Appendix to
From Bible Translator to Agnostic
Ken Daniels
10 May 2003
Following is my response to some objections raised to
my document in Appendix A. I was unable to gain permission to publish the
original dialogue, but I’ll include my responses here. In general, the nature
of the objections I’m responding to should be evident, though it may be
necessary at times to read between the lines.
2 General
objections to biblical Christianity
2.1 Inadequacy of special revelation
I agree that if the Bible is God’s Word, neglecting it would make me guilty before God, based on verses like this: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son” (John 3:18). It is because of such statements that I recognize the gravity of the decision I’m confronted with. If anyone is without excuse, it’s me, having grown up in an unmistakably evangelical heritage. But I am only guilty if the Bible is in fact true. That is the fundamental question I’m dealing with. If I knew the Bible to be God’s Word, I would never dare to challenge it as such. Since I know the author of a speed limit sign on the Interstate, I don’t question it. I am under the authority of the US and state governments. But it’s not so evident to me that the author of the Bible is any other than the men who penned it. I envy those for whom its divine authorship is evident. I would not choose to doubt if I could keep from it. My situation is extremely painful and unsettling, taking a position different from all that my friends and family and employer believe.
2.2 Ambiguity of the role of the Holy Spirit
I have read testimonies of Mormons who were unable to quit their smoking habit until they converted to Mormonism. As I mentioned in the document, I hold that belief in a personal God who rewards good and punishes evil is a very good incentive to righteous living. I do continue to ask God to help me in my quest for godliness. I maintain that Christians are not the only ones who can be righteous. It seems hard to imagine that God would refuse his assistance to a Mormon who wants to please God and live right. Did he not make the Mormon and the Christian and the Jew and the Muslim? This is a subjective statement, but it seems that God must have a lot of tolerance for what people believe. Otherwise he would have made it more evident to all the peoples throughout history exactly what he wanted them to believe. It never occurs to most Mulsims to question the faith they have grown up in. How can they be blamed for not questioning it? But they can be blamed if they choose to lead immoral, dishonest lives, because they have their conscience.
2.3 The puzzle of the atonement
I agree that God is not required to un-separate us if we choose to separate ourselves from him. Nor am I required to force my children to be reconciled with me if they grow up and decide they don’t want anything to do with me. But if they do want to have anything at all to do with me, I (like most fathers) will jump on the opportunity! I would never say, “Wait! First you have to offer two tenths of a hin of wine or perform ceremonial washings or stay outside the house for 7 days until you’re clean or believe certain truths—and then and only then will I let you be reconciled to me.” The biblical position on reconciliation with God just doesn’t seem to make sense. Again, if I knew that the Bible were in fact true, I would not dare question God, because he can set things up however he wants, whether I understand and appreciate it or not. But it all comes back to the first question: Is the Bible indeed the Word of God or the word of men? I cannot be accused of questioning God if it is the latter. I think the burden of proof lies with Christians to explain how it can be that God would punish most of humanity for not believing what he did not reveal plainly to all.
3 Specific
Bible difficulties
3.2.2 Women
I know God can cause a thigh to waste away, but I find it hard to believe that he would. I suppose when I write things like that, it causes you to question whether I really believe in God. Nothing can be farther from the truth. A few months ago I read Michael Behe’s Darwin’s Black Box and am convinced more than ever that God must exist. And if he made personal human beings, he must be at least as personal as we. So I believe in a personal, loving, almighty God.
3.3 Miracle
and Myth
3.3.1 Pre-modern credulity
On the one hand, I do indeed believe in God and in his power to do whatever he chooses. If I set myself up as his equal, I am sorry. That was not my intent, though I can see how it could be perceived that way. The reason I did not argue the existence of God is that I did mention in more than one place that I believe in God, and it was not the point of the document to prove he exists, since all the readers of this document believe in God. I am more than ready to defend God’s existence to anyone who doubts, and I intend to go to my death doing so.
