For the Church to Be Shy About Saying "We Know" Is An Act of Self-Betrayal

With the "emerging/ postmodern" mindset there is a tendency to be "unsure", "delicate", and undefined in communicating the faith. There is a mistrust and disregard for those who claim to know and proclaim what they know.  The desire is for conversation, not proclamation.  I certainly do not desire a domineering communication, but the blurred insecurity of a faith with no spine or clarity masquerading as humility is not the same thing as Christian proclamation.  Dr. Wells reminds, 

[The apostle's] proclamation was not simply a telling of their private experience, nor just their own personal opinion.  It was not what had become truth for them.  It was a proclamation about truth for all.  The gospel, which is the same gospel for all people, in all ages, and at all times, is "the word of truth" (Eph. 1.13; Col. 1.5; 2 Thess. 2.13; Heb. 10.26).  Faith is about "obeying the truth" (Gal. 5.7; 1 Pet. 1.22).   Those who are condemned are condemned because they do not believe "the truth" (2 Thess. 2.12).  Those who are depraved in mind are depraved because they are "deprived of the truth" (1 Tim. 6.5).  This faith, which is all about the truth that God has given us, is delivered through his truth (2 Cor. 4.2) and is made effective by the Spirit who is the Spirit of truth ( 1 John 5.6).  Christianity, in short, is from first to last all about truth!  It is about he who is the Way, the Truth, and the life. {76}

In the biblical view, we know the truth and not just arbitrary rules and approximations.  This knowledge of what is "there" includes the truth about Christ ( 1 John 5.20), about God (2.13-14), his character (3.16), his redemptive purposes (3.5), our own nature (1.6, 8-11), and the... "world" we inhabit that is filled with "the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions" and is also "passing away along with its desires" (2.16-17).  

On all these matters we have God's truth, and for the church to be shy about saying, "We know...We know...We know" is an act of self-betrayal. {80}

It is through Christ and by his Word that we once again begin to enter the paradise we lost and that has left us adrift in a sea of endless meaninglessness.  It is by this truth , as it were, that we enter a port.  To change the image, it is by this truth that we enter a realm where everything is real and nothing is fake.  Should this not be the church's message? {88}