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How do we know anything ?
Written by Peter Youngren on February 13, 2010Article for St Catharines Standard newspaper by Peter Youngren.
Every day people make thousands of decisions, expressing thousands of opinions. All these various views beg the question: In what is our knowledge grounded? Furthermore, how do we know about God? What about the accuracy of the Gospel accounts of Jesus? How can we be sure that God made us, and not the other way around? Many people have ready-made answers, but maybe we should ask; “how do we know anything?” Regardless of the answer let’s not apply a double standard, but whatever criteria we use to gain knowledge about anything, let’s apply that criteria to God as well. There are three fundamental ways in which people know things; experience, reason and authority.
Experience is based on our five senses; we see, hear, smell, taste and feel. Empiricism, however, is insufficient, because it is limited, and in fact little of what we know comes by personal experience. You know that Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world, but likely not by experience. You may have seen a picture of Mt. Everest or watched documentaries about mountain climbing expeditions, but that doesn’t qualify as a personal experience. I flew over it once and the pilot asked us to look out the window, claiming we could see Mount Everest. I took his word for it. Sometimes our senses deceive us. When a straight stick extends under water it looks bent at the surface, but it isn’t. Empiricism without other sources is not enough.
Descartes used reason when he stated, “I think, therefore I am”. Our capacity to think proves our existence. Reason certainly gives us truth about many things, such as 5 + 5 = 10. Yet reason is also limited because some things seem logical, but turn out to not to be true.
What about authority? Is there a credible authority that deserves our trust? Life wouldn’t be possible if we didn’t trust authority. Think of our banking or postal systems, all run on our trust in an authoritative system. Yet, our experience must also confirm the claims of those systems. All knowledge is a combination of experience, reason and authority.
Take riding an elevator for example. The authority, which is the company who services the elevator, claims that the elevator is safe. Your experiences may have also taught you that riding in the elevator is safe, yet reason tells you that something could go wrong because there’s a button that says “alarm”. Nevertheless, you go ahead, though you’re not 100 per cent sure that you will arrive safely. Now change the scenario. What if that elevator was shaking, or looked otherwise unsafe, suddenly you wouldn’t trust the affixed paper that states it was serviced properly, and you wouldn’t rely on the fact that you had been on an elevator a thousand times before and it worked every time. We all reach conclusions based on a combination of experience, reason and authority, and if either one of these is not in sync with the other, we reassess what we thought we knew.
Now back to our original questions. What about Jesus? Let’s use the same criteria. I claim to have good reason to believe that God was in Christ, absorbing the world’s sins, bringing about a cure for the human condition through His death and resurrection. It makes sense that a loving Creator would have foreknowledge that His creatures would mess up, and that the divine would need to enter into His creation with a corrective love plan. Add to this the authority of those who were eyewitnesses of Christ’s work and resurrection. They were so convinced of the reality, not only of the Galilean Jesus, but also of the cosmic Christ who is alive forever, that they were willing to give their lives for the proclamation of this message. On top of that, I have experience, not only my own, but also the testimonies of millions of people, who would rather give their lives than deny the reality of Jesus Christ.
amem
~ Brampton
amen amen the fold pead philippians 4-19 the problem is not knowing what is right but doing what is right not until we make the lord god the centre of our life that then he can make us his prioroty and along with doing his will the blessings will follow for this is the truth and i am living proof of gods great love for all who are willing to adhear for he says my sheep hear my voice please read ezek chapter 34-11 but please read the whole chapter and get the meat of the word!!
thanx and peace be with you!! a brother in christ jesus our warior king of all kings whom we will be with one glorious day amen !!
Robin
~ United Kingdom
Praise The Lord..
Our Lord is doing great miracles through your ministry.I pray to Our Lord Jesus Christ that through World Impact Ministry millions of people will repent from their wrong ways and they will believe in Jesus our Lord.
I pray to Lord that this ministry be blessed at every moment and every bit of time.
In the mighty name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
saul
~ Brampton, ON
love every teaching keep up the great work!!! jer 33-3 yes he has shown me great and mighty things!!! amen amen i have heard my calling !!!blessed father holy one let those who have ears hear and those who have eyes see!!! come out of here my people he states in rev 17 be not partakers of her sins that great and mother harlot of abomations of the earth!! for every knee shall bow and every tongue confess this is the word of the true and living god as sure as he who lives in me for those who are born of the spirit must also walk in the spirit !!
iam in the lords army!! put on the whole armor of god to stand up to satans firey darts!! and you will overcome amen !!
amen and peace to all
a brother in chirst jesus !!
