  The lattice formulation of quantum gravity provides a natural framework in
which non-perturbative properties of the ground state can be studied in detail.
In this paper we investigate how the lattice results relate to the continuum
semiclassical expansion about smooth manifolds. As an example we give an
explicit form for the lattice ground state wave functional for semiclassical
geometries. We then do a detailed comparison between the more recent
predictions from the lattice regularized theory, and results obtained in the
continuum for the non-trivial ultraviolet fixed point of quantum gravity found
using weak field and non-perturbative methods. In particular we focus on the
derivative of the beta function at the fixed point and the related universal
critical exponent $\nu$ for gravitation. Based on recently available lattice
and continuum results we assess the evidence for the presence of a massless
spin two particle in the continuum limit of the strongly coupled lattice
theory. Finally we compare the lattice prediction for the vacuum-polarization
induced weak scale dependence of the gravitational coupling with recent
calculations in the continuum, finding similar effects.
