Thank you. Now that I know where you're coming from, may I speak to you minister to minister?
They come to me, too. And it's in this context that it is appropriate to wrestle with the question.
Does God want every minister to know every answer, or does God want ministers to be able to help people find the answers they need? (and perhaps leave some questions unanswered because God knows we really don't need the answers to those particular questions)
How often did Jesus give people a "straight answer" to their questions? It's hard to think of any yes-or-no question that Jesus actually answered with a yes or a no. Was Jesus not ready for these questions? Of course Jesus was ready. And Jesus was wise enough not to be trapped into giving a "straight answer."
When someone who was seeking asked Jesus a question, he often answered, "Come and see." Do you have someone or some place where you could take a person with questions you couldn't (or perhaps shouldn't) answer on your own? If you do, is there more to gain by going there than just finding out the answer? In my experience there is. Meeting other Christians & finding out what a Christian community is like often has more value than getting a quick answer to a single question from a single Christian. So if I don't know an answer to a theological question, I don't worry about it. If it's important, I'll do what I can to help the person find the answer. Or perhaps I'll do as Jesus often did, and reframe the question in a way that will make more of a difference. For example, do you remember how Jesus answered the question, "Who is my neighbor?"
We absolutely need to know the Truth. (I'm glad you used a capital letter here, so I could understand what you meant.) Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." But knowing the Truth doesn't mean knowing the answer to every question, does it?
I think it means not being afraid to say we know the Truth, and we trust in God, even if we haven't found the answers to our questions.
"Am I an abomination?" is a question that stems from despair. It comes from fear that one can never be saved, and giving up hope. Relying on the Holy Spirit, you can know in the moment how to respond to that despair, and a "straight answer" to the question (yes or no) does not speak to the person's despair of ever being loved by God. Respond to the despair, and you'll have an opportunity to come back to the direct question sometime in the future, once the bigger issue has been addressed.
How about telling them they are loved by God, and acting on their desire is a tough question you also struggle to answer?
To know it's a tough question the people of God continue to struggle with may be enough to invite someone to "Come and see."
Yes.
I don't think we ever will. We'll always be learning.
Yeah. That's the gospel. We need to know that. But even our understanding of the gospel deepens over time.
It's a good example. The Pharisees came to Jesus several times with questions phrased in terms of "Is it OK to...?" Did Jesus ever answer one of these questions with a yes or no?
Here's a list of questions worded this way in the gospels:
http://cf.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G1832&t=kjv
The KJV translates the question most often as "Is it lawful?" but having studied this in depth in Greek (and you can get the idea by consulting other translations, even if you haven't studied Greek), I can tell you with confidence that "Is it OK?" is a very accurate contemporary translation.
If you are often asked questions phrased this way, you might want to study the ways Jesus responded to this type of question, rather than insisting on a "straight answer."
If this happens to you, I pray you will have been able to answer that person as Jesus would have answered.
Ah OK thanks. That helps me understand where you are coming from and put the thread in its proper context, as did your follow-up post to me, which I appreciate very much.