JROB
~ Helsinki Finland
We appreciate what you are doing around the world Peter.
Keep up the good work.
Francis
~ Montreal, Quebec
i just want to thank you for this article—-a bit unusual when it talks about reason, experience and authority…..but i think that the Bible and personnal christian life faith and circonstances are part of the christian life—God can use all those aspects in our lives or even talk to us throuht all these aspects of life for us to go on
thank you very much
in God we trust
francis
Brenda
~ Halifax, N.S.
We know things by the witness in the Spirit.
Rainier
~ Mississauga
Re: Katherine’s question on the “cosmic Christ”
I think Peter was not trying to denote some kind of new age theology here Katherine. He differentiates how believers who were eye-witnesses of the Galilean Jesus in ancient Israel also later realized He was the transcendent Christ who was Lord over the universe. This Jesus they witnessed on earth was also later realized as the God of this cosmic universe. He was not just a man to those early believers who risked their lives for Him. He was believed to be God by those who also bore witness to the physical Jesus on earth during that time.
lucy
~ winnipeg, manitoba
Praise the Lord. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. A million thanks to You Lord for shielding Pastor Peter Youngren and all his staff going around the world spreading the good news that Jesus saves, heals and delivers. Even to the Muslim countries Pastor Peter is very brave to mention the Name of Jesus. To God be all the glory, great thihgs He has done through Pastor Peter as an instrument of Jesus saving, healing and delivering power. I am amazed by the boldness of Pasor Peter to go to Muslim countries. Truly God has a divine purpose for this ministry through Pastor Peter Youngren. A million thanks to You Lord for Your Holy Spirit giving divine protection, divine guidance and divine direction for the “World Impact Ministries.” Thank You Holy Spirit You will never leave them nor forsake them as they travel around the world, winning souls to the Kingdom of God. In Jesus mighty and matchless name which is above all names I pray. Amen and amen.
dan
~ Barrie, Ontario
Thanks Peter, well said as always! The question of - “how do we know anything” is one that I have asked myself several times when I think about, or comment on something.
We have a tendancy to think that we know alot of things, but if you get honest with yourself and ask yourself “how do I know this, how can I be so sure”, then you discover that you really don’t know very much of anything 100%. I think the Apostle Paul said it best - “I am determined to know nothing among you but Christ and Him crucified”.
Nancy
~ Kelowna, BC
We know because our conscience bears witness. Please refrain from referring to Christ as cosmic, it undermines the truth and is offensive to the family of God
Terry
~ Albany, NY USA
Our Lord, (in His OT “Kozmik” self) said, “Come now, let us reason together…though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;” (Isa. 1:18a) - NKJV. When we respond to His invitation, He inspires our thoughts these days, with other portions of His inspired, written Word, and we know ny the revelation of His Spirit, that the Blood of Jesus washes our sins away, and they are blotted out of the books which contained them, as well as our consciences. We then experience His peace, which we then know by experience that His Word is true, giving it continued credibility. The testimony and witness of other people’s experiences, adds to our understanding, along with the witness of the indwelling Holy Spirit. To prevent us from getting big headed about our revelation knowledge, we may experience a “buffeting,” like Paul did, because of our calling to teach His inspired, written Word. God doles out revelation on a need to know basis, thus teachers are given more, along with a stricter judgment. We learn to rest in the credibility of His Word, from our experience of it’s author-ity, with faith in His Faithfulness to keep His Word. With His Word, comes the Grace to believe and obey it, as a package deal. It is His doing, so we glorify Him in it.
