Video Transcript: Knowing by Faith

Hi, I'm David Feddes and I'd like to talk with you about some questions about knowing by faith. 

In earlier talks, I've emphasized that faith is not just a matter of opinion, or guessing, or wishing. But faith knows, faith is a way of knowing. Faith includes and combines, and surpasses some ways of knowing that are similar to other forms of knowing that we accept. For example, when it comes to givens, some of the things we know we simply take as givens. 

The notion that other people are real, we never do have their existence, proved to us by logic. And it could all be a dream, but we still take them to be real, and it is actually sound knowledge, we take that as a starting point, not something that needs to be argued for, we take certain forms of logic, simply as a given, rather than trying to prove those, we take two plus two equaling four. 

As a given, we have a starting point. And we use some of those things as a standard for other kinds of knowledge. Now, when it comes to the things of God, there are things we know by faith that are quite similar to taking some things as given. 

The Bible says in the beginning, God created the heavens in the earth, we know by faith that God made the worlds and we just take that as a given. And we know that our minds have an ability to grasp certain patterns about that world God has made. And we take that as a given. And these are the beginning of all knowledge

If you don't believe that your mind has the ability to grasp any kind of patterns, or that the world has no patterns in it, then you will never get started knowing anything. But you really can't take as a given that your mind has the ability to discern or that the world has patterns, unless there is somebody who made your mind and made that world with its patterns. 

So faith has many aspects that are simply taken as Givens are what are sometimes called presuppositions, they don't mean to be proved. They're more fundamental and basic and foundational than many of the other truths that are out there. Faith also has something in common with our capacity for credulity. credulity sometimes has a bad flavor to it, in which you just believe anything you're told. 

But the fact is, most of what we know is gained by believing what we're told, either by books or by reliable people. credulity is simply accepting testimony. And nearly everything we know, is accepting somebody's testimony. We didn't discover it for ourselves. We were told it or we read about it. And certainly when it comes to the things of God, we accept God's testimony, who has a more reliable word than God himself. 

And so we take the word of God and we read the Holy Scriptures. And we believe what God's testimony tells us, we believe what reliable Christian parents or Christian pastors and teachers have told us, they might not, they might not be right about everything. But if we're super skeptical, and say, I'm not going to believe any of it until I prove it all to myself, we would end up knowing very little, because so much is gained through the testimony of others. That's true in knowing the world around us, knowing the news, knowing scientific matters, and knowing how to conduct our lives around the home. 

Knowing how to drive a car, we take what other people tell us and show us and not simply what we've managed to discover for ourselves and in the world of God's truth. We very often know things by believing what we're told, by someone reliable. Another way that we know things is through our faculties. We know things by seeing by hearing, by tasting, by touching by smelling, we we have faculties such as that we have other faculties that are mental faculties, such as deduction, or induction, that certain things about the past have occurred in a regular manner. And so we kind of expect them to continue that way. 

And that's called induction and there are other faculties as well. And when those faculties are working properly, in the right kind of situation, those faculties give us knowledge. So it is in the world of faith. God has given human beings a heart faculty, for knowing him, and for perceiving Him. The Bible speaks of the eyes of your heart, being enlightened, your heart has a special kind of eyes, a special kind of ability. are what is spoken of in Ecclesiastes as eternity in the heart of man, there's a capacity within us for discerning something about God. And if that capacity is wrecked, it won't know much about God, just as if your eyes were poked out, you would not be able to see very much. 

If your ears were destroyed, you wouldn't hear anything. So if your capacity for knowing God, your heart eyes have been ruined by sin, you really can't know very much. But if you're born again, and God renews that heart capacity, the eyes of your heart, then you can perceive things of God and know those things to be true. 

The fourth way that we learn many things is through personal interaction by people that we know. And we can't just learn about them by mathematical or scientific means we learn through conversation, through seeing how they react to certain things, through learning about them, and learning to trust them. And so it is with God. Ultimately, we know by faith, because God comes to us and relates to us, and draws our heart to relate to him. And we live in his world. And in the process of becoming part of God's team and working alongside him and he working alongside us becoming part of God's family relating to him as children to our dear Father, we come to know more and more about God. 

