Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

• Romans 1:20

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

• Ephesians 2:8-9

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

• Romans 10:17

“ ‘Those also can attain to everlasting salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the gospel of Christ or his church, yet sincerely seek God and, moved by grace, strive by their deeds to do his will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience. Nor does divine providence deny the help necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on their part. have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God, but who strive to live a good life, thanks to his grace.’ (The Church 2.16).”

• Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought

Karl Rahner (1904-1984) was a German Jesuit priest and theologian.  He was a proponent of Transcendental Thomism, a blend of philosophy that takes the writings of Thomas Aquinas and superimposes transcendentalism of Immanuel Kant to that.  Most other Thomists think that stretching beyond (transcending) what Thomas Aquinas wrote is going too far.  But one of his keys was that Rahner thought that everyone is born with a spark of some kind.  His idea is that we all can experience that spark through transcendentalism if we desire to seek God.

Our understanding of good and bad, right and wrong, can be seen as part of what God provides each person with.  Romans 1:20 states that none will have an excuse to not find God.

I have heard a lot of people use Rahner’s argument.  It is the age old question that if there is a person on a remote island somewhere, who senses that there is a God and they are very good, how is it possible for them to have faith in Jesus if they have never heard of Him?

I have heard the argument that they might believe that God, the One they sense in nature and the stars, will save them.  They just don’t know how, and they do not know His name is Jesus.

The argument drives some people to the mission fields so that the one who loves an unknown God can meet Jesus.

Rahner’s argument does the opposite.  If they are nice people and they fit Rahner’s description, then we don’t have to bother going to that remote island, not that the person isn’t down the street but no one is courageous enough to talk to them.

But when you combine Ephesians 2 with Romans 10, it puts a few holes in Rahner’s argument.  But is Paul saying in Romans 10 a conditional statement?  Such as: Faith, in a civilized society where we can readily communicate comes from hearing the message, and the message comes from the words regarding Jesus.  If that provides the right weasel words, I might consider an alternative.  After all, that nice person on the remote island is searching for meaning in a God that is obvious…

This is a head scratcher for me.  I want to categorically reject Rahner’s concept.  It comes from his idea that we all have that transcendental spark within us that shows us there is a God.  I do not like his wording, but from our knowledge of right and wrong, we should be able to logically conclude that there is a God.  I think the “intellectual atheists” out there slipped and fell into a rabbit hole in which they could not extricate themselves.  If they had continued to think, if they had not ignored the evidence, they might have found their worldview is filled with holes and contradictions.  Frankly, I think most of them just do not want someone in the universe that is smarter than they think they are.  That means that they are not the center of their universe.  What got C.S. Lewis to thinking whether there is a God was a late-night conversation with J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson when one of them asked, “Why do you hate a God that you do not believe in?”  And the great thinker, Lewis that is, lost a lot of sleep wondering why he had never seen that contradiction.  It took time, and a lot more discussions with his friends, but he accepted the concept of a god first, and then accepted Jesus.

But still we have those statements in the Bible that say that the ways of God seem foolishness to those who do not believe.

My argument seems to be circling the field regarding the nice person on the remote island.  I fear I may run out of fuel, which makes the landing more difficult.  I think only God knows how that person comes to faith, but if I knew, I might not say.  That would steal a missionary his raison d’être, or maybe the missionary might say, his/her calling.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.