Bavinck 1: Knowing God and Scripture

Theology and the Human Experience

We must not shy away from dry theological intellectualism in favor of feelings. Our understanding must be based on the truth found through revelation and not our experience. p. 8

The Limits of Objectivity

It is a myth that we can have fully detached objectivity in the sciences because it is impossible to separate the scholar from the man. A researcher who personally lacks religious sensibilities and conviction is as handicapped in studying religion as someone who is tone-deaf is in being a music critic. p. 9

The Theologian’s Role

Theologians do not have the right to modify or expand the revelation of God. We must resist the temptation to let our theological systems rule. We theologians are finite; God is not. p. 10

The Purpose of Theology

Dogmatic (systematic) theology is the system of the knowledge of God. Ethics is that of the service of God. The job of the theologian is to think God’s thoughts after Him, to reproduce the unity that is objectively present in the thoughts of God and has been recorded for the eye of faith in Scripture. p. 11

Subjectivism vs. Objectivism

Turning to Christian subjective experience as a replacement for a concern about Christian truth in dogma paves the way for a modern turn to the subjective and away from objective reality. Past philosophers like Descartes and Kant have tried (in error) to start with subjective experience, like consciousness and dependence, to then explain theology and the metaphysical world. It is a mistake to deny the importance of confessional and cultural factors in a dogmatic treatise. No one is free from the biases of church upbringing and environmental contexts. p. 12

Divine Revelation

Pure objectivity is impossible. It is frankly impossible for humans to determine the standard of “good” and “true” on their own. To do it responsibly, we need divine revelation. p. 13

The Incomprehensibility of God

If God exists and He is truly God, He cannot by definition be contained by our senses and reasoning. By definition, He can’t be grasped. p. 14

The Foundation of Theology

Divine authority is the foundation of religion and therefore the source and basis of our theology as well. Historically, revelation has been sought in three places: Scripture (Reformers), the Church (Roman Catholic), and a relationship with Jesus (Evangelicals). p. 15

Head Knowledge vs. Heart Knowledge

Evangelical Christians often put a personal relationship with Jesus at the forefront, sometimes in opposition to “head knowledge” theology. The problem here is that good theology has always been and must be a personal experience, so much so that it shouldn’t have to be expressly mentioned or demanded. The knowledge of God is not abstract and impersonal. The objective revelation of God is studied through the subjective illumination from the Holy Spirit. p. 16

The Theological Foundations

We must distinguish God’s own Trinitarian self-knowledge from the revealed knowledge accommodated to human understanding. The fundamental principles of theology are thus Trinitarian: God is the essential foundation, Scripture is the external cognitive foundation, and the Holy Spirit is the internal principle of knowing. The Father, through the Son as Logos, imparts Himself to His creatures in the Spirit. Divine revelation requires the internal illumination of the Holy Spirit. Rationalism is the attempt to develop theology from the subjective illumination of a world full of perception and representation. The issue is it creates an idealism where thought becomes the only thing that’s real and true. It turns the faculty by which we order the world into the very source of knowledge itself, as if making the eye the source of the light. It is to conclude that our senses always give us a false sense of reality. p. 50

Organic Connection Between Mind and Reality

The same Logos created both the reality outside us and the laws of thought within us, so that we may have an organic connection between mind and reality. But the Logos who shines in the world must also shine in our consciousness if we are to see clearly. God made the Man, the Mind, the Matter, and the Book for each other. With and in one light, they were made so that they might know Him through them. p. 52

Revelation and Faith

Religion is a means for knowing, loving, and serving God from the heart. Revelation is objective; faith is subjective. God gives the objective revelation, and the subject receives it in faith. It must be subjective as we (the subject) are limited in our illumination of the objective. p. 54

The Existence of Religion

Religion (whether Christian or any other) is either an illusion or must be based on the existence, revelation, and knowability of God. No religion can exist without these things. p. 63

Word and Deed

God’s word is an act and His activity is speech. Word and deed go together. p. 78

The Beginning of Philosophy

The beginning of philosophy is the astonishment that anything exists at all. p. 84

