What Do You Know?

[ITS]

How do you know that you know what you know?

[Collins Kung]

How do you know that you know what you know?
As a creature created in His own image, we know because
1. God reveals Himself to us. (general revelation and special revelation)
2. We are created with the capacities to know what God want us to know. We have sensual perceptual ability and we are built with the capacity of logic, language, and math.
As a creature of God's image, we are analogous copy of Him. The knowledge we know is in an anthropomorphic sense, i.e. the only way we know what we know is that when our knowledge is correspondent to what God has disclosed to us at our level of existence.

[boperrin]

The Christian worldview provides insight to help us balance our love for God and the world. This worldview teaches the world belongs to God due to his creativity. The world is not evil but declared to be very good in Genesis 1. Sin has distorted the world and blurred our vision of it yet, this worldview allows us to see the world more clearly through God?s eyes. This worldview also helps us to realize God created the world to provide everything we need and could want. As Paul tells us in 2 Timothy God has given us all things to enjoy. It would seem part of acknowledging God is the proper use of his the world he supplied us.

[akridgeg]

How do you know that you know what you know?

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Once we have developed our faith to the point that we receive salvation, then we begin to have the ability to know. We know that God chose to reveal Himself to us, we know that we were created in His image, and we can know anything that He chooses to reveal to us. Having gained our salvation through faith, God's promises become real, and then we know what we know for certain.

[Christine]

Collins Kung,
Your textbook answer used scholarly vocabulary. If you were to be asked that question in the economy seats on an airplane, I would expect you might relate your answer more like this:
I believe that God shares with us limited amounts of His knowledge. We receive this knowledge through what we see and experience in His creation or nature and through His message of the Bible. God also created humans with thinking and reasoning abilities that allow us to understand and remember what we learn. We can then use this understanding in our life experiences.

[mcrafts]

How do you know that you know what you know?
I know because God who is the Creator-Redeemer has told me. Not only has He told me but He has also given me the capacity and the abilities to know and understand what is real, right, and good. He has given me revelation. He has communicated to me through His person and His decree in at least three ways. He has communicated to me and rest of humanity through the Written Word. He has told me through the Holy Spirit's inspiration what is true (that which matches His eternal plan). In addition, He has revealed Himself through the Incarnate Word. The person of Jesus Christ stepped into time and space to make Truth known. He also has revealed Himself through general revelation. He has shown Himself through nature. I know because God decide to reveal and gave each person the capacities as creatures made in His image the privilege of knowing.

[mcrafts]

Collins Kung,
Your textbook answer used scholarly vocabulary. If you were to be asked that question in the economy seats on an airplane, I would expect you might relate your answer more like this:
I believe that God shares with us limited amounts of His knowledge. We receive this knowledge through what we see and experience in His creation or nature and through His message of the Bible. God also created humans with thinking and reasoning abilities that allow us to understand and remember what we learn. We can then use this understanding in our life experiences.

I enjoyed what you had to say about life experience impacting what we known. In my rush to get something written down quickly to "get an assignment" done I forgot about the benefit of experience. I am convinced that God does work through my life daily. I know about Him and His world not just in an impersonal interaction but I know because He is active.

[chad hill]

How do you know that you know what you know?
God created man with the capacities to know. Man can reason, speak, and will. As prophet, man can interpret. Knowledge has its source in a self-revealing God. Jesus Christ is the primary agent in revelation - creation, incarnation and Scripture. Through the bridges of language, logic and math we can know what God reveals. We can know all that God has chosen to reveal. He did not do so to keep it a mystery but to make known. He does this through anthropomorphic revelation - in ways humans can understand. The regenerate have the blinders removed that sin brought about so we can renew our minds.

[chad hill]

How do you know that you know what you know?
I know because God who is the Creator-Redeemer has told me. Not only has He told me but He has also given me the capacity and the abilities to know and understand what is real, right, and good. He has given me revelation. He has communicated to me through His person and His decree in at least three ways. He has communicated to me and rest of humanity through the Written Word. He has told me through the Holy Spirit's inspiration what is true (that which matches His eternal plan). In addition, He has revealed Himself through the Incarnate Word. The person of Jesus Christ stepped into time and space to make Truth known. He also has revealed Himself through general revelation. He has shown Himself through nature. I know because God decide to reveal and gave each person the capacities as creatures made in His image the privilege of knowing.


