Tag Archives: without faith

FAITH OR DELUSION?

Apologetics, ,

We humans are incomplete in ourselves. We are not self-sufficient and self-sustaining. We need someone or something greater than ourselves upon which to lean for meaning, purpose, and support. Babies need mothers; children need parents; adults need a higher power to guide and sustain us through life. In whoever or whatever we choose to trust will either meet our needs or fail us when we call for help.

Faith and its opposite, unbelief based on a delusion, has both a broad and a narrow base. What do I mean?

Let’s first examine the concept of faith. What is faith? Faith is confidence in the reality and reliability of a person or object, i.e., anyone or anything that can do what it says it can do and what we expect it to do.

The object of our faith must be real. It must exist even if it is unseen. If what we believe in and trust does not exist, faith is not faith. If we choose to repudiate what is real in favour of what cannot be proven to be real, we are deluded. If faith has no legitimate object in which to trust, it cannot be real faith. It is a delusion.

Legitimate faith, then, is the broad base upon which we function, our confidence in a person or thing that is able to sustain us in the context of everyday life. This faith forms the basis of our spiritual experience. The object of our faith must have both the  authority and power to perform as expected. This object, then, in whom we trust, is a god to us, one who has real authority and power.

The narrow base of faith is the trust we exercise in the one with whom we can communicate when we need help. We call on His name and He responds with intervention and action. We speak to Him and He speaks to us. This communication is not a figment of our imagination. What He says and does can transform our thinking and behaviour.

Hebrews 11:6 NLT
[6] “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”

Those who want to interact with God (or a god) must be convinced that He is real and that He responds to those who communicate with Him.

Delusion, on the other hand, is based on someone or something that only exists in human imagination. People have, since the fall of the first man from faith to delusion, created gods in their own image to evade the true God and their accountability to Him.

David concluded…

Psalms 14:1 NLT
[1] “Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good!”

The reason for and purpose of their delusion is to make their own rules to accommodate their sinful desires and to escape accountability to the God who (they know) created and owns everyone.

Psalms 24:1 NLT
[1]”The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him.”

Despite man’s every attempt to escape from God, in the end, He really does exist, and He will call all people to account for their thoughts and actions.

How do we know that God is real and, therefore, our faith is faith, not a delusion? Since God’s existence cannot be proven scientifically, those who believe in Him base their argument from signs that are real.

The Bible gives us several signs that point to the existence of God. These are not scientific “proofs”, only clues that point us to His existence and, consequently, our faith in a legitimate object. Only when we are convinced that what the Bible says about Him is true can we bridge the gap between Himself and us by the gossamer thread of faith.

At least four clues have no explanation outside of a real God.

1. The natural world.
There is evidence of both design and unity in diversity in the natural world. Ecosystems everywhere point to the actions of a designer with their evidence of interaction and delicate balance that sustains their continuity. When humans interfere, this balance and continuity break down.

The Bible recognises that the human body is a miracle of intricate design…

Psalms 139:13-14 NLT
[13] “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. [14] Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.”

Despite the theory of evolution, if we remove or try to change a single function in the intricacy of a human body, that part will be dysfunctional. How, then, can every detail of the body function efficiently when it is, supposedly, evolving and in the process of change?

The universe and the natural world are a cosmos of splendour and beauty which suggest the work of a supreme artist…

Psalms 19:1-4 NLT
[1]”The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. [2] Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. [3] They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. [4] Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.”

So powerful and so glorious is this created universe that Paul declared…

Romans 1:20 NLT
[20]”For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”

2. Miracles point to the intervention of a Divine Being.
Miracles are events that either speed up or cut across natural functions. Outside of the Biblical narrative, humans have experienced miracles that have no natural explanation. There can be no other conclusion than that a Being greater than man has intervened.

3. The evidence of prophecy.
People try to predict the future but mostly in such vague terms that fulfilment is difficult to recognise. Only God Himself claimed to be able to foretell the future in such detail that no one could doubt its origin.

