Questions on Christianity

Jesus tells us the entire Old Testament Law and Prophets are fulfilled in just two commandments (Matthew 22:37-40):  Love God with all our heart, soul, and mind and love our neighbor as our self

Now, I can understand the second commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves because our neighbors are very similar to us and the Bible gives us plenty of examples of how we are to love them (I Corinthians 13, Luke 10:25-34, Matthew 25:31-46).

But what does it mean to love God?  Pascal, a Christian philosopher, believes that:

God is infinitely beyond our comprehension, since, being indivisible and without limits, he bears no relation to us.  We are therefore incapable of knowing either what he is or whether he is.” [1]

If God is unknowable, how can we have a relationship with, let alone love, God?  The answer is Jesus tells us and demonstrates to us who God is.  How do we know who Jesus was and that what he tells us about God is true?  We know it through two different avenues:  the Bible and personal experience.

Knowing about God through a book, the Bible, gives us information but does it enable us to have a relationship with or to love God?  Can I have a relationship with Abraham Lincoln by reading a book about him?  Can I love Lincoln?  I might love what he did but I cannot love him because I do not know him as a person.

Christians say they have a personal relationship with God and Jesus.  After all John 16:8 does tell us that the Holy Spirit communicates to us directly and we can pray to God.  Also, Christianity teaches that God is somehow involved with each of us on a very personal level (Matthew 10:29-31).  However, how do we know what we feel or think about a particular subject is God talking to us or is our personal opinion?  How do we sort what God says from the endless chatter of our mind?

God seems to hide himself from us (Isaiah 45:15) or at least we can say that he does not make himself readily apparent.  Most everything we know about God we must take on faith.  Why does God hide himself?  Maybe the purpose of our lives is for us to know who we are.  Only when we know who we are can we determine if we have anything in common with God.  Only when we know ourselves is it possible to know if we want to have a relationship with God.

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[1]   Krailsheimer, A. J., Translator.  Pascal:  Pensées (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England:  Penguin Books, 1966) p. 150.

Why did God construct our existence so that we must believe in things we cannot know or see?  Why is faith so important to God?  I do not think that faith is that important to God.  Faith is just a means to accomplish his purposes.

We must have faith because we are finite.  If we knew all there was to know, we would not need faith.  If we knew with certainty that God exists, we would not need faith in God.  If we knew for certain Jesus rose from the dead, we would not need to have faith that what the Bible tells us is true.

Why did God make us finite?  Because we are finite, everyone, no matter if we are secular or religious, must have faith in something.  No one has absolute certainty for their beliefs.  God has given us the freedom to believe whatever we want to believe and to be whatever we want to be.  God desires to see what type of individual we are, to see what type of person we are becoming.

What the Bible tells us is that if we become more like God, we will spend eternity with him.  If we become unlike God, we will not spend eternity together.  The choice is ours.  The reason for faith is that it shows us who we are and who we are becoming.  And this information is of critical importance because who we are will determine where we spend eternity.

To be a Christian, one must believe in certain historical events—that Jesus existed, died, and was resurrected.  As we have seen previously, this requires an element of faith because we do not have absolute proof these events actually occurred.  They occurred over 2,000 years ago, in a different culture, and involve a very extraordinary event—the resurrection of a man from the dead.

However, there is more to Christianity than just these historical events; there is a meaning to these events.  Christianity teaches the purpose of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection was to pay the penalty for our sins and to restore us to a right relationship with God.  How do we this is true?  The Bible tells us the meaning of these events but we have no proof for it; we must take this on faith.

It is obvious that in all aspects of Christianity, faith is essential.  “. . . without faith it is impossible to please him . . .” (Hebrews 11:6 ESV)  The Bible defines faith as “. . .the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1 ESV).  To be a Christian, we must believe in things we cannot know or see.  Why did God construct our existence in this manner?  If God is who he says he is, he could have given us certainty but he did not.  God must have a reason for doing.  So why do I see so few Christians trying to determine what that reason is?  Does the Bible tell us why?

As we have previously discussed in this blog, Christianity has a wealth of evidence for its beliefs; it is a very reasonable belief.  However, this fact does not mean it is irrational not to believe in Christianity.  There are two reasons why.

