Before One Can Know God...

In the book Truth with Love: The Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer, Bryan Follis traces the use of reason and apologetics in the Reformed tradition from the Reformation to now.  I found Jonathan Edwards's understanding of the role of rational knowledge in our spiritual lives to be insightful though contrary to today's popular opinion.

Edwards knew that we need to go beyond mere rationality in our relationship with God, saying, "There is a difference between having a right speculative notion of the doctrines contained in the word of God, and having a due sense of them in the heart."  (This and all quotes below of Jonathan Edwards's work are from "Christian Knowledge" in Jonathan Edwards on Knowing Christ.)  However, Follis says:

While recognizing the limitation of any knowledge of God obtained by reasoning alone, [Edwards] argued that we cannot enjoy a "spiritual" knowledge without first having a "natural" (or rational) knowledge of divine things.  Thus the "special illumination of the Sprit of God" was not some abstract or mystical experience, for he was convinced that "God deals with man as with a rational creature."  Hence "no object can come at the heart but through the door of the understanding: and there can be no spiritual knowledge of that of which there is not first a rational knowledge."  Reason, for Edwards, was inadequate but essential: before one can know God, one has to know about God.

Comments

[William Tanksley]

Edwards is phenomenal. His book "Freedom of the Will" (available online, since its copyright is long expired) is my favorite; it's amazing how he made such a deep logical study (on free will and predestination) so interesting. It's philosophically superior to its obvious counterpart, Luther's "Bondage of the Will"; although I admit that the reader's interest might be piqued more by Luther's use of namecalling :-).

I put a link to a free ebook of it in my URL.

[Sam]

Jonathan Edwards is the man. I agree with William--The Freedom of the Will is about the best book I've ever read. Of course I much prefer reading my hard copy than the one on the internet.

[Brad]

Of course being reformed, I agree with what Edwards had to say concerning the use and necessity of rational knowledge for the believer. Such a thorough treatment of one of the richest aspects of knowing God, or should I say being known by God has not been equaled in my opinion. I'd like to ask you Sam and William: how do you see Eph. 4:11-14 as it relates to this topic?

Eph 4:11 And He gave some {as} apostles, and some {as} prophets, and some {as} evangelists, and some {as} pastors and teachers,
Eph 4:12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;
Eph 4:13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
Eph 4:14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;

I'm especially wanting to know your thoughts on the phrase "until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God".

Brad

[Jason Evans]

Amy, wonderful quote! I hadn\'t heard of Follis\'s book on Schaeffer. I\'ll have to check that out.

[Jason Evans]

Amy, wonderful quote! I hadn\'t heard of Follis\'s book on Schaeffer. I\'ll have to check that out.