ABOUT GOD - FAITH #3

 

Mr. Hunt,

Is it all a matter of faith?  How can the Bible say that belief in God is a matter of faith, while at the same time say that only fools say that there isn't a God?  If it were so obvious that God exists, then it wouldn't be a matter of faith, would it?

Answer:

Okay good question about God and faith.

JAMES tells us faith without works is dead.....so when we speak of true faith it must have works, or evidence. 

When I speak of faith it is evidence or faith with works.

Hence as Paul said the evidence of God is the universe and our world of creation. He told the church at Rome that people could know God exists by the creation, but they willfully turned away from that proof and began worshipping various parts of creation instead of the one who created it all. Our faith in God is based on evidence, so we know he exists; then because of that, our faith can go further, it can know the things he does, and some of them being things we may not fully understand, we can know his ways will be, and are, the best for the plan he has in creating human beings on this earth.

So true faith then is coupled with works or evidence..... it is not a blind faith, a faith that says, "Well oh hummmm.....I just choose to think this way, it makes me feel better be it right or wrong, I choose to have this mind-set." That kind of faith is just out of the blue as they say, it is not based on facts, evidence, works. Let me see an example could be this: a man decides he would like to go down into the sea a mile or so; he takes oxygen tank and a flash light. He just has faith it will be okay. Off he dives....no thought about pressure further down, no thought about how he should come back up, he knows nothing about "bends" on coming back up. He just does his own thing...... he kills himself. His faith as not based on facts, evidence, knowledge. His faith was a silly blind faith.

That kind of faith is not true Biblical faith - true faith is based on evidence, works. We see the evidence and works of God all around us in creation.....our faith that God exists is based upon evidence and facts...... and that faith can then go on to know God deals with individual people and the whole world population, in a way that is fulfilling his plan of salvation for the whole population, even when at times we do not understand in full depths and clarity, as to why God did it this way or that way, in working his plan with individuals, groups of people, nations of people. But we know also that one day in the resurrection to glory in the family of God, we shall know God's mind and purpose and ways, much deeper than our present human mind can grasp today. On conversion we are a babe in spirituality; we grow spiritually more, as we study God's word, meditate on his word; we grow from a babe to an infant, to a small child, to a young teenager. We spiritually mature over time, but we shall not be the full adult like God is, until we are born by a resurrection into his mature likeness. When we are a full mature adult in the family of God, being fully in his likeness [see 1 John 3:1-3], we shall understand things that for now, in some things, we look through a glass darkly, but then the darkness will turn into glorious light.

We have a living faith that tells us God knows what he is doing, and he is doing it correctly.