Children ask the funniest questions.
"Why is the sky blue?"
"Why doesn't the water on the bottom side of the world fall off?"
"How long can a fish hold its breath?"
"Who made God?"
"Why isn't God married?"
Despite the current culture, the media hype, and the view of so many, children are not the best source for wisdom these days. Amend that. Ever. Oh, every so often they accidently come out with something that might surprise you, but children aren't your best option for advice.
You know who else is really bad at asking reasonable questions? Dead people. Dead people do not ask good questions. And they're bad at asking good questions for the same reason that children are. They don't know what they don't know. Now, fortunately, for the most part we don't get too many of these nonsense questions from dead people. That is, not from the ones in the cemetery. On the other hand, we actually get quite a few from dead ones not in the cemetery. In fact, as it turns out, a lot of people seem to spend a lot of time answering questions from these dead people.
Who am I talking about? I'm talking about those who are dead in trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1). You know, "Natural Man", the one who Paul said "does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them" (1 Cor 2:14). Now, many of us spend a lot of time answering questions from these dead people.
"Who made God?"
"Is God so powerful that He could make a rock so big that He couldn't pick it up?"
"If God is so good, why is there evil?"
Now, look, some of these aren't simply stupid questions. That's not what I mean to imply. What I'm saying is that most dead people (unbelievers) don't know how to ask the right questions. "Who made God?" is pointless if you don't know God. A question about the power of God is mindless if the goal is not to be aware of the power of God. Questions about evil and God have their place, but the real question is your evil and what you need to do about it. Rarely do we hear good questions from dead people like "What must I do to be saved?" Now that is a good question!
Should we be answering these questions from skeptics and unbelievers? Sure. But don't be confused. Very few of them (biblically, zero) are asking questions to arrive at the truth about God. The human condition is not one of ignorance as much as the suppression of truth. The need is not so much the answers to philosophical questions as much as the birth of a new heart. Answering some of these questions can be helpful in pursuing the important matters. I'm not saying not to answer them. I'm just pointing out that it's easy to lose sight of the goal when you're busy explaining matters to dead people who we know cannot understand the things of God. They don't need clarification. They need Christ.
6 comments:
Stan,
Excellent post, and a great reminder for the issue that we need to keep on the front burner at all times, our chief end is to glorify God. Striking at the heart and presenting the Gospel, not just engagement in philosophical banter for the sake of expressing arguments more persuasively.
I would add a note about praying for the unsaved, as we know without God shining the light of truth in the hearts of men, they will not turn.
Blessings.
Prayer is paramount indeed. I just know that there is a rising number of voices in Christendom who are trying to tell us that defending the faith is the most important thing and that we need to do so apart from the Bible (because, of course, skeptics don't believe the Bible). The image is one of reasoning people into the faith. It is erroneous first because human nature is opposed and second because the power is in the Word, not in our reasoning power. Ultimately we are not "defending the faith" to defend the faith (as if "you know, if we don't defend it, it will fall!"). We are taking fortresses captive so that the power of God through the Word of God and the Spirit of God can come into play.
You're right, apologetics has been misappropriated in that way - making an argument to anyone and everyone in an effort to reason people into the kingdom. Pyromaniacs had a great post on the intent of the passage most often quoted and misunderstood. It's a pretty good dismantling of the false nature of the proposition and what it does mean and requires of us. It is well worth the time.
To anyone interested, the Pyromaniacs piece to which Jeremy is referring is here.
I was one of those people... recently even.
I have the tendency myself.
Post a Comment