Why are we so Scared?

"For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength".

-1 Corinthians 1: 25    

     Why are we so scared of having our faith shaken? We sometimes forget that having our faith shaken is the best thing ever; it breaks us off our complacency and builds up a faith stronger than before.

    Needless to say, there is a lot of contention over the accuracy of the Bible. I maintain that the Bible is a true and faithful historical account of God’s relationship with men, and whatever “differences” or “inaccuracies” are merely minor. I suppose what disturbs me is the way some study notes are written as facts when some of the information given is actually based on theories or speculation. These are minor, such as the differences in genealogy between Matthew and Luke, or the dates the gospels were written, etc. etc. Yes, some of the information is rather cloudy and it does raise a lot of questions, but I do believe that, well, such is the way of the world. There are a lot of things that are not known to us, but that doesn't necessarily make it untrue!!! After all, many historical records have minor differences in perspectives, facts, etc. I have trust in the Lord my God, and I know that He is alive and He is real. In fact, the very fact that we don’t know everything about the things in the Bible just show that God is mysterious and we can never hope to comprehend Him in His fullest, most complete nature.

    I just wonder why some theories are being passed off as facts in these study notes. They are, after all, theories. The basic historical truths are all laid down, and these extraneous things would not – and should not - affect or shake my faith at all. It irks me that the study notes could not say “there is a theory that…” etc. etc, and the uninquisitive reader take it as fact. For instance, my study notes state that Luke marks Mary’s genealogy, when there is no concrete proof that this is so. I mean, perhaps it is such a widely held view that the writers thought that they should just write it as fact, but still. It feels as if (though it might not be) that the writers feel the need to assert it as proof because they don’t want anyone questioning seriously why this is so, or they don’t want to challenge the readers’  faith so much. It is as though they want to “justify” God’s ways or the supposed “inaccuracies” of the Bible, rather than having faith enough in the Bible to trust that it can withstand all these questions.

    I believe that when I question the Bible, it’s because I have faith that God’s word will prevail (of course, I must question with the right motives – to genuinely want to find out more, rather than question God in order to shoot Him down and close my heart to Him, e.g. like Job did). I believe that when I challenge my faith by asking these questions, God will surely reveal Himself to me and I know He will grow my faith through this way.

    Nonetheless, one important thing about questioning the Bible is that sometimes we have to be content  with never knowing EVERYTHING.  One of the hardest thing that God has taught me is that… I am a finite being. There is no possibility of me knowing and understanding EVERYTHING He does, there is no chance of me knowing His motives and reasons COMPLETELY. After all, His ways are so much higher than my ways, His thoughts so much higher than my thoughts. And we have to sometimes let our questions go, and leave it as one of the many mysteries of our God. There are those who feel that the Bible should not be questioned in any circumstance. Then there are those who feel that they should question the Bible incessantly, being supremely skeptical about it, not even entertaining the mere possibility that it might hold true. It's a hard balancing act to try to land in the middle of these two extremes, but it's a necessary action to take.  We must be careful never to turn the pursuit of the knowledge of God into the goal itself, neither should we just be content in our faith, and not strive to grow it by shaking it up a little. What's important to bear in mind is the fact that the knowledge of God and the faith in Him should go hand-in-hand. We can't have faith in a God we don't know about, we can't know a God that we don't have faith in.