Certainty is a dangerous thing.
If you are utterly certain about something and it is proved to be wrong, where do you go?
I am absolutely certain about objective truth. The problem is that I have only ever heard a subjective view of objective truth.
It is interesting that, within the Jewish culture, children are taught to ask good questions. They are not given certainties. They are not told the “facts”. They are taught to ask good questions.
At this point it is probably worth a quick reminder that Jesus was, in fact, Jewish and that the entirety of scripture was written by Jews (including the new testament). When they wrote it, it was with this mindset and expectation.
I first went to Bible College in 1996 and very quickly discovered that many of my “certainties” were, in fact, not certain at all and many were completely wrong. I found my faith begin to fall apart around me.
As time went on, I discovered that the crumbling of my assumptions and false certainties had very little to do with Jesus but more to do with a brick wall that I had built and called faith. As one brick after another came out, the wall became unstable and eventually fell down. What I encountered on the other side was Jesus!
How many Christians actually worship the Bible? Or worse, how many Christians worship their “certain” interpretation of the Bible?
This is exactly what Jesus challenged in the Pharisees. They accused him of breaking the Sabbath, when in fact, he had broken the rules of the Talmud, which was their interpretation of the law. He makes it clear that they have completely and utterly missed the entire point of the Sabbath.
He systematically dismantled their wall until they could see him. Some of them wanted the wall back and others chose him.
In Eph 6, Paul refers to the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”. I have heard many zealous Christians refer to their Bible as “my sword”.
There are three problems with this. First, the only thing that scripture ever refers to as “the word of God” is Jesus. Secondly, the word used in all the other places is logos whereas the word used hear is rheima (ray-mer), which is specifically referring to “spoken words”. Thirdly, the Ephesians, being of gentile origin would not have had access to the Jewish scriptures, and the New Testament had not yet been written. In other words, there is absolutely no way that Paul was referring to the Bible, in this passage.
It is too easy to replace Jesus with a set of assumptions, rules, or even the Bible.
We need to ask questions. Always ask questions. Never stop asking questions. If the questions shake your faith, then your faith is in the wrong thing. Do we really believe that God is not big enough to cope with our questions?
Absolutely, there is absolute truth, but if you ever meet anyone who says they know what it is, then run as fast as you can!
For me, the more I have grown in my faith and the more I have learned, the more questions I have. The more I have come to know Jesus the more I am uncertain about certainties. The more I am in love with Him, the more content I am to have uncertainties.
A person who is certain is a person who is not willing to grow. We need uncertainty and we need questions in order for us to grow.
It’s okay to ask, “what was the flood about and why would a God of love do that?” It’s okay to ask, “who on earth are the Nephilim?” It’s okay to ask, “why did God allow these things to happen?” It’s okay to ask, “What about hell?”
It is also okay to leave those questions to one side and say, “I have questions, but I love Jesus. I do not need answers that satisfy me in order for me to trust him”. Actually, I fear that if we need answers that satisfy us, we are demanding a God that is too small and we are in danger of worshipping something other than him.
Questions should not challenge faith. They should challenge assumptions. They should dismantle the wall so that we can see him better.
Keep asking questions and be content, for the moment, with no satisfactory answer.
One Comment
Well said!