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Ep. 403 The Difference Between Believing and Knowing Something

Ep. 403 The Difference Between Believing and Knowing Something

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Shows Main Idea – Believing something and knowing something are two different things. Though knowing something is more important than believing something, we connect them because whatever it is we know, it flows into our belief systems. And our beliefs systems will pour into our practices. The formula is knowledge creates beliefs, which form our practices. If our knowledge comes from something outside of God’s Word, it will alter our belief systems and practices, which could be detrimental to any individual and their relationships.

Life Over Coffee · Ep. 403 The Difference Between Believing and Knowing Something

Show Notes

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Practical Definitions

The formula is knowledge builds our beliefs which flow into our practices. Let me illustrate

  • Someone believes the earth is flat: how do they know? There could be several answers to this, though we reject all of them because our knowledge source is different from theirs. 
  • Someone believes they were born into the wrong body. How do they know that? Do you see how their supposed knowledge infects their beliefs and practices?

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The Best Knowledge

  • Christians have a transcendent moral authority, the ultimate, transcendent knowledge base.
  • If someone said the world was flat, we would go to God’s Word. The flat-earther does not ascribe to the Bible, so we’re competing with them about their source of knowledge.
  • Our goal would be to help them ascribe to a sufficiency of Scripture worldview. We would do similarly for the gender-fluid person.

Full Discipleship

  • Disciplers constantly analyze a person’s belief systems as we work through why they do what they do. But to do that, you must address their knowledge base.
  • If you try to change beliefs and practices without addressing the sources (knowledge), you won’t help them ultimately. E.g., what is the cause of quarrels and conflict (James 4:1-3)?
  • Disclaimer: Not everyone has the gifting to do this in complex situations.

Helping Victims

  • Sometimes a victim of a horrific sin will not work through what happened to them from a sufficiency of Scripture worldview. Their faulty knowledge base skews their belief system, which causes terrible practices.

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Future Outworkings

  • Any bad experience that the Bible does not inform accurately will fuel faulty belief systems.
  • Knowing these things is a call to sobriety and scrutinizing how and why we respond to difficulties.
  • If our marching orders do not come from God’s Word, our experiences will always lead us down the wrong path.
    • Horrific Childhood: This child could come to salvation as an adult, and legalism’s temptations would be alluring.
    • Harmful Relationship: Cynicism could be one of many sin patterns that feed into their belief system because their experience has more governance over them than God’s Word.
    • Bullying and Alienation: This pattern could lead a person to isolate as they begin to believe the lie that they are not a worthy image-bearer.
    • Bad Church Experience: The congregant maps their experience with a cliquish church or authoritarian pastor over how all churches are.

Call to Action

  1. Describe your knowledge base. Is your warehouse of knowledge from the Bible or your experience primarily? How do you know? What would a close friend say about you?
  2. Talk about a situation where your experience managed you more than God’s Word. What was the result? Have you re-filtered that experience through God’s Word, or does it continue to control you?
  3. Discuss a lousy situation that used to manage your thoughts and emotions, but you realized it and became biblio-centric?
  4. Do you know a person who has an experience that manages them, not realizing how God’s Word could dramatically change their beliefs and practices? Will you think through a plan to help them?

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