Unlike atheists, I honestly, truly believe that God can perform miraculous acts. Maybe he really does. Maybe I am guilty of over-extending my own limited experience of never having witnessed a bona fide miracle. I am reacting against the naivete and credulity of so many uneducated people who claim they have witnessed miracles that seem to me fantastic and wholly unverifiable. But maybe among the mountains of false miracle claims there are some true ones. I cannot say and should not have said that God would not perform miracles. The problem is that, if there are true miracles, it is extremely difficult to weed out the false from the true. My argument was that Christians tend to believe that the miracles in the Bible are true (and the miracles accounts of the surrounding cultures of the time are false) simply because they happen to be in the Bible. I suppose that’s valid if the Bible is indeed true, but when evaluating whether or not the Bible is true, the existence of miracles in the Bible does not in any way help me believe. Stories of the supernatural exist no doubt in every culture.
I agree that God’s ways are higher than our ways. I suppose that fact could even be used as a defense of what appears to be superstition, but then God has given us a mind to use as well. If a story like this existed in the Koran, we would probably be quick to point to it as a reason for not believing the divine origin of the Koran, but when it exists in the Bible, we say, “God’s ways are not our ways.” If we cannot use our reason, how then can we ever evaluate or compare the merits or deficiencies of different religious alternatives? I am in no way trying to be insolent or to tell God what he can or cannot do. It just seems that if we believe God rewarded Jacob’s action, then we open up the door to all kinds of other superstitions practiced in cultures around the world. If I believe that God blessed Jacob in this way, how can I tell the people in Cantor[1] that the dog-tooth necklace they all put on their teething babies does not help with the teething process? Again, I am only being insolent if the Bible is indeed God’s Word and I question the way God presents himself in the Bible. If the Bible is not God’s Word, then I am only questioning the word of man. Because you believe the Bible is God’s Word, I can understand why it is hard for you to see my doubting as nothing but doubting God or setting myself up as his equal. Maybe I am guilty of that. It’s hard to know my own motives, my own sinful heart. But I pray every day that he’ll reveal whatever in me displeases him and that he’ll lead me to the truth, whatever that might be.
It may be that I will never find the truth. Maybe humility consists in recognizing our limits, in understanding that we cannot grasp the nature of God. Perhaps we are not meant to know all that we would like to know about God. In the meantime, we can go on living a life of love and service to others, walking humbly with God in the way that we understand him. Fundamentalism (perhaps not so much so with mainstream evangelicalism) is the antithesis of this kind of humility—pointing fingers, feeling smug, and telling everybody who doesn’t agree with them that they’re going to hell. If we want to change the world, it will have to be by action and example, not by badgering. The Mother Teresa approach, if you will.
4 Alleged
proofs of biblical inspiration
4.2 Fulfilled
prophecies
I think you’ll agree that most of the OT prophetic books deal with contemporary events and were intended to change the behavior or outlook of the people in their generation. I have not studied Revelation from a non-evangelical perspective, but I know there are Christians who see most of its fulfillment as occurring in the lifetime of John (e.g., Nero was the Antichrist). That’s not to say they’re interpretation is correct, but that’s an area for exploration: What did John really have in mind in his Revelation prophecies?
I would encourage you to read Robert Price’s “Did Top Psychics Predict Jesus?” at http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/robert_price/psychics.html and then have your feedback on that. I find Price’s writings sometimes a little brusque but overall convincing. His conclusion is worth including here:
There is something inherently grotesque about the very idea of seeking verification by appeal to clairvoyant predictions. Verification of what? What on earth would such proof, even if possible, have to do with, for example, the contents of the Sermon on the Mount? Is one's conscience likely to take such sayings more seriously if one can prove their author to have been predicted in advance by ancient seers? Does not the felt need to secure such "verification" demote and demean the self-evident power of the spiritual truths at issue? We do not need miraculous proofs to force us to take the truths of the Gospel seriously, nor can we be taking those truths very seriously if we still feel the need to seek afar off for some supernatural warrant for heeding them. The teaching of scripture does not need and will not be helped by proofs from miracle. The continued insistence on such paranormal props only invites the suspicion that for fundamentalism, moral and spiritual wisdom is not enough, that religion has gone off track and degenerated, like the modern New Age movement, with its pyramids and channelers, into a crass hankering after signs and wonders. Let us learn instead from the Old Testament prophets that all else is a snare and a delusion save for doing justly and walking humbly with a clear conscience.
