Oh, love the LORD, all you His
saints!
For the LORD preserves the
faithful,
and fully repays the proud
person.
Psalm 31:23
We last left off this blog with a question about a couch in a room as to whether or not it was still in the room after you left or was it simply in your mind? We know what is present to the mind, the couch was present in the mind while we were in the room with it, and we believe with the mind that the couch is still in the room when we are absent. In fact, if we came back to the room where the couch was and it was gone, we still can imagine it in the room, in the same place we last saw, with all its beauty, but it is absent, and therefore we still believe it existed, in fact we have the knowledge that it existed, only now that knowledge is belief, not the actual presence of the couch. There are two questions that object to this definition of faith. First, the objection is to this presentation and that is the ambiguity of the words present and absent as used. Let me ask this; when is an object present? When is it absent? Sounds like easy questions, and they are when it comes to objects that are material or an external event. Now when the senses are affected, the objects are present and when not present the senses are not effect. Just like that couch, when we actually saw it it was present and it affected the senses, but when we left the room the couch remains (unless moved) where it is, and we recall the image of it. I hear the question: " What does all that have to do with faith?" Hang on!
How is all this with propositions? Does not the Bible say all men are sinners? That is a proposition, there is no actual external source, unless you add the actions of a sinful person, yet once you see their actions there is knowledge as with the couch, and then we would wander off into an exegesis of sin which is a different hypothesis to examine, but what about this proposition, "all men are sinners?" The truth, when the Bible announces that proposition is present in the mind. We do not know it. We cannot prove it. It cannot be known or proven even by external actions of themselves, so how do we know or prove that "men are sinners?" By the authority of God. Does not the Scriptures teach that Christ died as a ransom for many? Was not Christ born, even born of a virgin (Mary) live as a child, grew up to be a man, preached and taught for some 3 1/2 years, die upon a cross? Is this not a historical fact that has been announced? Not only that the purpose of His death is announced. We have a truth present in the mind, and this is an object of our faith. I will address, after the blogs on faith, the existence of God, and the infallibility of Scripture, but faith must be understood first, for without faith have proven ground to stand upon, any consideration of faith will be fallible, and unstable, further we would have no ground for our faith.
Another objection to these terms, present and absent for they are ambiguous in regards to the definitions thus given but as just stated, it is not true that an object must be absent in order to be an object of faith. In other words, the difference between knowledge and faith is not found in the presence or absence of their objects. Why? Because we can know what is absent, and we can believe what is present. Take that couch, when it was present, before our very eyes we believe that it was a couch and it was there, and after we left, even in our minds, we know it, its place, everything about it; therefore the object of our faith is not predicated upon its presence or absence.
Another objection is presented for examination: that the conviction we have of the reality or truth of what we distinctly remember is knowledge, and not distinctively faith, unless we choose to establish a new and arbitrary definition of the word knowledge. We know what we perceive by the senses; we know what the mind sees, either intuitively or discursively, is and must bee, and we know what we distinctly remember. In all these cases the conviction is the same nature, they have the same ground. How it is accounted is by the veracity of consciousness for we are conscious of those things we perceive to be sensible objects. all will admit that we are cognate of certain truths also that we remember and are conscious of certain events. How all this works is that our consciousnesses involve the conviction of the reality of truth of what is seen, mentally apprehended, or remembered. Once again it is to be admitted by sentient persons that this conviction is as strong in any one case as it is in another. How? Because this conviction rests on the same ground. Therefore, we must not call one thing knowledge and the other belief for memory is much a knowledge of the past, as other forms of consciousness are a knowledge of the present.
When I thought all the objections were dealt with another raised its ugly head and is the objection denying that memory gives us the knowledge of the past, this is fallacious in the sense of its common usage. You may cavil at this by saying that it is true that we believe that we remember such and such events, when we are uncertain about those events. This I admit. There are things that we are uncertain about and this is because in one of the established meanings of the word, belief expresses a less degree of certainty than knowledge. For instance, Christians believe that Jesus Christ did live, and was the Son of God sent to be the propitiation for our sins, but to have physical knowledge of that event and that person does have within our consciousness a degree of uncertainty, not unbelief, just a degree of uncertainty for if we were present with Him then our knowledge of Him would be certain. An example would be that men never speak of believing past events in their experiences concerning which they are absolutely certain. We know that we were alive yesterday, this we are certain, it does not take a large degree of belief for it is absolutely certain. We do not say that we believe that we have seen our mother or father or any intimate friend, those whom we have known for years. Things distinctly remembered are known, and not merely believed.
