To The Unknown God

 To the unknown God. The church speaks of this passage as if people were worshipping something they didnt know existed. But however the inscription to the unknown God has more philosophy in it than not. In the history of the church and philosophy this idea that God is unknown has meant that God can only be spoken of in the negative and not in the positive.

Someone can say what God is not but not what God is.

Paul in Acts 17:23 doesn't believe that God can only be spoken in the negatives. These people in Acts are like the Catholics, the naturalist like Descartes, Spinoza, Hume, Kant, and Hegel and a host of other naturalistic thinkers.

To say that God is not evil, is to say that He is good. Or We might say God is not finite but timeless. Some Calvinist and Catholics teach God is only in the negative statements. John Gill in his Body of Divinity says, "The attribute of God are variously distinguished by divines; some distinguish them into negative and positive, or affirmative: the negative are such as remove from him whatever is imperfect in creatures; such are infinitity, immutability, immortality, &c. which deny him to be finite, mutable, and mortal; and, indeed, it is easier to say what God is not, than what he is; the positive, or affirmative, are such as assert some perfection in God, which is in and of himself; and which in the creatures, in any measure, is from him, as wisdom, goodness, justice, holiness, &c. but the distinction is discarded by others; because in all negative attributes some positive excellency is found." - Page 34 - 35

We Cannot Even Trust What We See

"The astronomer nowadays uses light to space out the distances he measures. Light travels at 186,000 miles a second. It takes a second and a third to reach us from the moon and eight minutes from the sun. Yet the sun is quite close, compared with the other stars. The nearest of them is over four light-years away, which means that the light we now see it by was emitted by the stsr over four years ago. The remotest parts of the universe at present known to astronomers are thousands of millions of light-years away." - H.G. Wells, The Outline of History, pg. 15

In other words, we cannot trust our senses.

To have Facts is one thing, But one needs to Interpret them correctly

"One can show from the psychological data alone how to get on the track of the real man. 'We have facts,' they say. But facts are not everything - at least half the business lies in how you interpret them!" - Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, pg. 70

Conservative is antichristian

"Conservatives are fond of saying that they, unlike the liberals, believe that man is depraved; that he is not by nature either good or perfectible. It is not enough to say that man is depraved, however, when one is discussing the relationship of Christianity to conservatism. The question is whether conservatives accept the Biblical doctrine of man's depravity - and the answer is that they do not. This can be most clearly seen in two areas: epistemology and ethics." - John W Robbins, Freedom and Capitalism, pg. 172 - 173

Empiricist cut the branch on which they sit

Like the eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher David Hume, the modern language philosophers, intent on undermining theology, undermine themselves. Hume showed that the existence of God could not be proven if one begins with empirical evidence; in so doing he demonstrated that nothing at all could be proven with empirical evidence. God lives, despite the best efforts of Hume, and Christian theology remains, despite the best efforts of the language philosophers. The only things Hume and the language philosophers have refuted are themselves. - John Robbins, Forward to Clark's book Language and Theology, Pg. V or 5

The Christian wars with the system of darkness

In the first chapter of the Gita, the main character, who is about to enter battle with his family and friends, is overcome with a sense of pity and wishes not to enter into battle any more. The reason is that these men are his kin. He knows them and it would therefore be a grievous evil to battle against them, though they wanting to kill him would do so within a heart beat. Here the main character presents to us several ideas 1) should we go to war? 2) ought we to remain passive? 3) how should we think of our beliefs as suppose to others?

For the Christian, however, ideas are different. A Christian is one who accepts the gospel of God's free grace revealed in the Cross work of Christ alone. They see they are sinners lacking a righteousness of their own and so see that the righteousness that they have is the only righteousness that God imputes to them by free and sovereign grace in Christ alone. The Christian therefore sees any other worldly system as bulstering up of man's pride and selfrighteousness. Their aim, therefore, as a result of them being born again by grace alone, and as a result seeing their sin, and their need of a saviour and believing in Him alone for righteousness, is to present the points of the Scripture to their friends and family and to all who do not know God as their Saviour. They rather than succumbing to the idea that any one human being is ok and so therefore everyone is ok make war with the satanic doctrine with the gospel doctrine. They overcome evil with good and not with evil. The Christian does not do this out of pride for they did not come to these things on their own. Instead it was God that changed their minds and gave them a new set of beliefs.

As Paul says we make war but not with the weapons of the world.

How to determine what good is?

