The approach

“No, I have never been able to accept the Bible as a Revelation.”

“Why?”

“Because it is a miracle book. It begins with miracles. It sponsors miracles. Every one of the healing characters was a miracle worker, until finally we come to Jesus. I recognize him as the most outstanding product of the human family. But I cannot accept him as being conceived independent of natural generation. I cannot understand a Resurrection. They are both contrary to human experience and reasoning. There are no such things as miracles.”

“But don't you believe that there is a God?”

“I believe there is some force that we cannot understand, that is out of the reach of human knowledge; but as for a personal God, I have no evidence.  I have given forty years to scientific investigation in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, but I cannot find God.”

“Would you like to believe there is a God if it could be proven that He exists and is an intelligent God of love?”

“Yes, I would, but there is no way to find Him. I have sought through every avenue of human investigation, and He is not there.”

“If I should tell you, doctor, that there was a way of finding Him, would it seem credible to you? But first, let me show you why you take the mental attitude that you do. You know that all the knowledge that we have today in the Mechanical, Chemical Metallurgical, and Scientific fields has come from one source.”

Here the doctor looked very much interested. His keen, intelligent eyes widened. "Yes, I recognize that," he said, "All this knowledge comes from our Five Senses. I have often thought of it. These Five Senses - Hearing, Smelling, Tasting, Feeling, and Seeing - are the doors into the brain."

"Yes, doctor, but we cannot belittle these servants. They have given to the world knowledge that seems almost incredible. When you were a boy, the electric car was just coming in. Men were just writing about steam wagons. Electricity was almost unknown as we view it today. You have lived through the greatest inventive, creative age of human history. All the knowledge that has been gained these last seventy years has been gained through these Five Senses. All the knowledge that is taught in the academies, schools, and universities, is what we are going to call Sense Knowledge."

The doctor spoke again. This time his voice was low and vibrant with feeling. "There are limitations to this Sense Knowledge as you call it, serious limitations."
The other answered him. "We cannot know God through the Senses. Had we been able to find Him, things would have been different. Neither can we know the Reason for Creation, nor the Reason for man. We cannot find in all our searching the source of Light, of Life, of Motion, of Gravitation, and a hundred other things before which the world stands baffled and confused. You see, doctor, Sense Knowledge has been unable to explain the apparent design in Creation, where every need of this Scientific and Mechanical age is being met in the metals, chemicals, vegetables, and in the air and water. This fact alone proves that someone planned it. Someone knew the age of Mechanics and Chemistry was coming and prepared for it."

The doctor merely assented.

His friend said, "You have noted, then, the limitations. Now I would like to suggest to you the solution of this problem. I wish to show you the bridge that crosses the chasm that Sense Knowledge faces. You know whenever man has reached the limit of Sense Knowledge, he at once turns into a philosopher or guesser.

The doctor smiled and said, "Most of our scientific books are beautiful guesses. I know of no guesser in the class with Darwin ." Then his face grew serious and he said, "What is this solution?"

His friend answered, "It is another kind of Knowledge. It is Revelation Knowledge, if we may so call it. For argument's sake let us assume, for a moment, that there is a God and that this wonderful earth of ours was designed and created by this God. One more assumption - man comes on the scene. Man is the reason for this earth. God created this earth for His man, who was coming. That would give us the reason for creation and the reason for man, and it would suggest the nature of man; that man would be a spirit of the same kind as the God who created him to be His companion. Then it would be the most natural thing in the world if God should wish to communicate with this man, and if He did communicate with him, He would need to come to man's level. It would have to be a communication that the Senses could understand. It would be in the realm of Sense Knowledge. It would need to be written through men whom He controlled, men who yielded themselves to His sway and wrote as He moved them."

The doctor looked up and said, "That's credible, but that's a miracle."

"But you see, doctor, spiritual things are just as real as material things and there are spiritual realities as well as material realities. God is a spirit. Man is a spirit. He lives in a body. He has a soul composed of intellect and reasoning faculties. The thing we call sub-conscious mind is nothing else than his spirit, the real man. It would be the most normal thing that God should communicate with this man, and man should be able to communicate with Him. So you see that the book we call the Bible is a reasonable thing, a natural thing, and a thing that man actually demands. You know that all men are religious. This is spirit hunger for God. Man is really God-hungry. This is because he was created to be the companion of God. Man is God-lonesome. You will admit that you are a searcher after God."

The doctor's fine, beautiful head was bent. He was leaning on his hands. He did not answer. There was silence for a few moments; then he said, "I wish I knew that this were true. If this Bible is a Revelation. it would solve the human problem."

They sat in silence again, then the doctor, speaking more to himself than to his companion said, "That book tells us of the Reason for Creation, its Origin, the source of Life and Light. I can see now, how Revelation Knowledge is necessary to Sense Knowledge. They should never be separated one from the other."