Author Archives: Gregg Monteith

17: Digging Deeper into Experience

In this episode John and Gregg discuss Jerry Bridges’ view that “In order to trust God, we must always view our adverse circumstances through the eyes of faith, not sense” (Trusting God, p. 18).

John notes that he would have put the book down right there. Gregg comments that viewing negative circumstances solely through “the eyes of faith” contradicts the biblical importance of memory and experience, as God’s command to Israel to “remember” how God acted in past to deliver them (such that they would have faith that God will continue to deliver them in the present and future).

John raises the question of free will–the ability to choose his actions vs. being controlled by God.  Gregg notes that we are always trusting something, and that there has to be enough background or evidence to be able to trust God (as is what we remember).

Gregg notes that bible verses (e.g., Romans 8:28) can be used to manipulate outcomes: to blame certain people and exonerate others (most often oneself)!  This leads to a discussion of the problem of false religion: determining when religion is religiosity, which Gregg argues requires a multi-disciplinary approach (theology on its own is not enough).

John finishes by asking Gregg about his experience of being loved by God.  Gregg recounts his experiences as being a significant pointer to God where these experiences had the quality of being truly known, deeply loved, and being both affirmed and critiqued in his understandings.  So Gregg notes the importance of remembering his own experience of God’s love and goodness when adverse situations arise.

16: Experience, Motives, and Agenda | Listener Feedback

In this special episode we interact with our first listener feedback: an email from Anna (who found our emphasis on authentic personal experience of God helpful) and Charlie’s comment about our motives from Episode Three.  John also underscores how much we value and welcome  listener feedback (negative and positive) while also welcoming questions on wider related subjects where we might be able to suggest other resources.

Expanding on Anna’s point about personal experience, Gregg comments on the need for Christians to be interested and engaged in all aspects of our world.  He also makes the distinction between agenda and motive by using Charlie’s comment as a jumping off point–arguing that while I’m necessarily always involved in my activities this does not mean that my self-involvement is always “sinful.”

For example, drawing personal agenda and personal experience together, Gregg urges that Christians can and should ‘judge’ God: we assess our experiences of God in drawing conclusions about how (and indeed whether) God loves me, because taking God’s love for me “on faith” is actually a way of detaching ourselves from the real world!

Gregg argues that Christians “witnessing” by giving tracts is a prime example of this detachment: there is no relationship or even personal interaction, there is little or no regard for the timing of this interaction, and typically any negative feedback is sloughed off as Jesus “being a stumbling block” or “the world hating me” on account of Jesus, instead of taking the criticism seriously.

14: Why Truth Claims and Truth Values Matter

In this episode John asks Gregg to clarify the terms “truth claims” and “truth values,” mentioned in the notes for Episode 5: When Your One Star Experience is Five Stars for Someone Else. This was in response to Gregg wondering what truth value people are attributing to the Bible’s truth claims, in the context of many Amazon reviewers considering Not A Fan to be a transformative book.

John wonders how this works if, as some believe, the Christian Bible is an “instruction manual for life.” Gregg offers a different view, contending instead that the Bible conveys true things about God, ourselves, and our world.  However it’s chief goal is to put us in right relationship with God, through the person of Jesus.

John shares a story about a friend talking with Jehovah’s Witnesses who come to the door where the Bible is referred to as justification for their beliefs.  John’s friend invites the JW’s to come back with answers to his questions on the condition that they are backed by something other than the Bible (which he doesn’t hold to as an authoritative source).

Gregg resonates with this because, in addition to making global truth claims (that the God of the Bible is the only divine entity), the Bible also makes very personal truth claims (that God knows me and  loves me better than I know and love myself).  And while we understand personal truth claims by reading about them in the Bible, we believe them only through experiencing them.

Returning to Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman (in the context of many Amazon reviewers considering the book transformative), if a reader credits the book with improving their life, Gregg wants to know more specifics.  For instance, it’s important to understand the person’s starting point and what’s actually changed or what they’ve “given up” in their life (and what impact or value the person placed on this).  Only then could one assess why that person would accept Not a Fan‘s presentation of certain biblical truth claims (with which we broadly disagree) and judge those claims as having real truth value.

In closing, Gregg notes the possibility that what the reader judges to be a real, lasting improvement based on “following Jesus” (as advocated in Not a Fan) might well be a partial (relative to a poor starting place) or short term improvement (because the full implications take time to unfold).  And importantly, this is where an inter-disciplinary approach benefits Christian understanding and practice: findings in psychology, sociology, philosophy, and other disciplines are essential to promoting better theological and exegetical understandings.

13: Following the Rules | Chap 5 of Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman

In this episode John and Gregg discuss Chapter Five of Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman. They begin by wondering about whether the Christianity that Kyle Idleman is promoting is not rule-based after all, despite his claims to the contrary.

John discusses how many Christians see Christianity as a set of “principles” and consider the Bible as “operating instructions for life.”  Gregg argues that Kyle’s emphasis on Christianity as reward or punishment (see Not A Fan page 21, about going to heaven or hell as the core of Christianity) in fact keeps us bound to a rule-based perspective because guilt and fear become primary motivators in such communities.

Gregg further suggests that where Christians focus on “principles” they are typically oriented toward “protecting” God–ensuring right biblical interpretation and practice–and so contribute more toward building fences than building bridges, and that they tend to approach outsiders with a mentality of dispute rather than dialogue.  From Gregg’s perspective, this must change.

John wonders how obedience is part of a relationship, and Gregg considers that God is both parent and sovereign, and so obedience is complimented, quite literally, by love.  Gregg again argues that love and truth are co-central within Christianity and that love relationships are not first about submission but about desire–acting toward the beloved out of love, not duty.  So he notes that where it concerns God, furthering this love relationship becomes my deepest desire and the effect of this love on me becomes part of my identity that I love the most.

Here’s the Brennan Manning video Gregg refers to

12: Experiencing Truth

This week John questions what it means for Christianity to “work” and focuses the discussion using a quotation from Os Guiness’ Time for Truth: “Christianity is not true because it works, but it works because it’s true.”  So John questions the role of personal experience in arbitrating truth.

Gregg makes the distinction between absolute and relative truth.  So while many Christians focus on absolute truth (such as claiming the Bible and God’s existence are absolutely true), Gregg notes that humans understand the world in relative terms, and so can only evaluate absolute truth claims by their personal, relative experience of those claims.  Further, where Os Guiness indicates that Christians should avoid pragmatism, relativism, and subjectivism (which are ideologies), Gregg argues that being pragmatic, relative, and subjective are not only unavoidable but essential in evaluating the claims about God and Christianity.

This is particularly so when considering the Christian claim that God loves me and that God is good because (Gregg notes) love is not a concept to be understood but a experiential reality between people (or here, between people and God) that is to be live and embraced.  So where Christians lack the experience of God’s love this is a substantial problem, though testimony of others can “stand in,” to a certain extent, for personal experience.

Gregg concludes by noting that out of all the many and diverse religious perspectives, none have any greater claim to absolute truth than the others. Instead, it is the nature and experience of that truth–experiential reality, for example, of God’s love and truth–that is the most persuasive reason for embracing it,  And Gregg claims that God wants us to understand how deeply God loves us–God is not a miser with God’s love for us.