The Bible writers often use the word, know. In what way were they using the word. With what meaning? Can we know that God exists? Can we know that we are saved? Can we know that Jesus was raised from the dead? If so, how can we know that? This is the day when the "Christian world" celebrates the resurrection of our Lord. In speaking concerning this event today, I want to deal with how we may know that Jesus arose.

Can we know future events like the second coming, the resurrection of all the dead, and the great Judgment? If so, how?

"Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen; I will be exalted in the earth." (Psalms 46:10.)

"Know ye that the Lord he is God; it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of this pasture." (Psalms 100:3.)

" . . . to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed." (Luke 1:3-4.)

". . . for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." (2 Tim. 1:12.)

"And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him and keeps not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him." (1 John 2:3-4.)

"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." (1 John 5:13.)

"And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life." (1 John 5:20.)

John uses the word, know, 26 times in the first letter. John was affirming what Christians can know, probably in opposition to the Gnostics who emphasized knowing.

Part of the problem before us is an erroneous definition of faith or belief as used in the Bible. In ordinary conversational use today, faith is thought to stand somewhere below knowledge on the scale of certainty. A little boy gave this definition of faith: "Faith is believing what you know ain’t so!"

Someone may ask, Where is your wife today? The husband replies, I do not know, but I believe that she went across the street to a neighbor’s house.

In that exchange, it is understood that "I know" means certainty and "I believe" signifies a denial of certainty. Many people use faith in that sense even biblically. A preacher may say, for example, We cannot know that God exists. We must take his existence on faith. Abraham Lincoln once said in encouraging people to study the Scriptures, Receive the message as much as possible through reason and the balance by faith. This puts faith on a lower scale than human reason.

A preacher once put himself in this dilemma. He was speaking concerning God earlier in the week at an encampment. He said, Of course we cannot know that God exists, but we accept it by faith. Later in the week, concerning 1 John, he emphasized how we may know that we have salvation in Christ. He said, We should know that we are redeemed! Here is the obvious problem: If we cannot know that God exists, how can ever know that He saved us??

There are different senses in which we use words, both know and faith. We should be consistent though in our use of them biblically. Is the only way to know something accomplished through the five senses? No, there are several ways in which we may know something is true.

#1: Through the five senses. We place a great deal of importance on our physical senses. We can know by seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting. Thomas said, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand in His side, I will not believe." (John 20:25.) Thomas doubted the reports of the resurrection from eyewitnesses. He wanted to see for himself. This is empirical knowledge or first-hand knowledge.

Only eye or ear witnesses are accepted in a court of law. What someone else says or what you think might have happened is not admissible.

Under normal circumstances, we should trust our senses. Some people are so unsure about everything. After seeing a murder, some people could be talked out of being sure of what they saw! On the other hand, we should not exalt human senses unduly. It is possible to be mistaken about what you thought you saw or heard. We do need some cautions about this way of knowing. To the human eye, it looks like the sun rotates around the earth. For centuries man believed this to be the case. Now we know that it is not true.

Some people see and hear things that are not there! One test of the validity of our perceptions is whether others can see and hear it. In addition one sense can be tested by another sense. If we think we see something, we can reach out and touch it. Thomas said that he would not believe until he saw the nail prints and put his fingers into the prints. That is, he was going to confirm his sight with his touch. Each additional sense confirms or denies what you originally thought.

Jesus said to the apostles who were frightened after his resurrection, "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." (Luke 24:39.) This evidence is very important even for us to this day. Remember that this is primary evidence. Faith is based upon this evidence.

#2: We can know by reason. Someone has called knowing by reason "the putting two and two together" faculty. It is also called deduction.

Here is an example from geometry. If a given figure is known to be a square, and a measurement of one side of the square is known, the we can also know the measurement of any other side, the length of the perimeter, the area inside the square, and that every corner angle is 90 degrees. We know these things by reason, and we know them with a certainty. This is just as sure as knowing by sense perception. It is just a different way of knowing.

In fact, there are some things that you could not know if you just depended upon the five senses. How could you ever determine the area of a square just by looking at it, or feeling the picture, etc.? Your senses help you take in the facts, then you reason about the information and come to some certain conclusions. If we needed only our five senses to know things, then everyone who could see and feel and hear could make all A’s in school.

