Basic HTML Version
25
former conceivability, in its absolute separation from its object, is vet not without truth. In this
sense the three-in-oneness of God, as we know it from the operation of God, is truth.”
C. Self-revelation the Prerequisite of all Knowledge of God.
1. GOD COMMUNICATES KNOWLEDGE OF HIMSELF TO MAN.
Kuyper calls attention to the fact
that theology as the knowledge of God differs in an important point from all other knowledge.
In the study of all other sciences man places himself above the object of his investigation and
actively elicits from it his knowledge by whatever method may seem most appropriate, but in
theology he does not stand above but rather under the object of his knowledge. In other words,
man can know God only in so far as the latter actively makes Himself known. God is first of all
the subject communicating knowledge to man, and can only become an object of study for man
in so far as the latter appropriates and reflects on the knowledge conveyed to him by
revelation. Without revelation man would never have been able to acquire any knowledge of
God. And even after God has revealed Himself objectively, it is not human reason that discovers
God, but it is God who discloses Himself to the eye of faith. However, by the application of
sanctified human reason to the study of God’s Word man can. under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, gain an ever-increasing knowledge of God. Barth also stresses the fact that man can
know God only when God comes to him in an act of revelation. He asserts that there is no way
from man to God, but only from God to man, and says repeatedly that God is always the
subject, and never an object. Revelation is always something purely subjective, and can never
turn into something objective like the written Word of Scripture, and as such become an object
of study. It is given once for all in Jesus Christ, and in Christ comes to men in the existential
moment of their lives. While there are elements of truth in what Barth says, his construction of
the doctrine of revelation is foreign to Reformed theology.
The position must be maintained, however, that theology would be utterly impossible without
a self-revelation of God. And when we speak of revelation, we use the term in the strict sense
of the word. It is not something in which God is passive, a mere “becoming manifest,” but
something in which He is actively making Himself known. It is not, as many moderns would
have it, a deepened spiritual insight which leads to an ever-increasing discovery of God on the
part of man; but a supernatural act of self-communication, a purposeful act on the part of the
Living God. There is nothing surprising in the fact that God can be known only if, and in so far
as, He reveals Himself. In a measure this is also true of man. Even after Psychology has made a
rather exhaustive study of man, Alexis Carrell is still able to write a very convincing book on
Man the Unknown. “For who among men,” says Paul, “knoweth the things of a man, save the
spirit of the man, which is in him? even so the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of
God.” I Cor. 2:11. The Holy Spirit searcheth all things, even the deep things of God, and reveals