Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Jesus Creed

Home
Evangelical
Mark Galli Responds to Jeff Cook 2

Mark Galli Responds to Jeff Cook 2

Last updated on: June 3, 2011 at 5:20 am by Scot McKnight

Mark Galli Responds to Jeff Cook 2 2011-06-01T12:27:53-05:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This one is the final response, but we’ll give the last word to Mark Galli.

We Need a Better Question: A Response to Jeff Cook by Mark Galli

I love the force of Jeff Cook’s arguments, because they expose the shallowness of much popular Christian thinking. And I’m glad for places like Jesus Creed where, even given the limitations of blog-size responses, we can try to take the conversation deeper.

When we look at the history of the church, one thing we quickly see is that this conundrum about God’s justice is but the tip of the philosophical iceberg. This just happens to be the problem that strikes us as most interesting today. One can argue that the creation of a material world by an immaterial God, the dual nature of Christ, the Trinity, the Atonement, the Resurrection from the dead (!)–to name a few mysteries of the faith–are even more philosophically untenable ideas that “demand compelling answers.” So other than current interest, I’m unsure why we should privilege the justice questions, when epistemologically, they are all of one cloth.

Because of their intractability, I tend to be skeptical about the possibility of finding answers that will allay all doubts and compel devotion. This is asking too much of apologetics.

It is not asking too much of the Holy Spirit, however. I mean that not in a shallow, pietistic sense, but in Jesus’ sense, that the Holy Spirit’s job is to lead us into all truth, more specifically, the core truth of Jesus himself. This suggests a few things to me: That all our questions about God are always asked in the presence of God; that many of our questions are, in fact, prompted by the Spirit as a way to disturb and shake us out of our simple pieties on the way to a more robust faith; that the questions we ask of God are not nearly as important as the question he asks of us: Who do you say that I am?

It also suggests to me that we have to keep to the proper order. As Anselm put it, we believe so that we might know.

This does not mean we begin with “blind trust” or “the leap of faith.” To trot out “God’s ways are not our ways” as a mantra, especially at the beginning of the conversation, is to be false to the God whose ways are really not our ways. This is using “God’s ways are not our ways” as universal principle, a kind of magical axiom designed to end all conversation, when it very well may be a conversation that the Spirit has started.

It also usurps the real “axiom” of God: Jesus Christ. We know little of importance about God until we look at the person of Jesus Christ. He is the Word made flesh, he is the revelation of God to us. The really important things we know about God can only be discovered by looking at the person of Jesus Christ.

I wish I had a more space to explain what I mean, but here all I can do is repeat what Christians have found to be true in age after age: In Jesus Christ, we discover a God who is perfectly just and perfectly merciful. What Christ does on the Cross, who Christ is on the Cross, is where all conversation about every question must begin.

If God has not come to us ultimately and finally in Christ—so that Christ is the fullest revelation we have of God’s action and character–then the question “Is God just and worthy of devotion?” is very much alive. If God has not given us himself in death, to condemn the utter injustice of sin and evil and to offer forgiveness to unjust and evil people like us, then that question is very much alive. But if God has come to us in Christ, and died for us and for the whole world, and has risen for us and for the whole world, it seems to me we are on stable ground to begin every conversation with the assumption that God is perfectly just and perfectly merciful.

Now we can begin asking questions about Old Testament genocide, and about the relationship of the finite sinner and his infinite punishment, and so forth. The question is not—Is God just?—but how do we understand these conundrums given that God has shown himself to be perfectly just and perfectly merciful? We’re not so much demanding that God show himself worthy of devotion, but in devotion, we’re trying to understand the God who has shown himself worthy of devotion in Christ.

At one level, then, I do not understand Jeff’s statements in this paragraph:

“Because it is by no means clear that the Biblical God exists. Because it is by no means clear that the scriptures display the true God, or that the Bible is inspired in any way. Because it is by no means clear that God is good, that Jesus is alive, or that we aren’t all just sustaining our sanity with the story of resurrection. There are plenty of reasons for doubt here. “

In fact, there is no apologetic known to humankind that can make these things clear to the point of compelling faith. There are reasons that demonstrate the internal coherence of the Christian faith, but no reason that makes everything clear to everyone. This does not preclude us giving reasons for the hope we have, but it suggests a very modest role for apologetics. The one thing we are promised is that when we make the person and work of Christ as clear as we can, some will believe and some will stumble over the rock of offense.

In addition, as we study the history of theology and philosophy, we’ll find that the “compelling answers” to such questions have been wide and varied at times. But here’s the interesting thing: every answer ends up sabotaging God’s sovereignty or his mercy or his justice or his immanence or his transcendence—some vital characteristic of God as revealed in Jesus. Again, space precludes demonstrating this. But whenever we try to justify the ways of God to man in areas in which he has not chosen to reveal himself, we end up creating a god who is not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I trust the reader can see that what I am proposing is not an abstract philosophical stance like fideism—which my friend Scot has accused me of :-)–but a very personal commitment and trust in God’s Son. Not as an idea. Not as the answer to an intellectual problem, but to one who really does have the words to eternal life. To whom else shall we go? Because this is part of a very personal encounter with Christ thought the Holy Spirit, I hope it is also clear that I’m not arguing that our questions are a waste of time, but only must be grounded first in Christ’s question to us.

That is Jesus way: He always demanded first a response of trustful obedience to his word. Those who wanted to say goodbye to their families or to bury their father were told first to follow him. The answer to the man who asks about eternal life is “follow me.” We have many issues we want settled before we commit ourselves in complete devotion to God, but Jesus recognizes that no fruitful conversation with him can begin without trust in him.

He—not the idea of Jesus or Jesus as a principle, but the real person of Jesus as he comes to us in the Holy Spirit–He is he the one and only compelling answer, the only answer that is self-attesting, the only “answer” that shows itself worthy of devotion.

In the end, the statement “God’s ways are not our ways” is merely another way of saying, “We don’t know.” It’s okay to not know. There is not a philosophy or religion that does not have large areas of mystery. In fact, given the scope of our curiosity and our questions, there will always be much more that we don’t know than what we do know. Indeed, “there are plenty of reasons for doubt here.”

But there is indeed an unshakable faith on the other side of doubt when the questions are but the stirring of the Spirit. After wrestling with these questions, after much prayer and doubt, after weighing our real options this side of the beatific vision—after being checkmated by God time and again, forcing us again and again to begin with Jesus Christ on the Cross—then we can say with Job “God’s ways are not our ways.” Or better, “My Lord and My God.” Then it is not a piety that avoids the cross of doubt, but a profound wisdom, a kind of resurrection through the cross.

In the end—but only in the end, not at the beginning–there is really only one reason to believe, only one compelling answer. The life of the great saints of the church—from Francis of Assisi to Mother Teresa, from Paul of Tarsus to John Wesley, from Augustine to N.T. Wright–shows time and again that we know more than enough to give ourselves in heart, soul, mind, and strength to one who is already more than worthy of our devotion, even though we are not worthy of his devotion to us.

Mark Galli is senior managing editor of Christianity Today, and author of the forthcoming God Wins: Heaven, Hell, and why the Good News Is Better than Love Wins (Tyndale, July)

Uncategorized

Previous Post

June 3, 2011

Here's Jimmy! 2

Next Post

June 3, 2011 Bias against evangelicals in the academy?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What was the primary light source in Biblical times?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Oil lamp Bonfire Torch Candle