Years ago, on my first day of medical school, we were informed that 50% of what we would learn would be wrong in 10 years and that no one knew which 50% was wrong.
That was kind of disheartening at the time, but it placed a godly fear in me to keep learning and RE-learning. I kind of wish that new believers would get a similar warning. All too often, we as leaders have overtly or covertly conveyed the notion that what we are teaching is THE truth, and if people don’t buy it or if they question it, God is not going to be happy. Yikes!
If we are honest, most of us can relate to having some of the most irreverent, and perhaps seemingly heretical, questions milling inside at different times in our lives.
Is it safe to question foundational beliefs — the sacred cows we consider “gospel truth?” The answer is YES! It is not only safe, but absolutely necessary at times in our lives so that we can authentically grow.
Let me give you a word of caution, however. In the freedom to question our sacred cows, we should not get cavalier about it. Beliefs, belief systems, and theology really do matter!
Sometimes, in aiming to deconstruct toxic religious understanding, we can end up in the ditch of believing in “nothing.” But believing in nothing is actually believing in something and leads to despair. Others who “believe in everything” (i.e., that all spiritual roads lead to God) flounder in meaninglessness. So, in our questioning, let’s take care to avoid these perilous lines of reasoning.
Is it Safe to Question Sacred Cows?
Is it safe to question sacred cows? The short answer, again, is absolutely! Otherwise, how are we to grow and thrive in our relationship with God if we can’t question Him about what is truly on our hearts?
As Love, God is not easily offended — except by the things that harm His kids (1 Cor. 13:5). He may not be a “tame lion,” as C.S. Lewis says, but He is the safest “place” in the universe. That means we can take our most irreverent, heretical, stupid, and revolutionary questions to Him, exploring the ramifications together with Him. He LOVES that because it is you and Him grappling together and you are growing in your knowledge of Him.
You can rest and not be afraid because Holy Spirit in you promised He would lead and guide you into ALL Truth (John 16:13). I like to say He is smarter than our stupid. He is more truth-yielding than our ability to walk in error.
The key is to REMAIN ENGAGED with Him (John 15:5). As perfect Love, He will cast out fear (1 John 4:18). He will speak through many things including, and of paramount importance, scripture — properly interpreted.
He gave you guidelines to engage with Him to keep you in the truth and away from the spirit of error (1 John 4:1–7). He has defeated the satanic/demonic (however you understand that).
If you are struggling with demonic overlay, I would urge you to major on God’s everlasting, completely good and loving presence, His secured oneness with you, and His sacrifice for you — until you feel truly solid. Other lines of questioning and reasoning can and should wait until you are.
Given that, you don’t need to be afraid to ask honest questions. What IS Truth except the Person of Christ (John 14:6)? Truth will ring all the truer and be all that more solid in your soul when you test it. You can press a truth as hard as super-humanly possible, and it will bear up under any weight. How do we do this and not spin out into falsities? Let’s start with the word of God.
Safety of the Bible
God gave us scripture to reveal Himself, and ourselves, and to help us navigate the pitfalls of life and eternity. There is massive wisdom and safety we so desperately need in learning, memorizing, meditating upon, confessing, and asking Holy Spirit to bring up THE scripture(s) we need. It is a place of retreat, solace, healing, protection, and salvation.
There is so much to say here, I cannot possibly do it justice. I assume that most of you don’t need me to underscore this for you.
Scripture was given to point us to the Person of Christ, Who is capital “T” Truth, and His finished work. This is CRUCIAL! I cannot overstate this. When it points to Him, it is doing its job. When it points away from Him, it is doing its job of showing US our skewed perspectives of Him.
For example, when God in the Old Testament seems to say, “Kill the babies of your enemies,” is that the God you know in your “knower?” I hope not! And I hope you are wondering, “Um, how come God is commanding the killing of babies, but saying He is Love?”
But if you are not allowed to question it, you have to stuff down how you really feel and embrace a murderous God while saying, “God is love.”
That dynamic has riddled believers with massive fallouts in their relationships with God as well as creating droves of atheists. I don’t believe in that God either!
