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Existentialism
PREFACE During
recent years various forms of existential philosophy have swept through
college campuses, both secular and religious, in North America. Younger
men have found enormous appeal in some forms of existentialism. At times
the reaction has suggested the discovery of something new, and in theological
circles, the discovery of something not accessible through orthodox religion. The
General Conference
Dangers of Existentialism Edward Heppenstall The
perils to be found in Christian existentialism are neither obvious nor
easily discerned. On the contrary, existentialism's claim to relevancy
and involvement of the whole of man's existence in truth offers much that
is desirable. What Is Truth? The crucial problem in Existentialism centers in the question of how to arrive at truth. Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, regarded as the father of Christian Existentialism, wrote that "Truth is Subjectivity."
Here is such a definition of truth: an objective UNCERTAINTY help fast in an appropriation-process of the most passionate inwardness is the truth, the highest truth attainable for an existing individual. . . . Truth is precisely the venture which chooses an OBJECTIVE UNCERTAINTY. . . . The paradoxical character of truth is its UNCERTAINTY is an expression for the passionate inwardness, and this passion is precisely the truth.[1] According
to this, man discovers truth, not by the certainty of objective knowledge,
but only by personal decision, a "passionate inwardness." Man's involvement
comes first. Truth depends for its validity upon man. Truth comes from
within, not from without. Man's decision creates out of itself what is
existentially true. The rational consistency of biblical content as doctrine
is not essential in order to know the truth. Truth is not objectively
given in the Bible so that it is eternally true. The Word of truth has
never been given once for all. Truth is always contemporaneous. Only the
Word today, existentially, can be the Word of God. The same word tomorrow
could be demonic once the encounter and the involvement with God is lost.
When the question of truth is raised in an objective manner, reflection is directed objectively to the truth, as an object to which the knower is related. Reflection is not focused upon the relationship, however, but upon the question of whether it is the truth to which the knower is related. . . . When the question of the truth is raised subjectively, reflection is directed subjectively to the nature of the individual's relationship. . . . THE INDIVIDUAL IS IN THE TRUTH EVEN IF HE SHOULD HAPPEN TO BE THUS RELATED TO WHAT IS NOT TRUE. . . . The paradoxical character of the truth is its objective uncertainty.[2] Thus
there is no universal truth for all men. The discovery of truth for each
man is unrepeatable in anyone else. The truth for one man constitutes
no norm for another. The peril here is that man will attach himself to
that which is false. Here exists the unbridgeable gulf between existentialism
and the traditional Christian religion. For existentialism refuses to
be bound by the eternal truths of the revealed Word of God.
The paradoxical character of the truth is its objective uncertainty . . . without risk there is no faith, and the greater risk the greater the faith; the more objective security the less inwardness, and the less objective security the more profound the possible inwardness.[3] In direct opposition to this, the Christian church says to men everywhere: There is the sure word of God. No man lives by what appears to be right in his own eyes and in his own experience. God has spoken both in His Son and in His Word. Life in commitment to this Word alone has real meaning and certainty. If the Christian Church of today ever does anything to make the Christian religion meaningful, it will occur only by a return to revealed truth as given by God; for a given truth from God alone is sufficient to give birth to spiritual life and to awaken in man an existence that is in harmony with God. Shattering of an Objective Authority Existentialism's dependence upon and appeal to the subjective repudiates the authority of any body of beliefs, or the fixity of the eternal truths of Scripture. It is a revolt against fixed systems and doctrines on the basis that such a set formula tends to separate thought from life. Absolutes, universals, are simply verbal expressions, and do not possess actual reality. Only the existential word is real and relevant. The word of truth is always contemporaneous. It has never been given with finality for all men.
If Christianity were a doctrine, the relationship to it would not be one of faith, for only an intellectual type of relationship can correspond to a doctrine. . . . The realm of faith is thus not a class for numskulls in the sphere of the intellectual, or an asylum for the feebleminded. Faith constitutes a sphere all by itself, and every misunderstanding of Christianity at once may be recognized by transforming it into a doctrine, transferring it to the sphere of the intellectual.[4] In
existentialism, faith and doubt belong together. In Scripture, faith depends
upon the certainty of what one believes. The principles of truth in Scripture
are certain for all men, believers and unbelievers. If they are not, then
how can one communicate with an unbeliever at all? If truth cannot be
understood without faith, all discussion with unbelievers would be impossible.
Truth is truth for the believer, because it is knowable and valid for
all men irrespective of personal faith. Immediacy Existentialism
involves a return to immediacy with God in terms of an intensity of feeling,
passion, and often ecstasy. These emotional involvements are claimed to
have significance for man's relationship with God, bringing man into the
very presence of the divine. This achievement of a religious faith is
by way of ontology (being), which affirms that man possesses deep within
his being the capacity for immediate access to God and religious reality,
an inner awareness whereby man can know God directly. Immediacy magnifies
the miracle of some immediate encounter with God.
