Having A Need To Know

 "Now that you know these things, blessed are you if you do them..." John 13:17

"...I had faith; therefore I spoke." 2 Cor.4:13 

"They have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge." Rom. 10:2

"Therefore, my people go into exile because they lack knowledge." Isaiah 5:13

"A wise warrior is better than a strong one, and a man of knowledge than one of strength." Prov. 24:5

"I will make youths their leader and unjust rulers will govern them." Isaiah 3:4

"Knowledge is power. " Sir Francis Bacon

God has secrets and things that he will not reveal to us according to Deut. 29:29. God says some things are none of our business!   God is a God of mystery and he works in mysterious ways and his thoughts are higher than ours and his ways are higher than ours than the heavens above the Earth. Isaiah 55:8-9.  Some people think that ignorance is bliss but with God, ignorance or willful ignorance is worthy of condemnation we must always seek the truth and have a love for the truth.   Unbelievers are those who reject the truth and do not seek the truth or love the truth. But we shall know the truth the truth shall set us free if we seek it with our whole heart. And we will know it if we are willing to obey it and do it. John 7:17. 

As far as these things that we must know, we must not just take an academic interest in the Bible to increase our knowledge or even trivial pursuit of it. But we must read it and study it in order to have our lives transformed by its power and we acknowledge that God's Holy Spirit enlightens and informs us about the way of life in Christ.  In other words, there is a practical interest in the study of God's word it is not merely academic otherwise it becomes knowledge that puffs up if not applied.  We will not be judged according to our knowledge or even according to our faith but according to how we acted upon it and what fruits we bore as a result of it. God is not interested in our knowledge as much as in our achievements but in our obedience that we comply with God's will as our yoke.

We must realize that God will give us the spirit of revelation, knowledge, enlightenment, and wisdom in the seeking of his truth. It also stands to reason and wonder that we realize God's will.   God's revelations are cumulative and progressive and it must be a growing relationship to knowledge wisdom and truth as we grow in our faith and in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. It was due to a lack of knowledge that God rejected Israel because they refused to accept it. (Hosea 4:6; cf. Isaiah 5:13). Ignorance of God gives us judgment!  

We have a need to know and we have a need to know the truth we shall set free and we must pass on this knowledge as our marching orders. We must have the can't-help-its, as Paul said, "We cannot stop speaking of what we have heard and seen." Acts 4:20.  We want to share the truth of what we know to others because it changes us. Once you have experienced it, you want to pass it on!  The true fruit of our knowledge is when we share it with others and spread the Gospel of the kingdom.  Bear fruit in every good work as we increase in the knowledge of God true knowledge will produce fruit when the soul is in the right place. 

We study in order to be inspired and motivated to learn more and to apply more of our newfound truths, we must have a thirst for the word of God a philosopher merely has a love for wisdom but not necessarily for the application thereof. But we noticed that Jesus not only preached but he preached what he practiced and he practiced what he preached that is a big difference he was no hypocrite he had no knowledge that just became academic but was practical and applied to everyday life. Therefore, the true love of wisdom is when we apply that wisdom not just when we store it up and make ourselves proud what we believe most humble is the most should not be those with the greatest amount of knowledge but those who practice their faith and turn their creeds into deeds. 

The reason Israel went into captivity was because of its lack of knowledge of God he said in Hosea 46 that God said there is no faithfulness no kindness no knowledge of God and land that was God's complaint against Israel they did not know him it is not the knowledge of a fact that we're talking about it is a knowledge of a person religion wants to believe in a creed but we believe in no person there's a big difference. Viva la difference!  God is able to open our eyes and to kindle an understanding within us and a little bit of truth opens the door to more truth but if we shut the door to truth even will become more ignorant and God will send a strong delusion that we will believe that which is false and a lie.

 That'd be interesting that our understanding of the Bible has to do with our comprehension of doctrine the more doctrine we know the better we are able to understand the Bible and know the beat or the solid food of the Bible and we are ready for these deeper truths. We must not remain baby Christians forever and feed only on the milk of the word we must have a need to know and recognize that we must know we must have this thirst for God's word which will only make us have a more thorough for God's word when we take it in a thirst which makes us thirsty.  

The Christian life is not one of the pursuit of knowledge but a pursuit of the Lord and it is a way of life not just a rule or code of conduct there's a way to know God and never relationship with him and to increase in that knowledge there's a difference between knowledge of God and knowledge about God we can know all about the Bible and not be saved we must have a true knowledge of the Bible that changes us. In summation, there must be a balance between what we know and our pursuit of knowledge and our practice of it and applying it. 

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!

Theory Of Knowledge

Why did Socrates say "I know that I know nothing" and what did he mean by it?


It is a self-contradiction if he said that because he claims to know something—that he knows nothing! I doubt he would contradict himself so easily though. He also said, “To commence learning, you must admit your ignorance.” If one knows nothing, would they know it? Socrates was a believer in God as the was Plato and Aristotle though not so formulated as the Hebrews had. The Bible says, “Anyone who thinks he knows something doesn’t yet know as he ought to know.” The Genesis of all learning then is realized ignorance. The more educated you become, the more you realize you do not know and need more education!

If he did say it, he was referring to being skeptical and starting from scratch and not assuming anything. All knowledge begins in faith. You have to believe you know something to know anything. Uncertainty is the starting point and beginning of a discovery of knowledge and often its outcome. We may find out we know squat about something we claim to know something. We will discover all knowledge is contingent beginning by accepting a presupposition we cannot prove or disprove.

You Destroyed My Faith!

"Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall"  (1 Cor. 10:12, KJV).  
"Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if you do these things you shall never fall" (2 Pet. 1:10, KJV).

"But he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved" (Matt. 24:13; cf. 10:22, KJV). 

We aren't born tabula rasa, which John Locke believed, with a blank slate but are naturally creatures of faith as a sixth sense or instinct and that is the primary way we first learn: we take our parent's word for it!  Faith is knowledge acted upon and knowledge used wisely is wisdom.  Both are virtues we should practice as believers.  The definition of knowledge is believed or interpreted as being a justified true belief--we must believe it and it must be for a good reason, as if by some authority.

Faith is putting trust in what we have good reason to believe. It's also knowledge in action.  We have a right to our own opinions about the knowledge we know but cannot make up our own knowledge or fabricate our own truths.  Beliefs can be true or false and are very subjective, while truth itself is what corresponds with reality according to the correspondence theory of truth of John Locke.  To Christians, truth is what agrees with God.  Nothing is true because it's believed or untrue because it's doubted.

Children may learn to believe in Santa (a harmless myth) by being encouraged and they will eventually find out it's all pretend, but they usually know we are serious when we relate the true Christmas story.  We can all learn lessons of childlike faith and innocence from kids (cf. Mark 10:45).    They need to learn faith and put it into practice!   Parents don't destroy the children's faith in Santa, they just outgrow it by being around older and more mature kids or from the real world.  Kids have a big imagination and would probably believe even if not so encouraged.

Many atheists will insist they were once believers who lost their faith (the Bible would call this going apostate and departing from the faith which only proved they never had any according to 1 John 2:19).  They had some traumatic experience they couldn't cope with and took it out on God, developing an animus towards Him and then towards Christians, becoming militant atheists even anti-theists bent on destroying the influence of the church and neutralizing Christian influence.

It should be noted that the same sun melts the butter, hardens the clay;  we all either become bitter or better by the same experience and no one skates through life trouble-free without adversity or trials.  Our faith must be tested in the crucible of the trench warfare of real OJT in life.  Even Jesus didn't exempt Himself from adversity and was honest enough to warn us and to count the cost of discipleship. 

You don't need all the answers to believe and just because you believe it doesn't mean you can defend your faith,  But belief without evidence is called blind faith and we are commanded to have a reason for the hope that is in us!  Being apologists is for all believers!   We are to "contend for the faith" (cf. Jude 3) and "in defense of the gospel"(cf. Phil. 1:7)  as Jude and Paul did respectively.

We must remember that no matter how strong our faith, it's still faith and we are saved by faith, not knowledge, which is the error of Gnostics who try to achieve a secret, privileged knowledge of the elite.  We are not saved by intellectualism either--it isn't how much we know, but Whom we know as Paul said in 2 Tim. 1:12 that "I know in whom I have believed...."  Christianity isn't a faith of enlightenment, but of salvation and redemption from the real culprit-sin, not ignorance.  Assurance is not an automatic fruit of salvation but belongs to its well-being, not being and some people need to have a spiritual wake-up call before realizing their precarious faith.

