The Doctrine of Revelation: Clarity (Part 3)

My wife and I have this game that we sometimes play when we are watching a movie. We see an actor or actress in the film and one of us immediately recognizes them from something else but we can’t remember what film they were in. So, the game begins. Whoever can remember first the name of the film that the actress/actor was in wins. It’s a silly game, but it’s fun. The problem of course comes when one of us challenges the other person’s answer. “That’s not the same actor,” we say. “You’re thinking of someone else.” So how do we resolve this? We turn to IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base), the one-stop shop for all things cinema online. In a matter of seconds we have confirmed or denied, with certainty, the accuracy of the claim. Sadly, I am usually wrong. What strikes me as strange, however, is that we can know with certainty who played in what films, an admittedly trivial thing to know, and yet on many big matters of life we feel a bit of uncertainty.

I confess that I, like most Christians, have had those moments where I hint of doubt creeps in and I question matters of my faith. So how do we wrestle then with certainty. We have been discussing, for months now, the Doctrine of Revelation. And we are in the midst of wrestling around the subject of the clarity of Scripture. But there are some who deny that Scripture is, in any sense, certain or that clarity can be grasped beyond a subjective level. So we must come to terms with this reality. There are several things that affect our ability to have certainty about what Scripture says, it’s important that we pause to consider them.

First, Human Sinfulness – Our sinful state has left us some what impaired to the attainment of 100% certainty. Romans 1 says intimates that our minds have been affected by this sin when it says, “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done” (Romans 1:28). Rejection of God, sin, leads to the debasing of the mind. Colossians 1:21 states that outside of Christ we are “hostile in mind” towards God. 2 Corinthians 4:4 states even more plainly that the god of this world (Satan) has blinded the mind of the unbeliever. What we must realize here is that sin has affected even our noetic faculties and we must not assume that our own mental abilities are capable of perfectly, flawlessly, grasping certain truth. John Frame puts it this way:

Because in this life we are not sinlessly perfect, we are not pure in our allegiance to our Lord. Thus our presuppositions of the truth of God’s Word competes in our minds with the contrary presupposition…(The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God, 135).

So even our interpretation of the clear Scriptures can be confused because of sin.

Second, Ignorance – Knowledge is a process and for some of us it takes even longer (It took me years to realize that Thanksgiving was on a Thursday every year). We develop at different stages, and for some of us there is truth out there, clear truth even, and yet we are ignorant of it. We remain, because of situations in life and our own development ignorant of the truth right in front of us. What we think may be certain at this moment, may in fact be missing a key piece of information that changes the whole equation.

Third, Limited Knowledge – The truth is that no matter how smart we become, how much research we do, how well-read we are there will always be more knowledge than we can acquire. Our access to information, our time, circumstances, and abilities limit the knowledge capacity each of us has. Dr. Frame applies this to our study of Scripture in this way:

We still do not understand much of the Bible as well as we would like to. Therefore many of our theological formulations are somewhat tentative, and the same is true for many of our ethical applications of Scripture. What does Scripture teach about nuclear disarmament, about the legitimacy of legislation against marijuana, and so forth? In many of these areas, we are uncertain because our knowledge is limited. (DKG, 135)

So, the question that we, as “Bible-believing” Christians, must ask is how can we be sure of anything?

Is the Christian faith really just a wishful stab in the dark? Are we merely hoping that all our tentative formulations turn out to be true? Can we be certain of anything at all, especially of things written in the Bible? Can I only be certain of Eugene Levy’s appearing in Taking Woodstock, or can I also know with certainty what God says in the Scriptures?

It should come as no surprise at this point in our study that I do believe we can know with certainty what the Scriptures say. We will look, next week, at the reasons we can have some level of certainty, and how even our lack of 100% guarantee is not defeating to the faith.