Revelational Apologetics

Posted on November 28, 2015December 18, 2015 by Petros

Both presuppositional and Revelational apologetics use physical observation and experience/experiment. Evidential apologetics seems to focus mainly on physical observation and experience/experiment that is interpreted via assumptions. Presuppositional apologetics generally recognized Divine revelation as one of many sources of truth, but it puts puts special emphasis on presuppositions as the basis for thinking, while revelational apologetics puts special emphasis on Divine revelation through the Holy Spirit, our Teacher and Counselor sent through Christ, as the basis for thinking.

“Evidential apologetics or evidentialism is an approach to Christian apologetics emphasizing the use of evidence to demonstrate that God exists. The evidence is supposed to be evidence both the believer and nonbeliever share, that is to say one need not presuppose God’s existence.” Wikipedia

“Presuppositionalism is a school of Christian apologetics that believes the Christian faith is the only basis for rational thought. It presupposes that the Bible is divine revelation and attempts to expose flaws in other worldviews.” Wikipedia

I’m careful about what Wikipedia says, since they have such an anti-God influence, but I’ve included these definitions from that site.

“Evidential Apologetics is that style of Christian defense that stresses the miracles found in the Bible, particularly Christ’s resurrection as an evidence for the existence of God and the validity of Christ and His words. It also uses historical evidences to support the veracity of the Biblical account(s). In this, it is very similar to Classical Apologetics, which stresses reason in its approach to evidences.” Matt Slick of CARM, https://carm.org/evidential-apologetics

“This form of Christian apologetics deals with presuppositions.1 A Christian presuppositionalist presupposes God’s existence and argues from that perspective to show the validity of Christian theism.2 This position also presupposes the truth of the Christian Scriptures and relies on the validity and power of the gospel to change lives (Rom. 1:16).” Matt Slick of CARM, https://carm.org/presuppositional-apologetics

Comparing evidential apologetics to revelational apologetics, evidential apologetics exposes the mechanics of the lies. Revelational apologetics exposes the structure of the lies. Evidential apologetics is helpful to expose the lies about what has been observed. Revelational apologetics exposes that fact that nothing can be known without Divine revelation. Without Christ, nothing can be known. In Him is hidden all knowledge. In Him is hidden all knowledge.

You may wonder if revelational apologetics is the answer that will cause all bad doctrine to cease. Eventually, God will reveal the fallacies of all the lies that have been told, but don’t expect someone who dearly wants to believe in evolutionism or Atheism to be rational. There are many ways to get out of being rational. They’re called fallacies, tricks, and games.

Here is some further reading:

Revelational Apologetics Versus Presuppositional Apologetics

Extrabiblical Revelation, Interpreting Scripture Through Assumptions, and Adding to the Canon of Scripture

A Conversation Using Revelational Apologetics with a Theistic Evolutionist

A Conversation with a Presuppositional Apologist

Equivocation of Assumptions at Berkeley

Assumptions

Worldviews

Divine Revelation

Warnings About Divine Revelation

Skeptical Arguments Against Divine Revelation

What Brings Regeneration?

00001 PresuppVRev22

Ken Ham-Bill Nye Debate

Posted on November 6, 2015November 6, 2015 by Petros

0001 AppealToTradition

When Bill Nye debated Ken Ham about Creation (and, as it worked out, the favored story about no God, big bang, billions of years, no Flood, abiogenesis, amoeba to humans), Bill Nye wasn’t able to make any point to refute God or the Creation or to prove the favored story without relying on fallacy. In fact, every point Bill tried to make was riddled with multiple, nested fallacies.

Ken Ham, on the other hand, was falsely accused, by Evolutionists, of having the same problem. Some Christians came out against Ken Ham, noting how they would have been much more effective than he was. It’s easy to be critical, envious, or knit-picky. Looking at the transcript and analyzing the video for many hours will reveal that Ken’s fallacies weren’t on his main points. All of his main points hold up as rational, since they are based on his testimony of a personal relationship with Christ in which Christ reveals truth to Him, both through the Bible and through personal experience.