One warning Jesus gave was not to cause a brother to stumble (cf. 1 Cor. 8:12) or a child to lose faith!  To wage war against the saints is odious to God.  We're all supposed to be on the same side as they say in the battle to the troops fighting each other;  "The enemy is over there!"  Note that it's been said that we are our own worst enemies!  We should be fighting sin and evil, not each other!  We ought to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace per Eph. 4:3. It's our job to reassure and foster faith in the weaker brother, but it's not our calling to certify salvation.

Now faith is the "substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen" according to Hebrews 11:1. For illustration purposes, let's say I reach my hand into my pocket and grab something and ask you what it is!  I hold it behind my back and you take a guess or two.  Finally, you come to believe I'm holding my car keys because you can hear them!  That's right, there's evidence for faith!  But this is still faith though you are convinced.  But let's say I open my hand and show you my keys in them; then I've destroyed your faith and given you first-hand knowledge! 

This is akin to getting the first-hand knowledge of our Lord and Savior via a personal relationship with Him--we have encountered Him empirically and know Him like for who He is and what it says:  "Taste and see that the LORD is good"  (cf. Psalm 34:8). The proof of the pudding we'll find out is in the eating!  We need believers with first-hand experience and knowledge of the Lord.  But know this: It's faith till we eat!  What I'm trying to say is that we can know God and be sure of our salvation by the Spirit residing in us: "The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are sons of God" (cf. Romans 8:16).

Let's take another example of faith:  a tightrope walker demonstrates he can walk across the rope with a wheelbarrow and asks how many actually believe he can push a person across in it!  Almost everyone raises their hands and says they believe. Then he asks of a volunteer!  No one is willing to test their faith!   Where's the faith now?  He didn't kill their faith but found out they had none for we must be willing to exercise or put it into practice for it to be bona fide, saving faith.  Anyone can say they have faith but it must be proved by our behavior, conduct, and works--we're known by our fruits per Matt. 7:20. 

A good example of faith in action is a kid flying a kite on a cloudy day: The passerby asks him how he knows the kite is really up there since he doesn't see it!  The kid says, oh, I feel a tug every now and then to reassure me.  Likewise, we feel God drawing us towards Him in fellowship and love.    Faith is like that--God reassures us and keeps us in the faith and doesn't let go.   Experience in flying kites made his faith strong and likewise, an experienced walk with Christ yields strong faith.  The more trials we successfully pass with flying colors the more real our faith to us.   

NB:  Our faith is held by God's power (cf 1 Pet. 1:5) who will not let go of us nor give up on us (cf Phil. 1:6)--we're all works in progress.  Someone hostile to the faith may ask some questions we cannot answer, but no issue or problem with the Bible or the faith is going to bring Christianity to its demise after 2,000 years.  But sometimes God allows us to have doubts and to experience hardened hearts; it is important to realize that doubt is not a Christian problem but a human one, it's an element of faith, not the opposite of it.  It can take courage to doubt. 

But in the final analysis, we should doubt our doubts and believe our tried and true faith, so we can say with Paul's swan song (cf. 2 Tim. 4:7):  "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith,"  knowing we are kept in Christ from beginning to end (cf Jude 1: 24).  God doesn't teach us to swim only to let us drown!   

In sum, let me quote the late Rev. Billy Graham:   "If you want to keep your faith, you must give it away!"  Let me add:  A privatized faith is no more than a cloistered faith that cannot reach out to the lost.   Soli Deo Gloria!  

Faith Is a Start

We must attempt our commencement somewhere.  NB:  the principle is that where you start has a lot to determine where you'll end up!  Athanasius said that the only system of thought that Christ will fit into is the one where He is the starting point.  Paul says we progress "from faith to faith."   But today we see Secularists screaming "Down with God, up with man!'  They seek to dethrone Him and exalt man.  The Bible assumes unapologetically that God exists, and if it appealed to any authority figure or discipline it wouldn't be the final arbiter of truth, which it claims to be (e.g., if we appealed to a historian to verify the narrative, historians would be the authority not the inspired Word of God).  Scripture says a man has no excuse (cf. Rom. 1:28) and suppresses the truth.  The Bible says that denial of God stems from the heart of man that is depraved (cf. Psa. 14:1), and there is a God-shaped vacuum only filled by God!  So man is searching (really for the benefits, not the Benefactor) and has an innate sense of eternity, but that doesn't mean he'll find Him unless he is willing to do His will and diligently searches for Him with all his heart (cf. John 7:17; Jer. 29:13; Isa. 55:6).

When someone challenges your faith saying, "I don't believe in God!' Retort back as a comeback that objective truth is true regardless of belief or not.   Something isn't true because it's believed nor false because of denial.   We cannot wish God out of existence--He's the God who will not die!  We may not see Him but we don't see the wind either--we can see what it does though!  Likewise, with God, we cannot see the invisible, but we can see Him at work in the world and in our lives!  Just like when the sun comes out we can see everything else, so it is when God opens our eyes and we see with the eyes of our spirit and heart! Faith is not a throwback to our need for a father figure, a projection of an authority figure, nor to fulfill a psychological need to believe; the skeptic has a psychological need not to believe--his lifestyle may be at stake!

NB:  Science is inappropriate for finding or proving God; He's not tangible, audible, nor visible, and certainly won't subject Himself to our tests, test tubes, and experiments.  We cannot measure two feet of His love nor weigh a pound of His justice--these things are metaphysical!   But we know they exist, nevertheless!   Remember:  doubt is not the opposite of faith, but merely a sign of courage and intellectual integrity.  NO one has perfect faith.  Learn to doubt your doubts. Doubt, in essence, is an element of faith, for there's a doubt-faith continuum with various degrees of the certitude we all progress through on our way to the Celestial City as pilgrims.  We all must take the LEAP!  

The Bible says in Prov. 1:7 that "the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge"--that's what we must seek.  In other words, if we don't know God or assume Him in the equation of life, we can know nothing for certain--it's all relative and all truth, morals, and values are only relative and not fixed, objective, universal, absolute, and eternal.  No God--no truth!  When we remove God from the metric of our life we lose our bearings and the moral compass we need, a sense of "ought."  This leads to erosion of the moral fiber of society and finally its demise or takeover.

All knowledge is contingent and must begin somewhere.  We know the Lord as a gift of faith and revelation:  "Taste and see that the LORD is good!"  The proof of the pudding is in the eating!  We don't believe in the sun simply because we can see it in the sky, but because we can see everything else.  Scientists also assume things they cannot prove; all knowledge begins with some presupposition or premise that cannot be proven.  Scientists and Secularists (those who believe in naturalism or that every event has a natural explanation and that science is the ultimate arbiter of truth in the physical world) both of these persons are people of faith the same as religious people--they just presuppose something different.  You can be religious without even having a religion!  But Secular Humanism is when someone is trying to be good without God in the calculus, giving himself the praise, glory, and honor.

Now let's assume you know that fire is hot!  Either you took it by faith or found out the hard way, empirically!  But that knowledge depends upon the senses you have being accurate and that you're not delusional or imagining things.  You may be dreaming!   But in saying it is hot, you're assuming that hot is an accurate description and you are intelligible and communicable.  But when you touched the fire, your suspicion turned to experience and experience as well as rationalism and revelation are ways to arrive at knowledge.  Skeptics like to say that they have facts and the naive and religious have faith, but in reality, both are people of faith and will be accountable for what they do with it.

When you have faith in someone and they betray you, you can lose some faith or break faith completely.  You can also lose faith by finding out by experience you are right--then you have knowledge.  Knowledge is defined as "justified true belief."  A belief is some idea we hold concerning our reality.  There is no universal belief but there is the universal, absolute truth!  Don't confuse the two.  In the seventeenth century, it was justified to be in a geocentric solar system, and in the fourteenth century, you were justified to believe in a Ptolemaic one as well as flat earth!  The Copernican revolution changed our ideas of science just as the Reformation did about theology.    Experiment or scientific empiricism is what changed everything!   This requires measurement, observation, experiment, repeatability, testing, hypothesizing, and controlling of variables.  You may also need laboratory conditions and/or a test tube.

