Questions on Christianity

Awe is defined as an “overwhelming and bewildering sense of connection with a startling universe that is usually far beyond the narrow band of our consciousness”. [1]  Webster’s defines it as “an emotion variously combining dread, veneration, and wonder that is inspired by authority or by the sacred or sublime.   Awe is an emotion that does not receive much attention these days.  Why?  These days it is all about me.  We are so immersed with our electronic devices; we are so wrapped up in Face Book, Twitter, etc. that anything beyond our narrow interests does not gather much attention.

Astronomy and the rest of the sciences can provide an antidote to such an attitude.  The French scientist Henri Poincaré notes astronomy gives us perspective on our place in the universe and as he puts it “this is something which cannot cost too dear”. [2] Astronomy teaches us two things about ourselves.

First, compared to the universe, we are so miniscule; we are not even a speck of dust.  One cannot study this incredible universe of ours and not have a feeling of insignificance.  The immensity of the universe, the endless variety of planets, stars, nebula, and other astronomical objects, and the processes that we observe that we still do not totally understand should prompt the feeling of awe in all of us.

Second, despite of our insignificance compared to the universe, we somehow are able to at least partly comprehend this incredible universe.  How is this possible?  Maybe the author of Psalms is right–we are made with just a bit of God lacking in us (Psalms 8).

The problem is we do not take courses in science so we have no understanding how incredible our universe is.  Our light polluted cities blot out the night sky and most young people have never seen the Milky Way; they have no concept of what the night sky looks like other than what they see in pictures. The result is that we do not appreciate the incredible universe in which we live.

Bill Gates said in an interview in Rolling Stone magazine “The mystery and the beauty of the world is overwhelming amazing, and there’s no scientific explanation of how it came about”. [3]  And as we lose our awe of the universe, as we lose our ability and desire to observe and appreciate the natural world, we are losing one way of knowing about God (Romans 1:18-22).

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[1]   Paul Pearsall as quoted by William Sheehan, “The Importance of Awe”, Sky & Telescope, March 2016, p. 84.

[2]   Henri Poincaré, The Foundations of Science, Lancaster, PA:  The Science Press, 1946, p.289.

[3]   As quoted in Dispatches – Quotables, World Magazine, April 19, 2014, p. 16.  From an interview in Rolling Stone, March 27, 2014.

Sometimes faith seems to be an abstract concept suited only to scholarly discussion of religion and philosophy.  But faith does have an impact on our everyday existence and I ran across an example in an aviation magazine.

Randy Rizor is an Atlanta physician who has made medical volunteer flights to Haiti for over 21 years.  After all these years Rizor admits that Haiti is worse now than when he started. He states:  “On a macro scale, our efforts here have been a failure.  We’ve been doing this work for decades, and we can’t show that we’ve moved the needle in a positive direction”. [1]

God does not require that we change the world; he only requires that we, like the Old Testament characters listed in Hebrews 11, faithfully strive for the goal God has set for us.  The author of Hebrews tells us what our responsibilities are.

. . .let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. . . Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV

But there is a positive way of looking at what we need to do.  Dr. Rizor states that on a micro level he is helping “real people whose lives are better because we came and helped”. [2]  If we live our lives the way God wants us to live, then we can make a difference in other people’s lives and if enough of us do that we will make a difference in our world.

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[1]   Dave Hirschman, “One patient at a time”, AOPA Pilot, August 2015, p. 76.

[2]   Ibid., p. 76.

The past two postings have been about faith.  In reading what Hebrews has to say about this topic, I came across a statement that struck me as being a different way at looking at our relationship with God.

“Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God. . .”  (Hebrews 11:16 ESV)

Most of what the Bible says about being ashamed concerns us humans either being ashamed of what we did or what we did not do.  There are only three times in the Bible where it states that God is ashamed of us humans (Genesis 6:6-7, Mark 8:38 and Luke 9:26).

Why was God not ashamed to be called the God of the people listed in Hebrews 11?  Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice, Noah built an ark, Abraham left his homeland, and Moses cast his lot with the children of Israel rather than the household of Pharaoh to list a few of the individuals mentioned.  All those mentioned took action sometimes at great cost to themselves.  They took these actions based upon faith because they did not have proof God would fulfill his promises nor did they, in their lifetime, receive what God had promised.

The author of Hebrews then summarizes how we should emulate the examples of faith that are listed in Hebrews 11.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV)

The question each of us must answer is:  Is God ashamed that we call him our God?  Will God be ashamed of us because we did not have the correct belief or because our actions are so different from God’s character?