Bill Nye finally realized that he was comparing Divine revelation to assumption. Assumptions consist of made-up stuff. That’s their weakness. Made-up stuff is whatever someone makes up. Divine revelation comes from God Who knows all things and cannot lie.

The human mind has no internal method to tell the difference between made-up stuff and reality. This distinction can only be brought by the Almighty and loving God Who reveals it to us. He actually reveals this to every person, and every person receives partial revelation.

No one receives all that God is willing to give. No one rejects everything that God is willing to give. Some people acknowledge God and are thankful to Him. These have some knowledge of Truth and have a growing discernment between what God has revealed and what comes from other sources. With increasing spiritual maturity comes increasing discernment between good (what comes from God) and evil (what comes from human or demonic minds). Others, like Bill Nye, refuse to acknowledge God. They become increasingly unaware of the difference between reality and make-believe. Eventually, many of them become Atheists or functional Atheists. This is the reason for dogmatically held speculative doctrines in the Church and outside the Church.

Bill Nye ended up defending the use of assumptions as the foundation of all knowledge. Ken Ham ended up defending Divine revelation as the Foundation of all knowledge. Jesus Christ is the Foundation. No other Foundation can be laid that that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. In Him is hidden all knowledge. He is the Truth. He has become our wisdom, that is, righteousness, holiness, and redemption. In Him is hidden all knowledge. Everyone who’s on the side of Truth listens to Him.

The Book, “Reason,” uses this debate as a backdrop to discuss reason. The book isn’t about the debate, but the debate created a sharp distinction between reality and make-believe. “Reason,” hasn’t yet been released.

Who is Blindly Following What Can’t be Proven?

Posted on October 24, 2015October 24, 2015 by Petros

Interpretation of Scripture32 \

Funny how Evolutionists accuse those who follow Christ of blindly believing what can’t be proven when all they are doing is projecting their own problem onto those who don’t have the problem at all. In reality, the stories of Evolutionism can’t be proven while Creation is obvious. The stories of Evolutionism are all based on assumptions. Assumptions are pulled from worldviews. Worldviews are created by previous interpretations of things taught, things experienced, and things observed. Those interpretations are based on assumptions that are based on worldviews.

The fact of Creation isn’t given this way. It’s given by revelation. God reveals it through Scripture. God reveals it through Creation itself. Everyone, at some point, is confronted by God concerning this fact. Those who refuse to acknowledge Him and thank Him, He turns over to their own reprobate minds so that they do things that they know will result in judgment from God. The unrighteousness they do has an effect. It suppresses God’s truth and those unthankful and willingly ignorant people lose the ability to tell the difference between reality (what God reveals) and make-believe (what comes from human minds or demons).

Some say that Divine revelation requires interpretation by the fallen human mind. This isn’t true. In fact, it’s a tu quoque fallacy on the part of those who lean on their own understandings rather than trusting God. They suddenly realize that they know nothing and then want to accuse you of knowing nothing as well.

If the fallen human mind interprets Divine revelation, it always adds to it or diminishes what God is saying. What God says is enough. Humans have no source to self-generate the knowledge that would be required to interpret any experience, observation, Scripture passage, or revelation. That means that human interpretation is also human speculation. Speculation is just making stuff up.

When we stand in the Presence of God, He reveals Scripture. He reveals the meaning and purpose of life. He reveals right and wrong. What He says is enough.

