Prolegomenon

In Genesis 3:5 there is a deceptive truth spoken from a liar to the ears and hearts of ones who were willing to listen and act on the information. A statement that, while true, tickled the curiosity and rationale of a couple that were intrigued by the idea of being like their Creator.

“For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen 3:5).

Their commitment to self-interest above submission and praise sprouted an over-confidence in the capacity of their own minds. They were skeptical of God’s role, design and provision. And from that moment to now, a contemporary chaos is generated by sinful skepticism that celebrates uncertainty in objective conclusions, undermining our relationship with God and others.

There is a pervasive modern cultural attitude that asserts our unilateral empirical experiences are the source of meaning. All reality and understanding are reduced to individual personal impressions and existential moments. And the diversity of subjective perspectives is the basis of cultural disunity as we compete for dominance.

This attitude has been around since the Fall, and took flight during the Enlightenment, where an epistemological circle of my own relativism makes every thought contextual to myself. It means, I am the center of existence because my own thoughts and perceptions are the only things in which I can have confidence. An idea elucidated by Rene Descartes that snowballed into the common everyday presuppositions of our modern culture. Skepticism about everything outside my own perspective leads to an attitude that is ‘me’ focused.

The primary problem with this understanding, however, is that I am a sinner. A myopic and subjective perspective puts an imperfect person in the driver’s seat and insists that nothing, other than my own opinions and understanding, are relevant. It requires little effort to deduce that our cultural attitude is essentially survival of the fittest and most belligerent subjective paradigm.

The cultural attitude that stems from self-reliant skepticism puts us in a world defined not by a loving and just Creator, but by the individual or group with the most power and influence. From any vantage point it is obvious that the original sin in Genesis 3 has tainted history right up to today’s modern cultural conflicts. Skepticism that there is any meaning beyond my personal subjective understanding hammers nails in my coffin and spins culture into an unhealthy attitude.

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:8).

Reprieve from subjective cultural disunity is found in the demonstration, or revelation, of God’s love toward us. God’s declaration of his promises and love for us, as objective truths found in the person and work of Christ, solve the ills of a skeptical ‘me’ focused reality. Our eyes and minds are turned from subjective self-insistence to the objective revelation of God who sustains all things.

“In these last days [God] has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” (Heb 1:2).

The “all things” of creation show us God’s primacy as he holds together all of existence by His power. The critical point is God’s supremacy, not our own. It is this incredible fact, that reality is built on the objective revelation of God and the provision of Christ that sets us up for real knowledge. Knowledge that is concrete and empowers our designed rationales to serve as the interpreters, not originators, of knowledge.

John Calvin put it this way: “For by a kind of mutual bond the Lord has jointed together the certainty of his Word and of this Spirit so that the perfect religion of the Word may abide in our minds when the Spirit, who causes us to contemplate God’s face, shines; and that we in turn may embrace the Spirit with no fear of being deceived when we recognize him in his own image, namely, in the Word.” (Institutes, 1.9.3). It is the sustaining power of God, that redeems the self-centered sinner in Christ, and the Spirits implementation of His will that makes reality objectively knowable.

These bedrock truths are revealed to us in Scripture. A scripture that is self-authenticating, not subject to our empirical perceptions, and testifies to us by the Holy Spirit. The foundational truths of God that give knowledge structure are found in Scripture itself. These principles affirm God’s authority, design and plan for humanity and the creation. As the creator and sustainer of all things, sovereign and providentially manifesting every moment of history, the triune God is the objective reality that makes anything knowable.

Finally, and by way of analogy, this existence is not an enormous puzzle that God dumped onto a table and then we as rational beings give meaning to it by assembling it with our subjective perceptions. Rather, God assembles the enormous puzzle, and knowledge is found in the discovery of His brilliant design. Without this objectivity, there is no meaning. Without God and his provision there is only subjective and random survival of the fittest human paradigm. But with Christ at center, even the worst of tragedies and sinners find not only restoration, but purpose and perfect resolution in the cross. This knowable objective reality is described to us primarily in the foundational biblical narrative. It is only the revealed magnificence of God himself that we find knowledge. This truth is necessary because without it, there is only subjective chaos and meaninglessness. God’s omnipotence, thankfully, has consequences. And those consequences are a knowable universe. While the entirety of God’s wisdom may remain vailed to us, the objective knowledge of Himself and provision in Christ is what gives value to breathing, thinking and being.