LESSON XXIX
A GREEK HISTORIAN'S ACCOUNT OF JESUS
The Gospel According to Luke
The purpose of the Gospel of Luke was, the author says in his prologue, that Theophilus might know the certainty concerning the things wherein he had been instructed. These words involve recognition of a fundamental need of the Church, which is to-day often ignored. After interest in Christianity has been aroused, after faith has been awakened, the Christian feels the need of a deeper intellectual grounding of the faith that is in him. This feeling is perfectly legitimate; it should not be stifled; the expression of it should not be treated necessarily as sinful doubt.
The treatment of these natural questionings is one of the most important problems that faces the teachers of the present course. We are dealing with young men and women of maturing minds, many of whom can no longer be satisfied with the unthinking faith of childhood. If Christianity is to remain permanently a force in their lives it must be related to their entire intellectual equipment; it must be exhibited as a reasonable thing, which is consistent with a sane and healthy view of the world. In other words, we are dealing with the problem of religious doubt, which is almost an inevitable stage in the development of intelligent Christians of the present day.
Undoubtedly the problem is often very unwisely handled. By hearing every natural expression of their doubt unmercifully decried as rebellion against the Word of God, many intelligent young people are being driven into hopeless estrangement from the Church. It is useless to try to bully people into faith. Instead, we ought to learn the method of the Third Gospel.
Very possibly Luke was facing the very same problem that is before us teachers to-day—very possibly Theophilus, to whom the Gospel and The Acts were dedicated, was a young man who had grown up in the Church and could now no longer be satisfied with the vague and unsystematic instruction that had been given him in childhood. At any rate, whether he was a young man grown up in the Church, or a recent convert, or merely a Gentile interested in Christianity, he was a person of intellectual interests, and those interests are treated by the evangelist not with contempt but with the utmost sympathy. The Gospel was written in order that Theophilus might "know the certainty" of those things wherein he had been instructed.
That might be regarded as the motto for the entire course of study which we have undertaken this year. It should be our aim to lay before young people of the Church the certainty of the things wherein they have been instructed—to enable them to substitute for the unreasoning faith of childhood the profound convictions of full-grown men and women. Moreover, exactly like the author of the Third Gospel, we are endeavoring to accomplish this aim, not by argument, but by an orderly presentation of "those matters which have been fulfilled among us." A simple historical presentation of the facts upon which Christianity is founded is the surest safeguard of Christian faith.