Accepting Lack of Knowledge

Often we ask "why." We expect an answer. Many people reject God because they cannot find an answer.

They reject the notion of God because they cannot accept their limitations. They cannot accept the issue is that they cannot find the answer to their question.

Ultimately in life we meet many questions we will not answer. There are many times we do not know why something happened or what would have happened.

A lack of clarity is not a reason for unbelief, but rather a reason to accept our limitations. The goodness of God is not dependent our our capacity to grasp a reason for things.

We often like to tie the world into a pretty box. We wish to do so by cutting corners and eliminating mystery. In the end we have more unanswered questions and the box is not pretty or complete.

The box without God is held together by a belief in progress which has little basis in reality. Yes there is progress in some areas, but you often see massive regress in other areas in society.

The problem is that the condition of the human heart manifests itself in every generation.

Complexity in Life and Faith

Life is full of complexity. You see the multifaceted nature of everything when you study something for a day, or a year, or even decades. That's how long it takes to truly attempt to learn all the details of something at times.

The same goes for knowing the Bible, God, and living a Christian life. Often people want it to be simple: Hear the message once and respond, and that's it. Or go to church, and you've got it. Those are good thing, but there's more.

The gospel is simple in a way. But it also has a beautiful depth to it too. When you accept Christ, all you need to know are some basic truths. But after that, growing in knowledge is important.

What more is there to grow in knowledge, you may be asking. Here's a starter list to help you see what topics there are:

• Grace. The true meaning of grace.
• Law/Commands/Sin. How this relates to grace, too, but we must first see why we need and are given grace. And learning how God's commands really are good for us.
• Wisdom. Since life is complex, sometime discernment and good judgment are needed. The Bible helps us in learning wisdom.
• Love. What it means to truly live out those two commands. It is active and much more. I've created a list of 6 posts on loving others.
• How God has related to humans throughout history. This includes feeling loved and accepted by Christ if you're a Christian.
• The Trinity.

I hope you don't feel overwhelmed by the list. It's more of a privilege to think of the wealth of interesting things that help us grow closer to God.

Learning about these things can aid in living in a Christian way.

Learning About God

When we study God's Word and think through what living a Christian life means, it's important to think about who God is and how he relates to people. Often it's easy to take a passage of Scripture and only think about what that means for what we should do. That's fine to do at some point, but it's important to be sure we take time to think about what it means about God and how he relates to us.

If we never study or think about God's power and strength, and how he uses it to help us, it might be much harder to cast our anxieties and burdens on Christ (Psalm 55:22 and 1 Peter 5:7, ESV). Knowing about God's power helps us to be able to respond to God's call.

If we never study God's mercy and gentleness to his people, including us, then we might find it hard to be merciful and gentle to others and ourselves out of love.

If we never study God's pure holiness and goodness, we might not realize how extremely blessed we are to even get a chance to talk to him.

Some people worry that a lot of theology isn't practical, but how we view God and how he relates to us definitely affects the way we live. We should also of course see what the Bible has to say about humans too.

While learning the attributes of God is of great importance, it's more important to see God as he interacts in history—how the Christian God is a personal God. Read more on this in Danny's article "God Known through Actions."

Danny also wrote about how theology speaks to all areas of life in "Theology as a Meta-Discipline."

Knowing with Your Heart

Today a person mentioned the struggle that people sometimes have of knowing something with their mind but not with their heart, and the question of how to connect the two. They understand it, but they don't feel it, and really want to know how to feel it too.

One example is God's love for his children. A person can understand that but not feel it (for instance, they are too hard on themself and have a hard time feeling God isn't too). Another example is giving: a person can see that God desires us to give and giving helps us, but when it comes to giving up extra discretionary money, it feels hard to do.

Life is complex and there are many factors that contribute to knowing with the heart. Of course our God is sovereign and blesses us with knowing things with our heart. Sometimes we don't know when we started to know things with our heart—it was a beautiful gift from God. Other times we pray for it. Sometimes we work or think hard for it too. (And the end result is still all a gift from God.)

