Jesus, Faith, & Knowledge

#Knowledge   #epistemology

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I don’t claim to be a philosopher, theologian, scientist or logician. But I know something about each of these fields. And, if one human being has the right to think, ask questions and have an opinion, then all do because of our common humanity. I’m a Christian, but the same would be true if I were a Hindu, atheist, or Muslim.

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Of course, we can be threatened and forced to say we believe only particular truths, but really believe things much different from what we’ve been forced to believe. And if we can gain our freedom, we can then be ethical and honest as our common humanity dictates. And while we may hold particular views, we are wise to be somewhat open to other views since we make mistakes and can gain greater knowledge. Moreover, we’re wise also to have some reasons or evidence to justify our belief; otherwise, we may look foolish, may even have an erroneous faith.
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This article is an attempt to understand the relationships between faith and knowledge. It’s called epistemology that deals with the nature, scope, and validity of knowledge. And I take responsibility for my views. 

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We begin with a childlike faith. As children, our parents and teachers provide, protect and teach us. We have little understanding of the world and must depend upon them. In growing up, we become able to think for ourselves and may come to see things a bit different from what we’ve been taught. Conditions too may change calling for different beliefs and ways of doing things. We become individuals in our own right. I became a Christian at an early age. But as a youth, I questioned things about God, the Bible, and Christianity. About the only thing, I didn’t at some time doubt was Proverbs 27:1, which said not to boast about tomorrow for we don’t know what a day may bring forth. I struggled with issues about science, philosophy, biblical criticism, other religions, and the evils and injustices I saw. I wanted some honest answers that made sense. Yes, we must test the spirits, but unbridled skepticism tends to torment and self-destruct us.

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To save space let me list some things I’ve come to believe are universally and objectively true. Equals added to equals are equal—2 + 2 = 4. Absolute truth is not only possible, but is assumed in its denial. All rational thinking depends upon correspondence to reality, is not contradictory, and so the opposite of true is false. In other words, truth is the same everywhere, for everyone, all the time--the world is either round or it isn't. Sense experience is valid—seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and smelling gives true knowledge, although things like seeing a crooked stick in water or a mirage need further testing.
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Further, everything begun must have a cause—things can’t just appear or occur without cause. Things can’t give something they don’t have. There are different kinds of things and mind must exist to affirm matter. Without a higher standard of moral behavior, we are left with limited conflicting human opinions. I must exist to affirm all this. Sincerely, how can anyone avoid or deny any of these things and live honestly in this world?

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Now am I unbiased, without vested interests, and always think correctly? No! But I don’t believe anyone else is either, no matter how earnest, educated or expert someone may be. So it’s wise to maintain a degree of openness to new thought and ways of seeing things. It’s wise to show respect and kindness to others that we would want them to show us. Now may I present my epistemological view? I call it Christohistological Revelationalism. And it may be presented in four principles.

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The Metaphysical Principle.

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First, without sufficient evidence, we can’t say spiritual things unknown to us or beyond our physical senses—sight, touch, etc.—are impossible or can’t exist. Thus, we can’t say a Creator and of the universe can’t exist. We can’t say a personal ethical God, angels, miracles, divine revelation or human souls, can’t exist. We can’t say a Creator God can’t take on a human nature and body as God-man and walk among us. And if nature’s uniformity is sustained by God, limited human beings can’t say what the Almighty can and cannot do, or where and when he must do it. In the nature of the case, all such things depend upon valid testimony given us through human senses. The burden of proof rests upon anyone who would deny spiritual things. But even with proof of them, we must have an open mind to receive and understand them. Denial then is a closed-minded, unwarranted prejudiced and arrogant claim to exhaustive godlike knowledge we simply don’t have.

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Further, science is the friend of Scripture teaching, not its foe as critics like to claim. True open-minded science unbiased by a naturalistic prerequisite takes us where the evidence leads. That evidence points to a self-existent, immensely powerful, infinite Mind that created and sustains our dependent and incredibly complex universe. Moreover, an infinite Creator lacks nothing, so there can’t be more than one infinite being (God). This being true, pantheism, polytheism, and atheism logically must be false. Scripture provides the rational basis for an orderly and understandable universe making experimental science possible. See my articles on science.

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The Empirical Principle.

