We Don’t Need to Have All the Answers

There have been times in my Christian journey that I wanted to know all the answers. Not just to be able to share them with others in apologetic conversations but for my own comfort.

I saw the value of a tight theological system that had an explanation for everything. The most confusing Bible passage, the most obscure theological concept, it could all fit together in a neat and tidy system.

This was part of the attraction of Christian apologetics for me. There was an explanation for everything if we just thought hard enough about it and read the right books.

The longer I have been a Christian, the more comfortable I have gotten with mystery. Part of this is because I found that not all of the explanations have be satisfactory and part of it is that mystery seems natural when talking about God.

I want to make clear that I am not talking about adopting fideism. If you are not familiar with fideism, you can learn more here.

I do think that Christianity has a rational element and that reason plays a valuable role. Christianity is not just shrugging our shoulders that everything is a mystery. Not everything is a mystery, but there is a lot of it.

The truth is that we really do not understand the inner workings of the Trinity or the incarnation, nor do we know all the details about the resurrection body of Jesus. It is worth talking about and reflecting upon, but we must be careful in not being too dogmatic about what we really don’t know.

We should not use the existence of mystery to fall into lazy thinking or faith. It is rather a posture of humility in the face of an infinite God.

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