Faith comes as we hear God. The Greek word, “rhema,” is used in Scripture. “Rhema” means utterance. God speaks. We hear. Faith comes. This faith isn’t conceptual. Theories and theologies are concepts only. Concepts are not reality. Faith is reality from God. It’s substance, that is, reality as opposed to concepts and opinions. It’s the substance of things hoped for. And, it’s also the only evidence that gives absolute proof and certainty. It’s the evidence of things not seen. (Romans 10:17, Hebrews 11:1)

As with all important words, Satan tries to blur the difference between reality and make-believe by redefining the word, “faith.” Some people use the word, “faith,” to mean “making themselves believe in something.” That would be make-believe. Rather than the conviction, certainty, and absolute proof, and reality that comes from God, Satan uses the word, “faith,” to label a human-generated ability to believe in things that aren’t true. Even many Christians are confused by this. Faith comes by hearing God’s Utterance. No one can self-generate God’s Utterance. Demons and flesh both try to imitate this absolute authority, but the Holy Spirit gives discernment.

The more we yield to Him and stand in submission in His Presence, the more we’re able to discern between His Mind and human minds and demonic minds. The more we walk in our own wills, the less we can know. The more spiritual we become, the better we can tell the difference between reality and make-believe. The more fleshly we become and the more we lean on our own understandings, the less we can tell the difference between reality and make-believe.

Saved To Good Works

Posted on September 9, 2015September 9, 2015 by Petros

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10

“And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matthew 19:17

Only God can do good works. God has called us to this.

“But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” 1 Corinthians 15:10

For this reason, God does His Works through us by grace through faith.

Faith comes by hearing. He speaks. We acknowledge Him. He directs our paths. Faith comes and gives access to His grace. Grace does His Works. If we get involved, other than our responsibility to yield our members to His free gift of Righteousness, we would just frustrate the grace of God. God doesn’t need our intervention. He needs our submission, since He won’t force Himself on anyone.

Secularists are people who can’t deal with the reality of the righteousness of God. Because they love darkness rather than light, they reject God and His Righteousness. They then end up rejecting all Divine revelation. Without Divine revelation, pretending is the only other option for interpretation of Scripture, Creation, or experience. That may be a shock, especially to Secularists. It won’t be that much of a shock to any Christ-follower who has tried to reason with a Secularist.

Sound reason requires a true premise and a conclusion that follows from the premise. For a conclusion to follow from a premise, nothing can be added to or diminished from the premise on the way to the conclusion. The Secularist runs into a problem in trying to prove a premise true. Denying Divine revelation, the Secularist doesn’t have that option. The Secularist can simply declare the premise true based on his own or another human authority. This is the axiomatic thinking fallacy. That’s a fancy word for pretending and thinking that make-believe is real. The Secularist can use circular reasoning, infinite regression, personal attacks, or hundreds of other methods to make make-believe seem real.

However, the Secularist isn’t having an intellectual problem other than trying to establish human intellect as a god of some sort. The Secularist is having a righteousness problem. Salvation is to God’s Righteousness and from human sin. Secularists love darkness rather than light. Because all Righteousness must come from God, the Secularist’s human-righteousness is evil and filthy rags. Only repentance and turning to Christ can save them from their insanity.

Certainty

Posted on September 7, 2015September 8, 2015 by Petros

A common misconception of the definition of “faith” is that it’s blind belief for no reason. Faith isn’t rationalized, but without it, sound reasoning is impossible. That may seem to be a bold statement, but read on to understand.

Rationalization is a mental process by which insane thinking is made to appear sane. It gives the illusion of sound reasoning when the reasoning is irrational. Rationalization works using two methods: axiomatic thinking and smokescreens.

The first method is axiomatic thinking, simply making stuff up. Assumptions are merely fabrications that were made up and then treated as if they were part of reality. Unsupported assertions are concepts that are claimed true when there’s no certainty that they’re true. Axioms are unsupported assertions that are claimed true just because they’re claimed true. Lies are claims that aren’t true. Assumptions are lies in that they pretend the assumption is known when the assumption is, in fact, not known. It’s a lie to imply that an assumption is true. All assumptions are unknown. All of these fallacies fall under the heading of axiomatic thinking fallacies. On one or both sides of every debate, you will find axiomatic thinking.

