Do you have faith in God? Why ? Why not?

Do you have a real faith in God?• If so, what made you really

believe in Him for yourself ?• If not, what makes you think He

isn’t real ?

• To identify ways in which God can be known

• To explain the difference between revealed and natural knowledge

• To evaluate the different ways we can know God

UNIT: Knowing GodLesson 1: ways of Knowing God

HW – Title page for the unit “knowing God”.

How do these pictures show ways you can know or experience God?

Try and explain it to your partner.

Which ways convince you most that there is a God? Which ones convince you less?

The Bible Seeing the wonder of Nature

Coincidences that change history

Going to Church with lots of other believers

Feeling God’s

presence & the

power of prayer

Having a spiritual

experience of God1. List the ways of knowing God from most to least convincing.

2. Explain how 2 of these ways could help you to believe that there is a God.

**What makes you believe that God is for real? Miracles

RevelationThe Bible says that it isn’t possible for human beings to really know God by themselves – God has to come down to us, and show us Himself, for us to know Him.

Can you think of any examples in the Bible when this has happened?

But people still try and work out philosophically what God is like - so that they can check if the God who reveals himself, is also like the God we think we should have.

Which of the following statements about God are “philosophical” and which are from when God himself has revealed something about himself ?

D. God is actually three persons but One being. We know this from when he appeared to Jesus at His baptism – God the Father, Son & H.S were all there at the same time.

B. God must be THE Creator: otherwise, it would mean someone else made Him!

A. Jesus taught us that God is a Father to us

E. God is a pure spirit. If God was a physical being, he would need stuff to make Him exist – but God doesn’t need anything!

C. Jesus is the Lord, God’s own self in human form. He showed this to us by his life.

1. Write 2 examples for what we can know about God from revelation and 2 examples from philosophy

2. explain what “revelation” means. **Which would you trust more – what we know about God from philosophy, or from revelation?

F. God must be all-powerful or else something else would be more powerful than Him and he wouldn’t be all powerful God.

Why is Revelation maybe the best way of knowing God?

1. Choose one way of knowing God.

2. Write a speech to convince other people that your way of knowing God is the most convincing.

The Bible

Miracles

Nature History

Church

Personal experience

Conversion