Episode 65 – The Nature of Faith
Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.
Script: (Bible quotes from the New King James Version)
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 1, New King James Version
But without faith it is impossible to please [God], for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 6, New King James Version
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VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m here today with RD Fierro, author and founder of Crystal Sea Books, and part-time water-purification engineer. He changes the water filter in the refrigerator when that little light in the inside panel turns from green to red. Well today, RD, we’re all about being green about continuing our discussion about truth and faith. In our first show a couple of weeks ago we talked about the nature of truth and last week we talked about the tools of truth. Specifically, we said that the way to sort between competing truth claims, like whether the Bible is the word of God or whether it is just a collection of myth and fairy tale, is to use logic, reason, and evidence. Today, you want to move on to thinking about the nature of faith. But before we do that, how about if we do a quick review of what logic, reason, and evidence are and how, for instance, they apply to that specific question – is the Bible the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God?
RD: Sure. That shouldn’t be hard … to do a 3 minute answer to a question that has consumed entire mountains of paper and ink for the last two thousand years?
VK: Well, maybe just hit the high points.
RD: Again, Sure. Truth is that which corresponds to reality. Logic is the set of principles, or laws if you will, that should guide the decision-making process when you’re considering questions of truth. Reason is the human faculty or ability to apply those principles or laws to a given body of evidence that applies to the question under consideration. Evidence is the body of facts, details, or observations that is pertinent to the question. Not all questions that involve competing truth claims can be settled conclusively …
VK: Like what happened to all those pens I put in the supply cabinet last week.
RD: Yeah, like that. But when it comes to whether the Bible is the word of God, here at Anchored by Truth we cite four lines of evidence that point to the reality that the Bible is God’s word. First, the Bible displays a remarkable unity for a book that was written by dozens of human authors over a span of 1,500 years. Second, the Bible has positively affected the lives of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, for thousands of years. Even today millions of people will testify that the Bible has helped them give up a dependence on drugs or alcohol, saved their marriage or family, and helped them become better people and contributors to their communities. Also, there are thousands of Christian missionaries around the world who have traveled to impoverished people and countries to spread the gospel and many of those bring improvements in health, sanitation, and education with them. Third, the Bible is historically reliable and its reliability has been affirmed by thousands of archeological discoveries in the last hundred years.
VK: And fourth, last but definitely not least, the Bible gives evidence of a supernatural origin by the large and unmatched body of fulfilled prophecy it contains. The Bible contains prophecies so specific – like the name of the city where the Messiah would be born or the sequence of world empires that would precede his birth – that it’s impossible that mere men could have known what was going to happen hundreds of years before the event occurred.
RD: Precisely. Anyway, within those four lines of evidence are tens of thousands or more individual facts and observations that help support the truth claim that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. But, as with any truth claim that important, we recognize that there are people that do not agree with it. In other words, we recognize that there are competing truth claims about the nature of the Bible with which Christians should be aware. But as we observed in our episode on the nature of truth, the mere existence of competing truth claims does not affect the validity of the original claim.
VK: Right. The existence of one or more competing truth claims does not establish or invalidate the truth of any of the claims. But is does mean that we need to have a method for sorting among the competing truth claims to know which one is valid. In other words, we need to have a process for knowing who is right and who is wrong? So, how do we do that?
RD: By using logic, reason, and evidence. As we observed last time, the basic process of sorting among competing truth claims to determine which claim is valid requires the application of logic and reason to the evidence to see where it leads. No different from the process that occurs every day in court rooms, science laboratories, business offices, or living rooms and dining rooms. Determining truth is important because, as we mentioned, truth is that which corresponds to reality so a failure to find the truth means ultimately that we’re basing a part of lives on an error, at best, or a lie at worst. But ultimately, with respect to whether the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God it’s up to every person to decide for themselves whether they believe that.
VK: And that’s where faith comes in. Correct?
RD: Correct. The question of whether the Bible is the word of God is a question of faith, but let me hasten to add that it is a question of faith that should be based on facts. Because, while we recognize the role that faith plays in individual decision making and in the conduct of their lives faith that is disconnected from facts isn’t really faith. It’s either gullibility or credulity. Said slightly differently, if the Bible is not the word of God, my believing that it is won’t transform it into the word of God. But … if the Bible is the word of God, someone’s disbelief also won’t change the fact that the Bible is God’s word. It is critical that people recognize the underlying fact, this essential truth, because our eternal destinies hinge on the outcome of the question.
VK: And that’s why we wanted to talk about the nature of faith today. It is popular today to believe that faith is a sort of sincerely held belief but one for which there is no underlying support. Or some people believe that faith is some kind of an individual power or force that certain people do or don’t possess. This is a view that’s portrayed in a of lot movies and television shows. Some people see faith as a kind of hope or wish in which we invest are energy but, that when we do so, we are doing so in defiance of logic or reason. You hear people say that things like to believe in God you must “take a leap of faith.” So, when they say that they seem to be saying that they have to turn off their brains to exercise their faith. But nothing could be further from the truth. The Christian faith is not a faith that is opposed to logic, reason, and evidence - but it is a faith that is based upon logic, reason, and evidence. Right?
