Day Twenty-Five - Transformed by Trouble
Mr. Warren began the prior chapter by saying that, “Spiritual growth is the process of replacing lies with truth. Jesus prayed, ‘Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.’ Sanctification requires revelation.” (p. 185) He begins the present chapter by declaring it “obvious” that God “depends more on circumstances to make us like Jesus than he depends on our reading the Bible.” (p. 193) If sanctification requires the revelation of Scripture, then how can “circumstances” be more effective in sanctification than the Bible? We may consider this assertion in two different directions.
First, Mr. Warren clearly declares that God is dependent, and only questions what is His greatest dependency. This is not surprising given that it has been his consistent characterization of God as correlative to Man. The idea of the dependence of God upon “circumstances” merely extends the notion of correlativity, so that God is seen as correlative, not to Man only, but to “being in general.” To be sure, Mr. Warren reserves attributes of great power and wisdom to God alone, as He is said to “use” circumstances to His own ends. However, in this conception the laws and principles that govern “being in general” lie above and behind “god” equally as they lie above and behind “circumstances.” For, if God does not cause circumstances, but merely “uses” them, and if God thus “depends” upon circumstances in order to accomplish His purposes, then there must be some other principle at work in the Universe that organizes and orders all things. If God is not the infinitely autonomous (i.e. totally independent), omniscient, omnipotent, sovereign Creator and Determiner of all things, then all things are subsumed in either an impersonal and totally static principle of unity, or else a blind chaos of perpetual flux.
The Christian truth is as was just stated: God is the infinitely autonomous (i.e. totally independent), omniscient, omnipotent, sovereign Creator and Determiner of all things. Therefore, we need not struggle to determine whether the Universe is a static unity or else a chaotic diversity. The Universe is characterized by both a temporal unity and a temporal diversity. The temporal unity of the created order derives from the fact that all things come to pass according the secret counsel of God. The temporal diversity of creation derives from the manifold nature of creation coupled with the limited human experience of creation through successive moments of time and discrete coordinates of space. The truly Christian outlook on things exactly reverses Mr. Warren. God does not depend upon circumstances; circumstances depend upon God.
The second direction in which we may consider Mr. Warren’s initial claim involves the matter of the Bible as it relates to human experience. He suggests that experience is more effective in transforming our character than is the Bible. Having consigned God to a position of dependency, Mr. Warren then has no basis for holding God’s Word up in the same light in which he held it in the previous chapter. A dependent God brings forth a dependent word. The word of a dependent God cannot but exist in correlativity to every other word that may emerge in the Universe. In this case “circumstances,” or contingency, becomes the universal. Mr. Warren’s suggestion is that “circumstances” are more universal in human life than God’s Word, for, while we may fail to read God’s Word, we cannot fail to be confronted with circumstances. However, this outlook must presume that human experience is normative. Again, we may exactly reverse Mr. Warren: human experience does not explain Scripture; rather, Scripture explains human experience.
Scripture explains that human experience is not normative. Scripture explains that our first parents fell into sin, and that therefore all of creation was corrupted. Human experience is corrupted. Having experiences may provide us opportunity to grow into maturity, but it is not the bare fact of experience that provides growth. The corrupted experience of a corrupted person living in a corrupted world presents the person with a basic problem. The problem of human experience is how to interpret it. Mr. Warren would have us to believe that circumstances are a better tutor in spirituality than the Bible. However, in reality circumstances pose a problem for which the Bible has the only answer. Human experience was not a problem for Man in the original ideal of Creation, but became a problem due to sin. Apart from the Christian doctrine of sin, there is no escape from having to presume human experience as normative. Mr. Warren’s idea of “circumstances” reflects the fact that he never adequately has accounted for sin in this treatise.
