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October 23, 2005
Do Only Christians Know Correctly about God?
Psalm 19 / Isaiah 19: 18-25
Romans 2: 14-24
October 23rd, 2005
I once read that to get an audience with you it is best for a speaker either to make the audience laugh first or to feel sympathy for you.
Well, this morning maybe you respond to that proposal with at least a grin. I don’t actually want your sympathy but since my task is to address a matter of great importance and delicacy, I hope you are aware how precarious is my task.
I must walk that fine line between two attitudes. On the one hand, a Christian may be so confident of knowing of God and His ways that she comes off cocksure. Belief seems to require this attitude—don’t be wishy-washy. Thus a Christian may deceive herself that she knows far more than she really can or need to—thus hurting the project of the Gospel.
On the other hand a Christian may retreat into a false sense that doubt is more honest than trust in God. As Lesslie Newbigen put it in his marvelous book, The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society, “The contemporary opinion—very widely held—that doubt is somehow more honest than faith, is an entirely irrational prejudice. It is a form of dogmatism which is entirely destructive.”
Newbigen has proposed, it seems to me rightly, that many Christians have responded to the challenges of the world on the world’s terms—and we’re all tempted to do this. We may try to match “worldly” self-confidence with “Christian” self-confidence in debate with rational arguments using essentially the same data. Or we may try to match doubt with doubt, being so modest in our attempt to be open to all peoples’ opinions that we fail to hold fast to what is true.
This is the texture of the problem that is before us day in and day out. I sometimes get the feeling that a false battlefield has been mapped for Christians today. It seems to me that this battlefield has two fronts. First there is the arena of what may be known of God. Second there is the arena of what God has made.
The first gets us into encounters with other religious views in a pluralist society. The second immerses the Christian in a world that is not only influenced by modern science, which some Christians consider a threat, but in the process fails to notice the greater threat of a materialist way of life.
In a society where people hold to many religions or to no religion at all the Christian believes certain things about God. For example, “The one that comes to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those that seek Him.” We also believe that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” We believe that Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me.” We believe that the Bible is the Word of God. These are exclusive claims. But we know that people who believe in other religious systems make exclusive claims too.
It used to be that these other religions were far away. But now they are according to our Constitution as American as apple pie and motherhood. Congress shall make no law regarding the establishment of religion. Thus Mosques and Hindu Temples now occupy adjacent properties in our major cities, across from churches and synagogues and Mormon temples. Reginald Heber wrote a song in 1819 that was very popular as a call to missions. I remember hearing it sung:
From Greenland’s icy mountains,
from India’s coral strand;
where Afric’s sunny fountains
roll down their golden sand;
From many an ancient river, from many a palmy plain,
They call us to deliver their land from error’s claim.
What though the spicy breezes blow soft o’er Ceylon’s isle;
Though every prospect pleases, and only man is vile.
In vain with lavish kindness the gifts of God are strown;
The heathen in his blindness bows down to wood and stone.
But now many of these that once were called “heathen” religions are believed by people who work in the same lab, who shop for groceries with us, or live next door. Indeed, many of these religions are themselves engaged in missionary work, both to win converts and to do works of mercy as Christians have done in their missions. There is a Red Crescent and a Red Cross to be seen on relief trucks in the Middle East.
So Christians feel fear that they are losing in the battle for truth. And many wonder, after being exposed to people personally that believe in these other ways, “Do only Christians know correctly about God?”
Last Monday after having told you about John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress the day before, I got on the internet and found Bunyan’s account of his conversion. It is called “Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners.” Mind you, John Bunyan was a stalwart 17th century Puritan (1628-1688), oft quoted as a champion of Christian truth. I settled down to read because I’d heard this work told how he handled doubts as well as how he’d come to believe in Jesus. I came to section 97 where I read this:
. . . how can you tell but that the Turks had as good Scriptures to prove their Mahomet the Saviour, as we have to prove our Jesus is? And, could I think, that so many ten thousands, in so many countries and kingdoms, should be without the knowledge of the right way to heaven; if there were indeed a heaven, and that we only, who live in a corner of the earth, should alone be blessed therewith? Every one doth think his own religion rightist, both Jews and Moors, and Pagans! and how if all our faith, and Christ, and Scriptures, should be but a think-so too?
98. Sometimes I have endeavoured to argue against these suggestions, and to set some of the sentences of blessed Paul against them; but, alas! I quickly felt, when I thus did, such arguings as these would return again upon me, Though we made so great a matter of Paul, and of his words, yet how could I tell, but that in very deed, he being a subtle and cunning man, might give himself up to deceive with strong delusions; and also take both that pains and travel, to undo and destroy his fellows.
