Can the Infinite God be known? If so, how? Many people insist that God is so infinite and mysterious a Being, it is impossible to know Him. At best, they say, we can only speak of what and who God is not; we cannot know or speak with any certainty of who or what He is. Evangelical theology affirms the problem raised by this question. What humans, a creature, can discover about the infinite God on his own is limited in both nature (it is always uncertain) and its extent (there is only so much he can know). What truths humans can discover on his own about God, they suppress because they are fallen and sinful (Rom 1:18ff.;on this see total depravity).
Evangelical theology, however, denies the pessimistic response of "the many people" noted above. Evangelical theology affirms, rather, that though we cannot know God exhaustively—, because He is infinite and mysterious—He can be known truly. The solution is the doctrine of revelation, i.e., the act of God making Himself known to us humans: God has made Himself known. The Bible affirms repeatedly and everywhere that the God we worship seeks to make Himself known. He reveals Himself. Revelation, and our knowledge of God is—from a biblical perspective is—therefore, "consequent on and correlative to God's disclosure of himself to us" (J. I. Packer).
From the above we affirm two truths about revelation:
A. The God of the Bible, unlike dumb idols, is the trinune, personal and relating God, who has made humans in His image. It is the nature of humans to relate and to communicate with one another, but that is so only because they have been made in God's image. Gen 1 & 2-3 assumes that humans were created to hear God and to relate to Him.
B. God, by His character and love, does not wait to be discovered. Instead He longs to be known, understood and related to. The essence of all human-God relationship is worship, and worship is authentic only when He is known and understood. So, even in Adam's disobedient state, when he would rather hide from God, God sought out Adam and asked, "Where are you?" seeking to understand, "Who told you . . . What have you done?" (Gen 3:9ff.).
For the purpose of clarity in discussion, theologians make a distinction between general revelation and special revelation. Though fallen, it is possible for humans to know—by the fact that they live in God's world—that there is a God, that He is the creator, that He is to be worshipped, that He judges right and wrong, and (though often perplexed, and side-swiped, by the problem of suffering and evil) that He, in kindness, provides (Acts 14:17); Paul calls these "God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature" (Rom 1:20). These things that humans can discover about God theologians call general revelation. The truths of general revelation, however, always remain general and insufficient for telling a sinner how to get back into a right relationship with God. Also, though real, they are insufficiently specific so that it is easy for human, though acknowledging these truths, to deny their implications about God, to repress them and to deny Him (Rom 1:21-25). Richard Dawkins, e.g., knows, as a naturalist, that the natural world is full of design and purpose but stubbornly denies their realities, asserting that such designs and purposes as evident in nature are only apparent, and whatever 'god' is supposed to be revealed there is only a "delusion."
What general revelation cannot do, special revelation accomplishes. Special revelation refers to what God has revealed through the prophets and apostles in the biblical salvation history, but supremely in and through Jesus Christ (Jn 1:1-18; Heb 1:1-2:4; Mt 5:17), and recorded in and communicated through the Scriptures (the Bible). We note the following salient points about special revelation ('revelation' from now onwards).
1. Revelation is an initiative of God; it is an act of grace. The author of Psm 147 recognizes that whatever else He may have acted for and behalf of other peoples, God has acted specially for His people: "He has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel. He has done this for no other nation; they do not know his laws. Praise the Lord" (Psm 147:19-20).
2. In revelation God offers us in love to be our God and Father in Christ. Revelation is, therefore, the supreme invitation to fellowship from God's side. To hold in our hands the Scriptures of God is to hold the key into the Gread Throne Room of God.
3. In revelation God speaks, as the supremely rational and personal God to creatures created in His image to be rational and personal, revelation is a process of communication, not come enigmatic impulse that makes an impact on us.
In revealing Himself to us God does so both in words and in acts. A mightly act such as the plagues He brought upon Egypt, e.g., His acts can speak only vague by themselves. God, however, accompanies His acts with His word, so that their meanings—why they happen and what they signify for Israel—cannot be misconstrued. In the course of His redemptive history He often
a) foretold, through the inspiration of the prophets what He would do,
b) provided commentaries on what He was doing, and
c) provided witnesses to affirm the facts of what had happened—what had been foretold, explained, and happened—so that their words, in many cases, add to and become part of salvation history itself.