“Faith is not belief without evidence. Faith is trust without reservation. Faith affects the whole of man’s nature. It commences with the conviction of the mind based on adequate evidence; it continues in the confidence of the heart or emotions based on conviction, and it is crowned in the consent of the will, by means of which the conviction and confidence are expressed in conduct. Faith is not blind but intelligent.”
W. H. Griffith-Thomas, “The Principles of Theology, London: Longmans, Green, 1930.
Showing posts with label Faith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Faith. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Dawkins and Faith
Atheist High Priest Richard Dawkins says that faith, Christian faith, is “blind trust in the absence of evidence, even in the teeth of evidence.” The Selfish Gene, 198.
Yet Dawkins’ definition of faith is itself a perfect example of a belief that is tenaciously and relentlessly held in the absence of evidence, even in the teeth of evidence to the contrary. Atheist sheeple read Dawkins and bow in agreement.
Yet Dawkins’ definition of faith is itself a perfect example of a belief that is tenaciously and relentlessly held in the absence of evidence, even in the teeth of evidence to the contrary. Atheist sheeple read Dawkins and bow in agreement.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Faith = Evidence
I was thinking about atheists and how they say that we Christians believe because of faith. Atheists define faith as "believing something in the absence of any evidence.’
Atheists think that is our only basis for concluding that Jesus is truly Creator, Lord and Saviour.
Well, that may be what atheists think but I don't know of any Christians who think that way. In fact, down through the ages, it's never been what any Christian has believed. In fact, Christianity is the only religion to be based on rationality and history.
“God is supremely rational, and the human being is also rational, being created in the image and likeness of God. Hence religion, which is the expression of the deep relationship between God and human kind cannot be but rational.” Johannes Kepler, “What if the Bible had never been written.”
“Now I define faith as the power of continuing to believe what we once honestly thought to be true until cogent reasons for honestly changing our minds are brought before us.” C. S. Lewis, “The Seeing Eye”
“Belief, in the Christian sense, seems to be to be assent to a proposition which we think so overwhelmingly probable that there is a psychological exclusion of doubt though not a logical exclusion of dispute.” C. S. Lewis, “Obstinacy of Belief”
“Faith is a trust in what we have reason to believe is true. Understood in this way we see that faith is built on reason. We should have good reasons for thinking that Christianity is true before we dedicate ourselves completely to it.” J. P. Mooreland
“Reason directs those who are truly pious and philosophical to honour and love what is true. Justin Martyr, “The first Apology.”
“Philosophy is a kind of preparatory training to those who attain to faith through demonstration. So also here I call him truly learned who brings everything to bear on the truth, so that from geometry and music and grammar and philosophy itself, culling what is useful, he guards the faith against assault. ”Clement of Alexandria, “The Stromata”
“Creation itself reveals Him who created it, and the work made is suggestive of Him who made it, and the world manifests Him that arranged it.” Irenaeous of Lyon, “Barr 13"
“We must first be instructed by reason and then we share understand the sacred and mystical teachings.” Basil of Caesarea “Christianity and Classical Culture”
“Faith is what gives fullness to our reasoning,” Gregory of Nazianzus
“Reason is a thing of God, inasmuch as God, the maker of all has not provided, disposed, ordained by reason, nothing which He has not willed should be handled and understood by reason.” Stark, “For the Glory of God.”
“Heaven forbid that we should believe in such as way as not accept or seek reasons since we could not even believe if we did not possess rational souls. But they are much deceived, who think that we believe in Christ without any proofs concerning Christ.” Augustine, “Concerning Faith In Things Not Seen”
“I believe in order to understand.” Anselm
“While faith comes first in time, knowledge comes first in importance. Faith and reason do not conflict but instead compliment each other.” St Anselm, “Credo, ut inttigam”
“It was necessary for man’s salvation that there should be a knowledge revealed by God, besides the philosophical sciences investigated by human reason.” Anselm, “Summa Theologica”
“The principles of any science are either themselves self-evident or reducible to the knowledge of a higher science. Individual facts establish the authority of those men through whom the divine revelation has come down to us. Hence the fact that some happen to doubt about the articles of faith is not due to the uncertain nature of the truths, but to the weakness of the human intellect.” Thomas Aquinas
“The existence of God and other like truths about God, which can be known by natural reason, are not articles of faith for faith presupposes natural knowledge” Thomas Aquinas
“Reason distinguished man from true brutes, and was that by which man judges between good and evil.” John Calvin. Chapter in the Institutes of the Christian Religion called, “Rational Proofs to Establish the Belief of the Scripture.”
