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152 How Can We Know the Christian Scriptures Are True?
knowledge. Wherefore let none thus entertain prejudices of this
nature. 2
In other words, if the language I am using to talk about how the Bible
reveals its complete truthfulness is new or strange or even off-putting,
don’t let this become a great hindrance to spiritual knowledge. Of
course, don’t believe anything just because it’s new—or old! Believe it
because it is biblical and true.
What I have learned over the years is that our grasp of reality itself
can be hindered by having inadequate language to name the reality. If
you can’t name it, it’s hard to receive or pass on. For example, if you
have no word for chivalry, will you know it when you see it? Will you
be able to help your child have it?
One of the great gifts of Scripture is that it creates for us categories
of thought that help us grasp more truth. And it gives us terms to talk
about those categories that we would not have without the Bible. So,
Edwards would say, and I say, test the categories and the terms of this
book by Scripture, not just by your experience. We are all learners. And
there is always more to see and know about God and his ways than we
can imagine.
Four Analogies for Divine Illumination
My aim in this chapter is to shed as much light on the process of divine
illumination as I can by means of four analogies or illustrations. In
other words, I am asking, what is it like to experience the miracle of
2 Corinthians 4:6? “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’
has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ.” No analogy is a one-for-one likeness.
These illustrations are only pointers. The actual sight of divine glory
remains a supernatural experience with no natural counterpart.
The Rational Soul and the Word of God
First, there is an analogy that Edwards himself offers. Keep in mind it
is an analogy, not an exact duplicate, of the experience of knowing the
2
Jonathan Edwards, “A Spiritual Understanding of Divine Things Denied to the Unregenerate,” in Sermons
and Discourses, 1723–1729, vol. 14, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, ed. Harry S. Stout and Kenneth
P. Minkema (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997), 91.