IS FAITH REASONABLE?
By R. Herbert
All definitions of faith involve the idea that it is a response to something intangible or unseen. The dictionary tells us that faith is “belief with strong conviction; firm belief and complete trust in something for which there may be no tangible physical proof.” The Bible puts it this way: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).
Faith, Hope and Wishful Thinking
Although many secular people reject this concept outright, as though being certain of what we cannot prove is intellectual weakness of some sort, a kind of glorified hope or just wishful thinking, the truth is that we all live by faith in our everyday lives. We plan things for future dates not knowing that we will be there at that time. We arrange to meet a friend somewhere for coffee, and we go to meet the person although we may not have any firm physical proof he or she will show up. It is not that we go hoping that perhaps our friend will show up - we plan and we go because we are sure the person will be there. We have a kind of faith that our friend will appear.
When it comes to our faith in God, the situation is the same, but may seem different. When we plan to meet our friend we have at least seen the person before – so we are sure he or she exists and is likely to show up unless something prevents him or her from doing so. With faith in God it might seem to be the other way around – we have not seen God in person, so we may not be sure that God will somehow act or be with us when we put “faith” in Him.
Faith Begins with Indication
We should stop a moment, however, to realize something. When we make this comparison, we have actually neglected some important facts. We know our friend exists because we have seen the person face to face. But before that meeting occurred, there may well have been a time when we did not have any proof of the person’s existence. Perhaps we had only heard about the person from another friend. Then perhaps after expressing interest in meeting our future friend, we received a letter or text message from the person. That may not be “proof” – how do we know (to use an extreme example) that the message was not faked? – but it is certainly an indication that we might reasonably believe in the person’s existence. Eventually we may talk with the person on the phone, and although we do not see him or her, we don’t doubt that the person is there.
The analogy holds true in Christian life. We may hear of God from a friend. We may read a message from Him – the Bible; and when we begin to pray, we may feel that we begin to hear God in our lives. Now given this background we can level the playing field, so to speak, in terms of what an atheist might say. It is not really that the Christian has any less indication that God exists than we have indication our human friend existed before we met the person – it is just a different kind of indication – but the end result is the same: we begin to believe in God without having seen Him (John 20:29 1 Peter 1:8 ).
Faith Based on Indication is a Matter of Reason
The truth is, God nowhere tells us that He expects us to believe in Him – to have faith – with no indication at all. Even though some very sincere religious people may feel it is an important part of faith, God does not expect us to believe without any prior evidence that He may exist or may do something. If you read the quotations carefully on this site’s Quotes page, you will see just how many of them talk about faith being based on an initial indication that we have. The great Christian writer C.S. Lewis even said that “I am not asking anyone to accept Christianity if his best reasoning tells him that the weight of evidence is against it” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity). But Lewis thought that we can indeed find rational reasons or indications for our belief, as he demonstrates in his book.
More importantly, we can see clear examples of this in the Bible itself. How often do we find in the Old Testament that God was willing to give a sign – an indication – that He was there, then expected individuals to go out and act on faith in some way? If you think about it, you will realize that many examples come to mind from the lives of Moses (Exodus 4:1-8), Joshua (Joshua 3:7-8, 15-16, 4:4-7), Gideon (Judges 6:16-18), David (Psalm 86:17), the prophets (Daniel 4:2) and others.
The Gospels also record that after the resurrection of Christ, He gently reprimanded the disciples for not having faith that this event had happened – because they had received prior indications that it would (Matthew 16:21, Luke 24:6, 25) and further indications even after the event had occurred (Mark 16:14).
Another example from the Gospels may make this even clearer. When a man whose son was mute and deaf implored Jesus to heal his son, Jesus replied: “ ‘All things are possible for one who believes.’ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, ‘I believe; help my unbelief!’” (Mark 9:23). Here the father had received indication of Jesus’ ability to heal. The man had doubtless heard how Jesus helped many sick and troubled individuals – so he had indication, the beginning part of faith. He had a little faith, but knew he needed more.
