Episode 197: The Beautiful Life - Contrasting Secular Visions with God's Glory - Rob Toornstra(Part 2)
“We all have some vision of what [the beautiful life] looks like [including] my secular humanist friend. [For them,] it’s we’ve got to do good for each other…you don’t need religion to be good; in fact, the good life would be one without religion, but we should all act justly and…be kind to one another…The apologist in me wants to start poking holes:...how do you define what’s good because in some cultures the good life means…you hold a grudge against…the person who wrongs you and you exact revenge on them and in other cultures you practice forgiveness. Which is better?...Do you pronounce a moral judgment…and if so, by what means do you get to pronounce?” -Rob Toornstra
Summary of This Episode
This episode of The Messy Reformation picks up Jason and Willy’s conversation with Rev. Rob Toornstra, pastor at Sunnyslope CRC in Salem, OR. The trio continues to espouse the value and benefits of presuppositional apologetics, and the belief that Billy Graham likely would not be as successful with the methods he used in the past if he was alive now. Rob lays out an example of what can be explored when talking to nonbelievers. “We all have some vision of what [the beautiful life] looks like [including] my secular humanist friend. [For them,] it’s we’ve got to do good for each other…you don’t need religion to be good; in fact, the good life would be one without religion, but we should all act justly and…be kind to one another…The apologist in me wants to start poking holes:...how do you define what’s good because in some cultures the good life means…you hold a grudge against…the person who wrongs you and you exact revenge on them and in other cultures you practice forgiveness. Which is better?...Do you pronounce a moral judgment…and if so, by what means do you get to pronounce?”
Jason continues by pointing out how Christians sometimes get into this rut of making faith or religion into just believing the right things and doing the right things, which is well-intentioned legalism. What Christianity should offer–what God and his Word offers–is something much more beautiful and better. We’re called to live a certain way, “...not because you’re better than somebody, but because you have the beauty and the joy and the opportunity to be able to enter into the presence of God and live this beautiful life.”
Willy highlights how the world aims for its own happiness, which is a glimpse of how “the image of God is oozing out of them.” He points out the Westminster Catechism’s summary–the chief end of man is, “...to glorify God and to fully enjoy him forever.” Rob reminds us that non-believers are people who are suppressing the truth. Rather than approach them in a condescending manner, shouldn’t we recognize that our acceptance of the truth is and is only possible as a gift from God? We haven’t arrived at faith just by figuring out the right stuff. Just getting someone to go to church and do the right things isn’t the answer. We have to reframe how we see others as being made in the image of God and, with compassion and mercy, invite and help them to see that God is the only One who can satisfy them.
The three spend some time talking about the CRC Gather events, which Rob attended the first of in St. Paul earlier this year. He sees these as being positive for their intended purpose of networking. When it comes to evangelism and outreach, he supports local efforts versus a top-down approach. In the past, having experts or insiders from west Michigan come and try to tell people in other parts of the country what to do without knowing the context has not been received well. Jason acknowledges, “I think the denomination can oversee something that is grassroots, and [Gather] facilitates [that]...I’m glad they’re trying something. But I also think it probably could be done differently and probably more effectively but I don’t have the golden solution here to tell anybody.” He points out perhaps connecting into our Resonate Regional Mission Leaders would be helpful.
Rob wraps up the episode with an encouragement on the legacy of the CRC. “...The CRC has a lot to be proud of. We’re in a tough time right now–there’s no getting around that. No matter what would have happened at the last couple synods…we would be in hard times. Our culture is in a very conflicted time…But the CRC also has a long and rich history of good theology. It’s easy to be critical of thinkers…[but] there’s a long history of theology and piety that have mixed…together…We haven’t always been perfect…but I think we can be proud of that heritage. I think we can be proud of who we are–proud in the sense of recognizing that God has blessed us…and there are a lot of things that, by the grace of God, we do well.”