First, while there is a considerable amount of evidence for the validity of Christianity, not everyone in the world has the time or inclination to research and discover these facts.  Not all of us have the time to take courses in apologetics.  Not all of us can acquire a doctorial degree in religious studies.  We have other tasks that consume our time such as our job, our life’s work, and so we must make do with whatever information about Christianity we incidentally acquire as we go through life.  Also we might be raised in another religion and it is very unlikely we would investigate Christianity to see if it is true.

Second, it is a fact that we do not have absolute proof for God or for the validity of Christianity; other reasonable people can disagree with our beliefs.  This fact is simply the human condition which is how God made us.  We are finite which means our knowledge is incomplete and our ability to know what is true is limited.  And that includes our knowledge of God, Jesus, and the Bible.

I do not know of any person who has conducted an honest investigation into the validity of Christianity who would disagree with the above two observations.  The problem with these two observations is that they conflict with one of Christianity’s doctrines.  Most Christian religions and denominations teach that Jesus is the only way to God; we must believe that Jesus died and was resurrected for our sins to be saved and go to heaven.  My question is:  If God decided that the only way to him and heaven is through Jesus, why did he make us finite?  A reasonable person can doubt the existence of God, the fact of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and the fact the Bible is the word of God yet God will condemn such a person to hell.  That is not a God of love and justice we read about in the Bible.

J. P. Moreland, in discussing how to choose a religion, stated that a religion should profoundly address the human condition. [1]  The above questions are questions about the human condition that seemingly contradict Christian theology.  God evidently is requiring us to do something (believe in him and Jesus’ death and resurrection for our sins) that he made us incapable of doing.

This is a question that I do not see Christianity addressing.  Why?  If we Christians consider our faith to be rational, if we spend enormous amounts of time and money on demonstrating the rationality of our faith, why would we ignore this problem?

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[1]   J. P. Moreland, “Arguments for the Existence of God”, Biola University, The Christian Apologetics Program, Audio CD.

Given all the evidence we have cited in the last blog, why does not everyone accept Christianity as true?

First, there are many people who have not heard of Jesus.  John Sanders, in his book What About Those Who Have Never Heard?, concludes that a majority of the people who have ever lived have never heard of the God of Israel or of Jesus. [1]  If one has not heard, one cannot believe.

Second, Christianity requires that we believe certain historical facts are true, namely that Jesus lived, died, and rose from the dead in first century Palestine.  In our blogs of March 7 and 14, 2011 we discussed some of the reasons why people do not believe in these historical events.  The bottom line is that God made us finite which means our ability to know what is true is limited.  Given our human condition, we cannot have certainty in regards to historical events; we must deal with probabilities.  John Warwick Montgomery in History, Law, and Christianity states that probability is the only method we have in deciding to follow Jesus but we must realize that we use probabilities daily in deciding what to do. [2]  Alister E. McGrath in Intellectuals Don’t Need God & Other Modern Myths states that while Christianity makes sense, it ultimately depends upon a leap of faith. [3]  He also notes that essentially all human knowledge is uncertain including our apologetics. [4]  Any Christian who is intellectually honest would admit the same.

While it is a well-established fact that we must rely on probability to discover the truth of historical events, it is important to understand that our ignorance is not total.  Just because we must use probability in our search for the truth of distant events does not mean that we possess no truth at all.  The French scientist Poincaré notes:

If we were not ignorant, there would be no probability, there would be room for nothing but certainty.  But our ignorance cannot be absolute, for then there would no longer be any probability at all, since a little light is necessary to attain even this uncertain science. [5]

Christian apologetics sheds a considerable amount of light on the validity of Christianity.  It is very reasonable to believe in Christianity; it is not just a belief based on blind faith.  Anyone who states that Christianity is not a rationally based belief is not acquainted with all the facts.  However, we must also recognize that our apologetics cannot give us the absolute certainty that Christianity is true; there is still an element of doubt that remains.  And this raises a question about our theology which we will address in the next blog.

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[1]   John Sanders, What About Those Who Have Never Heard? (Downers Grove, IL:  InterVarsity Press, 1995), p. 9.

[2]   John Warwick Montgomery, History, Law, and Christianity (Edmonton, AB, Canada:  Canadian Institute for Law, Theology, and Public Policy, Inc., 2002), pp. 91-93.

[3]   Alister E. McGrath in Intellectuals Don’t Need God & Other Modern Myths (Grand Rapids, MI:  Zondervan Publishing House, 1993), pp. 59-60.

[4]   Ibid., p. 155.

[5]   Henri Poincaré, The Foundations of Science (Lancaster, PA:  The Science Press, 1946), p. 159.

