Can We Even Really Know?

“In conclusion, nobody knows”*

“That pursuit of certainty is what gets you in trouble”**

“Christians don’t even agree on everything”***

Phrases like these get tossed around by progressive thought leaders and influencers constantly, especially among those who call themselves Christians or exvangelicals. At their core, these phrases are meant to undermine the authority of Scripture. The truth is, there are things we can know, there are things we can be certain about, there are things Christians do not have to agree on.

The church where I grew up regularly used the phrase “major on the majors, minor on the minors.” The “majors” are tenets of the Christian faith that are non-negotiable and can be known from the Scriptures. These include:

· We are all created in the image of God

· All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

·   Jesus’s death and resurrection made the way for redemption of sins

·   The church is the Bride of Christ

·   Believers will be restored and experience eternity with Jesus Christ in the New Heaven and New Earth.

What about the “minors?” Those are all the things Christians can disagree on-but it doesn’t mean they are unimportant or that we should not strive to understand what the Bible has to say about these things. Examples include infant baptism versus believers’ baptism, views on the end times, the age of the earth, Calvinism versus Arminianism, the list goes on. Does this mean we can’t know any of these things? Not necessarily. But it is okay for Christians to disagree on these secondary items, as long as we are united on the majors.

But how can we know the Bible is even true? Should we just have faith?

The good news is, we can know the Bible is true through archaeology, historical evidence, and textual criticism. Archaeology has repeatedly confirmed events and people of the Bible and has never discredited it. First century historians such as Josephus wrote extensively about Jesus, as well as other people and events during his life and the early church. And there are over 20,000 manuscript copies of the New Testament and thousands of partial manuscripts of the Old Testament that, when put together, comprise the entire Old Testament many times over. In fact, we have better textual evidence to show the accuracy of the Bible than we have for the works of Homer or Aristotle.

So yes, we should have faith. But not blind faith. We should have faith because the evidence supports it. So when someone tries to convince us we can’t know the truth, we can stand firm in the knowledge that the truth is found in the Bible, the very Word of God.

Feel free to check out my blog posts “Let’s Start at the Very Beginning” and “So…What’s Next” for more detail about the major tenets of the Christian faith.

*A phrase used on merchandise sold by the podcast “Faith Adjacent”

**Statement by Phil Vischer on “Holy Post Podcast”

***Said by many progressive Christians and exvangelicals

Resources:

I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek

Wesleyhuff.com

Top 5 Archaeological Finds that Affirm the Bible, with Dr. Scott Stripling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEJmY-Rm-QY&t=29s