Most of us go through our lives with our own individual way of seeing the world around us without ever giving a moment's consideration to it. But a Christian, I am convinced, is called. to seek the mind of Christ. to seek an understanding of his or her world. from the viewpoint of the eternal.
to see things as best as we possibly can. the way God would have us view them.
So that the things that we affirm are the things that God affirms, and the things that we deny would be the things that God denies.
Sometimes thinking can be hard work. But when done out of a desire to glorify God and to think our thoughts after Him, the hard work of thinking becomes an act of worship. Hello and welcome to this Saturday edition of Renewing Your Mind. I'm your weekend host, Josh Mann, and I'm glad to have you with us today.
Well How do we know what we know? That's the question that Dr. Sprohl will help us consider from his series A Blueprint for Thinking. You know, throughout his ministry, Dr. Sprohl urged Christians to think.
not merely for its own sake. but out of a desire to glorify God. When you donate today, we'll send you a blueprint for thinking, along with Dr. Sproll's 35-part series, The Consequences of Ideas. We'll also send you the study guide and DVD as well.
Both of these teaching series are designed to help us develop a Christian worldview. You can give your gift today at renewingyourmind.org to receive all four resources. And now, here's Dr. Sproll with today's message. I'm sure that every writer of fiction who ever picks up a pen.
Dreams. of writing the great American novel. The bad news, however, is, ladies and gentlemen, It's too late. It's already been done. The great American novel was written by Herman Melville, in my opinion, the greatest work of fiction ever produced in the United States.
was his masterpiece. by the simple title Moby Dick. I think we're all basically familiar with that story. It focuses on the work and activity of a madman, Captain Ahab, named after the wicked king of Israel in the Old Testament, who in this story suffers from a particular form of dementia that we call monomania. That is, he had a monomaniacal obsession with one aspect of his life.
He wanted to capture and to kill the great white whale, Moby Duck. But we know from the correspondence that survived the death of Herman Melville that this story was far more than an adventure story or a sea story. What makes it so great is its richness in symbolism. For at its depths dimension, Moby Dick is an intensely theological work. The white whale, the albino whale that is the focal point of this obsession of Captain Ahab, represents God.
And you know throughout the story that Ahab dropped everything, all other concerns, the commercial venture of the Pequad, he abandoned that. When he came upon a ship in distress searching for those who had been lost overboard the Rachel, he refused to lend a hand because he had one thing in his mind, and that was to kill that cursed whale.
Well, he charted the movements of the whale, he chased them over the seven seas, but he wasn't able to find him. And so, to spur his crew on to greater intensity and concentration, there's one episode in the book he may recall. He ordered that a gold doubloon. Be nailed to the main. masts in the center of the ship.
And he posted this doubloon and announced the reward for the first man who sighted Moby Dick would receive. this small fortune. And then what follows in the story? Is Melville examines each of the crew members' responses and reaction. to the promised reward.
He gets inside their minds. The first mate comes and looks at it, and he dreams of what he can buy with that gold doubloon. He thinks of cigars. He thinks of other creature comforts that he can purchase. The harpooners look and see: oh, if I just could win this prize, I can have the largest, best, most well-balanced, and sharpest harpoon in the world, and so on.
Each person, ladies and gentlemen, had a completely different view. Of what that coin? could mean to their lives. until finally the little cabin boy whose name was Pip, He was crazy. He came and he danced around in front of the Golda Bloon and he said, I see, you see, we all see.
And the point Melville was making through the mouth of Pip was the idea that each individual, each personal subject, had a different view of the matter.
Well, no two of us. View the world in which we live. from exactly the same perspective. We have our antennae, we have the grid, we have the patterns. We have our own personal history, all of which contribute to the way we interpret.
reality as we encounter it.
Now from a philosophical perspective, we call that A worldview. A way of examining the world in which we live, and the meaning of our own individual lives.
Now everybody has a worldview. For the philosopher or the theologian, perhaps, the structure of that worldview has been carefully thought out. It's been criticized, it's been analyzed, it's been evaluated, certain elements have been discarded, others have been added. Most of us go through our lives with our own individual way of seeing the world around us without ever giving a moment's consideration to it. This is what Socrates called the unexamined life.
where we just sort of respond to what's there. But a Christian, I am convinced, is called. to seek the mind of Christ. to seek an understanding of his or her world. from the viewpoint of the eternal.
to see things as best as we possibly can. the way God would have us view them.
So that the things that we affirm are the things that God affirms, and the things that we deny would be the things that God denies.
So, what we're going to do in this series of lectures. is to look by way of introduction at the most basic foundational elements, that together make up the grid or the structure of a personal worldview. And so in this first session, We're going to speak on the theme of epistemology. Yeah.
Now that's a word that we use every day. On our grocery list and so on. I will define it in a moment, but before I do. I want to take a moment to introduce a guest that I have invited to be a part of this series to help us as we struggle through an evaluation of the elements that make up Worldview.
