False Knowledge

Scripture

1 Timothy 6:20–21 ESV

20 O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,” 21 for by professing it some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with you.

Introduction

Between the years of 1760 and about 1870 the world was transformed by a series of inventions.

This period of time known as the Industrial Revolution saw the invention of the steam engine, the cotton gin, and large, mechanized weaving machinery.

Jobs that once took weeks or months to do by hand could now be accomplished in days or hours.

The increase in labor efficiency changed the way people lived by making products less expensive and by changing the skill set needed to produce things like cloth.

Like the Industrial Revolution, the Information Age has completely altered the world’s economy and the way that we live.

We’ve moved from an economy driven by the machinery of the industrial revolution to one built upon the foundation of science, engineering, technology, and math.

Computing devices have affected part of every part of our lives.

From our tablets, smart phones, and lap tops to our educational system and work places nearly every aspect of our lives is affected.

The pace of new technology being introduced on the consumer market is unprecedented in human history.

Retailers tell us that by the time a computer hits the shelves of a store it’s already practically obsolete.

In other words, we’re discovering new and better computing solutions faster than we can produce the machines.

Like the Industrial Revolution, the dawning of the Information Age has completel

As part of this advance in the amount of what science claims to know, a significant number of the men and women practicing scientific disciplines claim to have discovered information that contradicts or disproves Scripture.

How should you, as a Christian respond in the face of such claims?

How should we view the Bible in a world that believes that science and fact reside on higher level of truth than Scripture and personal faith in Christ?

Context

Paul is writing this letter to Timothy, his son in the faith, who is pastoring the church in Ephesus.

He’s giving instructions on how Timothy should conduct himself as a leader in the church.

He’s giving instructions on how Timothy should conduct himself as a leader in the church.

Paul’s Instructions To Timothy

This is part of the mentoring process that Paul used to bring several men into positions of ministry.

Guard What’s Been Entrusted to You

Paul wants Timothy to understand that he’ been given the truth.

2 Peter 1:3 ESV

3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,

We have been given everything that we need to know in order to successfully live this life in a manner pleasing to God.

Christ died for us on the cross to pay the penalty of our sin and God has given us His word so that we may know how we should live every day in order to please Him.

Unlike the constantly changing world that we live in, Scripture is constant, solid, and never needs to be amended or updated.

Psalm 119:89–93 ESV

89 Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. 90 Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast. 91 By your appointment they stand this day, for all things are your servants. 92 If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. 93 I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life.

Psalm 119

So we see that God’s word does not change, but how do we know that some new discovery of science ins’t going to supersede it, change the way we need to interpret some part of it, or cause us to have to abandon a portion of it?

What about the Theory of Evolution or The Big Bang Theory?

Shouldn’t they affect our view of the creation accounts in the Bible?

Proverbs 30:

Proverbs 30:5–6 KJV 1900

5 Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. 6 Add thou not unto his words, Lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.

You can trust God’s word.

Psalm 12:6–7 ESV

6 The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times. 7 You, O Lord, will keep them; you will guard us from this generation forever.

The Scripture is true regardless of what modern science or culture says.

Avoid Worldly Chatter

When the world wants to discuss controversial topics, they generally don’t want to discuss them in the context of what God’s word says.

When discussing the abortion issue they will say, “It’s the woman’s body, therefore, it’s her right to choose.”

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 ESV

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

We must first know what the Scripture has to say about the issues of our day.

Then we must frame our conversations about these things in terms of what the Bible has to say about the topic we’re discussing.

When we stay within the parameters set out by God’s word, we are safe.

Where Scripture speaks, we speak and where Scripture is silent we should tread very lightly if we decide to speculate.

When we allow the world to dictate the grounds upon which ideas will be exchanged, we can’t bear witness effectively because the discussion quickly becomes your individual opinion or belief versus theirs.

The problem is that the world then thinks that their worldly opinion is just as valid as any other, including Scripture.

False Knowledge

What is false knowledge?

Because of the ease with which we access information, everybody thinks that they can do research.

After all, a quick Google search will produce more information on a topic than you could read in a day in most cases.

Sadly many people read the top 2 or 3 articles from the list and call themselves having done their research.

Unfortunately, we rarely ever stop to ask whether we can trust the accuracy or the source of the information that we’ve read.

If the consensus of the articles that we’ve read is that man is causing the climate to shift in ways never before seen, we tend to take that at face value and assume that the scientists know what they’re talking about.

