- Jul 31, 2004
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If the God of the Bible is divine then all people have immediate knowledge of him.
This is a plain statement of scripture but rather than demonstrating this from the Bible I'd like to explain it with syllogism. First, defining some terms:
By "God of the Bible" I mean the person who created the world, appeared to the fathers, raised Israel from Egypt, and raised Jesus from the dead.
By "divine" I mean something or someone on which all other things depend. If anything is foundational, eternal, and necessary it is divine. Divinity defined in this way is a concept that cannot easily be escaped. In this sense there is something divine within every worldview.
By "knowledge of God" I mean personal acquaintance. Knowledge means an awareness of his presence and either friendship or enmity with him.
Now some syllogisms:
So to have any experience at all is to be acquainted with God.
So to be a person is to be intimately acquainted with God.
If a divine person exists it must be this way. It's not possible for a divine person to exist and us be ignorant of his existence. Yet many people claim ignorance or agnosticism toward the existence of God. What does this mean?
It means either that God does not exist or that those who identify as atheists and agnostics are actually denying and suppressing what they know to be true -- the existence of God. All people are acquainted with him. The difference between belief and unbelief is a difference of friendship and enmity. Believers like God and unbelievers do not like him. They dislike him so much that they seek to explain his existence away.
This is a plain statement of scripture but rather than demonstrating this from the Bible I'd like to explain it with syllogism. First, defining some terms:
By "God of the Bible" I mean the person who created the world, appeared to the fathers, raised Israel from Egypt, and raised Jesus from the dead.
By "divine" I mean something or someone on which all other things depend. If anything is foundational, eternal, and necessary it is divine. Divinity defined in this way is a concept that cannot easily be escaped. In this sense there is something divine within every worldview.
By "knowledge of God" I mean personal acquaintance. Knowledge means an awareness of his presence and either friendship or enmity with him.
Now some syllogisms:
- If God is divine then he is the ultimate cause of every event.
- If God is the cause of every event then every experience of the world is also an experience of God.
- If every experience is an experience of God then every living person is always acquainted with God.
So to have any experience at all is to be acquainted with God.
- If God is a divine person then our personality depends on his. We are persons only insofar as he is a person. Our personality is a minature model of his personality. Our personality is an image of his.
- If our personality is an image of God then we experience God by simply being persons.
- If by being a person we experience God, then by being a person we are acquainted with God.
So to be a person is to be intimately acquainted with God.
If a divine person exists it must be this way. It's not possible for a divine person to exist and us be ignorant of his existence. Yet many people claim ignorance or agnosticism toward the existence of God. What does this mean?
It means either that God does not exist or that those who identify as atheists and agnostics are actually denying and suppressing what they know to be true -- the existence of God. All people are acquainted with him. The difference between belief and unbelief is a difference of friendship and enmity. Believers like God and unbelievers do not like him. They dislike him so much that they seek to explain his existence away.