Kedo Peseyie
“Faith” versus Faith is a concept which Francis Schaeffer explains in his book “He Is There And He Is Not Silent”. Some fifty or hundred years back if you were to use the word “God”, you would not need to explain what you exactly mean by it. Judging by the area you come from, or even by the way you dress up, people would understand who or what you are referring. This is still possible with the way some Muslim, Hindus and Christians dress even today. At least they would understand which religion you are talking about. But that is not always possible today. Today if you say “God” you would need to explain what you mean by it. And if a modern agnostic in the city were to try and explain what he means by “God”, he would most probably find himself in a vacuum. He might discover that it means nothing to him. Or he might even discover that it means everything to him.
The word “faith” may fall into the same category. People in difficult situation often tell me that they have nothing else to hold on to except faith. That sounds nice and spiritual but I am not very sure what they mean by that. But if they mean faith in anything and everything, then I think there is some problem and danger there. Because they could very well mean faith in a stone, or a cow or the sun. As long as there is some kind of faith, it doesn’t matter what the substance and object of faith is. This could lead us to pantheism, or turn us to pantheists.
The Bible tells us that faith in itself is not reliable and cannot save us. The Bible also tells us that sometimes we may become faithless, but that God helps us in our unbelief and guides us to have faith. It is not faith in a light bulb that gives us light. It is the object—the light bulb which gives light. You can lose your faith in a light bulb, but that makes no difference because the bulb will still shine without your faith. The object of our Christian faith is the Triune God—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Only the Triune God can save us.
Then again there is the danger of blind faith. Faith as the Bible describes is not a blind leap of faith. I would like to give you an example similar to the one given by Francis Schaeffer.
Supposing you are wandering in the mountain and thick fog hinders your progress. Your guide is also confused where to go. You are coming down a steep cliff and you cannot even see two feet beyond you. You and your guide are not sure if you have reached the bottom or still halfway and you are afraid to take the next step because you could fall off. Your guide tells you, “You can try and jump if you must. It could be two feet down or thirty feet down. You can take your chances if you want to, but you could be hurt.”
And so in good faith you decide to jump and realize that you are jumping 30 feet down possibly even to your death. Now that’s a crazy decision you just took. That was not faith as we know it in the Bible. That was a blind leap of faith. Unfortunately, many people in their spiritual and religious fervor are taking this blind leap of faith. In contrast the Bible says, “Faith comes by hearing.” But it is not just hearing “voices.” “Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.”
Let’s take the next possible situation in the mountain. You and your guide are lost in the fog coming down a steep cliff. You cannot see beyond two feet. Somebody from the opposite cliff shouts at you, “You cannot see me, but I can hear you and know exactly where you are. You are standing only four feet above the bottom of the cliff. You can safely jump.” You recognize the voice. He is a reputed guide in the mountains. You know the family and trust him completely. You have confirmed his name. After considering all these factors, you jump and land safely at the bottom.
This is faith. It is not a blind leap of faith. This is action taken on the basis of faith backed up by evidence. You have asked the questions. You have confirmed the source. You know the voice that answers to be true and reliable. You know the answers are real and dependable. You know that the historicity and the authenticity of the Bible have been confirmed even by secular scholars. You don’t mind jumping because you know you are safe in the hands of the One whose promises are always “Yes and Amen”.
This is faith as I understand it in the Bible. Bible says, “Now faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for, the EVIDENCE of things not seen.” Did you notice the words “substance” and “evidence”? They stand for “reality”, “documentation”, “proof”, “testimony”, “approved beyond doubt”, etc.
We are allowed to ask for evidences because there are plenty of it. Sure, we are to “Walk by faith”, but there is a road we must follow. And as we walk along that path of faith, we can pick up a lot of the substance of things we hope for and the evidence of things we are yet to see.