So faith is not just some wild leap in the dark that has nothing in common with other ways of knowing. We accept Givens we accept testimony, we accept what comes to us through our faculties, we learn things through relating, and these are the means we have of knowing. And so it is in relation to God, there are givens. There are testimonies given by God's word and by God's people. 

There are the faculties of our inner heart that God enlightens. And there is simply the ongoing relationship with God by which we discover more and more of him and of His ways. 

By faith, we embrace God's interaction with us, we perceive his glory with our inner heart, we accept his testimony, we take his written and Living Word as our starting point, and our standard by which we measure all other truth. And so Christians should not just say, Oh, my faith is a matter of wishing, or a matter of how I feel, or a matter of this or that, we know by faith. And that brings up some questions. Because the moment you say that, you know, by faith, people wonder, Oh, I don't know about that. 

And here are some of the questions about knowing by faith, there are others. But here are some of the more common ones that I've come across. Is it arrogant, to be confident in knowing God? Is it hateful, to know that Jesus is the only way? And the other ways are not going to bring you to God? Is it judgmental, to say that we as Christians are right, and others are wrong? Can you really know that you have eternal life? Is faith ever unclear? or unsure? If it's real faith and, and real knowledge? Is there any place at all in it for being unclear or unsure? Why do we need faith? If we have knowledge? If you know it? Why would you need faith regarding it? 

And a final question that I want to address with you is, is it irrational to believe strongly, even in the face of contrary evidence? Let's look at each of these in more detail. First, is it arrogant, to be confident in knowing God? If you are confident in knowing the things of God and knowing where you stand before God, and in knowing what God teaches about right and wrong about heaven and hell, and a variety of other things, people will say, Oh, you are so arrogant. If you were humble, you'd be a lot less sure. And you wouldn't say that you know these things? Well, let's take some examples. We know the physical world is real. Would it be humbler to say that we don't know. 

So better being humble? If you know it, you know it? Or we know Abraham Lincoln was President. Would it be humbler to say, Well, I'm not so sure if that guy Lincoln ever lived or if he ever was president? No, we've had reliable testimony from people and from books that Lincoln was once president and so we believe it. In fact, we know it. And they're no great amount of humility in doubting that. Now. Notice the physical world is a belief that is taken as a given.

We take God's reality as a given. It is not a matter of humility or tried taking it as a given that God is real. We know Lincoln was president by testimony, and there's no pride about knowing that we take God's testimony that Jesus is his own son, and that he raised Jesus from the dead. It's not a matter of being humble or proud. Whether we believe these facts, we know them to be true. We know fire can burn flesh, would it be humbler to be unsure about fire? It's a matter of perception, and how you feel that heat? Now? Would you say, Well, I'm just going to be humble about it. And I'll stick my hand in the flame. 

Rather than being so cocky about this idea that fire can burn flash, I think I should find out for myself. And I think you should find out for yourself rather than taking my word for it, I wouldn't want to be so proud as to tell you, I'm sure that fire burns flesh, is it what kind of nut case are you know that fire burns flesh, it's not a matter of being humble, or being proud. It's just one of those things that you know, true enough. You know it by your faculties, by heat, by your own experience, or by what others perhaps have also told you about their experience of fire. And it's a very valuable piece of information to know. 

If I know that hell burns the unrepentant forever, it is not arrogant for me to know that. It is simply a fact. If I know that certain kinds of immoral behavior, damage people's spirit, and sometimes even their body. It may be a matter of experience, I may have gone through that myself. My own wickedness has harmed me, and I know it. And even if I didn't know it, by personal experience, I would know it from the Word of God. There are things that we know, by the, by the eyes of our heart. And it's if you've seen the Lord with the eyes of your heart, and known him to be real, it's not humble to say, and maybe, maybe not. 

