07/14/15 - Thoughts on Faith, Love, and Scripture

I have been reading a lot lately.  For those who know me personally they know that this really means A LOT.  Recently, however, my reading has been not of novels for pleasure, but of philosophy and theology for edification (I hope!).  I felt a strong desire today to get some of my thoughts out into the ether so that I don't fall into folly.  Hopefully these thoughts reflect the truth, but if not, I would be glad of reproof.

• The only acceptable answer, when asked by a loved one, to the question, "why do you love me?" is FAITH!  If you love is truly unconditional then you cannot have reasons for it.  If the reasons were to cease to exist then the love would also cease.  Therefore unconditional love is indefensible; it is incomprehensible.  There are no reasons, only faith, belief that the love is good and that it will continue.  To occur to a lover to put up a defense for his love is to admit that it is not absolute.  There are objections against the love, and from the objections proceeds the defense.  This is to say that a lover concedes he is not in love!  To defend your absolute love is to betray and deny it.  In another sense, how can we defend God? Or Christianity?  If He is truly so far above us that His totality in incomprehensible then to give reasons for why we believe is to deny His mystery.  Only through faith in the incomprehensible can we be victorious.  Faith is attack and victory, not defense.
• Christianity is therefore incomprehensible.  The fact that God loves us unconditionally cannot ever make sense.  It is unreasonable, indefensible, and yet it IS!  Therefore the only way to accept Christianity is through faith.  How can you defend the indefensible?  You cannot; it is absurd.  Faith is absurd, but it is also joy, peace, hope, and love.
• In this way Christianity is offensive.  Faith is so far above reason that men scoff.  This is too much.  They will to deceive themselves by reason and logic.  God exists, however, outside of this.  God exists in the realm of the impossible.  Not the very improbable, but the absolutely impossible.  Faith can only occur as a leap.  Only when one reaches the brink of the impossible, but then goes further.  Leaps into the void of impossibility and has faith that God will catch him there!  The practical, or sensuous man, if he ever reaches the brink, will turn away and say, "there is no reason for this.  This is impossible.  I resign myself to the brink and will go no further."
• To withhold judgement about Christ is nonsense, it is a delusion.  Christ does not leave us room to do so.  He says, "thou shalt believe,"  in His divinity, in the forgiveness of sins, in the resurrection.  To withhold judgement is to treat Christ as a matter of indifference, but the matter that Christ (God) preached to mankind signifies that "thou shalt" have an opinion on the matter.  This decision, that He exists or has existed, or not, is the decision for the whole of existence.  It is a denial of the divinity of Christ when one denies that Christ has the right to require a person to haven an opinion.  In essence, no opinion is a negative opinion.  If a man says, "I will not affirm anything about Christ, either yes or no."  Then one can respond, "well then, do you have an opinion about whether you SHALL have an opinion on this or not?"  If the response is, "yes," then that man has trapped himself.  If the response is, "no," then Christ condemns him all the same for Christ requires that he shall have an opinion about Christianity and also about Christ, that no one shall presume to treat Christ as a mere curiosity.
• I don't believe that God is concerned with foul words, but with how individual words are used.  Words are a human invention, and so humans ascribe to them value.  I believe, in the tongues of angles, so to speak, in God's own language, there are no such things as foul words.  For humans, however, to say, "I f***ing love God!" is offensive only so much as it offends the English speaking listener who has been trained that the word f*** is offensive, but the sentiment is a holy one!  On the other hand, to say, "I have no opinion about Christ, he is a mere curiosity that has no bearing on my daily life."  Now that, I think, is offensive to God.  I am not saying that we should go about using what culture has judged to be foul words, because to give offense to others is wrong, but only that God cares not about the individual words, but how they are used.  In essence, the state of the heart.
• The way I have hitherto read the verse in James, "show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by what I do," has had the negative effect on me that I do not have enough deeds to be saved!  For a life of faith can only be followed by a life of virtue.  In this mindset I have tried to live a more virtuous life, and failed, when I should have had more faith.  For even in failing to be virtuous, by faith I know that I am forgiven and can humbly accept that I am sinful and in every moment in need of God's grace.  But to live a life only of virtue, without faith, a man becomes prideful.  God's forgiveness is not necessary.  Then, if one falls into sin, or folly, they say, "I cannot forgive myself," or, "God can never forgive me!"  This is a stance of pride.  Self-love so great that I am too good of a person to behave in this way and thus despair.  But sin is not such a stumbling block to the faithful, for they know that the impossible is true.  That God loves them unconditionally regardless of deeds.  Thus virtue is not the opposite of sin, but faith is.  "Faith without deeds is dead."  This is a terrifying thought!  For when can I have done enough deeds to prove my faith is genuine?  But this is the incomprehensible, that even though I can never do enough deeds to prove my faith, I still carry on, believing that God loves me anyway, forgives me, and forgets my sin.  Only by living in faith can one live in humility before God, and thus can true virtue be realized.
• I suppose that it comes to this.  Is the Bible, as we know it, true?  Does it actually relate the words and deeds of Christ historically?  If this question is dismissed then you are essentially saying that God is unknowable and that the Bible is full of lies.  For the Bible, as with all holy scriptures, very simply claims to be God's revelation of who He is, at least as far as our finite minds can understand Him.  The existence of scriptures, if not only human lies, is to relate that God does want to be known.  And if God is omnipotent and wants to be known; then how could He not keep the truth about Himself intact?  I think it is impossible that God would spread His truth, mingled with lies, throughout all the scriptures that claim to be His revelation, then leave it to such finite and corruptible minds as ours to sift through the lies and find only truth.  I think that a god like this is a mad man who treats our lives as an experiment, or a plaything.  I want nothing to do with a god such as this.  No, if there is a God, and He wants to be known, then the TRUTH is out there, in ONE place, available to all for discovery.  Either this or there is no God, or only a god who does not want to be known; which, for all practical purposes, is the same thing.  A god who does not want to be known would have no personality and hold no stake in nature.  It would be, as some pagans believed, as if it just sneezed one day and the universe popped out.  Who cares?  So either there is no God, or the there is a God and the truth is out there for us to discover.  And this we MUST do.  So we must come to a conclusion about the veracity of all the scriptures.  As regards the Bible we must make a decision about whether or not Christ is a true representation.  If so, then we must make a decision about whether he is God, a liar, or a mad man.  I, for one, believe that Christ is God.  I can find no reason that the scriptures are lies, or that Christ is a liar.  I have found reasons to believe the Bible is an accurate representation of history.  I can find no reason to believe that God loves me, that He sent His son to die for me, that He raised Him from the dead in glory.  This I trust in faith, this is unreasonable, this is glorious!  I can find no reason to believe otherwise.