versity, 1895–96.
62 Baffled to Fight Better
of disproving God, but of proving that the religious conceptions of these men are not right. The things Job states are commonsense, obvious things, and they flatly contradict the creed he had believed, and which his friends are pushing down his throat. Are we going to remain true to our religious convictions or to the God who lives behind them?—true to our denominational view of God or to the God who gave the denomination its initial inspiration? Are we going to be mere sticklers for the theological statement? In the ecclesiastical history of Scotland many a man has gone to martyrdom rather than let his theology go. The organised Church is up against these things to-day.
if a man is deluded, he is to blame. On the other hand Job says, "I am not going to say that my former definition of God is true; God must be true. but I find that the way I have expounded Him is not true." This put Job on the right track to find God. Are we on the trail of God, or on the obstinate, intolerant line, where we argue for our statements instead of for the truth? Does our religion put us on the line of understanding the revelation of God, or is it merely a blind authority? It is a good thing to take stock of the things which commonsense inferences and religion cannot explain.
3. The Conception of Invincible Ignorance ( Job 13:1–12) What ye know, the same do I know also. ( Job 13:2)
Theology is tested by history and logic; religion must be tested by experience.
This verse is a description of the fanaticism which builds on one point of view only and is determinedly ignorant of everything else. This is the thing Job rages against all the time—"God must be other than you have stated because of what I have experienced," and Job is right. It is possible to build logical edifices on a theological position and at the same time to prove in practical life that the position is wrong. For example, on the metaphysical line the predestinations of God seem clear, but our conception of those predestinations may prove dangerously false when we come to the actual facts of life.
Job's creed has crumbled into ruins, "therefore," he says, "I leave my creed, but I deny that I have left God." In a theological dispute the theologian is apt to put his point of view in the place of God. "But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom," says St. Paul. Only one man in a thousand can maintain his spiritual life and controvert; he may increase his intellectual vim, but he does not increase his spiritual grasp of things. Dr. Alexander Whyte16 put this better than any other when he said:
Oh, the unmitigated curse of controversy! Oh, the detestable passions that corrections and contradictions kindle up to fury in the proud heart of man! Eschew controversy, my brethren, as you would eschew the entrance to hell itself. Let them have it their way; let them talk; let them write; let them correct you; let them traduce you; let them judge and condemn you; let them slay you. Rather let the truth of God suffer itself, than that love suffer. You have not enough of the divine nature in you to be a controversialist. "He was oppressed and He was afflicted yet He opened not His mouth; He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth." "Who when He was reviled, reviled not again when He suffered, He threatened not; . . . by whose stripes ye were healed." "Heal me," prays Augustine, again and again, "of this lust of mine of always vindicating myself."
The theological view ought to be constantly examined; If we put it in the place of God we become invincibly ignorant, that is, we won't accept any other point of view, and the invincible ignorance of fanaticism leads to delusions for which we alone are to blame. The fundamental things are not the things which can be proved logically in practical life.
Watch where you are inclined to be invincibly ignorant, and you will find your point of view causes you to break down in the most vital thing. An accepted view of God has caused many a man to fail at the critical moment, it has kept him from being the kind of man he ought to be, and only when he abandons his view of God for God Himself, does he become the right kind of man.
4. The Consecration of Instinctive Integrity ( Job 13:13–28) Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will. Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand! Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. ( Job 13:13–15)
We start out with the notion that God is an almighty piece of ourselves, but God can never be on the side of any individual; the question to ask is—"Am I on God's side?" In 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul talks about the invincible ignorance of fanaticism and he says that
Job feels that in spite of all that is happening, God's integrity remains, and his own integrity. He cannot
16. Alexander Whyte (1836–1921), Scottish minister who influenced Chambers during Oswald's time at Edinburgh University, 1895–96.