The John Journal

Christian agnosticism?

nobody@vox.com(epaga) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:07:19 +0100

This morning I was wrestling through the (admittedly strange) question - "What is the real difference between agnosticism and the Christian faith?"

The typical first 'obvious' response to this question would be that the agnostic declares he does not or can not know or believe that God exists because of a lack of sufficient evidence, whereas the Christian declares that he does believe in God's existence.

My response to an agnostic would be that his world view is also a form of faith - namely a faith in his mind to be able to decide that there is not enough evidence. Put differently: the agnostic trusts and puts his faith in his own mind telling him the evidence is not enough to trust in a God.

But here is where I started to wrestle through something: how different is that from someone who decides there IS enough evidence to trust in a God. Aren't both in the end trusting in their own minds to weigh the evidence to decide who or what to trust in? If not, why not?

I didn't really come to a conclusion until a bit later when I was reading in 2 Corinthians and I came across the following passage:

For our reason for confidenceis this: the testimony of our conscience, that with pure motivesand sincerity which are from God – not by human wisdom but by the grace of God – we conducted ourselves in the world, and all the moretoward you.

- 2 Corinthians 1:12

Here's what hit me: Our minds can not be trusted unless we have pure motives and sincerity. According to the Christian world view, nobody has pure motives and sincerity, but rather these are given by God's grace, as Paul emphasizes here. This exposes a fundamental difference between the heart attitudes of an agnostic and a Christian.

A Christian is not an agnostic who has received enough evidence to finally make the step of faith. Rather, what we are called to do is to have a heart that honestly says something along the lines of "God (if you exist), grant me pure motives in seeking you, because I need them." An agnostic praying this prayer with a soft heart to an "Unknown God" (see Acts 17), is truly "not far from the Kingdom of God" if you ask me.

The major problem is that this attitude is not an easy one to have, because it hits at the heart of Adamic pride, i.e. the desire to be our own God, to declare ourselves innocent and our motives pure.

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The Second Coin

nobody@vox.com(epaga) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 13:27:44 +0100

And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Mark 12:41-44

I've heard this story pretty often, but I have to admit I've always overlooked the significance of the detail that the widow gave two coins. Jesus lets us know that the widow gave all she had to live on. Giving one coin - half of all she had to live on - would have already been an amazing sacrifice. But after giving the one coin, she then went on and gave the second coin as well. Amazing!

The longer I'm a Christian the more I realize that all I have to offer God is really pathetic compared to what He deserves, compared to what He's given me. It's like giving a penny toward a temple worth millions. But this is exactly what this woman did and what Jesus stopped to point out to his disciples so they'd never forget it.

The question that challenged me that I wanted to share with you is: Am I giving God both coins? After all - he more than deserves it, seeing as how He gave everything for me.

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich."

2 Corinthians 8:9

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John 21

nobody@vox.com(epaga) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 07:14:28 +0200

2: John specifically and unnecessarily points out that Nathanael was from Cana. This refers back to Jesus' first miracle in chapter 2. Basically John is telling us with all of this that a new story is now beginning. This is the epilogue.

5: The fact this made any sense to call them children seems to me to point to the fact they were probably all very young men, maybe some of them in their teens.

7: Something tells me Jesus laughed when Peter did this.

11: Another one of those pieces of unnecessary information: 153 fish. John seems to remember the number quite well. - hey, he was there. If John had made this story up, to put this number here really would make no sense at all.

15-17: Three times Peter denied Christ, now Christ is having him affirm him three times. Each time Jesus is basically telling Peter that true love for Christ will express itself through a Pastor's heart for the Head Pastor's sheep.

19: Seems clear that the gospel was written after Peter's death. I love the final remark: "Follow me". This clearly implies forgiveness, because it is not just meant as a command, but as a privilege and offer being given to Peter. Peter must have been crushed by his guilt. But with Jesus calling him to simply follow him again, this is indirectly telling Peter that everything is forgiven.

23: Note how John does exegesis here for us and clearly tells us there are wrong interpretations of Jesus' words - in fact that some of the apostles had wrongly understood Jesus' saying about him.

24: Again, John repeats that this book is his own testimony. He wrote it, and its truthfulness is directly connected to his truthfulness. To doubt it is to accuse John of lying.

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John 20

nobody@vox.com(epaga) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 07:14:07 +0200

10: Great guys, leave poor crying Mary in front of the tomb.

13: Her Lord is gone, the one whom she had been following, the one who was the center of her life.

15: "Whom are you seeking" echoes the question Jesus asked the first disciples in John 1.

16: One word, her name. And all melts and is restored. Do I let Jesus name me? Is my identity found in him?

21: Shalom was here. Far more than peace, it was rightness, goodness, restoration of life itself. The true Kingdom of God had now irrevocably "broken in" to the world and was to be spread throughout the world by the "little Christs".

24-29: Thomas is the patron saint of skeptics. ;) John is setting things up for verse 31 here...even the skeptic gets a "second chance" by hearing the story about Thomas.

29: Not-so-subtle wink at the reader.

31: Here's the "twist": This book is written so that YOU may believe. (Who, me?!) But not just so there's one more believer in the world, but so that "you may have life in his name".

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John 19:28-42

nobody@vox.com(epaga) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:04:09 +0200

29: It is interesting that John specifically points out it was a hyssop branch they used to give Jesus the sponge of sour wine to drink. Hyssop was used as a part of the Passover ceremony to paint the blood on the doorposts. (Exodus 12:22) John is telling us in as many ways as possible that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Passover.

