What Knowing Is
This subject is truly exalted – knowing God, the Lord, himself, not his creatures but knowing him, our Creator, Redeemer, Father and Judge. In John 17:3, Jesus prayed that his disciples might know the only true God. To know the heavenly Father, the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the highest of privileges and the greatest of experiences.
We know a book by reading, a place by visiting, and a language by using it. We know our pet by being its owner over a period of time and providing for it. It is not as easy with people. For example, I can say, I know Len Dawson. I really just recognize his image and voice on television. I could say I know Archbishop John Hepworth of the Traditional Anglican Communion. Janie and I had a private conversation with him during the 2005 General synod. I have read a great deal about him which imparts a greater level of knowing. Nonetheless, I do not know him, I know of him. We all work together here at church and through careful observation and caring we know a lot about each other. Still, with a rare exception, we only know about each other.
On the other hand, I really know Janie and number of other people. Not only do I know about them but I have such a personal relation with them that I actually do truly know them rather than merely knowing about them. This is possible because each of them has in different ways and by various means disclosed his or her inner life, thoughts, and being to me. Usually this personal knowing works both ways through friendship or within family ties or in holy matrimony. You reveal yourself to me and I open up myself to you in a gradual development on both sides.
When we speak of knowing God, we have in mind, I think, both knowing about him in terms of his nature, character, attributes and actions and also knowing him in personal friendship. We need to know something about God, Creator, Redeemer, Father and Judge in order to accept his gracious call to enter a personal relation of faith and trust in him and love of him. However, if we take the content of the “Ministration of Holy Baptism” seriously, then we must rejoice in the fact that God places infants in a right relation with himself from the time of their baptism. Then, within this personal relation with the Lord in the fellowship of the church, the child learns about this God in whom he trusts and grows into deepening friendship and communion with him.
As Anglicans, our knowledge of God is the same as that of the whole Church, Eastern and Western, Catholic and Protestant, for we all trace our history back to the same source, the apostolic Church and the Holy Scriptures. This knowledge is given the technical name of “classical Christian Trinitarian Theism” by theologians in order to distinguish it from other ways of stating a claimed knowledge of God.
We do not accept pantheism, the doctrine that God is equivalent to nature and that the natural order is either God or the external expression of God. We do not accept deism, a doctrine that teaches that God created the world and then left it all alone to get on with its existence. We believe that God the Creator is also God the Sustainer and Redeemer. God cares for the world that he made ex nihilo (out of nothing); and by his mighty word he keeps it in existence and order moment by moment. Use of the Psalms and the Venite express our beliefs.
Theism is the belief in one God who is the Creator of the world; he is infinite, self-existent, incorporeal, eternal, immutable, impassible, simple, omniscient, and omnipotent. A shorter approach describes the one God as a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. The simpler approach is a belief in one God who totally transcends (is above and wholly distinct from) the world that he made and who is perfect in wisdom, power, and love. Polytheism (belief in multiple gods) and pantheism (described above) are rival approaches. The latest is panentheism which teaches that the self-development of God is inextricable connected with the evolution and development of the universe. This said God is constantly changing and growing in perfection through including within his being the experiences of the cosmos.
Muslims, Jews and Christians are theist in their beliefs. A primary distinction of Classical Christian theism is that the one God exists in Three Persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Further Christians hold that the eternal Son became incarnate as Jesus, the Christ, and that by him alone is there salvation from sin and into eternal life. Under the general guidance of the Holy Ghost in the Church, Christian experience of God in worship and in daily life, together with reflection upon the teaching of Jesus and the apostles against the content of the Jewish Scriptures, led to the doctrine of the Trinity. The doctrine arose to explain the vital, spiritual, and moral experience of God within the fellowship of Christians, for the Church knew and worshipped the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit, because the Father had sent his Son into the world to be the Saviour of it.
The statement of our belief in the Holy Trinity has to be stated very carefully to avoid misunderstanding. “God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit” could mean there is one God with three names (Modalism or Sabellianism). It could be misstated to indicate three equal Gods (Tritheism). It could be understood as a descending hierarchy where the Father is at the top with the Son at a lower level and the Holy Spirit at an even lower level (Arianism). The Athanasian Creed addresses these heresies head on. As scriptures and liturgies have been paraphrased into contemporary language, these heresies have arisen again and again. Therein lies our need to learn sound and edifying knowledge about the God we worship.
There is much to know about God, for his is like a glorious, everlastingly inexhaustible Fountain from which we drink and continue to drink. He is a super-essential Being and the more we know about him the more we realize that there is more to know. Knowledge of the Lord as the Holy Trinity is fundamental, and without this knowledge we can make no progress in worship and devotion. There are also many other aspects to the knowledge of God that we need to know in order that we might grow in our personal relation to him.
To enhance our personal relation to God, we study and meditate upon the Holy Scriptures. Anglicans have always claimed that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the first source of our knowledge of God. For the Anglican who devoutly follows and uses the Lectionary in Morning and Evening Prayer there is daily immersion in this vital source of our knowledge of the Lord our God.
Over the centuries Christians have learned about God from being taught the Creed and the Catechism, by hearing and reading the Bible, and by accepting the teaching about God which appears in the text of the Prayer Book. This has been augmented by sermons, by further teaching, by home study groups and personal study and reflection. Morning and Evening Prayer and Holy Communion all require recitation of one of the Creeds. They all begin with, “I believe.” This is different from “We believe” which can mean the body, by a vote of 51 to 49 accepts the majority opinion. It is critical that we individually believe and state that belief.
Our knowledge about God is expressed in our worship services and enhances our personal knowing of God. We worship the Father through and in the Son by and with the Holy Spirit. Our services are written to insure continuity in our knowledge of God. Often we sing or say: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.”
The last book of the Bible presents perfect congregational singing, as the angel choirs, joined by redeemed humanity, never cease to sing the praise of God: “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come!” What is good for heaven is surely good for earth and what is good for the Church triumphant is also good for the Church militant here on earth.
For more details, read “Worship without Dumbing-down” by The Rev. Dr. Peter Toon, M.A., D.Phil.
(Preservation Press
of the Prayer Book Society of the