Logic and Japan

As I look through Augustine's reasoning in the City of God, I wonder if his arguments could give me insight into how to speak to those in Japan about Christ. However, his arguments are very Western: methodical and logical. He examines every possible option (the cause of evil is either greater, equal to, or less than the first being turned evil. If greater, then... if less, then... if equal, then... etc). He is very thorough.

However, Japanese people just don't think like that. Even if I could prove to them, in a convincing way, that their gods were false and it was bad to worship them, they would not change their ways. Because when with the family at New Years, the social harmony would take over, and that value is far more important than truth, so they would worship at the shrines. Most of the time, Japanese don't even think along the lines of logic. To Japanese, it's a normal part of life to believe logically contradictory truths.

So, how do you get God's truth into such a context? Well, we Westerners want to go in guns blazing. Because, heck, if they believe two contradictory truths when it's socially useful, how can they become Christians? So, here's one approach: argue to change their presuppositions. It takes a lot of energy, will be offensive, and might work with a minority of the population. But I think a better approach is to use those presuppositions (i.e. lack of absolute truth), even if they are bad ones, to bring them into the Kingdom.

Here's my idea: create a warm environment where Japanese can express themselves, receive love, and get truth. The fun part about them not caring about absolute truth is that you don't have to argue why Christianity is true. Just put them in an environment where they will see the beauty of Christian love, passionate and satisfying worship of God, and feel at home. They need that, because Japanese usually come from broken families. When they revile and say, “This can't be true,” don't argue with them, because you'll just offend them. Just nod and warmly affirm their questions, give a quiet answer, and pray a lot, and let God fix that doubt. Love will argue for the truth of the gospel.

Japan is a group-oriented society, and morals and truth are determined situation-by-situation by the group. Is this wrong? From a truth-standpoint, yes. However, rather than fording the moat and battering down the gate of the castle, why not sneak in the back door? Give them a group that believes that God is, and let God do the redeeming work in their heart and ultimately change their presuppositions (which will be a long process, trust me). All we can do is give the seed a good environment to grow in (plowing, planting, watering), but God makes it grow. My geuss is that the most powerful witness to group-oriented Japanese is that they be warmly accepted by a Christian group.

There is a place for “defending the faith,” but it is much later. That time comes when serious seekers or believers experience doubts. Some old-fashoined truth can come in handy in such a case.

If we could get used to it, perhaps this non-truth-oriented culture would be easy to minister in (aside from all the other factors that make this nation tough). But it requires a church worth longing to be a part of, and that's what's hard to build in Japan.

Of free will and the Fall.

In book 12, sections 6-9, Augustine makes an argument that the cause of wills turning to evil is that they have turned away from good, not that the wills themselves are evil. 12:9 - “And the will is made evil by nothing else than defection from God – a defection of which the cause, too, is certainly deficient.” Later: “For good is not the cause of evil, but a defection from good is.”

From his reasoning, I would agree. Let's take Genesis 3 as an explanation for the cause of evil in men. Man was perfectly good and there was no evil in him in the beginning. However, his heart longed to be like God, to make himself a god, and his will turned to a lesser good (i.e. himself). Pride, as they say, is the origin of all sin. He became proud: seeking to exalt himself and be like God. That is the cause of all evil in the world: our wills exalting a lesser good over the ultimate good.

You could even argue that God didn't really need to put the tree there. It was just a physical representation of a deeper truth: the option to pursue the ultimate good or to exalt oneself as God. Even if God hadn't placed the tree there, that choice would have come out in some other way. The tree made it obvious, but the choice was always the same: exalt yourself or exalt God. Free will (the way Augustine says “a will,” we use the word “free will” today, I think) would have been there with or without the tree.

So, before the fall, Adam had a free will and it was good. It did not become evil until he ate the fruit. He ate the fruit in pride and which turned his will to evil. But why did God create wills? For His glory. To create a metanarrative of redemptive history. He knew what direction those wills would go, but so that He could redeem them and display His mercy and patience, He allowed the whole race to go astray so that He could redeem His chosen people. Wills serving God are more glorious things than non-wills serving God.

But going back further, what about Satan? He and his angels were the first wills to become evil, and he even played a part in turning Adam's will to evil. WHOA! According to Exekiel 28:13, Satan was in Eden AS a perfect being. i.e. he fell after the creation, not before.

Anyways, according to verse 17, Satan's “heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth...” Satan corrupted himself through his pride (according to NIV... not sure what it's like in the original Hebrew). Pride was his sin from the beginning. According to Isaiah 14:13-14 as well, Satan tried to ascend and be like the most high, and that's what caused him to be brought low.

So, from the beginning, pride (self-exaltation) was the sin of Satan, and it caused him to be brought low. He therefore tried to bring down mankind as well, which he did at the garden of Eden. I truly see why they say that pride is the root of all sin.

In summary

Question: Why did God create the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

Response: Could Adam have fallen without the tree? Yes. He had a will, so with or without the tree, he would have had the choice to follow God or exalt himself. But God gave him the tree, I believe, to make the choice an obvious one, rather than a subtle one.

Question: OK, so why did God give Adam a will in the first place? With or without the tree, that's the real question?

Response: Because God saw greater good and glory in redeeming a fallen creation and wooing spoiled wills back to himself than He saw in a creation without wills that could not fall.

Augustine on the "why" of creation

A common question: Why did God create the universe? Well, here's a thought for you from the City of God:

City of God, book 11, section 24 (latter half) – And by the words, 'God saw that it was good,' it is sufficiently intimated that God made what was made not from any necessity, nor for the sake of supplying any want, but solely from His own goodness, i.e. because it was good. And this is stated after the creation had taken place, that there might be no doubt that the thing made satisfied the goodness on account of which it was made.”

Augustine's explanation as to why God created the universe was as an overflow of His goodness, it seems to me, and this makes a lot of sense to me.

Here's a great quote a few words later:

“In this, too, is the origin, the enlightenment, of the blessedness of the holy city which is above among the holy angels. For if we inquire whence it is, God created it; or whence its wisdom, God illumined it; or whence its blessedness, God is its bliss. It has its form by subsisting in Him; its enlightenment by contemplating Him; its joy by abiding in Him. It is; it sees; it loves. In God's eternity is its life; in God's truth is its light; in God's goodness its joy.”

Augustine on the creation of evil and free will

City of God, Book 11, section 17
“But God, as He is the supremely good Creator of good natures, so is He of evil wills the most just Ruler; so that, while they make an ill use of good natures, He makes a good use even of evil wills. Accordingly, He caused the devil (good by God's creation, wicked by his own will) to be cast down from his high position, and to become the mockery of His angels – that is, He caused his temptations to benefit those whom he wishes to injure by them. And because God, when He created him, was certainly not ignorant of his future malignity, and foresaw the good which He Himself would bring out of his evil, therefore says the psalm, “This Leviathan whom Thou hast made to be a sport therein,” that we may see that, even while God in His goodness created him good, He yet had already foreseen and arranged how He would make use of him when he became wicked”
“For God would never have created any, I do not say angel, but een man, whose future wickedness He foreknew, unless He had equally known to what uses in behalf of the good He could turn him, thus embellishing the course fo the ages, as it were an exquisite poem set off with antitheses.”

Augustine speaks of God's creating wills that He knew would turn to evil (specifically Satan), and planning in advance all of the good He would bring about because of those wills turned evil. The description of the devil “Good by God's creation, wicked by his own will,” implies a belief in Augustine that evil in the world is a result of wills, which God created with the full knowledge that they would turn to evil but beyond that with the knowledge of how God would turn that evil to good. He is the just Ruler of unjust wills.