Wendy
~ Calgary, AB
The problem with society today is to much garbage out there for a world to trust something you cannot see. Half the world believes we are brainwashed beyond reason, a reason that science can explain, but a deity that is cosmic above and beyond their reach is pretty much a fairytale. When God calls us to lead by example, he means to love one another. Because what reflects off of us onto others, then it brings us closer as a nation to share the word of God. When is the right time is another example, you hear it often enough that people dont want the word of God shoved down their throats, but when armageddon comes and that personal walk with Jesus isn’t there for them, it’s when the truth comes out and the choice they had is gone. My choice is to share the word of God with others . . .SHARE is far different than shoving but it seems the concept is lost because the person in general is beyond the hope of saving, not changing their minds. God Bless
Chris
~ Brampton
Excellent! Blessed are they that are not offended in Christ…People who know you, know your heart. I would like to say that as Christians, if we walk in the biblical love walk, it says; Aplified Version…“love does not insist on it’s own rights or it’s own way, for it is not self seeking; it is NOT touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account to evil done to it. (pays no attention to a suffered wrong) We often perceive a wrong done to us. I think love knows the word and acts on it not on emotions or opinions. Opinions are just that. They are often neither right or wrong… in some instances pride has us be unkind and speak out of a limited experience or knowledge. I for one know this man and know that he is definitley not talking about new age. I thank God like many who have blogged here for Peter’s willingness to take the gospel to the four corners of the earth often in the face of hostility and danger. The Lord has blessed his own ministry through our brother with signs, wonders and miracles following the preaching ot the word. How many of us can say we have seen such things in such a vast way in our lives. Peter we thank God for you daily and for the many partners and friends of your (His) ministry around the world.
Sarah
~ Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Africa
Praise the Lord.God is good all the time about me. I thanx so much my God to give me a power in my life.
Thanx you Pastor Peter
Sarah
~ Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Africa
I have seen God for a big percentage in my life.I am doing fine in the Lord spiritually and phisically,Bro, I do appreciate you for thy prayer and the effort which you are doing to make sure that the great commission of our Lord Jesus christ being fullfilled in this last days.May the mighty God be with thee and protect you in everything which you are doing.may you continue praying for me for the power and deliverance of the Lord to be manifested more and more in my life. Glory be to his mighty name and praise for ever more!! AMEN.
Sarah
~ Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Africa
Thank you and GOD bless you all.
michael
~ islamabad, Pakistan
Wonderful! quite logical and convincing. I like the new name “cosmic Christ”. I think that Jesus died on the Cross not only for the people on the Earth but for all those people who are on other planets as well-not known to us. Though we cannot compare physical and psychological parameters with spiritual and metaphysical scales yet we can use them to support the physical knowledge and spiritual reasoning with experience.
I am really touched
patrick
~ GUSII -KENYA-NYANZA
prise The name of our Heavenly Father GOD HAS done here where Iam working I HAVE SEEN GOD saving his people and doing is miracles of those who are sick God has healed them and countue prayer for us
samuel
~ nairobi kenya
thats a great argument there. need further explanation of “cosmic Christ”, do you think as humans we have explored everything and known everything? phil. 1:15-19…. He is not just limited to our knowledge of his creation….. we don’t know all his creation yet… I feel the word “cosmic” tries to limit the superiority of Christ…. there are powers, dominions, rulers, things visible, and invisible, in heaven and on earth… I can prove that we humans don’t know half of that!
there is no wisdom, understanding, knowledge, or revelation, that is true except Jesus Christ!
Cindy
~ Cross Lake, Manitoba
I hope Pastor Peter Youngren Never Stops preaching the Gospel I don’t see why he would even think of ever doing that it is soo much fun serving the Lord. I am happy that the Lord picked Pastor Peter Youngren was chosen and hand pick by the Hand of God he was I leave with you Pastor Peter with Psalms 139:1 - 24. God Bless you and your Minisrty Pastor Peter Youngren. I am sorry for loss on your mother take care bye for now I pray all your needs are met for the Funeral.
Your Sister in the Lord
Cindy Halcrow
Sarah
~ Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Africa
Praise the Lord. I thanx God to open my life. God be with you and blessing you.
bantupalli
~ hyderabad, india
dear peter young
i am fine with blassing from the God, hope your also fine
My famely strongly belived by your writhings & prayars
pray for mu family
God blass you & use for people
Rhea
~ Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
Brainwashed, yes, our brains have been washed ,washed Clean by the blood of JESUS .Clean from the impure thoughts and drivel that the rest of the world are caught-up in.
Praise the Lord !
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Comments:
Katherine
~ Norway
I thought this was an excellent article, right until I got to the last bit which mentions the “cosmic Christ”. Had the author written “resurrected Christ”, I could have understood it. But cosmic denotes the New Age concept of a figure who finds expression in Jesus of Nazareth and many other persons, such as Buddha - a multi-incarnate spirit. From my experience of Peter Youngren, I am quite sure this is not what he means, but I think it is an unfortunate choice of term. I would like him to explain what he actually meant by this.