Assumptions are things believed without knowing that they are true.
The argument has now changed. The argument now is whether made-up stuff is real. Secondary argument is whether it’s rational for evolutionists to make up a story that says that Divine revelation is also made-up stuff. It comes down to a stand-off between dogmatism based on pure imagination versus ongoing experience by millions of people with the Creator of the Universe. This ongoing experience is empirical. Evolutionism is pure conceptual fabrication.
People who want to be rational and use logic cannot avoid the huge problem of proof (premises). Logic is unsound if the premises can’t be shown true or anything is added to the premises on the way to the conclusion. If the logic is unsound, the reasoning is irrational. To be rational is to be sane. You can see why this might be important.
Without Divine revelation, how do you prove premise true? With another premise that you can’t prove?
Proof (the premise) is part of logic. Premises lead to conclusions. The premises prove conclusions. They prove it true. The conclusion can neither add to the premises nor can it ignore the premises. If the conclusion adds to or ignores certain premises, the conclusion is non sequitur—it doesn’t follow from the premises. The premises must be sufficient and true. If they aren’t sufficient, then additional information might show the conclusion false. Therefore, the conclusion can’t be claimed true. Truth is absolute by nature. That’s why philosophers of science say that proof is too high a goal for science. In science, one thing can be called “fact” today and shown to be a “falsity” tomorrow. Next week, it can again be called “fact” all because new observations are made. The problem is finding a true premise.
If you state some premise or premises, you must show it/them true. You need proof for the proof. You need a new logical statement that shows the premise true. If you have multiple premises, you must show them all true with new logical statements. Let’s consider a statement that only has a single premise. We’ll call the conclusion “A” and the premise “B.” You assert that A is true because of B. How do you know B is true. B is true because of C. How do you know that C is true? Because of D. This goes on until infinity (infinite regression fallacy) or until you hook the logic back up to itself (D is true because of A—circular reasoning fallacy) or until you just say that something is true just because you say that it’s true (axiomatic thinking fallacy). This is known as the Münchausen trilemma. It’s been known for thousands of years. Secularist thinking has no solution. It destroys the possibility of rational thought. Secularist thinking can’t possibly produce proof in this sense. Therefore, it can’t have a true premise. If the premise isn’t true, the thinking is irrational. Therefore, Secularists cannot have rational thoughts. They must use fallacies, either to make unsupported assertions (axioms) or to cover up the fact that they are just making stuff up and asserting made-up stuff as if it were part of reality. That’s what fallacies are all about. The only solution to the trilemma is Divine revelation.
Divine revelation is a sovereign act of God. God speaks and imparts certainty that what He has said is true. Since the human mind is stuck in a trilemma, He takes over the process. We, of course, must acknowledge Him. He doesn’t force Himself on anyone. Those who are willingly ignorant of Him stay in the trilemma. No certainty (faith) is imparted to them. They can’t tell the difference between reality and make-believe. God still reveals things to them or else they wouldn’t be able to survive. They can still be dogmatic about their beliefs (some of which are true and others of which are false) but they can’t tell the difference between truth and falsity, because they refuse to acknowledge God. They can’t tell the difference between reality that God reveals (through Creation, the Bible, or other means that God speaks to us about through the Bible) and make-believe. The reason they can’t tell the difference is that they are taking two opposites—made-up stuff and Divine revelation—and claiming that the two are the same thing. They claim that what God has shown them is the same thing as what they have made up. In that way, they cloud their thinking to the point that they don’t know the difference between reality and make-believe.