Now, theology is considered the queen of sciences and Christianity the mother of modern science! Sir Francis Bacon is considered the "father of the scientific method."   Why?  Because they were first to actually know something in a metaphysical way, making sense of the physical universe and making it possible in their worldview to have a rational study of nature.  The Bible actually says that there are laws to nature (naturally what you'd expect from a Divine Lawmaker) in Job 38:33, and in several passages, it's ahead of the scientific knowledge of its day to prove its divine origin and inspiration.

Now, infinite regress is impossible in math, logic, and philosophy!  It's impossible to cross infinity, like trying to run an infinite distance in a finite time span.  But God is timeless and lives independent of it as being eternal (He created time as the corollary of space and matter).  It is known in the kalam cosmological argument for God that everything that begins to exist (in time) has a cause--this is logical.  The universe began to exist and ergo had a cause--I daresay God!   We cannot say, for instance, that life evolved because we have to start with the assumption that life was in existence in the first place.

We believe in God because we are convinced and see it as a rational and reasonable choice; thus we take a leap of faith and "experience God" as good.   Our faith transfers to a properly basic belief or a kind of knowledge based on experience--like finding out fires are hot! How many don't really know that yet!   We see the direction the evidence is leading, going with the flow and preponderance and making a decision to exercise our sense of faith, even if we don't have all the evidence (like juries often do) and may not have any "smoking gun" evidence either.  No one can disbelieve due to lack of evidence!  But God doesn't force faith, it's a gift for us to exercise.  We are not exhorted to exercise blind faith or lend credence without a valid reason or evidence.

Faith has a reason with some being more valid:  I want to believe it; I have vested interest in it; it will cost me something (a job or grade not to believe it); everyone believes it; it's always been believed!  We must believe rationally, for God respects our minds and doesn't expect intellectual suicide or for us to kiss our brains goodbye!  Our faith is defensible in the open marketplace of ideas, even the public forum, and public square!  God requires no one to believe what seems irrational or unreasonable!  We believe something just like a jury does--we are convinced by the weight of evidence and see the big picture.

Now that newborn or beginning faith has room to germinate, it must be tested, tried, and proved as to whether it's genuine, saving faith, or bogus faith that gets choked on weeds, being distracted or has too thin of a soil. Faith grows, but it's still faith because we aren't asked to have perfect faith, only sincere faith.  If we knew everything perfectly then we'd have knowledge, and faith is what pleases God.  For God is not going to reward us according to our faith, though, but what it produces--its fruit!  God doesn't want our achievements in the flesh, what He wants is us and this entails obedience.  A disobedient Christian is a contradiction in terms!  We must "trust and obey."

Now, faith the size of a mustard seed is all that's necessary, but we can ask for more faith and Jesus can help us with our unbelief (cf. Mark 10:9).  The point of faith is that we don't believe in faith, for faith doesn't save, Christ does--it's the object that matters!   It is to no avail to have strong faith in a lie or be deceived into fanaticism.  Sincerity matters, but it's no everything and someone can be sincerely wrong.  Paul said (cf. Rom. 10:2) that Israel had a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge--they were sincerely wrong!

There's no excuse not to believe: there's ample evidence for the willing but never enough for the unwilling.  The real reason people don't believe is that it's a choice and they don't want to believe (cf. John12:37).  We all must choose Whom we will serve--we're all servants, it just differs who our master is!  The heart of the matter is that it's a matter of the heart.  Sin makes man rebellious and stubborn, unwilling to obey or please God.

Finally, you must start somewhere: How about first base?   In every truth claim, you begin with a premise you can't prove. Knowledge has its beginning, but don't jump to the conclusion that everything had a beginning, then nothing would exist because you'd have the problem of infinite regress or crossing infinity--there was a beginning, just as the Bible says!   You either start with man and explain everything else, (Homo mensura, or "man is the measure of all things), or you begin with God and explain man!  The Bible doesn't start out, "Once upon a time," but  "In the beginning God."  Every journey of faith begins somewhere and God says to begin with Him in our calculus focused on Him.

In other words, we don't rationalize to God, but reason from Him.  You can neither prove nor disprove Him, you only can offer evidence and arguments, neither being conclusive, but possibly compelling or convicting.  Either there was just the material cosmos or there was God!  Either God created everything or it evolved by some fluke or accident of nature; there's no other choice except the Eastern philosophy of Maya or that the cosmos as an illusion.  God hides (cf. Isa. 45:15) with just enough light for the searcher to see and just enough darkness for the trifler not to see.

In sum, a seasoned believer has been there and done that so to speak and has a faith tried as if by fire and knows in Whom he believes and his calling, gifting, marching orders, and mission in life.  He isn't likely to be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine (cf. Eph. 4:14).  He may have ups and downs in feelings or moods, but his faith has a foundation and is steadfast.  Sometimes he is called to act merely in faith and walk with the Lord in the Spirit, having fellowship during the hard times.  For we walk by faith, not by sight!  Faith can be seen as knowledge in action; it's not how much we believe but how well we obey.  (cf. 2 Cor. 5:7).

Is Knowledge Power?

"I know from experience what a passion for God they have, but alas, it is not a passion based on knowledge"  (cf. Rom. 10:2, J. B. Philipps).   
"...I do not want you to be uninformed"  (1 Cor. 12:1, ESV). 
"So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, to him it is sin"  (James 4:17, ESV). 
"Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge"  (Prov. 12:1, NASB). 
FOREWARNED IS FOREARMED! 


Sir Francis Bacon, who formulated the scientific or empirical method, said that "knowledge is power"; which he got from Prov. 24:5, NASB, which says, "A man of knowledge increases power."  Some think that its a virtue to be ignorant and that ignorance is bliss, so to speak; however, God condemns the neglect of knowledge as culpable and will hold us accountable for what we could've known and should've known better for.  Paul says in 1 Cor. 8:1 that "knowledge puffs up, but love edifies," and I'm sure he's talking about worldly knowledge, not knowledge of the Lord, which is about the Lord of love.  We are never to get arrogant and think we're smart as Paul says in Romans 12 but to think of others as more important than ourselves.



Knowledge is not the measure of a man and has no inherent virtue unless properly applied and shared.  The knowledge in the body as a gift isn't meant to be for the sake of the recipient, but also for the benefit of the body at large.  A wise man stores up knowledge, Proverbs says.  You never know when you might need some info and when something might come in handy--a useful education is a wise investment of our resources and God may give us the opportunity to use it to His glory.  Note that scripture wasn't written to increase knowledge (trivia, facts and figures, info about it), but to change lives! 


We live in the age of anti-knowledge, where truth is relative, and tech-savvy people who think they can ignore the rules and conventions of centuries of input and research to gain skill in rightly handling knowledge.  The president himself seems to be rejecting knowledge, wisdom, and even understanding, as he nominates cabinet members who seem to me to be unqualified, except ideologically.  You don't want to surround yourself with a bunch of yes-men and sycophants in the situation room at zero hours.  We are close enough to nuclear midnight as it is, to be taking chances on the inexperienced and those who even despise and mock experience.  To be ignorant of your ignorance is the epitome of foolhardiness.  To begin learning, said Socrates, you must admit your ignorance!  



The correct use of knowledge is called wisdom.  It's also knowledge put into action!   Don't let your bro stumble because of your "knowledge."  We, who are strong, ought to bear with the weaker bro and not to allow him to fall because he is less enlightened and doesn't quite see the light of day.  Some people do have wisdom beyond their years, while others are retarded and have never grown up.  The weaker bro needs to grow in knowledge, and the wise guy needs to grow in love.  Don't allow your so-called knowledge become an occasion of stumbling.  


I actually believe that the president doesn't realize the inaccurate statements he's made, and what damage control he's had to do unnecessarily--often the problem is in delivery or communication ability and public relations control.  In my humble opinion, and I don't normally play the psychobabble card, but he seems a little off, unbalanced, or out of touch with reality to me and that he actually believes these gross distortions of the truth, like the idea that 3 to 5 million "illegals" voted for HRC to defeat him in the popular vote. [Note:  no humans are illegal!]  The fact is that he should be cognizant of, is that he doesn't have a mandate to reform America, and America is highly divided on account of him; despite a brief honeymoon, he's managed to stir debate, protest, and partisan schisms.


