Epistemology

Recently I have been listening to a CD series regarding the Scriptural defense of a concept called “theonomy”. I have also been reading a blog regarding the Scriptural defense of a concept called “two kingdoms or 2K theology”. They both entail an attempt to come to grips with just how far we as Christians impact our civil government. Both positions are diametrically opposed to one another. Never fear my purpose in raising this issue is not to discuss the merits of either. What is important for this discussion is that both of these views are espoused by individuals in the “Reformed” world, sincere God-fearing men who would agree on most fundamental precepts of the Faith and who have rigorously studied the Scriptures on this particular point and yet come to very different conclusions on the matter. I bring this up, because this is an illustration of a much deeper problem for Christianity.

It doesn’t take much study in Christianity to discover that one can find people who honestly and sincerely believe and call themselves Christians, who will disagree with each other on just about every single aspect of the Faith. Why is this? What I have found is that the differences almost always come down to differences in fundamental epistemological presuppositions. What in the world is a fundamental epistemological presupposition you ask? Well let me tell you. Epistemology is the philosophical study of the method we use to determine what is true. Presuppositions are unquestioned assumptions about how things are, that we typically inherit from our parents and the culture in which we live. So epistemological presuppositions are assumptions about how we as individuals determine what is and is not true, how we relate to the world around us. These are usually not thought through and are unquestioned. Unfortunately a wrong epistemology can have disastrous consequences, as there really is no more fundamental question than this. Everything we believe about the world and ourselves is founded upon our epistemology. Something we completely take for granted dictates to us how we think about everything.

If we do not have a clear and coherent epistemology, even the most rigorous logic is like a link of chains firmly attached to a hook which is mounted to nothing but thin air. If we don’t have our fundamental epistemology correct everything else that flows from this will be off. Like the source of a stream which can be misdirected into a completely different direction, so to if we are off on this one point it can have great and unintended consequences.