God reveals Himself and His truth through Scripture. If you read Scripture, you hear God’s Voice. However, your fallen mind is deceitful and desperately wicked to the point that you can’t analyze it. God says, “Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) We are not to add to God’s words, literally, utterances. (Proverbs 30:6) God speaks. His Voice is heard as an utterance. Everyone is aware of this. Some choose not to acknowledge Him. (Romans 1:28) Interpretation of Scripture can be done one of two ways. We can allow the Holy Spirit to interpret or we can allow something else to interpret it, perhaps our own fallen mind, the fallen mind of another, or the mind of a demon. If we acknowledge Him in all our ways, He promises to direct our paths. (Proverbs 3:6)
God reveals Himself and His truth through His Creation. If you look at Creation, you hear God’s voice. The fallen human mind wants to add to God’s words, though. Other voices what to do the same. Yet, if we acknowledge Him and realize that He’s talking to us, He will speak. If we stand in His Presence, He will speak to us. (Jeremiah 23:22)
Let me admit that every person seems to have this problem. I have this problem. You have this problem. God is trying to help us. Jesus says that the truth will set us free. Everyone who follows Christ is led and taught by the Holy Spirit on a moment-by-moment basis. The Holy Spirit is teaching us all truth—not all at once, but line on line and precept on precept, here a little and there a little. For this reason, there are things that we know through Christ, but we need allow the Holy Spirit to continue to correct us and teach us. If anyone thinks that he or she knows anything, he or she doesn’t know it as it ought to be known. That partial knowledge we have is true but it’s still partial. We are learning to discern God’s Voice from other voices (including that of the deceitful and desperately wicked human mind), and we’re learning to respond in submission and obedience. To respond in submission and obedience to what God is saying to us is called “righteousness.” It’s actually God doing His works through us by grace through faith—a subject of its own. When God does His works through us, we are changed, transfigured, into the likeness of Christ. We die to self. We live to Him. He is more fully formed in us. This is called “holiness.” Christ in us, the hope of glory. And so, we go from glory to glory as long as we are willing to acknowledge Him rather than all the other voices.
In the final analysis, there are only two ways to interpret either Scripture or the Creation: Divine revelation or assumption. Assumptions take various forms and there are many ways to justify them, but they really are just making stuff up. Divine revelation requires standing in God’s presence with the desire to know Him and to obey Him. Since every person is born with a sin nature, we always have to make choices between God’s will and our own wills. To disobey God is sin. When we obey Him, it’s because we have yielded to His Spirit to the point where He has been able to think His thoughts, speak His words, or do His acts through us. Nothing else is righteousness ever. This is the imparted righteousness of God. And it leads to a change in what we are. It leads to holiness. Since none of us is perfectly holy yet, we need to constantly seek the Holy Spirit to correct us. When the Holy Spirit corrects us, it’s always uncomfortable to our flesh. In fact, the flesh dies. However, Christ is built up in us. As Christ is built up in us, our discernment between right and wrong improves.
Since none of us is perfectly holy yet, we need to constantly seek the Holy Spirit to correct us. When the Holy Spirit corrects us, it’s always uncomfortable to our flesh. In fact, the flesh dies. However, Christ is built up in us. As Christ is built up in us, our discernment between right and wrong improves.
When we listen to ungodly counsel, human reasoning (which is always based on assumptions), or worldly friends, TV shows, movies, etc., we begin to sear our consciences. We lose the ability to tell the difference between reality and make-believe. We lose the ability to tell the difference between Divine revelation and made-up stuff. This is what happened to the false prophets. Yet, God said that if they would stand in His Presence, He would speak to them. Of course, the reason they wouldn’t stand in His Presence was because they didn’t want to hear Him. He would tell them things that wouldn’t please the fleshly mind. So, they found ways to avoid that. Even now, some Churches find ways to avoid hearing His Voice (forms, rituals, rationalizations, music with the wrong spirit, unscriptural Church order, etc.). They may even claim to hear His Voice, but those who stand in God’s Presence won’t be deceived by Him.
For you, my advice is that you stand in His Presence. Even though He tells you things you don’t like to hear, listen to Him. Don’t add to His words to make them say what you want to hear. Spend much time reading Scripture, asking God to speak wisdom into your heart (innermost mind). He will lead you where you don’t want to go. He never leads where the flesh wants to go. Yet, He can remove all your sins and bring you into righteousness–eventually into holiness and redemption (freedom from the sinful nature and the influences of Satan).
