#27: Knowledge of God Matters

Knowledge of God Matters.

Which do you think shows up more in the Bible—faith or knowledge? If you do a concordance search, you will find something surprising. Knowledge (including knowing, know, etc.) shows up far more than faith does.

Of course, without faith, it is impossible to please God, but knowledge is far more important to God than people realize. Listen to (more…)

#17: Why Knowledge Matters for Christians

Why Knowledge Matters for Christians.

Unfortunately, many people today think that you can’t know religious or moral truths. Why?

Because if physics, chemistry, biology, or genetics doesn’t deal with a topic, then they assume you can’t know it.

In other words, it’s fine for you to say you believe that Jesus is God but not that you know Jesus is God.

However, if this were the case, then (more…)

Does Knowledge Require Bombproof Certainty?

Must we have bombproof certainty before we can say that we know something? Is it all or nothing — 100 percent certainty (that is, it is impossible that I am wrong) or hopeless skepticism? I don’t think so, because this dilemma is a false one.

A skeptical approach to knowledge maintains that knowledge itself is impossible or that no beliefs can be justified even if they happen to be true. Not only is this view unlivable; it also seems self-contradictory, because even radical skeptics think they know enough to claim you are mistaken.

 

36075733_mOur beliefs come in degrees of confidence, and some beliefs are more central than others; logical certainty is available only in mathematics. I may be very confident that God raised Jesus from the dead and have less confidence as to whether or not Christians ought to take the Lord’s Supper every week, but my differing levels of confidence don’t negate my beliefs. The all-or-nothing standard for knowledge gets us in trouble because it eliminates virtually everything that ultimately matters.

When it comes to God, one of the temptations is to withhold judgment until all the information is in and every possible issue has been investigated. To be honest, this is a pretty tall order. You will never know everything about everything. I sure don’t. If you wait until then, well, you will be waiting a long time! And the question of God is too important. (more…)

False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel

“God usually exerts that power in connection with certain prior conditions of the human mind, and it should be ours to create, so far as we can, with the help of God, those favorable conditions for the reception of the gospel. False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel. We may preach with all the fervor of a reformer and yet succeed only in winning a straggler here and there, if we permit the whole collective thought of the nation or of the world to be controlled by ideas which, by the resistless force of logic, prevent Christianity from being regarded as anything more than a harmless delusion.” – J. Gresham Machen

*Address delivered on September 20, 1912, at the opening of the 101st session of Princeton Theological Seminary.

Four Essential Questions For Teaching From A Christian Worldview

How to Teach Christian Worldview Video

How to Teach Christian Worldview

Recently, I wrote about how and why we are failing our students. But, what does it mean to teach from a christian worldview? The foundation of the Christian worldview is the conviction that in Christ are “hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). In other words, Jesus has the best information about everything. To live out a Christian worldview is to “think Christianly” about all of life. Here’s how I have tried to flesh out this conviction: Christianity actually rises to the level of being true or false (and there are good reasons to believe it’s actually true). And if Christianity is true, then it speaks to all of life; it makes a comprehensive claim on reality.

“If Christianity should happen to be true – that is to say, if its God is the real God of the universe,” said G.K. Chesterton, “then defending it may mean talking about anything and everything. Things can be irrelevant to the proposition that Christianity is false, but nothing can be irrelevant to the proposition that Christianity is true.”

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Core Worldview Commitments

In light of that, I teach with the following core commitments. First, Christianity is a knowledge tradition, which thinkchristianlycoverhighresmeans that truths about God, history, the spiritual life, and morality can actually be known, not merely believed (cf. Col. 1:9-10 and Luke 1:1-4).

Second, I assume (and argue for) the existence of objective truth. That is, truth is discovered; not created by an individual or culture. These two commitments will give students the confidence to cut through the mindless sound bites and slogans so common in our culture today.

Teaching from a Christian worldview requires that we ask and answer four vital questions:

1.) What do Christians believe about this? (Understanding / Content)
2.) Why do Christians believe this? (Reasons / Evidence)
3.) Why does this matter to my life? (Integration / Ownership)
4.) As an everyday ambassador, how can I help others connect with this important truth? (Embodiment / Connection)

This isn’t everything that could be said. But I think it’s an important starting point. Our beliefs and our thought lives provide the live possibilities for us to choose from in the day in and day out of life. If our thoughts are mostly away from God, then our choices most likely will be as well. Renewing our mind is fundamental to being an apprentice of Jesus and worldview formation (Col. 3:1-3; Rom. 12:1-2).

See more of my biblical worldview, apologetics, and culture teaching videos on my YouTube Channel.

I have tried to flesh out and apply this approach in my book with Zondervan, Think Christianly: Looking at the Intersection of Faith and Culture.