Seven Questions for Christians

1) Are you certain that Christianity is true?

2) If not, why not?

3) Do you believe that if someone has anything less than certainty in Christianity, then that implies they are not regenerate / born again / saved / baptized in the Holy Spirit (or whatever your description of a "true Christian" is)? Why or why not?

4) If you are certain Christianity is true, then do you feel intellectually satisfied with your answers to questions pertaining to the following doctrines:

a) The Doctrine of Divine Revelation and God's Covenants

b) The Doctrines of the Inerrancy, Infallibility, and Historicity of Scripture

c) The Doctrines of Biblical Canon, Sola Scriptura, and Hermeneutics

d) The Doctrines of Faith, Truth, the Rationality of Faith, Christian Epistemology, and Christian Methods for Discerning Truth

e) Doctrines surrounding God and God's attributes, including

i) God's existence and natural theology (arguments for God's existence),
ii) God's relationship to perfection,
iii) goodness (especially, God's goodness in light of the problems of evil, suffering, and divine hiddenness),
iv) transcendence vs immanence,
v) incorporeality,
vi) aseity,
vii) necessity,
viii) omnipotence,
ix) omniscience,
x) omnipresence,
xi) simplicity,
xii) impassibility,
xiii) immutability,
xiv) and time.

f) The Doctrines of the Trinity and the Holy Spirit

g) The Doctrines of the Incarnation and Christology

h) The Doctrine of Creation and Soli Deo Gloria

i) The Doctrine of Angels, Demons, Satan, and the Divine Council

j) The Doctrine of Man, the Imago Dei, and the Historical Adam

k) The Doctrine of Divine Providence and Free Will

l) The Doctrine of Sin, the Fall, and Original Sin

m) The Doctrine of Salvation and Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Solus Christus

n) The Doctrine of the Atonement

o) The Doctrine of Eschatology ("The Last Things", including judgment, heaven, and hell)

p) The Doctrine of Ecclesiology (the authority and nature of the church, denominations, and church creeds)

q) The Doctrine of Sanctification, the Christian Life, and the Sacraments

5) If you are intellectually satisfied with your answers to all reasonable questions that could be asked about the above doctrines, then: 

 

5a) How could this be possible? How could you possibly be satisfied with your answers to all reasonable questions that could be asked about the above doctrines given the sheer complexity – the breadth and depth – of these questions? Have you comprehensively surveyed all alternative answers to yours and do you have principled reasons for preferring your answers to these alternatives? Have you had space in your life and the training, access to books, and time needed to think, read, and write enough to accomplish this?

 

5b) Where are these answers of yours? Have you written them down?

 

5c) Do others trained in philosophy or theology also find your answers to be satisfying? Do they have any critiques of your answers or penetrating questions about your answers? Have you addressed these critiques or questions?

 

6) On the other hand, if you are not intellectually satisfied with your answers to all reasonable questions that could be asked about the above doctrines, and indeed if you feel unsure about your position on some or all of these doctrines, then why are you certain that Christianity is true, or that Christianity makes sense or that Christianity is a coherent worldview?

 

Scratch that—why have the slightest bit of confidence at all that Christianity is true or that Christianity makes sense or that Christianity is a coherent worldview if you don't know that your best attempt to make sense of each of the above doctrines—and of how they coherently fit together—would result in success? For all you know, attempting to make sense of each of the above doctrines—and of how they coherently fit together—would result in your concluding that Christianity does not make sense – or even that Christianity is likely false. So until you have completed an investigation with such success, why not adopt a more cautious, agnostic, and open-minded mentality?

 

7) If you are certain that Christianity is true, are you willing to change your mind and have that certainty overturned?

 

Let's say there's a Muslim who is certain that Islam is true. You preach the Gospel to them, but they respond, "I'm certain that Islam is true; I have no need to read the Bible." In your mind, the Muslim is stuck in their false beliefs because of their certainty. Are you worried that you could be stuck in your false beliefs in the same way? What should the Muslim do to guarantee that they are not stuck in their false beliefs in this way? Perhaps they should adopt an open-minded way of thinking and be willing to change their mind, even their deepest beliefs about their own identity, heritage, and community—even their most cherished beliefs that they want more than anything to be true.

 

If you think the Muslim should adopt this radically open-minded attitude, do you adopt this same attitude? Have you read the Quran, or Hadith, or Sira? Have you read books written by naturalists defending naturalism (i.e. the view that there are no supernatural things) or challenging theism or Christianity? Wouldn't it be hypocritical to hold others to a standard of open-mindedness, investigative rigor, and internal scrutiny that you don't hold to yourself?

 

Christians always misunderstand my point here, so I'll try to spell it out: The question is not about the evidence for Islam versus the evidence for Christianity. The question is not "Why are you not a Muslim?" 

 

The point is about the mentality that the Muslim (who is certain that Islam is true) adopts. The Muslim adopts a mentality of certainty. Therefore, from the Christian point of view, the Muslim is stuck in their false beliefs because of their mentality. But if you are a Christian and you have the same mentality, then you are making the same mistake of being epistemically stuck that the Muslim is making. The Christian would recommend the Muslim—so that the Muslim does not get epistemically stuck—to adopt a mentality of radical open-mindedness. But the Christian who is certain that Christianity is true fails to adopt that same mentality of radical open-mindedness. And so the Christian who is certain that Christianity is true is guilty of epistemic hypocrisy—they expect Muslims (and atheists, etc.) to adopt a mentality that they refuse to adopt themselves.