The Nature of Miracles

When God does anything contrary to the course of nature, He does not subvert nature or change its inherent forces. The only thing that happens in a miracle is that the operation of the forces of nature is suspended at a given point as the result of the appearance of another force which works according to a law of its own and produces an effect of its own. Miracles are not alien intruders in a fallen creation but are incorporated in the divine design of the world itself and serve God’s work of redeeming and perfecting fallen nature. p. 85

The Publication of Revelation

Holy Scripture is the publication of revelation. p. 88

Scripture as God-Breathing

Holy Scripture is the eternally ongoing speech of God to us. It was not only “God-breathed” but also “God-breathing.” Some day, when being and consciousness are renewed, revelation will end and Scripture will no longer be necessary. Divine inspiration will then be the portion of all of God’s children. They will all be taught by the Lord and serve in His temple. Prophecy and miracle have then become “nature” for God dwells among His people. p. 89

The Cross of Scripture

It is no surprise to us in the least that Scripture has at all times encountered contradiction and opposition. Christ bore a cross, and the servant (Scripture) is not greater than its master. Scripture is the handmaiden of Christ; it shares in His defamation and arouses the hostility of sinful humanity. p. 106

Humility and Doubt

Self-denial is the condition for being a disciple of Jesus. Humility is the condition for learning. As Pascal cries, “humble yourself, powerless reason! Be silent, stupid nature! Listen to God!!” Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. This does not mean that the believer is delivered from all questions about Scripture. Believers are not freed from all doubt. All believers know from experience that this is true. There is no faith without struggle. To believe is to struggle, to struggle against the appearance of things. In our weakness and limitations, we will never know enough to be satisfied. This is true in all sciences. Those who do not want to start in faith will never arrive at knowledge. Those who will not embark on a scientific investigation until they see the road by which we arrive at knowledge fully cleared will never start. p. 107

Christianity as True Philosophy

Christianity is a divine revelation, but it is at the same time, pure reason; it is the true philosophy. p. 112

The Compelling Nature of Truth

The truth of the Gospel is compelling in much the same way that all first principles are. The moral law that stealing is wrong cannot be proven to someone who rejects the moral law. It is powerful because it exists, posits, and maintains itself. It compels because it is categorical and suffers no excuses or exemptions. The same situation prevails in theology. How do we know that what we believe is true? After all, believing in something does not make it true. There is a huge difference between subjective certainty and objective truth. Not intellect, history, reason, morality, or anything else can give us objective proof for our belief. It is the Spirit of God alone who can make a person inwardly certain of the truth of divine revelation. The natural, unspiritual man is not equipped to discern the things of the Spirit. A rebirth and special illumination of the Holy Spirit must take place. It is the Spirit that creates the new humanity where God’s dwelling will be forever. Pascal says “there is enough light for those who only desire to see and enough darkness for those of a contrary disposition. There’s enough clarity to illumine the elect and enough darkness to humble them. There is enough darkness to render the reprobate sightless and enough clarity to condemn them and to render them inexcusable.” He has sufficiently knowable to those who seek him and also sufficiently hidden to those who run away from him. pp. 131-134

The Nature of Belief

Believing is an immediate linkage of the human consciousness to divine revelation. It is also a transformation of our will that is made willingly. p. 135

Faith and Theology

The unhelpful question was asked, what is the minimum knowledge required to be saved? Is the gravity of faith attached to “holding true all that God has revealed in his Word” or in the “confidence that all my sins are forgiven”? Do we emphasize “general” faith or “special” faith? Emphasizing knowledge or confidence? Head or heart? For the Reformers, faith is trust in the grace of God and not calculable. It is a personal relation to Christ and not subject to quantifiable addition. We need both faith and theology. True Christian theology deepens and broadens faith knowledge but remains inextricably connected to it. Faith and theology both need each other. Faith preserves theology from secularization; theology preserves faith from separatism. p. 140

Revelation as the Basis for Knowledge of God

How can we think we could know God? How dare we. How can we? We are human and He is God. How could we ultimately gain any true insight into Him who made all things? We can for one reason alone: He has revealed Himself. Our knowledge does not arrive from our investigation but only by Him revealing Himself through nature and history, in prophecy and miracle. The purpose of God’s revelation, according to Scripture, is precisely the human being’s ability to know God and so receive eternal life. p. 148