How can anyone be sure of anything?

There are many times in history when people have believed something as truth but have been completely wrong. Take for instance slavery, Hitler, and the geocentric model. How one be sure that something is true and not simply blind to other truths? Can anyone really know the whole truth? What truth can be trusted? What model can be used to determine truth? And can the model by which truth is measured be trusted? Truth is troublesome to deal with when it comes to belief systems and religion because it is challenging to measure morals and mindsets if there is no agreed model in which to measure truth.

 Thankfully, we both can agree that the Christian God exists and therefore we can allow Him to be the model by which we measure all truth. And if measuring truth by using God as the model is not exactly agreed upon, then that is something that should be investigated more on before continuing. For starters I recommend the ted talk by Billy Graham where he points out that when it comes to Jesus, people have three choices to make about him. That he is a liar, that he is crazy, or that he is who he claims to be. Which will you choose? If you agree then skip this video.

Billy Graham: Technology, Faith and Human Shortcomings

Still, within the Christian community, God warns about false teachings. Someone might say "I have the true interpretation of the Bible" and another might have a different opinion and say they have the truth. So in me saying “Here read this because it is right” just sounds like the rest of the people. For example listen to what this guy has it say about how we all have our opinions:

Listening to the Voice of God - Sinclair Ferguson 

Look, I am no one to say what is right or wrong. I realize that I am not the smartest or brightest person, but I am human and I smart and I am bright and I do know this: that God saved me and has changed my life. I might be "all for Jesus" now, but you are seeing the tail-end of my journey for truth. There was a time I did not want to believe in Christianity. I hated the idea of giving my will up to some deity. I didn't want to get caught up in dogma. I wanted to have control as to what I would believe. Most of my college experience I called myself an agnostic and followed humanism and post-modernism philosophies. I followed the teaching of Lawrence Krauss, a theoretical physicist, and Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist. I spent countless hours watching Krauss's debates as he challenged theologians on "Why is there something rather than nothing?" I didn't want anything to do with religious teaching because I thought they were "out of date" and "not fitting for my life." I followed and consumed countless videos from The School of Life, a youtube channel that teaches how people can live happy lives without religion. Additionally, I went on a journey to truly question everything I felt important to question about Christianity and try to find some fault with it. During that journey and in my desperate time of need, God saved me. How can a person go from being post-modern and hating traditions to willing to surrendered their will to God? Only by reading the word of God. Honestly, I wasn’t completely sure what it meant to surrender my will and what actions I had to take to do that, but I decided to trust that God would give me the truth and that instead of trying to google “How to be a better person” I would allow the word of God answer that for me.

Man, and all I can say is that not only has God answered my questions, He has allowed me to ask better questions so that I may have a deeper understanding of my life. But reading and understanding isn’t everything. If we have all the knowledge and don’t use it- we are worse than not knowing. So I don’t argue in what I know, but I share the results of what my obedience in God has resulted in, and I can confidently say that the wisdom God has provided me with has resulted in a better quality of life and I have never been more joyful than what I am now. So this helps me to believe the little wisdom I’ve received as real and true. Often times it’s not that I’m learning a new concept, but that God is helping me see a concept I’ve learned with a new angle. Throughout our conversations, I’ve shared some personal stories of God’s work in my life, and I would be happy to share more. But, don’t take my word for it, see other people's stories of artist and skaters that have been transformed by God:

Meet Quincy Jones, who is an artist and a skater that has made God the ruler of his life:

Meet Jacob Moorman who developed brain cancer, but trusted in the Lord to get him through:

You see, it is not knowledge what we are after, but a personal relationship with God. I’m not saying that knowledge is unimportant because knowledge is what helps us have a relationship with God, but what I am saying is that the pursuit of knowledge is not the end goal. The pursuit of knowledge should end with a closer relationship with God. When I initially surrendered my life to God, I remember feeling still broken and messy, but I no longer felt like I was drifting in the wind- something within me felt grounded and stable.

I realized that following a doctrine was more more than just learning information, its was actually about building a relationship with a real person.

"So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  

- John 8:31-32, ESV

Jesus did not urge his disciples to commit their lives to a doctrine, but to a person who was the doctrine, and only as they continued in his Word could they know the truth.  

- Robert E. Coleman, The Master Plan of Evangelism

Look, no one has a full understanding of everything and if people claim they do - proceed with caution.