Now, this guest is very famous, and you will recognize him instantly the moment I introduce him.
However, Okay. He's not able to speak. Can't speak. But he's by no means dumb. He's over here, and I'm sure you recognize him.
He has been brought into the world by a Frenchman by the name of Rodin. And how many of you here know his name? And you all know this is probably one of the most recognizable pieces of sculpture in all of Western civilization. Rodin's what? The sinker.
Now, we're glad to have the thinker with us because he's going to help us. as we seek to establish the structures of a worldview.
Now the first thing I observe about this gentleman who's our guest It's his name. He is called The thinker. I think that had he been sculpted in the last 15 or 20 years, perhaps he would be known by a different name or a different title. If a modern sculptor created this piece of art, I think that they would probably call him the feeler. Because in our modern world We don't think anymore.
We feel. I have my red pen going constantly on my students' exams in theology class when they say, I feel that we should do this or that.
So wait a minute, I'm interested in your thoughts, not your emotions at this point, not your feelings. But it's not by accident. that language in our day has changed in this way. Because we live in a world where preferences Have supplanted Objective truth. Truth is now no longer considered to be a matter of cogent.
Thoughtful. Understanding.
So much as it is. a matter of personal feeling. A test was made internationally in terms of performances and the skills of mathematics among high school students. Six nations were involved. The students of the United States.
who were tested. finished dead last. in this international competition of mathematical proficiency.
However, there were two parts to the examination. One part of the examination measured how the student felt about his or her performance on the examination. The students from America finished first. The students from Japan. finished first in actual proficiency, And sixth, in their personal sense of How well that they did.
So, we've been very effective in training people to feel good about their poor performance. And so truth now becomes a matter of feeling rather than thinking.
Now, the other thing I want us to observe about our guest here tonight, who is called the thinker. Is the pose?
Now I don't think that Rodin meant to suggest that in order for a person to become involved in any depth dimension of analysis or thinking that one had to shed his or her clothing and be in the nude, and I I'm a little embarrassed that our guest has come this way. But we notice that in the stance or the posture of the thinker. That you see. That Rodean has not represented the thinker. in a posture of casual relaxation.
He doesn't have him looking like a couch potato with his feet crossed and he's lounging just sort of half ready to fall asleep. One of the principles Of those involved. in art. particularly in painting. and in sculpture.
Is what the Germans call the principle of the Fratzbahre Augenglich. The fruitful moment. Rembrandt, for example, before he would paint, one of his classic portraits of a biblical character. would go through the process of rendering over a hundred various sketches of the person he was going to capture on Canvas. But he realized that in the final portrait He could only depict the person in one frozen scene.
That's the difference between this kind of art and the art we find in drama or in the motion picture industry, where we can capture live action and movement. But so the artists, like Rembrandt, Rodin, and the others, they would think of now: how can I best express and capture and crystallize the essence. of what this person represents in one still frame. Michelangelo did the same thing. He wants to do a statue of David.
What moment? In all of the life of David will he capture that will express The man. And he chose the moment. Of the reaching for the stones and preparing to hurl the stone. against the giant.
And then our imagination. fills in the rest.
Well, Rodan. Postured. the sinker. In a pose. of intense labor.
His muscles are taut. Because Deep thinking. Involves a kind of effort that is not only strenuous mentally, but it is actually a physical enterprise as well. He doesn't tell us what he's thinking about. Maybe he's thinking about thinking.
Maybe he's thinking about thought. Maybe he's wondering. If he can know anything. For sure. Recently, I caught part of a television special.
that was called The Elves file. And this particular special featured Bill Bixby, who was the host, and he was presenting the evidence to the audience, the studio audience as well as the watching audience and broadcast television. The evidence that would indicate that Elvis Presley It's still alive. And that his death was a carefully conceived hoax. in an effort to shelter Elvis from criminal elements in this world as part of the government protection service for those who were involved in undercover work to serve the nation.
An Elvis has been sent into hiding. And he's had these appearances that have been cited here and there across the world where people think that they've seen Elvis Presley. And in this discussion. The testimony of two court-certified handwriting analysts. was set forth.
And both of these handwriting analysts. maintained That writing that has clearly been written since the alleged deaths of Elvis Presley at Graceland Mansion in Memphis. that this handwriting matches exactly the handwriting. of Elvis Presley, even on his own death certificate. And other anomalies were brought forth, such as the fact that the coroner's report on the death certificate listed the weight of the dead body that was taken from Gray's Mansion as 170 pounds.
And anybody that saw Elvis Presley in his last performance a week or so before his death knows that he was weighing at that time between 240 and 250 pounds. And so the case was set forth. And then at the end of this discussion. In typical American fashion, The studio audience was pulled and also phone lines were given to the national audience to they could call in and say yay or nay, whether they believed that Elvis was still alive. And throughout the course of the program, they would flash the numbers of how the percentage of the people were responding.
