How did people know about God before the bible was written? 10 March 2021
Key verse: John 1:3 “All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.”
God has been displaying Himself through His nature, attributes, power, and purposes to us from the very beginning. Instead of using the voices of prophets, angels, visions, or miracles, God now reveals himself through his Word and through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Bible we use today is different from the original text – not only was it originally written in languages most people no longer speak, and it was also written in parts over many years. The Bible with its 66 books was not even compiled (or “canonised”) until the 4th century AD. If the Bible reveals who God is, the question is: “How did people know about God before the Bible?”
God revealed Himself through nature – In the Book of Genesis, God created the universe and all that is in it. John wrote “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” John 1:1-5. Then, we see the ultimate gift of His creation, He made us in His image Genesis 1:26-28. While nature does not provide information specifically about Jesus Christ, it does provide a general revelation about the existence of a creator as well as His perfection and authority above all things, His timelessness, His power, and goodness. Also the complexity, beauty, and order of nature point us to better understand what our Creator is like. David writes “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” Psalm 19:1.
God revealed Himself with personal interactions with man – God has always been displaying His nature, attributes, and power to man. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, with Noah as he built the ark, with Abraham as his family grew into a nation, with Moses and Joshua leading the Jews to the Promised Land and with David and the Messianic promise. Sometimes God would speak in miraculous ways, speaking to Moses through a burning bush (Exodus 3), or in quiet ways like with Elijah in a “still small voice” (1 Kings 19), and many more. Speaking often through prophets like Elijah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah who became messengers for God’s promises, challenges, and judgments. God sent angels to speak on his behalf, Samson’s parents (Judges 13) or Mary about Jesus’ birth (Luke 1) all helping us recognise who God is. Before the written word, God’s law, the peoples’ history, the prophets’ messages, were all transferred from one generation to the next orally. The most important verbal messages of scripture, was and is from Jesus Christ himself who not only taught the word but was the incarnate Word.
God revealed Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ – Today we know very little about God without the Bible, but we would know even less without the gift of God in His Son Jesus Christ. Paul says that Jesus is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, …. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” Colossians 1:15-20. Jesus, himself, declared how he reflected God in statements like “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him” John 14:7. He even used the phrase “I Am” about himself, which mirrors the identification of God to Moses many years before Exodus 3:14. We see that nearly three centuries before the Bible as we know it was complied, God made himself known to humanity with the clearest presentation of himself that he could through Jesus Christ our Saviour God’s Son.
What about today? – Today, God reveals himself regularly through his written word. Paul taught “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17. It is inspired or “breathed out by God” (ESV) and He still shows Himself through the ordinary events of life we maybe don’t recognise so easily, prophets, angels, visions, or miracles, but he speaks through the work of the Holy Spirit who bears witness for Him. Jesus tells us “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf.” John 15:26. and He also lets us know that He will not leave us alone “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” John 14:25-26. We can say that not only does God want to be known by us, but has made ways for us to know Him, Paul tells us “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.” Ephesians 1:17-19.