CCS Biblical Interpretation Epistemology

7 Blind Mice

Epistemology Can we Know? What about our mice friends?

How would they know? The Facts: - They are still blind - They are not a collective - They are finite - What if they are being deceived? How would they know?

Truth: What a mess we have made of it

Some Foundations: What is Knowledge? Is it a collection of information received through the senses?

What can you know? What is knowable?

How do we gain knowledge? What are the tools?

A little perspective?

How about a little duplicity?

Are things a bit askew?

What about what your eyes do on their own?

What about the lady who can taste music?

What are these images doing?

What are these images doing? Nothing . . . They are illusions!

The Point: The senses are not always trustworthy

How much of something can we know? How do we Know? Why must we know? What can we know? How much of something can we know?

. . . that we are just brains in a bottle . . . Some have said . . . . . . that we are just brains in a bottle . . .

So, how can we Know?!? A feeling? Experience? Wiki-food? Maybe we can’t? Maybe . . . all we can know (for sure) is that Keanu Reaves can’t act! REVELATION – that is, the Bible

How would they know? The Facts: - They are still blind - They are not a collective - They are finite - What if they are being deceived? How would they know?

We are broken . . .

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Ephesians 2:1-3

For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Romans 8:5-8

Can we Know? YES! Know What/Whom – God Know Why – Purpose Know How - Scripture

Epistemology Who is God? Why start here?

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. -A. W. Tozer

“Were we able to [get] from any man a complete answer to the question, ‘What comes into your mind when you think about God?’, we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man” -A. W. Tozer

“What matters supremely “What matters supremely . . . Is not [just] the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it – the fact that He knows me.” - J. I. Packer

All the problems of heaven and earth, though they were to confront us together and at once, would be nothing compared with the overwhelming problem of God: That He is; what He is like; and what we as moral beings must do about Him. -A. W. Tozer

BASED ON WHAT??!??

Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

So, if you don’t know God . . . You can’t really know anything correctly

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. -A. W. Tozer

So, what do you think about Him?

CCS Biblical Interpretation Epistemology