However, starting from the perspective that scripture is God’s gift to us and was made to be grappled with, I do want to discuss pitfalls we can encounter in how we approach it. This will keep it life-giving and safe to use to answer all your deepest questions.
One pitfall to avoid is not making scripture equal with God. It is not Father, Son, and Holy Bible. Realize that reading your Bible does not replace relationship with God.
Another pitfall is when, in trying to be scriptural, we find a scripture/series of scriptures that point to one view. We are fine until someone else finds a scripture/series of scriptures that point to a diametrically opposite view. We can degenerate into scripture wars, where the safest thing has now become a weapon, defeating its whole purpose. Yikes!
Another pitfall is that scripture can be made to mean just about anything if handled incorrectly, causing some to shun it altogether. That is past tragic!
We need to saturate ourselves with the goodness and richness of the Bible. To help you do that and avoid the difficulties scripture can pose, it is important that you have sound methods/principles of scripture interpretation (hermeneutics).
If you are not familiar with this, I strongly recommend you dive into my four-part How to Handle Scripture Rightly series. Part 1 of the series is at: https://catherinetoon.com/how-to-handle-scripture-rightly-part-one/ and the rest of the series follow.
When I first did this, so much confusion about scripture was ameliorated. The Bible made sense, and I could glean from it what I needed!
Trusting Holy Spirit
In our questioning of anything and everything, Holy Spirit is always with us and in us. He said He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). He is amazing at His job of leading and guiding us into ALL Truth (John 16:13). He is the ultimate safety, along with scripture, to keep us from error and deception. 1 John 4:4–7 (The Passion Translation, 2020) elucidates this in detail:
4 Little children, you can be certain that you belong to God and have conquered them, for the One who is living in you is far greater than the one who is in the world.
5 They belong to this world and they articulate the spirit of this world, and the world listens to them. 6 But we belong to God, and whoever truly knows God listens to us. Those who refuse to listen to us do not belong to God. That is how we can know the difference between the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.
7 Those who are loved by God, let his love continually pour from you to one another, because God is love. Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of him.
(emphasis added)
A couple of things to note is that being kept from error is in the context of being led by God, Who is Love, and cultivating love for one another in intimate knowledge of God.
While we need to be humble and aware that we can be misled, we don’t need to be fearful in exploring things that challenge what we have assumed to be gospel truth. The Truth can always withstand questioning, and, in the end, we become more solid in it when we challenge what we have thought, often because that is how it was presented to us and we swallowed wholesale.
Brian Simmons, the lead translator of The Passion Translation of the Bible, in his footnotes on 1 John 4:6 states:
4:6 The New Testament gives us a number of ways we can discern true prophets from false ones. John gives us eight here:
(1) They must confess that Jesus the Messiah has come in bodily form (vv. 2–3).
(2) They must not come in the spirit of this world (v. 5).
(3) They must listen to the truth (v. 6).
(4) They must demonstrate love (vv. 7–21).
(5) The Spirit of Truth must be in them (vv. 4–6).
(6) They must remain true to the written Word of God (v. 6; 5:10; 2 Tim. 3:16).
(7) They must be overcomers who have the greater One living in them (v. 4).
(8) They must have a commitment to the body of Christ (2:19).
As we grapple with significant theological debate, we can rest in these truths that keep us safe — and especially in the One, Who IS Love and Truth!
If you need help hearing from God, you can download my How to Hear God mini-book for free or purchase a hard or kindle copy on Amazon.
With the scripture and Holy Spirit to guide us, we have the most important “tools” to help us navigate our grappling with “sacred cows” safely. There are additional guidelines that are important and so helpful and practical. Don’t miss out on these in Part 2!
Remember, you are so vastly loved that God is ALWAYS with you to lead you into all Truth!
What doctrines or concepts are you struggling with? I’d love to hear from you!
Much Love,
Catherine
P.S. For those of you who are struggling with the word of God — questions about inerrancy vs. inspiration, disillusionment, or helping others who are struggling, this interview with Bradley Jersak is brilliant and so freeing.
Interview with Bradley Jersak | Reclaiming Forgotten & Untapped Treasure of the Word
