Knowing God: Almost everyone carries some opinion about God. Ask ten people who God is, and you will most likely receive ten different answers, yet nearly all will speak with some measure of confidence, as though the matter were fairly obvious. Let us not forget that the ease with which men speak of God should not be mistaken for any true revelation-based knowledge of Him. Familiar speech is one thing; heavenly light is another. Matthew 16:17.
Nowhere is this seen more plainly than in the opinions men hold about God. Few subjects arouse stronger passions. It quickly awakens pride, defensiveness, and a strong desire to be right, though often with the least true understanding. People speak warmly where light is small, and confidently where knowledge is least. They commonly suppose that because the matter is so great, they must know something about it. Because God is spoken of frequently in homes, churches, books, and times of trouble, many conclude they know Him. Yet speaking of God, or thinking upon Him, is not the same as knowing God. “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” John 17:3.
Ignorance of God is often more subtle than outright denial. There are some who openly deny the existence of God, but they are fewer than many imagine. Most men are content to retain some form of deity in their minds. Their quarrel is seldom with the word “god,” but with God as He has made Himself known in the Scriptures. Romans 1:28. The god commonly held in the mind of man is usually manageable, agreeable, and useful to have around. He is summoned in crisis, thanked in success, and forgotten in times of ease and prosperity. He exists to explain tragedy, reward decency, punish the wicked, comfort the anxious, and approve the life one already desires to live. He may be ignored for months, then remembered in an hour of fear. Such a god is convenient, and therefore widely accepted.
But man by nature does not know the true God, and so he readily fashions substitutes. Psalm 50:21. One imagines a god who excuses all things. Another prefers a god who condemns everyone but himself. Some desire a god of sentiment, others a god of ceremony, others a god of bare morality. Yet whether kind or harsh, tolerant or demanding, if he is shaped by the mind of man, he is no God at all. Romans 1:25. And having fashioned a god to their liking, men then imagine they may also find him by their own efforts. Thus it is common for men to suppose that God may be discovered as one discovers a hobby, philosophy, trade skill, or hidden fact. Read enough, think enough, compare enough, travel enough, feel enough, and eventually arrive at God. This flatters the pride of man, for it leaves the matter within his own grasp. But God is not an object for human investigation. All the ladders of intellect, religion, and effort will crumble. I Corinthians 1:21. If man is to know Him at all, God Himself must reveal who He is. Job 11:7. And where has He revealed Himself? In His Son.
God is not known through speculation, philosophy, or the wanderings of the natural mind, but exclusively in His Son. Matthew 11:27. And this exposes the emptiness of much religious speech in the world. Remove Christ, and little remains but words without knowledge. Men may speak of providence, morality, spirituality, or some higher power, yet remain utter strangers to the true God. But where Christ is absent, true knowledge of God is absent also. Outside of Christ, no man knows the Father, whatever religious words he may utter, but remains in darkness. The most dangerous ignorance, then, is religious familiarity with a false god. The most dangerous darkness is that which calls itself light. “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” Matthew 6:23. MPJ