Why should a Christian be afraid to ask questions?
That question is important because Christian faith is sometimes presented as though belief and reason are opposites. Either you believe what the Bible says or you question it. Either you have faith or you look for evidence.
But why should that be the case?
God gave human beings the ability to think, observe, remember, compare and reach conclusions. We use those abilities every day. We examine circumstances before making business decisions. We investigate problems before repairing machines. We look for causes when unexpected things happen.
Why should Christian faith be treated differently?
Questions about Christianity do not necessarily attack faith. They can lead us deeper into it. When we examine the historical circumstances surrounding Jesus, the Apostles and the first Christian Church, we begin to see how extraordinary the outcome really was.
From a purely human perspective, Christianity should have faced enormous obstacles.
Yet it survived.
Then it spread.
That deserves examination.
Does Christian Faith Require You to Stop Asking Questions?
Some people seem to believe that faith begins where questions end. I believe the opposite question should be considered: What if asking the right questions helps us better understand what God accomplished?
Christianity developed in history. Jesus lived during a particular period of Roman rule. His Apostles traveled through actual cities. Christian congregations were established among real people facing political, economic, religious and cultural problems.
These things can be examined.
The Bible tells us what happened from the Christian perspective, but history helps establish the environment in which it happened.
That context is important.
After the crucifixion, Jesus’ remaining disciples had lost their leader. They were not powerful Roman officials, military commanders or wealthy political figures. The manuscript describes them as working-class men who appeared poorly equipped by normal human standards for the enormous task ahead of them. Yet Christianity moved beyond Judea and eventually throughout the Roman world.
So we should ask the question.
How?
Faith and Reason Are Not Necessarily Opposites
Reason asks us to examine circumstances and determine what they tell us.
Faith asks us to recognize that human circumstances may not tell the whole story.
There is no necessary conflict between the two.
Suppose an engineer is investigating a mechanical failure. He does not simply look at the final broken component and stop there. He examines the conditions. What forces were acting on it? What happened immediately before the failure? Was the design adequate? Was something introduced into the system that changed the expected result?
History can be approached in much the same way.
If an outcome occurs that appears unlikely given the conditions surrounding it, then we should investigate the conditions more carefully.
The establishment of Christianity presents exactly that kind of historical question.
What Historical Questions Can Teach Us About Christian Faith
Consider the situation after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.
The Christian movement was still small. Its leaders did not control the government. They did not possess an army. They had no modern communication system capable of spreading their message instantly throughout the world.
Nevertheless, the Church survived.
Several questions naturally follow:
- Why did the movement continue after Jesus’ crucifixion?
- Why did His followers remain committed when following Him could bring serious consequences?
- How did Christianity move beyond Judea?
- Why did new churches continue to form throughout the Roman world?
These questions should not frighten Christians.
They should interest us.
When we examine what happened next, we find Apostles, missionaries and ordinary believers carrying the Gospel from place to place. Paul and other missionaries helped Christianity break out of Judea while the Church was developing under difficult circumstances. The manuscript describes the fourth decade AD as a turbulent period in which Christianity nevertheless succeeded in gaining a foothold in the Roman Empire.
That is not merely religious history.
It is a remarkable human outcome.
Looking at Christianity Through Cause and Effect
Now look at Christianity as a problem of cause and effect.
What conditions would normally be necessary for a new movement to succeed?
Strong leadership would help.
Money would help.
Political protection would help.
Reliable communication would help.
Institutional influence would certainly help.
The first Christians possessed few of these advantages in the form that we would recognize today.
Instead, the Gospel spread primarily through people.
One believer spoke to another. Missionaries traveled to new regions. Churches formed. Letters were written. Teachings were preserved and shared.
At the same time, the Roman world was hardly peaceful. The period included political instability, assassinations, wars, economic pressures, religious conflict and changing emperors.
It was not an obvious environment for the birth of a worldwide Christian movement.
Yet that is what happened.
What caused the outcome?
From the Christian perspective, the answer cannot be limited to human ability alone.
Why the Growth of Early Christianity Raises Interesting Questions
The Roman Empire did provide certain practical advantages.