What is the eternal primal phenomenon, present here and now, of that which we term revelation? It is the phenomenon that a man does not pass, from the moment of the supreme meeting, the same being as he entered into it. . . . At times it is like a light breath, at times like a wrestling bout, but always, it hap pens. . . . Man receives, and he receives not a specific "content" but a Presence, a Presence as power.[6] Emil Brunner asserts:
The
problem raised by existentialism is not an easy one. The Bible speaks
of the inner witness of the Holy Spirit as an essential factor in Christian
experience. The chief concern of the Church, however, is for the genuineness
of fellowship with God. Why should the Church oppose the claim to immediacy
if it leads to an encounter with God?
And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not the people seek unto their God? . . . To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.[9] In
rejecting the revealed truths of Scripture and the objective nature of
revelation, existentialism deprives man of any criterion whatever to distinguish
between truth and error, between the Holy Spirit and a false spirit. If
Satan confronts man as an angel of light in some form of immediacy, how
would man be able to distinguish between the voice of God and the voice
of the devil? If Christ is any judge at this point, His appeal to Scripture
"It is written" in exposing the devil himself, still holds true for Christians
in every age. Any religious philosophy which conceives of man's relationship
with God above and outside the sphere of conceptual revelation in Scripture
lays men wide open to the deceptions of mysticism, sentimentalism, spiritualism,
and every form of questionable supernaturalism. Instead of recovering
the relevance of truth, it involves the surrender of the eternal truth
of the Word of God. Existentialism is the rallying ground for the growing
trend of our day towards a professed supernaturalism which could easily
substitute the Spirit's witness to the truth of Scripture for extremes
of emotional and psychological fantasy. _________________ [1] Soren
Kierkegaard, Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Book Two, Part
Two, Chapter II, "Truth Is Subjectivity."
Goals and Spiritual Values of Existentialism Jean R. Zurcher The existentialist philosophy holds today an important, almost an overwhelming, place in our society. Moreover, the feeling is there that it is destined to exert in the near future an ever more profound influence on the thought and the conduct of the masses of our fellow-men, just as much as on philosophy, literature, or theology. Some rejoice in this, and others deplore it. In order to form an objective opinion on the subject, it is necessary to give it a close examination. We shall approach the problem first by trying to define the existentialist philosophy negatively, that is, by stating what it is not. Then we shall be able to state precisely its goals, and finally we shall touch on a few of its unquestionable spiritual values. I. What Existentialist Philosophy Is Not To be able to judge existentialist philosophy at its true worth, at least five errors are to be avoided. 1. Fashionable Existentialism, or the Eccentricities of our Time The first, the crudest and the most common error, consists of judging the philosophy simply according to appearances, according to certain worldly eccentricities which have no philosophical tie-in with authentic existentialism. In fact, it is easy to remember the fashion launched by a certain segment of student youth who haunted certain Parisian cafes and called themselves existentialists simply because they hung around Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. The existentialism in fashion was then the utmost absurdity of the century, and if it contributed to making known to the public the name of the latest philosophy it was truly most detrimental to the existentialist philosophy itself. For, an existentialism adopted because it is the talk of the town can be nothing but a caricature of true existentialism. 2. Existentialist Literature, or the Triumph of Despair It would be no wiser to make a general evaluation of existentialism, as a philosophy, according to the literary tendency which claims this title. For when it left the society of the philosophers to launch out in the world governed by the novel, existentialist thought found itself deeply altered. Without denying the quality of some of these authors, we must still recognize that this literary tendency, by making anguish, absurdity, and nothingness into the warp and woof of existence, has only retained the purely negative facet of existentialist philosophy; and this is a generous statement. As for an over-all judgment of this literature, this is what a competent critic has to say:
On top of the tragic consciousness of our age has been proliferated a shadowy and obscene literature, in which psychological truth is systematically sought at the level of the beast, in which a lucid recognition of disorder has turned into a delectation of evil, despair into rage, sensual drunkenness into erotic madness, and often, disgust with life into obsession with suicide.[1] Now, precisely nothing has done more to increase the prestige of what is believed to be existentialism than this outbreak of novels; nothing did more to assure its triumph than this literature of despair. Obviously it is not necessary to explain why we are not dealing with that type of existentialism in this essay. 