DOESN’T BELIEVING IN GOD REQUIRE FAITH?

Although there are a number of arguments for God’s existence— and we will cover those in this book—when it comes down to it, isn’t believing in God really a matter of faith? In fact, don’t all religious questions belong in the realm of faith?

Faith is vitally important, yet many people misunderstand it, thinking it means you throw away your mind and just believe blindly. That is not what biblical faith is about.

ASSURANCE AND CONVICTION

The Bible says, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 NASB). A good question to ask is, “Where do the assurance and conviction of our faith come from?” They come from knowledge or evidence of the things hoped for or not seen. It is your knowledge of something that allows you to trust in it. And seeing the evidence gives your faith confidence. So biblical faith isn’t a blind faith that operates without any reason to believe—rather, it looks at the evidence. In fact that is one of the reasons the apostles of Jesus recorded many of the miraculous signs performed by Jesus: “These [signs] are written down so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah” (John 20:31).

Here is an example: You exercise faith every time you fly in an airplane. You may not even see the pilot, but you place your faith in him or her to safely fly the plane. You probably have not seen the expert engineers, machinists, and craftsmen who built the aircraft, but you believe the plane you are flying on is airworthy. So where do you get the assurance you are traveling safely? You have no doubt placed your faith in the knowledge of the airline’s record of performance and the Airlines rules that regulate and monitor the airline industry. There is overwhelming evidence that airline travel is safe. And that knowledge of the evidence gives assurance and conviction to your belief.

The point is, your faith is based upon knowledge about the airline company and its strict rules of operation. You have gained assurance based on an intelligent or knowledgeable faith or on personal experience. Your faith isn’t a blind faith that requires no information or evidence at all.

Believing something without clear evidence is like taking a leap into the dark; acting on faith that is rooted in clear evidence is like stepping into the light.

In the Old Testament, God sent Moses to Pharaoh, the leader of Egypt. God worked miraculous acts to convince Pharaoh to release the children of Israel. Finally he relented. But the evidence of God’s might had a profound impact on Israel. “When the people of Israel saw the mighty power that the LORD had unleashed against the Egyptians they were filled with awe before him. They put their faith in the LORD and his servant Moses” (Exodus 14:31).

But evidence of God isn’t always that pronounced. Most of the time he is hidden from us in the material world and we must continue to believe anyway. Yet that doesn’t mean we can’t be assured or have deep conviction about him based on evidence. In this book, we will provide evidence for God and answer questions about what he is like, and that will help give us a firm faith.

FAITH AND EVIDENCE WORK TOGETHER

No matter how exhaustive or convincing the evidence is, we still must exercise faith. You can find sufficient evidence to establish that what you believe is credible and objectively true. When it comes to God, he wants a relationship with us more than anything, and the key to a relationship is trust. So the more we know about his character, his heart, and his motivations and desires, the deeper our convictions will grow and the stronger our faith will be in his person.

Faith and evidence work hand in hand that way. For example, when trying times come into your life, your faith in God can be tested. Tragedies like a devastating storm that destroys your home, the loss of a job, or a terrible disease that takes a loved one from you can test your faith to the limit. It’s easy at those times to ask, “Why?” And sometimes there is no satisfying answer. We can be tempted to ask, “Doesn’t God see what’s happening? Doesn’t he care? Why doesn’t he do something about it?” The Scripture tell us, “These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold” (1 Peter 1:7 NLT).

Why is your faith so “precious” and so important to God? Because a “strong and pure” faith in him is a faith full of knowledge of who he is.

More than anything God wants us to know him for the true God that he is. He wants us to rely on him during trying times. He wants us to know he is there for us no matter what. Jesus prayed to his Father God and said, “This is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth” (John 17:3). To know God is to trust our lives to him. The more that we come to know him the more we can place our complete trust in him.

The Bible says, “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). If your faith in God is weak, this book is intended to strengthen it. If your faith in God is strong, this book will make it even stronger. The more you look at the evidence of God’s existence—who he really is, what he is really like—and clarify for yourself the many misunderstandings about him, the more your faith in him will deepen and grow.