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How do we know what we know?

We know some things by reason. I know that I drank a venti chai latte this morning on my way to work. I know that 2 + 2 = 4. I know that if all men are mortal, and Socrates is a man, then Socrates is mortal. I know that George Washington was the first president of the United States. I know that I lived at 973 Begonia Avenue for most of my childhood. These statements are examples of how we build knowledge through reason by means of experience, intuition, logical entailment, credible authorities, and memory.

We know other things by revelation. For example, I know that my wife Tiffany wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder when she was a little girl. Her parents dressed her in a prairie frock and bonnet and let her run through the high grass at a field near their house. I didn’t experience this personally. I didn’t intuit it. Logic didn’t entail it. I didn’t remember it. Tiffany told me about it.

Revelation is the means by which we build personal knowledge of others. Obviously, we can use reason too. On my first date, I know that Tiffany wore a white shirt, blue jacket, tan shirt, and brown high-heel boots. (I also know that she wore a thin pink bow in her hair, but Tiff claims my knowledge is faulty at this point.) I observed all this about her and remember it to the present day. But there’s a difference between knowing about a person and knowing a person.

Reason can teach us things about a person, but to truly know that person requires their self-revelation.

The same is true of God. In 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, Paul writes:

However, as it is written:

“No eye has seen,

no ear has heard,

no mind has conceived

what God has prepared for those who love him—

but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

It would be easy to misunderstand these words and conclude that reason plays no role whatsoever in our knowledge of God. When Paul writes, “No eye has seen…no mind has conceived,” doesn’t he rule out experience and abstract conceptualization as sources of knowing “what God has prepared for those who love thim”?

Yes and no.

On the one hand, Yes, for the best thinkers of the world never conceived of “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2), and yet he is “the power of God” for our salvation (1:18). Reason has its limits.

On the other hand, No. We know God by means of self-revelation. Paul writes, “God has revealed it [his plan of salvation] to us by his Spirit.” Reason may not be the source of this knowledge of God, but it helps us sift through what we know to understand him better.

How do we know what we know about God? Revelation assisted by reason. When God reveals himself to us, he gives us brains to understand what he’s said.