Humility has really nothing to do with one way or the other. I know my wife loves me. Would it be humbler for me to worry and say, Well, maybe Wendy really hates me, beneath all that kindness, she shows me. And all those years we've been together, she might just hate me. Now, I know. I know absolutely. That my wife loves me. And it's not arrogant of me to know that I've got a great wife. It's not humble for you, if you're doubting whether your spouse loves you, that's not a matter of humility. It means either that you don't have a very trusting heart, or that you don't have a very good spouse. 

That's what it means. It doesn't mean anything about whether you're proud or humble the degree of confidence that you might have in the fact that your spouse loves you, she either does or she doesn't. Confidence is not necessarily arrogance. That's the short version of what I'm trying to say. Just because you're confident doesn't mean you're arrogant, you just know and some things you can know now, why is it that some people would say that you're being arrogant, if you claim to know things about God, or to know things about right and wrong? It's primarily because we live in a society where there is this false division, this false dichotomy between facts and values. 

And so it's not at all arrogant to say that certain claims of science and mathematics are true. If I say, I know that three plus three is six, and you're not going to talk me out of that. You don't say to me, Dave, you are so arrogant, you should consider the possibility that three plus three is five, or perhaps seven. How can you be so arrogant as to say that at six, I'm not being arrogant, you know, I'm not being arrogant, because you take it that certain claims about science and math are objective truth and arrogance are humility, a scientist may or may not be arrogant. But you can't tell that he's arrogant, just because he's quite certain about some fact that he knows. 

But when it comes to the matter of the things of God, the claims of religion of right and wrong and of morality, there is this habit of thinking that those are just matters of subjective opinion, or of taste. And if something is just a matter of taste or subjective opinion, then of course, it's arrogant to insist that you know it to be the case, and that everybody else ought to also consider it to be true. You see what's going on? If you took God to be real, and the claims of the Bible to be true and accurate, then those things are matters of fat, not matters either to be proud or humble about so much is simply to be known or not known. Knowing by science and knowing by math is no more real. 

No more objective or certain than knowing by faith. Math, after all, is still just a human set of symbols. We use to interpret reality it is not pure reality itself. In some respects the knowledge of God is more real and more objective than math. And once we get that through our heads, then we will realize that it's not a matter of arrogance, to claim that we know things of God if in fact, we really do know that now, of course, it's possible to be overly arrogant, to be more sure of things than you shouldn't be, if you really don't know what you're talking about. 

But if you really do know God, then you're not necessarily an arrogant person. Is it humbler to be skeptical? Well, some people think so. The word agnostic is a word coined from Greek and it means without knowledge. And some people say, you know, when it comes to God, I don't think anybody knows. I don't know. And usually they take the next step to and say, nobody else knows either. And they call themselves agnostic and think they're quite humble in saying that, I don't know. Well, let's take the Latin form of the word agnostic. 

The Latin equivalent of agnostic is ignoramus. Now an ignoramus is a word that has a little less pleasant ideas associated with it. Then agnostic agnostics are often taken to be Oh, very knowledgeable and intellectual. But an ignoramus is considered kind of a dummy. But really, the two words mean the same thing they mean, I don't know. Now, if you say I'm agnostic, are you humbly admitting that you're an ignoramus? That you don't know things of God? If that's the case, then then just admit it. But don't take the next step and say, and I know that nobody else knows, you might be proudly boasting that you're a brilliant skeptic, you don't know. And you're very, very smart, of course. And nobody else can know it if you don't know it. And you're smart enough to know that. 

The fact is that some people are very skeptical, very agnostic, are very arrogant, because the fact that they don't know is taken to mean that nobody else knows either. G.K. Chesterton spoke of a kind of misplaced humility, he said, what we suffer from today, he was writing a century ago, but it's still true. What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself. But I'm doubting about the truth. This has been exactly reversed. Nowadays, the part of the man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert himself, we're all sure of ourselves. And we push ourselves forward, the new skeptic is so humble about truth, that he doubts if he can even learn, we are on the road to producing a race of man to mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table. 

