When the same word is used to mean very different things, it causes confusion. The word, “science,” is used for knowledge gained by repeated experimentation and observation by many people, but it’s also used for the unsupported assertions of a group of politically elite scientists.

The word, “evidence,” is used for absolute and certain proof, but it’s also used for interpretations based on unsupported assertions, on made-up stuff.

The word, “faith,” is used for the absolute proof and certainty that comes when God speaks, but it’s also used for a belief based on unsupported assertions. The word, “hope,” is used for the vision God gives concerning what He has promised He will do, but it’s also used for a human-generated wish based on vapor.

The phrase, “I’m a Christian,” is used to mean, “Jesus Christ leads me and teaches me moment by moment and does His Works through me,” but it’s also used to mean, “I know that Jesus Christ exists.”

These are just a few examples, but the list could go on and on. The result is that statements need clarification. Words must be defined.

When we interpret Scripture, observation, experience, or anything, we must add something to it. Often, we add something from our own worldviews. Since our worldviews seem, to each of us, as if they were reality, we add without knowing we’re adding. God speaks to us through all these things, but we add to His Words. Adding results in distortion. Interpretation involves adding information, but what is the source of that information. Worldviews come out of previous interpretations and aren’t to be trusted. Worldviews are powerful filters that can keep us from seeing all these things as they really are. (2 Co. 3) Don’t hold your theology so tightly that the Holy Spirit is unable to teach you. The Holy Spirit is the only Teacher. Only He can interpret Scripture, observation, experience, or anything else. Christ is the only Foundation. Pray that God leads you as you study Scripture and as you live your life.

That’s the simplicity that’s in Christ Jesus. We know Him. He leads us. He teaches us. We don’t need to use loopy logic. We can know what He reveals through Scripture, through Creation, through what we observe. We don’t have to interpret Scripture using assumptions and other kinds of made-up stuff. We can ask the Holy Spirit about it. Whatever the Holy Spirit doesn’t reveal to us, we leave with God.

All other ways of thinking are based on made-up stuff. No Secularist can explain another way to think. No Secularists can explain how he or she can prove any premise true. Without a true premise, sound logic is impossible. Without the ability to have certainty, it’s impossible to be rational

At first, Secularists may deny this. If pressed, they will claim that their made-up stuff is correct and known–even though it’s made up stuff. More likely, they will just deny the harsh reality of the futility of their own thinking. The human mind can’t pull knowledge out of the air. We can observer imperfectly, but additional knowledge is required to interpret observation. This is true of scientific observation, too. Even Scripture, if interpreted by the carnal mind, is useless. We need the Holy Spirit, our Teacher and Friend.

At a certain point, the Secularist will claim that every follower of Christ was only assuming that he or she was following Christ. When asked for the method by which they think they can know this, they will change the subject, engage in name-calling, or do whatever it takes to keep themselves from facing the harsh reality of the futility of their own thinking. You may even be amazed at how irrational they become and how mean. Eventually, they will manifest their slave-master, Satan.

The goal of the dogmatic skeptics or the ardent Secularists is to keep you from dwelling in the Presence of Christ. Often, these can be brothers and sisters in Christ who have somehow become disconnected from the Head, Christ. They don’t believe what God is saying. They refuse to acknowledge Him as He speaks through you. If they can’t convince you with irrational logic, they will try to make you angry. The principalities and powers against which we fight are well aware that fear or anger will take us out of the Presence of Christ. Alternately, they will try to force you to lean on your own understanding and to speculate about all types of things. They’ll ask you question after question to try to get you to speculate, because they know that speculation takes you out of the Presence of Christ and that it gives glory to your own intellect.

There are wonderful promises to the overcomers. God isn’t asking us to overcome the skeptics or Secularists. He’s asking us to overcome our fleshly natures and to have a totally transformed mind. He’s asking us to press into His Glory and to dwell there. The testing of our faith is the very mechanism that brings us into the fullness of the experience. As steel is heated to give it strength, so you and I must go through the heat and be found faithful as part of the process of growing up into the fullness of Christ.

We’re not saved from Hell by good works. We’re saved from sin to good works. Good works are a gift from God. Righteousness is part of our salvation.

Faith isn’t make-believe. It comes when we hear the Word of God. (Ro. 10:17) Looking into the original Greek, it comes when we hear the rhema of God. “Rhema” means “utterance.”

Faith gives access to grace. The free gift of righteousness flows from God through us. (Ro. 5:17) Our part is to receive it and yield the members of our bodies to His righteousness.

(Ro. 6:13) When we try to self-generate righteousness, knowledge, wisdom, understanding, peace, joy, or anything else, we frustrate the grace of God. (Gal. 2:21)

Everyone who seeks Christ does find Him. The Spirit will guide you into all the truth.