Can there be an absolute, and yet a growing, knowledge of God?
There is always the danger of misunderstanding one another's use of words, and so we must see in what sense you use the word "absolute." If you mean by it, "exhaustive," then of course the answer must be, No.
But I take it that you do not have this thought in mind, for in that case there would be no chance for a question, since it is self-evident that if one knows all there is to be known about anything he cannot learn more. But taking the word in the ordinary sense, I must answer unhesitatingly, Yes; and will try to make it clear to you.
There is nothing that will more perfectly illustrate the case than the relation of father and son, since God is our Father. Now the child knows its father absolutely, without any shadow of doubt. Yet he does not know as much as the father does, nor can he understand all his ways.
You have doubtless heard the story of the little boy who, when a man asked him who his father was, replied in a tone of incredulity: "You, big man as you are, don't know my father? Why, I know him just as easy as can be."
Here we have absolute knowledge, in the fullest sense of the word. It is not knowledge that comes by study, and that can be increased by more study, but knowledge that is above and beyond all reason or explanation.
The child cannot tell how he knows his father, or how he came to know him; he simply knows him; and all the arguments of all the learned men in the world could not for a moment shake his belief (which we clearly see in this case is positive knowledge) that the man spoken of is his father, nor could any learned disquisition make his knowledge more perfect. Yet as years go by, if he continues a faithful son, he will appreciate his father more than he possibly can now. Even so it is with us and our Father in heaven.
Perfection does not preclude growth. At every stage of its existence a plant may be perfect. Indeed, without perfection there cannot be perfect growth. We are "complete in Him," (Colossians 2:10) yet we are to "grow in grace." (2 Peter 3:18) We are to be "filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding," (Colossians 1:9) and yet are to be: "Fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God." (Colossians 1:10)
Jesus in the temple at the age of twelve knew God as His Father. His knowledge was as absolutely sure as it ever was; yet: "[He] increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." (Luke 2:52)
Real growth in the knowledge of God can take place only when there is absolute knowledge of Him; otherwise our growth would be crooked. So we, knowing whom we have believed, may "Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 3:18)--Present Truth, September 27, 1900.