3. The Existentialism of Sartre, or the Philosophy of the Absurd A third wide-spread error is that of generally evaluating existentialism according to our personal opinion of its individual representatives. And when existentialism is not judged according to the eccentricities of fashion or literature, most people think immediately of Jean-Paul Sartre. He seems to be today's best representative of existentialism; first, because he went to the pains of presenting his thought in a system of doctrines; next, because he knew how to propagate his ideas outside of philosophical circles, using the most efficient propaganda methods: literary criticism, short stories, novels and the theater, and thus became the source of inspiration for the most popular literary tendencies. However, to be honest, we have to admit that except popularity and the tumult of the fashionable, authentic existentialism owes nothing to Jean-Paul Sartre. It is not in the least our intention to exclude Sartre from existentialism, "because the worldly wing of his influence is guilty of fraudulently claiming an identity."[2] But it is logical that the serious seeker be objectively put on his guard against the wide-spread tendency to almost automatically reduce the philosophy in question "to this mixture of existentialism and inexistentialism which makes up Sartrism."[3] Not only is the latter not a faithful expression of existentialist thought, but rather an outgrowth, or as Emmanuel Monnier put it so well, "the last shoot off one of the existentialist traditions, tradition which originated with Heidegger and which formed a radical opposition to the founders of the modern philosophy of existence."[4] 4. Existentialist Philosophy or a New Way of Philosophizing A fourth error is often committed by those who condemn existentialism, be it rightly or wrongly. We may welcome it or deplore it, but we cannot deny that this philosophy represents the most modern literary, philosophical, and theological mode of thinking, and is at the same time the most authentic, realistic, and occasionally the cruelest expression of the age in which we are living. Trying to ignore this fact is one of the most serious errors that can come from one who is trying precisely to obtain a hearing from the men of this century. Speaking the language of his contemporaries, using the vocabulary of the people of his time, providing answers for the philosophical pre-occupations of his century: these are some of the characteristics of the preaching of the great apostle Paul. But here we have more than a question of method. A deeper study of existentialism is all the more necessary, since its origins are to be found in Christian thought and since, in certain cases, its representatives claim to be Christianity's most faithful witnesses. 5. Existentialism or Another Way of Talking Christianity A
deplorable confusion exists precisely between existentialism and Christian
thought that we must do our best not to foster. The more one is capable
of rightly evaluating how much contemporary theological thought owes to
existentialism, the more this error is easy to commit. However, it would
be a serious misunderstanding not to see that the identity is essentially
valid vis-a-vis the form of thought and that there is often a radical
distinction in the fundamental meaning. No one doubts the Christian origins
of existentialism, and Kierkegaard was perfectly right in presenting Christian
truth as the model of existential truth. But is this sufficient reason
to conclude that existentialism is just another way of talking Christianity?
II. Goals of Existentialism As precarious as the connection between the different existentialist traditions may be, nevertheless they have in common a certain manner of stating problems, a certain sound in the subjects they choose, a certain seeking after common goals which permit us to speak of them from a global point of view. 1. Man as an Individual And thus, in very general terms, we can characterize existentialist philosophy-
as a reaction of the philosophy of man against the excesses of the philosophy of ideas or of the philosophy of things. In it, it is not so much existence in all its extension, but rather the existence of man which is the first problem of philosophy. It accuses traditional philosophy of having too often misappreciated it, to turn to the philosophy of the world or of the products of the mind.[5] Modern philosophy had been a humanism, that is a philosophy of man, but of man in a general way, man as a being gifted with reason. Rather than man, it had considered human reason. Now, the worth of the existentialist philosophers was precisely to remind humanism of the existence of man. Over against Hegel's rationalism, over against the idea that the object of philosophy is reason in its universality, Kierkegaard was the first to oppose what he himself called the existential philosophy, that is, a philosophy which considers above all the individual, the human individual in his tangible life, not the knowing individual, the thinking subject, but the existing individual, with his suffering, his anguish and his passion. For to exist, as he says, is above all being an individual. What is essential, is not therefore a general principle, universal Reason, Humanity or Man with a capital, or even human nature in that which it has in common with all individuals, but the tangible man, the human individual. For this reason, Berdyaev was able to assert:
Existentialist philosophy is a personalistic philosophy: the subject of knowledge is the human person.[6] 2. Priority of Existence But
if it is first of all a reversion to man and even to the tangible man,
existentialism is more than just that. What is interesting in man, what
forms the foremost object of its research, is existence. From its very
beginnings, existentialism has been characterized by its tendency to accentuate
that which exists, or even better, the existence of that which exists.
It is not the individual's being which must be attained, but rather his
existence. Only this existence provides the true being. Every subject
is first an existing subject. The existence is what actualizes man's essence.
