Thinking Christian

” “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” When Jesus was done saying these things, the crowds were amaze at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”

Matthew 7:24-29

I’ve heard this parable many times. And I’ve understood the point that you have to have Jesus and the Word of God as your foundation, otherwise when the storms come – everything will come crashing down. Yet, when I re-read this parable the other night. I saw it in a different light. Jesus said “everyone who hears my words and puts them into practice is like a wise man” …. hear his words, and put them into practice. “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man” …. If you hear his words, and don‘t put them into practice…..you are a like a foolish man, and the shelter you think you’ve built to protect you is just waiting to come crashing down.

I, for some reason, always just saw this passage as meaning you had to have your foundation be the Word of God … but that’s not really what it says, is it?  Yes, you have to know it, and it is your foundation, but if you don’t follow through and DO what it says – Jesus calls you foolish and that you have no foundation to speak of.

The Bible says a lot about the importance of action in the Christian faith/life, and I’m still trying to grasp exactly how it all fits together.  The Bible is clear that we are not saved by works – there is nothing we could ever do to earn us our salvation, it is a gift that we receive by faith.  That said, I think the Bible teaches (and the above passage highlights) that knowing the Word of God isn’t the same as believing, and believing entails ‘doing’.

In reading an article on yahoo ( http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100929/ap_on_sc/us_sci_new_earths ) I started thinking about a subject that has crossed my mind more than once… What would life on other planets mean for me, as a Christian?  Would the discovery of life on other planets shake my faith/the foundations of Christianity? Do I even think it’s possible that God created life on other planets?  Sure, this isn’t a huge moral question but I think it’s interesting none-the-less.  What do you all think – is there likely advanced life on other planets? If so, what would that mean for Christians/Christianity?

Most people have heard the phrase “turn the other cheek”?

But what does that really mean?

Say a man breaks into my house to rob the place, thinking it was empty, but instead finds me still at home.  Since I’m no black belt, and probably couldn’t put up too much of a fight physically, let’s say I own a gun.  When the thief breaks into my home, I’m able to grab my gun right away.  Gun in hand, what should I do? Start by asking them to leave, seems like a good place, maybe fire a warning shot.  But what if, for whatever reason, he doesn’t go.  I’m not able to tell whether the thief has a weapon or not, but should I shoot him anyways, since he won’t leave – after all, he may or may not try to hurt me…is it ok to strike out with violence then?  What if I see he does have a weapon, is it ok to shoot then?  And is it ok to shoot to kill?  Let’s take it a step further, what if I had a family and I thought the thief was going to hurt my family?  …….

Luke 6:27-29:  “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other as well, and from the person who takes away your coat, do not withhold your tunic either.”

As a Christian, what right do we have to violence?

I’m not saying I for sure wouldn’t defend myself or my family, truth is I don’t know how I’d react and it would be instinctual to try and protect them.  But what should I do, is the question. When I look at all the Martyrs throughout history, and even the apostles from the Bible, I don’t hear of them resisting physically, violently.  I’ve sometimes thought that perhaps there is a difference in just being attacked in general, and being attacked because of your faith, and that in the latter case you shouldn’t fight back, but in the former you could.  But I don’t know, the verse in Luke is talking about being treated badly just in general – being mistreated, beaten, and stolen from.  So that doesn’t support my thoughts.

It seems there are two ways of looking at self defense.  One, being that if you use violence to the point of death, you are saying that your life is more valuable than the person you’re killing.  Saying that if one of us has to die, it  had better be the other person.  This makes me think of a quote from the movie The End of the Spear where Jim Elliot’s young son asks him to please fight back if the natives he was going to witness to got violent.  He replied “I can’t do that … I’m ready meet Jesus.  They aren’t.”  That has really stuck with me.  If I die because someone kills me, I’m absolutely ready to meet Jesus.  As it says in Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”  The person I might be killing in self defense probably doesn’t know Jesus and when they die they will spend eternity in Hell.  But perhaps they would have had a chance to turn to Jesus if I hadn’t killed them.  Perhaps not, but would I take that chance away from them because I simply want more time on this earth?

The second way of looking at self defense is said best by Edmund Burke ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’  I think this is especially true in cases of fighting to protect someone else. Or, if you would be the only one harmed by a person, perhaps that person would go on to hurt more people after yourself – so forcefully stopping/killing them could be a service to humanity.  But where is this found in the Bible?

