Good day all,
Greetings to you all. I have been a lurker
(one who follows a list but
never posts, not to be confused with a troll: one who posts only to
stir up
trouble) on this list for a while now and am finally taking the
plunge. I hope
to get to know some of you even better and that we may continue to
edify one
another.
Years ago when I was in university an
acquaintance of mine offered up
an idea that I was originally not in favour of: epistemological
humility.
Epistemology is the study of how we know what we know. Adding humility
to it
is to illustrate that all of our beliefs should be approached in a
humble way.
We may fully believe something only to later on in life as the Spirit
of God
moved in our hearts repudiate those beliefs and take up others in their
place.
Another definition would be: Recognition of the limits of your own
understanding and with humility be willing and eager to learn from
others. (See
the portion marked by *** below for a few more disclaimers on my using
the term
‘epistemological humility. This is a bit philosophical so feel free to
skip it!). Being a fundamentalist at the time I thought this was a
rather
wishy-washy way of approaching truth. I now hold that it is possible
to
believe in truth while at the same time holding onto a humble way of
knowing. When
it comes to doctrines this can get tricky. I believe that most people
once set
in their religious beliefs rarely change them, especially when it comes
to
Christian doctrine. To see if my assumption is true my challenge to
everyone
is as follows:
Tell us one doctrine, preferably a major one
instead of a minor one,
(for example whether drama should be allowed in the church would be
considered
minor; whether Jesus was actually God would be considered major) that
you have
changed your mind on. One that you went from fully believing one way
to fully
believing another. This doesn’t mean that you fleshed out the doctrine
and now understand it more fully but rather you jumped to another
viewpoint
completely. If you have always been right you may safely ignore this
thread.
Of course we should all remember that even the great apostles were
wrong on at
least one occasion.
The purpose of this thread is not to discuss
the doctrines we may have
changed our beliefs on but to see if we are actually open to being
‘transformed by the renewing of our minds.’ If you want to discuss
the doctrines that are brought up please do so under a separate
thread. In my
time spent lurking on Truthtalk I rarely see openness for consideration
of
someone else’s opinion. This purpose of this thread is to be
edifying. Has
anyone on Truthtalk actually changed sides? What I have seen is that
those who
already agree continue to agree. I think it would be nice to know that
we all
have grown since we first accepted Christ’s offer of adoption. I
suspect
that we may view some people on Truthtalk as always thinking they are
right and
unable to admit they may possibly have been wrong, or continue to be
wrong. Let’s
change that assumption.
To start off I shall bring up one of my own
experiences with
epistemological humility. I used to believe that God was very angry
with the
world (including me). I believed that He couldn’t stand to look at me
because I am so full of sin. I believed that He had to kill his own
Son just
so He could finally stand to look upon me without wanting to pour out
His wrath
upon me. Basically I believed that ‘sin’ was bigger than God:
something that was stronger than He was since it was able to thwart
Him. I now
completely reject this position. I now believe that God wants nothing
more
than to accomplish his stated goal (Ephesians 1): Adoption. By sending
His Son
to take up our humanity and then to bring that humanity (cleansed and
holy) back
into the Godhead does take care of my sin but the whole purpose is
love, not
wrath. Resolving my sin is a by-product of what Christ came to do. In
other
words it was very important that Christ dealt with my sin, but not the
reason
He came, died, rose again, and ascended to His Father. In this case
the major
doctrine that I was wrong about was the doctrine of God (they don’t get
much bigger!). Please share a moment of epistemological humility from
your
life.
*** I believe that Kant was the first one to
come up with
‘epistemological humility’ but he used it in a different way. Kant
would say that we can know nothing at all (which lead to puns like ‘we
Kant know anything’ etc.). I believe that God is the ultimate
revelator,
i.e. one who gives revelation (Himself). If God reveals Himself
(through
scripture, His Son, His Spirit etc) than I believe that He can truly be
known.
I do hold that if my ‘thought claims’ on God become absolutes they
are in danger of possessing God which limits His greatness/freedom and
causes me
to become condescending to others. ***
Peace and Joy,
Jonathan
