I wonder if there is such a thing as a Christian Agnostic?

Why I wonder is that, on my travels through cyberspace and reading some of what there is to read out there, I come across so much that I simply find too hard to believe. It may be true, or it may not be true. For instance, someone was talking about seeing angels on a frequent basis, and representations of various saints, each with a message of some kind. She said she wasn’t given to hallucinations, and so she took a photo… but what does a photo prove? It has been said that the camera doesn’t lie, but I know for a fact that the software sure does! And others are talking about prophetic cosmic politics that leave me behind somewhere in the Stone Age when it comes to following their line of thinking. I’m not one for attempting to match today’s or tomorrow’s world events with anything in the Book of Revelations, and even just understanding that Book itself, except for general themes, is quite beyond me. I guess I am a simple type.

I have read quite a few things on numerous Christian forums. There have been a lot of heated discussions, a lot of labelling, a lot of dissension with judgement and condemnation, a lot of upset. Sometimes I step back and wonder how much this kind of talk helps any of us, and even if those who join in are merely dabbling in something that is nothing short of avoidance of the real thing they are supposed to be doing. It may be interesting, but to me it is mostly all peripheral and there will always be many kinds of ideas about what it all means.

If the search is for truth, then to me it is really very simple. The historical Jesus who lived on this planet around two thousand years ago, and whose words and activities are reported in the Bible, made some claims that cannot be ignored. Those who say He was just a good teacher of morals and some kind of prophet but nothing more are left with a problem. Good teachers of morals don’t tell lies and deceive people, and they are also reality based, not living in some weird fantasy and suffering delusions of grandeur as they speak. The Jesus who walked around back then actually claimed to be God.

John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.”

So you don’t get allowed the “good teacher only” option - it isn’t an option. For each one of us, we get to decide if He was either grossly deluded or telling serious fibs - in other words wrong - or if He was actually telling the truth. Such a decision is a biggy. It cannot be taken lightly because whichever way you decide will affect your thinking, and your future, from here on ever after. Avoiding a decision is a decision regardless, the one that disregards His claim.

That same Jesus also said that He is the way, and the truth, and the life. That was a rather profound thing to say, and at it’s simplest, you can take it to mean that Jesus gave us a good example of how to behave towards each other. But at it’s most profound, it means much much more. He said that no one comes to the Father except through Him. I know this is offensive to some people, but to all Christians who happen to know Jesus, it is nothing short of an absolute truth.

Jesus gave us two summary commandments:

Matthew 22: 37 Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

So what happens after that? It is so simple, albeit hard to do, but by getting on with it you also come to discern the truth.

John 14:15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

John 16:13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

I keep coming back to what is central - the truth claims about Jesus, what we have decided about those, and what we are supposed to be doing following on from there. The follow on is simply: “If you love me, you will obey what I command”. The New Testament in particular is a good manual for how to love both God and our neighbour. There are some big clues in there, and plenty to get going with while sorting out the peripheral matters.

But back to my earlier ponderings… is there such a thing as a Christian Agnostic? I guess the answer is Yes because I certainly see myself as one. Some of the things I read do challenge my ability to believe and, naturally cautious, I am disinclined to accept anything on “blind faith” alone. The faith I have is pistis, a Greek word that was used as a technical rhetorical term for forensic proof. It is not a belief in just anything, but belief based on real evidence. I need to have evidence so that I know that my beliefs are substantial, can be substantiated, are rational and valid. How can I know if an angel appeared to you in a candle flame and told you something or not, and that it really was what you claimed it to be? I don’t know that I can, and so I will pass… I will remain agnostic on that. I can weigh things up against Scripture and determine if it is consistent with the truth therein or not, but where I cannot be certain, I shall again pass… I will remain agnostic.

On a forum recently I was told I am confused although all I did was point to Scripture as the arbitrator in a discussion. I wasn’t at all confused, but the other was a New Ager who became frustrated when confronted that way and chose to make condemnatory judgements against me, and against my website. I stepped aside for a time, but then drew his attention back to Scripture again… the central message devoid of peripheral matters. He took umbrage and left. But where I see people getting upset and angry, becoming abrasive and rude, throwing around insults, being judgemental and condemnatory towards each other on such things, the following is the message I would like to leave with them to consider:

Luke 6:36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. 37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

James 4:11 Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

Galations 5: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.