“I have always thought that two questions, that of God and that of the soul, are chief among those that ought to be demonstrated by the aid of philosophy rather than that of theology. These two are first proven to him by way of reason. Now you sir, desire to learn the principles of the teaching of the Lord of heaven. I shall therefore state them plainly for you, and any explanation will be based solely on reason.” Rene Descartes, “To the Dean of Doctors” University of Paris.
“Faith can never convince us of anything that contradicts our knowledge. It still belongs to reason to judge of the truth of it’s being a revelation.” John Locke
“Thought constitutes the greatness of man.” Blaise Pascal “Section 12 “Proofs of Jesus.””
“Unreasonable and absurd ways of life are truly an offence to God.” William Law, “Love God With All Your Mind.”
“Ignorance is the mother not of devotion but of heresy.” Cotton Mather
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen." Hebrews 11:1
Atheists think that is our only basis for concluding that Jesus is truly Creator, Lord and Saviour.
Well, that may be what atheists think but I don't know of any Christians who think that way. In fact, down through the ages, it's never been what any Christian has believed. In fact, Christianity is the only religion to be based on rationality and history.
“God is supremely rational, and the human being is also rational, being created in the image and likeness of God. Hence religion, which is the expression of the deep relationship between God and human kind cannot be but rational.” Johannes Kepler, “What if the Bible had never been written.”
“Now I define faith as the power of continuing to believe what we once honestly thought to be true until cogent reasons for honestly changing our minds are brought before us.” C. S. Lewis, “The Seeing Eye”
“Belief, in the Christian sense, seems to be to be assent to a proposition which we think so overwhelmingly probable that there is a psychological exclusion of doubt though not a logical exclusion of dispute.” C. S. Lewis, “Obstinacy of Belief”
“Faith is a trust in what we have reason to believe is true. Understood in this way we see that faith is built on reason. We should have good reasons for thinking that Christianity is true before we dedicate ourselves completely to it.” J. P. Mooreland
“Reason directs those who are truly pious and philosophical to honour and love what is true. Justin Martyr, “The first Apology.”
“Philosophy is a kind of preparatory training to those who attain to faith through demonstration. So also here I call him truly learned who brings everything to bear on the truth, so that from geometry and music and grammar and philosophy itself, culling what is useful, he guards the faith against assault. ”Clement of Alexandria, “The Stromata”
“Creation itself reveals Him who created it, and the work made is suggestive of Him who made it, and the world manifests Him that arranged it.” Irenaeous of Lyon, “Barr 13"
“We must first be instructed by reason and then we share understand the sacred and mystical teachings.” Basil of Caesarea “Christianity and Classical Culture”
“Faith is what gives fullness to our reasoning,” Gregory of Nazianzus
“Reason is a thing of God, inasmuch as God, the maker of all has not provided, disposed, ordained by reason, nothing which He has not willed should be handled and understood by reason.” Stark, “For the Glory of God.”
“Heaven forbid that we should believe in such as way as not accept or seek reasons since we could not even believe if we did not possess rational souls. But they are much deceived, who think that we believe in Christ without any proofs concerning Christ.” Augustine, “Concerning Faith In Things Not Seen”
“I believe in order to understand.” Anselm
“While faith comes first in time, knowledge comes first in importance. Faith and reason do not conflict but instead compliment each other.” St Anselm, “Credo, ut inttigam”
“It was necessary for man’s salvation that there should be a knowledge revealed by God, besides the philosophical sciences investigated by human reason.” Anselm, “Summa Theologica”
“The principles of any science are either themselves self-evident or reducible to the knowledge of a higher science. Individual facts establish the authority of those men through whom the divine revelation has come down to us. Hence the fact that some happen to doubt about the articles of faith is not due to the uncertain nature of the truths, but to the weakness of the human intellect.” Thomas Aquinas
“The existence of God and other like truths about God, which can be known by natural reason, are not articles of faith for faith presupposes natural knowledge” Thomas Aquinas
“Reason distinguished man from true brutes, and was that by which man judges between good and evil.” John Calvin. Chapter in the Institutes of the Christian Religion called, “Rational Proofs to Establish the Belief of the Scripture.”
