KNOWLEDGE

Hugo McCord

Since only an abnormal person, called by philosophers a “nihilist,” would question actual knowledge about the existence of (1) of the universe; (2) of a person; (3) of a person’s mind; and (4) of a dependable working of a person’s mind, I erred in previous lectures in thinking proof is needed. The existence of those four realities is self-evident and should be taken for granted.

Furthermore, religious or salvation knowledge is humanly attainable, for God “wants all men to be saved, and to come to a knowledge (epignosis, discernment, recognition) of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). Sadly, some refuse “to have God in their knowledge” (Romans 1:28), and nihilists even deny the possibility “of the existence of any basis for knowledge or truth” (Webster). Nihilists affirm that nothing exists, and if anything does exist, it is unknowable and cannot be communicated.

But a nihilist who writes that nothing exists is present to do his writing, and then a reader reads his writing. Yet he contends that communication is impossible and that neither he nor his reader is in existence.

Actually the nihilist affirms the existence of knowledge: he writes that he himself knows (?) that nothing is knowable. In his saying that he knows nothing is knowable, he is affirming omniscience, for “we cannot know that nothing is knowable unless we already know everything” (David Elton Trueblood, PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION, p. 57).

Only God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit have absolute knowledge (Psalm 147:5; Romans 11:33; Colossians 2:3; 1 Corinthians 2:10). But saving knowledge, all the knowledge that we need (Ephesians 3:4; 5:17), is attainable in four ways:

I. ON SIGHT EVIDENCE

The Hebrew word for knowledge (yadá, to know, to perceive) “originally” meant to see (Gesenius). Miriam “stood afar off to see [yadá] what would happen to” her baby brother Moses (Exodus 2:4). Similarly, the Greek oida, to know, is derived from eido, to see.

However, illusions are possible: “When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were alarmed, saying, ‘A ghost’ (phantasma), and they cried out in fear” (Matthew 14:26). On another occasion, after Jesus’ resurrection, when “he himself stood in their midst” they “were startled, and became fearful, thinking that they were looking at a spirit” (pneuma, Luke 24:37).

When the disciples told Thomas, “We have seen the Lord” (John 20:25), he thought they had had an illusion. A week later, when Jesus appeared again to the disciples with Thomas present, Thomas was convinced they had not experienced a delusion, and he heard the Lord say to him, “Because you have seen me you have believed” (John 20:29). Yes, on sight evidence brings knowledge: seeing is believing.

II. THE TESTIMONY OF WITNESSES

Sometimes eye-sight evidence is not available to establish a matter, to impart knowledge. In such cases, a matter is decided by the testimony of two or more witnesses (Numbers 35:30; Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15; Matthew 18:16; 1 Timothy 5:19).

The resurrection of Jesus’ body from Joseph’s tomb, the most important event in all history, was established by a plurality of witnesses. An apostle said,

God raised him on the third day, and made him visible, not to all of the people, but to witnesses who had been chosen before by God: to us, who ate and drank with him after he was raised from the dead (Acts 10:40-41).

Soldiers guarding Jesus’ tomb were paid to tell a lie (Matthew 28:11-15), and men were bribed to testify against Stephen (Acts 6:11), but false witnesses will not die to back up their lies. On the other hand, truthful witnesses, when a simple lie would save their lives, would not recant their testimony about the resurrected Christ.

Stephen, gnashed with teeth and stoned, as he died even prayed for his murderers (Acts 7:54-60). Peter, instead of denying that he knew Jesus, as he had done (Matthew 26:69-74), was so captured by the risen Christ that he asked his killers to crucify him upside down “because he was (he said) unworthy to be crucified after the same form and manner as the Lord was” (John Fox, BOOK OF MARTYRS, p. 4).

When Thomas saw the risen Christ, “Jesus said to him, ‘Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed’“ (John 20:29). Thomas’ ministry in Parthia and in India was ended with a spear thrust (ibid.).