Our words prove this. When we say, "I am a man," "I am" asserts the existence;
"man" designates the essence. In man, therefore, existence precedes essence
and this assertion, with its variations makes up the fundamental thesis
of all the existentialists. 3. Existence is in Interiority But what must we understand by "existence?" The answer is not easy, for unless we seize man existing, existence will always be a pure abstraction. In the existentialist vocabulary, to exist is not a synonym of to be. To be designates a state, whereas to exist designates an act. Existence is the very act by which the passage from possibility to reality is accomplished. Now, it is only man who can carry out this act, because he alone, in the world of our experience, is free, and also because he alone is a conscious subject. Nature is, but does not exist outside of the mental act of the subject who thinks it and makes it exist. By seizing himself in the consciousness of self, the subject seizes himself existing, he seizes his own existence. That is why every subject is an existing subject; existence is the subject himself in his interiority. For the existentialist philosophers, the only true objectivity is therefore that of his own subjectivity, because it is in the depths of himself, in his interiority, that he discovers the only true reality, existence. To exist is his first worry, existence his supreme interest. 4. Man and His Becoming Existence is therefore made up of interiority; it is the act by which the subject makes himself and forms his own essence. However, this act presupposes liberty. Only he who freely chooses himself exists authentically; only he who makes himself according to the image of the person he wants to be. And thus choice is never once-and-for-all: one cannot anchor himself in existence as in a position that has been acquired once and for all. He who is existing and who stabilizes himself in the type of what he wanted to become transforms himself into an object and by that very act stops existing. Now, existence is what never becomes an object. We can only speak of it in terms of springing forth. It is the original appearance whereupon the subject thinks and acts. In short, existence is man in his becoming, in his incessant effort to outdo what he is. Consequently, existentialism puts on man's shoulders not only the entire responsibility for what he is, since he is what he makes of himself, but also for his own destiny. 5. The Dramatic Conception of Man's Destiny This
responsibility explains, on the one hand, the importance accorded to the
problem of liberty by all the existentialist philosophers, as well as
explaining, on the other hand, the singularly dramatic conception of human
existence which characterizes them all. In fact, with the very vivid feeling
that he has of making himself, the existentialist thinker cannot stay
at the level of abstract and theoretical speculation: he lives his thought,
it is the latter which engages him directly, he can only take upon himself
the different situations of his existence. An example: Socrates whom Kierkegaard
makes into the model of the existential thinker. He had come to the conclusion
of immortality by one proviso, but in this proviso he engages his life,
by assuming death in all liberty. This is authentically living. But out
of this obligation of life flows, for different reasons, the anguish which
is so characteristic of all the existentialists as well as their basically
tragic understanding of the destiny of man. III. Spiritual Values of Existentialism We cannot here discuss the value of existentialism as a whole, nor even take up some of the most justified criticisms which are commonly made concerning it. No one particular system can be accepted without reservations, and some of them-and this includes the most widely known, those of Heidegger and Sartre-are affected with a basic fault. These are, however, at the bottom of existential thought, truths of capital importance which come straight from Christianity. One of the merits of existentialist philosophers is precisely to have brought them to the forefront, and by doing this, to have brought contemporary theology to a better understanding of Biblical thought, particularly in the area of Christian anthropology. 1. The Knowledge of Man as an Individual And
thus the first value of existentialism for us is found in the very object
of its greatest study and in the way this study was carried out: man,
man as a tangible being, the existing individual, human personality. The
Bible knows no other than this. In it there is no knowledge of man as
such. The sacred writers were totally ignorant of an abstract, theoretical
knowledge of human nature, the product of philosophical speculations.
Their representation of man is breath-takingly realistic, and it is always
the outline of the real life of types of men whose names we know. This
is such an essential truth that the ideal image, the perfect stature of
man, is incarnated in the life of Jesus Christ, which means that the definition
of the conception of man, according to the Bible, can only be based on
the living reality of existing individuals. 2. Biblical Thought Basically Existential The
pre-eminence of existence is without the shadow of a doubt another Biblical
notion enhanced by existentialist philosophy. It is asserted in the Bible's
first mention of man, when the author of Genesis defines man as "a living
soul." The drama of man, of which the Bible is full from Genesis to
Revelation, is nothing less than an existential drama. Everything,
absolutely everything, boils down to a problem of existence. God himself
gives his own definition as the Existing One par excellence: The
Eternal One. He calls himself "I am Who I am." In opposition with idols
he is also named "the living God." The incarnation of the Word is, in
the highest degree, a demonstration of the existential basis of Christianity.
