How Do We Know?

  1. Spiritual Reality

    1. An assumption we find within Scripture.

      1. The Scriptures are not concerned with convincing us of spiritual realities, they're here to help us navigate them.

        1. Never addresses people who don't have a spiritual context.

        2. Doesn't play the game of trying to prove something people live their lives assuming.

        3. Understands that the spiritual realms can be very confusing and provides us with plenty of material about how people have interacted with these realms in the past

          1. most of the examples are about negative interactions or mixed interactions. Very few “clean” interactions recorded in Scripture.

    2. God's will for your life: a constant invitation and expectation to engage in spiritual realms. In 1 Thessalonians Paul says that we are destined to experience the salvation of God as an ever-increasing reality and a constant connection to Jesus.

      "Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing. But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another. We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass." - 1 Thessalonians 5:11-24

  2. How do we know anything?

    1. Intellectual knowing – The Province of the Mind

      1. Knowledge by mental cognition. The set of largely abstract concepts that we use to characterize and describe reality.

      2. Operates primarily through imagination: we imagine ourselves outside of our particular reality so that we can analyze our subject. In it's purest form, this is detached and cold, like Spock.

      3. Associated with the prefrontal cortex in the brain and, as such, is the first part of the brain to shut down during any kind of perceived threat.

    2. Emotional knowing – The Province of the Heart

      1. Knowledge by connection. A set of felt relations with the object of the bond (or lack thereof).

      2. Operates in the realm of desire: we desire to be with or to be apart from the object of the emotion. In it's purest form, this is is a felt-sense of interconnection with what is happening right now.

      3. Associated with the limbic system in the brain, and, as such, is shared with other social animals. This part of the brain is constantly tying together a narrative that is socially interpreted.

    3. Instinctual knowing – The Province of the Gut

      1. Knowledge by intuition. Thinking and behavior that happens automatically and instinctually and is then rationalized later by the slower parts of the brain.

      2. Operates through unconscious awareness and the activation of preconditioned behavior. In it's purest form, this is an unencumbered reaction or unconscious process.

      3. Associated with the lower (reptile) brain and is responsible for things like heartbeat, breathing, temperature regulation, and the fight or flight response. Some of the neural activity of this system is actually stored within organs like the heart, kidneys, and intestines.

    4. Social knowing – The Province of the Community

      1. Knowledge stored outside the individual that is partially transferred to the individual through the other intelligence sources.

        1. In fact, each of the intelligence sources is optimized for social knowing.

      2. Operates through the economy of faith/trust: we share a connection through any intelligence center or combination of centers. As people give and receive intelligence to one another, a network of trust is built.

      3. Associated with the “mentalizing” or “default” network in the brain. A network combining all three centers of the brain we have discussed.

  3. The Surprisingly Powerful Knowledge of Jesus

    1. A Whole-Person Knowing

      "One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, "What commandment is the foremost of all?" Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.' "The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these."" - Mark 12:28-31

      1. Covering all of the things that move between our intelligence centers.

        1. Heart – Kardia: the source of core identity and the place of union with the Holy Spirit

        2. Soul – Psyche: the activities of one's mind, will, and emotions, their personality.

        3. Mind – Dianoia: the worldview of understanding, deep thoughts, imagination.

        4. Strength – Ischys: force, might, ability.

        5. Neighbor – Community, those you love.

      2. Refers back to Dueteronomy 6

        1. Heart – Levav – Spirit within

        2. Soul – Nephesh – Animating Breath

        3. Strength – Meh'Od – Force or Muchness

    2. Everything we need.

      "Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins." - 2 Peter 1:1-9

      1. A gift that is already given

        1. We already have everything that we need through Him.

      2. Requires attention

        1. We are to work on development of this knowledge by applying diligence.

      3. We easily forget because something creeps in to obscure this.

        1. Sin is a spiritual force that adamantly opposes the Light of Jesus.

        2. Sin is a habit of the sark (flesh, animal nature) that reverts people to their former ways.

    3. Scriptures for Sanitation

      "But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners..." - 1 Timothy 1:5-9

      1. Paul elsewhere teaches Timothy to pay careful attention to the Scriptures, even though Timothy has the Holy Spirit, because,

        “ from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." - 2 Timothy 3:15-17

      2. Law is good if used lawfully

        1. Paul states elsewhere, "[God] also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." - 2 Corinthians 3:6

          1. All sin has to be put to death on the cross so that life may come by resurrection.

          2. This is not condemnation, but death to the sark (flesh, animal nature)

    4. A Community Given from God

      "And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love." - Ephesians 4:11-16

      1. None of this is meant to work alone.

      2. Not even Christ suffered alone.

      3. We are gifts to one another, supplying what each other need.

        1. Transformation comes by attachment bonds.