Its roads connected cities. Ships crossed the Mediterranean. Greek and Latin allowed communication across large areas. Major population centers provided missionaries with opportunities to reach many people.
But roads cannot create belief.
Ships cannot create conviction.
Political organization cannot explain why people remained committed to a faith when that commitment sometimes placed them in danger.
The message still had to be carried by individuals who believed it strongly enough to share it.
Eventually even those original leaders began disappearing.
Some were martyred. Others died. By the end of the first century, the generation that had personally known Jesus was nearly gone.
Christianity did not disappear with them.
That presents another question.
Why not?
What Christian Faith Books Can Add to Bible Reading
The Bible tells the central story of Christianity, but Christian faith books can help us understand the world surrounding that story.
Historical context can show what governments were in power, what conflicts were taking place, how people traveled, what religious traditions existed and what opposition Christians faced.
This does not replace Bible reading.
It helps put biblical events into perspective.
Good Christian faith books can also encourage readers to ask questions that may not arise when reading an individual passage by itself.
What else was happening in Rome?
What pressures were facing Judea?
How difficult would a missionary journey actually have been?
How were teachings preserved when churches were hundreds of miles apart?
When those questions are investigated, the first century becomes more than names and dates. It becomes a living historical environment in which Christianity had to survive.
Can Examining Your Faith Actually Strengthen It?
Why would examining Christian faith necessarily weaken it?
If something is true, honest investigation should not be its enemy.
That does not mean every historical question will have a perfect answer. Records from the ancient world are incomplete. Historians disagree. Some events cannot be reconstructed with certainty.
Faith also deals with realities that cannot be measured like the dimensions of a mechanical component.
But uncertainty about some details does not require us to ignore everything that can be studied.
In fact, examining the difficulties facing the first Christians can make their achievement even more impressive.
They faced obstacles.
They experienced disagreements.
They suffered persecution.
Their leaders died.
Yet the Church continued.
An Engineer’s Perspective on an Extraordinary Historical Outcome
My professional career was spent largely in engineering.
For 40 years I worked in the automotive industry with manufacturers and suppliers as a test engineer, manufacturing engineer and Engineering Manager. Engineering teaches a person to look at conditions, systems, problems and results.
You begin with the facts available to you.
Then you ask what should normally happen under those conditions.
Finally, you compare the expected result with what actually happened.
Apply that thinking to Christianity.
A small first-century religious movement begins in Judea.
Its leader is crucified.
Its followers initially fear for their lives.
The movement has no army or government.
Its missionaries enter an enormous pagan empire.
Persecution follows.
Its original leaders gradually disappear.
What would we expect to happen?
From a purely human perspective, failure would certainly seem possible.
Instead Christianity grows.
That is the historical outcome that interests me.
Reading The Great Awakening as an Investigation, Not Just a History
The Great Awakening is a historical look at the first 100 years of the Christian Church, but the dates and events are only part of the story.
The larger question is why Christianity succeeded.
The book follows the circumstances surrounding Jesus, the Apostles, missionary activity, Roman politics, persecution, martyrdom and the eventual transition from the Apostles themselves to the written word.
By the later first century, Christianity continued growing even when much of its expansion was no longer documented through individual missionary journeys. Written Christian teaching became increasingly important in carrying the faith forward.
That brings us back to the original question.
Considering everything Christianity faced, how did it survive?
From a human perspective, the outcome was improbable.
From the Christian perspective, there was another force at work.
God.
Conclusion: A Christian Faith That Is Willing to Ask Why
Christian faith should not be afraid of the word why.
Why did Christianity survive?
Why did frightened disciples become missionaries?
Why did believers continue preaching?
Why did churches form across the Roman world?
Why did Christianity continue after the Apostolic generation was gone?
History can help us understand the circumstances.
Reason can help us examine cause and effect.
Christian faith helps us consider what the human explanation alone may not explain.
That is why studying early Christianity is so fascinating.
Do not stop asking questions because you believe.
Ask the questions because what happened may give you even more reason to believe.