FAITH IS NOT OPPOSED TO EVIDENCE BUT IS BASED UPON IT

 Alistair McGrath who came to a faith in Christ out of atheism is a fine theologian. However, he seems to retain some postmodern thinking - that we cannot prove the Christian faith or even have evidential support:

·       God is simply not an empirical hypothesis which can be checked out by the scientific method. As Stephen Jay Gould and others have insisted, the natural sciences are not capable of adjudicating negatively or positively on the God-question.

·       Any worldview—atheist, Islamic, Jewish, Christian or whatever—ultimately depends on assumptions that cannot be proved. Every house is built on foundations, and the foundations of worldviews are not ultimately capable of being proved in every respect. Everyone who believes anything significant or worthwhile about the meaning of life does so as a matter of faith. We’re all in the same boat.

There are a number of problems with his assertions:

1. No Proof!
2. There are many evidences for the Christian Faith!
3. Contradicted by Bible!

NUMBER 1: He is making the grandest assertion without any evidence: “Everyone who believes anything significant or worthwhile about the meaning of life does so as a matter of faith.” McGrath doesn’t even try to justify this dogmatism that no one has any evidence for their values or beliefs.

NUMBER 2: Paul mentioned one set of evidences – extensive eyewitness testimony for the resurrection:

·       1 Corinthians 15:3-8 (ESV) For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

If any of his disciples had been in doubt about the resurrection, they need only have asked around. Eyewitness testimony had so abounded that the Jews could not deny Jesus’ miracles. Instead, their writings ascribe His miracles to Satan.

NUMBER 3:

The Bible acknowledges other forms of evidence – some from the created world:

·       Romans 1:18-20: The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are WITHOUT EXCUSE.

There was no shortage of evidence. John the Baptist had been encouraged in his faith by the report of Jesus’ miracles (Matthew 11). Doubting Thomas came to believe because of the evidence – the post-resurrection appearance of Jesus (John 20). All the Apostles had been restored to have by these appearances:

·       Acts 1:3: He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

Even the Old Testament Jews had been given proofs of God’s presence, as Moses had reminded them:

·       Deuteronomy 4:34-35: 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.

Jesus gladly provided many forms of evidences:

·       John 13:19 “I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he.”

·       John 14:28-29 “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 10:37-38 “If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

We have many objective evidential reasons to believe, even if our personal experiences have been more determinative.

THE CHRISTIAN FAITH DOES NOT ONLY FEEL RIGHT; IT IS RIGHT

It is not enough to preach what we should believe. We must also preach the rationale for believing in Jesus. This is what the Apostles did throughout the Book of Acts. Apollos was no exception:

·       When he [Apollos] arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ [the Messiah] was Jesus. (Acts 18:27-28; ESV; Also 17:2-4; 28:23-24)

How had Apollos “greatly helped those who through grace had believed?” He “refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ [the Messiah] was Jesus.” He provided proof from the Hebrew Scriptures, demonstrating that Christians didn’t have to close their minds off to the evidences in order to believe. Instead, Apollos showed that the evidences favored faith.

We too need to know why we believe, not just what we should believe. Moses had this very concern when he was talking with God in the midst of the burning bush:

·       Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you.’” (Exodus 4:1)

Moses correctly understood that the Israelites would have to be convinced about the “why” question. They needed evidence, and God was prepared to provide that evidence:

·       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 4:2-9)

God had provided Moses with a set of three miraculous proofs instead of telling him to tell the Israelites, “Just believe.” In fact, blind belief in not to be found in the Bible. Neither is it ever required. Instead, Jesus directed His disciples to not believe without confirmatory evidence:

·       If I am not doing the works of my Father, then DO NOT BELIEVE me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” (John 10:37-38)

We need to be assured that the Christian faith not only feels right, but that it is right!

Atheists Intuitively Believe in God and this is Bad News for them

Three studies at Boston University found that atheists acknowledge a Creator God before their conscious mind has a chance to kick in:

• The findings "suggest that there is a deeply rooted natural tendency to view nature as designed," writes a research team led by Elisa Järnefelt of Newman University. They also provide evidence that, in the researchers' words, "religious non-belief is cognitively effortful."

This means that denying the existence of God requires effort. However, the effort is not exerted against an enemy or even an external task but against themselves, their own intuitions.

Such an internal struggle has serious consequences. When our mind is fighting itself, there can be little peace or even clarity but an obsessive tug-of-war - a costly  auto-immune response.

How were these studies able to arrive at such surprising findings?

• Researchers attempted to plug into the automatic or "default" human brain by showing subjects images of natural landscapes and things made by human beings, then requiring lightning-fast responses to the question on whether "any being purposefully made the thing in the picture," notes Pacific-Standard.

• "Religious participants' baseline tendency to endorse nature as purposefully created was higher" than that of atheists, the study found. But non-religious participants "increasingly defaulted to understanding natural phenomena as purposefully made" when "they did not have time to censor their thinking," wrote the researchers.