“The Bible is the only known religious document with historically verifiable prophecies that have consistently been fulfilled…

…That the Bible has dozens of prophecies that can be verified by historians as having been accurately fulfilled is very strong proof that God is its Author…

…The Old Testament prophets foretold the coming of the Messiah in great detail. According to the Old Testament, the Messiah would:

be a descendant of Abraham (Gen. 12:3; Gen. 22:18)
be from the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:10)
be a descendant of David (2 Sam. 7:12 and 13)… (and many more)…

…Jesus Christ fulfilled all these prophecies and even more. With such amazing accuracy about the first coming of the Lord, why would any reasonable person doubt the prophecies that have not yet been fulfilled? And why would any reasonable person doubt that Jesus Christ was the man the Old Testament prophecies referred to? The fact that the Bible has been accurate in its prophecy time after time should make it easy to believe God is its Author, and that its prophecies concerning the return of Jesus Christ, the battle of Armageddon, the coming Judgment of all people, and saved people’s living forever, are all true.”

(Source : https://stfi.org)

4. Personal experience
The Apostle Paul experienced a personal transformation so radical that there can be no other explanation than that a divine encounter stopped him in his tracks and turned him around. He told his own story…

Acts of the Apostles 26:9-10, 12-18 NLT
[9] “I used to believe that I ought to do everything I could to oppose the very name of Jesus the Nazarene. [10] Indeed, I did just that in Jerusalem. Authorized by the leading priests, I caused many believers there to be sent to prison. And I cast my vote against them when they were condemned to death…
[12] “One day I was on such a mission to Damascus, armed with the authority and commission of the leading priests. [13] About noon, Your Majesty, as I was on the road, a light from heaven brighter than the sun shone down on me and my companions. [14] We all fell down, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is useless for you to fight against my will.’ [15] “‘Who are you, lord?’ I asked. “And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. [16] Now get to your feet! For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and witness. Tell people that you have seen me, and tell them what I will show you in the future. [17] And I will rescue you from both your own people and the Gentiles. Yes, I am sending you to the Gentiles [18] to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in me.’ “

Could anyone invent a story like this and spend the rest of his life following through on his invention, including the hardships he endured,  on a delusion? Millions of people throughout the generations can testify to transformation when they believed in Jesus.

Faith in this God and the experiences of His love and care that faith makes possible, has provided enough evidence that this God, the God of the Bible, is real. He exists, and faith in Him is not a delusion.

What of the many gods people have invented to replace the one true God in their experience? Characteristically, all other gods resemble humans and glorify the worst of human nature. They are mostly evil, unpredictable, vengeful, and malevolent in their attitude toward their devotees. They demand to be appeased and call forth fear in the hearts of their “worshippers”.

Who are these gods that demand obeisance? The Apostle Paul identifies them as demons masquerading as gods.

1 Corinthians 10:19-21 NLT
[19] “What am I trying to say? Am I saying that food offered to idols has some significance, or that idols are real gods? [20] No, not at all. I am saying that these sacrifices are offered to demons, not to God. And I don’t want you to participate with demons. [21] You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons, too. You cannot eat at the Lord’s Table and at the table of demons, too.”

Sacrifices and rituals offered to false gods are really offered to demons. Thus, “faith” in these gods is not faith but a delusion since they do not exist. Any religion based on gods created in the image of humans is a delusion.

People who are lured away from the worship of the one true God presented to us in the Bible by false teachings, also follow the doctrines of demons.

1 Timothy 4:1 NLT
[1]”Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons.”

Satan will do whatever it takes to deceive people into worshipping him, even when he is disduisedcas a god. When humans refuse to acknowledge and worship the only true God, they will fall for any delusion that lures them towards eternal death.

Isaiah 45:18 NLT
[18]” For the Lord is God, and he created the heavens and earth and put everything in place. He made the world to be lived in, not to be a place of empty chaos. “I am the Lord,” he says, “and there is no other.”

1 Timothy 2:5 NLT
[5]”There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus.”

Thus we must conclude that God is real, that faith in Him is real, and that all other “faiths” are false. Every follower of a false god or gods is deceived and destined for eternal judgment. This truth cannot be classified as “hate speech” since it points to reality and offers hope to those who embrace this God as real. This is the only “love speech” that calls people away from delusion to the truth that offers them eternal life.

John 3:18-19 NLT
[18]  “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. [19] And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.”

FOUNDATION STONES – 18

Christian Life, ,

FAITH AND HOPE

Hebrews 11:6 NLT
[6] “It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”

We already have many stones in place to form a firm foundation for godly lives. However, our foundation lacks one that could be called the cement that holds all the other stones in place.