Are we entering a new age of protests a la the 60s?  Is this the new norm?  Are we going to have the ignorant tyrannize us for the entire administration?  He does tend to use strong-arm and scare tactics like a godfather or thug in the underground.  The fact is that his base lives in an alternate universe of denial of the facts and they are completely taken in by a colossal propaganda program and don't even know it--I witnessed this personally myself watching interviews of people who are Trump supporters and they were asked how things were going for them!


Gnosticism is heresy:  we aren't saved by being enlightened with secret knowledge only accessible to an inner circle or a crowd of fortune seekers.  God's gospel is straightforward, simple, clear, and not ambiguous or obtuse; however, we aren't saved by knowledge per se--Christ didn't teach anything in secret to be later revealed by those "in the know."  There is no scoop or skinny to be disseminated to secret disciples!  We don't need to "discover" the truth; on the other hand, he opens our eyes to the truth that sets us free (cf. John 8:32).  


A word to the wise is sufficient:  "The lips of the wise spread knowledge..." (Prov. 15:7, NASB).  Only true ignorance, where one couldn't possibly have known, is an excuse; however, no one can claim insufficient evidence to believe in God--all are found guilty as charged!  Caveat:  "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction"  (Prov. 1:7, NASB).  Though never an end in itself, we begin with God as the foundation of all knowledge.  Soli Deo Gloria! 

A Primer On Epistemology

"The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17, NIV).
"Eliminate the impossible, and whatever remains, no matter how improbable, is true." (unknown).
"Tell me your certainties, I have enough doubts of my own." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe).
"We have found all the questions, now let's find the answers." (G. K. Chesterton).
"... and a people without understanding shall come to ruin" (Hos. 4:14, ESV).
"Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge..." (Isaiah 5:13, ESV).
NOTE THIS PHILOSOPHICAL AXIOM: ALL KNOWLEDGE BEGINS IN FAITH (FAITH PRECEDES REASON!). REMEMBER: A CHRISTIAN WITH FAITH HAS NOTHING TO FEAR FROM THE FACTS AND SCRUTINY.

They were "always learning and never coming to a knowledge of the truth" (cf. 2 Tim. 3:7)! That's probably why Socrates said that you must "admit your ignorance" to begin to learn. Sophomores in college think they know so much, but they have only begun to learn. Education is going from an unconscious to a conscious awareness of one's ignorance. Augustine said that he believes in order to understand; indeed faith comes before reason! We all have faith, whether in God, mankind, nature, science, logic, or religion, because everyone starts out with some presupposition they cannot prove. Faith in science is not inherently superior knowledge--it's still faith.

People erroneously have blind faith that science has disproved creationism or Christianity, and this is dangerous to all of us. We erroneously assume that believing something makes it true and not believing something makes it false; there is no universal belief, but there is universal truth. We must always be ready to back up our allegations and assertions with facts.

By the way, science is becoming "scientism," thinking it is the only true source of truth, and consequently, it's becoming a religion according to Carl Sagan, a professor at Cornell Univ. in astronomy. Science is not meant to answer philosophical, historical, legal, ethical, or religious issues, but restrict itself to the logical, observable, measurable, and repeatable. The scientific method, as invented by Sir Francis Bacon, is only one way to find truth. You can't have your minds made up so that you don't want to be confused with the facts! If you are a know-it-all that is unwilling to admit you could be wrong, you will never know the truth of the matter at hand.

There are facts that have evidence and can be proved by various means, then there are allegations and accusations that are unsubstantiated. When someone disseminates unsubstantiated so-called facts, it is slander, not news! Journalists know what sources are and their credibility factors. Unreliable sources are ignored and so are those that have lost credibility. Anonymous "leaks" are not good sources to publish as gospel truth and are fake news services that are the tabloids of the internet and unworthy, unreliable sources.

We don't have faith in faith for its own sake, but the object of our faith makes all the difference. We must be willing to admit we could be wrong to find the truth and also be willing to go wherever the evidence may lead, no matter how unpalatable. Sometimes truth is something we couldn't have guessed and is stranger than fiction--who wouldn't have thought the Godhead or Deity was triune. In examining the evidence we fit the theory to match the facts, we don't fit the facts to fit our theory! In short, there is Truth with a capital T and all truth meets at the top because it's God's truth according to Augustine and Aquinas. Remember that Jesus announced: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life..." (cf. John 14:).

Jesus, being the incarnation of truth itself proves we can know it and that it doesn't change--truth is timeless and always relevant. Truth is nonnegotiable and isn't a short-term contract and we have a right to our own opinions, but not our own truth or fact (there are no "alternative facts" as Kellyanne Conway and Trump say). We all have the right to our own opinion but not to fabricate our own facts. The thing about truth is that Jesus promised us we'd find it if we searched for it with the right attitude. "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free" (cf. John 8:32). Jesus also said that if we are willing to do His will we shall know whether it is of God (cf. John 7:17).

Unbelievers are those who "reject the truth" (cf. Rom. 2:8) and repentance will be granted to some that they may "come to a knowledge of the truth." A sign of a true believer is that he is thirsty for and loves the truth: "... because they refused to love the truth and so be saved" (2 Thess. 1:10, ESV) they were judged and condemned.

Pseudo faith: Some people would say something is true because it works for them or feels right, these are fallacious presuppositions; John Dewey actually thought you couldn't evaluate the truth of an idea, only its usefulness (if it works!); the biggest misunderstanding is that all truth is relative and this would have to be a relative statement, making it meaningless! Ever since Pilate asked Jesus what truth is man has wondered if there is some absolute, universal truth for everyone everywhere--in antiquity "might made right!" There is truth in Christ who came to "bear witness of the truth" (cf. John 18:37). We must avoid the fallacious assertion that something may be true for one person, but not another and that everyone has their own truths that are only relative--we don't the right to fabricate our own truths! The Bible is truth and has the power to change or transform (cf. John 17:17) lives by virtue of that power.

In sum, Jesus said (cf. John 18:37) that everyone who is of the truth hears His voice--His sheep hear and recognize His voice and follow Him (John 10:27). In the final analysis, we need to be workers approved by God, who are "rightly handling the Word of truth" per 2 Tim. 2:15. Caveat: Beware of academia teaching the so-called theory of evolution as unquestioned scientific fact, when it's only a time-honored scientific tenet of faith!

"The Christian position is not that the truth is unknowable or that we are confused; it is that truth is knowable and we have rebelled," according to David Noebel. In application consider George Lucas' faith: "The conclusion that I've come to is that all religions are true." This is nonsensical and has no truth value, period; I rest my case! Soli Deo Gloria!

Defending Christian Worldview

"O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called "knowledge," for by professing it some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with you." (1 Tim. 6:20-21, ESV).

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom. 12:2, ESV).

"My people perish for lack of knowledge" (cf. Hosea 4:14).

"For lack of knowledge My people go into exile" (cf. Isa. 5:13).

Our worldview, which outshines all others, the terminology taken from the German Weltanschauung, is our outlook or worldview (i.e., the sum total of convictions [e.g., is there such a concept as sin, a God, life after death?], ideas [philosophy and interpretations], beliefs [religious], values [patriotism?], but not opinions--note: you hold opinions, but convictions hold you!) and our worldview concerns our viewpoint in toto on life, our view of God, man, and the relationships and duties they owe each other--on reality in general. How do we make sense of the world when we encounter ideas whose time has come? It also answers the basic questions of life: Where did we come from or who are we? What is our purpose and meaning in life? What is wrong with mankind and how can we solve his dilemmas? And where are we going, or what is our destiny. Athanasius said that the only worldview that Christ will fit into is the one where He is the starting point! "Christianity is Christ," according to John Stott, "all else is circumference!" If we take God out of the equation, we head into natural catastrophe and disaster--our lives become chaotic with no purpose or aim, busy, but to no avail, going nowhere.

The Bible is basically our Owner's Manual to guide us to do God's will on earth. We are basically here "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever" (cf. Isaiah 43:7; and The Westminster Shorter Confession of 1646). The only worldview that gives dignity to man is the Christian one, for we see man as in the image and likeness of God, though tarnished by sin, it's still there and we are not dumb animals (cf. Job 18:3). If you see yourself as a grown-up germ or descended from blue-green pond scum or algae, it will affect your self-esteem and worldview. Teach man he's an animal and he will act like one! We become disoriented from God's design without God in the reckoning, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, "Men have forgotten God." The word "purpose" is a dirty word to secularists, who deny that there is meaning and purpose in life, which is true without God in the picture and the end result of futile speculation and a fool's errand searching trying to "find oneself" or one's purpose in life.