The universality and normality of experience in Mr. Warren’s view comes out plainly in his idea of evil. He cites the view of Joni Eareckson Tada that, “…only in suffering will we know Jesus.” And then he adds in his own words that, “We learn things about God in suffering that we can’t learn in any other way.” (p.194) We must be sensitive to the great suffering of Mrs. Tada, and certainly we must not discount the spiritual lessons she learned through her suffering. However, it also must be stressed that suffering was not originally required as a means of knowing God, and cannot be declared as universally required even now. Suffering comes into the picture through sin. Our original estate of creation was perfect and without suffering, and in this original bliss Adam knew God more fully and wonderfully than the most spiritual of the giants of faith in our day. It is only in a Yin and Yang outlook, in which good and evil are alike original, in which human experience is normative, and in which “god” is dependent, that one could represent suffering as an essential component of spirituality.
Another example of this same outlook is Mr. Warren’s saying, “You’ll never know that God is all you need until God is all you’ve got.” (p. 194) This is the same thing as saying that it is impossible for one to know his need of God apart from eliminating all other things from his life. Such a notion suggests that one must undergo a Job-like crisis in order to come to appreciate his need for God. However, we must hasten to realize that Job was subjected to his trials precisely because he already knew - and was fully devoted to - his need for God. The point of his suffering was a satanic attempt to break him of his devotion, not a divine attempt to develop his devotion. The same thing could be said of a number of other texts that encourage us in the midst of problems in life. James 1:2-3 says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” Faith does not derive from trials; it is tested by trials. Also, I Peter 1:6-7 says, “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Here again, trials do not somehow produce faith; rather, trials “prove” faith even as fire proves gold. Faith does not come from experience or circumstances; “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (Rom. 10:17)
Mr. Warren seems to hesitate between two opinions. Throughout the first two pages of this chapter he expounds his idea of a dependent God and the supposed necessity of suffering in human experience. Then, beginning on page 195, he launches into a completely different outlook. He says that, “…God is sovereignly in control.” He proceeds with a very able phrase-by-phrase survey of Romans 8:28-29, and declares that, “Your life is not a result of random chance, fate, or luck. There is a master plan. History is His story. God is pulling the strings.” But in the end Mr. Warren reverts to his former view of a dependent God and the universality of circumstances. Having noted that God works all things according to His purpose, he concludes by saying, “Everything God allows to happen in your life is permitted for that purpose!” (p. 196) Now we see that when Mr. Warren says that, “God is sovereignly in control,” and that, “God is pulling the strings,” what he evidently means is that God “allows” or “permits” circumstances. He does not comment on the ultimate cause of circumstances. Surely, he would agree that God causes circumstances to some extent. But, ultimately, in the view of things that Mr. Warren expounds, the extent to which God causes circumstances cannot rise above an essential correlativity to every other cause of circumstances. Thus, in this view, the only universal left is the universal of “experience” or “circumstances” in which both God and Man exist.
In context of such an idea of “circumstances” as Mr. Warren posits, there can be no clear, biblical idea of sin. Consequently, neither can there be any clear, biblical idea of redemption. Mr. Warren demonstrates this consequence quite clearly. In his view Jesus becomes not so much a Redeemer as a Role Model. Mr. Warren says, “Since God intends to make you like Jesus, he will take you through the same experiences Jesus went through.” (p. 197) Attempting to prove that what he is telling us is biblical, Mr. Warren then cites Hebrews 5:8-9, and asks, “Why would God exempt us from what he allowed his own Son to experience?” (p. 197) Hebrews 5:8, “…He learned obedience from the things which He suffered,” is a reference to the death of Christ, as verse 7 makes clear, “He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death.” We see, then, two things. First, for Mr. Warren, the death of Christ was an “experience” that emerged out of the universality of “circumstances,” which God merely “allowed.” In truth, the death of Christ was the most singularly unique and powerful event in history, and was accomplished “by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.” (Acts 2:23) Second, we see that Mr. Warren discounts the nature and importance of the death of Christ in that he cites Hebrews 5:8 as proof that God expects us to undergo all of the same “experiences” as did Christ. Back on Day Seven Mr. Warren characterized Jesus at the hour of His crucifixion: “Jesus stood at a fork in the road,” and applied this to all his readers by adding, “You face the same choice.” (p.57) When God is held to be correlative to Man, the uniqueness and authority of His Word is compromised, “circumstances” become universal, and Jesus becomes simply a role model.