As stated in the last blog, we are starting on a series dealing with the validity of Christianity.  This will not be a course in apologetics.  There are plenty of other sources that can address that topic much better than I.  For example, Biola University offers courses in apologetics (www.biola.edu/apologetics) and there is a library of books on the subject.  Rather we will raise some issues that have not been addressed.

For myself, there are three main reasons why I believe in the validity of Christianity.  First, is the credibility of the Bible, second is the resurrection of Jesus, and third is the message of Jesus.

As Christians, the basis for our faith and our beliefs is Jesus and his disciples.  What we know of Jesus and his disciples comes to us primarily from the Bible.  So how do we know the Bible is a reliable and accurate witness to what Jesus and his disciples did, experienced, and said?  There are two main reasons:

1.         The Bible, in the words of Jeffery L. Sheler, has been “consistently and substantially affirmed as a credible and reliable source of history”. [2]  For example, during Jesus’ time, three lines of history meet—Jewish, Greek, and Roman.  Contemporary writers, in three languages (Hebrew, Greek, and Latin) are numerous and provide a cross-examination of Gospels in terms of habits, forms of government, general conditions. [3]  And the Bible withstands this scrutiny.

2.         The New Testament has better manuscript evidence than any other historical book.  We have more manuscripts and the dates of the manuscripts are closer to the original writings than other historical books.  The New Testament was written closer to the actual events they describe than other historical books.  The historical evidence for validity of the Bible is so strong that John Warwick Montgomery states if we disregard our historical knowledge of Jesus, we might as well disregard our entire knowledge of the classical world. [4]

However, the ultimate question for Christians is whether Jesus rose from the dead.  The apostle Paul recognized this and stated that Christianity rested on this one fact:  “For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.  And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.”  (1 Corinthians 15:16-17).

The nonBiblical sources such as the Talmud agree that Jesus was crucified and died, that Jesus’ disciples claimed that he rose from the dead, and that the Jewish leaders maintained the disciples stole the body in order to claim Jesus rose from the dead.  So how do we know that Jesus actually rose from the dead?

1.         The experience of the disciples argues strongly that something turned them around from terrified men to confident men who were not afraid to die for their beliefs.  Peter denied knowing Christ at his trial.  All the disciples except John were absent at his crucifixion.  And yet a few weeks later they were confidently facing death for preaching that Christ rose from the dead.  What was it that turned the disciples around?  The most compelling reason for the disciples’ change had to be that Jesus appeared to them in person.  An empty tomb does not prove anything other than the body is no longer there; it could have been moved.  The appearance of one who had died would be life-changing.

2.         The disciples talked about Jesus’ resurrection in Jerusalem, the city where Jesus lived and died.  If the Jewish leaders or any other enemy of Jesus had stolen the body of Jesus they could have easily proved the disciples wrong by pointing out the tomb where Jesus was buried.  Also if the disciples said anything about Jesus and his life, death, and resurrection that was not true, they would immediately be challenged by multiple persons who had witnessed Jesus’ acts and heard his words.  And yet the only argument we hear from the first century against the resurrection is that the disciples stole the body.  If they had, it is doubtful they would have endured the persecution and suffering they did.  Habermas states that “Liars do not make good martyrs.” [4]  Most motives for frauds involve some earthly gain: wealth, prestige, power.  The disciples had nothing to gain from telling this story except persecution and death.  People will not die for a false belief if they believe it is false.  They will die for a false belief if they believe it is true as is evidenced by all the people who have died for beliefs that are opposed to one another.

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[1]   Jeffery L. Sheler, Is the Bible True? (New York:  Harper Collins, 1999), p. 254.

[2]   Irwin H. Linton, A Lawyer Examines the Bible (Boston:  W. A. Wilde Co., 1943), pp. 56-57.

[3]  John Warwick Montegomery, History, Law, and Christianity (Edmonton, AB, Canada:  Canadian Institute for Law, Theology, and Public Policy, Inc., 2002), p. 9.

[4]   Gary Habermas, The Historical Jesus (Joplin, MO:  College Press Publishing Company, 1996),  p. 227.

[5]   Sheler, p. 256.

[6]   Will Durant, The Story of Civilization:  Caesar and Christ (New York:  Simon and Schuster, 1944), p. 557.

[7]   Alfred North Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas (New York:  The Free Press, 1961), p. 17.

