28 March, 2024

Embracing Our Questioners

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by | 16 May, 2010 | 0 comments

By John Castelein

Christians ask two kinds of questions: (1) safe questions, conceived and answered from within the faith; and (2) difficult questions about the entire faith enterprise itself. In many churches, small groups, and adult Bible school classes, persistent questioners can feel ostracized because difficult questions are not pursued.

Willow Creek Community Church led many churches to respect the questions of seekers outside the church. However, in spite of such openness at the front door, church membership and attendance appear to be on the decline in the United States, especially among those 30 and younger (this follows the pattern of decline in Canada and Europe). So, has the time come for churches to close the back door where many struggling church members are disappearing unnoticed? I believe churches need to do a better job engaging church members who have serious questions.

WELCOME QUESTIONS
First, churches, church leaders, and Christian educators need to develop a theology of discipleship that welcomes questioning rather than discouraging it. Many heroes of the faith in the Bible wrestled with serious questions: Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Elijah, Jonah, Habakkuk, Job, Peter, Thomas, and the author of Ecclesiastes. Even Jesus wrestled in Gethsemane.

Significantly, the Bible does not condemn questioning as sin or blasphemy. Romans14:23 condemns living contrary to one”s convictions, but does not say it is sin to question what one should believe. Questioning is not ideal (James 1:6-8), but it deserves mercy (Jude 22)! The dangerous opposite of faith is not questioning, but apathy.

Indoctrinators reject inconvenient questions; educators welcome them since “all truth is God”s truth” (Augustine). Jesus loved raising and answering important and difficult questions, even more than Socrates. Jesus asked many questions about Israel”s understandings of the Messiah, righteousness before God, the Sabbath, the Law, piety, and even divorce. He respected all questions asked of him, answering many, turning some back onto the questioners as teachable moments, but rejecting none.

BUILD ON QUESTIONS
Second, churches, church leaders, and Christian educators need to develop a pedagogy of discipleship that builds on questioning rather than ignoring it. Faith and reason are usually related in one of two basic ways:

1. A person starts by reasoning from the known world toward God, till he must make a calculated leap of faith (Thomas Aquinas).

2. The person starts by trusting a respected authority, and then faith seeks understanding (Augustine; Anselm).

In both avenues of spiritual formation, foundational questions are extremely valuable. One approach asks when and how belief becomes reasonable, and the other approach asks what a faith commitment reasonably entails. Educating truly adult disciples(andragogy) beyond the high school level demands engaging today”s difficult questions in church.

WORSHIP WITH QUESTIONS
Third, churches, church leaders, and Christian educators need to evaluate all aspects of corporate worship to consider its impact on struggling believers.

For instance, I once heard a timely sermon acknowledging that Christians can have legitimate questions about the faith. The evangelist confessed that he himself once was driving along and wrestled with questions about the faith””for several miles!

Now I strongly believe the pulpit should not inspire skepticism, nurture doubts, or condone cynicism. But if one is going to deal with questions of faith, it must be done with an intellectual depth, moral seriousness, and existential honesty that really connects and is convincing. Preachers and teachers should not dismiss deep questions almost instantaneously in order to reassure the congregation quickly.

Healthy worship mixes songs celebrating noble aspirations and victories with songs confessing failures and offering forgiveness. Nothing can make a Christian who is struggling with serious intellectual questions and moral challenges feel more abandoned and divorced from the church family than a steady diet of idealistic songs portraying a romanticized version of the Christian”s intimate relationship with God.

The dissonance that the questioning Christian feels is especially pronounced if the prayers of the congregation remain merely superficial and mechanical. Praying for just about everyone (“be with so and so”) and for just about everything comes very naturally to many Christians who seem unfazed with little or no results in the physical world. For other Christians, however, to feel like real communication with the Creator of the universe, prayers need to express thoughtful intentionality.

STUDY QUESTIONS
Fourth, churches, church leaders, and Christian educators need to study valid questionsthat thinking believers confront. There are many wonderful answers to be found in history, literature, archeology, and apologetics. But before we can understand, evaluate, and appreciate the many excellent answers available, we must hear, respect, and own the questions.

What are some legitimate questions for Christians to be able to voice, tolerate, and engage in church?

Does the word God have a referent? This is the single most important question in all of Christianity, yet it is seldom dealt with in depth in sermons or lessons. Just formulating the question raises questions. To ask, “Is there a God?” improperly treats God as if he is one instantiation of a broader species or category of gods. To ask, “Does God exist?” treats God as a being that has existence like everything else we know. But being uncreated, infinite, and eternal, God”s “existence” at best involves only an analogy with everything else in the universe. You will grow from the arguments from intelligent design and the anthropic principle so much more once you have wrestled with what a godless universe means for human existence.

Another set of valid questions has to do with the Trinity. Does the Bible teach the concept of the Trinity? Does the Trinity make logical sense? How does the fact that fallible humans hammered out the concept of the Trinity between ad 325 and ad 451 amid much confusion and even bloodshed, impact Christians wanting to accept only the Bible message and only on biblical terms? And, if we accept the decisions of the early church councils on the exact extent of the canon (first formulated by Athanasius in ad367), and on the Triune nature of God (Chalcedon, ad 451), can we also accept the judgment of those same church fathers that Mary is the “mother of God”?

How can Jesus combine two different and fully functioning natures (the uncreated divine nature and the created human nature) into one person? Being one person, is Jesus of one mind and one will, or, having two complete natures, does he have a human will and a divine will?

Many difficult and legitimate questions surround the concept of atonement. How can the death on the cross of one person who is innocent change the legal status of another person who is guilty of intentionally and knowingly having sinned? If children are subject to death, which entered the world as a consequence of Adam”s sin (Romans 5:12, 17), are they otherwise unaffected by Adam”s sin and guilt? Is the Old Testament law just, because it justly curses the innocent Jesus for breaking the law by hanging on a tree (Deuteronomy 21:22-23; Galatians 3:13)? And, while we”re in Galatians 3, can anyone give an objective and absolutely conclusive explanation of Galatians 3:20 (the most difficult verse in the New Testament, I believe)?

There are so many other questions I believe Christians should tolerate and discuss. The most challenging question of all for Christians has to do with theodicy. Literally, this term reflects to the philosophical and theological issue of how it is possible for innocent people (especially children) to suffer in a universe created by, and maintained by, a holy, all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful, personal and just God.

Healthy churches do not abandon their members or shoot their leaders who are wounded by piercing questions they cannot shed! Christ”s church accepts faith that still has questions (Mark 9:24), embraces those sinking under questions (Matthew 14:31), and reminds us that only Christ answers the questions of life (John 6:68)!



John Castelein is seminary professor of contemporary theology at Lincoln (Illinois) Christian University.

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