Torch, Winter 1978

Because God created all things, He must have known all things in all possible and actual relationships prior to their creation. Therefore, nothing in this created universe can fall outside of His plan and it is because of His plan that all things actually are what they are (Romans 9:16; Ephesians 1:11; Philippians 2:13). Since God has created all things for Himself and directs them for His own sovereign ends, all things, including knowledge that any human being has and possibly could have, must be from God. He is the first and final reference point for all knowledge. Hence, any aspect of knowledge that man has must of necessity be derivative. Facts cannot come into existence by themselves, or by chance, but by God who is the source of all possibility and of all actuality. If the self-sufficient and self-explanatory God were not the final reference point in all human thought, God and man would become partners in an effort to explain a common environment with common reason. Facts would not be what they are in the last analysis by virtue of the plan of God; they would be partly that, and they would partly exist in their own power. As a result of this stance, the human mind could conclude that it need not subject itself to the revelation of God as absolutely authoritative. Men could defer, when he so chose, to God as he would to any expert who might have had greater experience than himself, but he would not have to make all thought captive to the obedience of Christ (II Corinthians 10:5). If the origin of knowledge is God, what then is the nature of knowledge that man can have? When dealing with the character of man's knowledge, perhaps it would be helpful if we delineated "knowing" man into three states of epistemological consciousness. The first state, Adamic Consciousness, does not exist in the present, but could be found in Adam and Eve prior to the Fall. Adam, although finite , was created with the capacity to comprehend His Creator and His revelation. Originally, his finitude was no burden to him; he freely accepted his creaturehood and gladly acknowledged his Creator. Because Adam was not then a fallen creature, it did not occur to him to doubt the validity of his sense impressions or to distrust whatever God said. Satan, however, approached Eve and raised an epistemological question, "Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden" (Genesis 3: 1)? In the passage what was at stake? What was the real issue? Food? Trees? Freedom? No! What was in question was the authority and integrity of the Word of God. The issue was: Did God speak the truth? Satan was telling · Adam that he had assumed the absolute trustworthiness of God. "Adam, how can you make so great an assumption?" Satan was saying. · "Declare your epistemic independence from God. You, too, have being and meaning." Thus was Adam induced to take divine prerogatives in his own hand and to establish his own cognitive and moral order. All men since Adam have sought to be autonomous and thus to be their own lawgivers. Like Adam, modern man attempts to know reality apart from God. Adam's epistemic choice moved him from the state of Adamic Consciousness to the second state, Unregenerate Consciousness. Scripture tells us that when Adam broke the law of God, a profound change took place in him which has been passed on to all men. Instead of being inherently receptive to the revelation and law of God as the norm for thought and behavior, Adam's reason, will and affections now sought to suppress that same law and revelation (Romans 1:18-23). As heir to Adam's fallen nature, unregenerate man establishes himself as Judge, denying overtly or by implication God's sovereign control. He considers his own thoughts to be absolutely original and declares his own interpretations to be true. The third state of consciousness, Regenerate Consciousness, takes place at conversion as the.intellect, will and affections are renewed (Colossians 3:10). By the renewing work of the Holy Spirit, man's mind is, in principle, returned to its God– created condition. The Christian should be a "new man" having a 13 renewed mind, new commitments, a new direction, a new Lord, and hence new presuppositions in the world of thought. The believers' thinking ought to be rooted in Christ, "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3) . Thus, in defining the nature of man's knowledge,we can see that our very ability to conceptualize about anything is impossible apart from God and His Word. Just as we are dependent upon God for our being, we are dependent upon God for our meaning and for our knowing.To the regenerate man, knowing God or any part of His creation is not a neutral intellectual endeavor. Facts do not speak for themselves; they are not self-interpretive. All thinking is based upon assumptions or presuppositions about God, man and society. We "fit" facts into or intellectual framework and that "system" determines what the facts say. Therefore, when we endeavor to take a neutral stance concerning what we know we unwittingly and unchristianly endorse assumptions which are hostile to our faith. The only way in which a "system" may be constructed which will enable the facts of life to speak the truth is for it to be constructed from Scripture by men who are in the state of Regenerate Consciousness, which produces not only new-birth conversion, but epistemic conversion as well. Dr. Monroe is a Professor in the Department of Social Science at Cedarville College.