Could someone who was blind work a math problem correctly? Yes, if they were told the basic information, they could. In math, we say that certain pieces of information are "given" to you. You work the problem based upon that information. If certain pieces of information are missing, you cannot complete the problem. If someone told you to find the area of a square, but you did not know the length of one side then you could not obtain the answer.

This method of knowing is significant concerning our knowledge of God and redemption. We too are "given" certain pieces of information. We must reason and think about that information in order to know how to be saved, how to know God, how to live our lives, etc.

Isaiah wrote, "Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord." (Isa. 1:18.) "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." (Psalm 14:1.) The "fool" is one who is not reasoning properly.

#3: We can know by the conscience.

Some argue that the foundational principles of right and wrong are known innately. God has given everyone that moral compass and insight. It is called the "sense of ought," or the ability to know right from wrong.

Paul wrote that the Gentiles "show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another." (Rom. 2:15.) Even though the Gentiles did not possess the Law of Moses, they were responsible for what they knew to be right and wrong. They were without excuse for rejecting God. There are some things that we can know without ever reading it in the Scriptures. God has given to everyone this moral compass.

Often preachers have warned about the dangers of trusting our consciences alone. But Paul cautioned that we should not violate our consciences. If we do things contrary to our convictions, we commit sin. "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." (Rom. 14:23.) On a day to day basic when we make moral and ethical decisions, we do so based upon the "training" we have given our consciences up to that moment. It is what we possess to guide us.

#4: We can know by faith. Knowing by sight or touch is different from knowing by faith. Jesus made this distinction to Thomas. He said, "Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed." (John 20:29.) Can both we and Thomas know that Jesus is raised from the dead? Yes. Thomas knew by seeing and touching---those primary and fundamental senses. We know by faith.

But what is faith? The Bible says, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." (Rom. 10:17.) Note that hearing is involved in our possessing faith. Faith is not disassociated from the senses. It is based upon it. John wrote, "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with his Son Jesus Christ." (1 John 1:3.) "Him God raised up the third day and showed Him openly; not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with Him after he arose from the dead." (Acts 10:40-41.) "When he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day." (2 Thess. 1:10.)

How do people know that the world is round and that the earth rotates around the sun?? Some have seen with their eyes from space crafts the form of the earth. They have photographed it and written about it. We have their reports and testimony. From what they have seen and photographed, we also believe and know. How do we know that Jesus was raised from the dead? From the testimony of those who saw and heard.

A song says, "You ask me how I know He lives. He lives within my heart." That is not how we may that Jesus was raised from the dead. It is good that Jesus lives within us. (Gal. 2:20, Col. 2:6.) But we know that He was raised from the dead because the eyewitnesses reported what they saw. That is faith. This is how we know.

At the end of the Gospel of John, he wrote, "But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ." (John 20:31.) Near the end of 1 John, he wrote, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life." (1 John 5:13.) John did not hesitate to use the words, know and believe, in the same context. Believing is not lower on the scale of certainty than knowledge. Faith is one of the ways we know things. We believe that Jesus arose from the dead because of those who saw and heard him. Our knowledge is base upon their knowledge.

"How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery (as I wrote afore in a few words), whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ." (Eph. 3:3-4.)

I have never been to Paris, France; yet I believe that such exists. I can say that I know that Paris exists. How do I know? By the evidence given to me from those who have been there. Can I be mistaken about what I believe concerning Paris? Yes, just as there are cautions in any of the ways we can know things. We must judge the reliability of the witnesses and question the truthfulness of what is said. "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God; for many false prophets are gone out into the world," said John the apostle. (1 John 4:1.) We must use our innate ability to judge right and wrong.

Is sight better than faith? There is an obvious tendency to exalt sight above faith. Christians have allowed this exaltation of sight above faith to go on.

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen." (KJV, Heb. 11:1.) "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (NIV, Heb. 11:1.)

#1: Faith is not the problem. A lost man once argued with Abraham that if he allowed someone to go back to his home and speak to his five brothers that they would believe. That is, sight is better than faith. If you would give them a better opportunity of being convinced, they would accept it. Listen to Abraham, "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one arose from the dead." (Luke 16:28-31.)

The problem of the lost brothers was not the way they were required to know, but that their hearts were not right with God and they did not want to do what was right. As Dr. William James would say, They did not "will to believe."

Peter wrote that we can believe in Jesus and love Him without ever seeing Him. "Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, ye love. In whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:8-9.)