This was 100 years before post modernism became very popular, where it's now said that nobody knows anything very objective, and so on. People are too mentally modest to believe even in the basic facts of math. And yet, they're very sure that they want what they want when they want it. That's kind of a misplaced humility, we ought to be much more humble about our own desires and urges, and our sense of how things ought to be, and a bit less humble about the fact that can be known if we pay attention to God. Next question isn't hateful, it's related to the previous question. But instead of just saying it's arrogant, there are some who say, well, is it hateful? To know that Jesus is the only way knowledge in general of things of God might brand you as arrogant in some people's eyes, but knowing that Jesus is the only way means you're a hater of those who don't follow the way of Jesus? 

David Frawley, a Hindu person who has taken the name Vamo. Deva Shastri says in the modern world, we must recognize a pluralism not only of races and cultures, but also a religion, which means that Christianity is not the only way. Such religious hate statements should no longer be tolerated, and the organization's promoting them should be challenged. Now, before I move any further, no longer be tolerated you get that Mr. Tolerance will not tolerate any more that he objects to Christianity, and he referred to Christianity says there's only one God One Book, One savior, one final prophet, and so on. 

Most Christian missionaries try to get people to accept Christ as their personal Savior and Christianity in one form or another as the true faith for all humanity. A religion that is pluralistic in nature, like the Hindu cannot have such a conversion based ideology. Convert Mission is a sin against the divine in man. As we move into a global age, let us set this messy business of conversion behind, along with the other superstitions of the Dark Ages. We are all God. 

There is only one self in all creatures who lives there to convert. And what could anyone be converted from? The soul is divine, the soul cannot be saved. It is beyond the gain and loss. Notice what's going on. He is substituting his own doctrine or some doctrines that he's gotten from Hinduism In the place of Christian doctrine. He is saying not that God is God, but that each of us is God, that we have no sin, except the sin of trying to convert people. So this is the case where we're caught if you're a Christian, you're called a hater because you think other people should be converted. 

Now, just a word about David Frawley. He's a Westerner who's become a Hindu. Now Hinduism, some versions of it assert that there are 300 million gods. Some forms of Hinduism in India for centuries supported the burning of widows upon the death of their husband. You say, Oh, one set of beliefs is just as good as any other set of beliefs. You know, you take you Christians, have your Bible say that true religion is to take care of widows in their distress and to help out widows our religion says burn them, hey, who's to say who's right? Well, okay, well, let's not pretend they're both the same. 

There is a very great difference between caring for a widow tenderly and loving her and roasting her. The notion that all religions are the same versions of Eastern religion, Hinduism say that if you are poor, and down and out, it is because of bad stuff you did in a previous life and so you should not be helped. It's just your karma to suffer throughout this life. Christianity calls us to be kind of to help the poor and the needy. 

In India, where Hinduism has been so powerful, there has been a powerful caste system, where the very lowest people in society are untouchable, no one will associate with them. And these are the systems of thought and tolerance that are supposed to bring us all together and help all of humanity flourish, we must realize that all David Frawley and others who talk that way are doing is trying to substitute their own religion for the Christian faith. 

And the question is not who's being hateful or not being hateful or whatever. It's the question of which of those faiths is true. Now, let's think about this a little further. Is it hateful to say Jesus is the only way of salvation now, it might be hateful to say we don't need salvation. Consider these words from the scriptures. The blood of Jesus God Psalm purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 

And now notice this, if we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar. And His Word has no place in our lives. If you say, I don't need a savior, then you're saying God, you're a big liar. You say, I'm a sinner, I do not believe you. You say you sent your Son into the world and died for my sin. I don't need him. Because I haven't sinned. It's hateful, to call God a liar. It's hateful, to call God a liar. And there's another passage that speaks to that first John chapter five, we accept man's testimony that God's testimony is greater, because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. 

Listen carefully, any one who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his son. So if we say we haven't sinned, we're calling God a liar. If we say that Jesus is not the Son of God, and the only way of salvation, we're calling God a liar. And this is the testimony God has given us eternal life. And this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life. He does not have the Son of God does not have life. 

