What you thought you knew

Eric Hoffer noted: "It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible."

There is an episode of Star Trek Voyager called Distant Origin where this topic is explored. A scientist of a race in the Delta Quadrant believes that genetic evidence indicated that their race originated on Earth. His thesis is challenged the doctrine of his species and he was accused of "heresy against Doctrine" for positing something different than his people believed. He ends up being persecuted and punished for his beliefs.

Now I want to be diplomatic about this. I am not someone who simply is contrary to established doctrines, be they theological, scientific or even military theories. That being said I think it is only right to question our presuppositions, as Anselm of Canterbury did through faith seeking understanding.

That understanding as a Christian is based on the totality of the message of the Christian faith. Hans Kung said it well:

"Christians are confident that there is a living God and that in the future of this God will also maintain their believing community in life and in truth. Their confidence is based on the promise given with Jesus of Nazareth: he himself is the promise in which God's fidelity to his people can be read."

What we have to admit is that our belief is rooted in our faith, faith which is given to us through the witness of very imperfect people influenced by their own culture, history and traditions. Even scripture does not make the claim to be inerrant, and the Bible cannot be understood like the Koran or other texts which make the claim to be the infallible compendium of faith delivered by an angel or dictated by God himself. It is a Divine-human collaboration so symbolic of the relationship that God has with his people, often confusing and contradictory yet inspiring.

There is a certain sense of relationship between God and humanity within scripture and that relationship creates certain tensions between God and those people. The interesting thing is that Scripture is a collection of texts which record often in terrible honesty the lack of perfection of both the writers and their subjects. They likewise record the sometimes unpredictable and seemingly contradictory behavior of God toward humanity in the Old Testament. They bear witness to the weaknesses, limitations and lack of understanding of the people of God of the message of God but even in that those limitations and weaknesses that God is still faithful to humanity in the life death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

The real fact of the matter is that fixed doctrines are much more comfortable than difficult questions than honestly examining the contradictions that exist within Scripture, history and tradition. The fact is this makes many people uncomfortable and thus the retreat into the fortress of fixed and immutable doctrine found in the various incarnations of Fundamentalism.

The fact is the world is not a safe place, and our best knowledge is always being challenged by new discoveries many of which make people nervous and uncomfortable, especially people who need the safety of certitude. So in reaction the true believers become even more strident and sometimes, in the case of some forms of Islam and Hinduism violent.

Christianity cannot get away unscathed by such criticism. At various points in our history we have had individuals, churches and Church controlled governments persecute and kill those that have challenged their particular orthodoxy. Since Christian fundamentalists are human they like others have the capacity for violence if they feel threatened, or the cause is "holy" enough. Our history is full of sordid tales of the ignorance of some Christians masquerading as absolute truth and crushing any opposition. It is as Eric Hoffer wrote:

"A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the realities around them but also against their own selves. The fanatical believer is not conscious of his envy, malice, pettiness and dishonesty. There is a wall of words between his consciousness and his real self."

This is the magnetic attraction of fundamentalism in all of its forms, not just Christian fundamentalism.?Yet for me there is a comfort in knowing that no matter how hard and fast we want to be certain of our doctrines, that God has the last say in the matter in the beginning and the end. We live in the uncomfortable middle but I have hope in the faith that God was in the beginning. Besides as Bonhoeffer well noted "A God who let us prove his existence would be an idol"

But there some Christians who now faced with the eloquence of men like Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye who make legitimate challenges respond in the most uncouth and ignorant manners. The sad thing is that their response reveals more about them and their uncertainty than it does the faith that they boldly proclaim. As Hoffer wrote: "We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand."

Our doctrines, the way we interpret Scripture and the way we understand God are limited by our humanity and the fact that no matter how clever we think we are that our doctrines are expressions of faith. This is because we were not in the beginning as was God and we will not be at the end, at least in this state. We live in the uncomfortable middle, faith is not science, nor is it proof, that is why it is called faith, even in our scriptures.

We are to always seek clarity and understanding but know that it is possible that such understanding and the seeking of truth, be it spiritual, historical, scientific or ethical could well upset our doctrines, but not God himself. As Henri Nouwen wrote: "Theological formation is the gradual and often painful discovery of God's incomprehensibility. You can be competent in many things, but you cannot be competent in God." Is that not the point of the various interactions of Jesus with the religious leaders of his day? Men who knew that they knew the truth and even punished people who had been healed by Jesus such as the man born blind in the 9th Chapter of John's Gospel.

"You are that mans disciple; we are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this one is from." The man answered and said to them, "This is what is so amazing, that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if one is devout and does his will, he listens to him. It is unheard of that anyone ever opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he would not be able to do anything." They answered and said to him, "You were born totally in sin, and are you trying to teach us?" Then they threw him out."

The interchange between the religious leaders and the man is not an indictment on Judaism, but rather on religious certitude in any time or place. The fact is that the Pharisees are no different than those who ran the Inquisition, or those who conducted Witch Trials or those who attempt to crush anyone who questions their immutable doctrine no matter what their religion. They were and are true believers.

In the episode of Star Trek the Next Generation called The Drumhead Captain Picard counsels Lieutenant Worf after their encounter with a special investigator who turned an investigation into a witch hunt on the Enterprise. Picard told Worf, who had initially been taken in by the investigator:

"But she, or someone like her, will always be with us, waiting for the right climate in which to flourish, spreading fear in the name of righteousness. Vigilance, Mister Worf that is the price we have to continually pay."

When Did Jesus Become the Son of God, the Lord,

and the Messiah?

The missionary speeches of Acts deal not only with issues of salvation;?they also make bold statements about Christ and how God?exalted him after his death. In Pauls speech to potential converts in?Antioch of Pisidia, he speaks of Gods raising of Jesus in fulfillment?of Scripture:

What God promised to our ancestors he has fulfilled for us, their?children, by raising Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm,

You are my Son, today I have begotten you. (Acts 13:32)

In this text the "day" Jesus became begotten as Gods son was the?day of the resurrection. But how does that square with what Luke says?elsewhere? In Lukes Gospel, the voice utters the same words, "You are?my Son, today I have begotten you" (Luke 3:22), when Jesus is baptized.

?But even earlier, the angel Gabriel announced to Mary prior toJesus conception and birth that "the Holy Spirit will come upon you,?and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the?child to be born will be holy; he will be called the Son of God" (Luke?1:35). In this instance it appears that Jesus is the Son of God because of

the virginal conception: he is physically Gods son. How can Luke say?all three things? I'm not sure its possible to reconcile these accounts; it?may be that Luke got these different traditions from different sources?that disagreed with one another on the issue.

The same type of problem occurs with some of the other things?Luke says about Jesus. For example, in Peters speech on the day of?Pentecost, he speaks of the death of Jesus and affirms that God raised?him up and exalted him to heaven: "Therefore let the entire house?of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and?Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucifi ed" (Acts 2:36). Here, again, it

appears that Jesus receives this exalted status at the resurrection that is when God "made him" Lord and Messiah. But what then is?one to think of the birth narrative in Luke, where the angel informs?the shepherds who are "watching over their flock by night" that "to?you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah,

the Lord" (2:11). In this instance, Jesus is Messiah and Lord already?at his birth. How did Jesus become both Messiah and Lord at both?points in time? Here again there appears to be an internal discrepancy?within Luke' s own writings, possibly because different sources?were used to create his accounts.

To be continued...