The second method of rationalization is to try to make the made-up stuff seem to be real. It’s the art of making fake things look real. There are many methods that are used to do this. Some of them are simple and others are very complex. Usually, several methods are nested together, so these methods become very confusing and deceiving. Examples would include statistical tricks, circular reasoning, infinite regression, equivocation, ad hominem thinking, and appeals to human authorities, popularity, fear, emotion, ridicule, or any other thing that gives the illusion that the made-up stuff is true. Hundreds of logical fallacies are used as smokescreens to hide axiomatic thinking fallacies.

Those are the two elements of rationalization: axiomatic thinking and smokescreens. Rationalization is making believe. Whenever we rationalize, and we all do it sometimes, we lose the ability to tell the difference between reality and make-believe for that time and situation. We lose the ability to tell the difference between substance and concept. We lose the ability to tell the difference between what exists and what is theory. Scientific theories are concepts. Some scientists become so irrational that they claim that scientific theories are facts. They do this by rationalization.

When God speaks to us about faith, He isn’t talking about rationalization. Rationalized belief is worthless.

We don’t make ourselves believe in God. That would be make-believe. We don’t believe in spite of the evidence. God has revealed that the faith is the evidence, and the word, “evidence,” in this sense, means absolute certainty and absolute proof.

Now faith is the substance (as opposed to concept) of things hoped for, the evidence (absolutely certain proof) of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

Consider the nature of sound reasoning. Sound logic requires proof. The proof must prove what is claimed. The conclusion is what is claimed. The premise is the proof. The premise must be true.

How do you prove a premise true?

Do you declare it to be an axiom? That’s the axiomatic fallacy. Do you try to prove it with another premise that you can’t prove? That’s the infinite regression fallacy. Do you use circular reasoning? That’s a fallacy, and it proves nothing. There’s only one way to have a true premise.

When God reveals something, then it’s known. It’s true. God reveals things through Scripture, through Creation, and through the moving of the Holy Spirit. God reveals, but we need to acknowledge Him. He does reveal things even to those who refuse to acknowledge Him. Otherwise, all Secularists and Naturalistic Christians would die quite quickly. He supplies what they need to live so that they will have a chance to turn to Him and find Him.

Every person who is actually following Christ is led and taught by the Holy Spirit moment by moment. There are no exceptions to this. They see His Hand working in the Creation. They see His Hand working in others who are following Christ. They hear His Voice in Scripture, in Creation, in their innermost awareness of His Presence, and in any other person who’s speaking by the Holy Spirit. They are learning to hear Him more clearly and to discern between His Voice and every other Voice. As they walk in His Presence and see His glory, they are being changed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. They are dying to the flesh and being formed into the new Man. Christ is living in them and becoming stronger and more fully formed. The flesh is losing its hold on them, and the deceptive carnal mind is losing its grip. God has provided an arsenal of weapons for Christ’s followers to make it possible for everyone who is willing to eventually come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. What a day that will be!

Secularists and Naturalists, on the other hand, have no way to know the difference between what they make up and what God reveals. Within their worldview, they refuse to acknowledge God as He reveals Himself and His truth to them. They take some of the practical knowledge that God gives them, but they claim that it’s conceptual, just like all the things they make up. They reject much of the truth that God gives. Eventually, God turns them over to their own reprobate minds. Their own reprobate minds destroy them. They can’t tell the difference between reality and make-believe. The axiomatic thinking of the Secularist or Naturalist can’t be proven. Axiomatic thinking is the means by which the Secularist or Naturalist interprets his or her observations or experiences (experiments). No Secularist or Naturalist can have certainty that his or her assumptions, unsupported assertions, or axioms are true. However, any Secularist or Naturalist can confirm God. Any one of them can seek God in sincerity and respect and come to know Him through Jesus Christ. All such people need do is confess that they haven’t properly respected God, obeyed Him, or acknowledged Him, and ask Jesus Christ to forgive them and reveal His will and His Person, while willingly submitting themselves to the leadership and rule of Christ. You can see the contrast, can’t you? One can be confirmed. All who seek Him find Him. The other can never be confirmed.

