Scrutiny

A Difficult and Hazardous Undertaking

”And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Spoken by Jesus, recorded in the Gospel of John, 8:32. ESV

The resolute skeptic frequently holds that the Judeo-Christian Scriptures cannot bear up under scrutiny. More likely, it is he who cannot bear to give these scriptures a thorough and objective scrutiny. Moreover, he quite probably is afraid to do so.

C.S. Lewis wrote a warning after his own experience of being “surprised by joy“ into the Christian faith. Belief in Christ came to him uninvited. For all the delving Lewis had done into philosophy and religion, the last stack in the library of thought he would have browsed in his search for truth was Christian writings and Christian Scriptures. It was Christian associates at the university who challenged his philosophical thinking.

Lewis’ experience in coming to faith led him to advise that the atheist cannot be too careful about what he allows himself to read. The unwilling-to-scrutinize skeptic I mentioned in my opening may subconsciously, along with the self-protecting atheist, be heeding this warning.

Lewis, an extremely intelligent and widely read scholar and professor, came to understand that it is not the Bible which cannot bear up under the scrutiny of man. It is man who cannot bear up under the scrutiny of the Scriptures. Our skeptic might be intuitively suspicious of being outwitted and undone by the content of the Bible.

I have often observed that many a stubborn man clings to his stubbornness, especially in the face of contradictory data, because he has come to think of his undeterrable doggedness as a badge of honor. He does not realize that, on the contrary, it is a blatant blemish on his character.

In any event, it is not a purely human process of the mind to be won over to Christianity, let alone to Christ. We mere mortals are no more capable of grasping the full weight of these divinely given scriptures than we are of grasping the hand of God. When a father commands his child, “Hold my hand,” he would no more trust the safety of his child to the child’s grip alone than he would to the hazards that await the child’s naivety. The command to “hold my hand,” is a request that the child allow his father to hold his hand securely.

We may occasionally stumble across a mere fraction of eternal truth. If we allow ourselves to be receptive to it, even more, if we allow ourselves to be drawn to it, we may quickly find that the little fraction of the truth which we have encountered has gotten a firm grip on us.

I know of a Christian leader who was, in his army days, using the pages of his government-issued New Testament to roll cigarettes. Curiosity tricked him one day. He paused to see what was written on the page he had just torn out for rolling another smoke. That paper fragment, dutifully carrying divine truth, was the God-empowered hinge that turned his life around and led him to the Cross of Christ.

After years of dragging my own psyche through Sunday School lessons at the church where my father deposited me every week, it was at an unexpected time in an unexpected place that a single sentence from the Bible awakened me to a spiritual dawn and secured my heart.

Wise is the one who does not run when God comes up behind him and taps him on the shoulder and whispers life-giving words.

I have also known courageous thinkers who allowed themselves to follow their curiosity after encountering Christians who exhibited an undecipherable peace and an inexplicable joy. These eyes-open observers set out to discover the source behind such rare phenomena. Some even dared to park their posteriors in a pew and listen to a preacher. Others started reading the Bible when no one was looking. Still others had the boldness to ask Christian believers honest questions. On and on go the stories of gradual or instant realization and transformation.

I have not met a person who, when speaking honestly, does not reveal a hope for some form of personal improvement, something they would like to be, in the being sense alone, which they know is not what they currently are. Most everyone is drawn to ideas on how be become “a better version of yourself”.

The Living God is in this business! But too often, the thought of looking into the Gospel of Jesus Christ, even if the searching soul has heard of it, is not seen as a promising use of their energy and time.

Simply stated, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, is the only promising path. It is the only option, after all, which contains the promises of the reliable God. ~dkb~