“I have always thought that two questions, that of God and that of the soul, are chief among those that ought to be demonstrated by the aid of philosophy rather than that of theology. These two are first proven to him by way of reason. Now you sir, desire to learn the principles of the teaching of the Lord of heaven. I shall therefore state them plainly for you, and any explanation will be based solely on reason.” Rene Descartes, “To the Dean of Doctors” University of Paris.
“Faith can never convince us of anything that contradicts our knowledge. It still belongs to reason to judge of the truth of it’s being a revelation.” John Locke
“Thought constitutes the greatness of man.” Blaise Pascal “Section 12 “Proofs of Jesus.””
“Unreasonable and absurd ways of life are truly an offence to God.” William Law, “Love God With All Your Mind.”
“Ignorance is the mother not of devotion but of heresy.” Cotton Mather
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen." Hebrews 11:1
Monday, September 14, 2009
The Gift of Faith
“To those who through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours.” 2 Peter 1:1
I pray almost every day that my children will be given faith, trust and belief in Creator God. The above verse shows at least two things. One, that faith is a gift. You can’t buy it, barter for it, work for it or steal it. Faith can’t be borrowed or conjured up. Faith is a gift from God to those of His choosing. Faith is a gift to those whom God knows will accept His offer of salvation. That means that we cannot brag that we have faith as though there is something in us that warrants God giving us faith. The other thing about faith that we know from this verse is that it is precious. It’s a treasure worth more than anything else in this world.
Out of all the good that has happened to me in my life, the gift of faith in Creator God is the best of them all. The ability to believe. The ability to trust. The gift of wideband awareness to know that there is more to life than what meets the eye is a wonderful, wonderful ability. To know that “what is seen was made from what is not seen,” is a wonderful gift. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not yet seen.” Hebrews 11:1. This ability makes for the best life possible. In fact, after almost thirty years of following Jesus, I can say without doubt that my worst day on earth with Jesus as my guide is 1000 times better than my best day on earth without Jesus in my life. For the Christian, this life is as difficult as it gets. For the atheist, this life is as good as it gets.
I pray almost every day that my children will be given faith, trust and belief in Creator God. The above verse shows at least two things. One, that faith is a gift. You can’t buy it, barter for it, work for it or steal it. Faith can’t be borrowed or conjured up. Faith is a gift from God to those of His choosing. Faith is a gift to those whom God knows will accept His offer of salvation. That means that we cannot brag that we have faith as though there is something in us that warrants God giving us faith. The other thing about faith that we know from this verse is that it is precious. It’s a treasure worth more than anything else in this world.
Out of all the good that has happened to me in my life, the gift of faith in Creator God is the best of them all. The ability to believe. The ability to trust. The gift of wideband awareness to know that there is more to life than what meets the eye is a wonderful, wonderful ability. To know that “what is seen was made from what is not seen,” is a wonderful gift. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not yet seen.” Hebrews 11:1. This ability makes for the best life possible. In fact, after almost thirty years of following Jesus, I can say without doubt that my worst day on earth with Jesus as my guide is 1000 times better than my best day on earth without Jesus in my life. For the Christian, this life is as difficult as it gets. For the atheist, this life is as good as it gets.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Faith and Folly
As I age, learn and grow in my relationship with God I seem to be coming to some sort of resolution. My journey began with Denial and roughly followed to > Rebellion > Awareness > Acceptance > Desire > Fulfillment > Joyful Resignation > Contemplation.
In hindsight the temporary folly in my journey was an obsession with and an over emphasis on the importance of reason in one’s relationship with God. Contrary to all that Jesus taught (eg. John 6:44) I allowed myself to be distracted by forays into evidence, proving, justifying and convincing others and myself that what I believed, was in fact true. Notice, it wasn’t what Jesus said that was my emphasis. It wasn’t His gospel of salvation that I wanted to communicate. Rather, what I believed and why I believed it took on a importance that again, in hindsight was not only distracting but probably destructive to those with whom I was interacting.
