Runyan: Question remains for who you believe and why

I avoid big words. They draw attention to themselves, like politicians. However, like politicians, they are a necessary evil.

Today’s needed big word is “epistemology.” It means the study of knowledge itself. How do we know what we know?

At the beginning of the COVID-19 event, I told my congregation that this was going to test our epistemology. Months later, that’s been confirmed. To a large extent, what you believe about the coronavirus is a function of your own estimation about where truth comes from.

Are the experts telling you the truth? Are only some of them? Which ones? Is there an expert who can tell you which of the competing experts to listen to? And then, how do you vet the guy who has vetted the experts?

Now, we’ve seen some political upheaval in the wake of the George Floyd murder, and, guess what? Epistemology is front-and-center again. Who will you believe and why?

I am troubled that my fellow Christians have, by-and-large, been suckered into a notion of tribal epistemology. That is, they’ve got their guys (and gals) who are, of course, always on the side of the angels. Their guys would never knowingly lie to them. On the other side of the field, there’s the other tribe. This tribe is filled with evil people who hate truth and lie continually. So, actually, the epistemological issue is neatly solved. You don’t even have to ponder it: My tribe is right. The other tribe is wrong.

Let’s not mince words with this. A tribal epistemology is anti-Christ. (This holds even if your “tribe” is your church and pastor.)

A Christian epistemology begins with God, who is truth itself, and cannot lie. Because God knows all things exhaustively, we can know some things reliably.

Without the God of truth, who has revealed himself in the Bible, we can have no justified certainty about anything. God is therefore the foundation of thought, knowledge, and truth. This is why Scripture repeats the idea that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, as in Proverbs 1:7.

Christian epistemology demands that all things; all supposed facts; all witnesses; all expert testimony; and, any other claim to truthfulness, must be evaluated in light of what God has revealed. The only verse in the whole Bible that talks about what it means to be “a spiritual man” (1 Corinthians 2:15) connects spirituality and judging/evaluating all things.

You want to be spiritual. Great. So begin judging all things according to the word of truth, which comes from the God of truth.

The reason this isn’t done very much is because it’s hard work. It also disrupts our tribal loyalties, which can be traumatic. Maybe my tribe has some villains, who lie a lot. Maybe the other tribe, though filled with villains, also has a few things right, which I can’t dismiss just because they’re the ones saying it.

If we don’t believe that truth comes from God, we will be susceptible to truth-substitutes like party slogans and talking points. My brethren, this ought not be so.

Gordan Runyan is the pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Tucumcari. Contact him at:

[email protected]