How Do We Know What We Know? Part Three

There Are No Atheists
When God created the first man and woman they of course shared the same worldview. God was the creator and owner of all things and all truth came from Him. There was no way to acquire knowledge except to hear the Word of God and define our perceptions in accordance with His Word. Eve was the first to try an alternative worldview. Being encouraged to do so by Satan she changed her worldview to include other means of learning knowledge outside of a dependency on God.

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” Genesis 3:6

Satan was telling the truth, where as Adam and Eve had only known good, (for why would a good God teach them anything that wasn’t good), they now knew good AND evil. They willfully decided to seek knowledge apart from God. The fall of man did something terrible to nature, to the promise of eternal life and to the way we perceive the world around us. Our minds had been great tools for learning and discovery before the fall; after the fall our minds became tools of delusion that work overtime to hide our guilty conscience from a holy God. We will discuss atonement in a later chapter but for now I want us to understand that the fall deeply effected our ability to know the truth.

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Romans 1:18-23

All mankind, all who have ever lived, are alive now and shall ever live know that there is a God and that we have offended Him. The apostle Paul writing under the inspiration of God in the first chapter of Romans is telling us that there is no such thing as an atheist. The person that says he does not believe in God is really saying, “I cannot face God for I have offended Him. I am justly under his wrath so I will do anything and everything to escape this Truth. I will create alternate ‘truths’ that are really delusions, but like the fig leaves that my grandparents sewed together they will cover my guilt.”

So men and women are addicted to fig leaves. We sew fig leaves of evolution, hedonism, drunkenness, religion, loud music, drug use and whatever we can find to stop the Truth from indicting us and reminding us that we owe a great debt - man has sinned against his Creator.


Now that we have established our authority to be the Word of God (and the God of the Word) and committed our hearts to this first principle we are ready to build upon a solid foundation.

(Go To Part Four)