• The results suggest that "the tendency to construe both living and non-living nature as intentionally made derives from automatic cognitive processes, not just practised explicit beliefs," the report concluded. The results were similar even among subjects from Finland, where atheism is not a controversial issue as it can be in the US.

Not only is the atheist at war with himself, but these findings also represent a blow to his naturalistic theory of evolution, which holds that our traits evolved as such because they give us a survival advantage. This would suggest that the belief in God also confers a survival advantage. However, the atheists insist that belief in God is irrational and ruins everything. Some even advocate outlawing religion as a form of child abuse or as something even worse.

However, these experiments suggest that, on an intuitive level, they know better, at least on one level - the level they are trying to eradicate. While this is not child abuse, it might qualify as suicide.

How to NOT Believe in God

 MY RESPONSE TO AN ATHEIST:

You are raising the bar on God unreasonably high by demanding exhaustive answers for all of your challenges. In effect, you are saying:

• If God doesn’t answer all of my questions, I will reject Him.

Here are several problems with your demand:

1. If the same standard were applied to science, you must also reject science. Science cannot even answer the basic questions like, “What are space, time, matter, sub-atomic particles, light, and life.” In short, exhaustive knowledge about anything is not possible. We are limited creatures. We can only see and hear a very small band of vibrations. There is much more that we cannot perceive. This means that even the greatest scientists or theologians can only offer partial answers.

2. When we ask of God, we must remember that we are inquiring of the Creator of the universe, which makes Him far greater than His creation. (The artist is always greater than his art!) We should be ready to accept the fact that there is much that we will not understand, even more than what we don’t understand about the cosmos. He even warns us that much is above our understanding.

3. We believe in God, not because of the things that we don’t understand, but because of what we do understand. This principle is also true of science.

4. God can reveal Himself to us, and He does this in many ways. We don’t see because we are willfully blind (Romans 1:18-20). In a sense, we are trapped in the matrix of our own making and only look for those arguments that will support the matrix. We therefore need to pray that He will open our eyes. This is an offer that God makes throughout Scripture.

Was Jesus a Religious Pluralist?

Jesus has been called many things: a communist, revolutionary, iconoclast, Eastern Guru, shaman, and now a religious pluralist – one who believes that all religions are essentially the same, and that there are many roads to salvation.

However, Jesus’ teachings give us no such hope. Instead, He was very exclusivistic. He insisted that salvation could only come through Him. When asked what deeds had to be performed in order to have eternal salvation, He answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." (John 6:29). That’s Jesus! Even more to the point, He informed the leadership:

• I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins." (John 8:24)

Not very politically correct, but consistent with everything Jesus taught! He also informed His slow-to-learn disciples that salvation could only come through Him:

• "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

Admittedly, this is a highly offensive message on a number of levels. It communicates that:

1. We deserve eternal punishment.
2. We are not good enough – forget self-righteousness - and therefore need to be saved.
3. Any other means of salvation represents a vain hope.

Consequently, many think that either Jesus or the Gospels must have been a bit deluded, and they insist that it is ludicrous that a set of beliefs can bring about God’s salvation. For example, one Emergent Church guru, Tony Jones, disparages the idea that we can be saved through doctrines and beliefs:

• This fixation with propositions can easily lead to the attempt to use the finite tool of language on an absolute Presence that transcends and embraces finite reality. Languages are culturally constructed symbol systems that enable humans to communicate by designating one finite reality in distinction form another. The truly infinite God of Christian faith is beyond all our linguistic grasping…and so the struggle to capture God in our finite propositional structures is nothing short of linguistic idolatry. (The New Christians, 234)
  

Jones asserts that the emphasis on “finite propositional structures” (doctrines/beliefs) is nothing more than “linguistic idolatry.”

Today, such views are quite popular, even trendy. In his most recent book, The Future of Faith, liberal professor emeritus of the Harvard Divinity School, Harvey Cox, celebrates the shift in Christianity away from fundamentalism and its emphasis on doctrine to “spirituality” and social activism. He favors a doctrine-less faith – a faith we experience and perform, not something we believe:

• We have been misled for many centuries by the theologians who taught that “faith” consisted in dutifully believing the articles listed in one of the countless creeds they have spun out. (18)

It’s not just the creeds that trouble Cox; it’s also the exclusivistic teachings of the Bible, which insist on Jesus only!

In light of the many attacks of the religious pluralists, it is important that we not only know what the Bible says but also the reasons behind its insistence. Truly, it often seems that a mere set of beliefs shouldn’t be the basis of salvation. It might even seem unjust or arbitrary that God and His Word should insist upon these requirements. Therefore, let’s try to reason our way through this matter.

Our beliefs aren’t “linguistic idolatry,” but living and active truths (1 Thess. 2:13; Heb. 4:12) that powerfully impact all aspects of our lives. In fact, this is exactly what Peter argues:

• Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. (2 Peter 1:2-3)

All spiritual blessing is given to us as we learn about God. Truly, the knowledge of God is indispensible. I would have disappeared long ago if I hadn’t been given the assurance that He gladly forgives me (1 John 1:9-10). Similarly, I would have continued in my self-destructive sin if I hadn’t learned about His holiness.