This is not a matter of me hating another person. This is a matter of me believing what God says God says, Jesus is my son and whoever has him has life. He does not have him does not have life. That is God's testimony. And anybody who does not believe that is calling God a liar. It's hateful towards God to call him a liar. Satan call Jesus a liar. Jesus said, I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. Now, it is more loving and more humble, to believe the All Knowing Son of God than to contradict him. It's more hateful to call Jesus a liar, and to call God the Father a liar, than to believe the father's testimony to his son. 

So it's a false accusation that just because you say Jesus is the only way of salvation, you're a hateful person, now, you're loving God, and you're believing him and you're loving others. You want to know what's hateful, it's hateful, to block others from Jesus, by pretending there are other ways that they can be made right with God. The scripture speaks of being lost. Without knowledge. It's not a loving thing to say. It doesn't matter what you know, you need to know the way of salvation. 

Proverbs 1 says, because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, the simple are killed by their turning away. 

Hosea 4:6, My people are destroyed, from lack of knowledge. 

Romans 1:28, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to a depraved mind. Romans 10:2, they're zealous for God. They're all sincere and excited, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 

We need to know, we need to know the way of salvation in Jesus. And without that, we're lost forever. I'm not hating people, when I say that, I love them. I want people without Jesus, to come to know Him. And to know Jesus is not a hateful thing. And to say that others need to know Jesus is not hatred toward them, it is the most loving thing I can do. It is the most loving thing you can do for people is to give them the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Well, another related question, is it judgmental to say we're right, and others are wrong? 

Well, is it judgmental for a parent who's teaching their child or going over some homework to say that she is right, that  8X7= 56, and that her child is wrong? To say that 8X7 = 54? They're not being cruel, mean harsh and judgmental. You're just saying, honey, you're wrong. You need to learn the fact correctly. Is it judgmental for a scientist to say that the Earth orbits the Sun? And to say the earlier scientists were wrong to say that the sun orbited the Earth? You're passing a judgement, of course, you're saying yeah, this is the right position. 

That is the wrong one. But you're not being cruelly judgmental. You're just saying that one thing is accurate and the other not consider this one? Is it judgmental for a doctor to say that penicillin will cure an infection, and that a patient is wrong to believe that snake oil will help while snake oil won't help. 

And it's not being judgmental, to say that it is simply exercising a correct and wise form of judgment, not a harsh and mean and misguided form of judgment, we all have to make judgments, we need to make them right judgments and penicillin, Concur infections, and snake oil won't, and a good doctor will say so. And he's not being judgmental, but he's rather trying to help a patient. Now, this notion that we really shouldn't believe in anything very firmly when it comes to the things of God. 

In the world, it's called tolerance, but in hell, it is called despair. This is Dorothy Sayers writing, the sin that believes in nothing cares for nothing seeks to know nothing, enjoys nothing finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing but remains alive because there is nothing which it would die for. What is often called tolerance is simply indifference or despair, not caring. And it's a lot easier to just say, I don't know than to really commit yourself to something and stick your neck out for the living God and to take the risks that go with following the Lord Jesus. 

Next question, can you really know you have eternal life? official Roman Catholic theology says that most Christians should not be sure of their own salvation. A favored few can know their eternal destiny, but the rest can only hope and wait and work. 

Well, the Bible says God wants Christians to know I Write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life all through that letter of first, John. We know, we know. We know, God wants us to know not just facts about him and about Christ, though he wants us to know that, but he also wants us to know that we belong to him, that we have been forgiven, and that our future glory is secure, and certain, you can know that you have eternal life. 

The Heidelberg Catechism says what is true faith. True Faith is not only a sure knowledge by which I hold as true that all God has revealed to us in Scripture, a Roman Catholic brothers and sisters would agree with that, that what God reveals is sure knowledge, but it's also a wholehearted Trust, which the Holy Spirit creates in me by the gospel that God has freely granted, not only to others, but to me also forgiveness of sins, eternal righteousness, and salvation. 

