Adam suggests that questions are actually a sign of spiritual growth. Do you agree?
Are you typically encouraged or discouraged as you encounter questions in life?
Updating…
Adam Mosley is Associate Pastor at Trinity Vineyard Church and blogs at AdamMosley.com.
I LOVE questions. And to carry Adam’s analogy a bit further–I love it that he’s asking “why does 2 + 2 = 4?”, and what is “2″, and such. The answers to these questions, as I understand it, are found in the axioms–the basic tenets that we agree to accept at the beginning, before we can do mathematical proofs. The really fascinating thing is that we can go back and look at the axioms, and if we agree together to change one of them, we can get, for instance, an entirely new and fascinating geometry. Kewl.
Some where along the way in your faith journey you have gotten side track with math problems and the ( over analyzing of the whole idea of questions )not even considering whether or not your questions were even valid. What I’m trying to say is ” you don’t seem to be interested in a answers from Jesus/God, you’re just interested in asking complex question,
but you do have a problem that only God can solve.
Respectfully, I disagree with your analyzes of Jesus not having all the answers.
Elaine,
Wow, can I just say that I find starting off a conversation by saying “you have a problem” fairly offputting. To me, it feels kind of like starting off a game of table tennis by taking the ball and squishing/crumpling it, sort of making further play somewhat more difficult–although not impossible–I’ve certainly played some games of table tennis with a slightly deformed ball.
I think you kind of hit the nail right on the head when you noticed that some people find questions more interesting than answers. I’m very much in that group. Do you find answers more interesting than questions? If so, can you talk about why that is, and perhaps give specific examples?
I never said that question were bad, or unnecessary, never, because I, like many others have plenty of questions, but I want answers, Bro. Adam is talking about questions for God that have no answers, and why wouldn’t God have all the answers, now we may not understand them but never the less he has them, now people these days may not care what God thinks but,
and my question is should questions make sense, I listened to Adams clip more than 4 times just to be sure I was hearing him correctly and coming from a christian perspective his statements started to loose their over all meaning, like he states, ” he’s going beyond the fundamentals ” just asking questions that he knows God does not have the answers to, now if you have the time to do that go right a head, but if you have people that have questions for God and they are looking for answers then maybe this is not the church for you, of course this is just my opinion . I apologize if I sounded harsh before that was not my intent.
Elaine,
thank you for your gracious apology. You rock!
I think perhaps the difference here is somewhat generational/cultural. I think there’s a huge shift going on in Western culture, from modern to post-modern. I think modernism is very much interested in answers, and postmodernism is very much more interested in questions that don’t seem to have answers. BICBW
I think questions are absolutely vital to spiritual growth. God did not make us mindless automatons to blindly follow his instruction manual, aka the Bible. He made us thinkers, and the inevitable consequence of thinking is questions. Not only are questions important for personal growth, they are important for the growth of Christianity. The church today looks nothing like the biblical church because somewhere along the line someone had to ask, “Is this the only way we can worship?” I can’t understand why so many Christians and churches get so up in arms when someone has questions. I’ve asked many people if they’ve been reading the same Bible I’m reading because it’s full of people with questions.
I love that Adam talks about the grey areas because I live quite comfortably in the grey areas! I was raised in a legalistic black and white church that so strongly discouraged questions it made me feel pretty crappy for having them. I spent 10 year as an atheist because I didn’t want to be a part of a religion that I felt discouraged growth. During that time I read the Bible with the sole purpose of outlining its inconsistencies and errors. Thankfully I found a pastor that not only encouraged my questions, but said he wished more people had them. I have always hated the expression “blind faith.” I refer to my faith as “active” not “blind”, and my growth requires me to pray, read my Bible, worship, serve others, and ask plenty of questions. Now that I’m a Christian, the most offensive thing to me is being told that having questions indicate a lack of faith on my part. After spending so many years disbelieving His existence, my walk is based on me finding the right answers to my questions, or at least answers that I believe in. I will never have all the answers and I’m totally ok with that. There are times when I just sit still and bask in the miracles of creation and think “Wow God did that!” However, there are also times when I find myself asking “God how could you have done that?” I often feel like David in Psalm 13 where he spends 90% of chapter questioning God, pleading “Look on me and answer, O Lord my God.” However like David does in the last 2 verses, I always come back to the altar “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.” Questions don’t mean you doubt that Jesus has all the answers; they simply mean that you recognize that all the answers aren’t in the Bible. How boring this walk would be if they all were!
