GOD TELLS US ABOUT HIMSELF CHRISTIANITY 101

The Natural & Revealed Knowledge of God Lesson 1

OPENING DISCUSSION

My 10-year-old son asked me, "How do we know that there is really only one God?"

How can I explain it to him?

  1. THE NATURAL KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

Is there a God?

Psalm 14:1. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

An atheist says ______

An agnostic says ______

ALL PEOPLE HAVE A NATURAL KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

Psalm 19:1.The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.

Hebrews 3:4.For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.

Romans 1:20.For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

  1. From ______

Romans 2:14,15.Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, 15 since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.

  1. And from ______

Our natural knowledge of God tells us there is a God who is ______

and also that He is ______, and hates sin.

THE WEAKNESS OF THE NATURAL KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

It doesn’t tell…

  1. ______
  1. ______

Acts 17:26-30.Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” 29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

God gives people natural knowledge to lead them to ______

  1. THE REVEALED KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

John 1:18.No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.

John 14:8,9.Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”

God reveals what He is really like through ______

John 5:39.You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me.”

This revelation is given to us in the ______

THE BIBLE TELLS US…

Isaiah 45:22.“Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.”

  1. ______

Acts 4:12. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

  1. ______

AGREE OR DISAGREE?

  1. What we learn about God from the Bible is called the revealed knowledge of God.
  2. If God had not given us the Bible, we could still learn enough about God to be saved.
  3. The Bible tells us all we need to know about God and the way of salvation.
  4. Our knowledge about God from nature and conscience is not enough for salvation.

FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION

  1. Since there are so many religions and different gods in each religion, how can we be confident that our God is the true God?
  2. Couldn’t God have revealed Himself to different peoples in different ways and by different names?
  3. How can we be confident that the Bible is true if other religions claim that their holy books are also true?

MEMORY TREASURE

Psalm 19:1.The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.

NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS – FIRST HALF

MatthewRomans

Mark1 & 2 Corinthians

Luke Galatians

JohnEphesians

ActsPhilippians

Colossians

CLOSING PRAYER

Blessed Lord, You have given us Your Holy Scriptures for our learning. May we so hear them, read, learn, and take them to heart, that being strengthened and comforted by Your Holy Word, we may cling to the blessed hope of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

My 10-year-old son asked me, "How do we know that there is really only one God?" How can I explain it to him?

First of all, thank you for taking the time to talk about God with your son, and for being concerned about telling him the right thing. God bless you!

There are many possible approaches to your son's questions, but as I see it, the best may be to point out to your son that ultimately only God can know the truth about God, and man only knows what God chooses to reveal to us. Thankfully, God has chosen to reveal himself in his Word. Among the things that he says are that he alone is God (Deuteronomy 6:4, Isaiah 42:10,11), and that he is all-knowing (Hebrews 4:13) and all-powerful (Psalm 115:3). "Because the Bible says so" is always a more satisfactory answer than, "Because he just is."

If you use it, be prepared for the next question, "But why should we believe the Bible?" The shortest and best answer to that one is, "Because Jesus does." Above all, God reveals himself to us in his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus proved his authority to speak for God through his miracles, especially his greatest miracle: his rising from the dead. And Jesus always treated the Bible as inspired by God the Holy Spirit (Matthew 22:43) and therefore without error (John 10:35). Jesus would never lie to us. His book, the Bible, won't either.

What We Believe: Questions & Answers

Since there are so many religions and different gods in each religion, how can we be confident that our God is the true God?

As you study the teachings of world “religions,” it soon becomes evident that Christianity is unique. All other religions are based on man’s best guesses with the guidance of only nature and conscience. In one way or another those religions put the burden on us to earn our own salvation with God. For example, the Muslim worshiper strives to give Allah obedience (Islam means “submission” or “obedience”). The Buddhist monk seeks to rise above this world’s evils by his devotion to meditation. All other world religions ask sinners to make themselves right with God by their own efforts.

On the other hand, Christianity alone offers a completely different solution. Only Christianity teaches that being right with God is God’s gift to us, not man’s gift to God. Only Christianity teaches that God became man, not to teach us how to rise to Him but to lift us up by His grace to Himself. Christianity is not just one selection among many similar entrees on the world’s religious smorgasbord. Its unique message testifies to its unique origin—a miraculous revelation by the true God. God has revealed the one saving truth that “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived…but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).

Finally, the Holy Spirit Himself works through the Word to convince us that the God who inspired Scripture is the one true God. Because this God gives us forgiveness and eternal life, we trust that His words are reliable and true.

Richard L. Gurgel. This We Believe: Questions and Answers, pp.5-6

Couldn’t God have revealed Himself to different peoples in different ways and by different names?

The assumption behind this question is that all the different religions of the world teach basically the same thing. They just call God by different names. This assumption also believes that religion is essentially nothing more than a set of good moral rules to live by in order to make God happy. In that sense, most world religions do have much in common. But God says something different in Scripture. He contradicts what those other religions teach about Him and what they think religion is all about. In Scripture Jesus proclaims boldly, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6; emphasis added). Peter so simply stated the same though, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to me by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Claiming that God has revealed Himself in many different ways by many different names is a belief fostered more to keep outward earthly peace than to convey heavenly spiritual truth. The only saving revelation of God is that which comes through Jesus Christ and proclaims not human morality but God’s own perfection as our salvation.

Richard L. Gurgel. This We Believe: Questions and Answers, pp.8-9

How can we be confident that the Bible is true if other religions claim that their holy books are also true?

It is true that almost every religion possesses its own holy book. There are the Koran of Islam, the Bhagavad Gita of Hinduism, and the Book of Mormon of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, just to name a few. All these books claim to reveal truth about spiritual things. Except for the Bible, the basic message of these books is always the same. They tell us that we can gain the love and blessing of God by what we do. In eastern religions, holy books holy out escapes from the physical world through devotion and meditation.

But the Bible tells us a different message. First of all, only the Bible tells us that God’s love and blessings are gifts of God. They come to us through what Jesus did while He was on earth. Salvation is not based on what we must do but on what God Himself has done in our place. That is a strong indication that the origin of our holy book is different from the rest.

There is a second difference in the holy books of the world. We can illustrate it best by a well-known verse from the Christmas story in Luke 2. “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)” (verses 1-2). Other holy books of the world tend to deal with nothing but unprovable opinion about spiritual matters. The Bible, on the other hand, is unafraid to speak of real historical events that match with documented history. There actually was a Roman emperor named Augustus, a govern of Syria named Quirinius, and a census in the Roman world at the time of Christ’s birth. The Bible is not afraid that it will be proved wrong because it is the revealed truth of the God of all history. It is not something spun out of the imagination of a human mind.

Third, consider the amazing detail of clearly fulfilled prophecy. Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 were written centuries before their fulfillment, which is recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The Bible’s accuracy of specific prophecy and specific fulfillment is unparalleled among the holy books of the world.

Finally, Scripture makes its own claims of what it is. “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21). Every word of Scripture is the “living and active” (Hebrews 4:12) testimony of the Holy Spirit Himself. The best proof of that is simply to read the Bible and experience firsthand its powerful truth. The Bible is its own best defender when it works its wonders on or hearts as we read it and take it to heart.

Richard L. Gurgel. This We Believe: Questions and Answers, pp.15-16

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