"Knowledge" and "epi-knowledge"

In last week's message, I mentioned the difference in 2 Peter 1:3-11 between "knowledge" in terms of facts (v. 6) and "knowledge" in terms of deep, relational knowledge (vv. 2, 3, 8). In Greek, the first word is gnosis and the second is epignosis - "knowledge" and "epi-knowledge." ("Epi" is a Greek prefix that means "upon" or "over.) In English, we just have the one word "knowledge", but several other languages make a distinction. For example, in Spanish, the words are saber and conocer. It's the difference between knowing facts about Christ, and knowing Christ personally.

There are a few cases when the words are somewhat interchangeable in Scripture, but most of the time, there's an important difference.

For example, Rom 1:18 describes people who fail to have "epi-knowledge" of God - they failed to know Him personally as God, not just failed to know facts about God. In Rom 3:20, the Old Testament Law didn't just bring us the factual knowledge about sin, but the experiential knowledge of sin - a big difference!

Paul prays in Eph 1:17 that his readers would grow in their epi-knowledge of Christ (not just their book knowledge), and in Col 1:9, he prays that the Colossians would have epi-knowledge of God's will. How much more amazing is experiential knowledge of God's will compared to factual knowledge of God's will! In the next verse, he prays for epi-knowledge of God Himself.

Other passages that speak of this epi-knowledge are: Rom 10:2; Eph 4:13; Phi 1:9; Col 2:2; 3:10; 1 Tim 2:4; 2 Tim 2:25; 3:7; Titus 1:1; Phm 1:6; Heb 10:26; 2 Pet 1:2, 3, 8; 2:20.

When we open our Bibles to study, we can settle for less by just looking for knowledge - facts, names, theological ideas, events, and attributes of God. Those are good and important things to know. But you can't "epi-know" a theological idea! Far greater is for us to open our Bibles looking for epi-knowledge of the Author - to get to know Him at a deeper and deeper level. Bible Study is really God-study - getting to know Him relationally and experientially.

Peter calls for both kinds of knowledge in 2 Pet 1:3-11 because both are important. But clearly, epi-knowledge is the star of the show! He prays for it in v. 2, it's how our faith begins in v. 3, and it's the goal of our spiritual growth in v. 8.

Faith is not the Opposite of Knowledge

One of the most common misunderstandings I see among skeptics of Christianity is the false dichotomy between faith and knowledge. Many people see that they are opposites - that the less knowledge we have means the more faith we need, and conversely, the more we learn, the less we need faith. That's a "false dichotomy" - an "either-or" situation that really isn't either-or.

This false dichotomy becomes a roadblock between someone and faith in Christ. If faith and knowledge are opposites, they reason, then eventually we'll learn enough that we won't need any faith at all.

First, there is no dichotomy here. Faith and knowledge are not opposites. Take an airplane, for example. You can know absolutely nothing about airplanes, and yet still put your trust in one in order to fly to another city. Or, you can know all that there is to know airplanes and still put your trust in one to make that exact same flight to that exact same city. Faith and knowledge are not opposites. As we learn more about how airplanes work, we don't need to decrease the amount of faith we must put in one in order to reach our destination.

Second, more knowledge can actually increase faith. The person who knows all about airplanes has even more reasons to put his faith in one. Someone who knows very little about airplanes may hesitate to put his faith in one because of unfounded fear. The more I learn about the Bible, the more my faith in Christ grows, not less. Likewise, the more I learn about the world around me, the more my faith in Christ grows, not less. The more scientific discoveries I learn about, the more I'm convinced that God designed and created this universe, and so my faith in Him grows ... by gaining knowledge, not by the absence of it.

Third, we will never exhaust the body of knowledge that can be learned. No matter how much we learn, we will not know all there is to know, and we will always have a need to trust God with the unknown. Critics accuse the faithful of having a "God of the gaps" - that if we can't explain something yet, we just assign it to God. Then we learn about it, and reduce our view of God accordingly. True, some people do that sometimes, but that does not explain all of faith, by any stretch of the imagination. Furthermore, secular humanists have a "science of the gaps" - that if they can't explain something yet, they just assign it to a godless scientific process. Granted that the scientific process will inevitable explain more and more, but to assume that there cannot be any activity of God to account for Creation is a science of the gaps as a working assumption.

Finally, God wants us to have an informed faith. He does not expect us to just believe for no reason ("blind faith"). He reveals all kinds of reasons to believe in Him. He invites us to consider the universe to see that He has created everything. He reveals why He has done certain things in human history. He explains how the Christ was the centerpiece of His plan from Day One. Jesus shows the scars in His wrists and side in order to use more knowledge to promote more faith. Jesus appeared to scores of people after the resurrection to offer knowledge to build faith in something very "unscientific."

"Informed faith" is not an oxymoron. It's a divine expectation.