Systematic Theology (Vol 1) - Hodge - XXII - Chapter 4 (Knowledge of God) commenced

Required reading
Systematic Theology Volume 1 by Charles Hodge (Available from Amazon or free here) - Commence Chapter 4 (The knowledge of God) by reading up to the heading '2. God cannot be fully known'.

My summary
Today Hodge speaks about the knowledge of God by affirming that God can be known.

Firstly we learn that God is:
(i) knowable;
(ii) inconceivable;
(iii) incomprehensible;
(iv) partially known.

Secondly Hodge teaches us that we know about God by way of negation.

Thirdly Hodge gives us proof that this method of knowing God is trustworthy as it fits with:
(i) the law of nature;
(ii) our moral nature;
(iii) our religious nature;
(iv) the attributes of our own nature;
(v) the works of God;
(vi) the Scriptures;
(vii) the revelation of Christ.

What grabbed me
I enjoyed the description of God manifest in Christ: 'Finally, God has revealed Himself in the person of his Son. No man knoweth the Father but the Son ; and he to whom the Son shall reveal Him. Jesus Christ is the true God. The revelation which He made of Himself was the manifestation of God. He and the Father are one. The words of Christ were the words of God. The works of Christ were the works of God. The love, mercy, tenderness, the forgiving grace, as well as the holiness, the severity and power manifested by Christ, were all manifestations of what God truly is. We see, therefore, as with our own eyes, what God is. We know that although infinite and absolute. He can think, act, and will ; that He can love and hate ; that He can hear prayer and forgive sin ; that we can have fellowship with Him, as one person can commune with another. Philosophy must veil her face in the presence of Jesus Christ, as God manifest in the flesh. She may not presume in that presence to say that God is not, and is not known to be, what Christ himself most clearly was. '

If we have seen the Son, we have seen the Father.

Next week's reading
Conclude Chapter 4 (The knowledge of God).

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.