How do we know what we know?

[epistemaniac]

What do you base your knowledge on....? is certainty based on the reliability of our senses? Or do we know what we know by intuition or experience? For the Christian, what is our knowledge based on....? Is it that we know that we know that we know that God is? Or is it based upon the Scriptures?

blessings,
Ken

[Calvin]

At the risk of sounding neo-monastical, I might incline to say scripture alone.
Yet how we understand truth in God's Word might be spurned on by the illuminating
work of the Holy Spirit. (through a direct revelatory process)

I'm reminded of a passage in matthew in regards to Christ, it follows:

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and
blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 16:15-17

But this is a difficult question to answer.

[John Mortimer]

Hi Ken,

Good questions!

I hope you don’t mind me offering my thoughts…

It depends what is meant by “knowing”.
We can know things in an outer sense, which involves the whole duality of subject and object.
In the case of this knowledge we (subject) use the word, (definitely lower case “w”), to grasp that which we perceive. The word here mediates between subject and object in our experience of reality.
We can also know things in an inner sense by being in union with that which is known.
Each of us can say, “I am”. Therefore our knowledge of being is inner knowledge before ever it is turned into outer knowledge. We are in union with Being.
In the case of this inner knowledge the Word, (definitely upper case “W”), is the mediator between God and the individual soul, which is an individualization of Being.

Calvin, your quote is a very important one because Jesus declares that Peter recognized, (re-cognized), the Christ, the Word, in Jesus from within himself… he did not see the Christ in Jesus because, for example, John the Baptist or anyone else told him so. How did Peter manage that? God revealed it to him from within. Peter knows Jesus is the Christ on Earth, (the Word, the Only Begotten Son of God Who IS God), because he has come into union with God though the outer words of Jesus… God revealing Himself through the mediation of the Living Word from within. The outer words of Jesus were the Living Word to Peter, though many others heard the same words as words only.

John Calvin says in chapter 7 of the Institutes, “…the testimony of the Spirit is superior to reason”. How true and how important! The Source of truth is higher than any human authority and is beyond the consciousness of duality. That is why the LIVING Word must be received for us to come into union with God.

John

[Calvin]

Hi Ken,

Good questions!

I hope you don’t mind me offering my thoughts…

John, of course I (we) don't mind

Calvin

[Calvin]

Is the knowledge that we have Perfect? & is it consummately whole?

How perfect is the knowledge that we have. Is knowledge of the Christ an "ἐπίγνωσις" ?

also if we have "ἐπίγνωσις", is it partial?

Calvin

[John Mortimer]

Hi Calvin,

Knowledge of the Christ can be both outer, (intellect), and inner, (gnosis). This is not a subtle distinction since those who plotted to murder the Living Christ on Earth were experts when it came to outer knowledge of the Christ available via the Law & Prophets. Saul of Tarsus / Paul is the perfect example of someone who demonstrates the profound difference between the 2 types of knowledge. Paul certainly continued to benefit from his intellectual knowledge after his conversion but the thrust of his message to those in Christ was, "let this mind be IN you that was also in Christ Jesus".

We have knowledge that is perfect within us. The problem is that the  carnal mind of the "old man" blocks and stifles it. The "old man", (as distinct from the New Creation), has absolutely no gnosis and never can have, for the "old man" is born and continues to exist only as a result of the sense of seperation from God.
The concept of knowledge that is consummately whole needs clarification... if you mean knowledge that is complete so that everything that can be known IS, then yes we have this within us for we have the Kingdom of God within us BUT it is very important to say that this whole knowledge is eternally growing along with the Kingdom of God - flowing and self-transcending with the River of Life. Such knowledge would never say, "I know everything there will ever be to know". The Kingdom of Heaven is not static.

John