Skepticism: Part One

Part One: I think the greatest support for skepticism amongst the bible is found in its references to “fear and trembling”, but also to being, “poor of spirit/humble/meek”. The first part I would like to talk about is the reference in Philippians 2:12 to the concept of working our your faith with fear and trembling. Paul congratulates and exhorts them for their compliance to his teachings in doing such a thing as fearing and trembling. What I have found after careful consideration is that this fear and discomfort to the level of mortification is on account of the reliability and validity of their faith. I believe the concept here is that the Philippians feared fallacy and heresy to the point of physical trembling. To imagine someone so intensely occupied with the weight of their conclusions challenges me more than I care to mention. It counter exemplifies the culture I see today, even among Christians! I see many people lackadaisically putting their eternal fate in the balance with only another persons testimony as verification. Trusting their entire existence after death to a claim made by someone they may not know, have no reason to trust, and can never really be positively sure of as telling the truth. This, I think, exemplifies a level of particularism that is extremely unhealthy and dangerous. The main reason I think this rash acceptance is foolish is the habitual behavior of human beings to hold to conclusions of the past. I learned in creative communications that the hardest thing to do is to convince someone that their conclusion is wrong. It is coined in nationalistic terms as ethnocentrism, and if we can apply that principle to religious beliefs then we find a large error in the practice of thousands and thousands of easily convinced Christians.
2 Corinthians 7:15 is yet another example of how skepticism, a.k.a “fear and trembling”, fit into my Christian world view. I had to do a surmountable amount of research into this example, even to the point of an interlinear scriptural analyzer. I found that when Paul writes to the Corinthians that they, “...were all obedient, receiving him with fear and trembling...”, he was not referring to an act of welcoming or honoring. If you delve into the context of this situation we find that the term “receiving” is meant to portray coherence, obedience and or acceptance. In other words, they weighed out his teachings rather than just blindly following. They fought with his truths, wrestled with his claims, and forced themselves to seek a proof from God in order to invest their trust. Yet again I see that even timothy, who was spoken very well of, was , in accordance to the teaching of Paul (ie “in obedience”) questioned and challenged. To say that the Christians of today know how to fight and wrestle and prove themselves as truth seekers, I would not venture to state as such. What does this mean to my Christian world view? It means that I have learned to correspond with the teachings of Paul, Timothy, and the skeptics in some sense.
Finally, I have found that the passage found in Matthew chapter 5:3-6,11 really can be applied to the pursuit of knowledge smoothly. 1 – Blessed are the poor in spirit: This, to me means to be aware of our lack of ability to know God's truth and to approach spirit matters in a reverent and respectful way. 2 – Blessed are those who mourn: The tendency to be able to admit one's conclusions are indeed wrong and readily await correction. 3 – Blessed are the meek: to be conscious of our tendencies of fallacy and to embrace them as reasons for humility whilst forming beliefs. 4 – Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness: to be constantly and consistently seeking God's knowledge as one who seeks food on an empty stomach. 5 – Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me: to stand for what we have concluded to be God's truth; to hold fast despite adverse accusations; to value more than acceptance the absolute truth and dependability of God's revelations to us. This final concept especially fits with my world view in terms of skepticism. I have proven so far how skepticism fits into Christianity, and now I prove where it does not. When we have respectfully approached the invaluable truth of God, when we have mourned fallacy and wrestled with uncertainty, when we have humbly sought the righteousness of God's knowledge with a hunger; we stand firm and do not let our truth be compromised.