How Can I Be Sure About Anything? |
by David A. DePra |
| How you can be sure that what you believe is the Truth? |
| Have you ever dared to ask yourself that question? As |
| Christians, most of us say we are sure that what we believe is the |
| Truth. But how do we know for certain? Is it possible that we are |
| totally deceived? |
| Right now there are millions of people in this world who are |
| totally deceived. Look at the millions who worship Buddha, or |
| Mohammad. They are also "sure" they are right. What makes |
| them wrong, and Christians right? Clearly, a person's "certainty," |
| in their own mind, isn't proof of anything. Millions, right now, are |
| sure they are right, yet are totally WRONG. |
| Actually, we don't even have to look at the non-Christian |
| religions of the world to see that personal certainty about |
| something proves nothing. Within the ranks of those who call |
| themselves Christian there are plenty of doctrines, theories, and |
| teachings which are WRONG, but which are believed by |
| thousands. Christian people today are SURE about many of |
| these teachings, yet they are totally deceived. These teachings |
| are error. |
| The fact is, absolute certainty about something is NO |
| assurance that you believe the Truth. Have you ever realized |
| that? You can believe something with all your heart and yet be |
| totally wrong. Mere belief is no guarantee that you are right. |
| The opposite is true too. I can DISbelieve something with |
| absolute certainty, yet be wrong. Just as belief does not |
| guarantee that something is true, doubt is no guarantee that |
| something is false. |
| This brings us to a rather obvious conclusion about belief: |
| Belief MAKES nothing true. Nothing. The greatest belief in the |
| world makes nothing true. Likewise, the greatest doubt in the |
| world makes nothing FALSE. In short, what I believe stands |
| completely independent of the Truth itself. |
| There really isn't anything surprising about this. The Bible |
| tells us exactly that. Jesus said, "I AM the Truth." He said, "The |
| Truth shall set you free." Truth IS. Reality IS. They are anchored |
| in a Person. They find their definition and existance in God |
| Himself. Whether I believe, or doubt, has no effect on Truth. The |
| Truth goes on eternally, regardless of my belief -- or lack |
| thereof. |
| Dependence Upon God |
| Now, all of this does present us with a dilemma of sorts. For if |
| Truth is constant, completely independent of whether we believe |
| it or know it, then how can we be sure that what we believe IS the |
| Truth? How can we be sure we aren't totally deceived? |
| The answer is clear: Left to ourselves, we CAN'T be sure. We |
| can't be. |
| This is an answer which will not sit well with some people. But |
| it is a fact. Left to ourselves, we can be sure of NOTHING. If left |
| to ourselves, we are at the mercy of our bias, experience, human |
| perception, and self-will. We will interpret everything through |
| these, whether we intend to or not. Left to ourselves, we are |
| absolutely incapable of real objectivity. Consequently, when all |
| is said and done, we can be sure of nothing. It all becomes a |
| "matter of opinion" -- if we are left to ourselves. |
| The Bible tells us this. It tells us that we are born BLIND, with |
| NO knowledge of God. And worse, we don't have any way of |
| changing our condition. Left to ourselves, we are incapable of |
| doing anything to help ourselves. Indeed, we are incapable of |
| even wanting to help ourselves. |
| Now, having said all of that, we come back again to our |
| question: If left to ourselves, we can be sure of nothing, then |
| how can we, as Christians, be sure that what we believe is the |
| Truth? |
| The answer is quite fundamental. It is, in fact, THE gospel of |
| Jesus Christ: We are NOT left to ourselves. Our faith in Jesus |
| Christ, if it is real, is not the result of US finding the Truth. It is the |
| result of the Truth Himself finding us. |
| Let's repeat that. It is vital to understand: The true |
| knowledge of God is never the result of ME finding the Truth. It is |
| the result of Truth finding ME. There is absolutely nothing I can |
| do to reach out and obtain the Truth. The Truth must reach out |
| and obtain ME. |
| This is exactly what God does. He tells us that we cannot |
| even so much as come to Christ unless He first draws us. (see |
| John 6:44) He tells us that unless He takes the initiative, we are |
