γινώσκω

I’ve been praying for an extra day in the week, actually to be honest I’ve been praying for three extra days in the week. Not like, three open days in my schedule. I’m talking like a ten day week. But those three extra days with serve the purpose of 1. Having time to do my homework in leisure so I can take in all of it, 2. To have more coffee dates with people, 3. To sleep more, 4. To have more solitude. Yes, a ten day week. That is how busy my life is right now. I had to schedule time to clean out the receipts from my wallet because I didn’t have 5 extra minutes to spare. Slight exaggeration...not really...but seriously...now, unto the real blog...

I sat in my room, with my “where is my RA” sign blank so I could get some reading done. Systematic Theology reading to be exact - I was reading about general and special revelation, pretty light reading :) I came across the Greek verb γινώσκω [ginosko] and like a good Greek student I knew that that was the present, active, indicative, singular, 1st person form of the word “to know” - showing off, sorry.

In that context it meant “to perceive with the sense and to grasp with the mind.” I was struck with the depth of that revelation on revelation. And then came across this quote two lines down,

“Scripture teaches that when confronted with the truth-content of general revelation, sinners consistently dismiss it from consciousness. Thus, instead of worshipping and obeying God, the unregenerate assert their own autonomy and fashion lifeless idols which they then venerate.”

I was shocked at the stark contrast between these two assertions about how we accept or decline truth. On one hand, we are perceiving who God is, and grasping with our minds of who God reveals himself to be; but on the other hand we dismiss truth as if it was a whimsical rumor. Winston Churchill once related uncovering truth to ‘stumbling over it.’ It is like those divots and lips of cement in the plaza at Moody, we catch our toe and trip, but act as if it never happened. We don’t even look down to acknowledge what tripped us up, we simply continue walking. General revelation surrounds us, we are literally drowning in theology; and yet we refuse to acknowledge the truth. We refuse to drink in the wonder and awe of God and choose instead to suffocate ourselves with our handmade idols that barely suffice and do not reproduce any life in us. I was astonished at our - mainly my own - ignorance of the truth. God is there, God is everywhere, the image of the Creator is still on everything that He created. I need to open my eyes and grasp what He has laid out in front of me. I need to know Him.