The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Knowledge
Proverbs 1:7
To avoid Christ (who is God’s light) at any point in the academic pursuit is to be misled, untruthful, and spiritually dead (Greg Bahnsen, Always Ready, p. 5). One must be presuppositionally committed to Christ in the world of thought or else (by default) be deluded by persuasive argument (Col 2:8).
All ‘Life View’ thoughts and philosophies fall into one of two categories: obedience or captivity (Col 2:8). We are to press the antithesis—and in doing so remove all imagined ‘middle ground’. Without repentance, one remains in a state of foolishness, folly, and eternal darkness.
An appeal to neutrality is nothing more than a thinly veiled disguise for all-out war against the epistemic authority of Christ. The antithesis between imagined human autonomy and Christ’s authority cannot be erased (ibid., pp. 7-8).
We must confront the arrogance which assumes that genuine knowledge is attainable independent of God’s direction and standards. Attempts at self-sufficiency unavoidably result in futility (Eph 4:17-19).
God the Lord is the Originator of all truth. All our knowledge is a receptive reconstruction of God’s primary thoughts. Intellectual self-sufficiency always leads to foolishness and delusion. According to Scripture, a ‘fool’ does not want to find the truth; he only wants to be justified in his vain imaginations. The fool will not leave his intellectual folly UNTIL he sees that his imagined autonomy is hostile to knowledge.
God’s unbending purpose is to make foolish the wisdom of the world (1 Cor 1:18-25). God is in the pride destruction business. The Word of God says that one cannot know God and the world aright by means of independently exercised reason. Reverence and faith must precede the knowledge of God and what He has made.
God’s justice is filled with His intention to demonstrate His wrath in the form of a divine ‘object lesson’. Like a public hanging; error will forever be hung on the gallows of God’s justice and eternally exhibited in all its ugliness and horror (see Romans 9). Consider how men who do not fear God are oblivious to this public purpose of God to demonstrate His wrath (see Nahum, Zephaniah).
The Hebrew word for fear is YARAH (NIDOT, 2:527). It means to hold in honor—to be afraid—to be in awe—to worship—even to be alarmed. The word ‘fear’ in the context of fearing God frequently refers to the reverence and awe and respect which God’s Person elicits (Deut 10:12-13).
The fear of God is associated with obedience to His commands—obey, walk, do, listen, hear, fear, heed—thus fear of God is inseparable from appropriate moral conduct. Fear of God is also associated with an awe of God which is an essential part of true worship.
Of Job’s fear of God, the Word says that he was blameless, upright, turning away from evil (Job 1:8). The fear of the Lord is wisdom. Proverbs is the main book of the Bible dealing with the fear of God. Fear of God, wisdom, and knowledge are closely associated in Scripture. The theme of Proverbs is the wise man versus the fool. The wise man fears the Lord; the fool is lacking fear of God.
In Ecclesiastes, God’s absolute sovereignty is a just cause for fear and reverence for God. The fear of God underlies wise decision-making (Eccl 3:14). The whole duty of man is to fear God and keep His commandments—consider how ‘rational’ this is in view of the fact that God will bring every act to judgment; whether good or evil (Eccl 12:13-14).
A true understanding of who God is inspires worship; even trembling (Ps 55:5-6; 90:11). The fear of God inspires moral conduct (Gen 20:11; Neh 5:15). Such fear is imparted to God’s people in order that they might not sin (Ex 20:20; Jer 32:40).
The hard hearted do not have the fear of God (Is 63:17). Jesus commands men to fear God (Lu 12:5).
The fear of the Lord is the first principle of wisdom (Ps 111:10; Prov 1:7). The fear of God is also associated with knowledge (Prov 2:5).
Scripture teaches a metaphysical system—all things are of God; through God; and unto God (Rom 11:33-36). Theologically—this is “Mount Everest”—all rationality therefore is stipulated upon reasoning from this vantage point. There is no other reality (Bahnsen, Always Ready, p. 180). Therefore we must think God’s thoughts after Him in order to understand and interpret the world as a whole.
The Bible’s metaphysical scheme (above) is absolutely essential for Christian Worldveiw. What a contrast this is to the unbeliever’s metaphysical system.
The unbeliever, according to 2 Peter 3, opposes the truth of the universal flood, the coming Kingdom of God, and the day of the Lord. The unbeliever’s metaphysic is uniformitarianism (all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation) (2 Pet 3:4).
Empiricism is woefully limited. Empirical experience gives the appearance of things; but empiricism cannot do the following:
- It cannot correct illusions (it can’t go beyond appearances).
- It cannot open up the world of reality lying beyond the senses.
- It cannot determine the limits of possibility and impossibility.
- It cannot deal with the world as a whole (it’s left with a fragmented, disunified, atomistic view of the world).
