How we are to Know the Eternal: The First Step

The Eternal reveals itself in a way that makes knowledge of the Eternal possible to all persons. This means that, “the Eternal will act in a way to reveal its nature to humans. If the Eternal is loving, then it will act consistently with this” and again “if the Eternal is also just then it must act in a way that is consistent with this” (2). This leads me to ask, if one is to know God as the Eternal, through reading the Bible, and one does not have access to the Bible, how is this consistent with a God of love and who is just? A God of justice and love would never expect a person to do something they are incapable of doing. Along the same lines, the seventeenth-century French philosopher René Descartes believes that “If God were a deceiving spirit, he could not be the most perfect being. The concept itself of the idea of the perfect being therefore includes not only the existence but also the truthfulness and goodness of God. A deceiver-God is impossible” (6). Descartes believed that God instilled his mind with the idea of a perfect being. According to Descartes, this idea of God is instilled in human beings and one that of which they are born with.

Although for some, such as Blaise Pascal for example, this still may not be enough to be proof for the existence of God. Pascal disagreed with Descartes on the grounds that “the God of Jesus Christ… can only be found by the ways taught in the Gospel” (6). Whereas Descartes believed that self-awareness and the idea of God is proof alone. Pascal believed the ultimate grounds of certainty was found in the Bible. But again, this brings me to the question of, if one does not have access to the Bible how is he expected to read it? Referring back to the God of love, this would be inconsistent with God’s actions.

Thus far, we have come to understand that there must be something eternal; this is not enough to state that this eternal is the God in theism. So what then is our next step?


(6) Karkkainen, Veli-Matti. The Doctrine of God. Michigan: Backer Academic, 2004.