Lessons in Critical Thinking (12 of 12)

What Is the Question Behind the Question?

Have you ever noticed how sometimes we want to ask a question perhaps one we know in our own mind is either not appropriate or is one that would make us sound “bad”? Instead of asking the question we want to ask we ask an different question. We do not always come out and ask what we want to know. Instead too often we ask a different, even a misleading question thinking we will get the answer we want to hear.

When someone asks me, “Pastor, will God forgive me if I . . . (fill in with any particular sin you wish)?” The question is not really a question of God’s forgiveness; rather the question is one of asking for permission. In other words, the person might better ask, “Pastor, will you give me permission to commit this sin I am about to commit?”

Sometimes people will ask us questions, and at first we might be unable to answer the question especially if the question seems a bit out of context. When this happens, that someone asks such a question, it behooves us to take a minute to think about the question and to ask ourselves, if not the person asking the question, “What is it you are really wanting to ask?”

I had a person ask me about the inerancy of the Bible. As I explained how the Bible came into the form we have today, and as I thought about the denominational background of the one asking the question, it dawned on me that the question was not so much about inerancy as it was about questioning the word of God. If the Bible is errant, that means there are mistakes and that means that a denomination can do as it pleases (and in this instance, this would justify women and homosexuals as pastors and other aberrations). After understanding the question behind the question, I could proceed to explain that the Bible is God’s Word, even those parts we might not like, and if the Bible were not God’s Word, then we might as well throw the whole thing out and so much for salvation.

Thinking critically means listening, not only to what is said, but to what is not said. It means listening to a person’s life story (history), and sometimes it means asking, “What is the question you really want to ask?”