THE GUEST

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 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 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 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.

Tolstoi, nineteenth century author of "Anna Karenin" and "War and Peace" became a disciple of Christ in his latter years. The rich count then gave away all his wealth to Russian peasants, and lived as a peasant himself for the rest of his life.

Ironically, many years later, the leaders of the Soviet Union erected a statue in Tolstoi's honour, a statue which stood alongside that of Lenin and Stalin, mistakenly believing him to have been a "pre-Communist." After his conversion, Tolstoi began to write Christian short stories. The following poem, by an unknown composer, is based on Leo Tolstoi's short story: "Where Love is There God is Also."

It happened one day at the year's white end.
Two neighbours called on an old-time friend
And they found his shop so meager and mean,
Made gay with a thousand boughs of green.
And Martin was sitting with face a-shine
When he suddenly stopped as he stitched a twine
And said, "Old friends, at dawn today
When the cock was crowing the night away,
The Lord appeared in a dream to me
And said, 'I am coming your guest to be.'

So I've been busy with feet astir
Strewing my shop with branches of fir.
The table is spread and the kettle is shined
And over the rafters the holly is twined.
And now I will wait for my Lord to appear
And listen closely so I will hear
His step as He nears my humble place
And I open the door and look in His face."

So his friends went home and left Martin alone,
For this was the happiest day he had known,
For, long since, his family had passed away
And Martin had spent many a sad Christmas Day.

But he knew, with the Lord as his Christmas guest ,
This Christmas would be the dearest and best.
So he listened with only joy in his heart,
And with every sound he would rise with a start
And look for the Lord to be standing there
In answer to his earnest prayer.

So he ran to the window after hearing a sound,
But all that he saw on the snow-covered ground
Was a shabby beggar whose shoes were torn
And all of his clothes were ragged and worn.
Martin was touched and went to the door
And he said, "Your feet must be frozen and sore,
I may have some shoes in my shop for you
And a coat that will keep you warmer, too."
So with grateful heart the man went away,
But as Martin noticed the time of day
He wondered what made the dear Lord so late
And how much longer he'd have to wait.

Then he heard a knock and ran to the door,
But again it was only a stranger once more,
A bent, old woman with a shawl of black,
A bundle of branches piled on her back.
She asked for only a place to rest,
But that was reserved for Martin's Great Guest.
Yet her voice seemed to plead, "Don't send me away
Let me rest for awhile on Christmas Day."
So Martin brewed her a steaming cup
And told her to sit at the table and sup.

But after she left he was filled with dismay,
For he saw that the hours were passing away,
And the Lord had not come as He said He would,
Martin felt sure he had misunderstood.
When out of the stillness he heard a cry,
"Please help me and tell me, where am I".
So again he opened his friendly door
And stood disappointed as twice before.

It was only a child who had wandered away
And was lost from her family on Christmas Day.
Again Martin's heart was heavy and sad,
But he knew he should make this little child glad,
So he called her in and wiped her tears
And quieted all her childish fears.
Then he led her back to her home once more,

But as he entered his own darkened door,
He knew that the Lord was not coming today,
For the hours of Christmas had passed away.
So he went to his room and knelt down to pray
And he said, "Dear Lord, why did You delay?
What kept you from coming to call on me?
For I wanted so much Your face to see."

Then soft in the silence a voice he heard,
"Lift up your head, my son, for I kept my word.
Three times My shadow crossed your floor;
Three times I came to your lonely door;
For I was the beggar with bruised, cold feet;
I was the woman you gave to eat;
And I was the child that was lost in the street."

THE GUEST

How can we know anything about anything

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