So, if you know something with your mind, and want your heart to really understand and know it too, I'd recommend the following:

1. Pray for it. God loves when we ask for something like this—something that he wants us to truly know and feel.

2. Read and think about it. Of course, be sure to read the Bible and listen to people you trust have good theology. They can help you learn more about what you want to know in your heart. The more you know about something, the more you can like it. Many things have many facets to them. Thinking about it allows you to take it all in.

3. Be patient. It takes time. We are growing in knowledge throughout life. It's a part of life, and we can celebrate at each step we take in growing.

To Not Gain Knowledge

The modern world has the tendency of absolutizing the good of knowledge. Knowledge is of course in general better than lack of knowledge.

But many forms of knowledge are of no use or are dangerous to the knower. You see often we wish to know things of which no good can come.

You see gossip often is a form of knowledge where knowledge of which no good can come is shared. You see this is why the bible condemns gossip.

There are many forms of knowledge which are simply of no use. Some people have joked that news may make us stupid. There may be truth in this fact.

If one lives in a large city when we turn on the TV we can expect to hear of multiple shootings, a fire, a few robberies, and a few car crashes. In almost all cases people interviewed about these events give similar accounts of their feelings of them and the change they wish to see happen.

I do see some value in following news, but I see no value in constant news watching. Most of the time we are simply watching the same events unfold in an highly predictable way with different names, places, and locations. I am not diminishing these events but to watch the news is on most days to watch what one already knows statistically is already going on.

Often we delude ourselves that information is knowledge. I believe that most news coverage often falls into the realm of useless information.

News not only is often useless, but it may have a hardening affect. If we are watching news and hear all the suffering in the world are we compelled to act in some small way?

Often news and the vastness of the problem dissuades people from thinking they can help. The problem is too big so they do not take the effort to be a tiny part of a small step in the right direction.

You see we can make a difference. We just need to be humble enough to realize that our contribution may not be huge. We do not need to be a huge hero to make a difference.

It takes humility to accept that we often can only make a small difference and then take the steps as we can in that direction. Many people who wish to save the world become disillusioned and quit when they realize they can only make a small difference and then they make no difference at all.

The Bible's call to love is a call to seek the good of others. The desire to save the world which quickly becomes callused when it realizes the world is not easily saved is usually based on pride and not the Christian call of love. Love is pleased by small differences made even if they bring no recognition to ourselves.

The Limits of Knowledge

Knowledge has limits. There are many things we do not know. It is a sign of wisdom and understanding to acknowledge our limits.

Not only are do we as individuals have limits but mankind has limits. We are not unlimited in our ability to understand. We cannot know the mind of God or many hidden things.

We see often through a glass darkly. We seek knowledge of God but often we must admit our knowledge is partial and incomplete.

We need the humility in life to acknowledge our limits. It is often why we do not know what to pray. We think we know what is right but often we are too limited to see the big picture.

We often ask why God did not respond as we wish, but we should ask why we doubt the wisdom of the eternal all powerful God.

Knowing One's Limits

A popular Christian book in recent years started off with the author writing that they were writing the book because they were poor at the topic. The author wrote the book to understand and grasp the topic.

The book has many good qualities and has been very well received. Of course it takes the author two thirds of the book to explain the problem and the solution to the problem is woefully low.

The shame of course is how well the book has been received. The author never understood the topic and people have flocked to a book with partial answers.

It is interesting that often a lot of the lack of quality in action comes from doing too much. The author wrote a book which he was not prepared to write and his audience read a book that did not have really adequate solutions to the problem the book addresses.

You see while the book probably has done a great deal of good and done more good than most books it is also really woefully inadequate. Sometimes we can do more by having the humility to do less.

It is often the case that if we have a few projects we see of value and we attempt 1-2 projects with zeal more good will come of it than if we do 5 projects with great haste and sloppiness.

It is not always the case, but it is easy to try to do too much and thus accomplish too little. This is of course why the bible has a theology both of work and of rest.

