Free Will's Effect

“If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning” (Mere Christianity).  C.S. Lewis argues that without having something to which an idea can be compared the idea may be ignorant of the truth. Without a full understanding of what something is not, how can we possibly say what it is? In this world, the arguments for good and evil are perpetually discussed. But the question is, are they really opposites? Lewis proposes that good was never created, but rather that it always has existed and that evil is just a perversion of that good (Mere Christianity). Why then is there evil in the world that God created? The breaking of the Shalom, the complete peace and perfect world that God made was the decision of our own free will.

It was the free will that God gave to us that allowed us to stray. The Fall brought to the world evil. Evil was created with the world. But why then were humans given this free will? If it was free will that permitted this evil, why did God bother to give it to us in the first place? First, the purpose for our creation must be discussed. Plantinga offers that “Creation is neither a necessity nor an accident. Instead, given God’s interior love that overflows with regard for others, we might say creation is an act that was fitting for God” (Engaging 23). He suggests that humans were created because of God’s love. Whether this is to be believed or not, it does fit with what is known of God. This, however, is only one view on the purpose of Creation. It only hints at a solution to a question that cannot be answered by humans of this earth. The question of why God created humans is one that has no answer, but how he made us can be answered in Genesis 1:23, “Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.’” This honor and gift of life was shamed and overshadowed, tarnished by the Fall. God gave to us the precious ability to think and chose what we believe is best for us. “Free will though it makes evil possible, it also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having” (Mere Christianity). This is the gift God gave to us, the ability to have that pure joy, but with the shattered Shalom, the ability for that pure joy on earth was lost.

            Being told that something is unobtainable, makes the desire for it that much stronger. With the knowledge that we will never experience the purest joy on this earth, the aching for it increases. The desire to feel that kind of joy will never be satisfied on this earth, but not for lack of trying. Humans long for many things in this world: family, friends, acceptance, love, purpose, and the past. But what is hiding behind each of those desires? We do actually want the earthly things we desire, but that is not the full extent of the longing. “These earthly things are solid goods and we naturally relish them. But they are not our final good. They point to what is ‘higher up’ and ‘further back’” We want God. We want what we can no longer have on this earth.  In Psalms 42:1 it is proclaimed, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.” There are things that we desire on this earth, but all of them are concealing what our soul truly desires. All of them can potentially make us happy for a time, if we obtain them, but none can give us pure joy or full satisfaction.

C.S. Lewis aptly describes the extent that this longing is ingrained into us. He explains just how great that desire truly is. “I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you—the secret which hurts so much that you take your revenge on it by calling it makes like Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescents; the secret also which pierces with such sweet ness that when, in very intimate conversations, the mention of it becomes imminent. We grow awkward and affect to laugh at ourselves; the secret we cannot hide and cannot tell, though we desire to do both” (“Weight of Glory”). The problem is that there is no permanent cure, short of death and purification through Jesus Christ that can fill this desire. What then can we do to stave off this desire? How can we combat the dissatisfaction that we feel? The answer is hope.

 Hope for what is to come, that in the future the desire will be quenched and Shalom will be found again. This is what will keep us from the depression that the world tries to push onto us. This is what Christians need to proclaim throughout the world. There is still hope for what is to come. One day, the pure joy will indeed be ours through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Even in the bleakest and darkest hour, hope for the light that made the darkness’s meaning clear. “Hope in the LORD and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are destroyed, you will see it.” (Psalms 37:34) This is what should drive Christians to proclaim the message of Jesus. The Lord gave us hope in Jesus, how then, can we deny others that same hope? This is the duty that God has set out for us. “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.” (Romans 15:4). Since the beginning, the message of hope in God has been passed from generation to generation. Now, we too should pass this message of hope to all the people of the world.

Bringing hope to those who need it most seems a daunting task. How are we to know who needs the message, and what approach will best convince them that that message is true? The old cliché “actions speak louder than words” applies here better than any other method. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). The best way to explain the hope that Jesus gives is through the actions of your daily life. This does not mean that we must all become pastors and school teachers. It only means that we must become full time Christians.

