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| Why Faith And Not Reality? |
| Written by Nils Jansma |
| Saturday, 10 October 2009 11:19 |
Why does God require "faith?" Why doesn't he just stop all the apparent game playing and talk to all of us directly, as the Bible says he did to Adam? This has been a puzzle to me for as long as I can remember. What is the big deal with faith? From a practical point of view, faith in something is not always good because senseless, ungodly fanaticism can also be the result, as demonstrated by the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001. So faith by itself is not virtuous. Therefore, it seems that you also need to have faith in the right thing. Finding the right thing requires research and experience. In this essay, we are going to see if there is Biblical evidence that God's requirement for faith is the "right thing." We will be looking to see if the faith-requirement associated with belief has a constructive purpose, or whether it is evidence that God is just having fun with us, as if we were engaged in some sort of cat-and-mouse play. When we talk about faith, we should carefully define our subject because the word has many meanings. Noun: faith (a composite definition based upon numerous dictionary definitions): 1. A strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny. Faith that God exists.
We will be considering the first and foremost definition namely, "A strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny."
1. What is a Biblical reason for having faith or personal belief in God? Having faith in God's being is obviously a necessary condition for involving Him in one's life. One must first have faith that He exists and is a source of goodness for those seeking to know and please Him. (Heb 11:6) Apparently, in this life, we will never know for sure that God exists, because we only see things dimly, like looking into a blurry mirror made of polished metal. (1 Corinthians 13:12)
2. Does having faith in something make it virtuous? Absolutely not. A good current example of this would be those who are willing to blow themselves up as a means of slaughtering innocent people. Their faith must be great, but their actions are still barbarous and ungodly. Faith is not virtuous in itself.
3. Before we put faith in something, how should we make sure it is the "right thing?" Investigate the available facts with our sense of reason. When the resurrected Jesus appeared to his disciples, he did not expect them to receive him unquestionably. Instead, he showed them his sacrificial wounds, and "then" they were convinced that he was their Lord. (John 20:20) In medieval times, Christian philosophers, such as Anselm, an Italian who was a Benedictine monk and archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109, referred to this as "faith seeking understanding."
4. Why doesn't God just give everyone a miraculous revelation or sign that He exists? In my opinion, we can only guess why, based upon Scripture. It is my guess that God doesn't believe it is best for people to believe in Him solely for the rewards He has promised. That would be like a parent spoiling a child. God's arrangement, using an imperfect analogy, can be somewhat likened to a very rich man seeking a wife to love him, not for his money, but for his character. To achieve this type of relationship, God has revealed Himself to us indirectly through a lens of faith based upon reasonable evidence. So our motives for wanting to please God should not be based upon some ongoing material bribe that we expect to receive daily. Instead, our motivation should be established upon our hope or faith that He exists and that He will keep His promises as recorded in the Bible. This appears to me to be how a good parent would treat his children for their sake and not his own. (Romans 5:1-5; 8:28)
5. Is there any Scriptural basis for my speculation about such unselfish faith? It appears that there is a very important dispute between God and the Devil concerning what personally motivates us to be good. We do not know many of the facts about this dispute. Briefly, what we do know is that the Devil has apparently been given the right to test the motives of anyone God has openly blessed. At Revelation 12:10, we are told that the Devil was able to stand before the throne of God and accuse Christ's "brothers" day and night. The Devil's role of being an accuser also applied to the faithful ones living before Christ, as exemplified by a number of Old Testament experiences. (Zechariah 3:1; Job 1:10,11; 1 Chronicles 21:1)
While there may be many more, I will list five supporting Scriptural examples. They should speak for themselves about how and why Satan plies his wares on each of us to varying degrees:
A) Job 1:8-12 And Jehovah said to Satan, Have you set your heart against My servant Job, because there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one who fears God and turns away from evil? (9) And Satan answered Jehovah and said, Does Job fear God for nothing? (10) Have You not made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his livestock have increased in the land. (11) But put forth Your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse You to Your face. (12) And Jehovah said to Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only do not lay your hand upon him. And Satan went forth from the presence of Jehovah.
