KNOWING TRUTH WITH CERTAINTY

Differences of opinion do not mean that uncertainty is the final verdict. Some even take these differences to mean that there is no truth:

·       Everyone has a different opinion. Therefore, there is no truth.

I simply ask, is this statement true? If she says, “Yes,” then I point out that, “Evidently, you do believe in truth.”

There will always be differences. The guilty always proclaim their innocence, but we have more sure guides to truth. This is why we have juries, testimonies, and evidences. Without certainty, we cannot have any justice, love, or anything necessary for society to thrive. With uncertainty, we are left with the disaffected and apathetic, “I don’t know; who can know?”

If there is no certainty or truth, then Jesus is no better than Hitler; propaganda and lies are no better than honesty. If this is so, then just go to bed and await your last breathe.

But can we know truth? Certainly! In fact, any denial of truth requires a truth statement. Therefore, truth cannot be denied. Consequently, when someone tells me, “There is no way to know for sure,” I ask them, “Do you know that for sure?”

But can we truly know the truth? I enjoy the books called “Magic Eye.” They have computer generated markings that contain a hidden image. You can only see it if you let your eyes go out of focus, and sometimes the image appears. If you have any doubts about seeing it, you can go to the back of the book where the answers are revealed.

Do I know that I perceive reality? Yes! How? I see the image and then it is confirmed for me.

The same principle also pertains to spiritual truth. Although it might be difficult to attain, it is attainable, as Jesus had taught:

·       To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31-32)

Knowing the truth doesn’t just happen. It is a product of following Jesus. Why doesn’t it just happen? Don’t we all want it? Not at all! Instead, we have an aversion to the truth, even to the point of denying that it exists. Why? It reveals what we don’t want revealed, as Jesus had taught:

·       This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. (John 3:19-20)

Normally, we hate the light. It exposes our wrinkles and blemishes, even worse, it exposes what we truly have become. And we need not even believe in Jesus to know this. Winston S. Churchill, among many others, had observed:

·       Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.

The truth about ourselves knocks us down. We cannot tolerate it. No wonder the differing opinions. They grow in the darkness like poisonous mushrooms. However, when you know the truth, you know it. How? It will set you free. It is like putting on a correct set of lens, which bring everything into sharp focus. This is what the truth will do.

However, we must desire truth above all else:

·       If you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. (Proverbs 2:3-6)

PETER ENNS AND THE DENIAL OF CERTAINTY

For many years, I had struggled with painful doubts about the Bible and even my salvation. Painful? These doubts were devastating! Fortunately, there were no local churches to assure me that certainty is “impossible.” Fortunately for me, there was no one available to flatter me that my doubts were the result of being a deep and thoughtful person. If so, I might have given up my quest for assurances.

However, today there are many churches and theologians available to teach against any expectation of certainty and confidence in the Gospel. Just recently, Peter Enns, theistic evolutionist and a former professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, came out with a new book: “The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires Our Trust Not Our Correct Beliefs.”

Certainty has now become a sin, at least for some modern theologians, but is it designated as a sin in the Bible? If so, Luke was a sinner and his Gospel was sinful:

·       Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have CERTAINTY concerning the things you have been taught. (Luke 1:1-4)

In a glowing review, John Seel, “a millennial thought leader, cultural renewal change agent, speaker, author, and consultant,” writes:

·       Children of evangelical parents are at risk. Raised with the belief that the truth can be cornered, they live in a world that suggests quite the opposite. As cultural pressures increase, parents and pastors double down. The kids feel torn and are left without meaningful onramps to a more open and humane framing of faith.

Oddly, Seel also believes that “truth can be cornered” or acquired, since he has a lot to say about his own brand of truth. Seel praises Enns for his “humane framing of faith,” intended to enable the young Christian to fit into a world of growing “cultural pressures.” What about Enns’ “The Sin of Certainty?” Seel continues:

·       The tripping point for them [the children] is the dogmatic religious certainty of their parents and childhood churches. For these young people, as for most millennials today, faith is a fusion of belief and doubt, coupled with skepticism that any one person or group has it all figured out.

