Tradition is prominent within the Roman Catholic Church. For example, the teaching on Mary is based on how she has been viewed traditionally by the Church. Catholic tradition also dictates that there is a papal succession right back to Peter, even though this is not biblical.

Reason is the standpoint of many Protestant Churches. It is often known as Modernism or Liberalism, but what it is doing is dismissing anything that the human mind cannot explain in a rational way. Therefore, the many miracles in the Bible are dismissed as having logical explanations. When Jesus fed the five thousand, the actions of the little boy shamed the adults and they all secretly produced the food that they had been keeping for themselves.

Of course, tradition and reason in some instances may have value. But the evangelical believer looks beyond them to the Bible as the ultimate authority.

The reason we can look to the Scriptures as our final court of appeal is because of their inspiration, it is God's word. 'All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.' (2 Timothy 3: 16)

Jesus said, 'If a man chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own'. (John 7: 17). In other words, Do what I ask and then you will know if what I say is right. Doing comes first, knowing comes later. Augustine said, I believe; therefore I know.

Commitment before knowledge was seen in our examples from study 1. We don't have knowledge about that particular chair, drink or meal, bus or driver. But we make a commitment based on our beliefs, on the assumptions that we have applied in our lives. And as we make the commitment our assumption is proved correct. And of course the more commitments that are proved to be correct, the greater our confidence becomes.