The bible tells man to be diligent. The bible also tells man to rest and enjoy life and trust that leisure and enjoying the world is good.

I have heard many preacher criticize men who go home and watch sports on a Sunday afternoon. The man who kicks back after a long week and relaxes watching sports after a long week is not doing anything wrong.

Maybe there is validity to some criticism if it is nuanced, but ultimately God made the Sabbath for man to rest. Many pastors seem to act as if Sabbath was made for a regime of strict all day worship. Really they need to open up their bibles and read Jesus' condemnation of their unbalanced perspective on life.

God created man to be happy and have joy. Of course the ultimate joy of man is in God, but God also created man to delight in the fullness of the world he has made.

Unhelpful Questions

There are many unhelpful questions. Putting aside leading questions or questions with false assumptions there are many unhelpful questions.

Some questions are unhelpful because they can only result in bad things. But many questions are simply a confusing waste of time.

In Christianity questions which tend to be unhelpful often fall in categories which the bible does not discuss.

Often questions relating to heaven and the spiritual realm have a disappointing lack of coverage for many Christians. There is a great amount of work which speculates in these unknown spheres.

You see when we speculate in areas which God does not reveal we are at least being unhelpful and quite possibly dangerous.

You see it is man's first sin which re-appears constantly. He wishes to know more than he is told. He feels God has held something back.

There will always be something more to know even in heaven day by day as we learn more and more of God. But the feeling of many men is that God has left out something important which we should know.

This is unbelief to doubt that God has our best interest in mind. You see he has told us all we need and more than we need and not left an important gap in our knowledge. He does not show us everything but what he has revealed is sufficient and true.

You see it is sort of folly to doubt God's intensions on specific points if we have accepted the cross and resurrection. God who had nothing to gain stepped in and intervened at great cost to himself to help man.

You see God has nothing he needs from us. He has already demonstrated faithfulness toward man by entering into a relationship with man which is completely one sided.

Knowledge

Our culture tends to absolutize knowledge in the category of God. There is a certain seeming validity to this.

Lack of knowledge is often used to oppress and certainly knowledge overall is good. Of course if we move past generalities then the question is less clear.

And we should always move past the general. An overarching picture is of interest but moving deeper in thinking is helpful.

Some knowledge is clearly good to have, some is neutral, some knowledge bad, and some it is unclear. Let me explain neutral and bad knowledge since western cultures have absolutized knowledge.

Bad knowledge is knowledge which is harmful to have. It usually is useless in and of itself and simply a danger to one's heart. You see this most clearly in gossip which is information which is at best useless but has the potential for great harm.

Certain knowledge about others where we have no intent to help with the issues are dangerous to ourselves. You see as Christians we are called to help others.

This is the dangerous state people enter into when they wish to know the problems of others but have no time or interest in helping if it is possible. And this is why the bible condemns gossip. It is a spreading of knowledge which even if true can only be of harm to oneself and relationships.

Neutral knowledge is often simply useless. It seems to have no bearing on anything. A lot of time is spent by many people on wracking up useless knowledge.

I suppose if they enjoy the pursuit of collecting knowledge on topics or trivia as recreation the pursuit has meaning. But many forms of knowledge are simply useless.

Neutral knowledge has a danger if one becomes proud of the useless knowledge. You will see many young pastoral candidates struggle here.

They cannot differentiate between what knowledge is important and what knowledge not. Sometimes they feel proud as they repeat facts which may have no apparent use or are above the comprehension of all listening.

Knowledge is of course a gift from God but as all gifts it is easily twisted by sin. And the point for Christians is to use discernment and not accept simple answers. To think and exercise wisdom in the world.

Honesty in Theology

Honesty is an important part of theology. What I mean is theology needs to match reality.

You see many preachers and theologians concerned with holy living over simplify sin out of a great concern for loose living. They understand grace but are afraid and like to focus on works.

At times you will see them squirm in a small group setting when people are honest of their struggles in faith. You see they are concerned by the reality of life and wish for people to live well and often it is easy to reject the reality.

