Why Does God insist on Faith? (March 28,2024)

I saw a Facebook comment once that said why can God not simply send a photograph of himself to me. I can send one of myself to other people to prove I am real. If God is real, and he wants me to believe He is real, then let him send me a photo.

What would you say to that? I thought it was an interesting comment and it got me to thinking about the topic of Faith. Just wanted to share a few thoughts that ultimately, I hope you will find interesting and encouraging.

I do not believe God requires us to totally shut off our minds in order to have Faith in God. I would argue of all the choices out there to choose from including atheism, materialism, agnosticism, New Age, Hindu, Islam, Buddhism, and whatever other choice you want to make, none of those choices have as much evidence as gets presented for the truth of the bible being the divinely inspired Word of God. You can start from the account of creation in the bible in Genesis chapter 1 vs any alternative from other scientific theories/philosophies or any other religious text and I would argue the bible by far makes the most sense for how we got here. Then there are many things written in the bible that the human authors could not have possibly known at the time they wrote the bible, things we have only discovered in the last 100 years. No other religious texts have these kinds of items in them. There is the fact the basic message of the bible is the best document you can find to explain the world we currently find ourselves in.

There are cities and people mentioned in the bible thought to be made up myths only to in more recent years we have uncovered archeological finds where the city found is exactly where the bible said it was located, or the person is found listed on official secular/pagan government records. There are the dead sea scrolls found around 1950 in 11 caves. Prior to finding the dead sea scrolls, the most recent copy of the Old Testament we had was from around 900AD and thus it was claimed the prophesies about Jesus from the Old Testament were written after He was born. However, the dead sea scrolls have been carbon dated back to 350 BC, before Jesus was born. The Old Testament books from the dead sea scrolls from 350BC match the copy from 900 AD thereby also providing evidence the bible did not get retranslated over the years to the point it is no longer reliable but rather the translations are very reliable.

Then there is the historical figure Paul who went from murdering Christians to writing half the New Testament and later was executed in Rome for his refusal to deny Jesus. How do you explain transformations like that? How about the fact the disciples of Jesus in the end (except John) as per Church history were all tortured and killed for their beliefs and yet none ever changed or denied Jesus. These were not loyal fanatics 200 years later that did not know better, these men knew the truth of if Jesus rose from the dead or not, and I would argue Jesus must have indeed risen or else they never would have been able to withstand such torture for a lie, only the truth could allow them to endure that.

I would point to books like Evidence that demands a verdict by Josh McDowell, The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel (former Atheist turned believer), Cold Case Christianity by J. Warner Wallace (former Detective), Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. I could go on and on.

Now, I read a Facebook comment from a person that read The Case for Christ and said there was zero evidence presented in this book. Sadly, it did not surprise me to see that comment.

I would argue this is a ridiculous comment, except I think the real issue is not that there is no evidence presented, as there is compelling evidence, but the real issue is the evidence can only take you so far, and from there you have to make a step of faith.

All of life requires some level of Faith. If my daughters were needing heart surgery, I would find the best Heart Surgeon I could find, one that had a good reputation and good success rate. That would be evidence this is the surgeon I should trust to operate on my child. However, can I be 100% certain this doctor will not show up drunk to the operation and butcher the operation and kill my child? Can I be 100% certain the doctor will not make a mistake that costs my daughter her life? Can anyone prove to me in absolute terms it is impossible this doctor will make a mistake? Of course not. That is a ridiculous requirement. All evidence points to the fact this doctor is skilled and responsible, but it still requires faith/trust to go forward with the operation. We gather the facts to make the best decision we can and from there we step out in faith.

The same is true with Jesus. I have gathered the best evidence I can. I do not blindly trust in Jesus like some lunatic might blindly trust that Barney the Dinosaur is their God and will save them with no evidence and only Faith. No, I have Faith that is supported by evidence, reason and revelation.

The God revealed in the bible actually encourages His followers to use their minds and think and not blindly believe. For example:

Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD

Phil 2:12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling

Mathew 22:37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

However, our mind and our reasoning can only take us so far. There must be a place where Faith and trust in God comes into play.

In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, God did more than send a photo of Himself with Adam and Eve. He came to personally walk with them in the Garden and talk with them. They saw God face to face, interacted with God. Adam knew God had formed Eve and presented her to Him. Adam should have known that all the good in the Garden God had blessed Adam with came from God, He knew God personally in a relational way, and yet still in the end, Adam listened to the lie of Satan that God was holding out the good stuff from him, and that God was not looking out for Adams best interest, and so like Eve, Adam ate the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, deciding to not trust God to tell Adam what was good vs bad for him, but instead Adam decided to be His own god.

This is the heart of the issue as to why God insists on Faith. God has so richly blessed us. God formed us in the womb, He provides the very air we breath, the food we eat, the people we love. In fact, as the bible states every good thing in our life is provided for by God:

James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Despite this, we all have still decided not to trust God and like Adam we also have decided we would be better off being our own gods and deciding for ourselves right from wrong without input from God.

The amazing thing about this God revealed in the bible is that God loved us even when we hated God and were his sworn enemies, even when we wanted nothing to do with God, even when we foolishly loved our sin that is a poison in our soul that brings pain, sorrow, suffering and death, still God loves us and has done everything in Gods power to save us from ourselves and try to mend the relationship we broke with Him:

Romans 5:8  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

So given all that God has done to demonstrate his love for us, then Yes, He now expects us to move from gathering the evidence of His love for us, to coming to a place where we trust Him.

Heb 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Jesus is knocking at the door to your soul. He will not force his way in. He will not force you to follow him, but rather in gentleness and love He is asking and encouraging you to choose to trust him and let him in.

Rev 3:20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

Conclusion:

God does not insist we turn off our minds. Instead, He calls us to reason together with Him. God has provided overwhelming evidence both for His existence, and more importantly of His love for us. Indeed, every good and perfect gift I have ever experienced in this life is obviously from God who loves us.  The evidence is in, God has done all He can do to demonstrate His love for us, even to the point that on this Good Friday we celebrate Jesus as God that took on human flesh, willingly allowing himself to be tortured and hung on a cross to die at the hands of sinful humans to free us from our slavery to sin and death and try to reconcile our relationship with God.

What more does God need to do to demonstrate His love for you? Is it not time for us to start to trust that God does indeed love us, that God is not holding out on us and instead embrace the truth God has our best interest at heart, that God is smarter than us and thus we would be wise to by Faith demonstrate our trust in God in allowing God to decide what is good vs what is evil instead of us defining it and to follow where the good shepherd Jesus leads?  We all have to decide this for ourselves, but I personally can think of no one I would rather place my Faith and trust into than Jesus.

May the Lord richly bless you and your Families this Easter, and may you find yourselves able to rest in Gods love for you that he demonstrates every single day we draw breath.

Love you all, Eric…..