Revelation

When I tell people that we can know who God is through his revealing of himself to us they generally respond by saying that revelation is not something that happens in the real world. They claim it to be merely the product of religious fantasy. On the contrary revelation occurs every day. In fact, it is the main form of human communication and the beginning of all human knowledge.

When we converse with another human being we do so through revelation. We cannot read each others mind. We must take what is in our mind and reveal it (usually through the spoken word) to someone else. Once they hear what has been said they proceed to think about it, and then in turn, reveal what they are thinking to us. Professors through the use of the spoken word, power point presentations, etc. reveal to their students the knowledge they have of the subject they are teaching. Only after this knowledge has been revealed can students begin to reason about it. When we read a book the author is revealing to us through the written word the ideas he desires to communicate, and then we can think about it. Even science begins with the revelation of the material world, and then they do their experiments and draw their conclusions.

Reason always follows revelation. The same then must be true when it comes to God. First God reveals himself to us and then we can begin to think clearly about him.