We entrust our confidence to the image of the highly trained researcher acting in good faith: observing things that can be measured, drawing logically valid conclusions, and reporting those findings accurately.

The question is, “Are the scientists living up to the image that we have of them in our minds? Are they observing, drawing valid conclusions, and reporting their findings faithfully?”

Charles Lyell

Lyell lived from 1797 to 1875.

He was a Scottish lawyer and the most influential geologist of his time.

He wrote a widely published book called “Principles of Geology.”

He proposed the theory of the geologic column.

The idea that the earth is made up of layers of material stacked on upon the other.

Imagine a giant onion.

In the early 1830’s Lyell proposed to give ages to the layers of the earth.

The problem is that the methods used by science to attempt to determine those ages wasn’t invented until 1946 by Willard Libby.

So, where did Lyell get his information and was he acting according to our mental picture of the faithful scientist?

In a letter to a friend, Lyell wrote,”I trust I shall make my sketch of the progress of geology popular. Old [Rev. John] Fleming is frightened and thinks the age will not stand my anti-Mosaical conclusions and at least that the subject will for a time become unpopular and awkward for the clergy, but I am not afraid. I shall out with the whole but in as conciliatory a manner as possible.”

Lyell had an agenda.

He was not acting the part of the honest scientist.

He hated the Bible and set out to get the clergy to accept this new “scientific” theory of his.

Lyell was a contemporary of Charles Darwin and wanted to give support to the Theory of Evolution.

So where did he get the ages for the layers of the earth?

He made them up.

85% of the earth does not have even 3 of Lyell’s layers in the correct order.

In spite of these facts, however, Lyell’s theories are still published most of the Geology text books used in class rooms today.

Ernst Haeckel

Professor of Zoology from 1865 to 1909.

In a letter to his mistress, written when he was 64, he explained how he began as a Christian but after studying evolution became a free-thinker and pantheist.

Ian Taylor writes,

‘He became Darwin’s chief European apostle proclaiming the Gospel of evolution with evangelistic fervor, not only to the university intelligentsia but to the common man by popular books and to the working classes by lectures in rented halls.’

The problem is that, to Haeckel, human reasoning was much more important than facts and evidence.

So numerous were his fraudulent claims about his scientific discoveries proving the truth of evolution, that his colleagues accused him of academic fraud.

When faced with the challenge to show his evidence or admit his fraud, Haeckel confessed that he had faked many of his proofs.

He said, “I should feel myself under the greatest weight of shame were it not for the fact that so many of my colleagues are guilty of the same crime.”

We are Not Opposed to Science

People have built entire careers on falsehoods.

They’ve earned their reputations and fortunes based upon promoting the fanciful fabrications of men who have hardened their hearts against truth and are willing to go to any lengths to avoid having to do business with a Sovereign God who places upon them moral requirements.

As Christians, we are not opposed to science and we do not fear that any real scientific discovery will contradict the scripture.

What we are opposed to is men such as Lyell and Haeckel engaging in personal bias and calling it science.

We aren’t saying that because these men were bad actors evolution is false.

We are saying that evolution is false because of the evidence that demonstrates that it can’t possible be true.

Not everything that calls itself fact or science is really true knowledge.

Evolution, Climate change as it is promoted by politicians, and many modern methods of determining the meaning of written or spoken words are examples of things that we should reject as false.

There are many people still practicing the principles of science faithfully.

We shouldn’t reject everything that marches under the banner of science.

What we should reject is false knowledge masquerading as truth.

Straying From the Faith

Paul warns Timothy that embracing false doctrine and false knowledge can lead to rejection of the faith.

We see an example of this from Haeckel’s letter to his mistress.

He started out with a Biblical world view and was converted by the false gospel of evolution to one who walked away from the truths of God’s word.

The tragedy of his decisions is that not only did he not have any concrete evidence to lead him to think that the Bible was in error, he actually faked evidence to lead others astray as well.

Conclusion

Perhaps you’re here today and believing in false knowledge has prevented you from trusting God for your salvation.

We’d love to talk with you more about that and pray with you.

Maybe you started out with a Biblical world view and were swayed by what you thought was science to doubt your faith.

This is your opportunity to repent and return to the truth.

God’s word doesn’t stand as true simply because it says that it’s true.

It stands as true because of the nature and character of the One who gave it to us.

We can see proof of it’s truth in that thousands of years after its writing, no true scientist operating under sound principles has ever found a shred of evidence to contradict it.

We can have confidence in the knowledge that no one acting in good faith ever will.