Isaiah Roman

Who Answers the Hard Questions

I was recently informed that Anne Rice has claimed to have turned her life around and dedicated herself to Jesus. First let me say that this should tell you how much attention I pay to popular culture. Second, let me say that the source of this information was a self-avowed atheist who was quick to point out that he was sure that her conversion announcement was nothing more than a publicity stunt for her latest series of books. The first question I asked him was whether or not Ms. Rice had repented of the income from her previous works. His immediate answer was as expected; no, she has not. In fact his exact words were “I guess she repented of the wages of sin, except for those wages.”

Curious, I did some poking around. Sure enough, in her own words Ms. Rice tells us that she is not going to divorce herself from her previous works as they are – in her opinion – moral tales of good versus evil. She paints them as “dark tales” in the same sense as many classical works of literature such as Great Expectations and Faust. Reading further I found this quote at Wikipedia:

“In the moment of surrender, I let go of all the theological or social questions which had kept me from [God] for countless years. I simply let them go. There was the sense, profound and wordless, that if He knew everything I did not have to know everything, and that, in seeking to know everything, I’d been, all of my life, missing the entire point. No social paradox, no historic disaster, no hideous record of injustice or misery should keep me from Him. No question of Scriptural integrity, no torment over the fate of this or that atheist or gay friend, no worry for those condemned and ostracized by my church or any other church should stand between me and Him. The reason? It was magnificently simple: He knew how or why everything happened; He knew the disposition of every single soul. He wasn’t going to let anything happen by accident! Nobody was going to go to Hell by mistake.1”

What caught my eye was a passage right in the middle: “No social paradox, no historic disaster, no hideous record of injustice or misery should keep me from Him. No question of Scriptural integrity, no torment over the fate of this or that atheist or gay friend, no worry for those condemned and ostracized by my church or any other church should stand between me and Him.”

After reading several reviews of her latest works on the early life of the Christ I discover that many see a trend towards the sort of unitarianism expressed in this passage. Anne prefers a Christ who is accepting, loving and open to everyone. What had stood between Anne Rice and God is the same thing that had stood between my atheist friend (and every other agnostic and atheist I’ve ever met) and God: the insufficiency of religion to explain itself.

I’m not going to judge Ms. Rice’s dedication to Jesus, or God. And, while I could probably go on quoting the apparent mistakes and misapprehensions she seems to have made in her latest books about Jesus’ life, I won’t because I haven’t actually read them, nor do I intend to read them. Therefore, a critique would be unjust. But what strikes me as interesting is this common thread I see in every form of religion.

Religion is nothing more than a series of performances and practices formed out of a sense of duty or obligation. This obligation could be towards a god, or gods, or nature, or one’s ancestors, or any other thing held in reverence. All religions, however, are coupled with some form of philosophy. Philosophy, classically referred to as the study of wisdom, is used as a means of interpreting the events and effects within our existence and making meaning of them. Why does the rain fall? Why do good people suffer and bad people prosper? Philosophy attempts to address these questions. Christianity is not a religion, nor is it a philosophy.

By attempting to answer the questions of life, religions often create the need for codexes. These codexes usually contain witty sayings, stories or poems designed to provide wisdom to the reader. Sometimes these works are referred to as scriptures. The word scripture comes from the latin “scriptura” which simply means “writings.” In our time this word has come to represent something special; the sacred writings of Christianity contained within the Bible. The words within the Bible are not, in and of themselves, sacred.

Ms. Rice is certainly not alone. In an attempt to help us understand the condition and question of Christianity many an author has taken the Bible as their source and elaborated on it. They try to put scenery around the narratives contained within the Bible, or to illuminate the circumstances surrounding the events of the times. Yet, the Bible is quick to remind us that adding to and removing from scripture is a dangerous thing to do. Why?

It’s because of the hard questions.

When one attempts to insert, or remove from scripture it is usually because they have come across something that they don’t believe fits into their personal preference. Their philosophy about what the world ought to be like gets into the way of what the world is actually like. When this happens scripture begins to crack.