And at the end, 79%. of the viewers of this program, indicated that they believed that Alvis Presley is still alive. What I found most astonishing. was not the hypothesis. What amazed me Was the facility by which seventy-nine per cent of the people.
who listen to this program. came to the conclusion that Alvis Presley was still alive. Because even if he is still alive, the evidence for it... that was presented on that program. Yeah.
incredibly flimsy. And as I watched it, I thought On what basis? Are these people Evaluating the data Analyzing the argument. coming to their conclusions. That's what epistemology is about.
Epistemology is a science. that deals with the question. How do we know? What we know. What are the means of the means?
Human beings use to contact reality. and to discern between truth and falsehood.
Now, several methods of learning and of knowing. Have been examined and evaluated in the history. of Western thought. Certainly, the two most famous forms of epistemology that you've all heard of are those that, in the broadest generic sense, may be called rationalism. And empiricism.
Basically, rationalism says that the way to truth. The way to knowledge. is principally, if not exclusively, Through the mind. through the processes of thought itself. And of course, one of the most important keys to rational investigation is the science of logic.
Because the real is deemed to be logical. And among hyper-rationalists, the logical is being to be real, but we'll let that for another time. On the other side of the spectrum, the empiricist is so-called because the empiricist says, unless I can see it, taste it, touch it, smell it, you know. I feel it. It's not real.
I don't believe it. That is, the empiricist says the way to truth Is through the census. Through sense perception. It's basically More physical. Then mental.
And for centuries, the battle was waged between these two schools and variations of these two schools. until the two arrived at a very important synthesis in the thinking of Immanuel Kant and a synthesis that was already coming together in a certain sense in what is called the scientific method. We're going to be involved in a dialogue in the not too distant future about the question of psychology. Is psychology a science or is it a pseudoscience? You can have the same discussion about theology.
Is theology a science? or a pseudoscience.
Well, to answer that question, the first thing you have to do is determine what Makes up science. The scientific method says that we are creatures who have minds We also have bodies. And both the mind and the body is active in the whole process of learning. The only way I can encounter The external world. is through my body.
I have to see it. I have to hear it. For I have to touch it. Or smell it, huh? For taste it.
But the problem gets vexing when we say, but how do I know? What I see is really there. How do I know? whether what I think I'm seeing is real or an hallucination. We know dogs can hear sounds that are at levels that we can't hear.
that other animals' olfactory senses are far more developed than our own, And this has been an age-long problem. Anybody who relies simply on the basis of what they see or hear or taste or touch, we know. that our senses A limited and subject to distortion. But we can't get away without them. That's why the New Testament witnesses of Christ.
Insist time after time, we are not writing here. Carefully devised fables. or myths. We're not playing Alice in Wonderland. We're not speculating philosophically.
But we are Writing to you what we have seen with our eyes and what we have heard with our ears. They appealed to empirical testimony. And yet at the same time, All of the data and sensations that we have in a given day would be meaningless if we didn't have a mind. to organize them. to make sense out of them.
And that's where the rational comes in. Logic has no content. Logic gives no information. All that logic does as the thinker understands. acts as a governor to prevent us from deriving false inferences from the things we experience.
How do you learn? How do you study? Do you give any stock to logic? Do you believe, for example, the truth can be illogical? My seminary students, almost every one of them, comes in there their first year.
I say, do you believe that the truth of God can be contradictory? Vast majority of them say, yes, of course. They don't realize that they're blaspheming God. They've made God a liar. But they come that way because they haven't learned.
The role of rationality. In the pursuit of truth. Christianity is not rationalism. But it is by all means rational. And so the Bible assumes both the importance of the mind and the importance of the senses as both are engaged in the enterprise.
That's introduction. That's all I'm going to say about epistemology at this point, only to say, I want you to think about thinking. I want you to think about how you know what you think you know. To ask yourselves the question, am I sure about this? Take out a piece of paper and write down on it 10 things that you know for sure.
10 things that you would die for that you know for sure. If we did that in this room tonight. We would find people convinced of one thing that's the direct opposite of another person is of the top ten things that they're both convinced of.
Somebody's wrong. But we are supposed to be people who are committed to the discovery of truth. But we can't even begin the enterprise. until we answer the question, How do we know? What we know.
The world is constantly asking questions. Questions that the Bible has answers to. May God help us to cultivate a Biblical worldview in our minds so we're ready to answer the questions of others with the truth of God's Word. Thank you for joining us on this Saturday edition of Renewing Your Mind. The message that you heard today was from doctor Sproul's five-part series, A Blueprint for Thinking.
Both this series and Dr. Sproll's 35-part teaching series, The Consequences of Ideas. are designed to help Christians develop a Christian worldview. You can receive both resources along with the digital study guide and a DVD copy of The Consequences of Ideas. when you donate today at renewingyourmind.org.
What we think about God determines what we think about the world. I hope you'll join us next week as Dr. Sproll shows the foundational role that theology plays in developing a Christian worldview. Join us here on Renewing Your Mind.
