Questions plant seeds of change, especially when they challenge authority. Will change be for good or ill? That’s the risk — and the potential reward — of asking questions.
The 16th-century founders of Anabaptism boldly questioned authority. They asked themselves hard questions too, like: “What is the nature of the New Testament Church, and how can we bring that church into our lives?”
This question didn’t end with them. Korean Christians in the 1990s asked it again — and discovered that the answers the Swiss Brethren came up with in the 1520s felt right to them. In 1996, they formed Jesus Village Church, the first Anabaptist congregation in South Korea.
Questions, essential for a growing Christian faith, form a thread running through our annual Books Issue.
The Korean story — including the question about reviving the New Testament Church — comes from Radicals and Reformers, a new survey of Anabaptist history by Troy Osborne, published in time for next year’s 500th anniversary of Anabaptism (reviewed by Rachel Waltner Goossen).
In church history, the courage to ask questions has led to unexpected places. Anabaptism emerged from the Protestant Reformation Martin Luther unintentionally started by questioning the authority of the Catholic Church. Luther posed some of his famous 95 Theses as questions: “Why does not the pope . . . build the basilica of St. Peter with his own money rather than the money of poor believers?”
The Anabaptists, in turn, questioned Luther and other reformers who, they believed, failed to ask some of the most important questions.
The Dutch Anabaptist leader Menno Simons asked (and answered) questions to explain what Luther and others missed:
What is the church of Christ?
A community of saints. . . .
Of what kind of servants is she begotten?
Of those who are irreproachable in doctrine and life.
For Luther, the church was everyone — all citizens, baptized as infants. For Menno, the church was an exclusive group — obedient followers of Jesus, baptized by choice.
Rhetorical questions like Luther’s and Menno’s have their place as devices to express opinions. But questions that arise from a genuine desire to learn or to gain wisdom reveal a key to spiritual growth. Scripture affirms what Albert Einstein called “holy curiosity,” a quality as essential for faith as it is for science.
The Apostle Paul warns of prideful certainty: “Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge” (1 Corinthians 8:2). David’s anguished cry, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?” (Psalm 13:1), suggests God hears our prayers born of despair. Job trembles before the Almighty yet demands an answer: “I will say to God . . . let me know why you contend against me” (10:2).
Like Job, contemporary writers find some questions must go unanswered. In Where the Poplars Grow, Irina Unruh portrays the mysteries of her family’s history in the Soviet Union with enigmatic photos left unexplained. In an excerpt from Can Robots Love God and Be Saved?, John Longhurst recommends a faith that makes peace with uncertainty.
Other writers offer answers based on their experience and knowledge. Drew J. Strait wrote Strange Worship in response to people who asked how to challenge Christian nationalism. Nancy R. Heisey shaped From Word to Book around her students’ “Wait, what?” moments as they studied the Bible. Columnist John D. Roth, looking ahead to the January release of the Anabaptist Community Bible, notes that the editors wrestled with the question of whether to include the Apocrypha, since the early Anabaptists used it.
“But questions remain,” Roth says. Indeed, we’ll never exhaust the supply, so we’ll stay curious and trust that the Spirit of truth will guide us into all truth (John 16:13).
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