mattbraunlin
Member
When God says 'No Big Deal'
In the early months of my walk with God, a curious chain of events occurred which I have come to remember fondly, even though it was a bona fide crisis of faith at the time.
I was reading the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter 3, and reached verse 7:
At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
My inquisitive mind suddenly asked: where did Adam and Eve learn to sew? What did they use for string?
Unnerved, I brought these questions to my pastor. To my shock and horror (quite literally), he had never considered these questions, and did not have a solid answer.
This shook me to my absolute core. Had I discovered something in the Bible that could not be proven logically? Had I accidentally found a falsehood in the Bible?! IS THE CREATION STORY A MYTH AFTER ALL?!
Oh, how warmly I am smiling as I write this, right now! All these years later, I laugh affectionately at my own naive sincerity.
Of course, I was able to come up with logical explanations which gave me tentative satisfaction at that point. As I told my pastor, I did not believe in blind faith. But if I could go back in time and meet my young self in that moment of doubt, I would just chuckle and tell him, 'Matt, if you're gonna abandon your faith over questions like that, then go ahead.'
God gave us logic and reason, and he expects us to use them. Perhaps most especially when it comes to our doubts and complaints about himself. But the fact of the matter is, there are certain things in the Bible which cannot be explained logically. Sometimes blind faith can be our only option.
We cannot explain how rain did not exist before Noah's flood, and then became a natural part of our ecosystem. We cannot explain how the earliest generations of humanity could form what we see as incestuous families without consequence, only for the practice to become sinful and harmful later on. We don't understand precisely how so many diverse and distinctive racial characteristics came out of two people. God gave us the capacity to understand and the desire to do so, but there are qualities and facts of life which he quite simply does not explain. I address some of these elsewhere in my writings.
But these three dilemmas have one thing in common: none of them are deal-breakers. None of these unanswered questions (and certainly not my little sewing crisis) undermine the facts and Truths and Promises which God does give us.
It is extremely ill-advised to go by blind faith alone in your walk with God. God commands us to use our minds, to ask questions and seek answers, and the rewards when we do so are great indeed.
But when God stumps you and the answers elude you, relax. Many of the mysteries of the Bible are so sublime and compelling precisely because they are mysteries. It is just as profound to celebrate what you don't understand about God as what you do.
This is certainly not to say that none of your current questions will ever be answered; I assure you that many of them will be. But every step forward involves faith at your current position, and sometimes that step forward must be a left turn, leaving you to wonder about where you thought you would go.
If we could understand everything about God, he could not be God. It's really that simple. As your faith grows, you will come to not only accept that, but cherish it.
And remember that, in all eternity with God in paradise, we will never uncover one percent of the wondrous and infinite enormity which is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!
In the early months of my walk with God, a curious chain of events occurred which I have come to remember fondly, even though it was a bona fide crisis of faith at the time.
I was reading the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter 3, and reached verse 7:
At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
My inquisitive mind suddenly asked: where did Adam and Eve learn to sew? What did they use for string?
Unnerved, I brought these questions to my pastor. To my shock and horror (quite literally), he had never considered these questions, and did not have a solid answer.
This shook me to my absolute core. Had I discovered something in the Bible that could not be proven logically? Had I accidentally found a falsehood in the Bible?! IS THE CREATION STORY A MYTH AFTER ALL?!
Oh, how warmly I am smiling as I write this, right now! All these years later, I laugh affectionately at my own naive sincerity.
Of course, I was able to come up with logical explanations which gave me tentative satisfaction at that point. As I told my pastor, I did not believe in blind faith. But if I could go back in time and meet my young self in that moment of doubt, I would just chuckle and tell him, 'Matt, if you're gonna abandon your faith over questions like that, then go ahead.'
God gave us logic and reason, and he expects us to use them. Perhaps most especially when it comes to our doubts and complaints about himself. But the fact of the matter is, there are certain things in the Bible which cannot be explained logically. Sometimes blind faith can be our only option.
We cannot explain how rain did not exist before Noah's flood, and then became a natural part of our ecosystem. We cannot explain how the earliest generations of humanity could form what we see as incestuous families without consequence, only for the practice to become sinful and harmful later on. We don't understand precisely how so many diverse and distinctive racial characteristics came out of two people. God gave us the capacity to understand and the desire to do so, but there are qualities and facts of life which he quite simply does not explain. I address some of these elsewhere in my writings.
But these three dilemmas have one thing in common: none of them are deal-breakers. None of these unanswered questions (and certainly not my little sewing crisis) undermine the facts and Truths and Promises which God does give us.
It is extremely ill-advised to go by blind faith alone in your walk with God. God commands us to use our minds, to ask questions and seek answers, and the rewards when we do so are great indeed.
But when God stumps you and the answers elude you, relax. Many of the mysteries of the Bible are so sublime and compelling precisely because they are mysteries. It is just as profound to celebrate what you don't understand about God as what you do.
This is certainly not to say that none of your current questions will ever be answered; I assure you that many of them will be. But every step forward involves faith at your current position, and sometimes that step forward must be a left turn, leaving you to wonder about where you thought you would go.
If we could understand everything about God, he could not be God. It's really that simple. As your faith grows, you will come to not only accept that, but cherish it.
And remember that, in all eternity with God in paradise, we will never uncover one percent of the wondrous and infinite enormity which is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!