Herman Bavinck – A Specific, Limited, Yet Well-Defined and True Knowledge of God

7 Mar

If God cannot be known, neither can he be felt or experienced in any way. All religion is then empty. But modern philosophical agnosticism makes the same error as ancient Gnosticism. By reducing God to “inexpressible depth” and “eternal silence,” they make the universe godless, in the most absolute sense of the word. What it all comes down to is whether God has willed and found a way to reveal himself in the domain of creatures. This, the Christian church and Christian theology affirm, has indeed occurred. Thanks to revelation, we have a true knowledge of God, knowledge that is relative and finite rather than comprehensive. Incomprehensibility does not imply agnosticism but an ingredient of the Christian claim to have received by revelation a specific, limited, yet well-defined and true knowledge of God. In the words of Basil, “The knowledge of God consists in the perception of his incomprehensibility.”

~Herman Bavinck~




Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 2: God and Creation (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2004) p. 28-29.

Books by Herman Bavinck

Kindle Books

Biography of Herman Bavinck

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One Response to “Herman Bavinck – A Specific, Limited, Yet Well-Defined and True Knowledge of God”

  1. lacykitkat March 7, 2013 at 7:18 am #

    Reblogged this on HE STILL SPEAKS!.

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