I admit I doubt the supernatural nature of any of the biblical prophecies, just as I do the other miracles. I do believe they are possible if God wanted to perform them, just that I don’t see any compelling evidence that they did happen in the Bible. I did not lay it all out in my original document, but I’ll try to express briefly my current thinking, which of course is subject to debate and modification. It’s just my best guess for the moment. When God created the world, he created a closed system that obeys the laws of cause and effect. The end goal was to have free moral agents (people) who would choose to love and follow him despite the seeming randomness and coldness of nature. God could intervene and cause earthquakes and hurricanes not to happen, or he could have caused my mother not to die from cancer, but he in effect decided to “tie his hands” in the original order of creation. I have long noted the futility of praying for people’s colds in prayer meetings. Isn’t there something better we could occupy our time with? People normally get over their colds in a week to ten days whether we pray or not. If we really believe God will intervene, why do we not pray for our dead relatives to rise from the dead, or for our friends with amputated limbs to regain their limbs? We have learned from experience that, for one reason or another, God chooses not to intervene in these cases, at least in our day. I do not doubt the sovereignty of God, but in order for people to be truly free to choose or reject him, I tend to think that he has chosen ahead of time not to intervene supernaturally. Likewise, I lean toward the belief that God chooses not to know the future, though he could if he wanted to. If I knew ahead of time how my children were going to turn out as adults, it would sort of take away the thrill of parenting. If I knew the outcome of the Super Bowl before watching it, it would not be as exciting as if I did not know it. Even Jesus admits to not knowing the time of his return. As the Son of God, could he know if he wanted to know? Certainly! The idea that God limits his own foreknowledge allows the free will of humankind to be fully preserved. Once we look at things this way, there is no more conflict between predestination and free will—there is simply no predestination. This may offend those who emphasize God’s sovereignty, but I maintain that God’s sovereignty includes his prerogative to limit intentionally his foreknowledge. I still believe that God knows our hearts and that we can call on him for comfort and guidance in our daily lives, but I don’t see verifiable evidence of God’s supernatural intervention in my own experience or in the lives of any Christians I know. Besides, it seems that the quest for the supernatural lessens the genuineness of faith. I would be more prone to respect someone who serves God and his fellow man through real obstacles and trials than one who claims to be delivered through supernatural experiences. The one has faith, the other sight. I agree with the Bible here: God values faith more than sight.
You mentioned that my arguments were not compelling, but that I have chosen to disbelieve. No, I do not expect them to be compelling to you. They are compelling to me because I stumbled myself on a mountain of disturbing verses in the Old Testament (without having them forced on me by a skeptic), and then I allowed myself to read books from different perspectives (not just anti-evangelical; I have read a lot of evangelical ones as well) to try to make sense out of it all. And my gut-level impression is that it doesn’t fit together as I was always taught. Disregarding for the moment the question of myth and miracles, which seems to be a red herring in this discussion (that’s not what caused me to doubt in the first place; my skepticism about biblical miracles developed only after I doubted the ethical authority of the Bible), how do you deal with some of the ethical problems in the OT? There are many more problem verses in the “disturb.txt” file I sent along with the other document. I keep looking for answers, but most of the answers I get are frankly unsatisfactory. It’s not that I refuse to believe the Bible so I can get off the hook of living my life for God. I can only hope that you will take me at my word when I say I am going through a genuine struggle because of the things I’ve read and considered, and that the Bible simply appears to me to fall short. I have not yet made a definitive break with Christianity—that’s why I’m seeking counseling.
5 Conclusion
How I wish I could have the certainty you have. I mean that genuinely. But for now it seems elusive. Thank you for praying for me.