KNOWING TRUTH AND REJECTING TRUTH

There is a comfort in knowing the truth. Let’s start with a simple example. Knowing the truth about your car is comforting. If you didn’t know how to turn it on, drive it, or how to pump the gas, this would be stressful.

Knowing truth is a matter of mastery. If we don’t know how to master our car, kitchen, or frig, we will experience frustration and confusion. However, this same principle also pertains to other areas of our lives. We make thousands of moral decisions daily. They even govern how we speak to our friend, mate, or teacher.

In fact, almost everything we say has a moral dimension. When your husband advises you to start cooking dinner, you can respond in many different ways:

1. Yes, dear.
2. What is it you would like to eat?
3. Why is this always my responsibility?
4. You shouldn’t expect anything from me. You aren’t keeping up your responsibilities to me.
5. You are always thinking about yourself!
6. What will you do for me?

There are many possible responses, and they involve many different considerations, like the nature of the relationship and the way we conceive of it, the way the day has gone, and our values.

Some values yield good results; others do not. For example, if getting our needs met is our first consideration, conflict is inevitable. Whenever receiving takes precedence over giving, there will result a tug-of-war between our opposing demands.

This observation raises an important question:

• Are there moral and relational truths to govern our lives as there are truths about my car? If I have to pump the gas into my car at the right orifice, is there also a right way to treat my friend or partner? Also, as there is a joy and comfort in my mastery over the physical objects of my life, is there also a moral mastery that brings joy and comfort?

If there is such a mastery that comes from knowing and understanding, then acquiring and using such knowledge should also be a delight. All the major religions would probably be in agreement. In fact, this is the message of the Bible:

• Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. (Psalm 1:1-3)

Some study their auto manual so that they can understand the use and maintenance of their car. How much more important to understand the use and care of our lives! Therefore, Scripture consistently encourages us to seek wisdom:

• How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver!... Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed is he who trusts in the LORD. The wise in heart are called discerning, and pleasant words promote instruction. Understanding is a fountain of life to those who have it, but folly brings punishment to fools. A wise man's heart guides his mouth, and his lips promote instruction. (Proverbs 16:16-23)

• A fool finds pleasure in evil conduct, but a man of understanding delights in wisdom. (Proverbs 10:23)

Wisdom is a delight. It opens our eyes to the fullness of life, where we can see how everything it interrelated. It is like the joy of completing a puzzle or even a house, but the joy of wisdom is even more profound. Wisdom is also a light, enabling us to navigate this hazardous life.

However, not many are willing to pay the price for it. Augustine of Hippo claimed that although the happiness of truth is available to all, we would rather be right than wise:

• True happiness is to rejoice in the truth, for to rejoice in the truth is to rejoice in you, O God, who are the truth… Man’s love of truth is such that when he loves something which is not the truth, he pretends to himself that what he loves is the truth, and because he hates to be proved wrong, he will not allow himself to be convinced that he is deceiving himself. So he hates the real truth for the sake of what he takes to his heart in its place. (Augustine’s Confessions, Book 10:23)

For many, darkness is more comfortable than knowing the truth, even peace of mind.

Finding Meaning within Pain and Perplexity

I think that we become most tormented when we can’t understand our experience of pain and loss when it seems to contradict Scripture. For instance, I love to read about the missionaries. They are my heroes! However, they had experienced enormous loss – children, spouses and even their own lives. Why? They had committed their entire lives to their God and His service, and yet they experienced such loss, despite God’s promise to work all things to their good.

From our point of view, this just shouldn’t be! It seems to violate all of God’s promises, and the apparent contradiction sends us spiraling down into a spiritual vertigo. Job experienced this vertigo. He had lost everything, even though he had given his entire life to his Lord. He was convinced that what he had experienced wasn’t fair, and that God was at fault. Although he never cursed God, he certainly was not lacking in indictments against Him.

And, in a limited sense, Job was right. Although God might not have directly caused Job’s misfortunes, He purposely allowed them to happen! Job therefore was certain that God’s Word had failed, and that God had failed him.

