DEFENDING THE CHRISTIAN LIFE: A RESPONSE TO A FRIENDLY PHILOSOPHER

Thank you for the kind words at the beginning of your response, even if you were just setting me up “for the kill.” Actually, I always welcome your keen observations, even if sharp and probing, even when they expose my shameful “narcissism.” This is something that we share together, something from which many others would run in terror. I also hope that our exchanges will sharpen your thinking as they have mine – something important to both of us.

To start, I am very impressed by the accuracy of many of your observations. You accurately characterize my stance:

·       “’It was only through the continued assurance of Christ’s love and forgiveness that I could begin to face the humbling truth about myself. Otherwise, it would have overwhelmed me.’”

This is still true for me. Almost daily, I am deeply troubled by the things I see about myself. However, these observations continue to bring me back to my Savior, who loves me despite all of my unworthiness, which I can now bare because of such verses which have come alive for me:

·       Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

I think that part of our humanity requires us to define ourselves in relationship to the rest of the world. Christ has given me the ultimate self-definition in the midst of self-despair. He reassures me that it is not about me; it is about Him. Consequently, I start the day as a wounded narcissist but conclude it as a flower budding under His Light. I am comforted to find that my many deficiencies and adequacies continue to bring me back to the understanding that I am beloved by my Savior, to whom I belong.

I think that you are also correct about this “narcissistic preoccupation”:

·       “It’s a narcissistic preoccupation, isn’t it? And you can’t seem to move on from it, except through what seems like a story about God’s hate for that old self, assuaged by Jesus’ sacrifice.”

I think that we are all narcissists requiring many forms of reassurance and affirmations. Need is a dictator. It leads us to go to places where we wouldn’t ordinarily go. Infirmity leads us to go consul with our doctor. It also leads us into prayer and dependency on the One who is entirely adequate to carry our burdens. Paul continued to pray about his pain, a “thorn in his flesh.” However, God revealed to him that He would not remove it. Why not? As the rest of us, he too was a recovering narcissist, who was at risk of feeling proud of himself because of his spiritual endowment. In love, God would not allow this to happen. Therefore, He allowed Satan to afflict him. However, Paul learned a valuable lesson through this: “When I am weak, it is then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). But how? In our brokenness, we are coerced to rely upon our Lord. As a result of this realization, I have learned to accept my weaknesses and continuing failures, however painful they may be, as needful growth stimulants.

There is also a lot of truth in your next statement:

·       “…we may not all settle on the same Jesus story simply because we don’t all have the same psychology.”

Consequently, we see Jesus in different but not in necessarily contradictory ways. Anita reminds me of this, as someone with a very different psychology. However, rather than our differences leading us to a different Jesus, they merely highlight different aspects of Him.

Again, I agree with you that we have the capacity to evaluate our thoughts and experiences and to arrive at the truth:

·       …we do have the intelligence to keep testing out what we think we know and have that confirmed our in experience.

Theoretically, you are right. As our eyes can accurately detect and signal to our brain what is going on around us, our minds can also reflect back to us the reality and lessons of our experiences, which also instruct us. Our mind can act like a tranquil mountain lake, which can accurately reflect back to us the precise image of the trees on the other side of the lake.

However, what happens when the lake is not at rest? There are no discernable reflections. I think that this is also true of our discernment and interpretation of our experiences. We have within such powerful and demanding psychological forces at play, that our perceptions of reality become seriously distorted.

For example, we want to think that we are right and our accuser is wrong. As a result, we will obsessively go over the events and conversation in an attempt to prove to ourselves that we are innocent of any charges. As a result, we have no peace, just turbulence resulting from our internal conflict. How then are we to weigh what has really transpired?

You have written:

·       I am suspicious about a claim like “Scripture demonstrates that it says just what our reason also shows us”…And since I don’t think that Scripture offers too much “objective substantiation” of anything, I’m suspicious of your use of it.

You should be suspicious! I too am suspicious of my conclusions, knowing how fallible they can be. However, I think that there are many ways (“objective substantiation”) by which we can evaluate our interpretations. Let me just give you one analogy. When I finish putting together a 1000 piece puzzle, I am confident that I got it right. The pieces not only perfectly fit together, but its image is also coherent. Even though the interpretation of Scripture is far more difficult, I think that the analogy still pertains.

·       …you’re always trying to make sure you’re right by rehearsing the proofs you think you’ve found in scripture.

This is true! One reason for this that these truths are the foundation of our lives. Therefore, we want to get it right. We also believe that this is what our Lord requires, who insists that we worship Him according to His truths:

·       John 4:23-24 “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

Again, you are correct that I do believe this way:

·       …you assume (I think) that the original message can be beamed right over into our own contemporary experience, giving us a verbal sighting of eternal truth.”

However, challenging this process might be, this is still possible. The very fact that so many commentators, who start out with the same presupposition (that the Bible is the Word of God), have arrived at very similar conclusions about the meaning of a verse, testifies to the fact that we can lay hold of the “eternal truths” of the Bible.

Again, I am impressed by the accuracy of your observations:

·       Both fundamentalists and new atheists think that scripture can be interrogated like a court-room witness: they just disagree about its reliability. I don’t think that at all: scripture is not reliable in that way, was never intended to be, and it doesn’t have to be for us. If it were, there’d be no need for faith.

There is much that I can say about the last two sentences. I would just like to challenge you as to why you don’t think that Scripture is reliable in conveying objective truths? I wonder if you have underlying motivations to not want to believe this. Many do! They correctly understand that if the Scriptures are teaching objective truths, these truths will coerce them to live a certain way. They threaten our presuppositions and our lifestyles.  Besides, are our underlying motivations and desires disturbing the tranquility of our waters of the lake as to prevent us from seeing reality? By believing as they do, they are enabled to “enjoy” the freedom to believe what they want to believe. Some have even admitted so!

Let me leave with a provocative statement: To reject the truths of the Scriptures is ultimately to reject ourselves and our ultimate welfare.