Each stone must be built into our foundation with a lavish amount of faith. Faith, trust, confidence in God that He will do what He promised, is our only assurance that our foundation will support our lives when the storms hit us.

What ia faith? Is faith an abstract concept or a strong reality? Faith is as unseen but as real as the air we breathe. Without oxygen we will die. Without faith, we have no connection to the God who gives us life.

Let’s look at faith like this. You set out to bake a cake or create a garment exactly like the picture of the finished product. You gather your materials and follow the recipe or pattern, step by step, keeping in mind your goal to replicate what you see in the picture. You pause periodically to asses your progress and to ensure that you are doing each step correctly. You are eventually rewarded, after faithfully copying the recipe or pattern, with a result that perfectly matches the original.

This is a simple illustration of the connection between faith and hope. Hope is the end result. Faith is the way to get there.

Hebrews 11:1 NLT
[1] “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.”

Our hope is the picture of the finished product. Faith is our confidence in the instructions that will take us, step by step, to what we want to accomplish and the process by which we achieve our goal. God’s Word is the recipe or pattern we are to follow to complete what we set out to do.

God has given us the picture of the end product…sons and daughters recreated in the likeness of His blueprint, Jesus, living together as God’s perfect family in fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:29 NIV
[29] “For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

God has also told us what He will do and what we must do to fulfill our hope. We must learn to submit to Him and obey His instructions by being led by His Spirit.

Romans 8:14 NIV
[14]”For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.”

God works, in everything that happens to us in life, good and bad, to teach us to submit to and obey Him as the sons of a loving Father.

Romans 8:28 NIV
[28] “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Philippians 2:12-13 NIV
[12] “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, [13] for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”

God has His” tools” to train us to obey…

His Word,

2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV
[16]”All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, [17] so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

His Spirit,

John 16:13 NIV
[13] “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.”

And, surprisingly, our hardships,

Hebrews 12:5-7, 9-10 NLT
[5] “And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, “My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you. [6] For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.” [7] As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father?…
[9] Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever? [10] For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness.”

Holiness is God’s requirement if we are to spend eternity with Him.

Hebrews 12:14 NIV
[14] “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”

As in every detail of our lives in Christ, we are in partnership with God. He has made us holy through the blood of Jesus. Now we are to work our that holiness by dying to the sin nature and its evil deeds.

2 Corinthians 7:1 NLT
[1] “Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God.”

Faith in Jesus is the way both to salvation and to a holy life.

Galatians 2:20 NIV
[20] “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

WAIT ON THE LORD

Christian Life, ,

WAIT ON THE LORD


How often we are told in Scripture to wait on the Lord!  We have an issue; we cry out to God for help; then we are told to wait…. The last thing we want to do us wait when we need a solution NOW.

So, what is this waiting about? What does it mean to wait?

So far, I have found two Hebrew words, translated “wait”, that throw light on the process of waiting for God to act on our behalf.

The first word is “qavah” meaning, among other ideas, to bind together by twisting. This is a picture, in ancient Hebrew, of a rope maker. He buys strands for his rope from the peasants in the market. Some strands are good quality, others inferior, but he uses them all in the making of his rope.

This illustrates the process of “twisting” our life experiences into a “rope” of faith that connects us to God. As we wait, i.e., “twist together” the strands of our lives, good and bad, and we are creating the faith that connects us with God.

“And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”
Hebrews 11:6 NLT

“We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”
Hebrews 6:12 NIV

So, waiting is the process of developing the faith that God rewards. Patience is an essential part of that process. The Greek word, “makrothumia” implies longsuffering, the willingness to endure whatever it takes to get the outcome you desire.

God works in His way and in His time to develop in us those qualities which reflect His nature in us. His agenda is always, in the end, to transform us into the likeness of Jesus. He uses all of our life experiences, including those we struggle with and cry out to Him for help, to twist together a rope of faith that waits for Him to work “for our good in all things.

This kind of faith takes us from “trusting God for… ” (the way in which we get what we want) to “trusting God…” (the person in whom we put our trust).

