We Don’t Know

There are certain questions about life, God and the interaction between the two that stretch our ability to comprehend. “Why does God allow evil in the world?” “Why would God create us with the ability to turn from him?” “How can God be ‘love’ and ‘judge’ at the same time?” These are but a sampling of the types of questions people ask. Get into the nature of the Trinity or predestination and many more imponderables will certainly arise.

How do Christians respond to these questions in a way that is both shrewd and innocent? If you’re anything like me, your first instinct is to try your best to answer the question, even if the question seems rather unanswerable! I’ve even caught myself talking my way through an attempted answer only to find that I was going nowhere fast and finally admitting that “I don’t know.” It’s true! I don’t know why God does so much of what He does. Unless He has revealed it in the Bible, it’s a mystery that must be taken in faith.

Now, while the answer “I don’t know” is certainly innocent, I’m not altogether convinced it’s all that shrewd. It ends up sounding more like a personal defect than a universal reality. I would like to suggest a slight change to the phrase. Instead of “I don’t know” try saying “We don’t know.” Who is “We?” That would be all of us humans who haven’t been told all the mysteries of God and probably couldn’t comprehend them if He did!

“We don’t know” underscores our position in the cosmos as creatures. We are the ones created by God, not the other way around. Wanting to be like God got us creatures into this mess of sin in the Garden of Eden and that inclination is still quite strong in us. “I don’t know” makes it sound like “I should know, but I haven’t studied enough.” “We don’t know” makes a universal statement that such things are impossible for us creatures to know because the creator has kept them hidden from us. It also encourages people to dive into all the things God did reveal to us in the Bible! God has told us so much about Himself in His word! It would truly take a lifetime to just comprehend what God has told us. So, here’s my favorite answer to the imponderable questions, “We don’t know, so let me tell you what we do know.” Open up the Bible and listen to God. He’s got a lot to say.