Divine Knowledge

Towards the close of Daniel's last revelation, the prophet learns of what would mark "the time of the end," and one of these features is "knowledge shall be increased" (Dan. 12:4). The multiplication of universities and professorial chairs in many parts of the world, especially in the lands of Christendom, witness to a vast acquisition of knowledge, and that we have reached the days spoken of in the Book of Daniel. The immense amount of research in the realm of natural science not only tells that man has learned much, but also declares how very ignorant man is as to the very things in which he boasts of acquired knowledge.

There is however a realm into which the natural man cannot enter, and it is here that "are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:3). The "mystery of God" is altogether beyond the ken of the greatest of men, unless they are born of God and have been indwelt by the Spirit of God; for it is the divine nature that gives the believer the capacity to enter into the secrets of God, and the Holy Spirit is the power for understanding what God has revealed. Moreover, the secrets of God have been made known by divine revelation, and it is God's desire that we should apprehend His secrets, even as we read, "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles" (Col. 1:27).

Yet there are things that have not been revealed by God, and which must for ever lie beyond the apprehension of the creature. While on earth the Son of God said to His disciples, "no man knoweth the Son, but the Father" (Matt. 11:27), and into the holy mystery of the Person of the Son none should seek to pry. We are also told in 1 Timothy 6:15-16, of Him who dwells "in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see." Being finite creatures, there must of necessity lie in the infinite that which is altogether outside of finite knowledge.

God, in His wonderful grace, has been pleased to give to His saints the most wonderful knowledge, so that the Apostle John could write, "I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father" (1 John 2:13). This divine knowledge belongs even to the babes in the family of God, and the Son of God came into the world to make this possible, even as He said, "neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him" (Matt. 11:27).

There is a wide range of divine knowledge that God has given as the common heritage of all saints, and found in the oft-repeated words of Scripture, "we know," and "ye know." Paul, in writing to the saints in Rome, said, "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose" (8:28); and to the saints in Corinth he wrote, "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Cor. 5:1).