The longer I have been a student of the Bible the more I've realized that there are apparently paradoxical truths contained in it. One of those, for example, is in regard to the question of where the responsibility for man's salvation lies. The Bible clearly teaches that since man is "dead in his trespasses and sins" that the responsibility is God's; that no person can be saved without first being drawn by God, having their spiritual eyes opened by God, and being given repentance and faith from God. It's His doing. The apparent paradox is that the Bible also teaches that man is responsible. There are numerous passages that call on people to repent and believe. Other passages show a God grieving over man's unwillingness, stubbornness, and unrepentant heart. Still others lay the responsibility at man's feet, urging him to "be reconciled to God". God's anger and wrath is described as being aimed at the wickedness of man as he chooses to ignore God and willfully suppress the truth about Him that man is fully aware of.
So, how do we sometimes attempt to resolve apparent paradoxes, and what's dangerous about how we do it? It seems to me that we generally don't like unresolved paradoxes. They make us uncomfortable because they seem to be contradictions, and contradictions in a body of writing imply that the writing is not credible. Since, for good reason, we have already come to the conclusion that the Bible is credible, we naturally attempt to resolve anything that might imply that the Bible isn't credible.
One of the possible dangers of our attempts to resolve paradox is that we Christians, instead of establishing credibility can instead be found to be straining it. In my opinion, we do this by first leaning to one side or another of a seeming paradox, and then forcing an interpretation on the side toward which we are not leaning. In other words, we tend to read our own apriori bias into our interpretation of Scripture. In the process, we lose credibility, and at the same time fail to convince others of the credibility of the Bible. What are the effects? On the one hand, the skeptic who we are trying to win over reacts derisively, and is convinced that our faith is a gullible one. On the other hand, the young Christian who we are trying to bring up in the faith, is confused.
Another danger is that we tend to become entrenched in our interpretations. We build a nice little box that we think the Bible fits into so that we can feel comfortable about all these niggling paradoxes. After the box has been constructed, we do everything we can to strengthen it. After a while our box can become dogma, from which the word "dogmatic" comes. Being dogmatic isn't inherently wrong, but it can certainly lead us down the wrong path.
It's obvious that there's a time and place for dogma. Without it, we can't say anything with certainty. Someone saying, " Such and such is going to happen just as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow" might be met with, "We can't be dogmatic about tomorrow's sunrise, therefore we can't be sure that whatever your saying is a sure thing is indeed a sure thing." Similarly, there are many truths in the Bible that are incontrovertible because there are no apparent paradoxes to be found with regard to them. The resurrection of Christ is an example.
So, what should we do to avoid the dangers mentioned above? First, I think it's important that we do attempt to resolve apparent paradoxes. At the same time, we need to keep in mind the dangers mentioned above. Second, we should always consult with God in these matters. In doing that, we need to check our hearts. Are we open to the idea that we may be wrong? Are we "listening" to God with an open mind? Third, we need to tread carefully when good scholars differ on an issue. Fourth, when we are wrestling with these things, we need to subject our ideas to the scrutiny of others, and not just to others who are sympathetic to our position, or who do not have the motivation or tools to adequately examine our ideas. Fifth, we need to leave room for mystery. Our minds are infinitely tiny and limited compared to the mind of God because His mind is infinite! The Bible clearly teaches that He has not revealed everything to us. I don't think that the perception of the Bible's (and our) credibility is damaged when we say things like, "I'm not sure" or, "I don't know" or, "maybe it's like this".
"The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever..." Deuteronomy 29:29
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
People are "good" until it starts to cost them.
I was talking to someone the other day who is involved in a weekly Bible study. She was complaining that the Bible study leader was always talking about how everyone is a sinner. In an exasperated tone of voice she said to me, "I'm tired of hearing how 'everyone's a sinner' all the time. I don't think everyone's a sinner. I think there are good people in the world. And even if everyone is a sinner, they don't always sin!"
That's a tough one for us Christians. We do believe that we're all sinners. The Bible clearly states it. But are we always sinners? And even if we are, don't people do good things? Aren't there times when people don't sin? And if that's the case, maybe we aren't so bad after all. So how do we answer this?
First, let's define what we mean by "sin" and "sinner". The word "sin" is a translation of a word that means to "miss the mark" or to "fall short". What mark? The mark would be God's original design for us. We are told that we were originally designed to be a creature created "in the image of God." Our character, moral attributes, and psychological/emotional make-up were like God's. We were loving by nature, like God is. And we were centered on God rather than on ourselves. But something happened that caused a profound change in human nature. Due to our taking part in the rebellion of the first man, Adam, we lost our centeredness on God and others and became self-centered. So the mark that we miss and fall short of is God Himself. He's the mark!
The Bible says that this condition is shared by all mankind. It says that "there are none righteous". The Bible compares us to trees. It says that bad trees do not produce good fruit. Well, since we're all sinners, how can people ever do good things? Bad trees don't ever produce good fruit do they?
The Bible tells us that God is going to judge the whole world at some point in the future. It tells us that when He does, that He's going to judge the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. He isn't just going to be considering actions when he judges, but also the motives behind those actions. I think we might be surprised if He were to reveal to us our own motives, even for the "good" things we do.