We have a purpose in being here to do God's will: rule or subdue the earth; be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth; fulfill the Great Commission, and be lights in the world representing Christ doing good deeds in His name. We don't own anything, but are only stewards of God's blessings. We were designed to know God! However, culture has run amok in its abandonment of God and taking Him out of the reckoning. God sets the agenda and to disobey His will is called sin--of which is the root of the problem.

And so man rebelled against the loving God and chose his own way over God's wisdom and provision--he chose not to trust God; we do the same thing and only duplicate that sin and folly. We are not victims of circumstances or of nature and are not pawns of our genes and we can blame no one but ourselves since we are all born in sin and all have fallen short of God's glory and ideal. This was called the Fall and we all dittoed that sin and are individually responsible to God and it's a cop-out to blame anyone for our own faults and shortcomings or sin. The crux of the problem is that sin has entered the innocent world that God created.

God's remedy is the cross whereby He paid the price to redeem us and set us free from our sins. We are at the mercy of God because He is a God of justice and will judge all sin. What we need, is not an educator, nor an economist, nor a scientist, but a Savior to stand in the gap and put a hand on both us and God in reconciliation. God has solved the sin problem by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus!

It is a challenge to live up to a Christian worldview because the whole world has become secularized and people want us to privatize our faith. The Bible is not passe or obsolete, but relevant to all our problems! The biggest problem is what Jesus said, "You are wrong because you do not know the Scriptures, nor the power of God," cf.. Matt. 22:29. The Bible has all the answers to man's dilemmas, and his chief enemies are the devil, the sin nature in himself, and the world system. Equipped with Scripture, we will know what God thinks, get our thinking straightened out and have a Christian worldview, so necessary to defeat the devil's world. The world has fallen for Satan's lies and is deceived, and we are to preach the gospel so that they can know the truth and the truth will set them free (cf. John 8:32).

Ideas and worldviews have consequences and affect how we live. "If there is no God," Dostoevsky said, "all things are permissible." Atheist mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell said, "Unless you assume a God, the question of life's purpose is meaningless." Hamlet summed it up in Shakespeare's Macbeth: "[Life is a] tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing," This is the bleak outlook and belief system without God in the picture. Will Durant, the famed humanist historian, said the biggest issue of our day is whether man can live without God. George Bernard Shaw said that no nation has survived the loss of its gods. The Bible has something to say about every major academic discipline and they all find their origins in Scripture. Modern man basically believes that science can solve our problems and has given up hope in religion as the solution. It takes faith to believe this! Secular Humanism is the prevalent worldview academically and socially, whereby the theme is "Down with God, up with man!" The deception of this worldview is that it strives for good without God! They see "man [as] the measure of all things" (in Latin homo mensura), and refuse God as the "moral center of the universe" with transcendent laws.

And the Postmodern era has become rather skeptical of the existence of absolute, transcendent truth, and posits all truth as being relative; relative to what? Saying truth is relative, with no Truth with a capital T; we can know nothing for certain, an epistemology of skepticism--it's a contradiction in terms and is itself a truth claim of no truth! Actually, the only truths they are really concerned about as being relative are the ones related to Christianity. This philosophy is in sharp contradistinction to the Bible's claim of propositional, incarnated, and absolute truth with no wiggle room for disagreement. The Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning point of all knowledge (cf. Prov. 1:7). All knowledge begins in faith, it's not just Christians who have faith, they just don't put faith in science as the sole arbiter of absolute truth.

What Secular Humanism does is deify man and dethrone God-man has wanted to make a name for himself ever since the tower of Babel (cf. Gen. 11:4). Their two main presuppositions are that evolution is unquestioned scientific fact and that the supernatural doesn't exist--they believe science has undermined the Bible! Christians are called to show their colors, be "Daniels," stand up and be counted, and be informed and show discernment: Men who "understood [interpret] the times, with knowledge of what to do," as it says in 1 Chronicles 12:32.

C. S. Lewis summed it up for our marching orders: "We must not remain silent and concede everything away [and lose by default]." That means our faith is defensible in the market square and open marketplace of ideas and we need not privatize it. We are in the world, but not of it (cf. John 15:19) and there is a war of "isms" going on, but Sir Francis Bacon said, "Knowledge is power!" (Cf. Prov. 24:5). R. C. Sproul, influential theologian, said it well: "With God we have dignity and without God we have nothing."

In sum, it is written: "In the beginning God..." meaning that we start with God and explain creation, we don't start with creation and explain or explain away God! In sum, Christian worldview outshines all others and had the best explanation of reality. Soli Deo Gloria!

Epistemological Humility

"The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly" (Proverbs 15:14, NIV).  
"Only simpletons believe everything they're told" (Prov. 14:15, NLT). 
"The lips of the wise broadcast knowledge [feed many]" (Prov. 15:7, HCSB).
"...[U]ntil the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts" (2 Pet. 1:19, NIV). 
"...If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn" (Isa. 8:20, NIV).
"[W]ho carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers" (Isa. 44:26, NIV).
"A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still." --old saying that rings true biblically

The Christian ought to be humble regarding what he knows for sure and can't be dogmatic about and what is a matter of opinion.  There will come the time when we beg to differ!  As Protestants, we must utter:  "I disagree, I dissent, I protest."  Augustine's dictum applies here:  "In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity."  Paul also warned (cf. 1 Cor. 8:2, NIV) that "the man who thinks he knows something doesn't yet know as he ought to know."  Socrates said that we cannot learn until we admit our ignorance; we must admit we could be wrong!  Plato taught that all knowledge begins in faith and the Bible teaches it commences with the fear of the Lord (cf. Prov. 1:7). While Bacon said, "Knowledge is power" (cf. Prov. 24:5) love is the goal in the application.

When we disagree with believers, it ought to be in a humble attitude, not condescending or disdainful.  The problem with most people is that what they know "ain't so!"  People are so filled with misinformation, propaganda, disinformation, and lies from Satan, even heresies and false doctrines of demons, that they don't recognize the truth when it strikes a note.  The truth should resonate and strike a chord that vibrates in the soul, hitting home where it counts!

Most people have opinions, and opinions are what you hold, but convictions hold you!  Most people twist the facts to fit their theories and only believe what they agree with already!  Most people don't hold any cherished beliefs they would kill or even die for if necessary--they're just opinions.  And most people have their minds made up and don't want to be confused with the facts!  Most people talk because they have to say something, while the wise talk because they have something to say; viva la difference!  We must have several attitudes to be teachable:  a willing spirit, an obedient and needy heart, and an open mind (we must not be looking for a fight or something to disagree or take issue with).

We need to be thirsty for the truth if we are to achieve it, and no one has a monopoly on the truth no matter how gifted they are--they're only part of the puzzle or picture (IT'S A BIG STORY AND WE'RE ONLY PART OF IT!) and the whole body needs and works together.  But the strengths of one person are complemented by those of others and there is a coordinated search for truth, not the blind leading the blind.  It is vital that we realize that all teachers are human and must not pontificate like the Pope or believe he has the right to speak ex-cathedra or from the chair (i.e., of St. Peter in Rome).

We all must admit that we are to edify and teach each other and use our gifts to build up the body accordingly.  I know of several Christian authors that I disagree with on certain items or doctrines, but that doesn't keep me from reading them, for they are scholars in their own right and know what they are talking about.  There is always an ear to hear or heed a person with a message (written or oral).

We have reached a level of maturity when we can distinguish our beliefs and our ignorance (know what you know and what you don't!), and be able to read writings of those we find occasion to disagree with but are still challenging or edifying; don't just read those we are inclined to agree with perfectly!   No one should feel he has to agree with everything some writer or teacher puts out, but God will bless the search for the truth.   It's a no-brainer that we shouldn't seek out teachers who say just what we want to say with itching ears.

Don't believe everything you hear or read, but search the Scriptures if there's question or doubt.  Even Socrates had to awaken from his dogmatic slumber to start learning.   But one thing is certain:  God will work through the body and we ought to take heed to what the Spirit reveals to it through gifted individuals, for God can speak through a child!  All in all, we must never claim to know all the answers but to be part of the answer or solution, not part of the problem.