This corruption of the ministry of Christ extends even to His coming in the flesh. Mr. Warren says, “We can rejoice in knowing that God is going through the pain with us. We do not serve a distant and detached God who spouts encouraging clichés safely from the sidelines. Instead, he enters into our suffering. Jesus did it in the Incarnation, and his Spirit does it in us now. God will never leave us on our own.” (p.199) Thus, we see that for Mr. Warren the Incarnation of Christ was nothing more than God “entering into our suffering” so we do not have to suffer alone. The scheme of things presented in this chapter supposes the universality of “circumstances” in which God and Man together have “experiences.” This universal of “circumstances” is characterized by a Yin and Yang tension of good and evil. A God who is subject to such a universal may be powerful enough to prevent or “allow” circumstances in our lives, but he does not ultimately cause or control circumstances: he depends upon circumstances; circumstances do not depend upon him. Such a God can speak only relative or contingent words into the world of “experience.” Such a God knows that unless we own up to the suffering that is an essential aspect of the basic nature of reality, we can never fully know him or develop our own nature. Accordingly, such a God “permits” or “allows” us to undergo suffering. Such a God “allowed” Jesus to undergo suffering. Indeed, such a Jesus was incarnated just in order to demonstrate that God suffers within the contingency of “circumstances” even as we do, and calls us to share his “experiences” with him.
In Christian truth, God was there prior to the existence of anything. He created all things by His Word. He bears no correlativity to the things of His creation. He spoke our world of reality into existence by his Word, and His Word goes forth into this reality definitively. Originally, His creation was completely perfect and good. Our perfect human nature was spoiled and the whole of creation was subject to futility because of our sin. Man has no right to interpret his experience of reality according to anything that he harbors within himself. Man does harbor the image of God, which is an aspect of the general revelation of God in nature, however, general revelation never was meant to be a testimony independent of the Word of God. Experience may be interpreted only as it is subject to the authority of God’s Word, which defines and determines all things. God imparts faith to us through this Word. It is by this Word we learn that the root of suffering lies in our sin, and that God has made propitiation for our sin in Christ. The incarnation of Christ was so that He could bear the wrath of God due us for our sins in His body upon the Cross. Our faith in these things comes via hearing His Word. The trials and tribulations of this life put our faith to the test, but trails themselves are not the source of our faith or our growth. We are not transformed by trouble; we are transformed by God.
First, Mr. Warren clearly declares that God is dependent, and only questions what is His greatest dependency. This is not surprising given that it has been his consistent characterization of God as correlative to Man. The idea of the dependence of God upon “circumstances” merely extends the notion of correlativity, so that God is seen as correlative, not to Man only, but to “being in general.” To be sure, Mr. Warren reserves attributes of great power and wisdom to God alone, as He is said to “use” circumstances to His own ends. However, in this conception the laws and principles that govern “being in general” lie above and behind “god” equally as they lie above and behind “circumstances.” For, if God does not cause circumstances, but merely “uses” them, and if God thus “depends” upon circumstances in order to accomplish His purposes, then there must be some other principle at work in the Universe that organizes and orders all things. If God is not the infinitely autonomous (i.e. totally independent), omniscient, omnipotent, sovereign Creator and Determiner of all things, then all things are subsumed in either an impersonal and totally static principle of unity, or else a blind chaos of perpetual flux.
The Christian truth is as was just stated: God is the infinitely autonomous (i.e. totally independent), omniscient, omnipotent, sovereign Creator and Determiner of all things. Therefore, we need not struggle to determine whether the Universe is a static unity or else a chaotic diversity. The Universe is characterized by both a temporal unity and a temporal diversity. The temporal unity of the created order derives from the fact that all things come to pass according the secret counsel of God. The temporal diversity of creation derives from the manifold nature of creation coupled with the limited human experience of creation through successive moments of time and discrete coordinates of space. The truly Christian outlook on things exactly reverses Mr. Warren. God does not depend upon circumstances; circumstances depend upon God.
