Impact University Fall Book Club Week 3

CHAPTER 4 -- THE CHURCH IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SO MUCH INJUSTICE

1. What "mistaken belief" (p. 42) about what Christianity actually teaches about itself leads its critics to assume that if our religion were true Christians on the whole would be much better (more moral, self-disciplined, etc.) than everyone else, when simple observation confirms we are not? The mistaken belief is " common grace". If common grace is available then we as Christians should be better people. There is also the mistaken belief that you must "clean up" before being able to merit being in the presence of God. The question was posed "is the world a better place because of Christianity?" The answer was yes. The comment was made that Christianity makes better people and also better communities. There was also conversation that was brought up regarding the the Islam and Muslim religions. The same question was posed about Islam. Is the world a better place because of the Islam and Muslim religions?
2. The church may actually have more immature and broken people in it than are outside it because people whose lives have been hard and who are "lower on the character scale" (p. 43) are more likely to recognize something than others. What is it? The need for God.
3. Human history and worldwide societal life today are filled with violence. This is true of societies where there is faith and in those where there is none. So, without denying the unpleasant truth that religion often leads to violence, Keller concludes that violence is a part of the human experience because of "some impulse deeply ... rooted in the human heart" (p. 45). Please think that through and respond to it.
Answer: Sin. The accusation is if Christianity is true is true it ought to bring about a world of peace and not violence. Keller is willing to argue that the church has not made the world a more peaceful place.
4. Jesus and the Old Testament prophets strongly criticized self-righteous religious people, always for their "insensitivity to issues of social justice" (p. 48). John Calvin says this is so evident in Scripture that the cries of the suffering express "divine pain" (p. 48). What did he mean?
The poor and the suffering are those who are the closest to God. Their moans are actually his moans and our response to them is a response to Him.
5. Historian John C. Sommerville says the ability to properly critique the church for its insensitivity to issues of injustice, whether the criticism comes from Christians or non Christians comes ultimately from a common soure (p. 48). What is it?
From within.
6. If the church has a long record of sin and injustice (and it certainly does) the answer is not to "abandon the Christian faith" (p. 49). What is the answer? Embrace it even more.
7. What is Christianity's "self-correcting apparatus" (p. 51)? Conscience


CHAPTER 5 -- HOW CAN A LOVING GOD SEND PEOPLE TO HELL?

1. To what is the following statement referring? -- "That belief, they contend, leads to exclusion, abuse, division, and even violence" (p. 56). That some people are going to Hell.
2. What does C.S. Lewis mean in saying that "For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men." ( p. 57)? How does this differ from the wisdom of earlier ages? The wisdom of earlier ages came from the unknown. Science has revealed much of that unknown and now the task becomes changing the standards to what we want. There is no control in changing the standards on what Hell is and who is going there.
3. "Modernity reversed this." (p. 57). Reversed what? Conformity
4. What is it about the fact that the the "spirit of modernity" has spilled over into the metaphysical realm that has caused the "very idea of a divine Judgment Day" to seem "impossible" (p. 58)? There is no firm standard to measure against. Hell is and unknown realm. We therefore change it to be what we want it to be.
5. To the objection that "a God of Judgment can't be a God of love" our author quotes Becky Rippert (Hope Has Its Reasons): "Anger isn't the opposite of love. Hate is, and the final form of hate is indifference" (p. 59). What's the point? That God does not judge us out of hate he judges us out of love.
6. He also quotes Miroslav Volf (a Croation who has personally witnessed violence) who speaks of "pleasant captivities of the liberal mind" -- one being that human non-violence results from belief in God's refusal to judge. Volf says instead that "the practice of non-violence REQUIRES (emphasis by CM) a belief in divine vengeance. (p. 60). What does he mean? (Hint: "Only if I am sure that there's a God who will right all wrongs and settle all accounts perfectly do I have the power to refrain -- p. 60).
7. "Hell is simply one's freely chosen identity apart from God on a TRAJECTORY (emphasis by CM) into infinity" (p. 63). How does that sentence answer the objection that a loving God would not allow Hell? (Hint: "All God does in the end .... is give people what they most want, including freedom from himself. What could be more fair than that?" -- p. 64).
If I chose to live a life apart from God it is not God who has chosen, it is me.