#2: Sight may be the real problem! Have you ever thought that the real problem may be with the human senses? When we refer to the human senses, we are in effect exalting ourselves. A blind person must learn to depend upon other senses and other people. In the Bible the blind people are often commended. They trust more than those who can see. There is something special about the accounts of blind people in the New Testament.

Remember the two blind men sitting by the way outside of Jericho? They cried out for Jesus to heal them. The multitude rebuked them, but they cried even the more. Jesus stood still and asked them what they wanted. They said, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. So Jesus touched them and they received their sight. And they followed Him. (Matt. 20:29-34.)

Remember Isaiah’s and Jesus’ words: "For this people’s heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear." (Matt. 13:15-16.)

"And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire." (Matt. 18:9.)

The blind people in the Bible "see" better than those who have two healthy eyes. It may be that the real problem is not with faith, but with sight! As humans we begin to trust that which we see, the physical things around us more than the unseen. Paul said that Christians do not look at the things which are seen. (2 Cor. 4:18.)

There are many limitations to sight and hearing alone. Think about these:

a) Scientists will never be sure about how the world began if they depend upon the five senses and human reasoning alone. They will be forever searching, but never knowing by that method. Why? Because creation is a past event. It cannot be re-created or re-enacted. Whatever scientists find in their research, it will always be insufficient! It will lack the "proof" that they themselves demand.

Christians can know how the world began. "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." (Heb. 11:3.)

Through reason, we can know that there is a Creator. It is logical to say that "every house is built by some man." (Heb. 3:4.) In your experience, have your ever seen a house just come into being without a builder?? "He that built all things is God." There is nothing more reasonable, scientific and simple than that. We can know that God exists through reason and revelation.

b) You will never be sure about anything religious if you just depend upon your senses to know. Christianity is about things unseen and spiritual. God is a Spirit. You will never come to know God until you acknowledge the existence of your spirit within and the place of faith in knowing.

c) You will never know what is to come for humanity. No one can experience future things before they happen. You will be locked into a very small world if you think the only way to know is by your senses.

d) You will never be able to accept the notion of the resurrection of the dead until you see it happen. Must everyone experience an event first-hand before accepting it as true?? No. There are many true things in the world that we will never see or hear for ourselves.

We could ask, Is knowledge always complete? Is there something else that can always be known? We know the answers!

For this reason, a doctor gives warnings about even a very simple surgery. Space explorers are cautious and even worried every time a space craft is launched. They are concerned about what they do not know. Doubt and questioning can be very healthy; but it can also be very destructive.

In this world, we will always live with incomplete knowledge. This includes religious knowledge. "The secrets things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." (Deut. 29:29.) "And if any man think that he knows anything, he knoweth nothing as he ought to know." (1 Cor. 8:2.) A man was once told by Jesus, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." (Mark 9:23-24.)

However, we have all that we need to know. Peter wrote that God "hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness."

(2 Peter 1:3.) Paul warned about those who were "ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." (2 Tim. 3:7.) Jesus said, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:31-32.)

Doctors do not stop all surgeries because there are some things that they do not yet understand. Scientists do not stop their research. There are many things that they do know already. Christians must also continue with great assurance of faith. (Heb. 10:22.) Knowledge is not everything, an end within itself. Love is better than knowledge in some respects. (1 Cor. 8:1.)

We do not need to know everything in order to live. Most of us drive cars without knowing very much about how they work. We use telephones, televisions, microwaves, electrical appliances without understanding how they work. We do not need to know the answer to every question before we can believe in God and obey Him. Some of the mysteries of God have been revealed; many have not been. "Now we see through a glass darkly," said Paul.

Faith is not less certain than knowledge. It is a way of knowing. What we know by faith, we can be sure of it. There are many things that have not been revealed. But these do not overturn the things that we do know.

Paul often speaks of faith and knowing in the same context. Here are some examples. "Since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I believe and therefore I spoke (Psalm 116:10), we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus." (2 Cor. 4:13-14.) Note: We believe and therefore speak, knowing. This is a future event---our resurrection from the dead. We can know that it will happen.

"So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith and not by sight." (2 Cor. 5:6-7.)

"We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. . . For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." (2 Cor. 4:18-5:1.)

(Much of this material was adapted from a Q-A in The Magnolia Messenger, by Cecil May, Jr., March/April 2000, pp. 3 & 14. His section on intuition was deleted and mine on conscience was added.)