For one thing, apologetics, the defense of the faith, is not
an option. Instead, we are commanded to make a defense for the faith:
- But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense [“apologia” in the Greek] to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. (1 Peter 3:15-16)
Moses knew that he had to make a defense for the faith once
he’d return to the Israelites, claiming that God had sent him to lead the His
people out of bondage in Egypt:
·
Then Moses answered, “But behold, they [the
Israelites] will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The
LORD did not appear to you.’” The LORD said to him, “What is that in your
hand?” He said, “A staff.” And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw
it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. But the LORD said to Moses, “Put out your hand
and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a
staff in his hand— “that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their
fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has
appeared to you.” Again, the LORD said to him, “Put your hand inside your
cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold,
his hand was leprous like snow. Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your
cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out,
behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. “If they will not believe
you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign.
If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you
shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the
water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.” (Exodus
4:1-9)
The LORD (“Yahweh”) did not tell Moses, “Just tell those
Israelites to believe!” In fact, the Bible never asks us to believe without
evidence, without reasons to believe. The Bible never tells us to close our
minds in order to experience God. Instead, it tells us to love the Lord with
all of our minds.
The Pharisees had tested Jesus by asking Him, “Which is the
greatest commandment?”
·
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew
22:37)
We are not to turn off our minds in order to get close to
God or to experience Him. Instead, we are to turn our God-given minds up to
their highest setting possible to receive everything that God wants to give us.
He wants to give us understanding and reasons to believe – evidences. This is
what He had given to Moses so that the people would believe.
It is these reasons that had become the basis for their
faith. Forty years later, Moses reminded Israel of what they had seen:
·
“Did any people ever hear the voice of a god
speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or
has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst
of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty
hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the
LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that
you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him. Out
of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth
he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the
fire. And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after
them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power.” (Deuteronomy
4:33-37)
Faith is not a leap into the darkness but an embrace of the
light of truth. Is it different now in New Testament times? Does God no longer
give us a rational basis for our faith?
Certainly not! Jesus performed miracles and prophesied about what would soon happen so that His disciples would believe:
Certainly not! Jesus performed miracles and prophesied about what would soon happen so that His disciples would believe:
·
“You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and
I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am
going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you
before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.” (John
14:28-29)
Jesus didn’t tell them, “Just believe,” but He provided them
with an evidential foundation for their faith. We need an evidential
foundation, especially as we go through trials. John the Baptist experienced as
crisis of faith after he was thrown into jail. He therefore sent his disciples
to Jesus to find out if He is really the Messiah.
This might seem surprising to us. John had been Israel’s
greatest prophet. He had even seen the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus in the
form of a dove. He had proclaimed about Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world.” How could he now doubt? Wasn’t he above
doubt? No! He too needed evidential reasurances.
And what did Jesus tell John’s disciples? Did He tell them:
·
Go tell John, “Just believe. He already has
enough reasons to believe?”
No! Instead, He provided more reasons to believe:
·
And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what
you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are
cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good
news preached to them. (Matthew 11:4-5)
Above all, we need to have confidence that the Bible is the
very Words of God,
How can we face the world with the confidence and the
boldness we need if we can’t be confident about the basis of our faith! We
can’t! Before I went to seminary, I had subscribed to “Biblical Archeology
Review” (BAR). Many of the authors wrote
approvingly of the “Wellhausen Hypothesis”– a radical theory of how the Hebrew
Scriptures were humanly assembled by cutting-and-pasting from pre-existing
manuscripts. The contributors to BAR seemed to be so confident about their
working theory that they didn’t even bother to provide any evidence for it.
I was troubled but decided that I would lock my doubts away,
pushing them back into a crevice of my mind until, perhaps, I might have the
tools to critically examine them. However, this strategy didn’t work. The doubts
that this theory had provoked interfered with both my reading of Scripture and
my faith. Consequently, I read the Bible less and with less excitement. The
doubt that the Bible might merely be a human creation festered in the back of
my mind.
Fortunately, I was struck down with a bad back for several
months. Meanwhile, someone gave me a copy of Gleason Archer’s “Survey of Old
Testament Introductions.” Although it was one of the driest texts I’ve ever
read, I cried my way through it. Archer dealt conclusively with the “Wellhausen
Hypothesis” and restored my Bible back to me, as if Jesus Himself had been
restored.
I think that it is inevitable that without understanding the
rational foundations of the faith and without knowing how to critique the
challenges, our faith and life will suffer.
We all experience challenges that come against our faith. The
Apostle Peter warned:
·
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial
when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening
to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also
rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. (1 Peter 4:12-13)
Our Lord allows these trials for a reason. For one thing,
they prepare us for His return by creating within us a deep longing for His
return.
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