NB: The whole church was wrong about the sun revolving around the earth and Galileo was put under house arrest during the Catholic Inquisition.  Also, the Reformation itself was proof that the established church can be in error.

CAVEAT:  ONE SHOULD BEWARE LEST HE BECOMES A KNOW-IT-ALL AND PUT MORE WEIGHT ON HIS SUBJECTIVE VALUE JUDGMENT THAN WHAT IS DUE; WE MUST KNOW OUR LIMITS OR DOMAIN AND AREA OF ENLIGHTENMENT, EXPERTISE, AND GIFTING.  In closing, G. K. Chesterton said, quite tongue in cheek, "We have found all the questions, now let's find the answers."   Soli Deo Gloria!

As A Matter Of Fact

'The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him--a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD" (Isaiah 11:2, HCSB).  

DEFINITIONS FROM DAVID A. NOEBEL:  KNOWLEDGE IS JUSTIFIED TRUE BELIEF.  FACTS ARE INDISPUTABLY KNOWN TO BE TRUE OR THINGS KNOWN TO EXIST IN REALITY, DEPICTING AND CONFORMING TO IT.    PRAGMATISM IS THE BELIEF THAT PROPOSTIONS DO NOT MIRROR REALITY AND SHOULD THEREFORE BE TREATED AS TOOLS AND JUDGED ONLY BY THEIR PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCES [IT DOESN'T MATTER WHETHER IT'S TRUE, BUT ONLY RESULTS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED].  TRUTH, ACCORDING TO THE CORRESPONDENCE THEORY OF TRUTH IS THAT WHICH CORRESPONDS WITH REALITY.  

NB:  CARL SAGAN SAYS EVOLUTION "IS FACT, NOT THEORY."  HE UNDERSTANDS NEITHER FACTS, SCIENCE, NOR THEORY.  EVOLUTION IS UNPROVEN AND UNPROVABLE!  ANY EVIDENCE IS HARD TO COME BY AND THERE IS ZERO FOSSIL EVIDENCE TO BACK UP THE THEORY OF MACRO-EVOLUTION--NO AUTHENTIC MISSING LINKS OR TRANSITIONAL FORMS, WHICH WAS A WORKING HYPOTHESIS, CHAMPIONED AS THEORY, AND NOW TOUTED AS FACT!  SCIENCE DEPENDS UPON EXPERIMENTS, MEASUREMENT, REPEATABILITY, AND OBSERVATION--NOTE THAT NO ONE WAS THERE!  

ONE-TIME EVENTS IN HISTORY ARE NONREPEATABLE AND NOT WITHIN THE REALM OF SCIENTIFIC SPECULATION.  IT IS VITAL TO KNOW THAT CHRISTIANITY DEALS IN FACTS AND EVIDENCE, AND IF IT'S DEHISTORICIZED IT'S FULLY DISCREDITED AND NOTHING BUT NOBLE ETHICS AND "PIE-IN-THE-SKY" DREAMS.  

Knowing all the trivia in the world will do you no good morally, spiritually, or practically--by definition trivia is useless info.  The only time it comes in handy is as a parlor game or on a game show as a contestant, or in the audience watching it for diversion or past-time or just to have fun things to know.  People who remember trivia tend to be disorganized for the most part because they don't organize what's useful for life; others just remember everything and know it fortuitously.  The point is that knowledge in itself is not an end in itself, it must be applied and put to work to be any benefit. Just like there's pure science and applied science.   If a trivia nut keeps telling you his "facts" facetiously tell him: "You don't say?" "Is that a fact?" 

The only knowledge that matters is that which can accomplish God's will and can be put to use productively; it is no wonder that knowledge is increasing exponentially, but our wisdom or knowing how to use it is falling proportionately--we're getting worse off! (Daniel 12:4, NIV, says, "... Many will go here and there to increase knowledge [or "and knowledge shall be increased" in KJV] .")   Knowledge need not be 100 percent certain to be called knowledge. 

Knowledge must affect your life to be of value!  We must put our knowledge to work for us.  The whole purpose of knowledge is edification, enlightenment, and inspiration or motivation for good deeds. The trouble is that we all possess trivia and even genuine, useful knowledge and don't know how to make it useful--we aren't faithful to what we do know as a rule; however, if we pass on what God has shown us He will give more light.

This can be seen also in those that study for purely academic reasons or as literature, reading the storyline and seeing the Bible as a lesson to learn much like fairy tales or myths.  Anybody can read about David and Goliath and conclude that you shouldn't let bullies boss you around or be discouraged by them--it doesn't take a spiritual mind at all!  And so, included in a trivial pursuit of Bible knowledge is to focus on the mundane and things of secular interest, such as historical facts and references.

Knowledge in itself puffs up according to 1  Cor. 8:1 and the goal should be to express it and make a loving use of it--love is the fulfillment of the law!  Gal. 5:6 says that "the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love" in the NIV.  The problem with knowledge is basically that some use it to impress others and to get proud of it for its own sake.  We all must beware of information glut whereby we know too much for our own good--not being able to apply it--and our knowledge gets ahead of us because we lose orientation and focus on our marching orders and the Great Commission; we must keep the main thing the main thing and not major on minors!

One problem in the church is the "nod-to-God crowd" doing their "duty."  They go to church in a perfunctory manner as a routine or to fulfill social obligations or to keep the conscience clean, not to apply what they hear as cheerful hearers but not cheerful doers of the Word.  These people tend to just go through the motions and have memorized the dance of the pious, knowing all the lingo of the church and are really socially engaged, as if churchgoing were a social event.  These believers are really lukewarm and need to invite Christ into their hearts so that they have more than head knowledge.  Christ must dwell in the heart to save and this is expressed in love to God and others, even enemies.  They may even apply the message to others being blind of their own depravity and spiritual need.

Now, don't mistake the hunger for the Word or the seeking of the Truth as abnormally vain or useless.  The healthy, growing believer has a genuine love for the Truth (cf. 2 Thess. 2:10) and loves the Word of God, and he will lose this passion if he doesn't apply what he knows--this is why we must pace our intake and not overload or get intoxicated with the Word only to forget it without application.  The Bible may become passe or one can get Bible fatigue as it loses its zing or pizazz, but walking close to the Lord will keep one close to the Word as it makes you hungry for more as it feeds you.  And being callous or indifferent to spiritual matters is a warning sign and the only cure is to own up to what you know and get back to the basics of love in action.

Some believers are just too distracted by the cares of this world or have too shallow of a mind to think divine meditations.  One must heed the words of Jesus in John 13:17 where He said, "Now that you know these things, blessed are you if you do them."  The Pharisees knew the Scriptures in their head but failed to understand their spiritual meaning ("You know not the Scriptures neither the power of God," in Matt. 22:29).  What they were experts at is applying it to others!  We must apply ourselves to the Word and the Word to ourselves (cf. Job 5:37).  Never discount knowledge, wisdom, and understanding as gifts of God, but to whom much is given, much is required (cf. Luke 12:48).

"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge" (2 Pet. 1:5, NIV).

Faith comes via the spiritual miracle and gift of preaching!  We must go a step further: turn our creeds into deeds and practice what we preach.  Christianity is not just a creed to believe but knowing a person and putting that creed into action!  Everyone needs to be convicted of sin and inspired to godly endeavor in the body, not just the immature ones!  We have never "graduated" in church when we don't need other members of the body, especially teaching and preaching.  Disciples are "learners" by definition and have enrolled in the school of Christ for the long haul.

We must never become complacent and think we know it all and have no need of preaching.  Some have been called to teach, prophesy, and preach, while others to submit to their God-given authority in so doing.  Those who don't get convicted or inspired are in danger of being out of touch spiritually, and if they don't apply it, they can lose it, even backslide or fall temporarily into apostasy.  There are no Lone Ranger believers who can say they can worship God in the cornfield or on the mass media or even social media because there are no spiritual hermits or loners in the body.