- It cannot set forth an explanation of the nature of reality (ibid., p. 181).
Metaphysically, empiricism is capable only of reckless flights of speculation. Empiricism cannot discover the plan of redemption by looking at a cursed earth in which nature is red in tooth and claw and dominated by cruelty.
This is sobering indeed—no wonder the reprobate is plunged into the depths of eternal confusion. To reject Scripture as the presuppositional starting point is to destroy the possibility of knowledge.
We are to call unbelievers to abandon their suppression of the knowledge of God —to repent of their rebellious mindset and to abandon the ‘worship’ of their own imaginings.
What is the highest, ultimate standard and criterion for truth—authoritative, clearly known—validating all other proposed authorities for truth? It is the Word of God (John Frame, Apologetics to the Glory of God, pp. 7-8). God the Lord interprets everything definitively. If we want to know something; we must think His thoughts after Him. God plans, knows, and sees all—therefore the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (ibid., p. 50-52).
Authority is part of His Lordship. He has the right to command, to tell us to obey, and to tell us what to believe. When sinners try to gain knowledge apart from the fear of the Lord; that knowledge is necessarily distorted.
When we speak of the unbeliever’s knowledge being distorted we do not mean that every sentence is distorted—what we do mean is that their worldview is distorted, twisted, and unreliable—it does not correlate with reality. To make self, or something other than the God of the Bible, the final standard of truth is to commit epistemological suicide. The willful assumption of autonomy always results in epistemological disaster. God calls ‘doing your own thing’ utter foolishness.
The unbeliever’s method of knowing—his epistemology—his philosophy of fact —and his criterion for truth are collectively (according to Scripture) what make him a fool. What any individual regards as a fact depends upon his worldview (Michael Kruger, TMS Journal, “The Sufficiency of Scripture,” 12:1, pp.76-78).
The autonomous man becomes his own ultimate epistemological authority—this is hostile to the Word of God and it is abhorrent to God who proclaims Himself as ultimate authority of the universe. God condemns man’s quest for independence and intellectual self-sufficiency (Kruger, p. 78).
When an unbeliever questions the Word of God as an ‘autonomous’ critic; the Word of God draws that person into judgment. God’s sure Word is the final authority and final criterion for truth. God’s Word is the ultimate authority in the world of thought. Woe to him who strives with his Maker (Is 45:9). The creature has no right to question the Creator (Greg Bahnsen, “Socrates or Christ: the Reformation of Christian Apologetics,” Foundations of Christian Scholarship, p. 217).
The authority of God’s Word is the necessary presupposition for all true knowledge. Rather than having God pass tests of fact, logic, beneficial effect, and subjective satisfaction; the Apostle Paul realized that logic and fact (and all other criteria) are senseless without God (ibid.).
A fool trusts his own heart (Prov 28:26; 29:11; 12:15). A fool trusts his own utterances, his own opinions, and his own professed wisdom. It is impossible to arrive at truth in this way; and it is impossible to autonomously verify the Word of God. “If one does not begin with the truth of God, he cannot conclude his argumentation with either truth or God” (ibid.).
God is ultimate self-consciousness—what He says is truth, is real, is fact. He is self-sufficient Creator. The mind of man is not self-sufficient—we must take in the Word of God as our starting point and standard of knowledge. We must presuppose Christianity—nothing can be known if the Creator/Redeemer is not known first. The knowledge of God is the condition of rational inquiry (Bahnsen, “Pragmatism, Prejudice, and Presuppositionalism,” ibid., pp. 287-290).
Autonomy is destructive to human reason because autonomy makes impossible demands on finite, dependent, human intellect. In the Word of God, the knowledge of God is so certain that no reasonable man should doubt it.
All the treasures of God’s wisdom and knowledge are in Christ. Aside from Christ and His self-attesting Word—man can produce nothing but vanity—“the opposing arguments of what is falsely called ‘knowledge’” (1 Tim 6:20).
Thus the quest for certainty can be successful only as one takes the fear of the Lord as the beginning of knowledge (ibid., p. 292).
(As an exercise—have the class discuss the topic, “What is a wedding?” Select two speakers who will discuss the topic from a believer’s and an unbeliever’s perspective.)
The fear of the Lord is the only reliable ‘gate of knowledge’—all other proposed gateways to knowledge put a person in a position to NOT have truth and knowledge. All other proposed gateways to knowledge (empiricism, philosophic naturalism, false religion, etc.) assume that man’s reason is autonomous—in other words; that man’s reasoning processes are able to attain real knowledge independent of God’s infallible revelation.
Here is a summary of reasons why the fear of the Lord is sole gateway to truth:
- Man as the image of God is an analog of God. Man’s mind is uniquely created to receive revelation from God. Man as image-bearer of God is designed by God to think His thoughts after Him. The highest man can attain to in the realm of truth is to think God’s thoughts after Him.