Full Faith is Ultimately From God
So we may well have some small degree of what we might call “human faith.” Remember that Jesus often rebuked people, including His disciples, by saying “You of little faith,” not “You of no faith” (for example, Matthew 8:26), because our human faith, based on the indications we have and no matter how strong it is, simply is not enough for what is needed to effectively walk with God. But in that case, is God being fair in expecting us to have much greater faith – equivalent to the faith we have in our friend’s existence since we met the friend face to face? The answer is simply that God does not expect us to work up this kind of solid faith by ourselves. The Bible makes it clear that the source of that kind of firm faith is God Himself, that He gives it to us, as we see in Ephesians 2:8-9: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” (To explain a technical point here, the demonstrative pronoun “this” – the Greek touto – is neuter, while “grace” and “faith” are feminine, so the “this” which is not from ourselves regards the whole phrase – the grace and faith. Paul stresses that everything necessary for salvation is given to us by God.)
So, faith is something all humans have to some degree. Even the most ardent atheist has faith in certain things that cannot be rationally proven – only expected. Once we begin to turn to God, we start to see numerous indications that God does, in fact, exist – and we begin to have faith in Him. We may feel we see these indications in the existence of matter and energy, design in the universe, or whatever; and we begin to realize that it takes just as much “faith” to believe everything came from nothing or has always existed as to believe everything was made by a God who has always existed. As we go along we may feel we see increased indications in answered prayer or an experience of God somehow speaking to us, but however these indications come to our mind, we realize eventually that the full faith God wants us to have is something that only He can supply (2 Peter 1:3). God gives us that, so to speak, in lieu of meeting Him “face to face,” because, as we have seen, ultimately God gives us everything necessary to our salvation.
If you have read widely you may know that Søren Kierkegaard and other philosophers have talked about a process in which we take a “leap of faith” (or a “leap to faith” as Kierkegaard actually put it). Perhaps making a mental leap is involved in any kind of faith, but that does not mean that we cannot have reasonable indications which start and fuel the process, and no matter how the process works, it is God who ultimately gives us the kind of full faith that we need.
By R. Herbert
All definitions of faith involve the idea that it is a response to something intangible or unseen. The dictionary tells us that faith is “belief with strong conviction; firm belief and complete trust in something for which there may be no tangible physical proof.” The Bible puts it this way: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).
Faith, Hope and Wishful Thinking
Although many secular people reject this concept outright, as though being certain of what we cannot prove is intellectual weakness of some sort, a kind of glorified hope or just wishful thinking, the truth is that we all live by faith in our everyday lives. We plan things for future dates not knowing that we will be there at that time. We arrange to meet a friend somewhere for coffee, and we go to meet the person although we may not have any firm physical proof he or she will show up. It is not that we go hoping that perhaps our friend will show up - we plan and we go because we are sure the person will be there. We have a kind of faith that our friend will appear.
When it comes to our faith in God, the situation is the same, but may seem different. When we plan to meet our friend we have at least seen the person before – so we are sure he or she exists and is likely to show up unless something prevents him or her from doing so. With faith in God it might seem to be the other way around – we have not seen God in person, so we may not be sure that God will somehow act or be with us when we put “faith” in Him.
Faith Begins with Indication
We should stop a moment, however, to realize something. When we make this comparison, we have actually neglected some important facts. We know our friend exists because we have seen the person face to face. But before that meeting occurred, there may well have been a time when we did not have any proof of the person’s existence. Perhaps we had only heard about the person from another friend. Then perhaps after expressing interest in meeting our future friend, we received a letter or text message from the person. That may not be “proof” – how do we know (to use an extreme example) that the message was not faked? – but it is certainly an indication that we might reasonably believe in the person’s existence. Eventually we may talk with the person on the phone, and although we do not see him or her, we don’t doubt that the person is there.
The analogy holds true in Christian life. We may hear of God from a friend. We may read a message from Him – the Bible; and when we begin to pray, we may feel that we begin to hear God in our lives. Now given this background we can level the playing field, so to speak, in terms of what an atheist might say. It is not really that the Christian has any less indication that God exists than we have indication our human friend existed before we met the person – it is just a different kind of indication – but the end result is the same: we begin to believe in God without having seen Him (John 20:29 1 Peter 1:8 ).