These gifts of sheer Grace are granted solely by Christ's merit. So we're to have this whole heart of trust is knowledge that God has saved, not just others, but me too. Now, is faith ever unclear or unsure? You've heard me talking about how we can know things by faith, and how we can even know our own salvation by faith. So would that mean that if we're not quite sure of something, then we don't know it? Or if we don't know it quite as clearly and precisely as we should? If we know in some things, but we don't have the doctrinal details down very precisely, then is it not real faith? 

Well, Jesus would often say to His disciples, you have little faith, and he would rebuke them for being people of little faith, but he did not say, you have no faith. Most of us in some circumstances or another, our people have little faith. Our knowledge is not very large, there's much more that we still need to learn. And even what we do know is sometimes held quite loosely or with a lot of doubt and struggle. So there are people whose faith is real faith, but it's still somewhat unclear, at least at times, somewhat unsure to them, at least at times, little faith might not see clearly, or no, surely. 

But even though we it may be real faith, even weak faith may hold real knowledge. We know things with varying degrees of clarity and certainty, we might be unclear on some points, and yet have still real knowledge, we might be unsure at times, and yet, truly know, although not knowing yet with absolute full certainty. 

So it is a goal to be sought that our certainty increase, it is a goal to be sought, that our knowledge, the range of our knowledge, the accuracy and precision of our knowledge should continue to grow. So we don't just have little knowledge, but great knowledge that we have not just small and weak assurance, but stronger and stronger assurance. But do not become discouraged if your assurance is still kind of weak. And if your knowledge is still kind of small, if you know that Jesus saves. 

And if you go to Jesus, even with hesitations, even with some uncertainties, he will surely save you. If you study the Bible, and you sometimes have your questions about the Bible, and you sometimes have your difficulties understanding the Bible, but you keep going to God's word, then you have a genuine faith in God's promises, and in His truth. And as you keep searching, he will give you more and more understanding and more and more assurance and certainty. 

Now the question, why do we need faith if we have knowledge? Some people say, Well, if you know it, you don't need faith? Well, let's think about that a little bit. Knowledge is not just a thing. It's not just something you can store in your mind, like a bike in a garage. In other talks, we've we've looked at how various things can shape our knowledge and how we hold how we come to knowledge in the first place, and whether we continue to hold on to it. Your social setting shapes, your knowledge, your actions, and your heart. 

They all reshape your mind and they change what you previously thought that you knew. And so we need faith because sometimes we get into a different social setting and instead of being with Christians all around us, we may be among people who don't believe what you believe. And what we knew when we were in a certain social setting will fadeaway unless we have the commitment, and the knowledge that comes through faith and not just from having a fact that came to us in a certain social setting, actions are important. 

And if faith motivates us to keep acting on God's behalf, then we will be the kind of people who are continually drawn to the light instead of being the kind of people whose actions are constantly splattering mud on our windshield and making it harder and harder for us to see and to know the things of God. Jesus said, people love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 

Faith keeps us pursuing good deeds and in doing so, it gives us a preference for light instead of darkness, it opens up our knowledge. If our heart is completely amiss, then we can't know things. And faith is what keeps our heart in tune with God. It keeps our knowledge going. So in some ways, we may tend to think that knowledge is a very stable thing and faith is weaker, but it might turn out to be the opposite. 

That knowledge is something we can have by faith but without faith, that very knowledge would tend to slip away from us. If you lack faith in God, your knowledge can be overthrown by Satan. At any time. C.S. Lewis writes, that reason may when truths by reasoning, we can discover certain things to be true, but without faith, reason will retain them will hold on to them just so long as Satan please us. There is nothing we cannot be made to believe, or disbelieve. There are people who reject the idea that God created the heavens in the earth. 

Some very famous scientists say that God did not create the heavens in the earth. But the world could not simply have evolved so life was put here by Extra Terrestrial aliens now. How can you believe in UFO’s, and aliens coming and putting life on earth but say it's ridiculous to say that God created the heavens of the earth? 