I completely agree that questions are vital to growth if not necessary. I believe that many purposefully stay away from questioning because they are trying to claim ignorance. However, Jesus is the answer and has the answers to almost every question. I do feel the Bible is very black and white in much of its direction. I encourage all my youth to ask questions. If you have come to faith in Jesus Christ, you will come to realize that regardless of what the world tries to do to disprove God and the Bible, it will obviously be impossible to do so. I have done much reading on scientific theories, other religions backgrounds, and historical characters that were types of Jesus’. All of this has made it abundantly clearer that Jesus Christ is in fact the Son of God. God did create the world. His Plan has been carried out and Salvation has been offered through Christ alone. People will ask questions like “the bible historically only covers around 6000 years, so how come fossil dating shows billions of years?” I ask who says that the age of the earth was at zero when God created it and what would a flood and natural disasters do to the process of fossil dating and earth dating? God created man fully formed what makes us think that other things were not created already aged? Anyway, my questions have only led me to further faith in Christ, but that did only start with God’s intervention in my life. Thank God that He gave me ears to hear and a heart to believe!
I love the way that Adam expresses this topic. It’s something that’s very dear to me. I grew up in a faith community where questions weren’t discouraged, but there was a pat-answer for EVERY question. Questions were answered with the 2+2=4 model. When I was as young as 3rd grade, I remember sitting in Sunday school and hearing the answer to a question and thinking “this just isn’t good enough.” Later in life when I went to get my bachelor’s degree in Christian ministries I learned about a developmental theorist named James Fowler. He studied the development of faith throughout the lifespan and found six stages of faith development. The first few emphasized the role of the caregiver as the image of God, a “mythic literal” faith where the fantastic and literal exist simultaneously (of COURSE snakes talked and Jonah was swallowed by a whale/fish), the third stage is a system of organized beliefs based on information received from an authority figure. Most people never move past this stage. Their refusal and possibly fear to go beyond 2+2=4 prevents their further development. Beyond stage 3 is a difficult period where EVERYTHING must be questioned. The beliefs must separate from the authority figure and be “owned” for the self. I believe RYF is fertile soil for encouraging people to move beyond stage 3. Questions are scary, and we must be careful that we use questions as a means to an end, not the end in and of itself. I truly believe that just like math provides problem solving skills that are important for all areas of life, that spiritual questioning can affect and improve all areas of life as well.
My early church experience tended to make me expect simple answers to the ‘messy’ questions Adam talks about. “God is good, all the time; All the time, God is good”. etc. But what is good?
Now I am beginning to recognize the value of asking the questions. Perhaps I’ll get answers, probably even more questions. But I’m going a lot deeper than just a simple “Yes” to a question like is the Bible infallible?
I’m also discovering that No, people aren’t necessarily asking questions in order to get the answer. Sometimes they want to see if we are also willing to ask the hard questions, or if we will just repeat the simplified answers we have been taught. People unaccustomed to or dissatisfied with pat answers are more engaged by our willingness to also ask questions. It seems to me that too often the typical Christian ‘answers’ are more an effort to protect our view of God, the Bible, etc. than they are to really grapple with the underlying levels of the unknown.
I like Derrick’s comment about 6 stages of faith development. Now I have to find out what the last 2 stages are!
Pharisees have all the answers. Disciples do not. This week’s gospel lesson has Martha sitting at Jesus’ feet…probably asking lots and lots of questions – something a woman was not supposed to do. And, of course, Jesus does not chastise her as her older sister does. Instead, he calls Mary to account and suggests that perhaps her quality of life might be considerably improved if she were to take the time ask more questions. Seems to me our society is choking to death because everybody thinks they have all the answers and we are quick to demonize anyone whose answers differ from our own. That’s why its important we be very intentional about whose feet we choose to sit at. I have come to believe that faith has never been about having answers; it’s all about having the courage to ask questions that don’t have easy answers, and trust that God will lead us to discover the “answers” for our time in history. Just some thoughts…
I’ve more than once been told I ask too many questions in Church – to me the problem is too few people asking questions not too many.
That said, I think there is an issue of dynamics and the reason for questions – if you are asking simply to destroy, to make others feel small or to convince them of the superiority of your argument/theology/idea, you’re not really any better than the person who accepts something wholeheartedly without really thinking about it (and encourages others to avoid doing any thinking either).
The former is a bit like someone who manages to dissect a book into the consistuent parts and then stands back saying ‘ah-ha, I told you, it is just a pile of paper!’. In constrast the latter is like the person who thinks all possible answers to all possible questions are in the horoscope.
Love the questions. I think Adam is on to something.
In the Christian communities I grew up in (especially in the 50s and 60s and still today) – questions were discouraged. It was wrong to ask any questions as it meant you were questioning authority (God’s, the Bible, the pastor, Sunday school teacher, elder, etc.) It is sad that questions were and are handled that way. For me, I was seeking to understand.
