A Christian attitude towards faith and knowledge

I am writing this sermon in the wake of multiple instances where I witnessed people being led away from sound doctrine into insanity and even hatred and mockery of Yahweh. This is to be a warning towards every Christian, no matter how good his doctrine is, and no matter how stout his faith is. This sermon will mostly be philosophical in nature, and not quote many scriptures. For that, I'd like to apologise. Instead, it is directed towards a reader who is mostly familiar with the bible already.

A case study and a warning

I will start by laying out a hypothetical example of a brother falling away from the faith (I'll call him Arthur). Arthur was a good Christian, he studied the faith constantly. He had sound doctrine and his doctrine was proven by lots of earnest and fine scholarship. Arthur knew the covenants and whom they were made with. He was quick to bring up and quote bible verses related to discussions, and he knew a lot of biblical history.

Arthur, in his thirst for knowledge, also got into archaeology and cross-referenced biblical history with other historical documents or scriptures of other religions, to learn more about the Israelites. Additionally, he wanted to prove his doctrine beyond any doubt, so that he could finally be absolutely sure of his faith. He also read the apocrypha, because despite him knowing that they weren't as trustworthy as the rest of scripture, he wanted to know more about biblical trivia, such as what angels and demons are like. After all, angels and demons are barely explained in the bible, and they play an important role in the world. Also, they are really interesting subjects, because of the mysterious powers and the authority they possess. In the apocrypha, he learned that apparently, some key personality of Israelite history is suggested to not have actually been a racial Israelite, and thereby should not have been subject of the covenant. (The argument goes like this: "X wasn't an Israelite by blood from the land of Y, instead, he was a Y-ite by blood!")

Arthur is now quite confused, because he was previously (correctly so!) under the assumption, that the covenant and law was based on bloodline. He now researches the matter and comes across sources claiming that not only was that key figure not a racial Israelite, but even others weren't, despite being prophets or similarly important characters in the bible. These sources are quite convincing for Arthur, so he now needs a new explanation, as his old bloodline covenant doctrine had just been "disproven" by the exceptions he came across in his research. The new doctrine is readily supplied by the same sources arguing why those figures weren't racial Israelites: The covenant was made with Abraham and his seed, but the seed is not his physical seed, but his spiritual seed, which is Christ. Anyone who believes is grafted on to become an Israelite, and unbelievers are broken off from the olive tree. Imagine some doctrine along those lines, I'm sure you've heard similar doctrines without end already.

Now, since Arthur cannot return to his old doctrine after being (wrongfully) convinced that non-Israelites by blood had become Israelite prophets, he has little choice but to accept what has been given to him. Thus, he now believes in a hippie, new-age pseudo-Christianity that has no substance, because now, everyone can become a son of Yahweh, regardless of ancestry, and therefore, being a son is something that you can gain or lose based on your own thoughts and actions.

This single mistake, this single time he was too quick to accept something as knowledge without definitive proof, lead Arthur to throw out all the scholarship and doctrine he previously held, because it was no longer compatible with his new doctrine. His new doctrine is not based on and confirmed by research and scholarship, but was established in a moment of crisis, when his previous doctrine was thrown out, and he needed something to fill up that void. He just picked whatever thing was the first to be handed to him, without requiring proof. After all, the people who gave him that new doctrine were smart enough to disprove his old doctrine, he thinks, so they should be right about their alternative doctrine.

This may all sound naive or stupid to the reader, as it is, but we don't live life like that, where we have a chronological account of everything clearly before our eyes, and rarely do we see or examine the big picture of things. It is therefore completely plausible that this can occur to everyone, and that we can lose track of established knowledge in a moment of carefully crafted confusion. When we are confused, it is hard to think clearly, so do not think you are safe from this happening to you.

A proper attitude towards the faith

Now, we get to the first half of the main topic of the sermon: the proper attitude towards faith and knowledge we should have as Christians. This may be obvious, but faith is not knowledge. Faith is not provable beyond any doubt, and we have to acknowledge that. Faith, in a religious context, is something you decide to believe to be true, even when you could plausibly doubt it. Knowledge is something that is established to be true through repeated experience or through deduction from other established knowledge. It is something that you don't need to decide to believe.

