Revelation as the basis for knowledge

Reformed theology claims that revelation (both special and general) is the basis for knowledge; not only the knowledge of God, but of human freedom, and much else.

Quotes and comments;

A. 'This testimony of self-consciousness, combining dependence and freedom in one, is further the basis of religion, and likewise of morality.' Herman Bavinck [1.]

- I take him to mean that while 'science' claims man is not free; both special revelation and general revelation tell us that he is. i.e. the bible says man is free, and we experience a consciousness of freedom. If then we are to maintain that man is free, we will have to rely on revelation as our only foundation for this belief.

B. 'In view of the universality and the spontaneity of religion many have assumed an innate idea of God. But this representation is scarcely well conceived, and the name is somewhat unfortunately chosen. Of course, in the strict sense of the term innate ideas do not exist. They savor rather of rationalism and of a mysticism which separates man from the world, than of a Christian theism which finds God's eternal power and divinity revealed in the works of his hands.
It is the mind of man, with all of its peculiar nature and organization, its intellect and reason, heart and conscience, desire and will, and with the ineradicable consciousness of its dependence and freedom, that is innate, brought into the world in principle and germ at birth, not acquired later phylogenetically or ontogenetically. [1.]

- In more simple terms; man both knows that God exists, and knows himself to be a free and responsible agent because of his inherited nature, of his inherent intellectual capacities. Man is who he is because Adam was created in the image of God, and because we are all his descendents made in his image.

C. 'Thus, when man grows up and develops in accordance with the nature implanted in him, not in detachment from the world and the social organism, but in the environment in which a place was assigned to him at birth, he attains as freely and as inevitably to the knowledge and service of a personal God as he believes in his own existence and that of the world.
He does not invent the idea of God nor produce it ; it is given to him and he receives it. Atheism is not proper to man by nature, but develops at a later stage of life, on the ground of philosophic reflection ; like scepticism, it is an intellectual and ethical abnormality, which only confirms the rule. [2.]

- Materialism isn't a necessary deduction from the data (as atheists claim) but is instead a way to escape revelation. (As the apostle Paul says in Romans; men know God, but don't like to retain this knowledge nor give thanks, but suppress the truth...) We read continually in the scientific press that scientists claim man isn't free, but is as bound as any other bit of matter; but yet scientists themselves admit to the experience of human freedom (e.g. S. Pinker). In terms of Bavinck; they know by revelation they are free, but they deny this in their science. They honor the conclusions of their scientific methodology above the revelation of both experience and scripture.

It's harder to get the materialist to admit he knows God, that he has had experience of god, but we might ask him where freedom can come from other than the Transcendent. When he admits he can find no answer for the origin of living organisms on the earth isn't he admitting a need for the Transcendent? When he admits he can't find a source for absolute truth isn't he admitting a need for the Transcendent? When he admits he doesn't know what reality is, or whether it exists, isn't he admitting a need for the Transcendent?

D. 'By nature, in virtue of his nature, every man believes in God. And this is due in the last analysis to the fact that God, the creator of all nature, has not left himself without witness, but through all nature, both that of man himself and that of the outside world, speaks to him. In self-consciousness God makes known to us man, the world, and himself. [2]

Notes;
1. Philosophy of Revelation - Herman Bavinck/78.
- Although these lectures were given in 1908 they still remain relevant.
2. p. 79