Examine Yourselves: Examined Christian Faith 'As Hard as Nails' Part 1.5

What is Progress? Is it forward movement? Is it change for changes sake? Is it finishing the math problem first, even if I come up with the wrong sum? If I began working a math problem and I realized that I was doing it wrong, what would be the correct thing for me to do? Obviously the sooner that I admit it, go back and start again the faster and further I will get. Or another way to look at it is if I were driving from one town to another town that was due east of where I started from, but I discover that I am on a road that is taking me north to an entirely different town, progress would be to turn around go back to where I started from and begin my trip anew. That is what progress is.

I ended my last post with the idea that in the Moral Law, someone or something is increasingly getting on us for our refusal to do what we should do. If you were to look at our society today, it is obvious that we have and are making some huge mistakes. We are on the wrong road. If that is so, then like a wayward traveler we must turn around, because turning around is the only way to make progress.

I also have not yet made the case for the God of Christian theology, only that somebody or something is behind the moral law, and that we have reason to be concerned. We have by examination found two pieces of evidence about this Somebody. The first is that universe He has made, and as I alluded to in closing my previous post, if we use that as our only clue, then we would have to conclude that He is a better artist then Monet (just look up at the night sky) and that he is also no friend to man (all that space out there is a very dangerous place for humans). The other bit of evidence we have is that persistent Moral law which He has placed inside of our minds. It is perhaps a better piece of evidence because for us at least, it is inside information.

Just like a person, you know more about the person by listening to his conversation then by looking at the house he built. So from this second piece of information we can conclude that the ‘Someone’ behind the curtain is intensely interested in right behavior – unselfishness, courage, truthfulness, loyalty, honor, faithfulness, kindness. In that sense, it agrees with Christianity and some other religions, that God is “good”. Also like I mentioned in closing my previous post, do not go so fast as to assume that God is “good” in the sense of being a cuddly dog, an indulgent, soft, or sympathetic. There is nothing soft and indulgent about the Moral Law. It is as hard as nails. It tells you to do the right thing regardless; it does not seem to care how painful, dangerous or difficult it is to do so.

If God is like the Moral Law He has placed inside our minds, then He is not soft at all. Mind you, we still have not determined if God is a personal God, only that He exists. But so far, all we have been able to conclude is that He is more like a mind then anything else, and may be quite unlike a person. If God is a pure impersonal mind, then there is no reason to ask for personal allowances, to be let off the hook when you get it wrong. Because you will not like the answer. Likewise, if there is a God of the impersonal absolute goodness then it does you no good to decide you do not like him and want nothing to do with him, because there is that one part of you that agrees Him and disapproves of greed, adultery, robbery, etc…

Oh, you may want him to make an exception in your case, but you know at the bottom of yourself that unless the power behind the universe absolutely despises that type of behavior, He cannot be good. On the other hand, if there does exist an absolute goodness it must hate almost all that we do.

That is the catch 22 we are in, if the universe is not governed by absolute goodness, then all our efforts are in the end meaningless and hopeless. However, if it is, then each and every day we make ourselves an enemy to that goodness. We hopeless without it and hopeless with it. God is our only comfort, and our supreme terror; the one thing we need most, and the thing we most want to hide from. He is our only chance, and we have made ourselves His enemy.

I hear a lot of talk from people about how they think looking into the eyes of an absolute good God would be fun; they need to revisit that idea; just as Moses looked away. Goodness is either our great safety or our great danger, depending on the way we react to it; and all of us have acted the wrong way.

You need to understand that, you need to reread it a hundred times until you finally get it. Because Christianity simply does not make any sense until you have faced the hard facts I have been describing. Christianity in the long run brings comfort, but it does not begin there, it begins in the dismay I have been describing. There is no use attempting to go to the comfort first without going through the dismay.

Christianity tells people to repent (make progress) and promises forgiveness. It says nothing to those who do not know that they have anything to repent of, nor do they need any forgiveness. It is only after you have realized that there is a real Moral Law, and a Power behind that law, and you have broken it, and put yourself at odds with the Power, it is then, and not a second sooner, that Christianity begins to talk to you. When you know you are sick, you will listen to the doctor. When you realize your position is desperate, you will begin to understand Christianity.

In religion, as in everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. However if you look for the truth, you may find comfort in the end. If you look for comfort, you will get neither comfort nor the truth; only a cuddly dog of wishful thinking to begin with, and in the end…. Despair.

A great book to help you reason the answers to your own questions or those of others is Handbook of the Christian Apologist, each chapter tackles subjects like 'Does God exist, the problem of evil, the divinity of Christ, life after death, and objective truth. Written in a lively easy to follow manner it may be just the book you need to understand some of the questions you or others may have.