Eventually, Job repented of his accusations against God. Why? It wasn’t that God had given Job a detailed and reasonable explanation of everything God had done. Job never received an explanation for his loss and suffering, but he received something else that sufficed. God revealed to him that his indictments were products of ignorance. He showed Job that Job lacked the wisdom and understanding to make such indictments:

·         Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:  “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?  On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone (Job 38:1-6)

Of course, Job could not answer any of these questions. He had been like a first-grader complaining that his math teacher couldn’t teach math. However, God dramatically showed him that he lacked the necessary intelligence and experience to make such charges. Job got the message and repented:

·         “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know… Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:2-6)

Often we become too confident about our level of knowledge. We become convinced that we know more than we actually do know and therefore judge God.

While wisdom and knowledge have an exalted role according to Scripture, we often rely upon our own wisdom more than we should. We are warned against this:

·         Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Contrary to this, we are often told to trust in ourselves and our judgments. However, Scripture cautions against this advice. Job had trusted in his own understanding, but this only deepened his woes. He finally came to the realization that his self-trust had cut him off from his only hope – God.

There are some things that we can’t understand. Scripture warns us of this – that we only see in part. I must admit that I too am troubled about the way God does things and the things He allows to occur. Our beloved nephew just took his own life after battling paranoia for years. He was a believer. Why did God allow this to happen? This troubles me!

Our pastor-friend’s son took his life. His wife died after many painful years of battling cancer, and now the pastor also battles against the same foe. Another pastor-friend died a long and painful death. Both of these men had been men of exemplary character. God, why? If You allowed such torment to befall these godly men, what hope do I have? You want me to trust You, but how can I in light of what I see?

This had been Job dilemma. How could he love and trust God after what had happened to him? He was convinced that he no longer could! However, he subsequently repented of his attitude. What made the difference? It wasn’t that it all suddenly made sense to him. We see no evidence of this! Instead, he came to see that he couldn’t trust his own very limited and juvenile judgments. This understanding once again opened the door to trusting God, once he saw that he could not trust in his own understanding.

Just recently, my knee went bad, and then my back went out. In desperation, I went to the chiropractor, who broke my rib. I subsequently went through a Job-like crisis. I asked, “God, can I really trust You? Will you let me down as you did my pastor-friends?”

Leaning to my own understanding, it seems that God had let me down. But perhaps it was my own understanding that had let me down. I recalled God’s humbling counsel to Job:

·         “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness? Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.” (Job 38:16-18)

Truly, there is so much that I do not know! “Lord, humble me and leave me not in the grips of my own feeble and fearful understanding.”

Nevertheless, I think that there is understanding to be had. Our Lord will never allow us to have enough wisdom and understanding so that we need not cry out to Him for more. We will always need to depend upon Him for understanding, and we must. He therefore hides from us the extent of His grace – His responsiveness to our prayers. He did this with Abraham!

Abraham had been granted an exclusive audience with the Lord, who explained that He was about to destroy Sodom because of its great sins. Abraham interceded on behalf of his nephew Lot who lived in Sodom with his family. Finally, he got the Lord to agree that He would not destroy Sodom if there were as few as ten righteous people in the city. However:

·         Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord.  He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace. (Gen. 19:27-28)

We have absolutely no indication that Abraham ever knew that the Lord had rescued Lot and his daughters. Consequently, he never tried to find them. Instead, it seems that Abraham was so stricken by this loss that he had to relocate elsewhere, away from any reminder of his great “loss.”

We are not ready to truly fathom the depth of our Lord’s grace. We cannot handle it. While bleeding to death from a grievous chainsaw injury, I had the most incredible pre-salvation encounter with God. I was utterly filled with His love, joy and peace. I was in ecstasy through the knowledge of His omnipotence and the certainty that He would never leave me. I was miraculously rescued and spent four days recuperating in the hospital. On the second day, my surgeon informed me that I had to begin exercising my hand or I’d loose mobility. However, I blew-off his advice, convinced that God was omnipotent, and therefore, it didn’t matter what I’d do in regards to my recovery.

Consequently, I never regained full mobility. Although I correctly understood that God is omnipotent, I lacked the maturity to correctly apply this knowledge and suffered loss as a result. I leaned on my own limited understanding instead of the word of the expert.

I was not ready for God’s truth. Can we teach a first-grader trigonometry before she learns addition and subtraction? Trig is ridiculous – even dangerous - for those unprepared for it. So too is a comprehensive understanding of God’s ways. Instead, we need to learn from Job and repent in dust and ashes, acknowledging that we speak “of things [we] did not understand, things too wonderful for [us] to know.”