The last posting about faith was prompted by an article by Andrée Seu Peterson in World Magazine.  She mentions as aspect of faith of which I had not thought.  She observes:  “In fact, psychologically speaking . . .faith is always only exercised in the not having.  Once a person receives, the faith, in a sense, ends. . .” [1]  The definition of faith is:  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  (Hebrews 11:1-2 ESV) so once we have proof, once we know, once we have possession of what we desire, we no longer need faith.

Peterson’s article raised one other question in my mind.  In the past posting we discussed faith in the context of the fact that we are finite which means we must have faith to believe in God and Jesus as well as certain aspects of our relationship with them.  An additional aspect of our faith concerns the promises God has made to us.  One promise Jesus made was that if we have at least the faith of a grain of mustard seed, we can get what we desire (Luke 17:6).  Jesus also states we only have to ask God and we will receive that for which we ask.  He states that God wants to give us “good things” (Matthew 7:7-11).  So Is faith also about getting stuff?  The prosperity theology seems to indicate that it does.

The problem is that we do not always get that for which we pray. Hebrews 11 is the hall of fame of faith and it lists many who “died in faith, not having received the things promised“ (Hebrews 11:13 ESV).  So when we pray for the salvation of a loved one, we must recognize that God will not violate the free will of that person.  If that person continues to reject God’s offer of salvation, our prayers will not be answered regardless of how much faith we have.  We might have just interviewed for our dream job and prayed that we get that job but unless we have the education, knowledge, experience, and temperament for that job we will not get it no matter how much faith we have.

God does want us to prosper but his first priority is not our physical wealth but our spiritual wealth.  The ultimate purpose of faith is not about getting what we want, it is aligning our soul so it becomes like God.  Once our soul is aligned with God what we desire and ask for will change.

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[1]   Andrée Seu Peterson, “Faith is the thing”, World Magazine, February 21, 2015, p. 71.

What is faith?  When asked many would recall the humorous story of the little boy who replied:  It is believing in something you know is not true.  As with most humor, there is an element of truth in this little boy’s statement for faith is the certainty that something is true even if we do not have proof for it.  Faith says there are things beyond our current knowledge and understanding that are true.  As the Bible tells us:  Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  (Hebrews 11:1-2 ESV)

In this blog we have repeatedly emphasized that we are finite and we have explored how being finite impacts various Christian doctrines.  Being finite is why faith is essential.  We must have faith because we do not know everything; we must have faith because we are so limited in all aspects of our lives.  As Timothy McDermott says in his commentary on Summa Theologiæ:  “Faith and hope are virtues of this life only, for in themselves they carry an element of imperfection:  in the life to come they will be replaced by other gifts of God’s friendship, vision replacing faith and possession hope”. [1]  Aquinas states:  Faith “resembles knowing in giving firm assent, but resembles doubting, suspecting and holding opinions in having no finished vision of the truth” [2]

So what is faith?  Aquinas believes that faith “is an act of mind not determined by reason but by will.” [3]  God has given us free will.  It is up to us to decide how we live our lives and what kind of world we want to create.  Because we are finite, we need help in this endeavor and we find such help in Jesus, “the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2 ESV).

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[1]   Timothy McDermott, editor, St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiæ, Norte Dame, IN:  Christian Classics, 1989, p. 327.

[2]   McDermott, p. 331.

[3]   McDermott, p. 331.

Janie B. Cheaney’s article “The real idiocracy” in World Magazine is spot on in describing what passes as discourse in politics these days.  We don’t discuss ideas we congratulate ourselves on how right we are and we note how sad it is that everyone who disagrees with us is wrong.  Anyone who dares to question our ideas we call names and characterize them as lacking in some intellectual or emotional function.

My question is:  Is discourse within the Christian community the same in regards to our theology?  If someone raises questions about, for example the doctrine of the trinity, do we consider those questions or do we label such a person a heretic and ignore them?

Everyone agrees that we are finite which means we are fallible yet somehow we believe our doctrine is infallible.  How can that be?  The reality is that our doctrine is fallible.  All the different Christian religions and denominations throughout history that have held very different beliefs prove that.  What we should have learned from history and human nature is that our search for God’s truth can never end.  Instead of ignoring questions about our theology we should engage in a meaningful discourse with other Christians.

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[1]   Janie B. Cheaney, “The real idiocracy”, World Magazine, May 28, 2016, p. 24.