A vocation is that which you have been called to do. It is the calling to be a mother, a friend, a doctor, a farmer, a husband, a brother. It is anything that you have been called to do giving you a title of one sort or another. A Christian vocation does not just mean your job or career, but it is your attitude and motivation of how you approach your life, especially your relationships with others. According to Plantinga, “A Christian’s main vocation is to become a prime citizen of the kingdom of God.” And the best way to do this is to do everything for the glory of the Lord because as Lewis pointed out there is no wrong thing to do, only wrong motivations. A Christian vocation seems to be the way you have been called to live more than anything else. It is how you apply your knowledge of what Christ has done for you into your daily life.

Being a student is also a vocation, one with high standards and high consequences. Pursuing knowledge can be a very dangerous thing. “We may come to love knowledge –our knowing—more than the thing known: to delight not in the exercise of our talents but nit the fact that they are ours” (“Learning in a Wartime”). We can desire to search for deeper understanding of God and strengthen our own faith or become absorbed with the fact we know more and forget the purpose of learning it in the first place. When learning about the intrinsic details of atoms, the amazement of creation and the details of God become more pronounced then when you were ignorant to the fact. It is also important to learn so as to be able to refute the claims of those learning who do not believe. “If all the world were Christians, it might not matter if all the world were uneducated. But, as it is a cultural life will exist outside the Church whether it exists inside or not” (“Learning in a Wartime”). Those learning must be able to steer those who are unable away from the false teachings and discoveries. We must stand firm and defend our beliefs to give everyone around us the opportunity to share in the future Shalom.

Works Cited

Lewis, C. S. "Learning in a Wartime." Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford. 1939. Lecture.

---. Mere Christianity. 1 July 2005. Web. 22 Jan. 2011. <http://lib.ru/LEWISCL/mere_engl.txt>.

---. "Weight of Glory." Lecture. Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford. 8 June 1942. Web. 22 Jan. 2011.s<http://www.verber.com/mark/xian/weight-of-glory.pdf>.

Plantinga Jr., Cornelius. Engaging God's World: A Reformed Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living. Grand Rapids, MI: WM. B Eerdmans, 2002. Print.

Zondervan NIV Study Bible.  Fully rev. ed.  Kenneth L. Barker, gen. ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002.  Print

Pain

Pain has been around since the Fall of mankind, but is there any good that can come from that pain? C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain explains how pain reminds us that God is who we need to rely on. “God has had me for but forty-eight hours and then only by dint of taking everything else away from me.” It is by our pains that we come to know God more closely. It is through this pain that we experience that we more fully appreciate what God has done for us and what He continues to do. In the times of happiness it is much easier to forget that God is there, but in the times of trouble, we do not hesitate to call out for help. “God whispers to us in our pleasures; speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

There is no doubt that pain is not what God had planned for us in the beginning of time. “Pain is unmasked, unmistakable evil; every man knows that something is wrong when he is being hurt.” And when a man is being hurt all he wants is for the pain to stop and the best way to do that is to stop the person hurting you. Pain leads to poor choices when we think on who has caused the pain. Some find a thirst for revenge that consumes them and takes over their life. However Lewis points out that “ revenge loses sight of the end in the means, but its end is not wholly bad-it wants the evil of the bad man to be to him what it is to everyone else.” There must be some kind of checks and balance to those who cause pain or there would be absolutely nothing stopping anyone from causing pain all the time. But there is a limit to the revenge we seek, it should not consume us but only be a way to remind the other that he has done wrong. Although it is hard thing to do we will always have the greatest model to follow in Jesus. “The sacrifice of Christ is repeated, or re-echoed, among His followers in very varying degrees, from the cruellest martyrdom down to a self-submission of intention whose outward signs have nothing to distinguish them from the ordinary fruits of temperance and 'sweet reasonableness” His suffering was far greater than anything that we experience, and our pain can only give us small glimpses at what his pain was like, what he suffered for us.