Thousands of dedicated Christians, non-eye witnesses, have suffered death for giving their testimony about Jesus. Antipas was a martyr at Pergamus (Revelation 2:13). Polycarp at Smyrna, in his trial before the consul Marcus Aurelius, February 23, 155 A.D., refused to recant, saying through flames:

“Eighty-six years I have served him; he has never done me wrong; how can I deny him now?” (Fausett).

III. RATIONAL DEDUCTIONS

Irrefutable evidence for knowledge is also found in human reasoning:

An atheist and a Christian, spending a night together in a tent on the Sahara Desert, disagreed about the existence of God. The atheist said that knowledge only comes through our five senses (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling), and since his Christian friend admitted that he had never seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or felt God, he would have to say that he could not affirm that he had knowledge that there is a god.

The next morning, as the atheist looked out their tent door, he said to his friend, “A camel passed here last night.” The Christian asked, “Did you see the camel? Hear, smell, taste, feel of the camel?” “No,” replied the atheist, “but only a camel leaves tracks like these in the sand.”

“Indeed so,” said the Christian, “and only God leaves such tracks in our universe that we are bound to say that we have knowledge that a Creator has been here.”

Human knowledge of the existence of God is established in this way:

His unseen things--his eternal power and divine nature--are clearly seen from the creation of the world, being understood by the things that are made, so that they [unbelievers] are without excuse (Romans 1:20).

Someone wrote the following:

An infidel said to a Quaker Friend: “So you walk by faith?” “Yes, we walk by faith and not by sight.” The infidel said, “I do not walk by faith, but only by my five senses.” His Quaker Friend asked, “Did you ever taste thy brains?” “No.” “Did you ever hear thy brains?” “No.” “Did you ever feel thy brains?” “No.” “Did you ever smell thy brains?” “No.” “Did you ever see thy brains?” “Well, no.” “Then,” said the Quaker Friend, “thee hast no brains!”

Yes, rational deductions impart irrefutable knowledge.

IV. REVELATION

The most important area of knowledge is divine revelation, for without knowledge from above the cemetery is the end of a human. Even the sharpest minds, with the highest IQ (intelligence quotient), can give me no relief when I bury a loved one, or put hope in my heart as I die.

Scholarly men of leading universities, indeed some of the world’s intellectual giants, signed the HUMAN MANIFESTO, I and II. The documents are egotistical and presumptuous and false in the following statement, among others:

Man is at last becoming aware that he alone is responsible for the world of his dreams, that he has within himself the power of its achievement (HUMAN MANIFESTO, I, p. 10).

The godless and hopeless philosophy of those calling themselves “Humanists” originated with the Greek sophist Protagoras (480-410 B.C.). He wrote: “Man is the measure of all things.”

But Jeremiah (628-586 B.C.) with divine knowledge wrote of man’s helplessness:

O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps (10:23, NKJV).

Thus Jeremiah expressed man’s crying need for a book from above to give him knowledge how to live and how to die in hope! Thank God, there is such a book, only one, that imparts all the knowledge one needs.

Under the title, “The Bible,” an unknown author wrote:

This book contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, its decisions immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler’s map, the pilgrim’s staff, the pilot’s compass, the soldier’s sword, the Christian’s charter. Here Paradise is restored, heaven is opened, the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand subject, our good its design, the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, a river of pleasure. It is given to you in life, will be opened at the judgment, will be remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibility, rewards the greatest labor, condemns all who trifle with its holy contents.

The famous unbeliever, Robert G. Ingersoll, in an oration at his brother’s grave, said:

Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud, but the only answer is the echo of our wailing cry. From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word; but in the night of death hope sees a star and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing (apud W. L. Oliphant and Charles Smith, DEBATE, p. 76).

Paul, writing “in words taught by the Spirit,” exalted knowledge (I have capitalized the word in the following quotes):

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, so that we bear the aroma of his KNOWLEDGE everywhere (2 Corinthians 2:14).

We are praying that you may be filled with the KNOWLEDGE of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the KNOWLEDGE of God (Colossians 1:9-10).

20 June 1998