To prove that faith is intended to be a deliberate belief, we consider what Yahshua said:

Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
(John 20:29, KJV)

God intends for us to believe even when we have no proof, and this faith is more precious to our God than faith acquired after witnessing miracles for ourselves. If anyone wants to establish a different attitude of "proving the faith beyond doubt", he will have to contend with this utterance. It is good and commendable to study the faith, and to confirm our doctrine by scholarship. It helps us argue against deceivers and sharpens our tongue and mind to be more decisive in discerning good from bad doctrine. But scholarship and studies cannot and will not ever replace the need for faith. Scholarship can be attacked by attacking its sources, and once that attack is accepted, the knowledge resulting from that scholarship crumbles. But with the faith, you need to draw the line at some point and deliberately say to yourself:

I've confirmed the faith many times now through trustworthy scholarship, examined everything myself, and upon this rock I will build my house. I will not even consider any attacks on the credibility of my sources, unless they are absolutely irrefutable.

If you never dare to take this step, your faith can always be swayed in a moment of weakness and confusion.

This might seem paradoxical at first, but entertaining doubts towards the faith can be dangerous, after all, we shouldn't put our faith in mere rumours, speculations, or lies. While we should confirm doctrine until we are fairly confident that it is very likely correct, if we don't take the deliberate step to consciously stop doubting our doctrine, any time a doubt arises, we'll be compelled to dispel that doubt through confirmation. However, not all doubts can be definitely disproven, and thus, you will always carry along that handful of final doubts that will always stay there. Entertaining such doubts will give rise to more what ifs and more doubts, and in the end, you will most likely end up constantly doubting your doctrine, and it can overwhelm you psychologically, so that you lose track of all the confirmations of your doctrine you have, making your doctrine seem more brittle and baseless to you than it actually is. If you ever reach that state, you are very susceptible to such situations where deceivers can destroy your whole doctrine through some more or less convincing argumentation. A worrying and doubting mind is mostly defenseless, as you're basically gas-lighting yourself at this point, which is a technique also used in modern psychological warfare.

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
(1 Thessalonians 5:21, KJV)

Here, two things become clear: proving the faith is indeed great, but the second part of the verse is equally important: we must not let go of established and proven doctrine in the process of trying to disprove doubts. These two commands are put next to each other for a reason, and the apostles evidently already knew of the danger that comes with trying to prove everything beyond doubt and tried to warn us in this verse. I recommend that after a certain point, you will no longer entertain any doubtful thoughts that arise, and do not listen to people attacking your doctrine, unless they make irrefutable points. When that time is for you is yours to decide, and will decide the quality of your doctrine, but if you don't ever risk committing to a flawed doctrine, you will probably end up losing even that which you have.

Christ warned us to keep his Gospel and to stay away from false prophets, of which there would be many. We are in the very last days, and never in over a thousand years has Satan been in a more powerful position than right now. The faith has never been weaker and in more disarray than today: there's a denominational heresy specifically tailored for each of our weaknesses and vices out there to choose from. False prophets have a virtually unlimited ability to spew lies around the globe through the internet, and the truth is being severely repressed by all earthly powers.

Your faith will be attacked, so you better make it solid as a rock and don't be wishy-washy about it.

The danger of speculations about unknowable things

Another important thing to consider are speculations about unknowable things. By that, I mean things such as the following questions:

The answers to these questions are all things that cannot possibly be known at this point in time. There is a certain type of personality that feels drawn to these things, myself included, and I've often gone into fanciful reveries about those topics. However, we must always be aware of the fact that these thoughts and theories we can come up with in regards to those questions are merely hunches at best. They can never be confirmed unless Yahweh reveals this still-hidden knowledge to the world. Speculating is a natural thing to do and it's important to think about things even if you can't find a definite answer, but especially concerning the faith, you have to be very careful when speculating, because it is also very dangerous if done without much care. It can possibly destroy your faith (and subsequently, your life) completely in a very tragic chain of mistakes.

