Questions on Christianity

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.

In the past few blogs we have discussed the importance of action.  We have stated that actions are more important than beliefs.  We have noted that the Bible, several philosophers, and even business principles conclude that actions are the most important element in our lives.  Why?

Epictetus, a Greco-Roman philosopher, said theory is like having food in the pantry and practice is eating the food.  Having stored food does our body no good; it is only when we eat it that we realize a benefit. [1]  He also says we humans prefer theory and word play to action because it is easier. [2]  All of us recognize that actually playing the game is more admirable than Monday morning quarterbacking. It takes actual skill to play the game while anyone can spin theories of how a game should have been played.

Now Aristotle has said that having virtue is not the same as doing outward deeds. [3]  At first glance this seems to downplay the importance of action.  However, it does not.  Plutarch, and the other Greco-Roman philosophers, believed our morals are formed by our actions.  Through repeated activity, our habits, we become virtuous. [4]

Dr. Gregory A. Boyd explains how our actions, our habits, become our character.

The more we choose something, the harder it is to choose otherwise, until we finally are solidified—externalized—in our decision.  The momentum of our character becomes unstoppable.  We create our character with our decisions, and our character, in turn, exercises more and more influence on the decisions we make.  It’s in the nature of free, created beings, and I don’t see how it could be otherwise.  Life, I guess, is a lot like the proverbial snowball rolling down the hill. [5]

C. S. Lewis says we are to take action as opposed to feeling or believing:

The rule for all of us is perfectly simple.  Do not waste time bothering whether you “love” your neighbor; act as if you did.  As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets.  When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.  If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. [6]

He also talks about Christians being the sons of God and “dressing up as Christ”.  He advocates pretending to be like Christ because it will lead to a change in a person.  “Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already. [7]

Rabbi Daniel Lapin states the path to becoming better at anything whether it be making an omelet or self-defense or business is to first learn the techniques for the new skill, second to understand the principles behind the techniques, and third to practice.  It is by practice that we integrate the techniques for the new skills into our being so they become automatic, so we don’t have to stop and think about what to do. [8]

It is the same with Christianity.  It is only by consistent practicing what the teachings of Jesus that they become part of us, part of our soul.  It is only by practice, by our actions, that we become a new creation.

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[1]   Luke Timothy Johnson, Practical Philosophy:  The Greco-Roman Moralists, Chantilly, VA:  The Teaching Company, 2002, Part 2, p. 44.

[2]   Johnson, Part 2, pp. 35, 39.

[3]   J. Budziszewski, Written on the Heart, Downers Grove, IL:  IVP Academic, 1997, p. 45.

[4]   Johnson, p. 134.

[5]   Dr. Gregory A. Boyd and Edward K. Boyd, Letters from a Skeptic (Colorado Springs, CO:  ChariotVictor Publishing, 1994), p. 42.

[6]   C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York:  MacMillian Company, 1952), p. 101.

[7]   Lewis, p. 147.

[8]   Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Thou Shall Prosper (Hoboken, New Jersey:  John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002), p. 13.

Clifton Taulbert and Gary Schoeniger have written a very good book about entrepreneurs entitled Who Owns the Ice House?.  The basis of the book is the entrepreneurial lessons Taulbert learned from his uncle Cleve who owned an ice house in Mississippi.  One of the lessons he learned is that one must take action if one is to succeed.  Uncle Cleve’s way of expressing that truth is:  “Yessir, if you ain’t got nothin’ planted, ain’t nothin’ gonna show up.” [1]  Ideas are great and they can provide us with a goal to aim towards.  However, as Schoeniger states:  “The truth is that good ideas are a commodity, but taking action is what really counts.” [2]

The Greco-Roman philosopher Lucian equates action with fruit and words with husks. [3]  Husks are important to the formation of a fruit but they are of minimal nutritional value to us.  Would we prefer husks to fruit?

Action has the same importance in our spiritual as in our physical lives.  Our beliefs, our ideas of how God has constructed our existence, are important but what is the value of our beliefs if we do not translate them into action?  The Bible, in the book of James, expresses this idea in this fashion:

If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? (James 2:15-17 ESV).

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[1]   Clifton Taulbert and Gary Schoeniger, Who Owns the Ice House?, Cleveland, OH:  ELI Press, LLC., 2010, p. 75.

[2]   Taulbert and Schoeniger, p. 86.

[3]   Luke Timothy Johnson, Practical Philosophy:  The Greco-Roman Moralists, Chantilly, VA:  The Teaching Company, 2002, Part 1, p. 76.

In the last blog I mentioned I had just read Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.  There are several scenes in which characters state their views on Christianity and the Bible and these views are very similar to what we have said in this blog.

In one scene, St. Clare is talking to his daughter Eva.  Eva expresses love for her servants—her slaves.  St. Clare questions his daughter’s ability to love her slaves to which Eva replies that the Bible commands us to love everyone.  St. Clare replies:  “O, the Bible!  To be sure, it says a great many such things; but, then, nobody ever thinks of doing them,–you know, Eva, nobody does.”  This perfectly sums up the attitude of most people in our world toward the Bible.  The problem is this belief is taught by most of organized Christianity.  If we are saved by belief in Jesus then why should we need to follow Jesus’ teachings?

In another scene, St. Clare after reading a portion of Matthew to Uncle Tom makes the comment that he expected it necessary for one to commit some terrible sin to be denied entrance into heaven but the Bible teaches that people will be condemned because they did not do some positive good.  Miss Ophelia then replies that “it is impossible for a person who does no good not to do harm”.  The book does not say which passage St. Clare was reading but from the context it appears it was Matthew 25:31-46 in which Jesus was describing the Day of Judgment.  Jesus said that feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, welcoming strangers, clothing the needy, and visiting the sick and those in prison were the necessary actions to gain admittance into heaven.  St. Clare and Miss Ophelia’s comments on the Matthew passage are more on the mark than what most Bible commentaries give.  It is impossible to read the Bible with an open mind and not acknowledge it teaches that our actions are what are most important to God.  Now a belief is necessary to take a particular action but according to this passage it is the action that is critical.  Is that what our theology teaches?

I trust you have had a very Merry Christmas and have taken some time to reflect upon the nature and teachings of Jesus.  The coming into the world of such an individual is ultimately what Christmas is all about.

This Christmas, I have done so in part because I was following the advice of C. S. Lewis (if I am not mistaken), who recommended reading a few classic instead of all contemporary works.  Recently, I have read Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.  Uncle Tom has a negative connotation in today’s society and Webster’s gives a definition of an Uncle Tom as “a member of a low status group who is overly subservient to or cooperative with authority”.  However, in reading the book it is very evident that Uncle Tom was a Christ figure who actually implemented the teachings of Christ in his life.  Uncle Tom did what he could to ease the suffering of his fellow slaves even at risk to himself.  When faced with the cruelty of his master did not respond in like manner but with kindness.

Uncle Tom did obey his master in all areas except where his master’s orders conflicted with the teachings of Jesus.  He did not cooperate with authority when the master told him to whip other slaves.  Uncle Tom was essentially whipped to death for refusing to divulge the escape plans of two slaves.  He also had the opportunity to kill his master but refused.

How would Jesus, if he was again born into our world, be received?  Would we call him an “Uncle Tom”?