The reality of sin is that it is not ideal and holiness is something to strive for. But trying to hide the reality of the human condition and act as if the sinful thoughts of people are abnormal is not helpful.

You see we must start by first accepting the problem. That is why the admission of sin is necessary for faith. We can't accept grace if we don't believe we need it. .

The same thing is true with sanctification. We can't grow if we don't know what we need to grow from.

This is why many people who feel very holy tend to be the least holy. You see they have no idea of their sinful tendencies and thus have little idea of where they need to grow.

Often those aware of their sin are making progress on it. God can use the knowledge of their sin to help improve them. It is always difficult to fix what we do not believe is broken and that is why accepting the reality of human life is important.

Worship in Spirit and Truth

Scripture says we should worship God in spirit and truth. To worship God in spirit is to have emotion involved in worship.

To worship in truth means the emotion is based on and not apart from facts. You see worshiping in "spirit" where there is no content being worshiped upon is not biblical since truth is missing.

Always truth and spirit are linked. Truth without the right emotional response is lacking. Spirit without truth is also lacking.

God wishes for us to know him and our response of worship is based on knowing. It is like a couple who meets for the first time.

You see an emotional connection upon meeting someone often means nothing. You see the connection is based upon no knowledge.

Sometimes the connection remains after knowledge about the person but often not. More often we find that true connections are not at first sight and often knowledge about a person occurs before connection.

You see knowledge is connected to relation. Our love for God is not apart from knowledge of him.

The grace of God is that he chooses to love us despite knowing our nature. This is the deepest love, that God's love transcends our lack of worthiness.

Bonhoeffer on Preaching

Bonheoffer spoke of how when seminary students were preaching a sermon he would always sit and listen to the sermon and never critique it while the sermon was taking place.

I have always found some wisdom in this. The sermon is a method by which God is attempting to speak to us through the preacher.

Sometimes the message of course is hopelessly lost if the preacher cannot convey the message of the word of God, but the reality is that God is attempting to speak to us.

When God attempts to speak we should listen. It is interesting that throughout scripture God has a tendency to speak in unusual ways.

He is not a respecter of persons and often does not bring his message to people in any way in which they expect. He may find a tiny shepherd by to kill a great warrior or find someone hopelessly lost in son to convert into his messenger.

Always God is a being who wishes to speak and be heard. He often does so in unusual ways.

Why does God not speak directly? Sometimes it is as if he does not wish to be heard.

The reality is that he wishes to be heard if we wish to listen. He has communicated more than sufficiently and always will communicate with us sufficiently about our lives. We often do not care to listen. We ask for a clear sign when often the clear sign has already been given many times.

Sometimes we wish and answer the question and the answer is that it is not good for us to know.

We always think that knowledge is good. Knowledge is good in general but for fallen men we often could not make use of it and sometimes it would be of danger to us.

Always God knows better than we do but we cannot see it. He wishes to speak and the question is if we wish to listen.

A Theology Guest Post by me

Love and Knowledge

A certain ideal of love has been formed in our culture by movies and TV. It is as if love is something that can be found apart from knowledge.

We hear of many couples who feel "in love" almost immediately and have been married for many years. It is interesting that the value of the success of a marriage has become if peoples marriages survive.

In relationships we are often too easily satisfied. We rush into relationships with the belief of the result. The reality is that love is based on knowledge.

Sometimes "love at first sight" happens to be correct, but the reality is that true love is based on knowledge. This is why the bible describes worship as being in spirit and truth.

There is no true worship of God apart from knowledge. Worship is essentially the act of a person in which they express their love for God. So there is a tight connection between knowledge and love.

It is always interesting how worship is moving more and more into the experiential state with little care for knowledge. Maybe we have redefined love in such a way that we can no longer understand what real love is?

Maybe our worship is terribly flawed because our view of relationships is terribly flawed? I feel this is the case. We have separated love and knowledge often at a great cost in both religion and human relationships. For a post which where I talk about about how faith is based on content look here: faith is content based

Useless Information as Destructive

There are sorts of information in life which are useless to oneself. It is interesting how many people at times take the effort to seek out knowledge which is has no use to themselves.