99. These suggestions, with many other which at this time I may not, nor dare not utter, neither by word nor pen, did make such a seizure upon my spirit, and did so overweigh my heart, both with their number, continuance, and fiery force, that I felt as if there were nothing else but these from morning to night within me; and as though, indeed, there could be room for nothing else; and also concluded, that God had, in very wrath to my soul, given me up unto them, to be carried away with them, as with a mighty whirlwind.
This was well before Mosques and Temples could be found on the streets of Bedford where he lived. How much more so might well be the confusion we feel when these once foreign religions have taken root in our land.
I think some of our confusion can be resolved with a bit of charity and common sense. It is no blow against the Christian faith to realize that God has made known to all people something of Himself in the things He has made. Aspects of this knowledge are reflected in the Koran, in the Bhagavad Gita, and in the writings of Guru Granth Sahib of the Sikh religion. Thoughtful Christians have read these and recognized where what may be known of God through creation is reflected in them.
What is the source of the common moral law to which virtually all people subscribe? Somehow, from what God has shown of His nature in creation, people everywhere know that to murder, to steal, to lie, to commit adultery, to be jealous of one another is wrong, and that to show reverence toward Deity is right. The common sense of morality somehow derives from what God has revealed in creation. It is no slur against the unique claims of Christianity to recognize where we see eye to eye with people of other religions. Our distinctiveness has a clear focus, having to do with Jesus Christ.
When we show respect to people of other religions we do as Jesus did when He encountered the Samaritan woman at the well. The Samaritans and the Jews had more of a common heritage than Christians and Hindus, but the principle on which Jesus proceeded with this woman fits for us in our relationship with peoples from other religions. He pushed aside the external forms of the Jewish disagreement with the Samaritans—having to do with the right mountain on which to worship God. He said to her, “God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.” I have often pondered this as I have been in conversation with devout people of other faiths. I have wondered what Jesus would have said to them if they brought up their differences with His way of worship.
Furthermore, Jesus taught us that the responsibility of drawing people to God rests with God. “No one comes to the Father unless the Father who sent me draw Him.” And He taught, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by Me.” I believe both that Jesus taught us, “No one comes to the Father but by me,” and “No one comes to the Father unless the Father who sent me draw Him.” This takes the burden completely off of us except to say that we sincerely believe in Jesus, accept what He taught as true, and then to demonstrate that we try to follow Him.
I have taken great comfort in Paul’s words in Romans 1: 16-17: I am not ashamed of the Gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith . . . for in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith.” This last phrase lets us know that it is through that humble and pitifully weak thing that is your faith and mine that God transmits to other people the faith that enables them to trust in Jesus Christ.
One of the privileges of having been welcomed as I have been into the Purdue University community is that I have come to know well many people of other religions. I have spoken openly of my faith, which has been of interest to a number of people because they know I am both a pastor and an academic. Not once have I sense resentment when I state simply my belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. This is my faith which I share, trusting that God may use this to arouse faith in the heart of someone who is hungry for God. Yet I’m aware how meager my faith is. I hope for more for others.
How many of us have taken great comfort in the words of the father who said to Jesus, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.” And Jesus saw that man’s faith, who said he was afflicted with unbelief, as big enough to warrant the healing of his child. The man saw his own unbelief even as he said, “Lord, I believe.” How often it is just this way with me—and, I suspect, with you.
You and I are not responsible for that vast arena of other beliefs. We do not have to disprove them. We should be respectful of people who hold these views. We can’t disprove something which is not in the arena of facts or science.
The Christian faith is based on facts of history centering on Jesus, that He was born to the Virgin Mary, that He suffered under Pontius Pilate, that He died, was buried, rose again on the third day afterward, and was seen by many alive. Others may deny this, but none can’t disprove it. We can’t prove it either. But we believe it. Furthermore we suggest its truth when what the Gospel promises finds fulfillment in our lives.
I often find running through my mind the words of a wonderful song: “My faith has found a resting place, not in device nor creed. I trust the ever-living One, his wounds for me still plead. It is enough that Jesus died, and that He died for me.” This is the stuff of my faith, of our faith. Sort through all the confusion of all the approaches to God and arrive at Jesus who did not enter our history as a sectarian opinion but as a Person who came out of love for the whole world.
But this is not all that many Christians are concerned about when they think of believing correctly about God. Many Christians believe that the Bible gives explicit information on matters of science as well as about how to trust in God for salvation—and for wisdom in the way of life that pleases Him. To believe this is so seen as virtually as important as believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
As the fund of knowledge has increased, as science has become increasingly sophisticated, some Christians have felt obliged to stand against the tide in unwarranted ways. What the Bible teaches about creation and the perceptions of many scientists seem to collide. Thus some Christians feel the Bible is attacked when it is not under attack. It is true that some scientists are on record as being atheists and scoff at the Bible. But their scientific work cannot touch the Bible. Enough competent and devout Christian scientists see no collision between the evident process of development in creation and the teachings of Scripture to suggest that the battles over evolution are motivated by fear that atheistic naturalism is winning the day. Here I trust the opinions of devout Christians who are scientists who have told me of their excitement at discovering how God has created the world.
