June 11th, 2022
I finished reading the Epistle to the Romans by Paul and I wanted to do a review of it. From what I understand, Paul was a first-century Jew who came to follow Jesus and who wrote many letters to Christian churches around the Mediterranean addressing specific disputes or issues. I’ve heard it said that Peter is like the super enthusiastic start-up founder for the Christian church and Paul is like the consultant hired on to improve operations. As such, Paul basically refined the theology of the early church and established many of the doctrines that are still followed today. For Romans specifically, it is an articulation of his own gospel. He makes apologetics arguments for his specific beliefs about the nature of salvation, sin, and redemption and appeals to the Old Testament and Jesus to do so. The main thing that I want to write about as it relates to this epistle is the ever-present thought that the majority of this epistle is based on what Paul believed and that I question whether what he believed is true. I would like to begin by summarizing the first part of the first chapter which details some of the things that Paul believed.
- He believed:
- That he was chosen by God and sent out to preach the “Good News” (1:1)
- That God promised this “Good News” long ago through prophets in the Jewish holy scripture. (1:2)
- That this “Good News” is about Jesus (1:3-4)
- That Jesus is God’s son (1:3-4)
- That Jesus was born into King David’s family line (1:3-4)
- That Jesus was shown to be the son of God when he was raised from the dead (1:4)
- That Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of the holy spirit and was therefore shown to be the son of God (1:4)
- That God has given apostles the authority to tell gentiles this “Good News” (1:5)
- That the recipients of his letter are called to belong to Jesus Christ (1:6)
As I stated earlier this is, without a doubt, what Paul believed was true about God and Jesus, but just because he believed it to be true (and wrote about it), does that then make it so? His claims are based on the assumption that the Hebrew God is real and that the Old Testament accurately describes him and the history of the Hebrew people in relation to him. In short, He assumes God, the Old Testament, and Jesus and then infers what reality is like based on that. I suppose I do the opposite. I assume what I experience of reality is true and infer what God is like from that. Case in point, I experience gravity and have studied its properties, and have inferred that if there was a god, the law of gravity could be considered one of his divine laws since it is immutable. For me, the way the specific Hebrew God is outlined in the Old Testament doesn’t seem to stack up with reality. Similarly, the way many Christians talk about the god they believe in (and Jesus) doesn’t seem to stack up either. For many Christians it seems they do the same thing as Paul does, they assume their God exists and then try to explain how he fits into reality. This is evident in the following passage, Romans 1:18-20:
“…God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress truth by their wickedness. (Or who, by their wickedness, prevent the truth from being known). They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”
Romans, 1:18-20
The beliefs expressed by Paul in this passage assume that God and sin are real to make his point. Similarly, a Christian might argue that God is real and use this passage to convince someone of this, but this is assuming the conclusion: Assuming God is real to assert that God is real. My experience of reality doesn’t lead me to believe or assume without a doubt that God and/or sin are real. As such, I’ve not been convinced that God and/or sin are in fact real and so I don’t find it compelling to start with that assumption. There is an additional assumption, however, that many Christians make which is that the words of Paul expressed here are the divinely inspired Words of God (I thought Jesus was the Word of God, but that is beside the point). I see no reason to believe this. I believe this is based on another epistle written by Paul, but I didn’t think that he was referencing anything in the New Testament, since none of the New Testament had been written yet. From what I understand, he was referencing the Old Testament. I suppose I will elaborate on this when I get to that specific epistle, but this is where I stand right now. For this passage, in particular, the main reason why I’m not convinced of what Paul is saying, as I stated earlier, is that it doesn’t seem to line up with reality for me. I don’t think the supposed truth about this god is obvious (if he even exists), and if the supposed truth of this god is accurate, I can’t clearly see and/or recognize this god’s invisible qualities and if this god has shown his anger to me, I can’t say that I’ve experienced it. I’ve heard many Christians use a phrase such as “The Bible says that <Insert relevant passage here>…” to make a variety of arguments about their position on various issues, but these arguments can be essentially boiled down to “For the bible tells me so”, which I don’t find convincing. A separate issue entirely is how the bible was compiled and the decisions to include certain books and not others (and then for the protestant bibles, why certain books were removed). Why does the author of that particular bible verse say that; what was their motivation for writing it; what was the motivation and logic of the compilers of the Bible to include the book that includes that passage; and does the context of the compiler’s time-period and experiences change the supposed meaning of the passage? I believe that I am making a truthful statement when I say that what Paul wrote is what Paul believed, but I think it is unwise to then make the assumption that what Paul believed and wrote is factually accurate or that what Paul believed and wrote was inspired by God. For me, it remains to be seen whether that is the case. I do believe that what Paul believed and wrote was inspired at the very least by the idea of the Hebrew god, but that is all I’m willing to say with regards to the personage of Paul. I will now turn to the main question of the text: What is the Good News?
