Knowing Truth...

 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge," according to Prov. 1:7.  In the Bible, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding are linked. They lead to each other. If you know things, you can be wise with that knowledge, understand it, and use it to the best means and ends. We are to increase in our knowledge of the Lord. 

Jesus claimed to come to bear witness of the truth and that those who belong to the truth will listen to Him (John 18:37) and even said He is the epitome of truth itself: "I am the way, the truth, and the life..." (John 14:6).   Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:7). Because of Christ, we have universal, objective, transcendent, absolute, and timeless truth to live by. 

One must ultimately ask: on what basis do you define or reckon knowledge? It cannot always be certain but must be true to the best possible proof and belief. Without reference to God, can there be any real knowledge? Can you make truth claims when the God of truth doesn’t exist and you deny absolute truth? Knowledge must be accepted and believed! Denying knowledge is denying reality in a way as is not knowing the truth and inventing your own truth.

All in all, one must be justified to believe in knowledge. But what we now have in a secular society is a way to be intellectually fulfilled and have the answers without God in the metric especially by appealing to evolution or saying that science is the answer; au contraire, God is the only Answerer!

The starting point as far as the world or secular society (Secular Humanism) is concerned is mankind as the "measure of all things" or reference point. They believe in commencing with man and contemplating, understanding, and explaining or explaining away God!  Athanasius said that the only system of thought God will fit into is the one where He is the starting point: we begin with God and explain reality or the world, not vice versa. 

Reality has to correspond with the truth and if Christianity is true, then its concept of reality is worth studying and living by. If not, then it is completely irrelevant.  Postmodern philosophy says that "God is dead" and this means God is no longer relevant, meaningful, necessary, or helpful in understanding reality and the world; they only want to believe what science can prove as absolute truths and not what God reveals. 

This is a philosophy and not science and should be called "scientism." That is very apparent when people harness science for unscientific reasons such as making philosophical proclamations as Carl Sagan said, "The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be." Science cannot know this and this statement cannot be subject to the scientific method. Science is not the only means of gaining absolute or perfect knowledge.  

The point is that without God, we can know nothing at all, we need an infinite reference to understand a finite reference point!  For instance, if there is no God, life has no ultimate meaning and unless there is a God, all things are up for grabs and all things are permissible because we have no reason to believe in morals at all except for selfish preservation like a survival instinct.  To have firm branches, we need firm roots and our worldview is like our roots!  It is the foundation that our knowledge depends upon!  

Because of God, we can say that we can know things for certain (we have a firm foundation) and that morals are absolute and not relevant to the person or situation. When you say that truth itself is relative, is that statement relative? When you say that you must not believe anything someone tells you about God, should we believe that person? When you say that you can know nothing for certain, can we trust that person is certain, and can he be certain?  Soli Deo Gloria!

For The Love Of Truth

"Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne."  (James Russell Lowell, 1844, The Present Crisis).  
"Into Your hand I entrust my spirit; You redeem me, LORD, God of truth" (Psalm 31:5, HCSB).

NB:  TRUTH IS WHAT GOD DECREES OR WHAT HE SAYS TO BE TRUTH AS THE FINAL ARBITER AND DELIMTER OF ITS DEFINITION.   

We all know that philosophy is the love of wisdom or knowledge and in antiquity, there was no distinction between science and philosophy, but someone must love the truth to be saved (cf. 2 Thess. 2:10).  But today people twist the truth to fit their narrative theories!  The problem with the infidel is that he won't accept the truth and refuses to submit to it; it's offensive to his lifestyle.  The divine order:  understand it, accept it, put faith in it, obey and submit to it, and then love it!  Paul warns against those who refuse to love the truth and so be saved!  Loving the truth is indeed a sign of salvation or a byproduct of it.  The fact is that God must open our eyes to the truth and the truth will set us free, for all truth meets at the top and is God's truth! God makes sense of everything as our eyes are opened and we see the light!

People avoid the truth with their own relativism; this is indicative of the so-called Truth War or battle of the isms and worldviews.  They deny absolute truth as a consequence, and, therefore, God as the logical outcome.  Unless you assume God in the metric, you have no foundation for truth.   If there is no God, there simply is no truth and vice versa (cf. Prov. 1:7)--this is logical.  No truth implies no ethics either, and no ethics implies no good life to strive for nor ideals to live by (virtues).  We don't say that your truth has no effect on us or that it's of no consequence!  One must own up to the truth revealed, for we are held accountable to what God has given and the amount of light shed.  Willful ignorance is no excuse with God; therefore, ignorance is not bliss!  Modern academics are quick to point out that all truth is relative, which is nonsensical and of no truth value (is that statement also relative?). Because if truth exists, then its corollary, absolute, universal truth must also exist and they refuse to even go there.

The trouble with the infidel is that he has hardened his heart against truth and sets himself up as the arbiter of truth and authority of right and wrong.  But God is the only arbiter of truth and delimits or defines it, not man.  God decrees the truth and no lie is of the truth.  Truth has to do with reality according to the Correspondence Theory of Truth, and not admitting it is a form of escape from reality.  Truth corresponds with reality as portrayed and agrees with God who determines it. In sum, only Christians are properly oriented to reality and know the truth as personified in the person of  Christ personally.

We see the big picture and don't take God out of the equation which can lead to blindness and ignorance.  Where we start determines where we end up and that's why the Bible doesn't start out like a fairy tale, "Once upon a time," but says "In the beginning God."  This is the only logical way to begin reality.  There are only two alternatives:  "In the beginning nothing" (an absurdity since "out of nothing, nothing comes!"; and "In the beginning matter/energy." We know that matter isn't eternal and energy isn't useful in its natural state--the factor of intelligence or organization must be added!  (The theory of an eternal universe has been totally discredited.)  Either matter or God is eternal!  One must have preceded the other. Are you willing to believe that matter arose to contemplate itself and create intelligent life?

The Bible is clear to state propositionally that the Logos was in the beginning, the self-expression of God, or the Word of God.  Logic is necessary to begin any knowledge!  No Logos means no cosmos and only chaos, which would make learning and science impossible!  This is all-important because the very foundation of all truth and knowledge begins with God in the calculus and without Him, all we have is nonsense and confusion. If you don't begin with God in the picture you have no basis of knowing anything!  You must always begin somewhere to learn anything and everyone begins with something they cannot prove, an assumption.  "In the beginning God" is necessary for all learning, logic, knowledge, and values, it's not just the way the Bible begins.      Soli Deo Gloria!