For the salvation of man, it was made "life-giving spirit." Not only does
Christ present himself as "the living One," "the Prince of life," but
as being life itself. 3. The Notion of Becoming The
notion of becoming is another Biblical value forcefully affirmed by existentialist
philosophy. It is no secret how this problem of the Christian becoming
occupied the last years of the life of Kierkegaard. It was in the name
of this principle that he denounced as the most formidable illusion of
modern time the idea that Christianity is the same thing as Christendom,
that all the inhabitants of a country are Christians because of the sole
fact that they have been baptized, and that they do not need to become
Christians. In the name of the same principle, he also spoke out against
the ultra-conservativeness of the established Church, of the official,
national Church, coinciding with the State. To the contrary, the true
Church is a Church that is becoming, he says, just as each one of her
members must be. 4. Existentialist Realism and its Theological Meaning To
be complete, only as far as anthropology is concerned, we must add a few
lines concerning the particularly dramatic conception of the destiny of
man found in the writings of existentialist philosophers, conception which
is not entirely foreign to the Biblical notion of man, a mortal creature,
drawn from nothingness, threatened with returning there at every step,
and even more, loaded down with an original fault which makes death inevitable.
No philosophy has ever grasped with more reality this natural fragility
of man, the reasons for his deep-seated anguish and tragic feeling about
life, faced with death and nothingness. There is no trouble understanding
how the existentialist thinkers of the atheistic branch could do nothing
better than launch out into nothing, to be faithful to nothingness, to
joyfully embrace death or absurdity and to consider that "the history
of any life is the history of a failure."[9] 5. The Existence of God and His Relations with Man This
reference to God, and to the God of Jesus Christ, leads us naturally to
the greatest value, on which all the others depend: the existence of God
and his relations with man. On this most important point, it is true enough,
the existentialist thinkers have a radically divergent attitude. And here,
for each one of them, the test of authenticity is situated. The question
of God provides the distinctive mark of the different existentialist systems:
those which are truly faithful to existential thought and those which
betray it.
If it escapes this grotesquerie of spiritual poverty where some seem to be pushing it, if it rediscovers without playing on words the fullness of existence, existentialism can renew the face and the spirit of occidental rationalism.[10] Otherwise,
it will simply be necessary to keep from taking as the classical conception
of life the caricature that the atheistic existentialists propose. Whatever the future may have in store for existentialist philosophy, it is nonetheless impossible to deny the Christian nature of its original reaction, which betokens, as E. Mounier has said, "a return of religion in a world which has tried to find its meaning in what is purely manifest. Christian existentialism is an obvious defense against the secularization of faith. A sort of prophetic awakening on a philosophical plane." And it is not totally lacking in interest for us to notice that the beginning of this awakening is situated exactly in 1843, the year of the publication of the first protest from the founder of existentialism. It would therefore be unjust not to recognize the very real value of the goals striven for by the existentialist thinkers as well as the spiritual values of several of the Christian truths on which this philosophy has been founded. To be perfectly honest, we must even add that contemporary theology owes a debt to existentialism for several of its most essential discoveries, especially in the domain of Biblical anthropology. _________________ [1] P.H.
Simon, l'Homme en Proces, p. 21, Paris, 1965.
Faith As an Existential Experience Herbert E. Douglass Faith
is set forth in the New Testament as an existential experience. However,
the rational unfolding of authentic Christian faith discloses a thought
content radically different from that developed in philosophical existentialism.
Faith-A Relationship Between Persons The
New Testament pistis (faith) is employed to describe the right
relationship of responsible man to the Lordship of the self-communicating
God. Theology, as set forth in the Bible, is the story of a personal relationship
between the Creator God, the Eternal Person, and men and women who were
created to be His personal counterparts. Regardless of the nature of man's
response to God's self-communication, man can not escape being in some
kind of relationship with his Maker. He cannot ignore the call of God;
man can be responsible or irresponsible, but not un-responsible. Man is
always responsible.
The faith that is unto salvation is not a mere intellectual assent to the truth. He who waits for entire knowledge before he will exercise faith cannot receive blessing from God. It is not enough to believe about Christ; we must believe in Him. The only faith that will benefit us is that which embraces Him as a personal Saviour; which appropriates His merits to ourselves. Many hold faith as an opinion. Saving faith is a transaction by which those who receive Christ join themselves in covenant relation with God. Genuine faith is life. A living faith means an increase of vigor, a confiding trust, by which the soul becomes a conquering power. (Italics in original.)[1] Relationship of Faith Reveals Truth About Man God In
linking faith with knowledge something other than normal cognition is
being considered; authentic faith is not achieved by the means of normal
intellectual or intuitive processes. From one point of view, the man of
faith, instead of the knower, becomes the known and God is the knower.