34: Blood and water. On the one hand a clear medical sign he was dead, on the other hand a clear symbolical sign that through his death, he became the Source of Life.

35: Very important to realize the genre John is putting his book in through this statement: Testimony. In other words, P says A. We believe A because it is P who says it. If we choose to not believe A, we thereby are automatically accusing P of being not trustworthy, and should only do so if we have good reason to doubt P (yes: P, not A). (Got this from Vanhoozer's great book "First Theology")

41: And here comes the next big key word: garden. John is pointing us to the garden of Eden and saying that the death of Adam was now entirely fulfilled by the death of Christ. But luckily, things don't end here.

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John 19:1-27

nobody@vox.com(epaga) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 07:20:24 +0200

5: "Ecce homo", "Behold: Man". Mankind at its worst, its weakest, its most rebellious. And at the same time at its best, its most reflective of God, its most obedient. All in Christ.

8: Apparently he was afraid because from their short conversation alone Pilate realized Jesus truly could be the Son of God.

14: John explicitly points us to the Passover. Christ the Passover Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

15: Such a sad and ironic answer by the priests. They choose slavery over freedom, Caesar over Christ. Even though they themselves were hoping for Messiah to free them from the Romans, they didn't want it to be done the way Christ was doing it.

23: His tunic was seamless, and John goes into detail to explain this with two further phrases: it was woven in one piece, from top to bottom. It seems to me he's symbolically pointing to the fact that Jesus was entirely "united" as a person. ("Unite my heart to fear your name") Not 50% God, 50% man, but 100% God-Man.

26: Who was Clopas? No idea, but the fact John mentions him most likely means he was someone the typical reader of John would know. "Oh really? Clopas' wife Mary was there at the cross? Wow, I gotta talk to her about how that was..."

27: Joseph had clearly already died and Jesus was making sure his mother would be taken care of.

Oh the wonderful cross! Centerpiece of history, connection between God and man. The climax of our greatest sin (murdering the author of life!) and ironically of our ultimate and total salvation.

And when I think that God His Son not sparing
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in.
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin
Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art

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John 18:33-40

nobody@vox.com(epaga) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:28:16 +0200

36: Kingdom is not of this world, and is not from this world. Its source and its substance are God himself. This is why our battle is not against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6)

37: Yet again we see that one of the main purposes Jesus came to earth was to "bear witness" to the truth. But then he makes the outrageous claim that "Everyone who is of truth listens to my voice." As Ravi Zacharias said, Jesus is saying that how you react to his words tells more about your own truthfulness than it does about Jesus. This is either utterly arrogant or absolutely true.

38: Noble attempt at a worthy rebuttal to Christ (Nietzsche loved this phrase), but it rings hollow to us readers. Pilate doesn't realize that the Truth is standing right before him. The better, more correct question would have been "Who is truth?"

For John, Jesus is up for verdict for the reader as well, and Pilate's verdict that he found no guilt invites the reader to come to the same conclusion.

Do I listen to His voice - am I "of the truth"? Do I bear witness to the Truth? Do I view truth as cut-and-dry abstract facts about reality, or as being found only in the person Jesus Christ, Son of God?

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John 18:19-32

nobody@vox.com(epaga) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:08:14 +0200

23: Yet again we see the phrase "bear witness" in John. This time, Jesus is telling the guard to "bear witness" to what he thinks Jesus did wrong. This is fascinating to me, and seems to point to a form of subversive apologetics: get the other person to tell you what they believe and ask them why they believe it, in other words have them "bear witness" to their faith. Very often, like the guard with Jesus, they will most likely not know why, and this will cause them to think a little deeper than they did before. This is doing them a favor!

25: strike two

26: strike three - I love the touch that it's a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, specifically asking if Peter had been in the garden. On the one hand Peter is being reminded of his sin in the garden, but also, John is getting us to realize that almost certainly we would have acted the same: Peter here is in a situation where it really more or less came down to him choosing death on the cross (or at least 40 lashes minus 1) or not.

Lord, help me to bear witness of you throughout today, both in word and deed. Teach me how to listen to others and draw them out.

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John 18:1-18

nobody@vox.com(epaga) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:10:10 +0200

6: The strength and focus Jesus had after Gethsemane was so strong it overwhelmed the men trying to arrest him. This shows that Jesus was not a mild-mannered gentle wimp. Big strong guys who meant to arrest him fell back to the ground in fear before him. And this was before his glorification.

10: The only reason I can think of John including Malchus' name is because some of his readers may have known Malchus personally. This is important for dating the gospel of John.

17: Strike 1, this cues the Great Humbling of Peter. As Saul to Paul, so the denying Peter to the church leader Peter. But: at least Peter was brave enough to enter the court. Cool to see John being the "inside man" to let Peter in. (v 15) This courtyard was probably not all that huge, so this situation was surely scary and dangerous for Peter as an "outsider".

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John 17:13-26

nobody@vox.com(epaga) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:01:25 +0200

14: We are just as much not "of this world" as Jesus himself.

18: This is a key verse for our mission: We are sent into this world just as Christ himself was sent. We are on a mission. Everything in our lives needs to be connected in some way to that mission.

21: it would almost seem like blasphemy...if it wasn't Jesus saying it. What a calling!

Jesus' last prayer for us before his death was unity both with each other and with him. How much energy do I spend being united with my wife, with my church, and being connected to Jesus?

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