Part 2

The same kind of groundwork of true knowledge is set forth in the Prologue to the Gospel of Luke 1:1-4: 

 1. Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us,  (there are things which have happened in history, in the space-time before “us”), 2. “just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses (this history is open to verification by eyewitnesses) and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3. it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus…  (what is open to verification can also be communicated verbally, in writing) 4.  that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. 

There is no leap in the dark, for it is possible to “know the truth.”  

Only when we have understood this introduction are we ready for the rest of the Gospel of Luke, beginning in the next verse: 5.  In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah.  We know from the Prologue that Luke is dealing with a framework of historic truth, and we are to place Herod, Zacharias and Christ within this space-time framework. Knowledge precedes faith. This is crucial in understanding the Bible.  

To say (as a Christian should) that only that faith which believes God on the basis of knowledge is true faith, is to say something which causes an explosion in the twenty first-century world. 

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