It was like, Now that I know this is true, now that I have a solid, vibrant, exciting relationship with my Lord and Saviour, Jesus the Christ, I need to lay out the evidence for what I already know to be true. For some reason I needed to justify to myself my relationship with Jesus. It was like I was convincing myself all over again. In truth, out of fear that others might think less of me, I had this need to justify my relationship with Jesus to non believers, especially to those who seem condemned to live within a very narrow band of awareness. Yes we are to be able to give an explanation for why we believe, but we must not confuse that explanation with the work that the Holy Spirit does in a yet-to-be-believer's soul in bringing that person to salvation. People are not saved by evidence. They are saved by hearing the Word of God in general and being exposed to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Those that demand further proof are simply not at a place where any decision for redemption can be made. God may bring them to that point some day but for now, simply laying out God's plan of salvation through Jesus is all that can be done.
I now see that an emphasis on reason, while interesting in it’s own right, is superfluous to, unnecessary for and theoretically at least contrary to the initiation and development of faith. It is God who calls, God who grows, God who saves and sanctifies. Anything that we are or ever will be is from God and God alone. Knowing Him, really knowing Him is a purely spiritual affair, devoid of any need for proof save that of God Himself and His stirring in our souls.
In hindsight the temporary folly in my journey was an obsession with and an over emphasis on the importance of reason in one’s relationship with God. Contrary to all that Jesus taught (eg. John 6:44) I allowed myself to be distracted by forays into evidence, proving, justifying and convincing others and myself that what I believed, was in fact true. Notice, it wasn’t what Jesus said that was my emphasis. It wasn’t His gospel of salvation that I wanted to communicate. Rather, what I believed and why I believed it took on a importance that again, in hindsight was not only distracting but probably destructive to those with whom I was interacting.
It was like, Now that I know this is true, now that I have a solid, vibrant, exciting relationship with my Lord and Saviour, Jesus the Christ, I need to lay out the evidence for what I already know to be true. For some reason I needed to justify to myself my relationship with Jesus. It was like I was convincing myself all over again. In truth, out of fear that others might think less of me, I had this need to justify my relationship with Jesus to non believers, especially to those who seem condemned to live within a very narrow band of awareness. Yes we are to be able to give an explanation for why we believe, but we must not confuse that explanation with the work that the Holy Spirit does in a yet-to-be-believer's soul in bringing that person to salvation. People are not saved by evidence. They are saved by hearing the Word of God in general and being exposed to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Those that demand further proof are simply not at a place where any decision for redemption can be made. God may bring them to that point some day but for now, simply laying out God's plan of salvation through Jesus is all that can be done.
I now see that an emphasis on reason, while interesting in it’s own right, is superfluous to, unnecessary for and theoretically at least contrary to the initiation and development of faith. It is God who calls, God who grows, God who saves and sanctifies. Anything that we are or ever will be is from God and God alone. Knowing Him, really knowing Him is a purely spiritual affair, devoid of any need for proof save that of God Himself and His stirring in our souls.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Faith and Victory
1st Peter 5:6,7 - “Humble yourselves under God’s might hand so that He will raise you up at just the right time. Throw all of your anxieties to Him because He cares about you.”
After John 3:16,18, I think these two verses from Peter’s letter are the most important verses in the Bible. At least for anyone wanting to live a victorious Christian life.
The hardest thing for people to do, for Christians to do is to trust God. It sounds stupid but it’s true. For most of us, we experience God working in our lives. We marvel at it. We share our story with others, and then we take back control of our lives until God demonstrates His love for us all over again at some point in the future. It’s like the story of the guy by the side of the road with a heavy suitcase, thumbing a ride. Someone picks him up. He climbs into the vehicle, buckles up and sits there holding the suitcase on his lap. After awhile the driver says, “Why don’t you put your suitcase on the floor?” The guy says, “No, I wouldn’t want to give your car a bigger load than it already has.”
Because we don’t trust God as we should, we hitch a ride with Him, but we keep carrying our worries, our anxieties, our problems. Mature Christianity, victorious Christian living happens when our focus is on what God has done not just in our lives but in the lives of others. When we look back on how our life has turned out, we can clearly see how lucky we were that things didn’t go our way. We can clearly see how if there hadn’t been road blocks to our strategy or our timing, things wouldn’t have gone nearly as well as they did when God took control.
God cares about us. As the Bible asks, “Will God, who didn’t even spare His own Son to give us what we need, withhold anything less than that, in order to meet our needs?" Of course not. He has not, does not and will not leave us or give up on us.”