What faith learns is that God has spoken with unique authority and man's
best response is to believe what he hears-a belief which leads to an entirely
new way of relating to reality, or existence. Often Ellen White emphasizes
that "it is contrition and faith and love that enable the soul to receive
wisdom from heaven. Faith working by love is the key of knowledge, and
everyone that loveth 'knoweth God.' 1 John 4:7."[2]
Nicodemus had come to the Lord thinking to enter into a discussion with Him, but Jesus laid bare the foundation principles of truth. He said to Nicodemus, It is not theoretical knowledge you need so much as spiritual regeneration. You need not to have your curiosity satisfied, but to have a new heart. You must receive a new life from above before you can appreciate heavenly things. Until this change takes place, making all things new, it will result in no saving good for you to discuss with Me My authority or My mission.[4] Such disclosures in faith accentuate the existential nature of faith-that faith is not something discovered by ordinary mental processes and thus possessed by man. Truth here possesses man but only when the man of faith responds wholeheartedly by living in and doing the truth. (John 7:17). Truth Discovered in Existentital Decisions Truth
is existentially apprehended because truth itself is a description of
the right relationships which on the one hand should exist within all
creation, and on the other hand, between all creation and its Maker. Nothing
is static-all creation is in some kind of dynamic relationship with its
counterparts. To thwart the proper or destined relationship is to reject
life and to invite disaster. For this reason, "genuine faith is life."[5]
Now to him who is able to set you on your feet-according to my gospel, according to the preaching of Jesus Christ himself, and in accordance with the disclosing of that secret purpose which, after long ages of silence, has now been made known (in full agreement with the writings of the prophets long ago), by the command of the everlasting God to all the Gentiles, that they might turn to him in the obedience of faith. . . .[6] Pistis,
carrying in its meaning the fullest dimensions of trust and confidence,
is the predominant relationship between the authentic Christian and God.
"Faith includes not only belief but trust." That trust leads to loving
obedience only when man is convinced that God's foundation for his life
is more secure than his own. Pistis awakens only when man is confident
that God will be as gracious with mercy and power as He has promised;
trust awakens when man sees how God in His acts has proved Himself worth
trusting.
Yes, it is all too plain that it was refusal to trust [apistis, lack of faith] God that prevented those men from entering his rest. Now since the same promise of rest is offered to us today, let us be continually on our guard that none of us even looks like failing to attain it. For we too have had a gospel preached to us, as those men had. Yet the message proclaimed to them did them no good, because they only heard and did not believe as well. It is only as a result of our faith and trust that we experience that rest.[8] Reconciliation
with God, "his rest," is knowledge that can be gained only through personal
decision. Neither keen logic nor breadth of intellect can grasp the truth
about man's essential nature or his destiny. Only when man begins with
his existence, sees his nature as a dynamic tension of contradictions,
studies the lamentable consequences of these contradictory inclinations
and the human inability to cope with them, will he be prepared to receive
the ever-present reconciling, problem-solving gospel of Jesus Christ.
This personal analysis of the human situation may be either elementary
or sophisticated but the very act of drawing the conclusion of human impotence
in the face of God's gracious offer is in itself an all-encompassing act
of the whole man in decision. The accompanying fulfillment of God's personal
answer of "yes" to man's "yes" is knowledge sui generis, beyond
human comprehension on one hand but profoundly simple and self-authenticating
on the other.
The perception and appreciation of truth, He said, depends less upon the mind than upon the heart. Truth must be received into the soul; it claims the homage of the will. If truth could be submitted to the reason alone, pride would be no hindrance in the way of its reception. But it is to be received through the work of grace in the heart; and its reception depends upon the renunciation of every sin that the Spirit of God reveals. Man's advantages for obtaining a knowledge of the truth, however great these may be, will prove of no benefit to him unless the heart is open to receive the truth, and there is a conscientious surrender to every habit and practice that is opposed to its principles. To those who thus yield themselves to God, having an honest desire to know and to do His will, the truth is revealed as the power of God for their salvation.[9] Faith Arises in Response to the Word Here
especially does the Biblical witness cut across all other forms of existential
thought as well as any philosophically based epistemologies. The man of
faith does not discover the truth about existence by any form of human
activity, initiated by reason, intuition, feeling, or historical research.
Authentic faith is first confronted by a Thou who stands over-against
man and who presents himself as One worthy of trust. God, to the Christian,
is not an inner power, or a "ground of being" but a Person who is infinitely
other than man from the standpoint of time and being. The clearest expression
of His address to man was conveyed in God Incarnate, in Jesus Christ as
an historical event. For Christians, this historical encounter is bed-rock
for Christian faith.
