means to know God? In the Old Testament God was largely seen as “transcendent.” He was exalted, high, and beyond creation. In the New Testament Jesus called God “Father”, and by that brought him close or “imminent” to creation. For a long time the concept of God being “above” and yet “close” were balanced. Both his imminence and transcendence were “central” to Christian thinking. God was the hub from which all knowledge and truth proceeded. We knew we existed because God said, “let us make man in our own image.”

René Descartes (1596-1695) is considered to be the first of the rationalist philosophers. He believed nothing could be known unless its existence was proven rationally. He asked the question, “How do I know I exist?” His answer was, “I think, therefore I am.” Because he couldn’t doubt the fact he himself “thought”, he knew he existed. From man’s own existence Descartes believed all knowledge and truth could be understood. With him began the movement, which placed man at the center and God on the peripheral. Later, movements pushed God even further from the center until one day in the mid 1800’s Friedrich Nietzche said, “God is dead.” Long before, philosophers and theologians said we couldn’t know God, or that he had created the world but had left it to run on it’s own.

To such ignorance 1 John 4:7 says, “…love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” The world never has, nor ever will know God. However, those who are in Christ know him, and will know him even better throughout eternity. Their knowledge of God may begin with the words, “In the beginning God”, and will most definitely include the word, “Father”- but where will it end? By taking God at his word and eternally following him, we will undoubtedly look back at our present knowledge of God much as a grade school child recalls Kindergarten. It was a fun experience, which opened the doors to life.