This is a typical strawman argument – misrepresent the opponents’ position to make it look ridiculous in order to easily blow it over. No Christian is saying that he “has it all figured out.” However, far from being a sin, Paul prayed that believers would be filled with a confident understanding of the Gospel:

·       That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may KNOW what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. (Ephesians 1:17-18)

·       That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians 2:2-3)

Admittedly, Paul’s prayers were an acknowledgement that many Christians had yet to acquire the “riches of full assurance of understanding.” However, his prayers demonstrated that a robust confidence in the faith represented “treasures” and not sin. Even more, this “full assurance of understanding” is essential to living a robust Christian life:

·       And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. (Hebrews 6:11-12)

Without this “full assurance of hope,” it is difficult to conceive how we would not become “sluggish” and eventually fall to the side.

In contrast, Enns preaches a form of Biblical sluggishness. How? By downplaying the Bible’s teachings in favor of a substance-less, belief-less, amorphous trust!

·       “We have misunderstood faith as a what [doctrine] word rather than a who [God] word—as primarily beliefs about rather than as trust in.”

However, this distinction is foreign to the Bible, where we find that belief and trust are inseparable. In contrast with Enns, if we trust in God, we believe His teachings and do what He tells us to do. As Jesus taught, we cannot separate trusting God from His Word and commands:

•  “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him...If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.” (John 14:21, 23-24)

In order to follow these commands, we need some degree of certainty about what He is commanding us to do – the very thing that Enns claims to be sinful.

In fact, living the Christian life is impossible without some degree of certainly about what Scripture teaches. Exhorting, correcting, disciplining and even loving require some degree of certainty or confidence about what the Bible is teaching us to do. Without confidence in the Bible’s teachings, evangelism certainly becomes impossible.

Besides, in order to trust someone, we have to know something about him! Likewise, to trust in God, we have to know Who it is we are trusting. Consequently, trust in God is inseparable from the Gospel of God.

To trust God, we need to know what He has promised us? How am I not hate Him unless I am convinced that He forgives my sins (1 John 1:9), loves me (Ephesians 3:17-20), and will never let me go (Romans 8:38-39)? How can I trust Him if I fear that He might grow tired of me?

In contrast to Enns’ uncertainty theology, Paul confidently asserted:

·       …our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I KNOW whom I have believed, and I am CONVINCED that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. (2 Timothy 1:10-12)

We too must “know whom [we] have believed” and be “convinced that he is able to guard…[us].” To not be convinced of these things, is to live in fear and timidity and to default into acquiescence to the prevailing culture and its temptations.

We are not free to trust in God in a way that merely feels right to us. It has to be according to His Word. King Saul had decided to serve God in a way that felt right to him, but in God’s sight, this was rebellion:

• “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because thou hast rejected the word of Jehovah, he hath also rejected thee from being king.” (1 Samuel 15:23 ASV)

Consequently, if we are to honor God, we must honor His Word, His truth:

• “I will worship toward thy holy temple, And give thanks unto thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.” (Psalms 138:2)

Instead, Enns doesn’t seem to believe that we can trust in God’s Word:

·       “Here is the temptation,” Enns explains, “we can forget that we are human and delude ourselves into thinking that we can transcend our tiny place in the human drama and see from on high, as God sees.”

Instead, God has given us His Gospel so that we can know:

·       He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we KNOW that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may KNOW that we are in him. (1 John 2:2-5)

However, Enns disparages any “correct thinking,” even thinking based upon Scripture:

·       “Life’s challenges mock and then destroy a faith that rests on correct thinking and the preoccupation with defending it. And that is a good thing. Life’s challenges clear the clutter so we can see more clearly that faith calls for trust instead.”

For many of us, “Life’s challenges’ have actually validated the Bible and its teachings. We are not saying that we need not labor to reconcile the Bible with our experiences and to defend it. Admittedly, society contradicts our faith in many ways. This is why we are required to meditate on His Word “both day and night.” However, the Bible consistently teaches us that it is defendable and that we are required to make a defense for our hope:

·       But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, ALWAYS being prepared to make a DEFENSE to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” (1 Peter 3:15)

Instead, Enns has renounced his responsibility to defend the Biblical faith. Meanwhile, he has written much in defense of his own faith:

·       “Maybe my purpose on earth isn’t to be the thought police first and love others after all their ideas line up as they should. Maybe my first order of business is to risk my own sense of certainty about God and love others where and how they are no matter how they do on my theology exam.”