Christians believe that Jesus died on the cross to redeem humanity of its sinful nature. This redemption is known as the good news of Jesus Christ. For people who believe we have a sinful nature, I suppose it is good news. This, however, doesn’t make sense for people who don’t believe we have a sinful nature. In the theology that I understand of many religions, sin is anything that is contrary to the law or will of a god. To prove that sin is real, you would have to prove that this god is real and that he has a law or will. One might point to the Bible as evidence of a specific god, but this is just an indication that ancient people believed that this specific god was real, that he had a law, and that this law was in response to the supposed sinful nature of man. Based on my experience of reality, I am not convinced that sin exists, primarily because I don’t believe in absolute morality (I will elaborate more on this in later). Similarly, I’m not convinced that the first chapters of Genesis are accurate when they describe the origin of sin (if it even exists). By extension, the Good News, to me, seems to be providing a solution (Jesus) to a problem that doesn’t exist (sin). I am not convinced that sin exists and that it constitutes a problem, therefore I’m not convinced of the Good News of Jesus Christ. I think my main questions that revolve around this are: can the existence of sin be proven without assuming God’s existence and/or can the existence of God be proven without assuming the existence of sin? This leads me to a subsequent thought that I had: Does humanity need salvation from its present condition?
Many of the world’s religions seek to provide an explanation for the condition of humanity, in terms of metaphysical evil, and most offer some sort of metaphysical salvation (I use metaphysical here to mean outside of what can be observed, but I know it has a more nuanced meaning). For Christianity, humanity is embroiled in sin and only Jesus can provide freedom from that sin (sin being the cause of all the world’s ills). I am not convinced that a metaphysical evil exists and that it is the cause of bad things in the world. I certainly agree with the notion that humans are flawed and not great all the time, but I don’t attribute that flaw to a metaphysical evil such as sin, because I have no empirical evidence to suggest that sin exists (let alone demons which I know some Christians believe in). The concept of sin may have been a way to explain the negatives of human nature in ancient times, but since we have come to understand more about the specific mechanisms of human nature, specifically brain chemistry and how that affects individuals, any supernatural or esoteric explanation makes less and less sense. Does humanity need salvation from its present condition? There are certain things we can do better as societies, but I don’t really see a need for salvation personally. If I had to create my own salvation theory it would be that in our present condition we are highly intelligent animals with complex systems and institutions but animals nonetheless with basic genetic instincts and drivers. I’ve learned that many of our flaws and “evils” can be attributed to these base instincts; wanting to belong to a group, wanting to fulfill survival needs such as food and sex, wanting to have more resources for oneself, etc. These base instincts are not bad or “evil” on their own, but we consider them to be bad if they are perceived to affect other individuals in a harmful way. We have a moral responsibility to each other not because we have a soul, but because we are thinking and feeling beings. “Salvation” can only happen when one recognizes the fact of our animalistic nature and the actions that derive from that nature, understands that these actions have negative consequences in relation to others sometimes, and then takes steps to keep these instincts and actions in check, but knowing that they are not always going to be successful because those base instincts are genetically hard-wired into us. This is the same thing that Christianity preaches without the appeals to the supernatural. Humans are sinful and wicked and only once they recognize this, and the fact that they will never escape it, are they then able to “put their faith in Jesus (read self-reflect)” that make changes for the better. At the end of the day, Christianity’s salvation theory just doesn’t make sense to me since it appeals to things that are outside of what can be observed in reality. This leads me to the last thing I’ll say about Romans and that is the only thing I agreed with Paul which is Romans 12:3-18 with only some slight alterations:
“Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have the gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them. Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all! Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone”
Romans 12:3-18, NLT
With only slight modifications:
“I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. Each of us is born with different gifts for doing certain things well. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If it is leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have the gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Resolve what is wrong in the world and hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard. Be patient in trouble. When people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality. Understand those who persecute you. Don’t hate or blame them, for they know not how they harm you; help them change their ways by expressing your pain. Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all! Never pay back hatred and malice in kind. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone”
I would say that these are the Christian virtues everyone should strive for not because they are Paul or God’s authoritative Word (I don’t even believe that they are), but because they are demonstrably beneficial to mankind. I believe this is all I will say about the Book of Romans.