If faith is defined to be the persuasion of the truth of things not seen, will be admitted as true, if by "things not seen" are meant things which are neither objects of the senses; here I speak of propositions, but not of intuition, nor of demonstrative proof, as being with Jesus while He was alive on earth. Therefore, it is less true or correct to include among those "things not seen" that are special objects of faith, things remembered and not now present to mind. This definitions as to the "things not seen" scenario is in some sense defective because it has not assigned a ground for the conviction of their, "things not seen" truth. Here is a question: "Why do we believe things to be true, those things which we have never seen and which we cannot prove? Why do we believe that all men are sinners? Why do we believe that Jesus paid the price for sins? Why do we believe that God has assigned heaven for all His children? We don't see those things, yet we believe in them and to prove those propositions, or the like, they have attempted to give proof by different answers but the definition that gives no answer to it, must be considered defective.
Peter in writing to the elect: "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear" (1 Peter 3:15). This blog is designed to aid us in this effort that for anyone who asks, "why we believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world, and that reason for why we don't act as the world, so that we obtain wisdom: "For wisdom is a defense as money is a defense, but the excellence of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to hose who have it" (Ecclesiastes 6:7). We come to be secure in our faith, our lives demonstrate our faith, it is this wisdom, this knowledge that not only aids us but delivers the Word of God to all, especially those called by God from the foundation of the world so that by hearing of the Word of God (Romans 10:17), their faith becomes active and alive, this is our work as assigned to Christians by Christ (Matthew 28:19-20).
"How beautiful are the feet
of those who preach the
peace, (Isaiah 52:7)
Who bring glad tidings of
good things!" (Nahum 1:15).
I apologize for the delay as Blogspot.com has now corrected the problem.
In Christ
Richard L. Crumb
When I thought all the objections were dealt with another raised its ugly head and is the objection denying that memory gives us the knowledge of the past, this is fallacious in the sense of its common usage. You may cavil at this by saying that it is true that we believe that we remember such and such events, when we are uncertain about those events. This I admit. There are things that we are uncertain about and this is because in one of the established meanings of the word, belief expresses a less degree of certainty than knowledge. For instance, Christians believe that Jesus Christ did live, and was the Son of God sent to be the propitiation for our sins, but to have physical knowledge of that event and that person does have within our consciousness a degree of uncertainty, not unbelief, just a degree of uncertainty for if we were present with Him then our knowledge of Him would be certain. An example would be that men never speak of believing past events in their experiences concerning which they are absolutely certain. We know that we were alive yesterday, this we are certain, it does not take a large degree of belief for it is absolutely certain. We do not say that we believe that we have seen our mother or father or any intimate friend, those whom we have known for years. Things distinctly remembered are known, and not merely believed.
If faith is defined to be the persuasion of the truth of things not seen, will be admitted as true, if by "things not seen" are meant things which are neither objects of the senses; here I speak of propositions, but not of intuition, nor of demonstrative proof, as being with Jesus while He was alive on earth. Therefore, it is less true or correct to include among those "things not seen" that are special objects of faith, things remembered and not now present to mind. This definitions as to the "things not seen" scenario is in some sense defective because it has not assigned a ground for the conviction of their, "things not seen" truth. Here is a question: "Why do we believe things to be true, those things which we have never seen and which we cannot prove? Why do we believe that all men are sinners? Why do we believe that Jesus paid the price for sins? Why do we believe that God has assigned heaven for all His children? We don't see those things, yet we believe in them and to prove those propositions, or the like, they have attempted to give proof by different answers but the definition that gives no answer to it, must be considered defective.
Peter in writing to the elect: "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear" (1 Peter 3:15). This blog is designed to aid us in this effort that for anyone who asks, "why we believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world, and that reason for why we don't act as the world, so that we obtain wisdom: "For wisdom is a defense as money is a defense, but the excellence of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to hose who have it" (Ecclesiastes 6:7). We come to be secure in our faith, our lives demonstrate our faith, it is this wisdom, this knowledge that not only aids us but delivers the Word of God to all, especially those called by God from the foundation of the world so that by hearing of the Word of God (Romans 10:17), their faith becomes active and alive, this is our work as assigned to Christians by Christ (Matthew 28:19-20).
"How beautiful are the feet
of those who preach the
peace, (Isaiah 52:7)
Who bring glad tidings of
good things!" (Nahum 1:15).
I apologize for the delay as Blogspot.com has now corrected the problem.
In Christ
Richard L. Crumb
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