The Search for Certainty

A good preacher friend of mine spoke recently of the need to have an absolute to fall back on when life itself begins to overwhelm you. All of our assumptions about life begin to collapse in the wake of tragedy or other disorienting events. When the last domino has fallen what will still be standing? For many the answer is 'nothing.'

Rene Descartes tried to determine absolute certainty and came up with "I think therefore I am." But in the end my own self-existence isn't much to rely on, since that can be snatched from me at any moment. A noble attempt indeed, but I've got to have something greater than "I think therefore I am."

How does one know what is true? It isn't as easy as saying "because the Bible told me so." I can choose to believe the Bible is true, but is believing knowing? (depends on what one means by 'knowing'). Besides as I have said in another blog, I can't rely on the Bible exclusively, because it requires my interpretation. The Bible is not my starting point rather something (or better said someone) is much more fundamental.

My starting point is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Even this must be believed by faith, but that doesn't make it unreasonable. Ultimately, whatever you choose to believe is faith and whatever your faith is requires personal commitment. If you are an atheist, then you believe that we live in a closed universe and that nature is all there is. That, too, is a statement of faith. Certainty cannot be attained through scientific measurement, as if science itself is free from subjective interpretation.

Creation would be a good starting point, except we need a little help to get there. You see no one human was around when it happened. But people did see Jesus die. And people with a great deal to lose for saying so, said they saw him alive again, which of course we know through the Bible. Lesslie Newbigin says this is the whole new starting point in our quest for certainty, for truth.

When we accept the resurrection, we accept the God of creation, because in Jesus, God has made everything new. We have seen God put into action a new creation, which we participate in personally. It is a creation to be completed when we enter the new heaven and the new earth. So, the resurrection enables us to look back to God as the original Creator of the universe, as well as forward to the God who will again make everything new (the new heaven and new earth). The resurrection holds it all together.

A person who tries build on the type of certainty that we see with Descartes' search will end up in nihilism. There is no such thing as completely objective certainty. If there was, then faith would be non-existent. We walk by faith and that walk is personal, and for Christians rooted in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When my last domino falls, I can see even more clearly the certainty that Jesus is alive!