The truth which Peter had confessed is the foundation of the believer's faith. It is that which Christ Himself has declared to be eternal life. But the possession of this knowledge was no ground for self-glorification. Through no wisdom or goodness of his own had it been revealed to Peter. Never can humanity, of itself, attain to a knowledge of the divine. . . . Only the spirit of adoption can reveal to us the deep things of God, which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man."[10] Faith
could not arise without the historical Word; yet, neither could it arise
apart from the interior Word which Peter was willing to acknowledge as
the Word of truth. Peter acknowledged that what Jesus said historically
and what the Spirit said within was the truth about Him as a man and that
he needed what they offered as man's solution. The Experience of Faith Is Self-authenticating The
interior Word is the Holy Spirit. Jesus made clear that the chief function
of the Spirit is to bear Him witness. The beautiful truth about the work
of the Holy Spirit is that He not only makes the person of Jesus Christ
present, but also personally packages the truth in such a way that it
answers the special needs of each individual. This is basic to the existential
dictum that "truth is subjectivity." If truth is not individually appropriated,
if truth does not speak meaning and solution to each particular individual,
there will be no abiding conviction. There would be no personal
faith and a personal Saviour.
By faith we behold Him here and now. In our daily experience we discern His goodness and compassion in the manifestation of His providence. We recognize Him in the character of His Son. The Holy Spirit takes the truth concerning God and Him whom He hath sent, and opens it to the understanding and to the heart.[11] The work of the Holy Spirit is to make faith self-authenticating. The Biblical witness itself is the product of faith; it speaks of a God-man encounter which can be experienced by any man who is willing to listen to the God who is speaking. But the Bible remains pure history to the man who does not share its faith; its meaning is not grasped. However, when man responds to the Lord of the Scriptures, just as the Biblical writers once did, His Spirit within makes personally real the truth which gladdened the hearts of the apostles-"God is with us." No line of logic, no appeal to the heterogen authority is now needed. The self-validating interior witness of the Spirit to the exterior historical witness requires nothing more in the way of proof; it is a self-authenticating witness no less real to men today than it was to the apostles.
Thus through faith they come to know God by an experimental knowledge. They have proved for themselves the reality of His word, the truth of His promises. They have tasted, and they know that the Lord is good. The
beloved John had a knowledge gained through his own experience. He could
testify:
"I needed help, and I found it in Jesus. Every want was supplied, the hunger of my soul was satisfied; the Bible is to me the revelation of Christ. I believe in Jesus because He is to me a divine Saviour. I believe the Bible because I have found it to be the voice of God to my soul." [12] The
self-authenticating experience of faith verifies the validity of the Holy
Scriptures. Archaeology, linguistics, history or even prophetic interpretation
do not, in the last analysis, establish the fact that the information
contained in the Bible is incontrovertibly true. All such human efforts
to recover the past and to devise rational evidences, necessary and helpful
as they certainly are, remain subject to the contingencies and relativities
of anything humanly reconstructed or performed. Ellen White points out
that "he who has a knowledge of God and His Word through personal experience
has a settled faith in the divinity of the Holy Scriptures. He has proved
that God's Word is truth, and he knows that truth can never contradict
itself."[13] Faith Transforms Existence Men
of faith have restored the right personal relationship with God and with
their fellowmen. They are fulfilling the purpose of revelation in that
they are reciprocating God's initial invitation to fellowship. Thus, the
man of faith glorifies God-he mirrors God's way of life.
Genuine faith will be manifested in good works; for good works are the fruits of faith. As God works in the heart, and man surrenders his will to God, and cooperates with God, he works out in the life what God works in by the Holy Spirit, and there is harmony between the purpose of the heart and the practice of the life. Every sin must be renounced as the hateful thing that crucified the Lord of life and glory, and the believer must have a progressive experience by continually doing the works of Christ. It is by continual surrender of the will, by continual obedience, that the blessing of justification is retained.[17] Faith as related to God is trusting obedience and when related to man, it is love as God has loved us. According to Galatians 5:6, love is the experimental proof of faith. Love not only accepts other men as persons but also "as they are." Sin treats persons as though they were objects of exploitation or enjoyment. Faith is the positive relationship-sin, the negative. Both are existential and when the Christian Church let both sin and faith slip into the intellectual, legalistic realm, untold damage was done to the Christian witness.
A legal religion is insufficient to bring the soul into harmony with God. The hard, rigid orthodoxy of the Pharisees, destitute of contrition, tenderness, or love, was only a stumbling block to sinners. They were like the salt that had lost its savor; for their influence had no power to preserve the world from corruption. The only true faith is that which "worketh by love" (Galatians 5:6) to purify the soul. It is as leaven that transforms the character.[18] Faith does not consist in becoming free from the law; on the contrary, faith presses through the abstract character of the Law to the personal will which stands behind it, to the personal will of God who is Love. Faith hears God's gift of grace but not without the simultaneous summons to obedience. With the indicative ("You are my son!") there is always the imperative of discipleship ("Be my son!").