True Religion must be Inclusive: Christ according to Doug Pagitt

My friend brought me to visit an artist in her studio. He assured me, based on a prior conversation with her, that she was interested in dialoguing about Christ. However, point-blank, she told us that she wasn’t interested in such a conversation: “Christianity is just too exclusive for me!”

What did she mean by this? Christianity demands belief in the Gospel, and any who don’t believe, who are unable to accept this revelation, are excluded.

This requirement opposes what people are looking for today. They want a religion that will unite all people, uphold our common humanity and eliminate any “us-them” distinctions. Emergent Church pastor, speaker and writer, Doug Pagitt, puts it this way:

• We are connected to each other as well. Christians like to talk about community, yet the dualistic [us-them] assumptions surrounding our theology make it almost impossible for us to experience true community. As long as we hold on to “us” and “them” categories of seeing the world, we live behind a barricade that prevents us from joining in with God and others in real and meaningful ways. And it doesn’t really matter who we decide “them” is – the non-Christians, the sinners, the liberals, the conservatives, the Jews, the Catholics, that weird church on the other side of town. Division is division, no matter how righteous we want to make it sound. (A Christianity Worth Believing, 91-92)

According to Pagitt, a Christianity that makes distinctions and excludes is not the true Christianity. Therefore, say “goodbye” to the initiation rite of baptism, church discipline, and  even confronting others about their sins – whether they be rape, infanticide, or domestic violence. (Following this logic, the Catholic Church was correct to not distinguish between the pedophile priests and the faithful ones!) Surrender distinctions between the just and the unjust, the resurrection of the righteous and the resurrection of the unrighteous, and the saved and unsaved! Perhaps also we will soon be required to foreswear such distinctions as “my wife” and “his wife,” “my son” and “my daughter,” and even “my son” and “my father!”

However, we must continue to make distinctions. If we believe in any truth, we have to distinguish it from what is not true. If we believe in justice, we have to oppose injustice and those who commit it. If we believe that God is love, we have to oppose those who teach that He is not love.

Truth, therefore, is exclusive. It excludes those ideas that are not truth. Goodness is also exclusive. It excludes those behaviors that tear people down.

Any conversation is impossible without making distinctions. Pagitt certainly engages in his own “dualistic assumptions,” even as he denies it. He opposes dualism with his own brand of dualism. He is very ready to distinguish his Emergent thinking from that of the traditional church. This too is dualistic!

Even his language implies those verbotten distinctions. He contrasts “true community” with community which is not true and makes those unacceptable distinctions – just as he is doing. There are those who “live behind a barricade” of judgmentalism and those who don’t. There are those who cause “division” and those who don’t, namely Pagitt and the Emergent Church.

How do we cause division? Pagitt cites this example:

• She’d been taught that unless her theology was right, unless her life and belief conformed to a model that would appease the unmovable God, she was a failure as a Christian. (107)

This is a gross misrepresentation. Instead, each of us is “a failure as a Christian.” That’s why we must live by confession and repentance. Consequently, we depend upon His mercy in everything!

But isn’t it a bit imperialistic, unreasonable and arbitrary of the Bible to insist that our “theology [be] right” for everyone else? Okay, we need to make distinctions, but it seems so unfair and unjust that God would require us to believe a certain way and then damn us to hell if we don’t or can’t.

Pagitt hits at the core of what he sees as the unreasonable exclusiveness of the Christian message:

• I’m not sure I would have been interested in the Christian faith if the story on the stage had been about a removed God who needed to be placated with a blood offering before he was willing to cross the chasm and participate with humanity. (98)

Clearly, Pagitt has little taste for the heart of the Gospel – sacrificial atonement. Therefore, he has affirmed a more popular brand of Jesus:

• Jesus was not sent as the selected one to appease the anger of the Greek blood god [his pejorative description of the God of the Bible]. Jesus was sent to fulfill the promise of the Hebrew love God by ending human hostility. It was not the anger of God that Jesus came to end but the anger of people. (194)

Interestingly, Pagitt’s new-found faith not only violates the New Testament but also the Old, from which he claims support. Even in the Old, our Lord always required a redemption or payment for sin (Psalm 130:8), even a human payment:

• But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all…and he will bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:5-11)

Besides, we have to ask, “What does Pagitt’s god look like? One who does not require a pay-back for sin? Is humanity best served by a permissive god, one who does not guarantee ultimate justice, the just payment for man’s inhumanity to man?”