What little I know of the Jewish traditions tells me that they have been asking questions of the Torah since the beginning. It is in the questions, that I begin to really think about what matters must to me, why I hold that belief, and more.
It is one of the things that appeals to me as part of A Small Group in Cincinnati – all our gatherings are centered around powerful questions that invite us to bring ourselves to the response and have no perfect answer. Here is the beauty of it. It is not the answer that is important, but the exploration the question that it stimulates within me.
After the question, I become clearer in what I think and believe – even if I still do not have a perfect answer to the question.
The Holy Spirit shows up in the midst of the exploration of the question and I am moved – something shifts within. It is a mystery.
It is very sad for me when the church treats questions as bad – instead of welcoming this exploration and seeking to understand. It is the lack of transparency and room for dissent (difference) in churches that has driven me from church (religion). Thank goodness God is okay with my questions.
Elaine,
I’m not too familiar with the Jewish faith either, but the way (I’ve been told) that they embrace questions is very appealing to me. Would love to look into that further sometime! The Coen Brothers use this (questions in the Jewish faith) as a theme in their most recent film, “A Serious Man”. I’d highly recommend the film, I loved it (but I’m a huge Coen Bros. fan).
Craig – thanks for the tip on the new movie from the Coen Brothers. Eric and I both like their work – I’d forgotten about this new one. “Raising Arizona” is one of our all time favorites – which is funny since I fell asleep in the middle of it the first time I watched it.
It got better the 2nd time around…and of course, there is “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?”…
Craig, thanks also for the movie tip…
Greetings from China !
Craig – I keep reading your name and Jim Henderson’s work from my long time friend and fellow heretic, Mrs. Pam Hogeweide. I think you guys are great !
Ah, questioning religious dogmas. Just read a bit of Church history, a bit of Joseph Campbell’s ‘Hero with a thousand faces,’ for example and our questions will be more, shall I say, less religious and nonsensical ?
I watched almost all if not every one of your interview video and some of the viewer’s comments that followed. Given everything is based on faith, I would consider all that back and forth over religious beliefs are rather pointless. It is not like there’s imperial proof for the veracity of most biblical accounts. Many have tried but none has yet succeeded.
Honestly, it really is as impossible to prove that Jesus was the son of a Carpenter let alone the reincarnate of a Jewish god. I think it is as impossible, if not more so to say, prove that Helen of Troy was the face that launched a 1,000 ships and sparked a 10 year war from Homer’s Iliad. And much like the fabulous accounts of the Golden Mycenaen’s tales of the age of heroes were passed on and embellished by generations of bards that preceded Homer, so too was the bible passed on with embellishment, edited, translated, censored and finally arbitrarily compiled for the market. And whatever words and virtues that were attributed to Jesus were indeed written centuries after his crucifixion. Besides, the truth is, outside of religious context, the idea of virgin birth and resurrection is downright preposterous.
I remember in my early teen as a young convert, I read a book about the historical Jesus and was thus well assured of my faith in a divine savior. But then years later scientists concluded that the research done for the said book were sloppy, and not credible, which in essence meant that it was yet another religious scam.
Now that I am much older, I feel that if providence is real, then every cultural’s spiritual representation of claimed so-called divine revelation is appropriate and valid. It is politics that had required distinctions, and demanded for creeds and dogma. And hence with much blood sacrifices, established religion has terrorized the world ever since. So to me, politics and religion are two sides of the same filthy coin, inseparable, and were absolutely man made evil.
Professor Eugene V. Gallagher, Rosemary Park Professor of Religious Studies, Connecticut College wrote of James D. Tabor’s book, Discovering the Jesus Dynasty: “Like many scholars, Tabor emphasizes that we must understand Jesus in the context of first-century Judaism. After Jesus’ death, his brother James took over the titular family dynasty. James championed a version of the faith quite different from Paul’s, and, although James was more faithful to Jesus’ original teachings, Paul’s Christianity won. ”
So, Paul was the de facto founder of Christianity !
Speaking of movies. Has anyone here seen “Dogma” (1999)
It is about the beauty of faith and of having imaginatively beautiful ideas. We came from nature imbued with wild exhilarating romantic ideas. If there is a creator, I feel she just wouldn’t care less if her creatures worshiped her. And most certainly NOT – for crying out – be made to fear her! That is absurd to the power of infinity!
Anyways, all the best to all of you who will live to serve the needy, help the filthy rich part with their green demons, expose lies, and most of all follow your dreams, spread your infectious joy and keep fighting slavery, be it wage-slavery or any other forms.