Faith is inseparable from repentance and transformation of character. To have faith means to find and accept the gospel treasure, with all the obligations which it imposes.[19] The task of "being what you are" is the Biblical program of sanctification. Faith and ethics are indissolubly entwined. Ethics become the manward side of the faith experience. Herein there is no cheap grace where man accepts the gift without attention to the claim of God's Lordship.
A profession of faith and possession of truth in the soul are two different things. The mere knowledge of truth is not enough. We may possess this, but the tenor of our thoughts may not be changed. The heart must be converted and sanctified. It is not enough for us to believe that Jesus is not an imposter, that the religion of the Bible is no cunningly devised fable. We may believe that the name of Jesus is the only name under heaven whereby man may be saved, and yet we may not through faith make Him our personal Saviour. It is not enough to believe the theory of truth. It is not enough to make a profession of faith in Christ and have our names registered on the church roll. "He that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us." "Hereby we do know that we know Him if we keep His commandments." 1 John 3:24; 2:3. This is the genuine evidence of conversion. Whatever our profession, it amounts to nothing unless Christ is revealed in works of righteousness.[21] The ethical transformation of the Church is the reason for the delay in the second advent of Jesus Christ. The gospel is vindicated only when its claims are realized and validated in the lives of its adherents. Christianity is more a matter of exhibiting a product than of proclaiming news about God. The grand purpose of the life of Christ on earth was to demonstrate that man in his sinful existence can be elevated into a new existence which solves the twin human problems of meaning to life and the inter-personal relationships. Whether or not even the story of His beautiful life is true, for modern man at least, will depend upon the living witnesses to that power which the Church can exhibit. The world is tired of listening to words without power, and to power without meaning.
Our confession of His faithfulness is Heaven's chosen agency for revealing Christ to the world. We are to acknowledge His grace as made known through the holy men of old; but that which will be most effectual is the testimony of our own experience. We are witnesses for God as we reveal in ourselves the working of a power that is divine. Every individual has a life distinct from all others, and an experience differing essentially from theirs. God desires that our praise shall ascend to Him, marked by our own individuality. These precious acknowledgements to the praise of the glory of His grace, when supported by a Christlike life, have an irresistible power that works for the salvation of souls.[22]
The gospel is to be presented, not as a lifeless theory, but as a living force to change the life. God desires that the receivers of His grace shall be witnesses to its power.[23] Conclusion Faith is an existential experience because it is concerned with moral decision and ethical transformation. Authentic faith cannot exist unless the whole man is involved in radical decisions daily. The most pressing human problems-death, anxiety, love, hate, etc.,-are the central concerns of authentic faith. At the heart of faith is the unshakable self-authenticating conviction that God has spoken to him, through both the historic and interior witness, in mutual corroboration. The man of faith is no detached spectator watching the game of life. His convictions regarding existential problems are not the products of human reasoning. He is a man who has been confronted and apprehended by his personal Lord. His destiny in faith is God-oriented and in the doing of his Lord's will, he finds genuine freedom and the solutions to human existence. _________________ [1] The
Desire of Ages, p. 347.
Existentialism and the Basic Christian Doctrines Harry W. Lowe Of
all the contemporary efforts to transform man's understanding of his own
being, the existential philosophy is among the most notable. Bernard Ramm
calls it "a radical new departure in philosophy that was anticipated in
Pascal and worked out more systematically by Kierkegaard."[1]
Sooner or later, the average scientist thought, everything will be known: there will be nothing left in the universe which is not explained. Man had only to pursue untiringly the scientific studies he had already begun in order to account for everything. The astronomical discoveries, the evolutionary hypothesis, the vast progress in both vital and mechanical sciences promised not only that soon man would know everything, but would more or less be able to do everything. This scientific world view also confidently expected that it would in the end account for man: that he too would be scientifically explained and objectively known.[3] Soren
Kierkegaard set in motion a train of thought, largely ignored by his own
century, on which subsequent existential philosophies are built. He categorically
refused to objectify everything in the universe; he vehemently and persistently
refused to ignore the subjective, and to regard everything, even God,
as an object to be scientifically examined. To him, what mattered above
all else was the transcendence of a living inward experience. A man must
believe what he professes; he must be what he pretends to be. The Primacy of Personal Experience In
the existential philosophy, existence precedes essence. That is to say,
personal being, selfhood, is basically more important than any ontological
or metaphysical processes by which a man comes to understand the realities
of the surrounding world.
. . . truth exists for the particular individual only as he himself produces it in action. . . . Truth has always had many loud preachers, but the question is whether a man is willing in the deepest sense to recognize trut |