In our last lesson, we have been studying how to deal with the skeptical. We have taken up a number of seemingly scientific errors of the Bible.
However, this does not really solve the heart of the problem for the man who is skeptical toward the Bible as a whole. His difficulty lies in the fact that he is spiritually dead and dominated by the world mind.
Romans 8:7 tells us, “The carnal [world] mind is enmity against God.”
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)
We need to show the skeptic that in the world, there are two kinds of knowledge. These two kinds of knowledge are the knowledge of the natural man and the knowledge that comes from revelation.
In showing a man the difference between the two, you must first show him the source, the limitations, and the insufficiencies of natural knowledge.
When we speak of the knowledge of natural man, we speak of the knowledge that the world has. It is the great accumulation of knowledge that fills our libraries and our textbooks; it is the embodiment of all that we know about reality.
Our first problem is: What is the source of this knowledge? The source is man’s physical body and the material universe around him. We shall explain this more fully. Every contact that man has with the world comes to him through his five senses.
These five senses belong to the central nervous system—sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Man knows nothing at all about reality except that which he has gained through these senses. You could picture for yourself how much a man would be able to know if he could not see, hear, touch, taste, or smell. The central nervous system gives us every contact that we have ever possessed with the rest of the world. Without it, we could know nothing at all about the world, the sky, the grass, the sea, or other human beings.
Helen Keller possessed only three senses: the sense of touch, the sense of taste, and the sense of smell. Her sense of touch was so developed that through it, under the direction of those who possessed the five senses, she gained a wide knowledge of the world and life.
However, if it were possible for a man to be born with none of the senses, he would never be able to be taught a thing. He could learn absolutely nothing of the outward world. He would have no avenue to his mind through which any knowledge could come to him. In this, we can see that the reasoning powers of the mind are dependent upon the material of sensation that is brought to it through the five senses.
To aid his senses in their search for reality, man has developed the microscope, the spectroscope, and the telescope. Yet these instruments have only aided his senses in their contact with the physical world. Through them, he has been able to study the universe and forms of life that otherwise would have been invisible to his sense of sight. Through the microscope, he has been able to study the minutest forms of life. He has come to a knowledge of bacteria and a knowledge of realms that he otherwise would never have been able to contact.
With the aid of the telescope, man has gained a vast knowledge of the heavenly universe. With his naked eye, man can only see from two to four thousand stars, but with the aid of the telescope, he can see hundreds of thousands. By using the spectroscope, he has been able to study the composition of the stars.
There are in the universe around us many physical forces that we cannot perceive with our physical senses. But man has developed instruments that are sensitive to these forces and will record them.
We could mention a great many other inventions that man has produced to aid his senses in his acquisition of the knowledge of the world, but we have not the space here.
Man has made great progress. He has become familiar with the laws, processes, and forces of nature. He has made them obey his command so that he could utilize them to his own gain. Out of years of research, study, and experimentation of not only the present, but also the past, man has built the great civilization that we have today.
Yet the source of this vast accumulation of knowledge is based upon man’s sense perceptions of the physical universe. Every invention that he uses aids only his senses. These senses belong to the physical body. They contact matter and man’s every contact, therefore, has been only with a material realm.
Study the above until it becomes real in your own mind, for in dealing with a man who has become materialistic and atheistic, you must first show him that the source of all the knowledge that he has, or any other man has, is really his physical body. His body, as it were, is the trap in which he is caught.
After you have shown this to the individual with whom you are working, show him the limitations of that knowledge. If you have made the above clear to him, it will not be hard to show him its limitations.
We can illustrate the limitations of our senses in giving to us a true picture of reality by the following: a blind man who had never possessed the sense of sight, and who had never come into contact with men who possess it, would think that he had a true picture of the world around him through his four senses. He would never be able to know that there existed a quality such as color, light, or darkness because he would have no sense that could perceive it or admit an understanding of that quality to his mind.
A man who had never possessed a sense of hearing and never come into contact with men who could hear would think that he knew the universe as it was through his four senses.
By this, we can readily see that it may be that man, with his five senses, does not contact every force of the universe in which he lives. We do know that his five senses limit him to the knowledge of matter only. Every invention that he could ever produce can only aid him in the knowledge of the physical.
In our next lesson, we will show you how it is that materialism and atheism have developed. When you understand this, you will be able to show a man the reason for his own atheism and materialism.
QUESTIONS
- Why is it that the things of God are foolishness to the natural man?
- What fact must you point out to the skeptic?
- How would you explain the source of natural man’s knowledge?
- How would you explain to a skeptic the limitations of his knowledge?