Pagitt claims that “It was not the anger of God that Jesus came to end but the anger of people.” However, if God is not angered by our inhumanity towards our fellow human, why then should we be? Isn’t God supposed to be our role model? If God is permissive towards sin, why should not we also be so!

Instead, we cannot separate God’s zeal for justice from our own. If God is above punishing, why then shouldn’t we be above it? Unless they go together, any coherent legal or moral system falters. Instead, perhaps we should tear down the prison walls?

However, we have to return to another question: “Is the requirement of faith in such a God an arbitrary and unjust requirement, especially if educated and thoughtful people are unable to believe it? Doesn’t this requirement also establish an unacceptable “us-them” distinction that illegitimately divides humanity?”

There is a pervasive misunderstanding about the nature of Biblical faith. It is often assumed that faith represents a blind leap into the darkness, one without any evidential support. However, if this is the case, God cannot blame anyone for not having such a faith. The world is filled with various belief systems – Hindu, Islamic, Secular… If there is no evidence or reason to choose one faith over the other, then there can be no blame assigned to someone who chooses the wrong faith. Besides, Biblically speaking, ignorance is an adequate defense (John 15:22, 24).

However, we are not ignorant. Instead, in many ways, we are wired to believe in God and His truths (Rom. 2:14-15). Besides this, the world has been designed in such a way that we can’t plead ignorance. It bears such a profound divine imprint that we are without any excuse (Rom. 1:18-20).

This particular revelation is not a New Testament invention. We find this very same message revealed throughout the landscape of the Hebrew Scriptures. The Proverbs tell us that God’s truths are so ubiquitous that it’s as if they are even crying out to us in the crowded and noisy marketplace:

• Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech. (Proverbs 1:20-21)

The truths about God are ubiquitous – found even in the streets and public squares. Consequently, we are without excuse if we fail to believe.

If this is so, why then don’t people hear wisdom’s voice? It is not a matter of their inability to conjure up enough faith. Instead, they don’t want to hear this persistent voice:

• "How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you. But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster.” (Prov. 1:22-24)

Why are people unwilling to hear the Gospel? It is not that we are unable to hear. Instead, we delight in things contrary to God’s revelation. We therefore reject Him and His voice. There is also another reason. “We would not accept [His] rebuke.”

What is His rebuke? His indictment of us – our denials, justifications, and rationalizations! All wisdom must begin with the instrument - us. Seeing micro-organisms requires a microscope with a clean lens. Seeing other galaxies requires a telescope with a clean lens. Similarly, knowledge and wisdom must begin by exposing and addressing the filth on our lens.

Jesus explained our blindness in terms of a log in our eye (Mat. 7:1-5). The log blinds us and must be removed before we can see clearly.

Wisdom must first point the finger at us to expose our blindness and sinfulness. It is only after we see these and confess them that we can see others. However, wisdom is painful. It unmasks our self-presumptions. Therefore, we hate it:

• Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord, since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them. (Prov. 1:29-32)

Faith is not something that requires a blind leap of faith. Instead, it asks us to open our blinds to the light, which He has made so apparent – that we are sinners who need a Savior.

This is so abundantly obvious, not only from the Scriptures but also from our lives. We know that something is the matter with us. Our shame and guilt speak persuasively about this fact. Whenever we are accused of wrongdoing, we immediately attempt to justify ourselves.

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis observed that even the atheists who don’t believe in any absolute laws, react as if they exist. Instead of merely responding, “Who cares about your non-existent moral laws,” he will respond by defending himself. He intuitively knows that he has violated a moral law, and knows that he has sinned. Nevertheless, he will suppress this knowledge and try to justify himself. He knows that he is morally culpable to the God in whom he does not believe.

Consequently, we always have to be right (Prov. 21:2), and we convince ourselves that we are right (Prov. 16:2; 24:12). I too had convinced myself that my conflicts were always the fault of the other. Consequently, my wife and I could never resolve any of our disagreements. However, in our beloved darkness, we stumble and fail to come to any reconciliation – either with man or with God. “The complacency of fools will destroy them” (Prov. 1:32).