| helpless. Indeed, the gospel of grace itself is based upon the |
| premise that God must initiate by His grace or we are lost. And |
| this doesn't only apply to salvation. It applies to our entire |
| Christian experience; to our grow in Jesus Christ. |
| Jesus said this. He said, "The Truth shall set you free." He did |
| not say, "YOU shall set yourself free by finding the Truth." No. |
| The Truth, who is a Person, must set you free; must take the |
| initiative to come down and bring a revelation to you which will |
| do for you what you are incapable of doing for yourself. |
| So again, we see that we are left -- utterly -- at the mercy |
| of God. Unless HE initiates, we cannot be sure of anything. I |
| can know the Truth only by revelation. I can't obtain it by study, |
| thinking, or by any human means. I can know it only if God |
| reveals it to me. But if I know it by that means, I can then be |
| absolutely sure of it. |
| Proof of the Truth |
| All man-made religions have one thing in common. In fact, |
| even "man-made versions of Christianity" share this common |
| trait. It is the one thing above all else which separates true |
| Christianity from every error and substitute. Indeed, no false |
| religion dare claim what Christianity claims regarding this one |
| issue, for doing so would expose it as error. The claim of |
| Christianity on this one point helps prove it is THE Truth, indeed, |
| the ONE Truth from God to man. |
| So what IS this point of Truth? Just this: That God must |
| initiate the relationship between Himself and man. That God |
| must take the initiative to come down and reveal Himself to us, |
| and to save us. That unless He does so, we are without hope. |
| All false religion, including, as mentioned, many man-made |
| versions of Christianity, teach that man must initiate |
| reconciliation with God. All error, in one way or another, will put |
| the initiative upon US, rather than God, to make things right. |
| There is actually a good reason why false gods are never |
| given the responsibility to initiate: They don't exist. So how can |
| they initiate anything? Therefore, if you are going to create a |
| false religion with a false god at the center, you certainty can't |
| teach that the false god takes the initiative between himself and |
| man. It just wouldn't work. So you'd create a religion which |
| could "seem" to work -- one which puts the responsibility to |
| initiate upon US. |
| Christianity DARES to put the responsibility upon it's God to |
| take the initiative regarding His creation, because only the |
| Christianity of the Bible is the Truth. THAT God does exist. And |
| He is true and trustworthy to keep His promises. He does take |
| the initiative between Himself and man. |
| Now, it is obvious that a false religion could claim that it's god |
| takes the initiative. And, there are certainly times within the realm |
| of true Christianity when it doesn't seem to us that God is taking |
| any initiative. But our understanding, nor our claims, do not |
| change the Truth. Christianity, and the God of the Bible, stand |
| alone. Only with Christianity does salvation, revelation, and |
| really, everything else, depend upon GOD taking the initiative. |
| All error in some way refutes this Truth, or waters it down. |
| Christians alone can know for sure that what we believe is the |
| Truth because what we believe didn't generate from ourselves as |
| the source. It came to us from a Source outside of ourselves as |
| a revelation from God. This is what makes Christianity real, and |
| unique. It is not dependent upon our understanding of God, but |
| upon God Himself. |
| Trusting God Himself |
| Only if God Himself takes the initiative to reveal the Truth to a |
| us is it possible for us to know the Truth. Only if God takes the |
| initiative to reveal Himself to us can we know Him. Left to |
| ourselves, we are lost. This is a basic of Christianity. It is part of |
| the gospel of grace. |
| There is, of course, the next question: How can I be certain |
| that God HAS revealed the Truth to me? For once we realize we |
| cannot know the Truth unless God reveals it, we must then |
| wonder whether He HAS -- or whether we have invented our |
| own "truth." |
| This is, of course, why God has given us the written Word. It |
| is our written guideline which will always agree with the Truth |
| which God reveals to us in our hearts and minds. But having |