God's general revelation in nature cannot lead to our salvation, but it certainly can make some think about where and who they are. A friend recently shared about a coworker he has gotten to know. The coworker is a self-proclaimed athiest and is against any talk of God. However, he was in the Boundary Waters recently and while canoeing out in the remote wilderness was challenged by the beauty around him. He came away saying to himself (and admitting to my friend) that "there must be a God."

[erdmann23]

How do you know that you know what you know?

I only know because: 1. God exists and has revealed himself in nature, Jesus Christ and the Bible and 2. God created me “in His image”. All knowledge comes from God. No knowledge comes from anything else but the creator. And since the creator has created me in His image, I have the capacities of reason, speech, thought and will. God created me with the ability to know what He has revealed. God did not desire to remain a mystery to humans, but revealed Himself anthropomorphically (in a way humans can understand). I also know He is Lord because He has removed the blinders on me and has regenerated me through the Word and His Son.

[erdmann23]

How do you know that you know what you know?

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Once we have developed our faith to the point that we receive salvation, then we begin to have the ability to know. We know that God chose to reveal Himself to us, we know that we were created in His image, and we can know anything that He chooses to reveal to us. Having gained our salvation through faith, God's promises become real, and then we know what we know for certain.


I do not agree with this statement. I want it to be said first that I am not attacking the person who made this statement, but simply want to refute the statement itself and what I see incorrect with it. I don’t agree with the 2nd sentence. I don’t believe that God giving salvation to us is a matter of us developing our faith enough. God chooses us, not on the basis of us developing our faith, but it is simply a work of God through the Holy Spirit and His Word. I also believe that people have the ability to know whether or not God has regenerated them through salvation. All humans have the capacity to know and find truth, some just do not know that it is God’s knowledge. Once someone comes to faith in Jesus Christ, I do believe that they are able to “know rightly” and are able to now start with the right foundation.

[Saul Thao]

We are created in the image of God. God has reveal Himself to us though the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We do have the ability to understand and know what God wants us to know. We can’t know all things, but we are created with the ability think. We are not some random chances that happen. We are not a mistake. We are carefully crafted in the image of God. If we only seek the heart of God we will know what He wants us to know.

[Pappy7]

The learning experience begins upon conception. We have 3 children whose personality can partially be identified by the expereinces of my wife and I during their period of development prior to birth. From that moment forward, each individual is directly affected by the events, enviornment and exposure within the individual life. During the maturing process frustration is experienced because it is difficult to realize the affect of events which were beyond our control. Added to this mix are the desires placed within each life by our Creator to seek out His presence.
Earlier today I had this disucssion with a colleague - Which has a greater impact on our lives - education or naturally occuring events? While a cases can be spoken for both, I believe the naturally occuring events (good and bad) had the greatest influence. This is why Paul encouraged the Christian in Rome to be transformed by the renewing of their minds.

[Saul Thao]

Yes, I do agree with you on that, the naturally occurring events/life experience has the greatest influence on people. Education is good and wonderful that you learn new things from others, but the true enjoyment is from your own experience and now that you will truly know that it works. With this naturally occurring event to take place you must have experienced it before for it to happen. You may have all the education that you want, but if you never put it into practice. Then you’ll never truly know if it really works.

[Schmiedc]

I know what I know because God has elected to reveal Himself to me through nature, Scripture, and the incarnation of Christ.

There is no truth but God's truth. The ultimate reality is the Triune God. Through properly basis beliefs and faith I am prepared to believe and understand the revelation of the Triune God.

God has revealed Himself in nature. We see this primarily in creation. He has revealed Himself in Scripture as the Bible testifes so strongly. We see this in the life of Jesus here on earth.

Knowledge starts with God and what He has elected to reveal to us!

[Schmiedc]

Yes we are created in the image of God. This means we have great responsibility. To God we must be obedient by obeying His commands. To our fellow images we must coordinate and work together in harmony. To creation we must be God's stewards and Vice Regents.

We must obey God's creation ordinances and the Ten Commandments (10 words). Being created in God's image makes us unique! We are truly special in God's eyes because we are made in His image.