Safety in Skepticism

I love how God displays His wisdom in His providence. So often, seemingly mundane encounters or conversations end up being so much more.

I met with a guy from a local non-profit the other morning to talk about ways in which I can support his work. I don't know how he found out about me, but when he reached out to me, he mentioned that he had also been a service member (Marine and Ranger). He knew the right hook.

We planned on having coffee at Ninos. Closed. We walked down the street to Purloin. Closed. So we walked still further, back to his car, and took off for Panera. I don't know how we got into philosophical and religious topics, but I shouldn't have been surprised. He was just as energetic and talkative as I am.

For three hours, we discussed seemingly every facet of religion. It was far from a controlled conversation--he just skipped from one grandiose claim ("the Old Testament god seems a lot more realistic than the New Testament one") to another ("no one really knows what is true anyway"). This guy is really good at undermining other peoples' claims, but it's hard to poke holes in his when he just makes then one after another without taking a breath.

Eventually, I just blurted out "You just made a lot of HUGE claims! And it sounds to me like you're just picking out pieces of religious you like from an a la carte line and making it a part of your own religion of personal experience!" Thankfully, because he's a fellow happy warrior, he took the jibe with good humor. He acknowledged that his claim that we can't truly know anything was based on his own assumption, and it didn't need to be questioned because he is his own authority.

He was refreshingly honest. Our discussion stretched back from Panera to his porch to his kitchen (with a delicious-looking chocolate liqueur on the counter). Before I left, I told him that I would keep an eye out for ways to help his non-profit. I also asked him if he would be interested in joining, and perhaps even help leading, the discussion Meetup that I started.

The Meetup has a huge following, but no one comes to the events. I have already asked a young man at my church who is great at bar room conversations to help me reboot the group. Now, this guy will help as well.

You might wonder why I would ask someone who is not a believer by any stretch to help lead a group that I hope to use to advance the Gospel. Well, for one, ownership breeds commitment. He won't just be attending, but leading. Second, others--regardless of belief--will be more willing to come if they know that there is place for them at the table. He would show that. Finally, in order to avoid overwhelming people, it is usually necessary to take an indirect approach to the Gospel (i.e. Why is Christmas the worst time of year?) and try to navigate to a proper end. If people with different beliefs are hosting the discussion, we can be more direct in topics pertaining to Christianity--What is truth? Was the world created? Is there a transcendent law? Etc.

The next night, after wonderful vision-casting sessions with my fellow pastors at Falls Church, I led a last minute running Meetup, and was joined by a runner who is one of our consistent participants. We have chatted during our runs before, but remained relatively superficial. About halfway through this run, he asked me how my other Meetup was going. I told him about the present dilemma (plenty of followers, but no participants). We talked about the purpose of the group and the importance of people knowing why they believe what they believe.

I told him what the guy the previous morning told me--that people only believe what their parents believe. "That seemed true in Wisconsin," I told him, "where folks seem to remain Catholic or Lutheran their whole lives, but my wife and I each grew up in areas that were in certain ways several generations removed from the church. In order to believe, we had to rebel against our cultures." This was my segue into asking him the all-important question: "So what religion were you raised in?"

Answer: Non-denominational as well as Pentecostal. He said that his dad was still a strong believer (and he admires his dad to no end), but he wonders if his mom converted to Christianity with the belief that it would stabilized her marriage (which it did). He called himself agnostic. "Don't get me wrong," he quickly added, "I do appreciate Christianity." In Christianity, he sees an element of charity that he sees nowhere else. He also hates when people attack Christianity, especially atheists, who are unwilling to question their own assumptions. "Not a bad critique," I told him.

"So you're a skeptic of the skeptics?" I asked. "I guess you could say that," he replied. The kicker was what he added, "I just don't think people can really know what is true."

And with that, the second friendship was formed in two days with a guy who who is utterly skeptical about any truth claims. I could have replied to this second guy as well, "How do you know we can't know? Will you be your own skeptic?"

Skepticism is not new. The Enlightenment, for one, was built upon skepticism. Rene Descartes really started the Enlightenment when he took it upon himself to disregard every truth claim he knew and start over with his own, independent mind and the remark "I think therefore I am." But the Enlightenment displayed the same hypocrisy as today's skeptics. It was skeptical of truth claims it didn't like (especially from religion), but not skeptical about its own skepticism.