| said, that, we must then admit that even our interpretation of the |
| written Word can be subjective. There is always the possibility |
| that we could be wrong about it as well. |
| The sobering fact is, all of us are fallible and given to |
| misinterpreting God. All of us make many mistakes in what we |
| believe. We do it every day. But what does this mean? Does it |
| mean that Christianity is a condition of uncertainty; a condition of |
| not knowing anything for sure? |
| To the contrary. Christianity is a condition of absolute |
| certainty. But it is certainty, not in what I believe about God, but |
| in God Himself. |
| We MUST see this. Faith is never to be in what I believe about |
| God. It is to be in God Himself. And if my faith is in God Himself, |
| then I can stand fast by faith even if I am unsure about what I |
| believe about Him. |
| There are many Christians whose faith is shipwrecked when a |
| pet doctrine of theirs falls, or when something they believed God |
| was doing doesn't pan out. But none of this is reason to doubt |
| God. It is WE who were mistaken, not Him. Our faith should |
| have never been in our interpretation of God, or in our own |
| understanding. We should hold all of that loosely, and hold fast |
| by faith to God Himself. |
| We must see the distinction between knowing facts or truths |
| ABOUT God, and knowing God Himself. God has chosen to |
| reveal to us many infallible Truths about Himself, and about His |
| redemption in Jesus Christ. He sees to it that we do understand |
| these Truths so that we might be saved. But who among us can |
| claim to know the height and depth of all eternal Truth? Who can |
| claim there is no possibility that they might be wrong about a few |
| things? No one. Even if everything we believe is true, there is |
| still much we have never seen. But when all is said and done, we |
| can trust God. Our faith in Him can fill the void of what we don't |
| know, and even compensate for that over which we are |
| mistaken. |
| Christians are to stand by faith in what we know. But we are |
| also to have the perpetual attitude of openness and pliability |
| before God. Jesus told us what our attitude is supposed to be. |
| He said, "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, |
| whether it be of God... (Jn. 7:17) In other words, our continual |
| attitude is to be that of surrender and willingness. Faith. If that is |
| our attitude, then God will, as Jesus said in another place, "lead |
| us into all Truth," by the Holy Spirit. |
| Again it must be repeated: We may not understand many |
| things in this life, but we can trust the One who does understand. |
| We are to put our faith, not in our understanding of God, but in |
| God Himself. If we do that, then we will BE certain, yes, about |
| many Truths God has revealed. But our REAL certainty, and our |
| REAL faith, will be in the One who is Truth Personified. |
| Absolute certainty about the Truth is the direct result of |
| absolute abandonment to God. It is the direct result of an |
| unconditional surrender to God. In short, if I want to possess the |
| Truth, and be certain about it, I must allow the Truth Himself to |
| possess me. * |
|
|
| If there is no God, |
| ... then by definition, there is no all-knowing source |
| from outside of ourselves which can reveal to us Truth. |
| Therefore ... |
| ... we are left to ourselves in this world to discover the Truth. |
| But ... |
| ... if we are left to ourselves to discover Truth, then we can |
| be sure of nothing. So how can those who say there is no |
| God be sure THEY are right? |
| The conclusion is that those who say there is no God have |
| nothing but themselves -- their bias, their perception, their |
| subjectivity, their moral agenda, and their personality -- to rely |
| upon to reach the correct conclusion. Therefore, in the final |
| analysis, they can never be sure they are right. Not unless they |
| are willing to designate THEMSELVES as an all-knowing source |
| which can never be wrong. |
| The Bible tells us that Christians DO have evidence that God |
| does exist. It may not be evidence that a doubter will accept, |
| (is there any evidence a doubter will accept?) but it is evidence |
| of great substance: Faith. (Heb. 11:1) The presence of faith is |
| itself proof that Someone has taken the initiative to come down |
| and deposit in us that which eternal and which is of the Truth.* |