However, sometimes love requires us to correct. We must correct our children, our dogs, and those who wish to hurt others. Love requires us to correct our neighbor who intends to join ISIS or even the neighbor who disturbs the entire neighborhood with his blaring boom-box.

Besides, love requires Biblical wisdom. We need to have some sense of moral and Biblical certainty about how to love. Not everyone requires the same thing. We would need to understand how loving Hitler would be different from loving a 15 year-old who is ready to jump off a building because her boyfriend had just jilted her.

In their dogmatic defense of uncertainty, Seel and Enns have narrowed their lives to the point that life becomes unmanageable. What has led them to take such a myopic and needlessly constraining stance?

This seems to be the stance that just about all theistic evolutionists have adopted. Why? When they embraced Darwin, they had to take a “humble” and uncertain stance in terms of biblical revelation and interpretation. Why? Ultimately, the two – Jesus and Darwin – cannot be successfully and coherently married. There always exists tension between their many discordant elements.

It is like trying to button your shirt after starting with the wrong button. Every subsequent button will be out-of-place. This is the inevitable result of the unholy marriage between Darwin and Jesus. This is why theistic evolutionists consistently tell me, “We have to be humble about our interpretation of Scripture.” If only they were so humble about Darwin!

Enns is wearing a shirt that will not properly button together. Therefore, he flees from trying to justify it. Such a shirt will ultimately prove costly.

And what about my own excruciating doubts? My pain forced me to plunge on, as King David who written:

·       It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. (Psalm 119:71-72)

WE CANNOT SEPARATE DOING FROM BELIEVING AS MANY WANT TO DO

In the Myth of Certainty, Daniel Taylor makes the absurd claim that:

• “Faith in God, then, is not a belief system to defend but a life to live out!”

Taylor is half-right. Christianity is a “life to live out.” However, we cannot live this life out without instructions and the rationale or reasons to believe in these instructions – the Word of God.

For Jesus, bearing fruit – living the life – had to begin with embracing the Word of life. In His Parable of the Sower, Seeds and Soils, He highlighted the primacy of His Word for bearing fruit in His conclusion:

• “As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.” (Luke 8:15; ESV)

In order to bear, they first had to hear and then adhere:

• “Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away… My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” (Luke 8:18, 21) 

According to Jesus, loving Him and living out the life He prescribed wasn’t possible without keeping His Word:

• “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)

Therefore, for the Christian, love isn’t a matter of living a “virtuous” life but rather, through faith, the life that He had commanded. Therefore, Jesus parting words commissioned His Apostles to “to observe all that I [Jesus] have commanded you.”

• “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

Clearly, this is not Taylor’s commission!

Is it Possible to be Theologically Certain?

Uncertainty has become a reigning virtue. Sandy Ikeda is a professor of economics at Purchase College, SUNY. Understandably, he is troubled by the religious and sectarian violence perpetrated by those who are certain that they are right:

• Today in the Ukraine, in Gaza and Israel, in Syria, in South Sudan, and in far too many other places around the world, deadly violence ruins lives and sickens the heart.

And the violence should sicken the heart. However, he identifies certainty as one of the contributing problems:

• For what it’s worth, in my religious tradition there’s a saying:  Nothing is what you think it is. Because of the narrowness and limits of our perceptions, there’s an inevitable disconnect between what we think we know about the world and the way things actually are, between what we see and what is actually the case. That, of course, causes problems. But it gets much worse if we refuse even to acknowledge that the disjunction exists, and if we cling to the belief that in at least some part of our belief system we are absolutely, unshakably right. The more certain we feel about what we know, and the more we think we’re certain about, the worse it gets. 

