What Faith Is Not

(This post is a continuation of a previous one, entitled What Faith Is. It’s meant to help build some more muscle onto our understanding of this very fundamental biblical concept by addressing the topic in the negative.)

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There are two typical erroneous ideas usually attached to Biblical faith. One resides outside the camp of Christian doctrine while the other is a misnomer held to by many people within.

The inability on the part of some Christians to truly understand their own faith resides on the line between certainty and assurance. These two ideas are similar, but their differences are essential to understanding the role faith plays in one's life. God wants His people to be assured of their faith - in His existence, the reliability of His word, their hope, eternal security, and His love for them - while understanding that they can never be completely certain. Absolute certainty is the antithesis of faith. Knowing something beyond the shadow of a doubt negates your ability to have faith in it. And, since faith is necessary to please God (Hebrews 11:6), Christians can know that absolute certainty of the reality of God and the veracity of His promises is not the goal of faith.

This truth may seem at first to be unsettling if you consider yourself a Christian or even a turnoff if you are simply considering the faith from the outside, but it shouldn't be. As noted in the previous post, walking by faith but not by certainty is something every single one of us does every single day. Consider this example: If you and I are boarding a plane bound for Tokyo, neither one of us can know for certain that the plane will land safely at its destination. Imagine that, for whatever reason, this fact begins to cause me great consternation and I begin to work myself up into a most disagreeable state, complete with hyperventilation and panic. To reassure me, you would probably remind me of the statistics regarding airline safety, the competency of the flight crew and the engineers who built the plane, and, in light of all of this, the overwhelming odds that reside in our favor regarding a safe arrival in Japan. Nothing you're telling me necessarily precludes some terrible, freak accident from happening, but if you yourself weren't assured of the trip's positive outcome (because you don’t know the future, either), you wouldn't have purchased a ticket in the first place.

Faith is not certainty, but that does not mean that we cannot be assured. The Bible contains plenty of places where the Spirit of God would direct our attention in order to reinforce our confidence that what it says is true. But, when God says He wants us to be assured (I John 5:13), you can trust that He doesn't mean that He wants for you to know, in the same way you know that the sky is blue or that you are actually reading this blog post. God requires faith, and faith requires uncertainty.

The other misunderstanding of religious faith is the position predominately held and propagated by those in secular academia. Specifically, it is the idea that faith by its nature is inherently irrational and therefore, unreasonable. This idea is used to bolster the position that religious faith is absurd on its face and not worth serious consideration. Instead of dealing with specific tenants and attempting to debunk them, secular humanists attempt to disqualify and exclude the entire idea from even entering public discourse. The goal of labeling religious faith as irrational is to maneuver people away from the concept altogether.

Now, in one sense, there is a certain amount of truth in the claim that faith is irrational. We just discussed it. Because faith requires uncertainty, adherents to any faith system must agree that there is no strictly scientific way to conclusively prove the reality of what they believe. I cannot take someone to a door, open it, and show them God. Faith doesn't work that way and all believers should be up front and honest about this. This may serve as the strictest definition of "irrational", and in this very particular way, the statement that faith is inherently irrational might be considered true. But the implication that simply because something is unempirical - that is, scientifically unprovable or undetectable by our five natural senses - it is consequently unreasonable is a modern and shallow conceit that should be categorically dismissed from everyone's mind.

As noted before, all people, reasonable and unreasonable alike, walk by faith in something. It is not ridiculous to reach conclusions based on circumstantial evidence or reliable testimony. In this way, faith does not stand opposed to reason, but works together with it. People are required (Romans 12:2) by the writings of the Bible to use their minds (I Peter 1:13) in order to connect the dots of their faith together and process life accordingly. Faith is in no way the rejection or opponent of reason, but it does enable one to travel beyond the limits of reason's abilities. There are some things in this life that science cannot explain and reason cannot comprehend, and it is in those times that faith takes the lead and, if we let it, guides us safely home.

While admittedly uncertain about what the outcome of its commitment will be, faith is in no way blind, either. Faith considers the claims of the Bible and weighs them against those of others. It then proceeds to move in a particular direction on the basis of its consideration of the available evidence. There’s nothing unreasonable about it. It’s not just something we all actually do; it’s something we must do.

For those who say that they must see something (or have it proved) before they will believe it (which, as we’ve already demonstrated, is a contradiction, anyway), I would challenge them to look around. Does strict reason alone really give us the answer to every question raised by this great existence of ours? The world of the arts, for instance, is largely populated by creative people wondering aloud about the very things that reason cannot explain. In a very true sense, it seems that science – the territorial claim of reason and so-called rationality – can answer most every question we ask except the ones that really matter.

And so faith is neither absolute certainty nor unreasonable flight of fancy. It is not stone cold proof and it is not wishful thinking. It is committed action that is well aware of its own inability to know what the future holds.

And regardless of our opinions on the topic, faith is something we all participate in. It is something we all hold to. Every single person will place their faith in something. The only real question is what that thing is.

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Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” - John 20:29

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. - I Peter 1:8-9

For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. - Romans 8:24-25

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. - I John 5:13