Unfortunately, if we, as Christians lean on our own minds to understand rather than acknowledging the presence and leading of God, we can’t tell the difference between reality and make-believe either. We would no longer be walking by faith but we would be walking by human opinion and interpretation of observation, experience, and philosophy. This happens.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Some theologians have assumed that “the word of God” is the same as “the Bible.” However, that isn’t what’s written. If we go into the original language, we find no “the.” We find the Greek word, “rhema,” which means “Utterance.” So, this verse literally says that faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by Utterance of God. God speaks through the Bible. Through the Bible, God says that He also speaks many other ways, and all those ways will be consistent with what He is saying through the Bible.

Interpreting Scripture using assumptions is no better than interpreting Creation using assumptions. When scientists lean on human understanding rather than God, they interpret their observations and experiences (experiments) through the filter of their various worldviews. Often, a groupthink worldview is applied among an entire group of scientists. When this happens, the Holy Spirit won’t force Himself on them. They make up all kinds of stories that later must be changed. The same thing happens among theologians. A great leader and popular theologian can cause problems for generations that follow their speculations.

However, in Christ, we have a sure Leader. We have One Whom we can trust. If we all keep seeking Him and His righteousness, we will be found faithful. He will restore the order of the Body of Christ. He will restore the authority and the power. He will restore the Scriptural offices, ministries, and gifts. Despise not the day of small beginnings. God is now working throughout the Earth.

God speaks. He leads. He teaches. We acknowledge and faith comes. We don’t make-believe that God exists. We hear His Voice. We respond with respect and submission. Faith give us access to grace. Grace does God’s Works through us. We can actually become His Hand extended, reaching out to the oppressed.

Different Kinds of Beliefs

Posted on August 12, 2015August 12, 2015 by Petros

There are different kinds of belief.

People can make themselves believe in things. We call that make-believe. Some people use words like presupposition or assumption to describe this kind of belief. All logic must be based on some form of belief, either make-believe or real. For example, a person can make themselves believe in atheism, evolutionism, naturalism, materialism, or uniformitarianism–this is make-believe.

There is one type of belief that is different from the rest in that it is not human-generated but God-generated. This is the faith of God, and it only comes by hearing the utterance of God. No person can sincerely say that Jesus is Lord except by the faith of God, which is given by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told Pilate that everyone who is on the side of truth hears Him. Another time, He said that His sheep hear His voice. For a true Christ-follower, hearing Christ’s voice is a continuous stream of revelation of reality, that is, truth, and it leads to more developed spiritual senses and better discernment over time. Today, if you hear His voice, don’t harden your heart as they did when God brought His judgment on Israel.

There are indeed many gods, but only one true God. There are people who worship demons (earth spirits, Hindu gods, etc.). Humanists worship humanity. Some people only answer to themselves so they become their own gods. Others follow such gods as pleasure, possessions, education, or power. Some Christians, even very religious ones, actually become disconnected from Jesus by failing to listen to His voice and obey Him. The true God is exclusive. Whoever seeks Jesus does find Him, and Jesus approaches every person. Some harden their hearts against Him and refuse to hear His voice. They argue against Him and try every mental maneuver to avoid Him. With these, God turns them over to their own natural mind, which is reprobate, deceitful, and desperately wicked.

Couldn’t You be Deceived?

Posted on July 25, 2015July 25, 2015 by Petros

The human mind wants control. It brings arguments against Divine revelation. The argument is that you could be deceived if you look to God for Divine revelation. The reality is that there are only two alternatives to Divine revelation. One alternative is the fallen human mind, one’s own or other’s, that is deceitful and desperately wicked. The other alternative is demonic deception. The two alternatives to Divine revelation assure deception. Yet, the problem of Divine revelation is indeed discerning the difference between Divine revelation and these other sources. Both of these sources try to mimic Divine revelation or else to denigrate it.