It happened to multiple people I personally knew already that they focused on chasing these alluring mysteries so much that they became obsessed with them. They became so dear to them, that in order to get a definitive answer or to "confirm" their hunches and theories, they actually made up doctrine of their own. The satisfaction of learning a mystery and solving a difficult question is so alluring that one is tempted to delude oneself into believing or insist on the best answer one could come up with, especially if lots of effort went into that theory. And this is true even if one was never able to prove or confirm one's theory. Because of the efforts and emotions invested into that theory one painstakingly developed, one is very reluctant to give up on it, and the only way to keep it despite being un-confirmable, is to baselessly insist that it is true.

Not only does this lead to man-made, false doctrine, but many people seem to become so invested in their theories and new doctrines, that they are even willing to throw out conflicting established knowledge, scholarship, and doctrine, if need be. This is probably they way that most heresies are born: through the pride preventing one from letting go of one's fanciful theories, and through the lust for mysteries and the unknowable. And once you have thrown out some established doctrine, the rest is usually quick to follow, and it is not unusual for such kind of person to end up even as extreme as a straight-up God-hating Satanist (self-professed, even!).

This is an insidious way to lose your sound doctrine, and it happens if you study on your own. I therefore advise all Christians to stick to and regularly review the basics of established doctrine, and if you are already going to research speculative things like that, please always be aware of the risks. As Christians, we must take the truth seriously, and we must always distinguish between speculation, actual, confirmed knowledge, and deliberate beliefs we hold. If we fail in that distinction, the road to heresy opens up right in front of us.

Therefore, if you're not sure you can handle the dangers of speculation, I suggest you just don't speculate about things relating to the faith. Instead, you should build your faith on that which can be known, and is well-established scholarship.

Truth and knowledge as a Christian

The vital importance of discriminating between knowledge, speculation, and faith lies in this: we know knowledge to be the truth, and we want to believe faith to be the truth, and we somewhat believe speculations to be the truth. The focus here is on the word "truth". One of the most important verses of the bible (for me, personally) is this:

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
(John 14:6, KJV)

I will focus on the first half of the verse. It is a powerful statement that makes Christianity absolutely incompatible with any other world-views. Here, God insists that there is only one way, and it is (in) Him. There is only one truth, and it is (in) Him. And there is only one life, and it is (in) Him.

If there is only one way and only one truth, and those are both personified by God Himself, then we have to treasure and to study the way and the truth earnestly. There are no two conflicting truths out there, and we should do our best to not hold that which is not the truth to be the truth, as that tarnishes our Lord's name. Similarly, we should ask the Lord to show us the way, so that we don't walk somewhere which is not the way.

All true knowledge we hold is a piece of Yahweh's treasure revealed to us. Some of it is benign and easily grasped, while some of it is complicated and hard to understand, but it is all holy, because it is from Yahweh, because all truth is Yahweh's. So do not dare to claim that that which you do not know to be true to be the truth, and do not dare claim that that which you know is true, to be falsehood. Rather, if you are unsure, be honourable and admit your lack of knowledge in humility.

Speculations, theories, hunches, beliefs, those are all not certain to be the truth, so we must always bear that in mind. Of course, we insist to accept our faith as truth, but we must always know that it is not true knowledge. It is merely our best attempt at interpreting scripture, and we most likely didn't get all the nuances correctly. But as our overall faith is close to the truth, despite not having absolute confidence in those beliefs, we must, for righteousness' sake, act on our faith as if it were truth.

The old testament had a much less complete and detailed revelation of the faith than we have nowadays, and yet, the lack of absolute certainty and knowledge about the faith was no valid excuse for our fathers of old to not act out their faith. They had to make do with what they had, and we have to make do with what we have, and act according to the best of our understanding.

This may all sound boring and needlessly technical to some, but it is important to have a proper grasp on the concepts of truth, knowledge, and faith, and to understand the proper attitude towards those, so that we are not led into heresy and falsehood.