The Tough Questions of Faith
Solid and unshakable faith in Christianity begins and ends with one person: Jesus Christ. He made us a promise that I have found has stood the test of time in both my personal life and my marriage:
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. (Mat 7:24-27)
The rock is important symbolically, for the rock represents God Himself (cf. Deut 32:1-43; 1 Sam 2:2, 2 Sam 22:2, 3, 32, 47, 23:3; Ps 18, 62:2, 6, 89:26; Is 26:4, 44:8). It is therefore of fundamental importance to build your foundation on the rock of Jesus Christ. I cannot stress this point enough.
I call us apologists “God’s cops.” To an extent, that is exactly what we do. We fulfill the functions of a police detective squad in service to the gospel. One thing that police do is chase after fugitives, or attempt to prevent someone becoming a fugitive. Jesus promises that no one will be able to snatch one of His faithful (Jn 10:29). I believe that He fulfills His promises by using us, and so I will pray that Bill from The Friendly Christian reads this post and His faith is strengthened by what he reads.
Bill is having a crisis of faith, not unlike Mother Teresa had. But it seems as though Bill hasn’t properly understood theology, and the people that I’ve read in response to him are either atheists that are pushing him to take the next step and admit that God doesn’t exist, or Christians who are just telling him to have faith because it’ll get better.
This is why I echo James White’s oft-repeated mantra of “Theology Matters.” Bill kicks off his post this way:
I feel like God has blessed/cursed me. I feel like I’m currently able to view Christianity through the eyes of an Atheist. I see the “flaws.” I see the “holes.” The OT God seems much different from the NT God. I see the hypocrisy. (emphasis added)
Bill says that this is unsettling and troubling. Then he adds, “I don’t know why, but I’m just so sold out on God, though” (emphasis added). What is unsettling and disturbing to me is a Christian who can’t answer why he believes in God in the first place. It seems to me that Bill has a very blind faith, and not faith that is based on a contextual definition of faith in the first place.
That Bill thinks the Old Testament God and the New Testament God are different means that he would have difficulty explaining passages like Nahum 1:6 or Numbers 31. But this is not the case when God’s wrath is properly understood side-by-side with His love, not opposed to it! This is the first evidence of a larger problem: Bill really doesn’t have a good foundation for his faith!
Bill continues:
I’ve been asking God why he’s made it so hard to believe. I’m having a hard time trying to figure out why he would condemn people to burn for eternity for not believing in him. To be honest, he’s made it pretty tough to buy off on this whole Christianity thing and the consequence seems a bit harsh. It doesn’t seem loving.
First off, He doesn’t burn people for eternity for not believing in Him. It is very important to recognize, first, that God’s wrath must appeased, His unapproachable holy and perfect nature demands this. He can’t just sign off on someone’s sins unless blood is paid for that sin (Heb 9:22; cf. Rom 3:21-26, 5:9). Instead of our own blood, He offered Christ’s blood. Christ “is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb 7:25). This implies that you must first draw near to God in Christ for that to happen.
Remember from Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” God isn’t punishing us for not believing in Him, rather, He is punishing us for all of the other sins that we are committing.
Of course, if anyone still thinks that burning for eternity is too harsh, maybe they aren’t familiar with this concept of hell. I’ve never been a proponent of the “physical torture” concept of hell, and this is a very Biblical alternative that fits with the societal norms of that day. And, it is still a punishment by any standard.
Bill says:
I could list a million reasons I love God. But there are also times when I just don’t understand why God did/does things that he did/does. And that, friend, doesn’t always sit well with me.
I’m sorry that it doesn’t, but God doesn’t ask us. Here is what the Bible says:
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” (Rom 11:33-35)
Is that a cop-out answer? Probably. But I take great comfort in the eight sermons of Isaiah starting with chapter 40 and ending at 48, the crux of which is that God is in control of this crazy little world. For good or ill, all of what happens does so at His decree and for His reasons. Often they are known only to Him, and we probably won’t ever understand.