Regarding Divine revelation, here are some of the arguments that are used by Secularists:

Your own mind could be deceiving you.
A demon could be deceiving you.
You must process that Divine revelation using your own mind. You don’t get it directly.

As far as demons, they are real and they are deceptive—as is the human mind. For that reason, demons and the failings of human intellect are really the same problem. In fact, if Divine revelation depended on human intellect, we would indeed be lost. There would be no scientific progress, because there could be no knowledge at all. However, discernment is not a matter of intellect. It’s the matter of the sovereign impartation of something that is called “faith” to those who acknowledge God when He’s speaking.

To clarify, God defines “faith” for us. It is not conceptual. It’s part of reality. It’s absolute proof. It’s certainty. It is progressive. It gives access into God’s grace, which is the power of God for righteousness. Grace is the free gift of righteousness.

For these reasons, Neither Münchausen’s trilemma nor Descartes’ demon present a problem for Divine revelation. They do present a problem for theological positions that add anything to what God is saying. It’s very easy to make assumptions. Assumptions are often hidden with various smokescreens. Münchausen’s trilemma and Descartes’ demon do present a problem for all Secularists. In fact, as skeptics argue for disbelieving everything or disbelieving God, the skeptic falls prey to both the trilemma and the demon.

A chain of thought is only as strong as its weakest link. An assumption is an unknown that’s treated as a known. Assumptions have no place in a premise. To put them there is irrational.

Divine revelation is ongoing and progressive. God has revealed that if any person thinks he or she knows anything, that person doesn’t know it as it ought to be known. In other words, there is room for correction by the Holy Spirit. The entire issue of Divine revelation isn’t to prove one person right and another person wrong. Divine revelation has much more to do with having a relationship with God than being the one who is correct. In that relationship and in the humility and openness to correction of the human, the Holy Spirit with teach, correct, and lead.

As far as deception is concerned, we can all be deceived. God has promised that if we ask for bread (a type of Christ), God won’t give us a stone (a type of the human intellect). If we ask for a fish (a type of Christ), He won’t give us a serpent (a type of Satan). Yet, we do get confused. If we continue to seek God, He will lead and correct us. When we think that we’ve arrived or we think that we know certain things, we stop seeking Him. We become stiff necked and dogmatic. The Holy Spirit won’t force Himself on anyone, so we get spiritually stuck. We know many things, but we don’t know any of them as we ought. We need to be open to correction.

False Objectivity

Posted on July 3, 2015July 3, 2015 by Petros

Christians and unbelievers alike often are deceived into thinking that they can be objective. It’s known as the ontic fallacy. Often, Christians state theological views and declare them to be Scripture. Often, scientists state theological or philosophical views and declare them to be scientific observations or evidence. They are not. They are interpretations. Interpretations add information to what can be known. God speaks through Scripture and through His Creation. Assumptions always add to His Words. Human interpretations always add to His Words.

Anyone who’s concerned about reality should realize that nothing can be known if it’s dependent on even a single assumption. In fact, if you allow yourself even one assumption, you can prove anything to yourself.

Knowledge of reality requires a true premise. Without Divine revelation, how can you know that a premise is true? With another premise? How can you know that premise is true? It isn’t rational to keep making up premises that need other premises that remain unknown. Yet, that’s what people do. Then, they claim that they’ve proved something or done science.

Knowing reality requires a true premise, but you can’t possibly have a true premise without Divine revelation. Now, the skeptic will claim to have infinite knowledge by making the bare assertion that Divine revelation isn’t known either. By doing this, the skeptic is claiming to know the inner spiritual experience of every person who has ever lived. That’s an amazing claim.