Faith Based on Indication is a Matter of Reason
The truth is, God nowhere tells us that He expects us to believe in Him – to have faith – with no indication at all. Even though some very sincere religious people may feel it is an important part of faith, God does not expect us to believe without any prior evidence that He may exist or may do something. If you read the quotations carefully on this site’s Quotes page, you will see just how many of them talk about faith being based on an initial indication that we have. The great Christian writer C.S. Lewis even said that “I am not asking anyone to accept Christianity if his best reasoning tells him that the weight of evidence is against it” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity). But Lewis thought that we can indeed find rational reasons or indications for our belief, as he demonstrates in his book.
More importantly, we can see clear examples of this in the Bible itself. How often do we find in the Old Testament that God was willing to give a sign – an indication – that He was there, then expected individuals to go out and act on faith in some way? If you think about it, you will realize that many examples come to mind from the lives of Moses (Exodus 4:1-8), Joshua (Joshua 3:7-8, 15-16, 4:4-7), Gideon (Judges 6:16-18), David (Psalm 86:17), the prophets (Daniel 4:2) and others.
The Gospels also record that after the resurrection of Christ, He gently reprimanded the disciples for not having faith that this event had happened – because they had received prior indications that it would (Matthew 16:21, Luke 24:6, 25) and further indications even after the event had occurred (Mark 16:14).
Another example from the Gospels may make this even clearer. When a man whose son was mute and deaf implored Jesus to heal his son, Jesus replied: “ ‘All things are possible for one who believes.’ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, ‘I believe; help my unbelief!’” (Mark 9:23). Here the father had received indication of Jesus’ ability to heal. The man had doubtless heard how Jesus helped many sick and troubled individuals – so he had indication, the beginning part of faith. He had a little faith, but knew he needed more.
Full Faith is Ultimately From God
So we may well have some small degree of what we might call “human faith.” Remember that Jesus often rebuked people, including His disciples, by saying “You of little faith,” not “You of no faith” (for example, Matthew 8:26), because our human faith, based on the indications we have and no matter how strong it is, simply is not enough for what is needed to effectively walk with God. But in that case, is God being fair in expecting us to have much greater faith – equivalent to the faith we have in our friend’s existence since we met the friend face to face? The answer is simply that God does not expect us to work up this kind of solid faith by ourselves. The Bible makes it clear that the source of that kind of firm faith is God Himself, that He gives it to us, as we see in Ephesians 2:8-9: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” (To explain a technical point here, the demonstrative pronoun “this” – the Greek touto – is neuter, while “grace” and “faith” are feminine, so the “this” which is not from ourselves regards the whole phrase – the grace and faith. Paul stresses that everything necessary for salvation is given to us by God.)
So, faith is something all humans have to some degree. Even the most ardent atheist has faith in certain things that cannot be rationally proven – only expected. Once we begin to turn to God, we start to see numerous indications that God does, in fact, exist – and we begin to have faith in Him. We may feel we see these indications in the existence of matter and energy, design in the universe, or whatever; and we begin to realize that it takes just as much “faith” to believe everything came from nothing or has always existed as to believe everything was made by a God who has always existed. As we go along we may feel we see increased indications in answered prayer or an experience of God somehow speaking to us, but however these indications come to our mind, we realize eventually that the full faith God wants us to have is something that only He can supply (2 Peter 1:3). God gives us that, so to speak, in lieu of meeting Him “face to face,” because, as we have seen, ultimately God gives us everything necessary to our salvation.
If you have read widely you may know that Søren Kierkegaard and other philosophers have talked about a process in which we take a “leap of faith” (or a “leap to faith” as Kierkegaard actually put it). Perhaps making a mental leap is involved in any kind of faith, but that does not mean that we cannot have reasonable indications which start and fuel the process, and no matter how the process works, it is God who ultimately gives us the kind of full faith that we need.
