Sometimes you just want to shout it aloud.
Christians have a wonderful resource in their hands to begin the journey. We have more published copies of it than any other book throughout all of history combined.
I’m not talking about a book of myths and legends, or a divergent conceptualization of religious dichotomy. Nor am I talking about a series of woeful stories detailing the ruination of a people over the course of a few thousand years. I’m talking about a published set of history books that give instructional resources concerning Faith. True, it contains facts and figures throughout history, and we can concern ourselves with the truth of those individual items if we choose, but your salvation does not cost $4.99 at a bookstore. As we know from secular textbooks on math or physics, it is only as valuable as you apply yourself to understanding it. And no, I’m not saying we have to go to a seminary where esteemed scholars can fill you up with more or fewer facts. That is not the purpose of the books we have been given.
It doesn’t particularly matter if you believe these books are one hundred percent true, because the salvation it describes does not depend on whether you believe they are true books in every particular. It does not ask the reader to accept its contents without condition. Anyone can advertise whatever they want, but the validity of any written word must be something that can be proved.
I’m talking about Faith - and please note the capital “F”.
When I was in high school biology class we did experiments on Goldfish. We didn’t torture, dismember or kill them. We kept them alive, kept water flowing across their gills as we placed them on a microscope stand and used an eyedropper to introduce a small amount of Caffeine to the fish while we watched the change in behavior of the blood flowing through capillaries that were so thin that we could see through them. When we were done, we put the fish back in the tank and gave it some food, and it went about its daily business.
Yes - we performed experiments. We suspected what the result would be and we carried out experiments to determine whether those suspicions were true.
If I were to carry a fish around with me in a small bowl and show it all the beauty and wonders of the world, I would not be able to determine from its behavior whether Caffeine would have any effect on its cardiovascular system.
In college we performed physics experiments to measure whether Newton’s laws were accurate, or Hooke’s law concerning springs; we performed triangulation experiments in astronomy lab to confirm whether we could accurately measure the distance to an object using optics and geometry, and we confirmed the measurements using a measuring tape.
The world has been told a lie. A really big, big lie, and I can’t stand it. Christians telling other Christians and non-Christians that Faith is Blind. That’s “Blind” with a capital “B”. The lie goes something like this: That to accept the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to turn off your mind and accept anything that anyone says about what it is, and that it is so utterly simple as to be a no-brainer, that it doesn’t even require you to think. That you should blithely wander about thumping on the bible as though possession of it makes you better in understanding the principles, will, mind and intellect of an infinite, eternal and omnipotent being. That because you believe there is a God you suddenly have all the answers - that He will simply gift you with anything you want because you chose to acknowledge that He exists. That you don’t need to understand anything at all - that you should simply take it at face value and never delve into it. That you should be happy to know that you have been saved because you had an epiphany and decided that you want to be saved rather than deal with the harder issues of salvation or what the realities of life and death truly are.
Faith is not Faith if it is purely Blind.
While we performed those experiments in school, there was little reason to think that the teachers were going to throw us a big surprise. Yet until we did the experiments, we didn’t really know with a certainty. Wouldn’t we all have been quite impressed if giving Goldfish caffeine didn’t in fact increase the heart rate and thus the motion of blood cells - what if it instead had the effect of causing the Goldfish to be transmogrified into a snarling canine with huge teeth? Yes, we would have certainly been surprised, but we understood that the purpose of the experiment was to show us that we could confirm whether the hypothesis was true. It was our introduction to a method of discovery whereby we might gain understanding of the world around us.
Faith is also an experimental process. When we performed the experiment on the fish, we didn’t just gain an understanding of methodology, but we gained actual knowledge. We saw a cause-and-effect process. When we performed the optical triangulation experiment, we found a process for discovery that we could use for other things than finding out how far an object is down the hallway from us without traveling down the hallway. We gained something in the process that included both knowledge and an appreciation for not just the knowledge, but how to use it. Faith is just such a process.
Suppose we look at it the other way - suppose we ran the test and never analyzed the data? Would we have learned anything at all? No. If you collect information and put it away in a desk drawer without thinking about the data or analyzing it in a meaningful way, you have not accomplished anything but to waste your time doing meaningless (and mindless) labor that has profited you nothing.
So why do people do that with Faith? They take their bible and confess their belief in Jesus Christ, but never examine anything. They do not experiment on the word. They do not appreciate any further what Jesus has done for them. They do not understand that this is the most intelligent being in the universe and wishes to be glorified with our minds, souls and strengths. This is not a being to be trifled with, nor is Faith in Him to be diminished by our ineptitude of will.
