Loving God with Your Mind part 6 with JP Moreland

To purchase the entire Summit Lecture Series, Vol. 1 on DVD, go to: summit.org

You can know something without being sure that you’re right.

This is due to the fact that you can have propositional knowledge: a true belief based on adequate or good reasons, not necessarily conclusive reasons.  In other words, you can know something, but still be able to admit that you may be wrong.

I know that God is real.

If someone were to ask me if it’s possible that He isn’t, I could admit, “yeah, it’s possible.  I could be mistaken.”

It’s also possible to know something while still having unanswered questions or doubts about it.

Therefore, when we claim that we know that God is real, we claim that we experience God through knowledge by acquaintance; and that we have propositional knowledge – true belief based upon adequate reasons.

A third kind of knowledge that we should be aware of is knowhow or skill.  This is the ability to do something well.

Now, the Bible is an incredible source of knowhow or skill at life.  If you want to learn how to be a good parent or spouse, if you want to learn how to become a forgiving person or honest businessperson, if you want to learn to give and receive love better and better, the Bible is full of wisdom when it comes to these life skills.

So, to sum up (including the last five video podcasts):

It’s important that we Christians know that Christianity claims to provide knowledge of reality and not just truth.  We actually claim to know the things which we talk about.  Firstly, we have knowledge by acquaintance with God by directly experiencing Him and His attributes (love, joy, peace, forgiveness, righteousness, etc.).  Secondly, we have propositional knowledge that Jesus is the risen Son of God through good, adequate reasons – even if those reasons are not 100% conclusive.  And, the third kind of knowledge Christianity provides is knowhow, skill, or the ability to do something well.

So, when I claim that Christianity is a source for knowledge, I’m claiming that it provides these three kinds of knowledge for us in different ways.