What do you consider the greatest good or rather that which you aim at in life? No doubt there are probably many things that are noble to be achieved or won with; such as health and wealth, and other things (Aristotle writes on deliberation how to achieve the ends). However, for a Christian is there any such thing as deliberation? Ought we to choose or rather aim at x because of various reasons? As said before in many of my post several who claim to be Christians allow worldly things to cloud their thinking which causes them to do certian things on the whim of the emotions. I know when I was taking gout medication it caused me to pick up the phone and call certain people like my mom or whosoever came to my mind. And many still think that what we do causes us to be cleansed from sin or sanctified from it. However, a Christian does not do such things. What is to be done is what the law says. But we are sinful and we sin continuously after we are born again so that we cannot glory in ourselves but rather in Him who alone saved us by the blood of Christ Jesus having imputed our sins to Him and we receiving his righteousness by imputation and as a result believing in Him alone for our justification and sanctification; we do good works as a result of our position in Christ. Those who have accepted the promises of Christ for themselves by the Spirits work within do read and determine what the good is by what the Bible says. The Bible is made of two principles law and gospel by which are marked separately. The law tells us what we are to do to live and condemns all for lack of perfection and the gospel declares what God did on the behalf of His people people in Christ. What we ought to do is read and study the Bible to determine our actions not science, or actions of others.

We judge based on the word of God

No where in Aristotle's "The Art of Rhetoric" does he speak of believing the truth based on the word of God the Bible alone. As Christian we are to be pursuaded of an argument not because of the character of the speaker, the emotions the speech induces nor the speech itself. We are to be pursuaded on the grounds of the Bible alone.

What makes one happy?

Happiness. So as I read Plato I find that he says that happiness consist in somewhat of a fashion to knowledge. In one sense I agree. But I don't agree in the general sense. I believe happiness is grounded in knowing and believing the gospel of Christ alone. This is diametrically opposed to the ideals of the world which thinks happiness consist of money, earthly belonging. Now I am not saying we don't want or need money or food or clothing. We are glad with them. But we do not base our happiness on those things.

Whether one believes a testimony or the person themselves

John 4:39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. 40 So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his own word; 42 and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heardhim ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

Just noticed this from the text. But the many Samaritans who believed in the words of the woman are different from the many more Samaritans who believed Jesus' own words. So whether one hears a testimony about a person or hears the person himself makes no difference other than the venue.

Empiricism can never tell what is true or false

In Plato's theory of knowledge, Socrates debates the view that man is the measure of all things and that we know by way of sensation. There are several reasons he gives for why these ideas are false. One, however, reason why it is false to say that man is the measure of all things is that it cuts itself off the branch. If whatever a man thinks is true and no one thinks false ideas then guess what? All ideas are true. So whether I think one thing is true or you say another is true both are true no matter if we disagree or think differently. This is the problem with knowledge by sensation. It can never give us any reason to think one man is wrong over another or another man is right or true in opinion over another. This is the point Gordon Clark draws out against sense perception as a way of knowing between good and evil. At best sensation might help me to know the way things are at the moment but can never tell me how it ought to be.

How to know?

"CRITIAS: 'Here then, Socrates, is the plan we have made to entertain you. We thought that Timaeus, who knows more about astronomy than the rest of us and who has devoted himself particularly to studying the nature of the universe, should speak first, and starting with the origin of the cosmic system bring the story down to man.'" - Plato, Timaeus, pg. 40

Of course apart from Revealed truth no one knows God. Who can pry into the mind of God? No one. God alone reveals secrets. The history of worldly education is that it is done apart from God and His word. Instead man has endeavored to know the hidden things by what he sees on earth. The grave question to ask is how do you know? The epistemic question is important in knowing anything at all. How does one derive his or her knowledge of the universe, what Method is used to gain knowledge? The Christian knows truth by the word of God and by faith we know that God created the universe.

George Berkeley to be sure was an empiricist. If we are only limited to what our eyes are capable of seeing then we would not truly be able to understand or know anything at all. We couldn't make any judgment as to the truth of one religion or philosophy from another. How do we know truth? We know it based on Scripture alone anything else simply reduces itself to skepticism. The Bible alone is the word of God.