Often this sort of behavior comes from an evil heart. Why do we wish to know things about others which do not affect us?

Our culture has baptized knowledge and information whole scale. It is true there is a great benefit to knowledge in general, but not all knowledge is good.

There often needs to be as John Calvin would say "a certain learned ignorance." Not all questions are helpful to ask. Not all answers are good to know.

It is interesting the nightly local news in a large American city. If I write down the news this week and compare it the the news next week it is almost all the same. Change a few persons and places and I can to a large extent tell you most of the local news for the next few months.

When we watch news have we really gained information or knowledge? Often, no. Sometimes there are events that matter, but often it is history repeating itself ad nauseum.

If we see the cycle of news is it intelligent or good to watch? I cannot say absolutely but I feel it may not be.

Right Living not based on Knowledge

A large portion of the American educational mindset is that morality can be taught simply by making people aware of what is right or wrong. This stands in stark contrast to the bible.

Actually mankind lived perfectly before he had any knowledge of right or wrong (pre-fall). The knowledge of good and evil did not make man good.

The reality is that telling people what is right and wrong is of limited use. For young children there is often benefit, but most of the time the problem of the darkness within is not lack of education but a bad heart.

Sociologist do note that poverty increases crime and education reduces poverty. There is value in helping society through education as it makes people good citizens, but it does not make people good people.

Only through right relation to Jesus are people made good. It is not something which comes from within, since within is full of darkness. Instead we need a righteousness which comes only through faith.

What to Say About Ignorance Being Blamed for All Great Injustices Today

Ignorance is blamed for all great injustices today.  If we knew more about poverty we would be moved to help.  If we truly understood hunger we would feed the poor.  If we truly understood racism we would fight against it.  The ‘problem’ is that we just don’t know enough.

What should we say about this?

The more major issue though is sin.  Christian’s actions are meant to flow out of their faith.  When we give Christians emotional reasons to act without first grounding these actions in Christ we set them up to disobey the bible.  The bible says all actions must flow from faith.  We must look though Christ to deal with sin in any pleasing way for God.  It helps to be informed of need so that our efforts may be the most fruitful, but it is not the root of the issue.  The root is that if our faith was deep enough we would count all things as rubbish compared to Christ and his kingdom.  When all things in the world become rubbish to us then we will be prepared to fight with all our hearts for God.  Education to eliminate ignorance might produce ‘works,’ but those works will be despicable to God if they come from anywhere else than our satisfaction in what his son has done for us.  For this reason elimination of ignorance is a very distant secondary issue compared to the elimination of sin.

A Problem in Philosophy: Types of Knowledge

One of the biggest problems I find in philosophy is that far too many philosophers misunderstand knowledge. They often fall into the trap of thinking that there are only two types of knowledge: a priori knowledge and a posteriori knowledge.

A priori knowledge is knowledge that is gained by faith alone.

A posteriori knowledge is knowledge that is based off of experience.

This distinction seems to leave out the most important type of knowledge: faith knowledge.

Most people find my beliefs that the earth orbits the sun or that there is mostly empty space in desks, or that there is a war going on in Iraq to be reasonable ones. Now I really have no knowledge that the sun orbits the earth, there are atoms in desks, or there is a war going on by reason alone. I also have no real reason to believe from experience that what makes up desks is mostly empty space with atoms, or that the earth orbits the sun, or that there is a war going on. There could certainly be other plausible explanation for what I experience, namely that the sun orbits the earth, or that desks are tightly filled with atoms with little or no empty space, or that the war in Iraq really is really just being made up. The problem is too many philosophers forget that most of what we know we accept from RELIABLE sources. Because they don’t understand this they often reduce themselves to skepticism when they cannot find a priori or a posteriori knowledge. Even philosophers who aren’t skeptics often find ways to damage their philosophies by baseing them around a priori and a posteriori knowledge.