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Among the great events of the 18th Century is, of course, the American Revolution. But ask historians and they will tell you that there is still another 18th Century revolution with greater and even more far-reaching impact than the American Revolution. As unlikely as that may seem, those who study such things assure me that it is true. The so-called “Kantian Revolution” begun by an obscure philosophy professor in Germany, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), has changed the world in far more significant ways than our American revolution.
Kant maintained that human beings cannot know God through observation involving any of our five senses, and that moreover, we cannot know God through reasoning. God may be a practical sort of idea, but we can never be really sure that we are not imagining Him. Others before Kant had maintained this position, but no one prior to Kant had explicated this position with such force, such precision, and, such thoroughness.
It is said that Kant built a wall so high, you can’t go over it, so wide you can’t go around it, so deep you can’t go under is, and so thick you can’t go through it. Today this assumption is nearly universally accepted.
It’s hard for us today to understand just how transformative the impact of this philosopher’s work was on the world. Suffice it to say that every major philosophical movement of the 19th and 20th Centuries descended from this one man’s work. Marxism, Communism, Relativism, Nihilism, Nazism, as well as all the more respectable philosophical movements, all were born of this man’s work.
Theologians today, at least those who haven’t simply given up on biblical theology, tell us that the most important task for Christian theologians today is to try to break through this epistemological wall that separates man from God. Many church leaders simply smile at this task as if only someone very naive would even attempt it, or maybe they give a little wink.
What so many have failed to recognize and failed to appreciate is that someone has already broken down this wall. Jesus has provided a door through which we might enter a genuine and personal relationship with God.
A lot of people discount Christianity because they think, as Kant convincingly argued, that there is no human way to know God. They assume that Christianity is but one more myth, a figment of human imagination. But what these critics of Christianity fail to understand is that Christ himself is in full agreement with Kant. There is no “human” way to know God, at least not directly, and the Lord was the first to assert this truth. Kant hasn’t done Christianity a disservice. Let me connect the dots so as to explain this seeming contradiction.
Let’s take a look at what Jesus has to say in John Chapter 14. Jesus had been asked by His disciples to show them God. How could this request be honored? If Jesus were merely human, there would be no way for Him to show the disciples something that He Himself, as a human being, could not see. The dilemma is solved when Jesus reveals to His disciples that He Himself is the direct revelation of God’s incarnate essence. He and the Creator are one. Jesus is the way, the only way, to bridge the Kantian Wall. He is the sole and perfect metaphor pointing to and showing us God the Father thus transcending the epistemological limitations of the Kantian Wall. “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is at the Father’s side, has made Him known” (John 1:18, Berean Study Bible).
But… and this is a very important “but”. The words of the Lord in themselves are not enough to result in convincing faith. The Holy Spirit is an essential part of the equation. In 1 Corinthians 12:3 we read, “… no one can say Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit.”
And here we are. We have arrived at our topic for today. Today is Pentecost Sunday. On this day each year we remember the events which occurred on Pentecost so many centuries ago. On that day the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit came upon the Christian community. The Holy Spirit was poured out on Christ’s disciples bringing the strength of convincing faith. The Apostle Peter began to preach with great conviction on Pentecost because of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on that day. That same strength of conviction is still afforded Christians today, for as we read in Romans 8:14-16, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God, for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”
To many it may seem that the “Kantian Revolution” has pretty much wrecked our world today, but this is not true. Acknowledging the limitations of human epistemology is the first step in coming to Christ. Before Jesus can be seen as “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6a), one must first realize that “no man cometh unto the Father but by Jesus” (John 14:6b). Simon Peter was the first to acknowledge this: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). In our efforts fulfill Christ’s commission to us that we go and teach all nations (see Matthew 28:19), let us begin here. Thank you Immanuel Kant!
When the limits of human epistemology have been recognized, then the realization dawns through the illumination of the Holy Spirit that, as we read in Acts 4:12, “there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved.”
I believe not only that the evangelization of the world in the 21st Century is possible, but that we are at the brink of an explosion of new insight brought about by the Holy Spirit breaking forth into the world setting it ablaze spiritually with the knowledge of God. Yes, the wall that separates man and God really is so tall that by human means you can’t get over it, so deep that by human means you can’t get under it, and so wide that by human means you can’t get around it, and so thick that by human means you can’t get through it, but you can, yes you can, come in through the door—and that door is Jesus Christ.
Those of us who love the Lord and treasure His teachings would like to share the gift of faith. In seeking to do so, our task is not to try in our own strength to smash down the wall that separates man from God, and certainly it is not to pretend that the wall is not there. Our task is to share the teachings of the New Testament with others, introducing them to Jesus. The rest is in the hands of the Holy Spirit, their counselor, whose ability it is, not ours, to convince them of the truth of the Gospel. No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3b).
If we but embrace, preach and teach and correctly explain the Pentecost message, all of the threatening changes that have come about as a result of the Kantian Revolution will be as nothing. I do not see the Kantian Revolution as having killed Christianity as some would say. The teachings of Jesus Christ, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, provide a divine way by which the Kantian wall is bridged.
Postscript: While Kant’s “wall” has been used over and over by those trying to prove there is no God, it should be noted that Kant was probably as close to being a Christian as one can possibly be while not understanding or for whatever reason failing to embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He recognized in the human being a search for happiness best satisfied by living a virtuous life, and, he saw this as evidence of “a priori” knowledge (what we would call a soul). Moreover, he saw this a priori knowledge as evidence (but not proof) that there is a God and a heaven, and that God is the “summum bonum”, the highest good and “ultimate concern” of man.
I am familiar with John Wesley’s (1703-1791) sermon, “Almost a Christian”, and George Whitefield’s (1714-1770) version by the same title, but seeing the “almost but not quite persuaded Christian” as permanently outside the sheepfold as Wesley and Whitefield seem to suggest gives me no comfort, as well it should not. Moreover, I cannot see Kant as “an unprofitable servant”, and my heart aches for him.
To be honest, it is hard for me to feel the same sadness for all the lost souls of this world, and I am reminded by the deep and painful lament I feel in my heart for Immanuel Kant that this is the way God feels for each and every person who has not yet found their way home. And even as Jesus wept for Lazarus (John 11:35), and then called Lazarus forth from the grave (John 11:38-44), I too, out of my love for Immanuel Kant, cry out, “Father, hear me…take off his grave clothes and let him go” on behalf of this precious man. Would that my heart felt this same concern for each and every soul lost in the fog and seeking the harbor’s breast! I know that my Lord did.
(If you found this sermon to be helpful, please visit us at www.HeritageRestorationProject.org)
