How can we know anything about anything
To try to explain truth to him who loves it not is but to give him more plentiful material for misinterpretation. George Macdonald
Do we have to make a choice between science and the Bible?
NO!
That is NOT where the problem is, but that is what everyone seems to want to talk about.
Take science as an example.
How can we know anything about the created material world around us?
How can we know anything from what we can see using natural sciences?
We all see the same things in the material world,
but we don't come to the same answers.
Why is that?
How can we know anything about the Bible and what it teaches?
Every person believes different things about the Bible and how it should be read.
Why is that?
Same scientific facts. Different answers.
Same Bible. Different answers.
Why is that?
The true question is this: How do we come to our answers that we get
from what we can see through science
or what we can read in the Bible?
How do we think about what we see using science or what we read in the Bible?
How do we analyze what we have seen and read?
How do we interpret what we have seen and read?
We use logic, but logic always has a foundation. Jesus talked about building on the Rock.
That Rock is Jesus Christ. He is the true foundation.
There are also the false foundations of the ungodly.
An example might help.
Question: Why do you believe in evolution?
Answer: Because my science teacher told me that evolution is scientific fact.
Question: Why do you believe your science teacher?
Answer: because he agrees with the textbook he assigned us to read.
Now, we have asked, "Why?" twice.
If we continued to ask, "Why?" we would come down to the foundation of this person's thoughts.
When we get down to the foundations, there are no more questions that can be answered.
So where to the foundations come from?
There are three possibilities.
- things that we make up, pulled from the air
- demonic lies
- divine revelation
Question: Why do you believe in creation?
Answer: Because God revealed this to me. He spoke to me through the Bible and gave me His faith
so that I could believe Him.
See how quickly we got to the foundation.
This is a belief that has a foundation that is solid and that cannot be moved.
In reality, the things that we make up, that are pulled from the air,
are actually from demons and all the lies of demons spring from the prince of demons, Satan.
So these are one and the same.
Divine revelation comes from the Almighty, Creator, God, Jesus Christ.
So there are only two choices, but how do we know there are only two choices?
Because God has revealed this truth to us.
The question then is how do we tell the difference between the revelation that comes from God
and the lies of Satan?
The answer is that everyone who sincerely wants to do the will of God will know.
Jesus said, "If you really want to obey God, you will know if what I teach comes from God or from me"
The rejection of the revelation that comes from God is not an intellectual problem.
It is a moral problem.
Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you:
For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened."
*
Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?
Matthew 7:7-11 *
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.
You can set the truth before someone, but you can't make anyone believe
those things that they don't want to submit to.
They have to want to obey God.
How frequently it is brought to our attention that nothing good can be done if the will is wrong! Reason alone fails to justify itself. Richard M. Weaver
Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32)
"If we are not prepared to buy the truth at the cost of our own humbling we shall not receive it"
Lies appear to have no price upon them.
They seem cheap and they abound everywhere.
But for the truth there is always an obvious price to pay.
"[God] has set a day when He will judge all the world's people with fairness.
And He has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for Him.
God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death" (Acts 17:31).
"There is a judge for the one who rejects Me [Jesus] and does not accept My words;
that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day" (John 12:48)
That also stands for every person who speaks the utterances of Jesus.
When we hear them, we hear Jesus Christ, and we either accept or reject.
Every person who follows Jesus Christ is commanded to only speak His utterances and not their own.
"When we love others, we know that we belong to the truth, and we feel at ease in the presence of God" (1 John 3:19)
Ravi Zacharias did two open forums in a university.
On the second night, one man told him that he had brought two Atheists in the night before
who said that the arguments presented were so strong that they could not contend with them,
but they were going to remain Atheists because that is what they prefer to be true.
In another case of just listening to an unbeliever and drawing out his reasoning,
the unbeliever finally came to his foundations.
They turned out to be assumptions that were pulled from the air.
When asked why he believed his basic assumption,
the unbeliever looked startled and blurted out,
"I guess I'm making the whole thing up."
It was quite a revelation to him since he hadn't even known that he had any assumptions.
However, he decided to remain an Atheist because he didn't want God to rule over him.
Here is a little history and some updating... This month (March) we are celebrating thirty-five years of broadcasting the Gospel of the Kingdom to the Caribbean (West Indies) and South America through the "SHARON GOSPEL HOUR". This half-hour broadcast was aired over the years from various stations including GBS-Radio Guyana in South America, PJD2 from Dutch St. Maarten, Radio PARADISE from St. Kitts, ZDK-Antigua, and CBC-Radio Barbados. For three years we also hosted a weekly half-hour television programme called "THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM", aired in several islands on prime time (Thursdays - 7:30pm) through the facilities of ABS-TV, a small network of three Caribbean stations.
The broadcast opened up the Caribbean and Guyana in South America to this wonderful message of the Kingdom, and still continues to have an impact. Many have been introduced to the truths of the Kingdom, Sonship, and the Great Reconciliation. Well over a thousand letters - probably many more than that - have been received over the years from listeners. There are many hundreds of homes in the islands now receiving the SHARON STAR. It was through the broadcast that initial contacts were made with "key" brothers and sisters who became the core of our local assemblies, including several "pastors", some of whom went on to become local elders. (Even the initial introduction to this "Move" for Travelling Deacons, Gilbert James and Robert Persaud, was through the broadcast.) In the interest of history, the SHARON GOSPEL HOUR is rooted in an earlier broadcasting effort in the beginning of this Move of the Spirit when Br. Herrick Holt hosted the "SHARON BACK HOME HOUR" from North Battleford, which continued for several years. Later, the SHARON BACK HOME HOUR was revived by Br. Doug Whitter and renamed "THE GLOBAL MISSIONS BROADCAST", then aired from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, which continued right up until our brothers homegoing a few short years ago.
The SHARON GOSPEL HOUR actually had its initial beginning in 1968 in Manitoba as the "FELLOWSHIP TIME" broadcast of the Bethesda Bible Institute, hosted by Br. Hardi Kubassek and myself. From 1970 onward, when we came into this Move of the Spirit, we changed the name to SHARON GOSPEL HOUR. Br. Herrick Holt and myself then co-hosted the broadcast for several years, along with help from Br. Robert Oldridge (during the period he lived on the island of Antigua).
Since this month marks thirty five years of nonstop broadcasting to the Caribbean, we are celebrating by re-airing excerpts from messages given Br. Herrick Holt, my co-host of an earlier time, who went to be with the Lord in 1987. There is as much life and anointing in those old messages today as there was then. We're also airing portions other broadcasts reaching back nearly 35 years, featuring several of the older Brethren and many of the singers from those days. We expect a good response from the listeners.
Today, the half-hour SHARON GOSPEL HOUR continues to be aired each Sunday from CBC-Radio Barbados, and ZDK-Antigua, which I continue to host, with the help of material provided by many other Brethren and even local assemblies. Without them, and the prayers of the saints, it couldn't be done. These two stations cover most of the islands and reach into South America. A third broadcast, "THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM", is aired from Trinidad and Tobago, and is hosted by Br. Gilbert James. Although 35 years have come and gone, the Brethren still feel we should continue to carry on at this time. When this phase of the outreach is completed, the Lord will likely lead us on into different forms of outreach. That time is known only unto Him. Although broadcasting has certainly "worked" in the Caribbean, I don't personally believe it is necessarily THE thing to do in other parts of the vineyard. as various Brethren have expressed, each area is unique and different, and we need the mind of the Lord for each one.
Respectfully submitted,