Certainly, certainty about things that don't warrant our certainty - certainty about falsehoods, for example - is a problem. However, we should not make the mistake of rejecting all forms of certainty because of the dangers of only some kinds of certainty. In fact, only by having certainty can we reject the dangerous varieties of certainty. (We must be certain to reject ISIS and “racial cleansing.”) For example, without the certainty about the goodness of truth, love, and justice, we cannot say that genocide is absolutely wrong. Nor will we be able to take meaningful action against it!

To lack any degree of certainty narrows and degrades our lives. It condemns our necessary decision-making to a matter of merely how we feel.

To illustrate this - if you are mugged, should you go to the police? It depends upon what you believe about justice and human culpability. If you do not known what to believe about justice and objective moral guilt, you will have no certainty about what action to take. Instead, your uncertainty will leave you in a confused state and your neighbors in a vulnerable condition with a mugger running free.

Of course, there are many areas of legitimate uncertainty - what will happen to me and how others will respond to me - but this shouldn't mean that the entirety of our lives must be buried in uncertainty!

Although I had been plagued for years by doubts about the existence of God and whether He really loved, I am glad that I never resigned myself to the belief that certainty about these questions was not possible. When we aren’t confident that we are loved by God, we crave the love and approval of others, even to the point of resenting them when we don’t receive their unqualified approval.

Instead, certainty about the Gospel of Christ is of the highest importance. In fact, this was the central issue of John's letter to the church:

• We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: (1 John 2:3-5)

One way that we can KNOW that we are in Him is by whether or not we endeavor to keep His commandments.

Meanwhile, many of the Emergent or Postmodern Church insist that certainty about God – theological certainty - is not possible. Pastor Brian McLaren reflects this skepticism He claims that, among other things, we cannot ever be certain about our interpretation of Scripture:

• How do “I” know the Bible is always right? And if “I” am sophisticated enough to realize that I know nothing of the Bible without my own involvement via interpretation, I’ll also ask how I know which school, method, or technique of biblical interpretation is right. What makes a “good” interpretation good? And if an appeal is made to a written standard (book, doctrinal statement, etc.) or to common sense or to “scholarly principles of interpretation,” the same pesky “I” who liberated us from the authority of the church will ask, “Who sets the standard? Whose common sense? Which scholars and why? Don’t all these appeals to authorities and principles outside the Bible actually undermine the claim of ultimate biblical authority? Aren’t they just the new pope^? 

McLaren inflates the problems of interpretation, claiming that he is certain that we can’t really interpret Scripture with any degree of certainty without first having a proven method of interpretation. (While he denies that we cannot be certain, his many books declare that he is certain about a number of things!)

However, a little common sense plus a handful of experience might shed some light on this “problem” of acquiring certainty.  We engage in easy-to-understand conversations all the time, without a proven system of interpretation. When I ask the attendant to pump me $20 of “regular,” he knows exactly what to do. No confusion; no need for a proven method of interpretation! Why should it be any different when interpreting the Bible?

When I read the “50 mph hour” speed limit sign on the highway, I’d like to believe that it means “65 mph.” However, I know what it means. In fact, this interpretation is further corroborated when the highway patrol tickets me for doing “65.” Interpretation doesn’t pose any significant problems, except for those who are trying to derive an interpretation which the text cannot support.

Likewise, we have numerous ways to corroborate our interpretation of Scripture. Any one verse has many corroborating verses. We call this “Scripture interpreting Scripture.” Of course, some passages can be difficult to understand (2 Peter 3:15), but this doesn’t mean that much of it isn’t quite plain. Besides, we have many aids – pastors, teachers, commentaries, concordances - to help us understand.

Scripture was also written to be understood. Therefore, Paul instructed that his epistles be taken to many churches to be read. Never did Paul insist that a Doctor of Theology be present to provide the definitive interpretation.

There was never any indication that any of the Apostles ever suggested that their listeners first required a proven system of interpretation before they could understand the teachings of the Apostles. Had McLaren instead written that much of Scripture presents us with interpretative difficulties, many of us would agree. However, he is skeptical about all interpretations of Scripture. If only he was equally skeptical about his own conclusions!