Every person who follows Christ is led and taught by Christ. While we are still learning to discern His Voice from all the other voices in the world, including the voice of the self, we are making progress in those things where we respond in submission to the Holy Spirit. Without this, there would be no hope of ever knowing the difference between reality and make-believe. A rational person wants to know the difference between reality and make-believe. A rational person realizes that assumptions can never be a basis for knowing.

Let God Reveal Reality

Posted on June 27, 2015June 28, 2015 by Petros

God speaks. He progressively reveals Himself and His will. Let God bring Scripture to life and tear down all theological constructs, replacing them with actual vision of reality.

Theological Constraints

Posted on June 26, 2015July 29, 2015 by Petros

I used to think that God gave us the Bible and sort of an intermittent leading of the Holy Spirit, mostly leading us to try to figure out the Scripture with our human minds. I thought that God was leading me in a greater understanding of His word and leading me to apply this understanding in my life. At that time, I defined “understanding” as a construct of theology. The problem was that it was me applying a theological construct in my life rather than me submitting to the Holy Spirit as He led and taught me moment by moment, bringing Scripture to mind as it applied or reaching me through my conscience and giving me the faith of God which gives me access to God’s grace, then submitting the members of my body to His Anointing so that He does His works through me. Instead, I was trying to think His thoughts, say His words, and do His works by human effort rather than the moving of the Holy Spirit. This resulted in me trying to figure out the Scripture with my fallen human mind and to apply it to my life on a moment-by-moment basis using my fallen human mind. That didn’t work. It frustrated the grace of God.

One thing that God has shown me very clearly is that the human mind can’t be trusted. It’s deceitful and desperately wicked. While Christians are supposed to moving from glory to glory, we have not yet arrived at the full completion. I know that every denomination claims to have arrived. One says that they “teach the Word of God in its truth and purity.” Another says that it is the “full gospel.” Yet, God has much more for us all. He says, “Call unto me and I will answer thee and show you great and mighty things which thou knowest not.”

Every human mind is in the condition of being deceitful and desperately wicked. Mine is no better than yours. Groups of people of like minds bind together, but that doesn’t make their group-think any better than anyone else’s group-think. If we make a single assumption while interpreting Scripture, we have added to God’s Words. Rather, the Holy Spirit speaks to us through Scripture and through every means of speaking to us that He mentions in Scripture. He will correct us. Yet, we can resist His correction and yet remain Christians. Not only can we, but we do.

Every one of us has a worldview, a paradigm. That paradigm is a fake reality. It seems just like real reality. In fact, it seems more real, to us, than real reality. By it, we filter real reality, accepting some things that God is showing us and rejecting others. Worldviews, are conceptual. They are not reality. Part of your worldview and part of my worldview is our concept of Scripture. Related to that is a part of our worldviews that consist of our theologies. Theologies are always conceptual. They are not reality. They seem real, though. Often, theologies seem as if they were Scripture itself. They are not. They are conceptual frameworks that filter what the Holy Spirit can tell us through Scripture. When a brother or sister in Christ says something by the Holy Spirit that conflicts with our inner worldviews, it often seems to us as if they are saying something that conflicts with Scripture. We might even accuse them of saying things that conflict with Scripture when the Holy Ghost has merely challenged our worldviews. This is our plight. Yet, there is hope. Only the Holy Spirit can set us free from our theological frameworks where they conflict with real reality–however, our fallen natures resist Him. This is very similar to what happens to Scientists when they are looking at the Creation. They fill in the blanks from their worldviews. Their assumptions actually come out of their worldviews. However, they add to what God is saying through Creation just as assumptions from theological worldviews can add to what God is saying through Scripture. Peer reviews don’t work for scientists who limit their peers to those who agree with their own scientific theories. In the same way, peer reviews don’t work for Christians who limit their peers to those who agree with their own theological constructs. I have found that the Holy Spirit instructs me that I must hold my own theology loosely enough that the Holy Spirit is able to correct me and teach me. As Jesus said, “You can’t put new wine in old wineskins.”

Real Reality

Tag Archives: Knowing