In that era, the one un-scrutinized claim was that truth started with the independent human mind. Today, the one un-scrutinized claim is that truth starts with the independent human experience--"I feel therefore I am."

How convenient! Everything outside of you is exposed to withering critique, but nothing inside of you. You are always safe--from scrutiny, critique, truth, meaning, and eternal love.

Whether you seek to create paradise with your mind or with your heart, you will only find a wretched wasteland. Nothing within the human person has any truth, meaning, or beauty beyond that which is given by God. As the Christian singer, Keith Green, once sung: "You can run to the end of the highway and not find what you're looking for. No, it won't make your trouble disappear."

The truth is, this world operates on a sense of truth (Rom. 1). And for truth to be truth (or as Francis Schaeffer called it, "true truth"), it must exist outside and above the individual person. That means we can't start with "I think" or "I feel," but with "Where can it be found?"

In God's Word, the Bible, we find the one place where God both reveals His truth to mankind (in "baby talk" as Calvin calls it). We also find the one Person, truth incarnate, who bore the penalty for man's intellectual insubordination so that man might know the truth, and be set free. Thank you, Jesus!

Catholics and Protestants: Some Basic Differences

For our most recent adventure, a number of us from Falls Church took part in a community chili cook-off. Out of 13 competitors, the top-10 were recognized. We made the bottom-3. :)

As with so much of life, however, there were much more meaningful storylines stretching through the course of the event. For one, our church has successfully participated in another community event. Ten of our members were there, and a number of them helped out. Second, those that helped out did so in accordance with their God-given gifts. One man made the chili while a couple of younger ladies made the sign. About half a dozen people took turns manning the table. Third, most of these volunteers were young adults, showing that stereotypes have plenty exceptions. Fourth, there were a number of encouraging conversations that took place and plenty of cards handed out.

One of our young adults went to the basement bar after the event upstairs (in the American Legion building) and started talking with one of the older ladies at the bar about "fire chili" (apparently made with beer and whiskey). The lady doubted that such a chili would ever appear at this event because of the religious types. Our young man laughed and said that he was a part of the church group. Another Christian stereotype dashed!

Perhaps my favorite conversation was with a Catholic friend. He learned that I was a Presbyterian pastor and asked about the difference between Catholics and Presbyterians. "I know the Lutherans don't pray to Mary like we do," he added. I told him that all Protestants, regardless of denomination, believe that there is one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5).

I told him that the primary difference between the two concerns the work of Jesus Christ. Catholics generally view the grace of Christ as what gets them across the line, while Protestants generally believe that our salvation is Christ's work from start to finish. An old Catholic saying goes something like this: To those who do what is within themselves, God will not deny grace. As Salty the Songbook (a giant blue cartoon songbook, not a priest) later sung: Do your best and God will do the rest.

Note that I said "generally," as there are some Protestants who have little to no understanding of the full nature of God's grace in Christ and some Catholics who do. Also note that the difference is often not in the concepts--both believe in "grace," but in the meaning behind the concept. Don't go accusing your Catholic friend of not believing in grace! But we as Protestants believe in grace alone (Galatians 2:15-16; Philippians 3:1-11).

At the same time, this partial view of grace that many hold to leads to what many of your Catholic friends will often call "Catholic guilt." Many Catholics feel the vast weight of the law upon their shoulders--a weight they can't cast off with any amount of penance. It's no wonder. We all know that God is holy and that we are left without excuse, but we suppress that truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1). It is tempting to tell ourselves that we play a role in our salvation, but the temptation turns to terror as we realize that all we can earn is wrath.

In countering the Jesus-plus grace of the Judaizers, Paul gently reminds us that it was for freedom that we are set free--so let us not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Since Christ has perfectly kept the law in our place, we are now free to live for God's glory and enjoy Him forever. If Christ's work wasn't complete, then we are not free.

Even these basic distinctions are broad and could be contested, but hopefully this gives you, the reader, a few points of contact. Talk about grace and the passages mentioned. Talk about guilt and the hopeless task of carrying a weight that will inevitably crush us apart from Christ.

These conversations with folks in the community are a constant joy for me, and more and more, they will be a constant joy for the people of Falls Church: An OPC