Costa Rica and The Recovery from the Fall

Habbakuk 2:14

Well, we survived our 18 hour bus ride from Panama City, Panama to San Jose, Costa Rica. It started at 11pm, so we slept pretty much until we had to get out at the Panama border.Costa Rica is beautiful - we got to see a lot of it from the bus. Unfortunately, we didn't have much opportunity for photos. We've been in San Jose since Saturday, and I never realized that any areas in Central America could be this temperate in climate. It's been cool during the mornings and it begins raining in the afternoons at approximately 1pm every day.

We had a pretty powerful teaching on the "Recovery from the Fall" by Mike Breininger last week. He really tried to present the foundations of a biblical worldview -- integrating faith and life in a cohesive way. This is the first time I've had a chance to start reflecting back on the teaching, though I've been wanting to. I'll try to share some of the most impactful / thought provoking points here.

Two Types of Knowledge?

Observable knowledge - that which can be seen, experienced, and reasoned within the context of the natural world (an observation of God's creation and the laws that govern it). Oftentimes, observable knowledge is elevated as the only true knowledge.

Revealed knowledge - that which cannot be discovered by the observation of the natural world - must be revealed by God to man. The primary source of revealed knowledge is the Bible.

When we try to answer some very foundational questions about life by extrapolating from observed knowledge, we end up with quite a contrast from the answers we get from revealed knowledge:

1. Where did I come from? 
1. Observed response: I probably evolved from a monkey. 
2. Revealed response: I was uniquely created by a loving God who wanted to have an eternal relationship with me.
2. Why am I here? 
1. Observed response:  I am here to get the most for me out of this life experience.
2. Revealed response:  I was created to give God glory and to enjoy him forever.
3. Where am I going to go after I die?
1. Observed response: I'm going to go into a hole in the ground or...
2. Revealed response: I will be judged and eternally end up in heaven or in hell.

You can imagine that the way we answer these questions probably has a pretty big effect on how we view ourselves, our value, the value of other people, and how we live.

I had planned to write more, but that's it for now. This was only a tiny bit of the teaching. It'd be interesting to hear your thoughts!