The second direction in which we may consider Mr. Warren’s initial claim involves the matter of the Bible as it relates to human experience. He suggests that experience is more effective in transforming our character than is the Bible. Having consigned God to a position of dependency, Mr. Warren then has no basis for holding God’s Word up in the same light in which he held it in the previous chapter. A dependent God brings forth a dependent word. The word of a dependent God cannot but exist in correlativity to every other word that may emerge in the Universe. In this case “circumstances,” or contingency, becomes the universal. Mr. Warren’s suggestion is that “circumstances” are more universal in human life than God’s Word, for, while we may fail to read God’s Word, we cannot fail to be confronted with circumstances. However, this outlook must presume that human experience is normative. Again, we may exactly reverse Mr. Warren: human experience does not explain Scripture; rather, Scripture explains human experience.
Scripture explains that human experience is not normative. Scripture explains that our first parents fell into sin, and that therefore all of creation was corrupted. Human experience is corrupted. Having experiences may provide us opportunity to grow into maturity, but it is not the bare fact of experience that provides growth. The corrupted experience of a corrupted person living in a corrupted world presents the person with a basic problem. The problem of human experience is how to interpret it. Mr. Warren would have us to believe that circumstances are a better tutor in spirituality than the Bible. However, in reality circumstances pose a problem for which the Bible has the only answer. Human experience was not a problem for Man in the original ideal of Creation, but became a problem due to sin. Apart from the Christian doctrine of sin, there is no escape from having to presume human experience as normative. Mr. Warren’s idea of “circumstances” reflects the fact that he never adequately has accounted for sin in this treatise.
The universality and normality of experience in Mr. Warren’s view comes out plainly in his idea of evil. He cites the view of Joni Eareckson Tada that, “…only in suffering will we know Jesus.” And then he adds in his own words that, “We learn things about God in suffering that we can’t learn in any other way.” (p.194) We must be sensitive to the great suffering of Mrs. Tada, and certainly we must not discount the spiritual lessons she learned through her suffering. However, it also must be stressed that suffering was not originally required as a means of knowing God, and cannot be declared as universally required even now. Suffering comes into the picture through sin. Our original estate of creation was perfect and without suffering, and in this original bliss Adam knew God more fully and wonderfully than the most spiritual of the giants of faith in our day. It is only in a Yin and Yang outlook, in which good and evil are alike original, in which human experience is normative, and in which “god” is dependent, that one could represent suffering as an essential component of spirituality.
Another example of this same outlook is Mr. Warren’s saying, “You’ll never know that God is all you need until God is all you’ve got.” (p. 194) This is the same thing as saying that it is impossible for one to know his need of God apart from eliminating all other things from his life. Such a notion suggests that one must undergo a Job-like crisis in order to come to appreciate his need for God. However, we must hasten to realize that Job was subjected to his trials precisely because he already knew - and was fully devoted to - his need for God. The point of his suffering was a satanic attempt to break him of his devotion, not a divine attempt to develop his devotion. The same thing could be said of a number of other texts that encourage us in the midst of problems in life. James 1:2-3 says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” Faith does not derive from trials; it is tested by trials. Also, I Peter 1:6-7 says, “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Here again, trials do not somehow produce faith; rather, trials “prove” faith even as fire proves gold. Faith does not come from experience or circumstances; “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (Rom. 10:17)
Mr. Warren seems to hesitate between two opinions. Throughout the first two pages of this chapter he expounds his idea of a dependent God and the supposed necessity of suffering in human experience. Then, beginning on page 195, he launches into a completely different outlook. He says that, “…God is sovereignly in control.” He proceeds with a very able phrase-by-phrase survey of Romans 8:28-29, and declares that, “Your life is not a result of random chance, fate, or luck. There is a master plan. History is His story. God is pulling the strings.” But in the end Mr. Warren reverts to his former view of a dependent God and the universality of circumstances. Having noted that God works all things according to His purpose, he concludes by saying, “Everything God allows to happen in your life is permitted for that purpose!” (p. 196) Now we see that when Mr. Warren says that, “God is sovereignly in control,” and that, “God is pulling the strings,” what he evidently means is that God “allows” or “permits” circumstances. He does not comment on the ultimate cause of circumstances. Surely, he would agree that God causes circumstances to some extent. But, ultimately, in the view of things that Mr. Warren expounds, the extent to which God causes circumstances cannot rise above an essential correlativity to every other cause of circumstances. Thus, in this view, the only universal left is the universal of “experience” or “circumstances” in which both God and Man exist.