Does it sound like I am angry? Perhaps - but it is more sorrow than anger. Here is why.
People devote themselves to an advanced field of study, whether in business, science, history, or whatever. They go through and get a bachelor’s degree, maybe a master’s degree and for some they get their doctoral degree in their chosen field. They devote countless hours to studying in this area. They become an expert, or supposed expert. The go on to work in their field of study and vigorously pursue it, spending many hours of overtime and sacrificing personal time to make it succeed. They are called Smart and Dedicated and receive awards for their successes.
But it isn’t just the highly educated. People go to whatever amount of schooling they do, either leave it or finish it, then go on to a field of work. This can be fast food, or something more of a professional nature, or they start up a business or work in a junk yard for that matter.
The thing many of them have in common is that religion is taught in such a simplistic manner that they don’t think there is anything more than chanting, prayers, or basic acceptance to it. They stop growing.
Did you ever wonder why Adam partook of the forbidden fruit? God had told him that he would die if he did. But Eve had already partaken of it. Whom do you think that Adam trusted: Eve, Satan, or God? Adam had heard God tell him what would happen, but Eve evidently only heard it from Adam.
The simple children’s version of it is that Adam ate the fruit because he was tempted by Satan. But Satan is not recorded as having said anything about it to Adam. Check it out.
Adam had a reason to believe that God would prove himself true to his word - why? Because God had spoken to him. God had made Eve out of Adam’s rib. Adam knew exactly who Eve was. They had been married - they were made back into one flesh, after a manner. But when God said that Adam would surely die if he partook of the fruit, what did that mean? He was familiar with living, but was he familiar with death? Adam may have participated in the first successful experiment. He tested whether God would be true to His word. He and all of mankind after have suffered the consequences after a fashion, but let’s be honest. Adam had a belief that God’s word was true, but until he tested it he would never know with a certainty.
I could be wrong about Adam, but that’s the thing. You would never know unless you started the process of thinking and testing your faith. The ultimate result of faith is knowledge, and the knowledge of God is a serious thing.
Not all experiments of faith lead to death, however. Sometimes they yield something wonderful and astonishing. The exploits of prophets and other men and women of faith in biblical times gives reason to think that the same God who brought about the restoration of Adam from the devastation of death is the same God that speaks of a time when He will reunite the bodies and spirits of all people into a perfect living and eternal frame.
Some would have you to believe that enacting such a powerful commitment to bringing about life would mean the same being is willing to skip all of the things that He required people in olden times to do. Maybe there is a larger purpose at work here. Maybe it happens to be the case that Jesus - being the infinite, eternal and hyper-intelligent being that He is - has an education in store for all of us. Being a great teacher, He knows that not all students are the same. They don’t learn the same way. Some, such as Israel in ancient times, had to be metaphorically - if not physically - beaten with a stick in order to get the real point. It doesn’t mean they weren’t intelligent or didn’t think about things - it just means that they rebelled. Moses didn’t get to enter the promised land, nor did Aaron or Miriam. They each did things to disqualify themselves for that privilege, and we expect they probably knew more about God than anyone alive today.
But with knowledge comes responsibility, and with the knowledge Moses, Aaron and Miriam had, their responsibility was truly great. They dishonored God in front of perhaps 2-4 million people, even if only briefly. The stakes were too great to allow that to go unpunished, even if the punishment was only for the brief time at the end of their lives. Could you imagine the problems that would ensue if Moses had struck the rock to bring forth water, and not get punished for disobeying the Lord, who had told him to speak to the rock instead? The people would have rioted and caused insurrection against the same being that saved them from the Egyptians, which would thereby force God’s hand against them further. The people had to be shown that God will be obeyed in the way He dictates, not the private wills of men and women. It was not cruel - it was justice.
So, too can we see how in our lives we need to understand the parameters of our Faith experiment. Jesus gives us time - a probationary time in which to figure things out. Do you want to test the word of Jesus today? Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you? (paraphrased.) Suppose you ask God for a million dollars. Will you expect to receive it? Probably not. You know why, though, right? You know that God isn’t as interested in the pleasures of our mortal life as He is in the eternal pleasure of life in His kingdom. A million dollars now doesn’t somehow buy your way into heaven. The things that seem to matter to God are the things of life and death; money, castles, belongings and servants cannot take away the corroded imperfections of your spirit. Why the spirit? Because the body will crumble back to dust, and the spirit must go to God for a time until a new immortal body is prepared for it.
