The French writer André Gide tells us to: “Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.” I’m sure most Christians would object to his statement since they believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God and is the source of all truth. Christians are very vocal in claiming to know what is true; they firmly believe Christianity is the only way to heaven.
However, as we have often said in this blog, while God’s word is infallible, our interpretation is not. All the different Christian religions and denominations demonstrate there are very different interpretations of the Bible and they all cannot be right. One would think that most Christians would aware of this aspect of the human condition—that we are limited in our ability to know what is true. The books of Job and Ecclesiastes both have much to say about this topic.
The problem is, as John Mark Reynolds notes, that knowledge and awareness of one’s own ignorance is both the easiest to learn but the hardest to acknowledge. [1] It is so difficult for us to admit that our knowledge might be incomplete, to acknowledge that our “facts” might be in error. It is our egotistical self; it is our sinful nature that does not want to recognize we have so much left to learn, that God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9).
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[1] John Mark Reynolds, When Athens Met Jerusalem, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009, p. 98.
