Part 1

The purpose of our posts is to communicate the truth and reality of the God Who Is There through ‘knowledge’ that is communicated in the bible.  The bible emphasizes that knowledge is needed and used in presenting a man’s need for faith in God that results in ‘salvation’.    

Historic Christianity has never separated itself from knowledge. It insists that all truth is one even if twenty first-century thought and theology deny it.  

The invitation for an ‘act’ of the will to occur comes only after an adequate base of knowledge has been given.  

This accords with the reason John gave for writing his Gospel,  

John 20:30-31, ESV version Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.  

The word “sign” is related to the historic events of the life, death and resurrection of Christ as put forth in this Gospel. In twenty first-century language we could translate “sign” as “space-time proof”: “Many other space-time proofs therefore did Jesus.” Note first that these space-time proofs which, by their very nature, are observable were set forth as having taken place in the presence of the disciples who observed them. And not only that, but that they were written down in verbalized form. This means, of course, that these space-time proofs can be considered on the basis of the normal use of language as set forth in grammars and lexicons. The order in these verses is important. Firstly, these are space-time proofs in written form, and consequently capable of careful consideration. Then, secondly, these proofs are of such a nature as to give good and sufficient evidence that Christ is the Messiah as prophesied in the Old Testament, and also that He is the Son of God. So that, thirdly, we are not asked to believe until we have faced the question as to whether this is true on the basis of the space-time evidence.  

Thoughts developed and/or taken from the works of Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer, Trilogy – The God Who Is There