After John 3:16,18, I think these two verses from Peter’s letter are the most important verses in the Bible. At least for anyone wanting to live a victorious Christian life.
The hardest thing for people to do, for Christians to do is to trust God. It sounds stupid but it’s true. For most of us, we experience God working in our lives. We marvel at it. We share our story with others, and then we take back control of our lives until God demonstrates His love for us all over again at some point in the future. It’s like the story of the guy by the side of the road with a heavy suitcase, thumbing a ride. Someone picks him up. He climbs into the vehicle, buckles up and sits there holding the suitcase on his lap. After awhile the driver says, “Why don’t you put your suitcase on the floor?” The guy says, “No, I wouldn’t want to give your car a bigger load than it already has.”
Because we don’t trust God as we should, we hitch a ride with Him, but we keep carrying our worries, our anxieties, our problems. Mature Christianity, victorious Christian living happens when our focus is on what God has done not just in our lives but in the lives of others. When we look back on how our life has turned out, we can clearly see how lucky we were that things didn’t go our way. We can clearly see how if there hadn’t been road blocks to our strategy or our timing, things wouldn’t have gone nearly as well as they did when God took control.
God cares about us. As the Bible asks, “Will God, who didn’t even spare His own Son to give us what we need, withhold anything less than that, in order to meet our needs?" Of course not. He has not, does not and will not leave us or give up on us.”
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Faith is too hard!
What a struggle it was for me to have “faith” in the forgiveness of Jesus. There must be some catch, some loop-hole, some part of His message that I just wasn’t getting. In reality, the reason that I found faith in Jesus’ forgiveness too hard to figure out was because it’s so easy.
If Jesus required of us all kinds of ritual behaviour, or had us travel to a religious destination every five years or pay a certain amount of money to the Church or, and especially this one, had us obey a certain set of rules in order to be saved, then I would have gotten it. That I can figure out. That is the kind of stuff that makes sense.
To ask nothing of me except to admit that I can’t save myself, well, how can that be enough?
If Jesus required of us all kinds of ritual behaviour, or had us travel to a religious destination every five years or pay a certain amount of money to the Church or, and especially this one, had us obey a certain set of rules in order to be saved, then I would have gotten it. That I can figure out. That is the kind of stuff that makes sense.
To ask nothing of me except to admit that I can’t save myself, well, how can that be enough?
Monday, October 8, 2007
The Christian's Great Defensive Line
Jesus said at one point that He will build His Church and that nothing, not even hell itself will be able to stand against it. I believe that’s true but my oh my, we Christians sure can block and frustrate His attempts. Atheists and sceptics try they hardest to eliminate Christianity. They waste years and years of their lives arguing against what they claim to be the equivalent of a spaghetti monster. Here’s a hint atheists! Save yourself a lot of energy and just let we Christians destroy Christianity ourselves. If I lived long enough I could probably do it all by myself.
The level of unbelief, born out by how we live, coupled with our hypocritical claims of tremendous faith do more to block not-yet-believer’s attempts to hear God than anything anti-theists could muster. Our depending on money, relationships, power and position to find our worth make it impossible for those outside of Christ to recognise His wooing voice. Our inter-Church disagreements and judging outsiders from the pages of Leviticus while we live under the Old Covenant make God’s love impossible for the lost to experience.
Yes, Jesus will indeed win the game in the end, but it will be with very little thanks to His teammates, me included. What an amazing thing then that knowing all this, Jesus still chose us to be part of His family, to be His fellow labourers, to call us back home when we’re so prone to wander. What an amazing Grace that saved a wretch like me.
The level of unbelief, born out by how we live, coupled with our hypocritical claims of tremendous faith do more to block not-yet-believer’s attempts to hear God than anything anti-theists could muster. Our depending on money, relationships, power and position to find our worth make it impossible for those outside of Christ to recognise His wooing voice. Our inter-Church disagreements and judging outsiders from the pages of Leviticus while we live under the Old Covenant make God’s love impossible for the lost to experience.
Yes, Jesus will indeed win the game in the end, but it will be with very little thanks to His teammates, me included. What an amazing thing then that knowing all this, Jesus still chose us to be part of His family, to be His fellow labourers, to call us back home when we’re so prone to wander. What an amazing Grace that saved a wretch like me.
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