Christian apologetics is the explanation and defense of the Christian faith.  It follows Peter’s instructions to “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” (I Peter 3:15).  Our purpose in this blog is to ask questions about the Christian faith.  One of those questions, in fact the first question we must ask is whether our belief in Christianity is valid.

In the past few months, I have been taking a course in Christian apologetics from Biola University.  Biola offers a masters level course in apologetics.  This course can be taken as a distance learning course but it has the requirement that you spend two weeks during the summer at Biola.  Since I did not have that option, I took the certificate course which involves listening to about 48 hours of lectures on audio CDs and taking a test on the lectures.  The course also recommends, but does not require, reading six books which I did and they are well worth the read.

I highly recommend the Biola apologetics course.  The instructors are leaders in their fields and they present the topics in a manner that is easy to comprehend.  I had read extensively in the field of apologetics before I took the course but it still introduced new ideas to me.  The course will require time and effort from you but it is well worth it.

In the next few weeks, we will examine the evidence for the validity of Christianity.

In this blog we have maintained that salvation is more than belief in Jesus and his death for our sins.  In previous blogs, we have documented other Christian thinkers who have also put forth this idea (see our blogs dated July 12, 17, and 24, 2011).  Recently, I have been reading a book by Alister E. McGrath on apologetics.  In this book he expresses some of the same ideas we have articulated in this bog but in a slightly different way. [1]  He maintains the word “faith” has a meaning that is greater in the Greek and Hebrew languages than the meaning we ordinarily attribute to it.  Faith includes:

1. Belief that certain things are true.  This is solely what most people think faith means.
2. Trust in the promises of God.  Faith is not just intellectual but is the response of the whole person to God.  As we have said in this blog, it is the response of our entire soul to God, not just our belief system.
3. Acting on the promises of God.  We might believe and have trust in someone or something but until we actually act on that belief and trust, we will not accomplish anything.  If we do not put into practice what we believe, belief and trust are meaningless and irrelevant.

[1]   Alister E. McGrath, Intellectuals Don’t Need God, Grand Rapids, MI:  Zondervan Publishing House, 1993, pp. 49-52.

At times, one finds simple truths in the most unexpected places.  For example, this past weekend, I watched an action/science fiction/fantasy movie for pure escapism.  However, the movie had a scene that told a truth which is simple but rarely applied.  In the move, Thor, who was in line to become king in his realm, was banished to earth.  Because of his sudden change in fortune, he was at a loss of what to do or believe. Eric, a scientist on earth, asked Thor if it was really so bad that he found out he did not have all the answers because being aware of that fact might now lead him to start asking the right questions. [1]

So many Christians are so confident that they have all the right answers.  However, the fact that God made us finite should make it obvious that what we think are the right answers are in fact, as Paul put it, a poor reflection of reality (1 Corinthians 13:12)..  The book of Job and Ecclesiastes also make it clear that we are very limited in our ability to know what is true.  Sometimes it takes a traumatic event or series of events to bring us to this realization.  It certainly did for Thor as well as myself.  However we get to this point, recognizing this fact should give us the motivation to ask a variety of questions about the Bible and our interpretation of the Bible.  And that is the purpose of this blog—to ask questions; hopefully they are the right questions.

[1]  Kenneth Branagh, Director, Thor, with Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Middleston, and Anthony Hopkins, Paramount/Marvel Entertainment, 2011.

In the last blog, we emphasized that it is not “works theology” to state that our salvation depends on more than just believing in Jesus.  We gave several reasons why taking action to put into practice the teaching of Jesus is necessary.

However, we do recognize there is a danger in such a teaching because some might erroneously conclude that all they need to do is to perform a few actions to be saved.  The fact is the Bible teaches God wants more from us than just our belief system or a few actions that we take.  He wants nothing less than the renovation of our entire soul, not just parts of it, so that we become like him.

As our blog of April 9, 2011 states each of the ways of salvation that have been taught by various people and organizations—belief, conduct, motivation, or repenting—has its problems.

. . .belief without change is the same as no belief, actions without the proper motivation is just acting, actions without knowing what conduct God requires may be the wrong actions, motivation without a goal gets us moving but maybe to the wrong destination, and repentance without a change in action will result in us repenting for the same thing over and over and over.   Beliefs, conduct, motivation, repentance, correct use of our abilities will not, done in isolation, make our soul like God.

Jesus tells us:  For the gate is narrow andthe way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:14 ESV).  It is so much easier to restrict salvation to our beliefs or to a few actions than to embark upon the renovation of our entire soul.