I have benefited richly from reading John Polkinghorne’s "The Faith of a Physicist". This small-particle physicist came to believe in God from the ground up, as he put it. It was by seeing God’s handiwork in the sub-atomic structure of the universe that he came to believe in God. Thus he became a pastor as well as a scientist, and has combined his trust in God and his excellent science to bring strong and good influence among scientists to bring them to trust in Jesus Christ.
Stephan Jay Gould wrote that religion and science talk about two different subjects that do not overlap. Outwardly this is true, but inherently it is false if God created the world the scientists explore. This we believe. It is more reasonable to believe the universe was created than that it simply came into being with no cause.
Slogans replace useful conversation with non-Christians. I remember reading a T-shirt with the slogan, “I’m a fool for Christ; whose fool are you?” We are not called to be fools for Christ in any other sense than trusting in the cross of Christ on which the penalty for our sins was paid.
Indeed, some have set out self-confidently to prove the Bible right using tactics none of the biblical writers would have dreamed needful. I once asked the great archaeologist, William F. Albright, if he was trying to prove the Bible right by digging into the ancient ruins of the Holy Land. He was aghast. That what he found often supported what the Scriptures say none can deny, he told me. But the Bible does not need human defense to reveal what God wants to say to us successfully.
Sometimes people may try to make the Bible say what it does not say. How variously we may skew what the Bible teaches to make it support what we think is true. Sometimes people say things about the Bible which the Bible nowhere says of itself. We do not need to defend God in this way. There is an authority latent in the Scriptures because they are given to us by God. That is enough.
Some of the arguments with modern science that some Christians have advanced are not helpful. When the Apostle Paul explained that what may be known of God is evident from the things He made, it would seem he intended that we are free to look with great care at the things God made.
Using the instruments available today for the study of what God has made, scientists have learned enough to stoke the sense of wonder into high flame. It is not wise to fight the project of discovering what God has made.
I want to conclude by reading what Fr. John Garvey, an Orthodox priest, remarked of what we can know of God from the world God made.
The God of the Bible is responsible for the world, but it is a world that has been wounded beyond comprehension by sin and evil. The whole of creation, Paul insists in the eighth chapter of Romans, groans as it waits for its true completion in God. When we study this creation we study something infinitely more mysterious--and torn and unfinished--than a well-designed machine; it is something at once wonderful and perishing and cannot be reduced to what science can see and tell us, either about randomness or design. The God of the Bible is not the prime mover of Greek philosophy or the benign provider of the deists. He appears in the burning bush and will not give his name. He wrestles with Jacob (who is Israel, the one who “contends with God”). This God has no handle--not designer, planner, nor architect, except as a fleeting metaphor. This God is unknowable, silent, suddenly appearing, interfering when unwanted and absent when wanted, always elusive--and this tricky one is responsible for the universe. In Jesus Christ we are invited to call this God our Father, a father whose son was crucified to begin the release of the universe from the bondage Paul tells us about, inviting us to await a goodness that is only dawning, and certainly can’t be seen clearly under a microscope.
Do only Christians know correctly about God? Well, it depends what we mean. What anyone can know of God correctly is revealed in the things that He has made as well as in Holy Scripture. Those who do not read our Bible still have God’s witness to Himself in creation.
The passage we read from Isaiah 19 lets us know that God’s plan extended even to nations Israel considered her enemies, and the enemies of God. It is nearly overwhelming to read that God would treat Egypt and Assyria as at one with Israel. They too would come to Jerusalem to worship Him. How would they know to do this? How would they be drawn to worship God at the Feast of Booths, that great feast of ingathering? They could not know to do this unless somehow God revealed to them too something of Himself.
How little they knew how profound was God’s interest in them! “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.”
God is most completely revealed in Jesus Christ who the Father sent out of love for the world. But God has also revealed to us and to all people much about Himself in creation. We trust in Jesus who has been revealed to us in the Bible. We trust in Him. This is a trust that will not be disappointed. Let us be glad that God has revealed to others who do not know of Him except through creation, something of Himself, indeed enough to cause them to seek after God.
Let us pray that what they see of God in creation and what they see in our faith points them to Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life. Let us leave to God the things that are God’s, and then do what is ours to do out of faith in Jesus Christ.
Let us pray: O Lord, the things which are beyond us, we entrust to you. And we thank you that by faith we can rely on your love for us, poured out for us on the cross on which Jesus died, validated in the tomb which He escaped alive. Help us to trust in Jesus, and to live lives worthy of the Gospel. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Stuart D. Robertson, Pastor
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at October 23, 2005 09:30 AM