Knowledge is not meant to be an intellectual thing where smart or intelligent people have the advantage--the heart of the matter is that it's a matter of the heart.  A point in fact:  Nobody can absorb it all, everyone must be selective--you cannot be effective without being selective.  Some people try to do too much or learn too much--books can become burdensome if one doesn't learn to organize his studies and realize what God wants for him to know and apply--he must know how God uses him.  That's where knowing our place in the body and our spiritual gift comes into play so that we don't attempt too much and accomplish nothing.

Knowledge is vital, but it's not everything!  God's "people perish for lack of knowledge" (cf. Hos. 4:1, 6,14).   We must never lose our focus and perspective or discernment.  We cannot escape knowledge because that is not an option for the believer, it leads to spiritual suicide!  How can Protestants dissent, disagree and protest if they are ignorant?  The Bible tells us that the righteous are hungry for the truth, but the fool feeds on trash in Prov. 15:14, and we have all heard the computer slogan garbage in, garbage out.  And so knowledge is the byproduct of a walk with Christ:  "... [B]earing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God," in Col. 1:10; "But grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ..." in 2 Pet. 3:18, NIV.

The only test of genuine knowledge in action or faith is obedience to the Word.  NB: Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes."  Obedience is the only measure of faith and the second part of the Great Commission, to teach them to obey all that Christ taught--i.e., being disciples or students of the Word ("Study to shew thyself approved unto God...," in 2 Tim. 2:15, KJV or "be diligent to present yourself ..." in NKJV).

And we must have pure motives for attaining knowledge (we must not stop there and fail to complete our mission)--it's the means to the end, not an end in itself, and not just to have all the answers or to outsmart and pull rank on the preacher or prof either in order to boost our own ego. Two major issues of growth stunting in the church are apathy and ignorance--they don't know, and much worse, they don't care!  To begin learning we must admit our ignorance according to Socrates.

In sum, there's a vast difference between knowing about the Bible and knowing the Bible, which can only be done if one knows the Author when God is our teacher, whereby we grow in the grace and true knowledge of the Lord, which is a humbling experience.

Words to the wise shall be sufficient:  In Scripture, Moses, Dr. Luke, and Paul were men of great learning.  Just like the British scientist (who founded the scientific method) and philosopher, Sir Francis Bacon, is credited with the 1597 maxim, "Knowledge is power," there is the skilled use of it--that's where wisdom comes in:  Scripture says, "The wise prevail through great power, and those who have knowledge muster their strength [i.e., increase their strength]" (Prov. 24:5, NIV).  Knowledge is necessary for spiritual growth, but not sufficient--IT'S ONLY PART OF THE EQUATION; it must be lived out in love. We don't believe in knowledge for its own sake! 

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing because some know enough to be dangerous!  NB:  Knowledge per se is no measure of spiritual status or growth, it must be commensurate with love in action.  

CAVEAT:  WE MUST BEWARE OF HAVING A ZEAL FOR GOD, BUT NOT ACCORDING TO KNOWLEDGE AS PAUL WARNED IN ROM. 10:2 AND SOLOMON IN PROV. 19:2.   By all means:  "The beginning of wisdom [the right use of knowledge] is this: Get wisdom.  Though it cost you all you have, get understanding" (Prov. 4:7, NIV).    Soli Deo Gloria!

A Passion For The Truth

"The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness [trash]" (Prov. 15:14, KJV).  

"They hate the one who judges at the city gate, and they reject the one who speaks the truth," (cf. Amos 5:10). 

"Send Your light and Your truth, let them lead me," (cf. Psalm 43:3). 

"However, when he the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you in all truth," (cf. John 16:13). 
"Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim. 2:25, NIV).
"But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil" (Heb. 5:14, NIV).
"[And] all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing.  They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved" (2 Thess. 2:10, NIV).  

It's obvious that the sign of a Christian is one who's found the truth and been set free by it (cf. John 8:32), but one who also has a passion for truth and THE TRUTH and discerns it; the unbeliever hasn't received a love of the truth, but is deceived by lies, and has not learned to discern good and evil as Heb. 5:14 states.  NB:  Evil is not an entity in itself, but the distortion and perversion of good and truth, or error mixed with the truth; just enough error to deceive and inoculate from the truth).  Paul says that hopefully the unbeliever will come to a knowledge of the truth and repent by the grace of God in 2 Tim. 2:25.

Unbelievers "reject the truth" (Rom. 2:8) and "suppress the truth" (cf. Romans 1:18) and love the lie, which they will believe because God sends "powerful delusion" that they cannot discern truth from lies, and in this way will fall for the Antichrist (cf. 2 Thess. 2:11).  Even believers are susceptible to believing liars and being deceived and are enticed or led astray, as Paul said that a great apostasy shall precede the coming of Christ, and many shall fall away giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons (cf. 1 Tim. 4:1).

It is so important that we guard our souls with truth and be on guard against falsehood whatever the source.  Sound doctrine in the soul is such a defense mechanism known as the "belt of truth."    Spiritually we can be exposed to pseudo-spiritual writings that are extra-biblical and noncanonical, being rejected by the church fathers as passing the tests of orthodoxy.  They had very good reasons to pass over writings that the early church never accepted:  were they written by an apostle?  did they contradict other books in Scripture?  did they speak with God's authority or claim to be the Word of God? did they impact with the inspiration of God?  

Therefore: These criteria are known as apostolicity, orthodoxy, and pedigree of the canon. What's noteworthy is that none of the apocryphal writings were ever quoted by Jesus, any of His apostles, or the Church Fathers (the Apostolic Fathers)!  The Gnostic writings were known to be forgeries or false because they were written much later--as late as the second century and claimed apostolic authorship but were not.

Christians read these writings thinking they will find out something new but don't realize that they are not worthy of our attention.  Paul said that the things we should meditate and think about are those which are true, noble, worthy of honor, etc., in Phil. 4:9.  The point is that the Bible is sufficient to guide the believer and he needs no other spiritual ancient source to fill him in. If the writings don't claim sola Scriptura (the Scripture alone--as authority) or appeal to the Word they are bogus.  It's an insult to Scripture to give heed to these writings because God's Word is what is revealed.  

Remember when The Da Vinci Code was all the rage?  Curiosity seekers were drawn to this oddity of writing, thinking it was something new under the sun.  When they brought attention to the Gnostic gospels it was thought that this was something newly discovered, but the Church Fathers had rejected them as genuine, authentic, bona fide, authorized works of the Holy Spirit.

This is the ultimate question:  do you have a passion for the truth, or a curiosity for the lies of Satan and his deceivers, whether they be false teachers or demons?   One road leads to eternal life, another to apostasy and heresy.  It all goes back to the old expression GIGO or garbage in, garbage out. Don't forget we believe in the God of truth and that Scripture is truth (cf. John 17:17).  

These pseudepigraphical writings  (ancient tabloids) like  Assumption of Moses, Psalms of Solomon, Testament of Job, Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Martyrdom of Isaiah, the Life of Adam and Eve, and other counterfeit writings are meant to deceive and lead to an error with strange teachings.  We are not to tempt God nor the Holy Spirit with our curiosity into Satan's domain!  We dare cannot ask God to "lead us not into temptation" and then expose ourselves to tabloid writings, and this gives the devil an opportunity to deceive.   It's interesting that Hebrews 13:9 warns against "strange teachings." 

In sum, "man shall not live on bread alone" (cf. Deut. 8:3).    Soli Deo Gloria!

How Does Knowledge Puff Up?

"Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding" (Jer. 3:25, NIV).  
"... How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?" (Prov. 1:22, NIV).
"Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid" (Prov. 12:1, NIV).  
"The wise store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invites ruin" (Prov. 10:14, NIV).
"... We know that 'We all possess knowledge.'  But knowledge puffs up while love builds up.  Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know" (1 Cor. 8:1-2, NIV).

1 Cor. 8:1 says that "knowledge puffs up, but love edifies."  Paul also warns in 1 Tim. 6:20 that there is "knowledge falsely so called."  Why is it that Hosea says that the "people perish for lack of knowledge" and that those "without knowledge will come to ruin"?  There must be a valid knowledge that God wills us to possess.  Point to ponder:  Scripture isn't anti-intellectual or anti-intellect.  It's not the intelligence or the knowledge that offends God and others, but the arrogance so often accompanied with it.  We must cater to intellectual honesty or integrity, but not pander to intellectual arrogance.  Job challenged God without proper knowledge and needed to be clued in.  He found out that no one has a monopoly on knowledge, wisdom, understanding, or truth.