Does that mean you should never pray for physical things? No, because the physical world was created for our benefit and it is present for us to use in a manner that exercises wise stewardship. God is not a mean being with whom compassion has no meaning - to the contrary, it was the compassion of Jesus that brought about the atonement sacrifice that we can benefit from. But as He is a jealous God, He will not support us in worshiping idols, so asking for things we would for all intents and purposes worship would be rather pointless. Until such time as we are told otherwise, this world - even including our bodies - are given so that we can improve our situation with God by performing the things He both commanded and asked. He is not without tender concern for our well-being.
Do you suppose that God gave great power to people without giving them time to learn wisdom? Do you suppose that Faith - true Faith - is in the same category as mysticism and superstition? God provides a means to discern the difference: If it leads to belief in Jesus Christ and obedience to Him then it was established by Him so that you could grow into His likeness. If it leads to something else then it was not. Do you suppose that Stephen, the great evangelist in the book of Acts, when he was being stoned for preaching the Gospel of Christ, that he was trying to get people to follow himself, or Christ? Even such an one as he had to grow in understanding until ultimately he could be so filled with the Spirit of God as to forgive those that killed him. His Faith came about because of actively pursuing knowledge and doing the things that he learned.
You see, you can look at the scriptures with a whole set of questions. I can’t promise the answers will just pop into your mind, but after a certain amount of application of those questions, you can discover things that make more sense than what esteemed theologians and philosophers might try to embellish.
There is nothing lightweight about Faith.
Now about this Blind faith thing. I’m disturbed by it, or at least how many Christians like to present faith as being blind. From all the examples in scripture of holy men, they didn’t exercise blind faith. Perhaps the most recognizable instance of this is when Gideon was told by God that he would be a great leader of the people. Did Gideon run about telling everyone that they ought to follow him immediately after hearing the angel? No - he first wanted to confirm things with God in the only ways that he could understand. He wasn’t gullible - he needed to know that it was in fact God telling him this. How could he know? He experimented because he didn’t want to be led about by an evil spirit to do foolish things. He had the Lord do something two different ways just to be sure. It wasn’t a lack of faith - he exercised it, and gained knowledge from the exercise.
The calling of Samuel to be a prophet is another example - the Lord spoke to him and he didn’t understand it, so he asked Eli, the resident priest. Eli told him it was the Lord and Samuel accepted it, not only because Eli told him, but because he had heard the Lord’s voice himself. But to confirm it he experimented on that word and it was shown to him to be true.
In each of these and many other examples, the people of great Faith were thinking people. They didn’t run around spouting off random verses claiming to be great men. They grew in Faith because they were a thinking people.
Given the scriptural record, why do people want to leave all of this heritage behind and say it only applied to those people at that time? Isn’t Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever, as the scripture says? If so, then why should we believe now that Jesus has changed His tune?
Rote memorization of the scriptures is not the same as gaining wisdom from them, any more than memorizing the technical specifications of a jumbo jet airliner makes you a pilot. But in truth, if the pilot of that same airliner doesn’t know key technical specifications he may not be able to fly the plane safely.
The scriptures are not standalone tools that do the work themselves - it takes a reader to read and understand and apply the directions contained in them to get the results described. If faith and belief were the same thing, there would have only been a need for one word instead of two. People have faith given to them because of the confidence that the truth is contained in what is said, and that that truth must surely become reality because there is something present to make it happen. Observation of the world around us is not sufficient to develop an entire system of thought about being raised from death into life.
This “system of Faith,” as the Gospel of Christ may be called concerning salvation came about because it was told to people long ago by the very being who had plans for this thing to happen, and who then gave his life to make it possible. Indeed, not just possible, but a reality for both him and those that follow him.
Blind Faith, on the other hand, would be if your neighbor told you that you were saved and you needed no other thing than that statement as evidence. True Faith is when you hear that statement and research it to find out if there is merit to it, ask God if is true and examine the results of all of this work. If it doesn’t have merit, then you research further to find out what does have merit. Faith requires action and intellect working cooperatively to get the results it is intended to provide.
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1, Inspired Version)
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1, King James Version)
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1, New American Standard)
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1, New International)
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1, New King James)
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1, English Standard Version)
“Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” (Hebrews 11:1, New Living Translation)