Today, it has become fashionable to believe that we cannot be sure of anything regarding the biblical faith, perhaps apart from the requirement to love. McLaren rhetorically asks, “How do ‘I’ know the Bible is always right?” suggesting that none of us can know. One noted theologian wrote:

• Any worldview—atheist, Islamic, Jewish, Christian or whatever—ultimately depends on assumptions that cannot be proved. Every house is built on foundations, and the foundations of worldviews are not ultimately capable of being proved in every respect. Everyone who believes anything significant or worthwhile about the meaning of life does so as a matter of faith. We’re all in the same boat.

However, such a stance is logically self-defeating. If it is true that we believe as we do simply based on blind and baseless faith, then this above statement is also a matter of blind faith, and therefore it disqualifies itself.

More importantly, the Bible disqualifies uncertainty! Many verses contend that the evidence serves as an incontestable basis for an assured faith:

• Then the LORD said to Moses: "How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them (Numbers 14:11)?

According to God, there was no excuse for Israel’s uncertainty and unbelief. He made certain truths, like the resurrection, abundantly certain:

• After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:3)

God does not tell His people to “just believe.” Instead He has provided many unassailable proofs for the faith. This doesn’t mean that we don’t struggle with doubts and uncertainties. Nor does it mean that these struggles are opposed to the faith and must be suppressed. Nor does it mean that God cannot bring great good out of such struggles. He certainty does!

However, the Emergent, Postmodern skeptical Church places too much emphasis on the journey and the search and minimal emphasis on the object or the goal of the search – certainty and assurance regarding biblical truths. Emergents normalize and idealize the journey at the expense of the cognitive rest and assurance at the end of the journey. They even claim that assurance is only possible for those who do not think deeply about things.

Faith had been such a struggle for me – someone weak in faith and rich in skepticism. It tormented me that I couldn’t find peace in believing, which others seemed to have found. I therefore would have welcomed the Emergent message that certainty isn’t possible. It would have given me a sense of peace in knowing that I was okay and not a “Christian” misfit. Fortunately, I found little encouragement that skepticism would be my ultimate resting place, the goal of my searching.

Instead, I learned that joyously living the Christian life is not possible without a high degree of certainty. I needed to know that God loved me with a love that transcended understanding (Eph. 3:16-19) and that He had forgiven and cleansed me from all of my sins. I needed the God-confidence often mentioned in Scripture:

• Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19-22) 

We require confidence in order to draw close to our Savior and to know that He has drawn close to us. As long as I doubted His love, I could not feel grateful towards Him. Instead, I felt contempt for Him, not knowing with certainty that He truly loved me.  And whenever I felt condemned by my feelings, I felt that God was also condemning me. I needed to know that He wasn’t condemning me and that my feelings were only that –feelings. And that is the very place where Scripture comforted me:

• Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1)

I needed to be confident about this, since overwhelming feelings were telling me that I was under condemnation. I therefore can totally embrace Paul’s prayer for the church:

• I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:17-19)

Having the knowledge of God and His love for us isn’t an option. Without this knowledge, we will not be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Without this confidence, we will not be able to persevere:

• So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. (Heb. 10:35-36; Jer. 7:7)

Without confidence in the promises of God, I wasn’t able to persevere. Even having this confidence, I struggle. However, without it, I couldn’t even begin to struggle.

Paul associated rejoicing with knowing:

• We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance. (Rom. 5:3)

Without this knowledge - this confidence - we cannot glory in suffering. We can only glory in the midst of suffering because we are confident that God has a glorious purpose for it (Rom. 8:28). Lacking this confidence, I suffered additionally from obsessive and crippling ruminations.

Doubting Thomas would have told the skeptics something about certainty. He doubted that Jesus had risen from the dead until Jesus visited him and showed him the wounds in His hands and side John 20). Then, he worshipped Christ with all the certainty in the world.

This lesson is very simple - Our Lord can easily remove doubt and provide certainty. This lesson about the need for theological certainty is also vital to our lives. It was only with this certainty that Thomas was enabled to carry the Gospel to far-off India and to his eventual martyrdom.