Would Paul use Pascal's Wager?

Pascal' Wager is a well known argument for belief in God. It was formulated by 17th century mathematician Blaise Pascal in his famous work Pensees. It goes like this:

If you erroneously believe in God, you lose nothing (assuming that death is the absolute end), whereas if you correctly believe in God, you gain everything (eternal bliss). But if you correctly disbelieve in God, you gain nothing (death ends all), whereas if you erroneously disbelieve in God, you lose everything (eternal damnation).

Last year, Time Magazine moderated a debate between Rick Warren (Purpose driven Life) and well known atheist Sam Harris (Letter to a Christian Nation). Warren ended the debate by quoting Pascal's Wager.


My question is, does the New Testament say anything similar to Pascal's Wager? The answer is Yes and No, but mostly No.


Yes. Living life in willful obedience to God's Word makes life go smoother in many respects. If by God's grace the fruit of the Spirit is demonstrated in our lives then we will have fulfilling relationships and healthy marriages. Fleeing from sin enables to to avoid the problems which sin brings about.


No. In 1 Corinthians 15:19 Paul says, "If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied." Paul is talking about the resurrection in this passage, and he's saying that if we're wrong about the resurrection, then we are the most pitiable of people in the world! This is starkly different from Pascal's Wager.


Why Does Paul say this? He gives his answer in 1 Corinthians 11:16-33 - since becoming a Christian, Paul had faced extreme suffering on a regular basis, consistently being upon the edge of death. To have faced such suffering for a lie - which would be the case if Christ was not raised, and if there is no God - would be infinitely foolish and pitiable. In short, Paul was sold out for Christ, willing to stake his entire life on what he knew to be true. This is much more radical than Pascal's Wager.


And why was Paul willing to be sold out for Christ in this radical way? Hebrews 10:34 gives the answer:

For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

This possession is Christ, who is the supreme treasure of every one of his followers.

Thanksgiving in America!

Tomorrow evening we'll head for Virginia Beach, where we'll spend thanksgiving with family for the first time in 3 years! We can't wait to be there! At the same time, we're so thankful for the many creative ways in which God provided fellowship for us while in China over the past 2 years, especially at holidays. We'll miss our 20+ person thanksgiving dinner crammed into a tiny dorm room. More and more, we understand life as a simultaneous joy in one sphere and longing in another. But in all things, we thank God, who is the giver of all good gifts.

Romans 2 and the moral argument for God

There are a number of typical arguments used to show the existence of God, each of which is centuries old.

There's the argument of cause and effect, which says that if any created thing exists, then there must be an "uncreated creator" who created the first thing.

Another argument points to the order that exists in creation and deduces that there must be an intelligent designer behind this order.

A third argument begins with the reality of a universal moral code. Because humans have an innate sense of what is permissible and what is not, there must therefore be a source to this moral code.

In Romans 2, Paul fleshes out this third argument. His point is not to prove the existence of God; his audience doesn't need convincing of that. Rather, his point is that no one is above God's law, and he leads the reader down a path of reasoning so that they can discover this truth for themselves.

2:1 "Therefore, you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges, for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you the judge practice the very same things."

The person who doesn't believe in God has two significant problems to face from this text:

1. Since you judge others, you concede to the reality of moral standards. If there is no God,
then where do these moral standards come from? If there truly is no God, then you have
no basis for judging the moral actions of others.

2. In judging others, you unknowingly admit that immoral actions deserve judgment. When
you see an injustice, there is a tension inside you which wells up into anger and demands
judgment for that injustice. Well what about you? What makes you think that your actions do
not likewise deserve judgment? In order to be consistent with your own claims, you must
either cease to judge (and truly, to cease even to want to judge), or concede that you too are
under judgment.

This argument, combined with love and humility, is especially effective. Not only does it bring a person face to face with the reality of God, but also with their own sin, which is the first step down the path to the gospel.

And for Christians, Romans 2 makes us pause before judging others, even before judging the most wicked and evil acts that we might read about in the news. For we too are subject to moral standards, and our sin is no less offensive to God than anyone else's. Rather, considering the sins of others gives opportunity for repentance and humility, and for thankfulness to God for Jesus Christ.

Thankful for pain

I've been keeping a running tab in my head of all of the reasons why I am thankful to God for allowing my chronic head and ear pain to continue. This December marks 4 years that I've had daily, continual pain, and it's taken me as long to be able to genuinely thank God for his grace not only in spite of the pain, but in it as well. Here are 15 reasons, though I'm sure there are many more.

1) It causes me to yearn for eternity and to dwell on heavenly things. (Rom. 8:18)
2) Keeps me from being numbed into apathy by comfort.
3) Humbles me, in my inability to take away the pain. (2 Cor. 12:7-10, Phil. 2:8)
4) In humbling me, leads to me greater obedience. (Phil. 2:8,12; Heb. 12:11)
5) Constantly reminds me of the reality of death, which all pain points to. (Rom. 8:20-22)
6) Places me in the position to be empowered by God rather than try to rely on my own
strength. (2 Cor. 1:9)
7) Gives me a daily example of the reality of Romans 8:28
8) Affirms that I am a child of God, for he disciplines all his children. (Heb 12:7)
9) Leads me to repentance, as pain is a result of the curse, brought about by sin. (Lk 13:1-5,
Job 36:7-10)
10) Produces endurance, character, and hope. (Rom. 5:3-5; James 1:2-3)
11) Glorifies God by displaying his worth through my peace and joy in the midst of pain. (Rom.
5:3-5, 1 Pet. 4:16)
12) Gives me greater communion with Christ, who suffered much physical pain. (1 Pet. 4:13; 2
Tim. 2:3; Phil. 3:10)
13) According to David (and Luther), affliction enables me to better learn God's Word. (Ps
119:71)
14) Many who know about my headaches pray for me, though they otherwise might not.
15) I’m learning to rely on God in the midst of pain at an early age. I know that as life goes on,
pain only increases. (Lam. 3:27)

Venturing into the cyber world...

We've been contemplating starting a blog for a while, and decided to go ahead and jump in. It's a little scary to have your thoughts posted where anyone can see - makes you type carefully! We hope that this will help our friends and family to feel more up to speed with our daily lives and thoughts. Having moved so many times over the past several years, we loose touch rather easily. We also plan for this to be a means for praising God's grace in our lives, as we share about his faithfulness and goodness to us.

Count on plenty of "random thought" posts as well, particularly regarding things that Ian is studying in seminary. He promises to keep them interesting and to the point :)

Below are some pictures of daily scenes from our life in Louisville. Our world is quite small right now, since we're so close to all of the places where we go most days. So these pictures pretty well sum it up!

Our one-bedroom apartment is on the 2nd floor to the right of the door. Our apartment complex is a historic district.

This is another view of our apartment complex. It's hard to tell from this picture, but the trees are amazing. This has been one of the most spectacular falls we've ever seen

This is the Southern Seminary campus, where Ian spends a lot of time. The campus is small but nicely laid out and really beautiful.

This is us at the Falls of the Ohio state park, just north of Louisville across the bridge.

And this is Louisville, taken from the Indiana side of the Ohio River.

We'll do our best to update the blog regularly, and to be interesting :)

Thanks for visiting!

Ian and Megan