In seeking to make sense of human moral responsibility we must start with the admission that our own perspectives are almost certainly heavily biased towards our own self-interest. We have a natural appreciation both of human pleasures and comforts and of those tasks which we find more onerous; and value or deprecate them accordingly.

But we live in a highly complex, interrelated world which depends for its proper functioning upon our ability to recognize the value of the thoughts and feelings of others. Its complexity is such that no mere mortal is able to categorically say when we should be serving others or having them serve us. So, if you deny the existence of God you may well say there’s no point reading this article any further; because who else is going to hold you to account for your actions? But if that is your position then, before you stop reading, consider this: no supreme justice is going to hold anyone else to account either. Whatever individual or group holds the reins of power in any given situation will win; whether religious or irreligious, whether kind or cruel.¹

But if God is the one who will hold us all to account, then what we really need to know is not what we or anyone else thinks about what ought to happen: but what God himself thinks.

We’re Not as Smart as God

We don’t know who wrote the book of Job: but it is believed to be very ancient. Yet the depth of its understanding of both human and divine nature is very profound. In brief, the plot goes like this…

Job is the wisest, kindest and most God-fearing man of his generation. Because of this God takes great delight in him and blesses him greatly. But this leads to an argument between God and Satan; where Satan insists that Job’s devotion to God is only on account of the blessings he receives. So God ultimately gives Satan permission to do anything he likes to Job, short of taking his life. Job loses all his wealth and all his children, till he is left all alone, covered in painful boils with only a bitter, complaining wife for company. But it doesn’t end there. Friends come to comfort him; and, seeing his dreadful state, they become convinced that he must have done something awful to deserve this and set about trying to persuade him to confess. Job, meanwhile, keeps insisting that he is innocent: but in the midst of his protestations his argument gradually shifts from, “I don’t understand: but I still trust God,” — to, “Why won’t God at least explain himself?”

Finally, God cuts in with a speech in which he demands that Job explain a few (well, rather a lot, actually) of the mysteries of creation; in effect saying, “Who do you think you are, to be capable of understanding why I am doing this?” Job gets the point, apologizes and prays forgiveness for his unhelpful friends. At that point, the test is over and Job ends up far more blessed than he ever was before.

But — get this — God never explains to Job why all this happened. Our understanding and logic are simply not enough to fathom out all of God’s plans and purposes. Whilst the writer gives a glimpse of God’s higher purpose in this affair, he leaves us with the perception that, although God is ultimately just and wants to bless us, there are times when we simply will not understand why He does certain things. At such times the finest thing that we can do is to just go on trusting Him.

As the Heavens are Higher

In another place, the prophet Isaiah hears God put it like this:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” says Yahweh. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

Having been fascinated with science all my life, one of the most interesting things I have observed is that, the more mankind discovers, the more we find we do not know. At one time science was defined as ‘the search for truth:’ nowadays it is more modestly defined as ‘the search for less doubt.’ In Isaiah’s day man thought that our world was the only world. Then we discovered we were one of several planets orbiting the sun. Next we realised our sun was just one of millions in a gigantic galaxy. Not so long before I was born, it was thought that ours was the only galaxy; then that it was just one of millions (er, no – make that 2 million millions); then that the entire universe was actually expanding and now scientists are wondering if there might even be an infinite number of universes! Man, with a mere 1.2 litres of cognitive space, has good reason to be proud of his intellectual accomplishments: but if he has any real wisdom at all, he has even more reason to humbly acknowledge his inferiority compared to any intellect capable of conceiving all of this!

Perils of Philosophy

The really big problem with human philosophy is that it is man-centred, seeing the greatest possible good as that which yields the most desirable outcome, from a human viewpoint. So when we insist on evaluating concepts such as right, wrong, justice and ultimate happiness through the lens of self-centred human interests, we are liable to end up with a distorted perspective and faulty conclusions.

Taking the Text in Context

So what we need to do is just look up the statements of the Bible on this issue and that’ll give us all the answers, plain and simple – right? Er, no. All of scripture has been inspired by God: but it has been recorded by men, using human language and concepts, which are limited to our human experience of things and may also be influenced by our human responses and emotions. Moreover, word meanings and concepts often change over time. So we have to ask who said or did what, when; and what exactly did they understand to be the significance of those words and events? Did they understand them correctly, and have we understood the message God is communicating to us, through them, correctly?

What is more, we are dealing with concepts (such as eternity!) which are beyond our experience; and subtleties of moral judgement and purpose that are beyond our capacity to fathom (as in the case of Job). So, at times, the truths God wants to teach us will just leave us feeling confused.

The reality is that it is possible to find ‘proof texts’ that appear to support practically every view from, ‘everyone gets to heaven in the end,’ to, ‘most people will be tormented in hell for ever.’ Therefore, it is foolish to take every passage on this subject and claim that it means exactly what we first suppose. Each statement has to be understood firstly in its own context, and then in relation to all the others. And sometimes it is as important to take note of what a scripture doesn’t say as what it does, lest we assume more than is intended. Otherwise, you will end up contradicting yourself, claiming that some scriptures can’t mean what they say or just throwing your Bible out of the window and replacing it with something you fondly suppose to be ‘more reasonable!’

Jesus, the Gold Standard of Truth

Ultimately, only God himself could know the full truth of what will happen when the day of Judgement comes. All human attempts to explain are tainted by our own ignorance. So the only possible way that we can learn the unvarnished truth is by direct revelation from God. According to Christian teaching, Jesus is the eternal Word of God, come to us in human form, killed and come back from the dead. This makes Him the gold standard of truth. In any apparent conflict of interpretation between different scriptures or human opinions, the words of Jesus should take precedence. At times we may not really understand what he is telling us; but that’s OK. It’s hardly surprising that the complexities of life leave us baffled at times. Our challenge is to learn to trust Him even when we don’t understand – see Jn 3:3-13 and Jn 6:60-68.

“For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (Mar 8:38)

Jesus in Translation

The common language of Palestine in Jesus’ day was Aramaic: whereas the New Testament is written in Greek. Scholars of both languages sometimes like to point out that ‘Aramaisms’ in Jesus’ sayings highlight the fact that he normally spoke in Aramaic; and these sayings have subsequently been translated into Greek. In most cases, this is unimportant; as the translators have taken extreme care to translate Jesus’ words as accurately as possible: but problems can arise from the fact that not all words in one language have an exact match in the other. Sometimes the Aramaic word may have a breadth of meaning that is unavailable in the Greek (the article, ‘Our Daily Bread,’ discusses one such example). At other times it can be the Greek word that may have either a slightly broader or narrower meaning than the Aramaic. This means that we need to be careful about interpretations that rely too heavily on less obvious meanings of a Greek word. We need to ask if that reliance is justified in the light of the context and general import of Jesus’ words.

There is also a particular problem in that Greek words relating to life, death and eternity are naturally coloured by Greek philosophy. But Jesus is addressing these issues from a predominantly Jewish standpoint (though not necessarily agreeing with traditional Rabbinic opinions). So when interpreting such terms it is more important to examine how they were understood and used in the New Testament texts, rather than to attribute meanings derived from classical or contemporary Greek literature.

Footnotes

1. Maybe it would be worth reading ‘Love Needs a Champion‘ instead.