It is said of sophomores (wise morons) in college that they are wise guys because they have enough knowledge to be dangerous or are half-educated.  When you think you have all the answers, like a youth rebelling against parental authority, you don't know as you ought to know.  It is said that all knowledge begins in faith and we cannot find a knowledge of the truth unless we are willing to admit we are wrong!  Because no one is infallible and can't stand corrected at times.  It is no shame to love wisdom and knowledge--philosopher means love of wisdom--because true believers have an innate love of the truth and unbelievers reject the truth (cf. 2 Thess. 2:10; Rom. 2:8).

A sign of a truly wise man is that he's hungry for the truth and is a permanent student in the school of Christ, ever increasing and growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.  Sir Francis Bacon, Christian philosopher, scientist, mathematician, said that "knowledge is power," echoing Prov. 24:5 that says we increase strength with our increase of knowledge.  Getting back to the sophomore analogy:  we never really graduate from the school of Christ we have matriculated in and are permanent students of the Book and the more we learn the more we realize we don't know, but that we have merely scratched the surface.  A student entering college thinks he knows something, then gets somewhat overwhelmed, then he becomes a wiseguy thinking he knows it all and is "educated," but then gets humbled and finds out how ignorant he is, and hopefully, he will see graduation as only the beginning of his search for the truth and not the endpoint of it.   It is said of the true student of Christ that he has a thirst for the truth and knowledge because "all truth meets at the top" (acc. to Aquinas) and "all truth is God's truth" (acc. to Augustine).

There is a spiritual gift of knowledge and God grants a spirit of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding so that we all can become wise men and counsel others to the truth.  The wise are known as those who are hungry for the truth, while the fool feeds on trash.  The lips of the wise disperse knowledge according to Prov. 15:7.  We are commanded to add knowledge to our virtue in 2 Pet. 1:5.  We must never forget that according to Prov. 1:7 all knowledge is contingent and begins with a fear of the Lord; for without God's knowledge and revelation, we could know nothing for certain.  "To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness..." (Eccl. 2:16, NIV).  CAVEAT:  If we have all knowledge and not love we are nothing; one must keep the main thing the main thing and realize that the aim and focus are to use our knowledge wisely, for the inclination of man is to increase in knowledge and not know how to use it to God's glory.  That's why Peter warns us not to be unfruitful in our knowledge (2 Pet. 1:8).  Solomon also realized the importance of acquiring knowledge from God to be able to lead Israel.

Solomon noticed that too much knowledge can be a grief and bring sorrow, but that is only when it's not focused on Christ and not oriented to the glory of God and one has no God-centered purpose in learning but is only learning for its own sake or for the wrong motives--knowledge is not an end in itself, but a means to an end!   "But since you excel in everything--in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you...." (2 Cor. 8:7, NIV).  Daniel is the patron saint of those of the knowledge of the system, and the priest is to guard and preserve knowledge for he is the messenger of the Lord (cf. Mal. 2:7).

Likewise, we ought to avoid the presence of the fool, the one in whom we don't find the words of knowledge.  Never forget that true knowledge of the Lord is real understanding and wisdom and something to boast in (cf. Jer. 9:24).  Remember that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and therefore one must commit to a serious, lifelong pursuit of it to keep from conceit, lest we become like Job who "spoke without knowledge" and his words had no insight, thinking he knew it all per Job 34:35. An example of foolishly using knowledge is to be a showoff or to parade it or to endeavor to "wow" people with our scholarship or higher learning when we need to meet people where they are and connect with them at their level--no one likes the know-it-all.

Some knowledge is too wonderful (cf. Psa. 131:1) for us because of our human limits (cf. Psa. 139:6).  A sign of the last days is that according to Daniel 12:4 "knowledge shall increase," but this is the unwise use of it and referring to a technical advance of civilization, not true godly knowledge, which doesn't increase but remains to be discovered anew in each generation.  I believe we are going backward in this category!  Caution:  Ignorance is not bliss, and it's ignorance that binds us not knowledge.   In sum, we all need to know the value of knowing the scoop, but we need to add a cup of discernment with it to keep it in perspective and ourselves properly oriented to reality and the main thing that counts--love.   ("I desired the knowledge of God ... more than burnt offerings" (Hos. 6:6, NIV).    Soli Deo Gloria!

Using Religious Knowledge As A Weapon

"The wise is hungry for knowledge, while a fool feeds on trash" (cf. Prov. 15:14).
"Brothers and sisters, I urge you to watch out for people who create divisions and problems against the teaching that you learned.  Keep away from them.  People like that aren't serving the Lord.  They are serving their own feelings.  They deceive the hearts of innocent people with smooth talk and flattery"  (Romans 16:17-18, CEB).
"Don't be misled by the many strange teaching out there..." (Heb. 13:9, CEB).
BY DEFINITION, KNOWLEDGE IS JUSTIFIED TRUE BELIEF.

A love for the Word is a blessing and a sign of salvation, but an unbalanced, dissentious, and contentious appetite and spirit can be deleterious to personal spiritual hygiene and even to the body of Christ.  The Bible was written to give us eternal life and to know God in salvation, not to merely increase our knowledge.  The purpose of Scripture, then, is to change our lives, and enlighten the soul, not merely make us wise in our own eyes, or to have information to pick fights--the purpose of books about the Bible must strive to do likewise.

Books help us understand ourselves, others, the world, and God, but shouldn't be looked upon as just giving us information or facts--all knowledge must be compared to the biblical truth though.  If one merely reads books about the Bible to sow discord among brothers or to find ways to play one-upmanship in knowledge, one is on the wrong track. There are gray areas and we are to respect the weaker brother and what he believes as Augustine said, "In nonnegotiables, unity; in negotiables, liberty; in all things, charity."

The stronger believer needs to grow in love, while the weaker in knowledge.  There are many areas of disagreement in the church and we are not to use our knowledge to upset some one's faith.  Knowledge is not an end in itself, but a means to an end.  Knowledge can puff up and give one pride, so we must always bear in mind that we don't know as we ought to know when we think we know it all--for instance, we don't study just to know all the answers--God is the Great Answerer and we must know Him.  Some brethren read controversy books just to do power games with each other and try to match wits with one another.  The Word is meant to be a seed to sow unto life in Christ, not to sow discord, which is one of the sins God most despises.

We simply have the wrong attitude if we think we are so smart that we can outwit our brother and that makes us superior in some way, God can speak through children, much more can He humble scholars and philosophers by their wisdom.  The Bible makes it clear that we are a fool if we think we are wise in our own eyes, that means God shuns wise guys!  They are not a cut above others, who are poor specimens.  God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble (cf. 1 Pet. 5:5; James 4:6).  We are to respect one another and that means we must have the attitude we can learn from them.

Knowledge, wisdom, and understanding come from God and are the byproduct of knowing Him and walking with Him, not of graduating from a school and thinking it's an automatic fruit--many fools graduate from college who are later humbled by the street smarts of the average Joe.  There is a spiritual gift of knowledge and even of wisdom though.  I have been challenged to answer debatable topics in the Bible that sincere believers can disagree about and have refused to go there and play along just to keep the peace.  There comes a time when we agree to disagree and press on in friendship without thinking that winning an argument enhances our spirituality.  Our knowledge is not meant to build walls and find disharmony, but to build bridges with the brethren and to unite us in the Spirit--"for we are one in the Spirit."

Caveat:  Shun the argumentative, dissentious brother who is playing mind games or is on a power trip and has no interest in learning the truth. The Christian walk is not about winning arguments or becoming contentious, argumentative, judgmental, or divisive, for you can win a dispute and lose a friend and we are to be fishers of men and win them over, not scatterers of the sheep! One must beware when he's generating more heat than light and when belaboring the point isn't worth the adrenaline.  Hopefully, you won't be accused of sophism or specious reasoning because a person convinced against their will is of the same opinion still, the maxim goes.

In any confrontation, remember this key principle from John Stott:  "We cannot pander to a man's intellectual arrogance, but we must cater to his intellectual integrity."  And in the final analysis, the brother interested in knowledge for its own sake or to impress someone should examine his motives and find out whether they are pure and he desires to serve God with his knowledge or to merely use it as a weapon for personal gain and to boost his ego. Knowledge cannot be its own aim or an end in itself.   Soli Deo Gloria!