The Reason For God - Post on Argument Style

Timothy Keller, a Christian pastor in New York, undertook the job of laying out the strongest atheistic views against believing in God, and then from a fair and unbiased view responds to them using logic and the Scripture. In his chapter "How Could a Good God Allow Suffering?," Keller takes up the topic of judgment. I will just say it right now - I am not a pastor. And when I read this chapter I initially found Keller's argument weak, because it concentrated more on the gospel message than it did logically explaining why there must be suffering in this world. The thing that really got me was that Keller never talked about the Fall. To me as a Christian, there is nothing more central to why we suffer in this world than the Fall. The world was perfect before it, and after it mankind was punished for Adam's sin. Eve was seduced by Satan, and Adam by Eve (by seduced I mean they were led to have a desire for other things more than God. In Eve's case, power and immortality, in Adam's case, Eve) and the result brought death for all his decendents. Yet Keller does not mention the Fall once. Why?

Keller uses a carrot, not a stick, in this chapter. His emphasis is much more pastoral and much less philosophical/logical. He passes over the Fall and goes straight to the Cross. After reading this passage a second time, I see why he does this (although I would not have left out the Fall - it is too essential.) At the cross the pain, suffering, and most importantly death are all conquered. Keller shows how Christ himself took on all the sin of the world, and therefore not only the excruciating physical suffering of crucifiction but the torment of the soul of having the wrath of his Father poured out against him makes him the ultimate atonement for our sins. Only by coming to him can we be freed from torment - physical and spiritual. And in the end, when the Last Day comes, it is His people that will enjoy eternal life with him, while those who ignored the cross and hardened their hearts will suffer forever in Hell.

Blue Like Jazz - Post on Apathy of the Church

Don Miller writes his book Blue Like Jazz as a Christian, looking in retrospect at his life as a young man and the spiritual struggles he went through. What makes the book so compelling and authentic is that his struggles are real. I found myself relating to many of the things he struggled with. For example, knowing the truth, and inside loving God, but not living a life accordingly. He knows what it is like to be a Christian whose faith is assaulted from the inside and the outside, from the heart/mind and from peers.

In chapter four of Blue Like Jazz, Miller writes about his experiece at Reed College, one of the most liberal universities in the United States. He emphasized the hatred and taboo mainstream Christians felt toward the college, and he shows how those feelings are not necessarily misplaced, because atheism leads to no moral standard. But there was something on page 42 that really caught my attention. Miller writes about Reed College:

"I fell in love with the campus. The students were brilliant and engaged. I was fed there, stimulated, and impassioned. And what's more, I had more significant spiritual experiences at Reed College than I ever had at church." (Emphasis added.)

Miller is pointing out one of the biggest problems with the western Church today: apathy. There is a lack-lustre, a general attitude of disregard to our nations cultural problems. Christians today blend in so much with those who are unregenerate in the way they speak, the way they act, the things the watch and listen to. This excerpt was convicting to me, because I, inspite of loving God, fail miserably most of the time in taking a stand and living and interacting differently than and with the world. And it comes out on Sunday at church. That is why Miller can have a more intellectual and spiritual scrubbing at a university with no moral standards than at church. Pagan college-aged students are more willing to discuss politics and ethics than Christians are, because Christians are concerned with blending in and getting to heaven, not necessarily making a difference.