Climbing

Can a man be good without being Christian? This is the question that Lewis answers with more understanding then I think the questioner was hoping for. Lewis sees beyond the words of the question into the motive behind the question. The question he says is not really can a man be good without being Christian, the question really is can I be lazy and not feel bad about it. Lewis is effectively saying that since you know that there is such thing as Christianity that you would rather not be bothered by all the rules and moral conscience that comes with being a Christian. The man who knows nothing about Christianity would be in honest error because how can he be a part of something he knows nothing about. But the man who asks this question is simply lazy and does not wish to bother with the ways of Christianity.

Lewis then takes the argument to the direction of purpose. “Morality is a mountain which we cannot climb by our own efforts; and if we could we should only perish in the ice and unbreathable air of the summit, lacking those wings with which the rest of the journey has to be accomplished.” We can be good people without being Christians but that is only a small part of the adventure. If we are good because of our own needs and not for any other reason than we feel like we should be good, we can climb the mountain but be stuck at the top with nowhere to go. A Christian fights the same battle to get to the top but when he reaches the top there are wings waiting to take him on the next part of his journey. The Christian had a purpose to get to the top of the mountain.  

Remembering the choice to lead a Christian lifestyle seems hard at times, but then occasionally I think about those people who lead a similar lifestyle but will be stuck at the top of the mountain. God aids us on our climb up the mountain, but who aids those just climbing to get to the top. Perhaps the Christian route is actually the easy than that of a good man because there is a purpose for the climb.  

Calling

A vocation is more than just a job or a career. In my mind, a job is something that you have to get a little cash. A career is what most people call a vocation and it is a part of it but not the whole thing. A career is that profession of your choice. A vocation while in a small part can earn you money is classified with the other two more in part because of the amount of work put in, I think.

            A vocation is that which you have been called to do. It is the calling to be a mother, a friend, a doctor, a farmer, a husband, a brother. It is anything that you have been called to do giving you a title of one sort or another. “Still, when we ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and  touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is the friend who cares” Being a friend, helper and fellow human being is a part of our calling and purpose.

 A Christian vocation does not just mean your job or career, but more or less is your attitude and motivation of how you approach your life, especially your relationships with others. According to Plantinga, “A Christian’s main vocation is to become a prime citizen of the kingdom of God.” And the best way to do this is to do everything for the glory of the Lord because as Lewis pointed out there is no wrong thing to do, only wrong motivations. A Christian vocation seems to be the way you have been called to live more than anything else. It is how you apply your knowledge of what Christ has done for you into your daily life. A Christian vocation seems to simply be a full time Christian.  The goal being to glorify Christ in whatever we do.

Christian Ring

The Inner ring and the quest to become a member is one I am sure we have all been a part of at one point or another. In fact, we are all part of rings today whether we are aware of this ring or not. I could sit and tell you about a time that I wanted to be a part of some group or another or how important it was to be in certain circles in high school, but this is something that I am sure that you all have experienced, so I am going to move on.

                Lewis talks of the inner ring and warns of not the ring themselves, but rather the desire to be in the ring. He makes some great comment on just how much that desire can distort a man. “Of all the passions, the passion for the Inner Ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things.” This got me thinking if there ever is a time when a desire to join a group is not a bad thing and I landed on the group that known as Christians.

Now I started applying this inner ring to the broad term Christians. If one were to desire to be in the Christian ring would that really be so bad? Isn’t that the goal of Christianity to join more to the path of God? This is where the distinction between those who want to join the group in an earnest effort to be like Christ and those who just want to be in the know becomes a question. How are we to decide? I don’t think that is our place but rather to try and convince those people who join the group so that they can be in the know. It is our jobs as Christians to take the Inner circle that is Christianity and break through to those who are desperately grasping to be accepted and do just that accept them. Maybe at first they will be those people that Lewis describes desiring to get into the circle, but if they are accepted maybe Christianity will be less of a disappointment then being accepted into a higher social circle or a secret society. Just maybe there is the chance to persuade the man to stay a part of the inner circle for the intent in which those who joined because they share a common belief.