- Man is utterly dependent upon divine revelation in order to know as he ought. What God reveals in Scripture; man could never discover through his own independent inquiry.
- God structures all reality. God and His plan for His creation constitute ultimate reality. The Word of God is His revelation concerning Himself and His plan.
- Truth has no origin or existence independent of God.
- Truth is an ethical issue.
Truth is an ethical issue for the following reasons:
- Man was created with the
capacity
to know God.
God made the knowledge of Himself evident in them, and evident to them (Rom 1:19). There are certain attributes of God that every man knows—this knowledge of God is inescapable (Rom 1:20; Ps 19).
- God charges man with
culpability
for suppressing the truth of God (Rom 1:18). Sinners studiously suppress the knowledge of God that they have been given. Because they work to suppress the knowledge of God they already possess; they are without excuse (1:20). Man is eternally responsible with what he does with both general and special revelation.
- Those who suppress the truth bear the
consequence
of their willful sin (Rom 1:18). The wrath of God is revealed against their ungodliness and unrighteousness. Suppressing the truth calls forth the wrath of God against them because they hold down the truth in unrighteousness.
- God paid an infinite
cost
to put men back in possession of the truth.
Christ is God’s truth incarnate. Christ is God’s eternal utterance (Word) made flesh. Nothing less than the death of the Son of God in the sinner’s place can remove the darkness from men’s minds and hearts (2 Cor 4:4-6). Regeneration (purchased for God’s people at the cross of Christ) is the resetting of the mind to receive God’s truth.
Questions & discussion points that can be used to uncover the folly of the unbeliever’s worldview:
- Is there anything in creation that can’t happen by itself? Is there anything in creation that gives massive evidence of being designed instead of coming into existence by chance? If biblical creation were true; what would we expect to see? (Answers the materialistic assumption that chance did it all—that the universe made itself; sustains itself; interprets itself.)
- Why is evil in the world if God made it?
(The answer to this question is one of the major themes of Scripture—make sure you can answer this.)
- Did you know that God has made it very clear in His Word; the penalty for disobeying God is de-evolution;
not evolution.
(Because of human sin; the creation has been ‘dragged down’ into decay, death, disease, injustice, suffering, and extinction—Romans 8. Romans one is the record of the de-evolution of truth. The Word of God records the origin of the world’s religions as the de-evolution of the truth.)
- When we think of evidence that something designed, consider that a boomerang does what wood does not normally do— come back when it is thrown!
Why does it come back when you throw it? What is the evidence in a boomerang for a designer? (This practical, simple question can turn the conversation to the subject of God’s plan and design for all He has made. How much more simple is a boomerang compared to any part of a living cell?)
- What categories in creation are admissible as support for an Intelligent Designer or Creator? (If they say, “None!” you can point out that they have a core assumption that they have made on faith alone without proof.)
- The ingredients in DNA (sugars, phosphates, amino acids) do not make codes by themselves. Have you ever considered how complex these codes in DNA really are? (Point out that even the simplest software program has a designer—how much more infinitely complex is the program that is responsible for the construction of the human eye?)
- Do you know what you believe happens to a person after death? How did you come to that conclusion? Do you have a good reason for rejecting Christ’s testimony concerning this question? Has anyone ever talked to you about your conscience and your soul? (May I invite you to ‘step into Christian Worldview’ for a moment to explain what God says about this?)
- If you were to set out to find God; how would you proceed? Do you know what God’s Word says about finding God? (Do you know why God’s initial contact point with us is our sin and rebellion—because according to God’s Word, that’s the condition in which God finds us—dead, stuck, rebellious, unable to help ourselves.)
- Has anyone ever shown you from the Bible why you are accountable to God? (Because you are made in the image of God—you have been designed by God for a specific purpose. And you will only come to know that purpose as well as recover that purpose through the Lord Jesus Christ.)
- May I show you from God’s Word what it is about life and the afterlife that you could never know apart from God’s revelation the Bible? (Answers the objection, I won’t believe it unless I see it for myself.)
- May I show you from Scripture why death is such a serious issue?
(Explain that the sting of death is sin. Christ’s resurrection connects mankind to eternity—His resurrection demands that there is an eternal existence! His resurrection is the only possible conquest of our greatest enemy—death. His resurrection is the Father’s endorsement of His cross-work for sinners. You are dead without His resurrection—death will destroy your soul forever in hell apart from Christ’s work.)
- What do you think of Christ? Who is He and why did He come to earth? (May I show you from God’s Word? Christ is the only means of knowing God. Christ is God’s message to sinners. Christ is the manifestation of God—what He is like. Christ is the only Mediator between God and man.)