Contrasting Bases for Knowledge

Philosophies must be evaluated on the ground of what they begin with.

Should we begin by assuming the authority of sensation,

the authority of logic, or the authority of God? Gordon H. Clark

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Rationalistic Religion Pseudo-Christianity		Revelational Religion Genuine Christianity
↑ Logic ↑		↑ Logic ↑
Humanistic Dogma God may be able to communicate, but man cannot infallibly receive such communication due to the existence of sin. Advocates claim this premise explains the widespread diversity of interpretations about God and what He has to say. Revelation may be possible, but infallible Inspiration and Illumination are impossible.	« Epistemological » Premise	Biblical Dogma The born-again Christian can both infallibly receive and re-transmit truth from God. The indwelling Holy Spirit, given in the New Birth, progressively and effectively mitigates the effects of human finiteness, Satanic-induced spiritual blindness, as well as sin (effects of the Fall). Revelation, Inspiration, and Illumination are all realities.
↑ Partial logic[1] ↑		↑ Logic[2] ↑
None	« Support »	Written Revealed Truth But God has revealed [them] to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the [Holy] Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know [them,] because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is [rightly] judged by no one. For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:10-16
↑		↑
Sensory experience and deductive reasoning[3]	« Foundational » Starting Point	66 Books of the Biblical Canon Written Word of God
↓		↓
Philosophers and Liberal Theologians	« Confirming Testimony »	Jesus-God the Son, Prophets, Apostles

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[1] To attempt to create a universal axiom (applicable to all humans) from one’s individual experience is a logical fallacy. The only way it can be true is for the individual making the claim to also claim omniscience (exhaustive knowledge) of the experiences of ALL other human beings that have ever or will ever live. To claim exhaustive knowledge is to claim to be God.

[2] The New Testament contains numerous passages affirming this biblical premise. Here is a sample: Matthew 15:16-17; Luke 24:32; 1 Corinthians 1:18 to 2:16; 2 Corinthians 3:14, 4:4; 5:20. And listen to the Dr. John W. Robbins explanation:

A Guide for Young Christians -- When God saves us sinners, he causes us to believe certain propositions about himself and about ourselves, ideas that we formerly thought were not true. In an instant, God resurrects us from the spiritual death of unbelief and makes us understand and believe the truth about both Jesus Christ and ourselves. Scripture refers to this event by using several figures of speech: being born again, being born from above, enlightening the mind, being resurrected from the dead, and giving us a heart of flesh for our heart of stone. What this figurative language literally means (and if you do not know what figurative language literally means, you do not know what it means) is that God affects our minds directly, causing us to accept as true, ideas we formerly thought were not true. He gives truth, figuratively called "light" in Scripture, directly to our minds.

Jesus had a conversation with his disciple Peter that illustrates the point: Jesus asked Peter, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus responded to Peter, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in Heaven" (Matthew 16:15-17). Now Peter had traveled and lived with Jesus, and certainly he had heard Jesus preach many times. But Jesus says that it was God the Father who revealed these truths to Peter’s mind. Jesus explicitly denied that Peter had come to know and believe these propositions on his own steam, for "flesh and blood did not reveal" these truths to Peter. God the Father had revealed them to Peter directly. We are all in the same situation as Peter in this regard; Peter’s answer is every believer’s answer; and Christ’s response to Peter is the same as his response to all believers. Just as Peter is not the unique recipient of this truth, so he is not the unique recipient of direct revelation. All believers get the truth they know directly from God. We are not aware of the Father’s work, just as Peter was not aware, but had to be informed by Christ. The truth just "dawns" on us. (This figure of speech is also used in Scripture: See 2 Peter 1:19.) John tells us that "the anointing you have received from him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in him" (1 John 2:27). The anointing does not give us truth apart from or different from the Word; the anointing is the Word in us, the "implanted word," to use James’ phrase.

But God did not reveal to Peter, and he does not reveal to us, all truth in one instant. In the first moment of faith, God reveals to us all the truths required to save us, but they are not all the truth he intends for us to know. When we are saved, God gives us part of his truth, the fundamentals as it were, but we will be learning his truth the rest of our lives. We will never exhaust all the truth that God has to teach us, even during endless years in Heaven. But with many distractions competing for our attention today, the young Christian may need some guidance on where to find that truth, and how to study.

The Truth of Scripture -- When we were saved, the truths we believed came from the Bible. We may not have been reading the Bible at the time; perhaps we were listening to a sermon in church or on the radio; perhaps we were simply talking to a friend, or meditating silently in our home. But whether we actually had a Bible before us or not, we were saved only by believing the truths found in the Bible. As we grow, that is, as we learn more and more of God’s truth, we will continue to find truth only in the Bible. Again, we may be reading the newspaper when God uses a story on crime, for example, to remind us of some truth that we had read in the Bible the day before. God causes us to understand what we read in the Bible, and to believe it.

God’s truth is found only in the 66 books of the Bible. That does not mean that all other books are absolutely false, for some authors have studied the Bible for years and have written excellent discussions of the truths of the Bible, discussions that the Holy Spirit can use to help us understand God’s Word more quickly and more accurately than we might if we relied merely on our own education and background. But the statement does mean that the Bible is the only source of truth. Whatever truths other authors may have, they have received them from God’s Word.

[3] Empiricism holds that nothing can be more certain than what appears to our senses. Strict empiricism is the epistemological theory that all knowledge is based on sensation alone. Rationalism is the theory that all knowledge, and therefore even spiritual knowledge, can be deduced from reason and logic. Rather than accepting the authority of God’s word, the first woman, Eve, chose the authority of both her deductive powers together and sensory experience. Scripture tell us, “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, she took some and ate it.” Consequently, Eve became the very first rationalist and first empiricist, the Grand Madam of Rationalism and Empiricism. High-profile promoters of empiricism include: Aristotle, theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) who completely altered the philosophy of the Roman Catholic church by making Aristotelianism its foundation, John Locke, and David Hume.

“The theory of knowledge that presumably accords best with common sense is the theory that we learn by experience. We learn that bees sting and rattlesnakes kill through our perceptions of pain. We learn that roses are red and violets are blue by the sensations of sight. All our knowledge comes through sensations. This type of epistemology is not merely the theory most in accord with common opinion, it is the view of distinguished philosophers also, among whom are such famous thinkers as Aristotle, Aquinas, and John Locke. These three men, among others, tried to explain how we perceive a chair, how a law of physics can be discovered, and finally how, by complicated arguments, we could prove the existence of God.” Gordon H. Clark

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For in-depth treatments of these subjects, see the following works:

· THREE TYPES OF RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY, Gordon H. Clark, The Trinity Foundation, Jefferson, Maryland, 1973, 1989.

· THE WORD OF GOD AND THE MIND OF MAN, Ronald H. Nash, P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, 1982.

Both Clark and Nash are of the Presbyterian and Covenant theological persuasion. Our recommendation of their books on philosophy do not imply an endorsement or recommendation of their theological systems.

Copyright ©2002 Dan R. Smedra