In most issues, let alone on violence, there is a need to make sure the difference between Old and New Testaments is understood.  In the Old Testament fighting was called for and even applauded.  In the New Testament, you never hear stories of the disciples fighting, let alone killing.  Even though they were being persecuted, tortured, and killed.  Jesus told them they were to expect that kind of treatment, and take joy in it.  When Jesus came he changed a lot about how we relate to God, each other, and the rest of the world.  So when people talk about God being a ‘violent’ God, and that ‘of course God condones violence, look at all the killing he did in the Bible’ … they are really only talking about the Old Testament.  I want to know what the New Testament has to say about the issue.  And what that means for me today.

I don’t have any firm conclusions on this issue, but I often find myself thinking about it.  I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Article from Open Doors

The above link is something I got as an email recently.  I thought it deserved some looking into, and figured maybe some of you would have some thoughts on it as well.  I’ve looked over the resolution, and I believe Open Doors had it right when they said “The resolution protects a faith rather than individuals who hold a faith, which goes against the very purpose of human rights in international law.”  It is asking that governments be sanctioned to step in and protect a religion, and Islam more specifically, against people saying bad things about them, mocking their leaders, or even just voicing the opinion that that religion is false.  It is, by and large, an anti-free speech resolution.  At least that’s my take on it.  It is aiming at controlling what people can and can’t say about religion and Islam.  Is that really something the UN should be supporting?

“An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about the ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or of Practical Reason is idiocy.”

– CS Lewis, The Abolition of Man

For anyone who has read any philosophy, you’ve most likely come across René Descartes and his famous saying “I think, therefore I am.”  This statement came out of a long discourse in his attempt to get to a solid, unquestionable truth.  He started asking things along the lines of  ‘how do I know other people exist’ and ‘does anything in the outside world really exist?’ and finally, ‘how do I know I exist?’.  He came to the conclusion that since he is here to think these questions, then in some form or another he must actually exist.  This is definitely an interesting philosophical ‘experiment’ of sorts, but of what use is it to continually question every basic assumption?  An extreme example could be this:  you’re standing in the middle of the road as a car is fast approaching.  You stare at it contemplating whether or not that car actually exists (in which case you should start running) or whether the car is just an illusion (in which case, why break a sweat running when you don’t have to?).  With that scenario in mind, look back at the quote I have at the top of this post.  I am not saying we shouldn’t examine our assumptions, or beliefs.  I actually think it’s good to look at things and ask – do I really believe that? and for what reasons?  But once you’ve settled on an answer, you have your answer and you don’t need to keep going back trying to justify that belief every time you think about it.  So it’s ok to sit back once in your life and ask, ‘does the outside world really exist?’ (try running into a wall, I’m sure that will help you get your answer).  But once you’ve settled for yourself that the world really does exist – it would be idiocy to question it again and again.  Perhaps neurosis is a better word than idiocy, but the point still stands.  Once you’ve examined this foundational belief, you can then rely on it in your everyday reasoning.  It is a sturdy brick with which you can build arguments (argument is just another way of saying ‘your reasoning for why you think something’s true’).

For Christians, we need to take a hard look at our faith and ask ourselves some questions.  Questions like, ‘do I believe Jesus lived, was crucified and rose from the dead?’ and ‘do I believe what’s written in the Bible is true?’.  Once you come up with an answer, look at why you believe those things.  The reasons why you believe those things don’t have to be proof enough for everyone else, just for you.  If I say I believe in Jesus because I had a personal experience with him, and that is proof enough for me then I don’t have to go any further trying to explain it to anyone else.  Know why you believe something is not the same as saying why you think other people should believe something.  Knowing why you believe is more of personal exploration, than of reasons why everyone else should believe the same things you do.  I believe it’s important to know why you believe something because then you can feel confident that what you believe is true and not just some passing whim to which you haven’t given a second thought.  Once you you’ve thought through what and why you believe, those beliefs can then become foundational ‘bricks’ which you can use when reasoning through various issues.