In context of such an idea of “circumstances” as Mr. Warren posits, there can be no clear, biblical idea of sin. Consequently, neither can there be any clear, biblical idea of redemption. Mr. Warren demonstrates this consequence quite clearly. In his view Jesus becomes not so much a Redeemer as a Role Model. Mr. Warren says, “Since God intends to make you like Jesus, he will take you through the same experiences Jesus went through.” (p. 197) Attempting to prove that what he is telling us is biblical, Mr. Warren then cites Hebrews 5:8-9, and asks, “Why would God exempt us from what he allowed his own Son to experience?” (p. 197) Hebrews 5:8, “…He learned obedience from the things which He suffered,” is a reference to the death of Christ, as verse 7 makes clear, “He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death.” We see, then, two things. First, for Mr. Warren, the death of Christ was an “experience” that emerged out of the universality of “circumstances,” which God merely “allowed.” In truth, the death of Christ was the most singularly unique and powerful event in history, and was accomplished “by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.” (Acts 2:23) Second, we see that Mr. Warren discounts the nature and importance of the death of Christ in that he cites Hebrews 5:8 as proof that God expects us to undergo all of the same “experiences” as did Christ. Back on Day Seven Mr. Warren characterized Jesus at the hour of His crucifixion: “Jesus stood at a fork in the road,” and applied this to all his readers by adding, “You face the same choice.” (p.57) When God is held to be correlative to Man, the uniqueness and authority of His Word is compromised, “circumstances” become universal, and Jesus becomes simply a role model.
This corruption of the ministry of Christ extends even to His coming in the flesh. Mr. Warren says, “We can rejoice in knowing that God is going through the pain with us. We do not serve a distant and detached God who spouts encouraging clichés safely from the sidelines. Instead, he enters into our suffering. Jesus did it in the Incarnation, and his Spirit does it in us now. God will never leave us on our own.” (p.199) Thus, we see that for Mr. Warren the Incarnation of Christ was nothing more than God “entering into our suffering” so we do not have to suffer alone. The scheme of things presented in this chapter supposes the universality of “circumstances” in which God and Man together have “experiences.” This universal of “circumstances” is characterized by a Yin and Yang tension of good and evil. A God who is subject to such a universal may be powerful enough to prevent or “allow” circumstances in our lives, but he does not ultimately cause or control circumstances: he depends upon circumstances; circumstances do not depend upon him. Such a God can speak only relative or contingent words into the world of “experience.” Such a God knows that unless we own up to the suffering that is an essential aspect of the basic nature of reality, we can never fully know him or develop our own nature. Accordingly, such a God “permits” or “allows” us to undergo suffering. Such a God “allowed” Jesus to undergo suffering. Indeed, such a Jesus was incarnated just in order to demonstrate that God suffers within the contingency of “circumstances” even as we do, and calls us to share his “experiences” with him.
In Christian truth, God was there prior to the existence of anything. He created all things by His Word. He bears no correlativity to the things of His creation. He spoke our world of reality into existence by his Word, and His Word goes forth into this reality definitively. Originally, His creation was completely perfect and good. Our perfect human nature was spoiled and the whole of creation was subject to futility because of our sin. Man has no right to interpret his experience of reality according to anything that he harbors within himself. Man does harbor the image of God, which is an aspect of the general revelation of God in nature, however, general revelation never was meant to be a testimony independent of the Word of God. Experience may be interpreted only as it is subject to the authority of God’s Word, which defines and determines all things. God imparts faith to us through this Word. It is by this Word we learn that the root of suffering lies in our sin, and that God has made propitiation for our sin in Christ. The incarnation of Christ was so that He could bear the wrath of God due us for our sins in His body upon the Cross. Our faith in these things comes via hearing His Word. The trials and tribulations of this life put our faith to the test, but trails themselves are not the source of our faith or our growth. We are not transformed by trouble; we are transformed by God.
posted by S. C. Mooney at 9:12 PM
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