In Lee Strobel’s Case for Faith, this problem was likened to a bear caught in a bear trap. If a hunter comes along and has mercy on the bear and decides to open the trap to free the animal, the hunter is going to cause even more pain to the bear during this. The bear is likely to resist or even attack the hunter, because in its limited understanding, the hunter is causing it harm. This harm, which is only short term and will result in the bear’s freedom, is only seen as torture because the bear cannot reason further ahead than the pain–he doesn’t see the eventual end result of freedom and cannot ever understand that the additional pain is a necessary precursor to that freedom.
Same story with humanity. God causes short term pain in order to bring about a long term end result that only He sees and we cannot comprehend with our limited and finite minds.
Bill says:
I’m so passionate about this stuff right now. I want to understand God. Will I ever get the answers I’m looking for - I have no idea. God says if I seek him I’ll find him. Ask and it shall be given, right? Well, I’m seeking and asking. We’ll see where this takes me.
God does promise all of those things, but don’t be disappointed if more hardships and crises of faith occur before coming to any understanding. Don’t waver in faith or become discouraged. He will provide the answers sought in His time. I pray that this takes Bill to someplace wonderful!
I just can’t be anything but real about my faith, though. I refuse to lie and pretend like I’ve got it all figured out. I believe that God will honor my questions. I want real faith. I want solid faith. I want unshakable faith!
And I believe that he will see Bill’s sincerity and bless him abundantly!
One Atheist commenter once expressed their concern that my site content would eventually drive away all the Christians. I wonder how much longer it might be until it actually happens. I wonder, though, will it be because of me? Is my honesty too much to handle? Do you think I’m a poor example of a Christian? Are my questions a sign of weak faith? I personally believe my questions are a sign of strength…they show a desire to know God more.
I think that the reason the atheist commenter said that was the Christians in his experience don’t have a strong foundation for their faith. I don’t think that Bill has a great depth of theological understanding–for example, above I have shown him to not understand that God’s wrath should be placed side-by-side with His love rather than in opposition to it–but I think that Bill sincerely seeks for a proper understanding of God, and that is great by itself (Prv 9:10; cf. Job 28:28 and Ps 111:10). It is this sincerity that will lead Bill to a fuller understanding of God. I pray that I can be there to see it, or even be used by God to help teach Bill some of these finer points.
Bill concludes with this:
It’s in me. I have an burning desire to grow closer to God. I want to tell the world about him. I can’t shake it and the feeling grows more intense each passing day. I’m so excited about this journey that I can barely contain myself! I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Neither would I.
Bill’s faith may in fact be blind, but I am unconvinced (I read his blog entry), because I have had emotions that could be described with his very words: “I feel like God has blessed/cursed me. I feel like I’m currently able to view Christianity through the eyes of an Atheist.”
Now, for his next words, I would put it a little differently: I understand why atheists believe there are flaws. I understand why they think they see “holes.” I understand why they think the OT God seems much different from the NT God. I understand why they think they see hypocrisy.
And I really do understand atheists. They make sense to me, as wrong as they are. But, here why I am not an atheist: my faith. I know God is there, and I in my flesh I am confused as to why I know, and the confusion comes because it is not my flesh that sees Him, but it is my spirit that sees Him… and that’s the part that I think Bill is missing. He doesn’t realize that his difficulty is in his flesh. He misses that he himself is both flesh and spirit, and that they are at war.
Now, is my own faith is blind? Not at all. Never was. Early in my adulthood, I didn’t know of any convincing evidence for God except for my own ability to just know He was there, despite all else… that knowledge was spritual, and it trumped my flesh. Almost 20 years later, God has done far too much that I see in the flesh, and answered far too many prayers, that I have my physical evidence, upon which I base my faith, in combination with my spiritual discernment of Him.
I think Bill will get to where he should be, because He wants to, and God wants him to. I believe he characterizes his faith in a manner resembling “blind” faith, because Bill himself doesn’t realize his faith isn’t blind… God knows Bill’s spirit, and Bill’s spirit knows God, and his flesh will catch up in due time.
Just my 2 cents.