Pete's Blog

If you're a fan of Driscoll, or if you're an avid inspector of Piper's resource site (Desiring God), you might be aware of a talk Piper gave at one of Driscoll's pastors' conferences. It was titled "Why I Trust the Scriptures." In it Piper gave an amazing illustration of why Christians should be concerned about know why they believe. It goes something like this:

Suppose a man walks up to, hands you a briefcase, telling you there's a million dollars in it, and asks you to take it to the bank. You ask him why he chose you, and he responds that he picked you at random. Do you feel trusted? No.

Now, suppose the same situation happens—a man walks up to, hands you a briefcase, telling you there's a million dollars in it, and asks you to take it to the bank. This time, though, after you ask him why he's given you the money, he says that it's because he knows you. He's studied your behaviour over the course of months. "I know that you treat your boss fairly, that when you say you're going to do something, you'll do it, that your friends have complete trust in you. I know your character. I have every confidence that if you take this briefcase from me it will get to the bank." You feel trusted from this person.

Likewise, is it glorifying to God is you only trust Him because it's better than nothing? Maybe. But if you trust Him because He's clearly the only choice, because it makes a difference, because He has made you confident in Him, He is very glorified.

I'm not saying every Christian needs to be able to respond to Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and Hitchens (today's four horsemen of atheism), but it's good to know why you trust God. I think that God will be most glorified simply at our words to Him, "Why did I trust your Son? I knew Him." But don't insinuate that confidence in the Truth of the Gospel is about as important as a coin toss by spending as much time thinking about arguments for the faith as you would watching the fate of the flip fall with the coin.