Opus 2025-570: No Know

Much of my thinking deals with the sifting of what I know and what I just think I know.  In listening to recent presentations at church I was impressed with the assurance that the speaker had that he spoke truth.  Verses were quoted, authorities recited, strong announcements made.  My problem is that I have read enough in my Bible to know if there were significant scriptures being left out, other interpretations that were not only possible, but were more likely, in conflict with his conclusions.

Most of us at sometime in our life want to know if something is true or not.  I will accept the fact that often when we just drift along in the comfort zone and as long as we are feeling no pain, then life is good.  There are other times when is really important to know the truth.  When it comes to what the Bible teaches, I think it’s important to know the truth rather than just live in tradition and habit.  It is very hard to separate Biblical truth from theological traditions.  I considered it a constant challenge in my life.

Knowledge comes in different categories.  I don’t think we stopped to think about it but we should.

One category of knowledge is that which we will never be able to understand or never know, at least not in this life.  When you run into someone who thinks they can tell you what it means, you need to be careful.  Some of that knowledge is of an infinite nature and and finite minds cannot grasp it.  I think of the nature of the Trinity here.  It exists.  We see all the scriptures that make it a logical conclusion.  Understanding it is another matter.  Another area would be something like the book of Revelation with all of it’s figurative language.  Everybody has a theory.  Everyone has a system.  They’re all quite elaborate and often times very entertaining.  But the truth is the person giving you their system doesn’t know any more than you do, in reality they just won’t admit it.  So we have some knowledge that it’s just beyond us.

Then we have knowledge that just isn’t so.  I would put the theological conclusions of people I disagree within this category.  When I meet with a friend and he tells me that Jesus only came to minister to the Jews, I’m afraid I put on my skeptic hat.  When I listen in church and your conclusions about Abraham totally overlook clear statements in other books, I find myself realizing that these people know what isn’t so.  When people use the phrase “faith alone” and the only place you’ll find the phrase “faith alone” is in James where it says that we’re not saved by faith alone.

This is the area that is the most difficult to live with.  People around us are convinced they know the truth.  Since they know the truth, they don’t need to think anymore.  They don’t need to be aware of their own inconsistencies because it fits well together in their plan.  When you read another passage, it makes their conclusions impossible, they don’t want to hear about it.  They tend to get very hostile and hot.  It may be necessary often just to keep what you see clearly to yourself because they’re not going to listen anyway.  In this category, I would think of people who claim that we cannot be righteous because of Romans 3:10.  The big problem with that is that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of references in the Bible to people living righteous lives, being upright, even being perfect.

My goal is to go with the third type of knowledge.  I seriously believe that if we read carefully and think things through on our own, we can come to truth.  This does not mean we don’t discuss it with others.  It doesn’t mean we don’t listen to others.  Others might have insight that we haven’t thought about.  The thing is we can recognize truth when we see it because it is consistent with what we’ve been reading.  When we come across things that seem to conflict, I think it’s possible that we will be able to work out the conflicting aspects by digging a little bit deeper and asking ourselves what it really means.  For instance, one of the things I come across all the time are statements that talk about forever and ever.  Most people assume, logically, that this literally means forever.  The problem with that is that often you will find it used in a place where you know it can’t mean forever.  It becomes clear that the phrase is used figuratively rather than literally. J ust knowing that, recognizing it, admitting it, can take away a lot of conflicts.

So seek truth.  Sift.  Compare.  Meditate.  Listen.  And as the old Bible verse says, “Seek, and you shall find.”

homo unius libri