Well, Satan can make you believe or disbelieve anything, I know of persons who are biologically totally and completely male who grew up that way, who have fathered children, and have said that I'm really a woman on the inside, you can be made to believe anything, totally contrary to biology, totally contrary to all observable facts. If we wish to be rational, not now and then, but constantly, we must pray for the gift of faith for the power to go on believing not in the teeth of reason, faith is not fighting against reason. 

But in the teeth of lust, and terror, and jealousy, and boredom and indifference, to keep on believing that which reason, authority and experience are all three have once delivered to us for truth. So in our most rational moments, we can see that God is real. And as we think about the very clearly and logically, we may find that many claims of Christianity are well substantiated, but then our own desires kick in our own fears and terrors and, and just boredom kick in. And all of a sudden, it seems unreal to us. And that's why we need faith, to maintain what we know.

Next question, is it irrational to believe strongly in the face of contrary evidence? Sometimes people bring up things that seem not to support the truth of Christianity, one of the commonest arguments is if there's an all powerful and all loving God, don't you think there would be no suffering and trouble in the world, or at least a lot less of it that seems to prove that there is no all powerful, all loving God? Or you may have someone who presents What is taken to be evidence that some statements in the Bible are unreliable? Or they may say, hey, Jesus, didn't really rise from the data. And here are some reasons that we think it's ridiculous to think that he rose from the dead. 

And so should you keep believing strongly, even in the face of contrary evidence? Shouldn't you go purely by evidence? So if the evidence supports Christianity, you believe it? But if there seems to be evidence against it, then you don't believe that at least there seems to be about equal evidence, then you just kind of say, Man, I guess I can't make up my mind. Well, if you're a Christian and you believe strongly, even when people bring evidence to you, it doesn't mean you're irrational. 

Would it be irrational believe you didn't commit a crime, even if lots of evidence seems to point in your direction? Now, it's easy, of course, for somebody to lie and say they didn't commit a crime. But if you didn't commit a murder, and you know, you didn't do it, and somebody is trying to frame you, and a lot of evidence has been presented that you did it. Would it be rational for you to say, Well, gotta be a guy who goes to the evidence. So yeah, I admit it, I did it. 

Now, no amount of evidence can overrule what you absolutely know, based on what you know, Have your own experience, you didn't do it, you know you didn't do it. And this and that piece of evidence is not going to prove it. Now, the same is true once you've come to know God, once God has revealed Himself to you and showed you your own sin and your need of a Savior, and God has implanted his life in you, and given you have faith and trust in Jesus, 

It is not irrational to continue having faith in that Lord and knowing him to be real, and knowing him to be your savior, even if various things happen, that seem to go contrary to that, because you know, what, you know, would it be irrational to believe in a dear wise, capable friend, even if things happened, that you couldn't understand or explained, you might have a friend who is very shrewd, and who is extremely wise, and has to do some things that seem very strange, but you know, that he's smart, and you know, that he loves you. 

And you simply at times have to say, I don't know what he's up to. But I trust him. And if evidence is brought forward, now, now he's up to no good. Now, in human life, it might turn out that some people you trust are up to no good. But very often, if you really know somebody, and you know them deeply, and you trust them, then the rational thing to do is to keep on trusting them, even if things happen that you can't figure out. 

And so it is what God wants you to come to know Him, to know him as father, to know that he loves you to know that he has your best interests in mind, and to know that His ways are sometimes pretty mysterious, then you trust Him, even when evidence seems to point in a different direction, believing evidence, so called evidence rather than God, it might not be evidence of rationality on your part, it might show disloyalty, God might say to you, you should have known me better. 

If someone were to accuse my wife, some stranger would accuse my wife of something, should I just believe that stranger the moment they trot out a little bit of evidence, that would not be fair to my wife, I've known her for years, she's loved me for years, it would be foolish for me to take one little shred of evidence as a reason to overturn everything I know of her and to throw out the whole relationship, it is sometimes perfectly wise and rational, to strongly believe in someone, even in the face of some evidence to the contrary. And part of this comes down to just different ways that we know things, some things we know by material analysis, we examine a thing, um, you can measure it, you can control it, you can dissect it. 