So how do we develop a proper understanding of God’s will?

God didn’t just leave us to walk around wondering what His will is. That’s why we have the Bible. The Bible is the word of God, or in other words, it’s His voice. What a blessing to have a book that we can study to understand the will of God. We can understand the Will of God through his word and we can do so by inference and by experience:

First, by Inference  

We believe that “all Scripture is inspired by God” (2 Timothy 3:16). And we know that “whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise” (John 5:19). When the Father, by the Spirit (2 Peter 1:21) was guiding the writing of Scripture, the will and heart of the Son was in perfect concert. 

Not only were all things made by the Father, with the Spirit (Genesis 1:2), through the Son (John 1:3), but all things are absolutely through the Son: There is “one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things” (1 Corinthians 8:6). The inspiration of the Bible was through the Son. Therefore the Bible is the word of Jesus.

.... 

When the Gospel writers say, “Jesus said,” it is Jesus saying, “I said.” When they write “Jesus did,” it is Jesus saying, “I did.” When they write about Jesus, Jesus is speaking about Jesus. When they quote Jesus, Jesus is quoting Jesus. In the Bible we hear the voice of Jesus talking about Jesus. 

Second, by Experience 

When we are born again, we have new ears. They are tuned to the frequency of the voice of Jesus. “The sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, for they do not know the voice of strangers. . . My sheep hear my voice . . . and they follow me” (John 10: 4–5, 27). We know the Bible is the voice of Jesus because when we hear it we hear his voice. Does Jesus speak today? You may listen to him any time you please. On hundreds of topics. The way he means for us to live is to be so familiar with his voice from a thousand pages of precious Scripture that we sense his will where he is silent.

- Desiring God: How We Hear The Voice Of Jesus (source)

He also didn’t give us the Bible for us to give the Bible whatever meaning we want it to have. Human understanding will not understand everything the Bible has for us, but if we are true children of God - even though we might develop a false understanding of God, he will correct us.

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.  

- Hebrews 12: 1-17, NIV.

The most efficient way to know whether we have a correct understanding of the word of God is to spend time in the word, prayer and in a Godly community. Also, if you're afraid of a false understanding, before reading the Bible, or reading a resource, or listening to advise,  ask God himself to help you not develop a false understanding, and ask him to show you the truth in the midst that resource.

So where is a good place to start when trying to understand God’s word? Welcome to reformed theology.

Like I said it’s almost impossible to have a full understanding of God’s word, but that doesn’t mean we are not able to understand God’s word. What it does mean is that we can understand God’s word, but it would take several lifetimes to reach full understanding.

Thankfully, there are several people in history that devoted their entire lives and intelligence to understand as much as they could about the word of God without heresy and have passed on their understanding.
During the dark ages, much of man’s thoughtful work to understand God’s word was lost, but through the Reformation, much of this work was recovered. Many of the sermons we have now are not new. It is circled information from hundreds of years ago, but it is still useful. This just goes to show that God’s word is relevant no matter the era. Therefore a great place to start is to look into reformed teachers. These are people that take a careful and reasonable approach to the word of God. That's why I love Briarwood because we teach on reformed theology.
Now, don’t start thinking that reformed theology is the only way, that would be false. There are things it could be better in, but it definitely is a great place to start - the things it could do better in is up to personal opinion and debate. Reformed theology is where I come back to when I have questions and doubts.

A great theologian to check out in our era, that has devoted his life to as much correct teaching as on can get from the word of God is R.C Sproul. He began Ligonier Ministries, an amazing ministry to help people find biblical answers to doubts and questions. This ministry has helped a great number of people including myself.

What Was the Reformation All About?

He learns from great theologians in history such as Augustine and Martin Luther. Ligonier features several great theologians of our era such as Sinclair Furguson and John MacArthur.

Finally, I leave you with this teaching by John MacArthur. I think it would be helpful to fully understand how to avoid false teaching and why and how the Bible is qualified to teach us. Initially, I was going to send you just a link, but I wanted to take you on my journey of becoming ready for this sermon:

The Authority of Scripture

(For a shorter sermon: https://renewingyourmind.org/2019/06/13/the-authority-of-scripture)

Enjoy, and please share your thoughts with me. My hope is not to flood you with information, but that you may experience the hope, joy, and love that I’ve found in Christ. Blessing brother.