RD: Absolutely right. And that’s why we wanted to do a show that discusses the nature of faith. As you observed, faith is neither a force, personal or impersonal, nor an unsupported set of wishes. Traditionally, Christian theologians have seen faith as consisting of three components: knowledge, assent, and trust.
VK: That sounds sensible, but just to be sure we’re clear let’s go through those elements individually. First of all, what is meant by the knowledge component of faith?
RD: Knowledge refers to the fact that faith, any faith, has content. Faith involves an act of the human will, a deliberate decision to believe. So the first question that occurs, obviously, is what is the person exercising faith believing. What is the content or knowledge that is being embraced or believed? For instance, someone who chooses to take an airplane trip has to be willing to place their faith in pilots, planes, and physics. Now the person that takes the trip may or may not have a lot of knowledge about how an airplane works or how the pilot actually flies the plane but, in order to go on a plane trip, they must at least know a few basics: somewhere there’s an airport where the plane will be boarded and that for the plane to fly there will have to be a pilot in the front who will operate some controls.
VK: Well, someday we may not need pilots on the plane though, right? I mean the military already flies drones all over the world that don’t have human pilots.
RD: That’s entirely true and it’s a very good point. Knowledge is an essential component of faith but knowledge can and does change over time. A person who was having heart problems in the 1950’s may well have trusted a cardiologist to help them. Today, a person having heart problems will still likely consult a cardiologist. But the way a doctor treats a heart problem today is quite different from the way a cardiologist in the 1950’s or even the 1990’s. Sometimes knowledge can grow or change in some ways, but in some ways it won’t. Whether the cardiologist was in the 1950’s or the 21st century the cardiologist is still going to go looking for the heart in a person’s chest – not near their foot.
VK: Near their foot? Really.
RD: Well, hopefully not. Hearts haven’t moved around in people but today a cardiologist can put in a stent in a heart often using only a few very small incisions. That would have been impossible in the 1950’s. Stents didn’t come along until the 1980’s but between 1950 and 1980 hearts hadn’t moved. The point is some knowledge will change over time. Some will not. The question of whether Jesus died on a cross is a question of fact and the fact won’t change no matter how much time goes by. So, it’s important that we be aware of those kind of basic distinctions.
VK: So, what you’re saying is for a Christian to place their faith in Christ for salvation it’s essential for them to possess a body of knowledge. They must know that over 2,000 years ago a man named Jesus was born in Bethlehem. They also need to know that Jesus lived a sinless life, preached for a little over 3 years, before dying on a cross. But they also need to know that ultimately that man rose out of the tomb proving that He was the son of God with power over life and death. And they need to know that Jesus died in their place to make it possible for them to have eternal life if they are willing to place their trust in Him and Him alone for their salvation.
RD: Yes. All those facts, and thousands more, form the content – the essential knowledge - of the Christian faith. The Christian faith, like all faith, involves a particular content and it’s important for genuine faith for the believer to be aware of and have some understanding of that content. That doesn’t mean a believer must understand everything to become a Christian, but they must at least understand some things. Otherwise, their faith really is a leap into the unknown and that is something the Bible never calls on anyone to do.
VK: So, that’s one of the reasons it’s so important for Christians, new or old, to get into the Bible, because the Bible contains the content of our faith. It’s probably not too strong a statement to say without the Bible there would be no Christian faith.
RD: I agree. Reading the Bible is an essential element to a person having a living faith in Jesus.
VK: So, once someone has some familiarity with the content of the Christian faith, what comes next?
RD: Once someone possesses knowledge then they have to make a decision about whether they agree or disagree with what they’ve just learned. For instance, imagine you have a friend who’s never taken a trip in airplane, but now they need to get from Florida to Idaho quickly. So, you suggest they take a commercial flight. Never having flown your friend asks you a lot of questions, such as how does all that metal get off the ground and stay in the air. So, you start trying to explain differential airflow …
VK: Yeah. No. I just suggest that they do an internet search and pick up that knowledge from someone else?
RD: That works too. Anyway, once your friend has studied differential airflow over an airfoil they then have to decide whether they agree with the idea that it’s possible to keep hundreds of thousands of pounds of metal in the air just by having air flow faster over the top of a wing than the bottom.
VK: Well, when you put it that way, I’m not so sure that I agree with that idea. Kind of makes you think a little differently about putting your faith in the airlines.
RD: For a variety of reasons. Anyway, consciously or unconsciously, we all have to make the decision to assent or agree with the knowledge we have obtained before we will place our faith in it. That assent or agreement is a necessary but not sufficient part of exercising faith.
VK: I see what you’re saying. A person who has never flown in a plane can study all about airplane design, or pilot training, or air traffic control – whatever. But just because they study it doesn’t mean that they necessarily believe it.
RD: Absolutely. And with respect to whether knowledge and agreement are sufficient for possessing truth faith, the Apostle James tells us in his book that they are most certainly not. And James gives us a graphic, almost jarring, example of how just having the knowledge that God exists and agreeing with that knowledge can’t save anyone.