The very problem that separated Anne Rice from God before was her inability to find sufficient answers about the world and her experiences within it in the Roman Catholic Religion. In fact, having returned to the Roman Catholic Church she still finds herself on the outside of many of the core tenets of that religion. But, instead of answering these questions in a way that conforms to the Biblical narrative, she seeks to find answers that are more suited to her taste.

This condition is also not unique. So many Christians find their sensibilities offended, or even their mental capacities challenged by what the Bible says sometimes. From simple things like a literal six-day creation, to more complex issues like slavery and feminism, the Bible addresses these issues bluntly and by modern ideals, harshly.

So many atheists and agnostics turn away from the Bible and God because they perceive Him as cruel, insensitive, and despotic. For this reason I have been called judgmental in my beliefs against religious practices, abnormal sexual practices and people who seek to promote a socialist view of charity. Strangely enough they are judging me as being judgmental.

The question is not whether we are all judgmental in some way or other, but rather on what do we base our judgements. When one stands upon philosophy they are standing upon a set of principles that suits their own personal desire for a sense of rightness in the world. When one stands upon religion they are standing upon a set of performances impressed upon them by others which they believe will generate rightness in the world.

But, what happens when you don’t add to, or take away from the Bible? What happens in a world where homosexuals really do go to hell for their actions? Where women are commanded to submit themselves to their husbands? Where God really does bring disaster and pain as judgement against sin on both the righteous and the unrighteous? What happens in a world where the unrepentant are expelled from the body of believers for their continued embracing of sin?

The deceptions of philosophy and religion are deeply ingrained within our society. We have been taught that feminism is good, that slavery is bad and that judgement is something we ought not do. We have been taught that turning the other cheek is the Christian thing to do, even when we see our neighbor sinning against God. These are the hard questions of life and they are the questions that must be answered by God if anyone is to come to a complete understanding of what sin, redemption and salvation mean.

Yet, to explain any of this is a challenge of monumental proportions. The world has so deeply engrained the falsehoods of so many subtleties that it takes a PhD to sort it all out. The very words we use to describe the things of the Christ and God have been molded and distorted to fit a view of the Bible that suits multiculturalism and pluralism. Through influences both purposeful and accidental, the common drivel heard from the pulpits and across the air waves leaves many a poor soul without answers to the important questions of the Faith.

There is an answer. There is a way. “But the Counselor [or, Helper], the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, that One will teach you all [things] and will cause you to remember all [things] which I said to you.(John 15:26 ALT)

“_But_ _I_ speak the truth to you. It is advantageous for you that _I_ go away. For if _I_ do not go away, the Counselor [or, Helper] will not come to you*, but if I go, I will send Him to you. (John 16:7 ALT)

There is no need of supplements for the Bible, because the BIble is only an extension of the work of the Holy Spirit. The words contained within the pages of the Bible are special because of the person who caused them to be written. Without God, they are just words on a page.

It is the promise of our Lord that He will cause us to understand everything that we need to understand. He does this through a combination of ways, but chiefly through prayer and supplication. It is our relationship with a personal being that describes the meaning of Christianity. The true essence of religion is a direct relationship with the Author of all things.

It is important that we do not add to, or take away from the Bible because these are the two primary ways to introduce yourself into the passages, and corrupt our relationship with God into practices and philosophies. The Romans introduced their pagan beliefs into Christianity and created the Roman Catholic Church. Mohammed introduced his own brand of philosophy into the traditions of the Jews and the Catholics and created Islam. Joseph Smith created a new gospel out of whole cloth and invented Mormonism. In fact, the very first attempts at scriptural induction were created by the gnostics when they wrote the false gospels of Mary, Thomas, and Judas.

A proper debate should be over the authenticity of the works we do have within the canon of the Bible today, and not over whether there should be other works inserted into the litany. Taking away from the current works of scripture is simply not tenable.

People who look to fill in the story do so out of a desire for answers to the hard questions they have about life and living. When they don’t find the answer they want to hear, they invent, prevaricate, or just plain ignore. Those who seek wisdom will seek first the Kingdom of God. Those who seek God’s face will find the answers. But, a warning to the wise; though the answers you receive will be righteous and just, the answers you receive may not be the answers you want to hear.

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” (Revelation of John 3:20-22 KJV)

1. Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, ISBN 978-0-307-268-27-3, p. 183