I
had a very frustrating discussion with someone recently about faith. This word
is being mangled beyond recognition such that, when people hear it, something
comes to mind which never would have occurred to anyone using the word at any
other time in history.
If
you are a Christian, you need to be aware of what non-Christians think now when
they hear this word, and if you are not a Christian, you need to be aware of
what Christians mean when they use this word. So, let’s clarify what faith is
by looking at what it isn’t.
Faith
isn’t anti-intellectual
A
master stroke of the so-called New Atheists has been to redefine faith so that
it means “belief without evidence”. They put evidence, proof, reason and
knowledge on one side, and on the opposite side they put faith, so that if you
have evidence, proof, reason and knowledge then you don’t need faith.
Richard
Dawkins said, “Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need
to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because
of, the lack of evidence.”
Christopher
Hitchens put it like this: “Faith is the surrender of the mind; it’s the
surrender of reason, it’s the surrender of the only thing that makes us
different from other animals.”
The
problem is, these men have just invented that definition. By no stretch of the
imagination is it an accurate representation of what the Bible means when it
talks about faith. When we consult lexicons that tell us about the meaning of
the Hebrew and Greek words that are translated as “faith” in the Bible, not one
of them says, “belief in spite of the lack of evidence” or anything similar. In
fact, over and over again the writers of scripture present evidence when they
call on people to have faith (e.g. John 20:30-31; Acts 10:36-43; 1 Corinthians
15:1-8).
The
problem with today’s redefinition of faith is that it separates faith in a
“religious” context from faith in an everyday context, and this shouldn’t be
done. The writers of scripture did not speak about faith because it was a
foreign concept shrouded in mystery. They used it because it was a term
everyone understood and a faculty everyone used, and it is still the same today
– when people aren’t thinking about “religious” issues, they have no problem
talking about evidence-based faith. For example, when Richard Dawkins was
debating John Lennox, he said, “We only need to use the word ‘faith’ when there
isn’t any evidence.” Lennox responded by saying, “I presume you’ve got faith in
your wife; is there any evidence for that?” Dawkins’ immediate response was,
“Yes, plenty of evidence.” He didn’t say, “No, I don’t have faith.” He
recognised that evidence wasn’t in opposition to faith, it supported it.
If
you were in need of life-saving surgery you would want to find out something
about the surgeon. If you discovered that she had graduated top of her class,
was a world expert in the particular issue, had performed the operation dozens
of times with 100% success rate, and had the best team helping her, would your
faith in her be stronger or weaker? Stronger obviously! Contrary to what
atheists say, evidence doesn’t diminish faith, it strengthens it. Faith grows
as evidence increases.
When
Paul commenced his letter to the Romans detailing the message of the Christian
gospel, he established solid ground for our faith to rest on. He spoke about
fulfilled prophecy (1:2), the resurrection, (1:4), the transformation in the
lives of the Romans (v. 8), creation and design (1:20-23), and the subject of
objective morality (1:32). In light of these areas of evidence, no one can say
that Christian faith is anti-intellectual.
Faith
isn’t only intellectual
It
is equally important to grasp that faith isn’t only intellectual – it is not
merely believing facts. Faith is entrusting yourself to something or someone;
it is active trust – I depend on something or someone to do something for me.
That’s why the gospel doesn’t just call on us to “believe that...”; it calls on
us to “believe in…” or “believe on…”
In
the Bible, faith is not put in contrast to reason or evidence, faith is put in
contrast to works (e.g. Romans 3:28; 4:4-5; Ephesians 2:8-9). In a works-based
religion, I have to earn God’s favour and merit His acceptance. The gospel says
I can’t earn God’s favour, I can never merit His acceptance. I’m helpless to
save myself, and so I need to trust someone else to rescue me from the danger I
am in, and bring me into a right relationship with God.
I
need to trust someone else, but not just anyone else – there is only one with
the necessary resources to save me, and that is Jesus Christ. Because of who He
is and what He has done, He is uniquely qualified to be the Saviour. The Bible
points us away from ourselves and away from our efforts, and points us to Him –
we have to put our trust in Him.
What
matters then, isn’t the strength of our faith, but the strength of the one we
put our faith in. Think again of the patient needing life-saving surgery. He
could be incredibly nervous or as cool as a cucumber, but what matters is not
how strong his faith is, but whether he has put his faith in the right person.
If he has committed his case to a capable surgeon, then he’ll be fine, no
matter how fearful he might be.
The
Lord Jesus is offering to take your case – to save you from your sins. He has
loads of experience in this. He is trustworthy, so trust Him. He is dependable,
so depend on Him. He is reliable, so rely on Him. He is faithful, so put your
faith in Him.
