The PuritanBoard - View Single Post

JohnV · #4 (**permalink**) 07-09-2004, 08:32 PM

Craig:

Is it really so dumb?

Didn't you have to assume it as well in order to ask the question?

Let's say that someone is really caught in the dillemma of knowing what to believe anymore. He can't trust his elders, let's say; nor his teachers, nor his upbringing, (that is, his sense of orthodoxy); and he doesn't have any reason anymore to trust even his senses.

Have you ever been in such a situation? It's like you've just landed on Mars, and you have no idea anymore of right or wrong. You have really had the rug pulled out from under you, as far as standing on faith is concerned. Where do you start? You have to put all the pieces back together; and I mean [b:793be74175]all[/b:793be74175] the pieces. I've been there, and let me tell you, it's no picnic. Descartes helped me a lot here.

Just from the systematic standpoint, I can see what you're saying. But I've seen people go off the other end as well. All they know for certain is the Word of God, and not even the table in front of them on which the Word of God is resting. You see, it's no good; because they have to assume that the book, the letters, the words, by which the Word of God is transmitted, is real before they can know the Word itself. Or does the Spirit transmit it without the words and letters? And then they get all upset if I don't believe them. If what they say is true, then why do they get upset with me because I disagree with them? Do they know I'm real? How? Is that too in the Word of God, even when I disagree? They have just betrayed themselves. It's a vicious circle for them, because they doubt everything but what they call the Word of God.

Now I'm not suggesting that a strictly logical view of this demands such a conclusion. I'm just saying that it can also be one of those ontological "can't get out of it" things. Once you realize that your doubt extends even to your doubting, then you have to set your feet on something very solid again. For those who are caught in the philosophical milieu, and don't have the wherewithal to comprehend the philosophical complexities, I would not hesitate to use it.

In fact, is it not similar, in kind, to the salvation road as well? We think at first that we have come the Jesus, that we have turned ourselves around, that we have decided to follow Jesus. And in many ways we have done just that. But when we know our Bible a bit better, and know the character of the One who saved us, how He is three in one, working in us both to work and to save for His good pleasure, then we come to realize that it wasn't us at all, but Him. In a similar fashion, we can take heart when our minds are quite perplexed about truths, and right and wrong; when everyone else around us has fallen off the perch we've set them on. We can at least know that our struggle is a real one, and set our philosophical feet back on terra firma, or what we may take for terra firma without doubting it. For it is true that we may doubt everything, but we can at least be assured that our doubting has the inbuilt qualification that we are.

[Edited on 7-10-2004 by JohnV]