And so you just analyze it. But other kinds of knowledge come by acquaintance, personal acquaintance, you understand what a person is thinking and feeling through your interaction. And then you know how that person regards you. And this kind of knowledge depends on the other person's revelation towards you, and on your receptivity to what they're showing you. 

So we know things by personal acquaintance that we can't get just by dissecting, you can't know much about me by just killing me dissect me and cutting my brain up, you would cut, you would learn a few things about my anatomy, you would learn very little about what makes me me, you'd learn a lot more just by listening to me talk and having a conversation with me than by trying to slice and dice and Analyze Me. And it's certainly that way, in relation to God, we know nothing of God unless he shows himself to us. And unless we're receptive to what he shows us. It makes sense to believe strongly in the Lord despite evidence. And here are a couple of further reasons to say so our minds are too small to figure God out. 

Isaiah 55, verse nine says, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. If God would fit between your two ears in that little space inside your skull, if your little brain could figure out the infinite God, that he wouldn't be God. The fact is, God's ways are far beyond ours. And so sometimes we just say, Lord, I'm going to humble myself like a little child. I'm not going to concern myself with things too great for me. I'm just going to trust that you know, you're up to because you've shown yourself to be a loving and faithful father to me. And I'm going to trust that's not irrational. 

That's just knowing who God is in comparison to us. Another thing to keep in mind, our minds are too fickle to hold out against Satan, without God's help. And so we need to believe in the face of contrary evidence because Satan is going to bring contrary evidence, false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles too. To see even the left if that were possible, God's elect God's chosen cannot be deceived and lose their salvation. 

But if it were possible, the kinds of things that Satan control would do the job. And so we need to understand that of course, there's going to be evidence and arguments against the truth of the Christian faith, and evidence that seems pretty strong because Satan is always at work trying to manufacture and provide such evidence. So we need when we have faith, and we've come to know God, and to know the things of God, to believe sometimes when evidence seems to point in a different direction. 

Faith involves knowledge by acquaintance with the living God and knowledge, unfortunately, by some form of acquaintance with the devil in his schemes, and continually being alert and wary against his attempts, attempts to deceive us, or to lead us away from Christ. So those are some of the questions we've looked at. Is it arrogant, to be confident in knowing God? Not necessarily God wants us to be clear, and sure, in our knowledge of Him, is it hateful towards others to know that Jesus is the only way? No, it's hateful towards Jesus and God say he's not the only way. Because God says that He sent His Son into the world to save us that we're sinners who need that salvation. Is it judgmental to say that we are right, and others are wrong? It can be but not necessarily. 

What if we are right, and others are wrong? It's not judgmental. It's simply stating the facts. And we might be stating those facts in order to help others discover more truth. Can you really know that you have eternal life? You certainly can. And God wants you to know, is faith ever unclear or unsure? Yes. And at certain times, we have to pray like a man who spoke to Jesus Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. We do have a real faith, but it sometimes is shaky, unclear or unsure. And so we say, Lord, I do believe, but I'm a person of little faith, I believe, help my unbelief. 

Why do we need faith if we have knowledge? Well, because Satan can get us to believe just about anything, if we don't have faith and firm commitment? And because our minds can change very easily without the help that comes to us from God, when we put our faith in him. Is it irrational to believe strongly in the Lord? Even in the face of contrary evidence? Yes, it is. Because God's ways are not always our ways. And Satan would dearly love to give us misleading evidence that would lead us away from our Lord and Savior. 

So there are these questions about knowing by faith. And in the face of them all we can say we know. First John, chapter five says, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin. We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. In this day and age. That would sound like a very judgmental, arrogant statement. 

But it's the truth we know that we are the children of God and that the unbelieving world is under the control of the evil one, Jesus tells us that and so we know it. We know also, that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true. And we are in Him who is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God. He is eternal life.