Jesus Christ: The Great Paradox

I came across a blog recently that begrudged Christians for not coming up with reasonable explanations for the many paradoxes of the Christian faith. These sorts of attacks give me great joy. I'm not insensitive to the rationalistic knee-jerk that wants everything to be fully explainable in logical and systematic language, regardless of the subject matter. It is natural to want knowledge of all things - it makes us feel powerful, like gods.

The paradox of the incarnation of Christ is the greatest example of God taking the wisdom of the world and making it foolishness; of giving of sight to the blind and blindness to those who claim to see. If you're unaware of the paradox, let me explain it in simple terms: If God is eternal, meaning He never came into existence but has existed eternally without the confines of the time-space continuum, then how could God have 'come into existence' at a point of time in world history in the Person of Jesus Christ? Either Jesus Christ was not God in the flesh, or we're stuck with a logical absurdity.

The fact that Christianity is founded on this logical absurdity - the incarnation - is not a recent discovery. The Church has gotten by just fine for 2000 years despite this fact. It has always been a stumbling block for the Jews (symbolic of religion) and for the Greeks (symbolic of philosophy/rational inquiry and explanation). The Church has always understood that the incarnation is the only way that God could have redeemed humankind; this logical absurdity is the only way humankind could ever be reconciled to God. For those who work better with a flow chart or steps, as I do, I offer the following reasons why the great paradox of Christianity is paramount to authentic Christianity:

1. If God is Spirit then He is forever a subject and not an object within the framework of the material world. He must be approached as a subject - subjectively/relationally. He is not an object that can be studied as if one can come to 'know' Him by simply studying his attributes. In short, faith (the relationship God calls humankind into) is not attained through mental assent to a set of divine propositions about God. This is not to say mental assent is not important, but it is important to separate it from one's understanding of how faith is attained. One must recognize that God is not discovered through science for the simple fact that He is not an object in the material universe, yet God became material in the Person of Jesus Christ but was still undetectable as God through natural means of investigation. He will always be elusive to scientific inquiry.

2. If God came to mankind in all His glory He would have robbed humankind of any ability for them to come to Him through love and subjectivity. Why? Because seeing God in His glory would overwhelm a person's physical senses and forever relegate them to a sense attraction to God rather than a inward, love attraction.

2/b. Imagine a king who secretly fell in love with a common girl. How could the king ever capture the common girl's heart? If he approached her wearing the royal crown, the royal robe, and surrounded with the royal court he would rob the girl of her coming to love the king from her heart. His 'glory' would overwhelm the girl's natural senses, all she would see before her was the majestic king who demanded worship due to his position. The king decides to enter the city in a form that would not give away his 'kingness,' he would leave behind all his royal trappings and attempt to lure the girl with his love rather than his power. Likewise, God came to humankind in the form of a man, no, less than a man - a servant; in complete cognito, longing to enter through the HEART of His would-be Bride, rather than through her eyes.

Christian, take joy in the great paradox! Christ is not available to an exclusive group of intellectuals, he is available to babes and sages alike. The Paradox IS your faith - Emmanuel: God with us.

Atheists, take joy in the great paradox! You can forever justify your lack of belief using your keen intellect to rise above the foolishness of the cross. Feel no urgency to come to the Lord as your life slowly draws to a close with each passing hour. Know that nothing awaits you on the other side; mindless nature birthed you for no particular reason. Come to your last breath with the assurance that your rational deconstruction of Christ has served you well, feel confident that the torment of eternal separation from your Creator does not await you. Know that your existence was the result of the mindless natural order which somehow gave you the ability to think, and somehow made you believe that paradoxes even exist, causing you to be far too smart to fall for the Great Paradox. You are much too intelligent to love the Lord who died for you.

Cheers.

The Problem with Modern Philosophy

"Among the things that have occasioned so much confusion in modern philosophizing is that the philosophers make so many brief statements about infinite tasks and mutually respect this paper money, although it almost never occurs to anyone, existing, to want to try his hand at fulfilling the task's requirement." (Soren Kierkegaard, "Concluding Postscripts")

If Kierkegaard had the luxury of looking forward 150 years he would see that nothing has changed whatsoever. Kierkegaard was, at the time, railing against the ridiculous notion of doubting everything made popular by Rene Descarte. Kierk said, "The presupposition, for example, of doubting everything would take a whole lifetime; now, however, it is done as swiftly as it is said." The point is: people rarely enact what they claim to believe.

Let me pick on atheists for a moment and then I will swiftly move and attack myself and my own branch - Christians. The majority of atheists I meet, especially on blogs, are straight up frauds. If Nietzsche said "There has ever only been one Christian, he died on a cross and the rest are hypocrites," then I declare there has ever only been one atheist, he died in an insane asylum (Nietzsche) and the rest are hypocrites.

Nietzsche was unique among atheists in that he actually took to task the work of appropriating the logical ends of an atheistic ideology. He sought to go 'Beyond Good and Evil,' for the simple fact that if no God exists and we, humans, are the result of millions of years of biological evolution then we cannot speak of 'good' and 'evil' as if they carry any merit in actuality. Good and evil are as foreign to nature as 'natural' and 'supernatural'; these two terms (good and evil) live not only exclusively in the minds of humans, but live there as phantoms - imaginations thrusted upon us by bio-chemistry.

Most atheists today will give 'good' and 'evil' some play in their philosophy because they realize the dead-end they are in for if they completely deny these two terms real validity. They will give "paper money" explanations of how evolution granted us our ideas of good and evil without any need of an eternal standard given by a Standard Maker. But even if one is to allow these explanations to take root in their logic, can they live it? Can they live as if good and evil are simply a matter of non-rational/material evolution with no eternal foundation? Rather than answer the question with more abstract reasoning (which is incapable of causing one to act) try answering it in your everyday life. Every time a situation comes along that tests your moral code (whatever code you've adopted) tell yourself: "millions of years of bio-chemical evolution has made my mind believe that this is wrong therefore I will not do it" and see how that works. Will you not immediately laugh at such a standard and go right on doing what you wanted to do because... you don't really believe bio-evolution can give you a morality of 'good' and 'evil' with any seriousness? Before you call my bluff, try it.

Nietzsche had it right: to go beyond belief in God is to go beyond good and evil. If one has not gone beyond good and evil, then one has not gone beyond belief in God. As Benjamin Wiker, Ph.D. puts it, "Nietzsche was a savage enemy of all lukewarmness, all halfway housebuilding, whether done in the name of religion or irreligion." Atheists often live as if there is a God, and the religious, often, as if there is not.

Now on to those Nietzsche most lamented - liberal Christians. By liberal I don't mean simply those who deny the virgin birth or who deny Christ's divinity, I mean those who nod their heads in agreement at the preaching of the word and return to their "halfway housebuilding" project of life. I can't speak for others but I can tell you why I am not faithful to appropriate all the words of Christ to my life: I'm scared to death! What if I become the kind of believer Jesus describes, what if I take His every word and live it out? Will I not become a freak, a fugitive in my own home, an outcast in the world, one who the world mocks and religion hunts down and kills? Will I not suffer the most intense trials and hardships one can imagine? YES, but oh the joy! (Oh how I long to welcome the suffering that comes from righteous living!)

Break out from your abstract theological philosophy! Quit pretending to know the Lord who radically changes your life if it has not been changed. Do not deal yourself the 'paper money' of pious talk, but seek the true riches of His kingdom. Let the skeptic doubt and the religious remain blind, but you - come to the Lord! Let Him take hold of your life Christian, not just your agreement. Pray for me, and I for you, that we may come to truly know the Way, the Truth, and the Life - Christ Jesus.