To be continued…

FAITH AND PERSEVERANCE

Christian Life, ,

FAITH AND PERSEVERANCE

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Hebrews 11:6

If humility is the basis of our approach to God, without faith and perseverance, prayer will achieve nothing. Unlike the pagans, who “pray” to get what they want, God’s children draw near to Him because they are family, and family members are held together by the bonds of love and trust. Children look to their Father because they trust Him. They know Him and they are confident that He will always do what is best for them. They don’t give up because they know that He will keep His promises to them.

Faith is a non-negotiable attitude in our interaction with this God through prayer. Our entire lives as disciples of Jesus are based on confidence in a God we cannot see with our human eyes or hear with our human ears, but we are convinced is real. Jesus stated very simply:

Have faith in God. (Mark 11:22)

Who is this God in whom we are to have faith? If we were to follow the Pharisees’ interpretation of God, we would not have much to go on. We would have to entrust ourselves to a God who is always on the lookout for violations of His commandments. We would be cowering under the weight of our guilt. We would be working very hard to earn His favour by nit-picking over every little rule and regulation. Despite all that, we would still be more focused on our efforts to satisfy Him than on His mercy and grace towards us. We would have more faith in ourselves than in Him. But….

Without faith, it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. (Heb.11: 6)

The bottom line is “Who is the God in whom we must have faith?” If our confidence is not rooted in the one true God whom Jesus came to reveal, we have nothing because no other god exists. The Pharisees’ god and every other god are inventions of human imagination. We can see and know who the real God is when we gaze at Jesus because He is the perfect replica and representation of the Father.

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth . . . No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known. (John 1: 14; 8)

Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am?

I have revealed you to those you gave me out of the world. (John 17: 6a)

The Scriptures give us overwhelming evidence, both from the mouth of Jesus and from His witnesses, that He is a true and accurate representative of the Father.

Paul wrote:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. (Col. 1:15),

and the writer to the Hebrews echoed:

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being . . . (Heb. 1: 3a)

This is the God in whom we must have faith, not some being of our own creation. Jesus modelled faith in God. He did not question the Father’s intentions or His instructions because He knew Him. He had a strong and unbreakable link with the Father because He had faith in who He is, and how reliable He is.

As Jesus’s disciples, we are to follow our rabbi, entrusting ourselves to the Father as unquestioningly as He did, relying on Him not just to do what we ask, but relying on Him, full stop, no matter what, because He is God, and we are not.

Another parable illustrates the attitude of perseverance.

Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and never give up. (Luke 18: 1)

What do you suppose He meant by “always pray” and “never give up”? Is God so reluctant to answer us that it takes a lot of praying to persuade Him to intervene for us? This story is about a worldly judge who gave in to a widow’s persistence because she would not give up. The story is not about how like the unjust judge God is. It’s about how unlike him He is. The judge finally gave in to the woman and did what she requested because she pestered him day and night and refused to take “no” for an answer. God intervenes speedily because we are His children. The answer to our question is found in Jesus’s final statement:

However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? (Luke 18: 8b)

If the judge finally gave in to get rid of the nagging widow because she persevered, surely God will be far more gracious to us than that because He is our Father, and we trust Him!

Why does God want us to pray and to persevere in prayer? Faith! To build our faith! But why is our faith so important to God? Faith is the invisible link between us and God. It’s about relationship. Our faith in God is more precious to Him than gold. 

These have come (‘all kinds of trials’) so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1: 7)

Trust is the basis of any relationship that works. When trust breaks down, the relationship ceases to have any meaning. God is invisible but real. However, for us humans, trust in God is built up over a long period of time and through many trials when we have no other option but to trust Him. Don’t you think that God would orchestrate or allow those trials to develop our faith if it is so precious to Him?

Abraham is an example of one who learned to trust God over many years as God tested him and taught him how to persevere. He waited for twenty-five years for God to give him the son He had promised. Many of us would have given in and given up, but not Abraham. His desire for a son was so strong and his confidence in God’s promise so secure that he refused to give up on God.

By faith Abraham, even though he was past age – and Sarah herself was barren – was enabled to become a father because he considered Him faithful who had made the promise. (Heb. 11: 11)

Perseverance is not stubbornness or presumption. It is committed and persistent trust based on the faithfulness of God. God’s promises are a declaration of intent, but they come into effect in His time and in His way. We have a part to play in the fulfilment of those promises – faith and patience.

We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. (Heb. 6: 12)

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.