“What do you know for sure?”

On a podcast titled, “What We’re Learning,”[1] the speaker shared that when film critic Gene Siskel asked Oprah Winfrey on live television “What do you know for sure?” Oprah could not answer. Later, Oprah recalled that instance as one of her most embarrassing moments.

The podcast speaker went on to say how hearing that interview had motivated her to make a list of what she knew for sure. This person felt sure she could. Only after her attempt to do so did she admit the question itself proved unanswerable beyond a list of loves and preferences.

Loves and Preferences vs. Convictions

Beyond loves and preferences lies convictions. Loves and preferences can change. Convictions do not change.

Conviction accounts for beliefs and values that people will die for. For example, rather than renounce one’s faith in God in favor of allegiance to an earthly king, throughout history men (and women) have chosen to die rather than recant. Conviction holds where loves and preferences give way to pressure. From without or within.

Speaking of the “last days,” Jesus warned of false prophets and teachers who would appear to deceive (if possible) even “the very elect.”

“For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.”

matthew 24:24

Much of the New Testament warns about false teaching and how darkness and deception make each of us vulnerable to believing lies.

Test the Spirits

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

1 JOHN 4:1–6

“He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” 1 John 4:4

The Holy Spirit, who indwells every Christian, is the source of discernment between eternal, universal truths and the world’s lies.

Countless times in my life, I have relied on this truth, which initially I attributed to my Bible teacher Rose DuPree.[2] I thought she was the source of this profound statement.

You see, no one knows what the Bible says unless they read it for themselves. Second-hand knowledge is like warming up to a fire. Proximity. It feels good so long as you stand there, but once you move away, the warmth dissipates.

Which is why there is no second-hand faith.

It’s possible to build our entire lives on loves and preferences, which in the long run inevitably disappoint. Like shifting sand, our loves and preferences will change throughout our lifetime.

The Bible is the source of wisdom that warms from within. The fear of the LORD (or reverence for God as he reveals himself in the Bible) is the beginning of that wisdom. Rather than relying on someone else’s beliefs to make you feel comfortable, you can sustain that warmth only through personal connection to the source. That fire, “his word is in my heart like a fire,” [3] forges convictions.

Convictions, once formed, correspond to solid rock beliefs instead of the world’s shifting sand. Church, Bible studies, and Christian fellowship can contribute to growth, but cannot substitute for inward conviction.

Conviction accounts for the kind of assurance that sustains a person’s faith when tested.

So, I have been asking myself, “What, if anything, do I know for sure?”

And that’s what I hope to write about as I share with you from the Bible, as well as these books I am reading now. Stay tuned.

[1] https://emilypfreeman.com/podcast/191/

[2] https://footnotes2stories.com/o-humanity/drinking-from-a-pool-of-ignorance/

[3] Jeremiah 20:9