Is Certainty a Sin?

The greatest Christian heresy today may be the worship of doctrine—the elevation of one set of beliefs (mine or ours) to the level of absolute and infallible, which suggests that I/we can’t be wrong, which implies that I/we end up worshiping myself/ourselves.

The heresy (or is it idolatry?) is rooted in a belief that we humans are capable of comprehending God and/or Jesus absolutely.

“But the Bible says...” is the justification, again, rooted in an assumption that our interpretation of the Bible is absolute and infallible.

“But it’s not an interpretation; it’s God’s word!”

OK, let’s go there.

Moses asked God, “Let me see you!” and God said, “OK, go into that cave and I’ll pass by the opening of the cave, but you’ll only see my back, because you can’t handle all of me at once!” (Exodus 33:18-23)

Paul wrote, “We see as if through a flawed pane of glass—we understand in part.” (I Corinthians 13:12)

Matthew presents Jesus as a second Moses. The Sermon on the Mount recalls Moses’ experience on Mount Sinai and Jesus’ Beatitudes echo the Commandments Moses brought down from his mountaintop experience. Jesus develops the theme established in the Beatitudes, then he begins his summary and conclusion with, “You’ve heard that your ancestors were told, don’t kill; but I say to you, don’t hate.” He used that same “used-to-think” model (Matthew 5:21-48) in regard to several understandings of the “law” that had become rigid and infallible but remained incomplete because their interpretation and application missed the spirt God intended.

Jesus raised the bar; opened a whole new level of understanding of God’s nature and will. He set that rhetorical model up and prefaced it with, “I did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it.” (Matthew 5:17)

My argument has nothing to do with the nature of God or the trustworthiness of the Bible; rather, I am pointing to our human limitations. Our human comprehension of God (or the Bible) is never complete, nor will it ever be, nor can it ever be, given the limitations of our cognitive capacities—a realization that might stimulate humility, rather than certainty. "We walk by faith, not by sight." (II Corinthians 5:7)

C. S. Lewis wrote, "It is Christ Himself, not the Bible, who is the true word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit and with the guidance of good teachers will bring us to Him."

The humility indicated by the realization of our incompleteness can open the door to reconciliation, healing, and a cooperative and humble spirit in a mutually supportive effort to follow Jesus instead of expending the divisive effort to prove that we are “right.”

So, is certainty a sin? Probably not, in itself; but it definitely slams a lot of doors shut! And it may lead to an arrogance that closes the door to “speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” (Ephesians 4:15-16)

That’s the way it looks through the Flawed Glass that is my world view.

Together in the Walk,

Jim

 

P.S. Biblical Scholar, Peter Enns has just released a book entitled, The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires Our Trust More Than Our "Correct" Beliefs. I’m anxious to read it and, hopefully, find a community of discussion.

Enns also authored The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It, which I finished reading yesterday and highly recommend it. Be forewarned, however, he will make you think and likely will piss you off at times.