The Bible says that (our) "hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked, who can understand them?" Because of our fallen condition, even our ability to clearly perceive our own motives is messed up. The remedy for this, by the way, is to have God do it for us. He can perceive our motives, and He will reveal those to us if we'll turn to Him for understanding. Sometimes He even does it before we turn to Him, and then we turn to Him as a result.
This was the case in my own life, and He did it at least in part through a psychology teacher at the junior college I was attending. One day, for reasons unknown to me (even to this day), the teacher stood up and made the blunt statement that all of the students in the room were selfish. An argument ensued with some students naming different people in history as examples of altruism like Gandhi and Mother Theresa. The teacher replied, "all selfish! Everything they did was out of their own self interest. Maybe they were avoiding a guilty conscience, or maybe they wanted to elevate themselves in the eyes of others, or maybe they were attempting to justify themselves before their God(s), or maybe they were trying to earn good Karma, or just wanted to win arguments." I don't think everyone in the room was buying it but, as I said above, God was doing something in my heart. He was revealing to me my own motives, that everything I did was, ultimately, for me and no one else. I was at the center of my world. It's a long story that I'll tell in another post, but the effect was profound and I became desperate for a remedy.
One thing that I think helps reveal the real person behind an action (at least to some extent) is when being "good' starts to cost something. When the doing of good results in a cost for those who do it, especially when that cost is of something that's greatly valued, you will often see a change in the demeanor of the one performing the action. Is this always the case? No. In fact there are people who have sacrificed their lives for others. Think of the man who throws himself on a grenade for his buddies. The cost for that is obviously something that he highly values. The apostle Paul brings that up when he says "for the good man someone may even dare to die". We'll leave those cases up to God's judgment, but it's obvious that there are examples of sacrificial love that we can refer to.
Nevertheless, when we see others doing "good" things, and we wonder "how could God judge him or her?", It's important to remember that He is perfectly able to see into the depths of the heart. It's something that we are not able to do, even with regard to our own hearts.
That's a tough one for us Christians. We do believe that we're all sinners. The Bible clearly states it. But are we always sinners? And even if we are, don't people do good things? Aren't there times when people don't sin? And if that's the case, maybe we aren't so bad after all. So how do we answer this?
First, let's define what we mean by "sin" and "sinner". The word "sin" is a translation of a word that means to "miss the mark" or to "fall short". What mark? The mark would be God's original design for us. We are told that we were originally designed to be a creature created "in the image of God." Our character, moral attributes, and psychological/emotional make-up were like God's. We were loving by nature, like God is. And we were centered on God rather than on ourselves. But something happened that caused a profound change in human nature. Due to our taking part in the rebellion of the first man, Adam, we lost our centeredness on God and others and became self-centered. So the mark that we miss and fall short of is God Himself. He's the mark!
The Bible says that this condition is shared by all mankind. It says that "there are none righteous". The Bible compares us to trees. It says that bad trees do not produce good fruit. Well, since we're all sinners, how can people ever do good things? Bad trees don't ever produce good fruit do they?
The Bible tells us that God is going to judge the whole world at some point in the future. It tells us that when He does, that He's going to judge the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. He isn't just going to be considering actions when he judges, but also the motives behind those actions. I think we might be surprised if He were to reveal to us our own motives, even for the "good" things we do.
The Bible says that (our) "hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked, who can understand them?" Because of our fallen condition, even our ability to clearly perceive our own motives is messed up. The remedy for this, by the way, is to have God do it for us. He can perceive our motives, and He will reveal those to us if we'll turn to Him for understanding. Sometimes He even does it before we turn to Him, and then we turn to Him as a result.
This was the case in my own life, and He did it at least in part through a psychology teacher at the junior college I was attending. One day, for reasons unknown to me (even to this day), the teacher stood up and made the blunt statement that all of the students in the room were selfish. An argument ensued with some students naming different people in history as examples of altruism like Gandhi and Mother Theresa. The teacher replied, "all selfish! Everything they did was out of their own self interest. Maybe they were avoiding a guilty conscience, or maybe they wanted to elevate themselves in the eyes of others, or maybe they were attempting to justify themselves before their God(s), or maybe they were trying to earn good Karma, or just wanted to win arguments." I don't think everyone in the room was buying it but, as I said above, God was doing something in my heart. He was revealing to me my own motives, that everything I did was, ultimately, for me and no one else. I was at the center of my world. It's a long story that I'll tell in another post, but the effect was profound and I became desperate for a remedy.
One thing that I think helps reveal the real person behind an action (at least to some extent) is when being "good' starts to cost something. When the doing of good results in a cost for those who do it, especially when that cost is of something that's greatly valued, you will often see a change in the demeanor of the one performing the action. Is this always the case? No. In fact there are people who have sacrificed their lives for others. Think of the man who throws himself on a grenade for his buddies. The cost for that is obviously something that he highly values. The apostle Paul brings that up when he says "for the good man someone may even dare to die". We'll leave those cases up to God's judgment, but it's obvious that there are examples of sacrificial love that we can refer to.
Nevertheless, when we see others doing "good" things, and we wonder "how could God judge him or her?", It's important to remember that He is perfectly able to see into the depths of the heart. It's something that we are not able to do, even with regard to our own hearts.
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