So when Christian’s use Bible verses to support their position on certain topics, it isn’t just a fall back position of ‘well, it was written in this book and since I can’t think for myself I’m gonna just use what it said’.  It is that one of the foundational truths a Christian holds, is that what the Bible says, is true.  When a person tries to figure out what to think about a particular issue, they line up what they know to be true, and see what kind of conclusion that leads them to.  Christian or not, that’s how we think.  For example, if you were standing next to a friend and out of nowhere they slap your arm very hard – how do you react? It depends on what you know to be true.  If you know your friend is often physically violent, or really likes trying to perform slapstick humor – then you would probably get mad, coming to the conclusion that they either wanted to start a fight, or somehow thought it’d be funny to slap you.  Neither of which would be very amusing.  However, if you knew your friend to be kind and soft spoken, you would probably not get mad – merely confused and asking what that was for, because you would come to the conclusion that they probably had to have had a good reason for doing what they did.  Obviously human behaviour is somewhat unpredictable, and lots of factors come into play, but I hope you see my point.  In life we come to conclusions by taking the true things we know, and building up from there.  The Christian often relies on the Bible, because they know it to be true, and they build up from the foundation of the Bible to reach correct conclusions in different areas of life.  The Bible isn’t the only brick they use, but it is one of the first and most important ones.  Knowing this helps us understand where a lot of friction comes in when Christians and non-Christians are debating things.

As Christians, non-Christians often will not agree with us – and this is mostly because they do not agree with the initial building bricks of our arguments (ie, God exists, the Bible is true and we should try to conform ourselves to what it says, there is a supernatural realm, etc).  And that is ok.  Let me repeat myself, it is ok if people do not agree with us.  We don’t need to get mad because someone disagrees with us, or thinks differently – they are working with a different set of ‘foundation bricks’ than we are.  They won’t accept the ‘foundation bricks’ on which we set up our arguments and therefore won’t accept our conclusions that follow from them.  It is not our job to force other people to agree with us.  However, it is our job to make sure that they understand clearly what we are saying, and that, given what we believe, our arguments and conclusions are valid (make sense).  We should offer up clear explanations and sound reasoning. Like it was said to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 2:7 “You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen” and into chapter 3 God explains to Ezekiel that he was not responsible for the actions of the people he spoke to, he was only held accountable to say what he was meant to say, to whom he was meant to say it.  What the people did with it was not in his control.  Although that was on a slightly different subject (that of prophecy), I still believe this message really applies here.  We can’t control whether or not people believe what we say.  That isn’t, and shouldn’t be, our job. We simply need to know how to convey our thoughts in a rational and intelligent manner so that they can be understood.

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect”

1 Peter 3:15

I know that I am not the smartest person on the planet.  Not by a very long shot.  That’s not to say I’m an idiot, only that I have no illusions that in this blog I will be ‘spreading wisdom’.  I just hope that I can raise some interesting questions, and together with those who will read and comment on my blog, we can think through those issues with clear minds and in the process hopefully we can all strengthen (at least a little bit) both our walk with God and our intellects.

1 Corinthians 14:20 says:

Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking. Instead, be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.

In Matthew 10:16 Jesus says:

^” I am sending you out like sheep surrounded by wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

Christ doesn’t call us to be wise in all the ways of the world.  That is, we don’t need to be experts in things that are unpleasing to God.  But He does call us to be ‘wise’ and ‘mature in thinking’.  Those qualities are pleasing to Him and they are skills I wish to keep up on, and even grow in.  Hopefully along the way I can encourage some of my brothers and sisters to do the same.

Not too long ago, I was hanging out in Barnes & Noble.  And is often my habit I went to browse the philosophy section.  Not surprisingly there were more than a few books on religion, but one caught my eye.  I won’t mention the title because I don’t want to give it any kind of publicity, but let’s just say that the premise of this book concerns a Christian who turned to atheism.  This doesn’t make it a bad book, it could even have been a very interesting read.  However, as I was reading the book’s introduction I became increasingly appalled at what was being said.  Over and over the writer was both insinuating and stating outright, that religious people (and fundamentalist Christians in particular) do not use their brains.  That it was inconceivable for a person to have strong religious beliefs and at the same time be employing any kind of critical thinking skills.  This is obviously false – many of the great thinkers of philosophy, and history in general, have held deep religious beliefs.  But even knowing that it was false didn’t keep it from bothering me.  Not just that the book was saying this, but that there are many people out there who think this way about Christians.  To be fair, I do understand that there are a good number of Christians who are incoherent in what/why they believe certain things, and that their illogical way of trying to justify their beliefs only feeds into this stereotype.  But the same is true for almost every group of people out there.  It is difficult to make blanket statements about a large group of people and have them be true for every individual in the group.  I don’t believe that all Christians use sound logic, or give a lot of thought to not only their beliefs, but life in general.  But I do believe that there are some Christians like that.  More to the point, I believe that being a Christian in no way dampens your ability to think clearly and logically about any and all aspects of life.    And that is why I wanted to create this blog.  To create place where Christians (as well as people of any/no faith) can have discussions on many topics – using their brains and logical arguments, and showing that religion and logic can go hand in hand.