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Comments (5)
  written by Darrek , October 12, 2009 You have totally changed your blogs Nils and I think thats great! Your blog looked like you put a lot of time and effort into it. I will continue to read your blogs. (even though I am still a atheist) Personally I totally understand why people believe in god, what I don't understand is how people believe in the god of the bible. Maybe your next blog should be why we should believe in that specific god and not other gods beings there are literally thousands of them. report abuse
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 written by Pilgrim , October 17, 2009 Darrek: Thank you for your observations. I have never wanted to alienate my audience because that would be counterproductive. I just want to give people something to think about that may provide them with a different perspective on things. I am really strapped for time just now and so am slow in creating my next blog. It is going to be on the current findings in Evolutionary Development (Evo Devo) which has God's (no matter who he or she is) fingerprints all over it. However, I wanted this comment to briefly tell you why I believe in the Bible is inspired and true. At the end of this comment, there is a link to a chapter in my Source Workbook that relates to the subject in greater detail. I would appreciate it that if you look it you might let me know its weaknesses and strengths, if any. Your question about the "god of the bible" is certainly understandable. There are so many other gods, what makes JHVH so special? I could go into a lot of evidence for the Bible's unique accuracy when it comes to the historical record, or the unique record of an ancestry extending back to creation or the unbelievable insight one can glean from Genesis 1 that is only now finally being discovered by science, or the power of being able to prophecy in advance how world affairs would proceed and finally end, but I won't. For brevity, I only want to mention the book of Daniel, even though there are many more books that could be used also. There is a dispute by liberal theologians regarding when Daniel was written. The main reason being, since they don't believe in the Bible's literal inspiration, and since Daniel writes about events that happened after his death, then the book must have been written at a later date by someone else. Is that circular reasoning or what. Daniel prophesies. I don't believe in prophecy. Therefore Daniel did not write Daniel. So they pick sometime in the second or third century BC for Daniel to be written. For me, that just doesn't cut it. Josephus relates in his history that Alexander the Great met with the High Priest of Jerusalem and discussed the Book of Daniel and Alexander's place in it. The account says that Alexander reported that he had recognized Jerusalem and the entourage sent to meet him because of actually seeing it in a dream beforehand. Nevertheless, using the later date, we find that the book of Daniel still records a spectacular undisputed prophecy that related directly to the timing of Jesus' entry onto the world stage. (Daniel 9:24-27) Since Daniel was known to have been written before Jesus day, then it still must be a prophetic book. There is a lot of discussion about this on the net and so, to save time, I am giving you a link to use for the details. Finally, I just want to mention about the internal harmony and symmetry of the Bible. The most important events of our day seem to center around the descendants of Abraham. That cannot be a coincidence. We are living in 2009 AD. Abraham probably was alive in 2009 BC. If we only knew the details of his time, we might find some amazing correlations with regard the 2000 bc date, the Lord Jesus comes at year zero (so to speak), and then 2000 ad. Don't you find that impressive? Do you know of any other source that can compete with that kind of validation? Shalom Nils Click here to read more about the Bible's credibility: http://www.thebeginning.us/Cha...Ch-13.htm Click here to read about Daniel's 9:24-27 prophecy. This account gives you a number of interpretations including the dispensational "gap" theory and the liberal "refers to someone else" theory. It is rather long and so you may get tired of reading it if it is not that important to you. http://www.preceptaustin.org/daniel_924-27.htm You might check this site for a more brief account of the prophecy. This one should remind you of the JW account of the same events: http://bibletools.org/index.cf...eID/22016 report abuse
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 written by Jack , November 11, 2009 "What is a Biblical reason for having faith or personal belief in God?" "our motivation should be established upon our hope or faith that He exists" ...a JW asked me last week...well...actually it wasn't a question...she said, "but you do believe Jesus was the son of god?"(a statement in the form of a question...an assumption)...my reply..."I don't know...I could lie and say I do believe, but if god exists and is omniscient, then he's got me on that one...would god rather i lie or be truthful?"...totally caught her off guard. She paused for what seemed to be about 10 seconds and said.."yes...yes...it's better to be truthful, but prove it to yourself"....huh? I went on and said, "well...why is it so important to god that I believe anyway?" She had several answers, but it was as if she needed me to believe...as if her "faith" depended on it somehow. now, that's an overstatement, but it did seem that way. still...i "believe" hope is a good thing...and I do hope for a "better tomorrow". It's just, i can't say that i believe we'll ever get there. I believe the potential is there, but....... Christ did have some really cool things to say though...he messed with their heads......if only more people actually payed attention to his message instead of worrying about proving this or that about him. report abuse
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written by Nils , November 12, 2009 Jack, Thanks for your response. Faith is a difficult subject because it seems like a "game" to many people. That may be the basis for why you asked the question, "why is it so important to god that I believe anyway?" On the surface may seem silly. But when you look at it from a higher perspective, it seems understandable to me. It would be like an apparent dispute between President Obama and say, Glen Beck who has challenged his truthfulness. Beck has apparently said that the only reason Obama is successful is because he is misleading people through fanciful talk about giving everyone something for nothing. If a person believes Obama and has faith that he will deliver on his promises, they will support him despite all evidence to the contrary. However, if Beck is right, and Obama has ulterior motives for his apparent unrealistic goals, things will likely get worse and worse until this Country becomes totally bankrupt like other socialistic societies. What procedures do you think Obama should take to resolve this apparent dispute? He could get rid of Glen Beck and make him into some type of a martyr, but that would probably do more harm than good. Alternatively, he could turn all his files over to Beck and allow him to publish all the facts, with the confidence that people won't loose their faith in him despite all the evidence. Of these two choices, which would you recommend Obama take? In a rather crude way, I believe this factitious situation I have proposed could be applied to the dispute between God and the Devil. You can see the importance of faith within this context. In order for God to vindicate Himself, he must rely on people's judgment that if they learn enough facts about Him, they will have faith that He will fulfill all His promises. In this way, He will resolve the problem without making a martyr out of the Devil. So, that is why it is important that we have faith that God exists and becomes the rewarder of those earnestly seeking Him. Our faith is also a protection for us because it does not allow the Devil to accuse us of believing in God for selfish reasons. If he can convince God that we are only serving selfishly, then apparently he has the right to test our "goodness" physically like he did Job's. Thanks again for your comment Jack. Peace be with you. Nils report abuse
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