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Human beings have the capacity to communicate. And if we’re creatures God made with this capacity, there can be no possible reason our Maker can’t communicate with us, any time, any place, any way He might choose. He can communicate with us through events, angels, visions, dreams, insights, even visible appearances and direct speech. If He chose to, He could take human form, tell us He is God, and demonstrate it in many surprising ways. Naturalism and the uniformity of nature have no say against it. Further, if Jesus is the God-man who walked among us, that would show us He is God and constitutes a final authority above human guesses and opinions.
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Jesus is claimed to fulfilled numerous ancient prophecies about a coming Jewish Messiah who would be born of a virgin, in Bethlehem, live without sin, claim to be God, perform miracles, accept worship, forgave sins, die for sinners, and rise from the dead. As prophecies, they are specific not vague, could not be artificially fulfilled, were predicted centuries before fulfillment, and cannot be a misinterpretation since Jesus is the only historical person said to do these above events. As miracles, there were hundreds since He performed them everywhere He went over three years in public before crowds and skeptical critics standing by who could not deny them. These eyewitness critics and disciples were always astonished proving they were as knowledgeable of nature’s laws as we are today. Jesus’ followers were put out of the synagogue that meant damnation. They were ridiculed, persecuted, tortured, and died in testimony to their faith. They are real true factual events.
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Neither eyewitness prophetic fulfillments nor miracles are known in other sacred literature. Yes, devoted followers of other religions do claim miracles in literature written centuries after their founders. But the founders never claimed miracles and their pantheistic or atheist religions simply wouldn’t allow it or make sense. An unbiased mind cannot dismiss Jesus as a mere teacher, wise man, good man or deceiver, His prophetic fulfillments and miracles require He be the God-man as He claimed numerous times and ways .
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Again, this is not a mere man’s claim or human philosophy devoid of proof. This is not Confucius’s wisdom, Buddha’s remedy for pain, Muhammad’s claim an unseen angle spoke to him. This is the God-man speaking to all humanity about a love-trust relationship and a real eternal Heaven and Hell and our lives residing eternally in one or the other. It’s no honor to admit God exists—even the demons in Hell believe that!.
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The Historical Principle.
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Pantheists make little of history since they believe the world is merely recycled energy that takes various forms. Yet Hindus depended upon the history of persons preserving and passing down historic documents—the Vedas, Upanishads, and the Bhagavad-Gita--written by ancient men who held these historic beliefs. These writings contain conflicting views of god/gods and are the limited opinions and reasoning’s of mortal men. Others have claimed to be a prophet of God or that an angel revealed God’s will to them but could not show the angle to be more than an empty claim anybody could make. Atheist’s claim evils prove there’s no God but can’t define evils without assuming a perfect standard that would have to be a personal and holy God. I see no reason to base our lives upon their mere empty claims, limited human reasoning’s and conflicting imaginings.
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Further, while we know death occurs, we don’t know and can’t show that human bodies are not animated by eternal souls that survive death. Both pantheist and atheist denial of eternal souls surviving death is mere limited human opinion. Pantheists make us recycled energy released to nothingness and atheists make us soulless dirt of no great value. If there is good historical evidence that we are beings of dignity and destiny whatever it be, wouldn’t we be wise to give it honest consideration?
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Of course, we don’t have exhaustive knowledge of the past. That’s no reason to say we don’t have some knowledge. Archaeologists have discovered monuments, documents, and artifacts that tell us much about the past and that confirm mention of many of the characters and events of the Bible. As I’ve discussed in other articles, Jesus is a real person who walked among us. Six independent scriptural sources, early church fathers and creeds describe and quote him. Besides, many secular and even hostile sources describe events of Jesus’ life including his miracles, sayings, and claims to deity. There is more evidence for Jesus’ historical reality than for many unquestioned persons such as Plato and Tiberius Caesar. Only an unwarranted bias can deny it.
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The Revelation Principle.
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Critics claim 2,000-year-old documents translated repeatedly into different languages can’t be accurate. But Bible translations are made into modern languages from early Hebrew and Greek copies placed together. And unlike only a handful of other ancient writings, we have thousands of biblical manuscripts. This makes it easy to correct obvious misspellings and added or deleted words. The New Testament all but eleven verses can be reconstructed from writings of the church fathers. The New Testament is seen to be as much as 99% accurate, which is far greater than any other ancient document. And no essential teaching is in doubt. And yes, the Bible uses figures of speech to communicate as in other languages. Only an unwarranted anti-supernatural bias prevents objective consideration and denial of God acting in our real world. Intellectually, we have a high degree of probability. But God’s Spirit can open us to experiential knowledge and the assurance we need.
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Abundant evidence shows Jesus is the God-man who alone saves us from sin and eternal Hell, puts forgiveness, love and peace in our lives. Won’t you ask him to save you? Say, Lord Jesus Christ, “I trust you now who died to save me from sin (my evil thoughts, words and deeds) and Hell (eternal imprisonment in darkness and torment) and to guide me to live for you and be with you forever. Thank you Lord.” See my other articles.
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Space forbids further discussion. I discuss related issues in other articles. But I recommend two outstanding books in English discussing these issues. Normal L. Geisler and Frank Turek’s book, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist. And Paul Copan’s book, Loving Wisdom: Christian Philosophy of Religion. These books present the biblical Christian worldview of Creation, the Fall, Redemption, and Recreation, answer questions, and present Christianity’s tremendous unequalled benefits. Please link my blog and share these articles with others to come to know the Savior. Their knowing the Lord who died to save them is eternally better than winning the lottery ticket and going to Hell. Also, see my other article on epistemology: Faith, Reason & Revelation. Thank you. God bless.
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