No compromise between what the gospel is and isn't

The Bible makes no compromise on this point. There is no middle path between truth and falsehood. It is either truth or a lie! There is a great temptation to consider people who are pious, and faithfully attending services, as righteous. God has broken in me the deep rooted, but pernicious, inclination to self-redemption which runs so deep in man. We are born with it. I do not believe that there is a man who of himself wants to live by 'grace alone'. We secretly hope that there may still be something good in us. We are too proud to admit the contrary. The Bible breathes an atmosphere of sovereign grace. The sinner is justified by grace, through faith. Human cooperation in this work of justification is totally excluded. I am glad that God has revealed this truth to me. 'And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free' (John 8:32). - Toon Vanhuysse, The Truth Set Me Free, found in "Far From Rome Near to God, ed. Richard Bennett and Martin Buckingham, pg. 208 - 209

Scripture alone is the alone infallible rule of faith

It is a constitutional rule of the great Bible Societies that they are to circulate the Bible 'without note or comment.' This is a noteworthy and significant fact. It indicates that the Bible is a self-contained and a self-explanatory book, a book which does not have and cannot have an authoritative introduction; and untold thousands have found the Saviour and been built up in our most holy faith by simple reading and study of the Word, under the guidance and illumination of the Holy Spirit. It is true of the Bible, as of no other book, that 'the infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself.' - Oswald T. Allis, The Old Testament Its Claims and Its Critics, pg. 1

The teacher does not teach new things to a pupil

A teacher does not teach anything. Of course they might say lies or false things but as it goes they cannot teach anyone anything. There is only one Teacher who has enlightened everyone. So what then what is the point of one person supposedly teaching another? Simply their job is to remind. That is what we are doing when we use propositions. Propositions are either false or true.


Someone responds, "Does a parent teach a child to walk? To talk? Do they 'remind' them to do so? Are we all 'enlightened'? Born with the ability of language and walking, just needing to be reminded?"

The question is what does it mean to walk; in other words, what is the definition of walking? By what way does a child become capable of walking?

The Bible says it is God who trains up a man for battle. I think David says God trains his hands for the bow.

Furthermore, God is said to make men blind, deaf, mute, and lame. So who teaches a man to walk? God alone.

Someone responds, "Does God teach you how to play the banjo? How to tie your shoes? What the capital of North Dakota is? No. Teachers teach those things. I have no idea what you mean. Perhaps you'll have to teach me."

 Well I didn't respond to your question because I think I've answered it. We only have one Father. He alone gives us knowledge. Since God is knowledge, logic, and truth. All knowledge comes from Him. No man knows unless God reveals. Have you read Exodus? I suppose you have not. What does it say about the men who made the tabernacle?
Since men, are created in the image of God, they are created with logic, knowledge, ability to speak in some cases.

We therefore say man is not tabula rasa.

Therefore, human teachers do not teach or discover new ideas. But ideas, propositions are understood prior. Therefore, teachers either speak lies or truth. But their job is to remind.

William Perkins on the Law and the Gospel

Perkins spoke of the law and gospel distinction: "And first of all, the law, showing a man his sin and punishment thereof, which is eternal death: afterward the Gospel, showing salvation by Christ Jesus to such as believe." -William Perkins, A Golden Chain, pg. 171.

On the Bible alone gives us Knowledge

"This book [Without a Prayer] is a defense of Christianity against one secular philosophy. The author hopes the reader will not stop with these pages, but will proceed to check his premises and the premises of other thinkers. To aid the inquiring reader, this writer has edited and published dozens of books on philosophy and Christianity - books discussing science, historiography, language, logic, psychology, ethics, epistemology, education, and ancient, medieval, contemporary philosophies. The conclusion of those discussions is that the axiom of revelation - the proposition 'The Bible alone is the Word of God' - contains the only solution to man's epistemological problem, for it provides truth - metaphysical, epistemological, theological, ethical, and political truth - that cannot be deduced from any non-Christian axiom. Propositional revelation avoids the insuperable difficulties encountered in any form of empiricism, Revelation is not a shortcut to knowledge, as though there were other, longer routes; the history of philosophy shows that propositional revelation is the only way to knowledge. All other routes are dead ends." -John W. Robbins, Without a Prayer, Pg. 219

What to teach? The Bible alone is the word of God

Just considering what Genesis 37 says truth is not what others think or how others perceive you but it is what God has revealed in his word. Though a mountain of people are against you the standard is the Bible alone; the word of God. In it God shows us what is truth.

The school system ignores God and by this they are not neutral

"Let no one fail to see the point: The school system that ignores God teaches its pupils to ignore God; and thus is not neutrality. It is the worst form of antagonism, for it judges God to be unimportant and irrelevant in human affairs. This is atheism." - Gordon H. Clark, A Christian Philosophy of Education, pg. 73