However, there is also another rationale for the centrality of our biblical beliefs. They reflect the fact that our heart has now been opened to receive God and to enter into a born-again relationship with Him:

REGENERATED HEART -> Receives the Testimony (Beliefs) of God -> Transformed Life

In light of the above, it is not so much that the beliefs save as it is that the Spirit saves by regenerating us (Titus 3:5), causing us to be born again (John 3:3), through the knowledge of the truth. This enables us to receive the things of God (1 Tim. 2:14) and to love the light (John 3:19-20), the source of our beliefs. Without this change, God’s truths would remain objects of contempt (2 Cor. 2:14-16; John 15:18-20).

Consequently, the doctrines of the Bible are living and transforming, infused by the Spirit who plants them savingly upon our heart:

• Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord… For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor. 3:17-18; 4:6; NKJV)

As we “behold” the truths of God, we are “being transformed” by the work of the Spirit. Admittedly, it is not the truths of God themselves, but the truths in conjunction with the work of the Spirit. If the Spirit is at work, we believe that Christ died for our sins. If He is not at work, we do not believe this way. In fact, without the Spirit, such beliefs are offensive to us, and we deny them.

Why then are there “Christian” religious pluralists? Because the truths of God are offensive to them! The light is an offense to them as it is to all unbelievers. Meanwhile, they know that they are sinners who need a Savior, but they cannot bear this offensive but very obvious truth (Rom. 1:18-32; 2:14-15; John 3:19-20). The truth is available for all, but it is distasteful and rejected (Proverbs 1:20-31). It’s free for the taking, but no one takes it (Rom. 3:10-18)! Consequently, it is only because the Spirit draws us that we are enabled to receive it (John 6:44).

Assurance of Salvation

How do we know if God has saved us? The answer can be very simple:

·        Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God… (1 John 5:1)

For some, this assurance is enough. However, others will doubt whether they truly believe. They may respond that intellectually, they believe the Gospel account, but they might not have a compelling conviction or sense of believing. Should this then be a basis for doubt? Not necessarily. Other verses assure us that any who come seeking salvation will find it:

·        "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Romans 10:13)

Jesus echoed this same guarantee:

·        “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away…And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:37-40)

However, many are still left with a similar question:

·        “How can I be certain that the Father has actually given me to His Son? I don’t seem to feel any different than I had before, and I don’t seem to be changed.”

   

Just recently, an intellectual expressed her doubt in predestination language:

·        "How do I know if God has chosen me to be saved? I don't know if I'm chosen or not."

I have spoken to many people with similar doubts. They don’t have a strong sense of God, and so the assurances of Scripture seem somewhat flimsy. However, at least they are troubled by this question. In contrast, the unconverted man is not:

·        The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Cor. 2:14)

For the unconverted the things of the Spirit – forgiveness, reconciliation with God, adoption as children of God, salvation, heaven – mean little. Instead, they are laughable – objects of contempt. The fact that someone is deeply concerned about the things of God strongly suggests that God has been drawing them:

·        "No one can come to me [Jesus] unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:44)

If we are crying out for Him, it means that He has drawn us. Coming to the Savior – the light of the world – is not natural for us. Instead, what is natural is to hate the light, as Jesus asserted:

·        This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. (John 3:19-20)

The fact that we are drawn to the light – the truth – means that there has been a spiritual change in our lives. Otherwise, we detest God. Paul put it this way:

·        There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." (Romans 3:11-12)

If, instead, we are seeking God, it means that He is drawing us. Without this drawing, “the sinful mind is hostile to God” (Romans 8:7) according to Paul. If we are not hostile to God, it means that He is wooing us or has already saved us.

However, for many skeptics, doubt runs very deep. We wonder whether we can really trust these Scriptural assurances. It’s like walking far out on an ice-covered lake. While we stood on the shore or right next to the shore, we weren’t so painfully afflicted by doubt. However, once we ventured further out on the ice, the dread that the ice might not hold us set in. We need assurance that the ice will not break and drown us.

We may not grow in confidence of our salvation until we see substantial changes in our lives. John gives us several ways that we can reassure ourselves that we are truly saved:

·        We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. (1 John 2:3-6)

Ultimately, John instructs us that if we truly are of God, we will love others who are of God. However, this can also become another source of doubt. We wonder whether we truly love. However John explains:

·        This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome. (1 John 5:2-3)

If we now obey Him, this means that we love both Him and His children. It also means that He has chosen us. However, we fall short in many ways. Ultimately, my hope comes from knowing God. I feel I really know Him and know that He will forgive my sins whenever I screw up:

·        If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:8-9)

This truth about God is so critical to me – a person who has struggled with perfectionism and self-loathing from almost from the get-go. It has taken many years for my Lord to bring me to this confidence, but now I am really certain that He thoroughly forgives and cleanses me whenever I cry out for Him. I trust that He will grant you the same confidence as you continue to look towards Him!