Countless surveys and psychological experiments have confirmed this same finding – that we love the darkness of self-delusion rather than the light (John 3:19-21). We have the truth but hate and reject it.

Entire volumes have been written to demonstrate this fact. Psychologist Shelley Taylor writes:

• The evaluations people offer of themselves are also typically more favorable than judgments made by others about them. For example, when people’s descriptions are contrasted with the descriptions of them offered by their friends or acquaintances, the self-descriptions tend to be more positive. Typically, we see ourselves in more flattering terms than we are seen by others. (Positive Illusions, 11).

To demonstrate the ubiquity of this hatred of self-truth, she offers many other examples throughout her book:

• When two people have written a book together and are asked to estimate how much of the book they are personally responsible for, the estimates added together will typically exceed 100%. The same feature characterizes more mundane tasks. Asked to estimate how much of a contribution they make to the housework, adding together husbands’ and wives’ estimates of their own efforts produces a total that greatly exceeds 100 percent. (18)

We are willfully blind in the direction of self-promotion. We do not want to see our sins and failures and have assembled a variety of “self-protective” mechanisms.

Some have even attempted to defend self-delusion as a necessary psychological tool. The late novelist, Andre Gide remarked:

• Each one of us has his own way of deceiving himself. The important thing is to believe in one’s own importance.

However, believing in our self-importance requires that we filter out the counter-evidence. Nevertheless, we need to believe in something. Generally, it is in ourselves and our mastery over our lives. However, we cannot believe in ourselves and, at the same time, acknowledge that we are damnable sinners who need a Savior. Only one set of beliefs can reign.

However, the suppressed awareness of our inadequacy festers at the core of our being.

Consequently, our lives revolve around the futile and ongoing attempt to prove that we are okay. However, we find that we are never able to. However much money, success or approval we have accumulated, we remain dissatisfied. Why? Because these vain efforts fail to address the deeper problem – our alienation from God and self! Consequently, in order to gain some temporary relief from deep-seated shame and guilt, we may even attempt to punish and maim ourselves.

Intuitively, we know that a price must be paid for our sin. Intuitively, we demand punitive justice for not only others but also for ourselves. Not believing in the Savior, we attempt to pay justice’s price with our own lives.

For this perspective, faith isn’t an act of blindness but of courage to face the painful truth. It’s not a running from evidence, but a willingness to engage it!

In contrast, Pagitt denies that God’s has a holy character – one that He has also wired within us - that must be satisfied - propitiated. Instead, he has re-created Him in his own image to be tolerant of everything. Pagitt refuses to acknowledge the Creator-creation, the Sanctifier – sinner, distinction. In doing so, he refuses to acknowledge that our sins have alienated us from our God and that we must be reconciled through the sacrifice of the Messiah.

It is because of this distinction that the entire Old Testament cries out to Israel to confess their sins so that they can come to God and receive His mercy:

• And if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. (Proverbs 2:3-5)

The Gospel – the knowledge of God – is there for the taking. It is available to all who sincerely seek. The Gospel is inclusive of everyone (John 3:16), but not in every way or of everything. Our God has His standards, and we also have them.

In fact, the notion that God accepts everything and every idea is an absurdity. I am not free to treat others in any way I please. When I am invited to their home, I must respect their household rules. Why then should we expect that God is so vacuous, flat and insipid that any relational overture is okay with Him?

For years, I had been interested in God, but I demanded that He fit into my specifications. For one thing, since I am ethnically Jewish, He couldn’t have anything to do with Jesus Christ. Consequently, I wasn’t making contact. It never occurred to me that if God is God, the Creator and Sustainer of this universe, He might have something to say about the grounds for our relationship.

In fact, He has a lot to say about it. I was calling-the-shots. I failed to see myself as the beggar. This beggar was in effect saying, “I only receive 20 dollar bills.” The hubris! The hubris of the assumption that we can come to God in any manner we so choose! Instead, Jesus taught that we had to come to our Father as needy little children, willing to accept His grace in the form He offers it.

However, no one seeks for a cure who feels he lacks a disease. Pagitt doesn’t acknowledge his disease and consequently thinks that he can call-the-shots.

More seriously, we reject the idea of a holy and righteous God. Instead, according to our modern perversion, the marketplace now demands a god who will not only accept everyone but also everything – every excuse, denial, rationalization and every behavior, no matter how lethal.