I try to stay away from speculation. All theories require speculation. I know that what God is revealing is all that we need, and I know that speculation cannot produce anything but delusion. So, I know that God created the Heavens and the Earth and the Seas and everything in them in six days, creating Adam from the dust on the sixth day. To know more than God says is impossible. God speaks through Scripture and Creation, but we are not to add to His words lest He show us to be liars. That means that assumptions and other kinds of made-up stuff are useless. It also calls for a close walk with God in which we learn to hear His Voice and have discernment between our own minds and the mind of Christ.
There is certainly a lot of magical thinking that goes into the Big-Bang-Billions-of-Years-No-Flood-Molecules-to-Man story. Every so-called evidence is based on either made-up stories or else assumptions. The assumptions come out the the Big-Bang-Billions-of-Years-No-Flood-Molecules-to-Man worldview, making the entire thought process circular. Yet, we see Jesus. Hebrews 2:9 The Holy Spirit leads and teaches every follower of Christ moment by moment. One of the things the Holy Spirit teaches everyone who follows Christ is that the Bible is the Word of God without error and that He speaks through Scripture.
Theories are stories. They are attempts to explain observations–to go beyond what is known. Whenever anyone goes beyond what is known, they are in a land of fantasy. Divine revelation is different from this. God has reveals that He created the Heavens, Earth, seas, and everything in them is six days ending with the creation of Adam from the dust on day six. He also reveals that there were about 6,000 years between Adam and today. Nothing that God reveals through His Creation (scientific observation) conflicts with that. God speaks through His Creation confirming what He is saying through Scripture. Going beyond what God is saying and going into fantasy land is sin. If anyone adds to God’s Words, whether it’s what He’s saying through Creation or the Bible, God will show that person to be a liar.
Here’s the problem. Secularism is based on made-up stuff (assumptions). Evolutionism is a series of stories based on made-up stuff. Everyone who follows Christ is led and taught by the Holy Spirit on a moment-by-moment basis. We know Him. He reveals things to us. He reveals that the Bible is His Word without error. Anyone can test this.
If you are an open-minded Secularist, and you want to test this, you just need to ask God to pardon your sins and your bad attitude toward Him. Ask Him to forgive all the times that you refused to acknowledge Him when He revealed Himself to you through His Creation. Do this with sincerity. Then, ask Christ to be your Lord and Savior, to rule over you, leading you and teaching you moment by moment. Submit to Him. He will reveal Himself to you if you do this with sincerity, respect, and persistence. He will then begin to reveal to you such things as the reliability of the Bible. In fact, He’ll begin to speak to you through the Bible. You’ll begin to desire to be with other Christians and you’ll find that God speaks to you through them by the Holy Spirit. Then, you’ll know. There is no way that you can verify your made-up stuff to yourself.
There is a difference in the two types of faith. Secularism’s faith is based on made-up stuff. The faith of God comes by hearing and hearing comes by the rhema of God. “Rhema” is a Greek word that means “utterance.” We don’t figure out Scripture, rationalize it, and have human faith in it. We read Scripture, God speaks to us through it and imparts His supernatural belief and trust (absolute certainty) to us. This spiritual faith is the gift of God lest anyone should boast. It is substance, that is, reality, of things hoped for. Hope is a vision of reality that is given by God. It is the evidence (absolute proof) of things not seen. While Christians also have many false faiths mixed in with God-imparted faith, the upward road is allowing the Holy Spirit to continue teaching and molding us.
Sometimes, Christians become confident of their own ability to reason and they lose touch with Christ. Since reasoning without Divine revelation from Jesus Christ must be based on assumptions, nothing can be known by reasoning without Divine revelation from Jesus Christ. That’s the problem with a lot of theology–it’s rationalized rather than revealed. God speaks through the Bible, but God says, through the Bible, that He speaks through other means as well. In fact, the reason that we know that the Bible is the Word of God without error is because this fact is revealed to us by the Spirit of Christ.