VK: You’re thinking of James’ observation in James 2:19 that even the demons acknowledge God’s existence. James tells his readers who think they’re doing well by their beliefs that they’re not doing nearly as well as they think. In James 2:19 and 20 he says, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. You foolish person, … faith without deeds is useless.”
RD: Precisely. James is pointing to the fact that genuine faith consists of more than just head knowledge even if someone agrees with that knowledge.
VK: So, the third component of genuine faith is trust. James says that even demons know that there is just one God. The demons have no doubt in that fact at all. And they agree with that fact so completely that their knowledge of that fact scares them so much that they shudder.
RD: Yes. Trust is component of faith that separates a Christian – someone who truly calls Jesus their Lord – from the demons. Remember how many times in His earthly ministry Jesus confronted demons and when He did the demons had no trouble acknowledging that Jesus was who He claimed to be – the Holy One of God.
VK: For instance in the 4th chapter of Luke there is the description of one such confrontation. This is the description of that confrontation in Luke 4:33 and 34 in the New International Version. “In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, “Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
RD: Exactly. So that incident that Luke describes is a perfect illustration that just because someone knows the truth and is willing to admit it that does not mean that they possess genuine faith. The final dimension of genuine faith is the willingness to place trust in the content - the knowledge - that you come to possess. A person who wants to take an airplane trip may study aerodynamics all they want but until they step onto a plane and sit there while the plane takes off still hasn’t demonstrated faith. Of course, I want to reiterate how important it is to ensure that your faith in based on something that is true.
VK: And that’s why truth and faith are so closely connected. I know that you want to talk about that connection even more in our next episode of Anchored by Truth but for today is there anything that you want to be sure that our listeners think about?
RD: Yes. We live in an information dense age. Just about every person in our culture has access to more information that entire universities did just 50 years ago. We’re also bombarded by messages. It has been estimated that the average American sees 3,000 to 5,000 commercial messages a day between logos, labels, television shows and internet pages, etc. This means that there is an enormous amount of competition for our attention. In many ways all that competition demands that we sort through competing truth claims just about every minute of every waking day. And I’m not even thinking about the decisions that people have to make at their jobs.
VK: What you’re thinking about is that one shoe company says that their shoes are the most comfortable, longest lasting, and best shoe on the market. Then 5 minutes later we’re hearing the same claims from a different shoe company. We’ve no sooner seen on billboard for a laundry detergent which says that their soap will get out all the stains in our clothes when we’re driving by a different billboard making the same claim for a different company. Essentially, you’re saying that all those messages can constitute competing truth claims clamoring for us to make a decision about their accuracy.
RD: Yes. So, sorting through competing truth claims in our world can become an exhausting activity. The same thing is true when it comes to our faith. Christians today are confronted at every turn with competing truth claims that challenge the truth of their faith. And, unfortunately, so many of the messages we see in our culture today directly challenge the central tenants of Christianity. For instance, the most dominant narrative in our culture today is that all life on earth arose by chance because of the random collision of molecules. This narrative persists despite the fact that modern science has unequivocally demonstrated that for life to exist it depends upon specified complexity and informationally governed chemical activity.
VK: You’re talking about the fact that – and I’m using this term broadly – life arose from “evolution” not from the direct creative activity of God?
RD: Yes. Evolution as a process and billions of years as a time scale exist as a competing truth claim to Biblical creationism.
VK: And that’s why we did an 10-part series on Anchored by Truth we called “The Truth in Genesis” – to demonstrate that there is a mountain of scientific observations that are entirely consistent with the Biblical account. Listeners who are interested can find those episodes on pretty much all major podcast apps.
RD: Right. The point is that we are asked today to sort among so many competing truth claims that sometimes we find that, when it comes to our faith, that it’s just easier to set it all aside and just believe certain things. And I get that. But the danger is that when we don’t properly prepare our children and grandchildren to understand the reason and evidence – the truth – that undergirds the Christian faith all too often the result is that when they leave home they leave their early faith behind. There are some surveys that suggest that as many as 75% of kids who are raised in Christian households walk away from their faith when they leave home.
VK: So, what you’re saying is that for us to properly pass along our faith it’s not enough to just pass along what we believe. We must also pass along why we believe it. And that means learning and absorbing not only the content of our faith, but also how that faith can be demonstrated to be true in the face of claims that will compete against it. And that takes time and energy. 50 years ago Christian parents and grandparents might have been able to safely take some things for granted that today they just can’t.
RD: Faith, like freedom, exists one generation at a time. It must be actively defended and consciously transmitted and the only people who can do that are the ones to whom it has been entrusted in the current generation.
VK: Well, that’s a very sobering thought on which to end a show – but it is an essential one. Today since we have been thinking about how important it is to provide for and protect our children, how about if we close with a prayer for Godly wisdom and protection for our young children?
---- PRAYER FOR YOUNG CHILDREN
VK: We’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.”
If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not famous but our Boss is!”
(Bible Quotes from the New King James Version)
Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 1, New King James Version
Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 6, New King James Version
