Correcting Dan Brown's Confusion About Faith Part II

This gets at the heart of perhaps the most fundamental challenge in modern Christianity—the need to recover for ourselves as Christians, and to commend to our world, a biblical and accurate definition of faith.  Is faith a leap into the dark for no reason?  Or has there been a costly perversion of a term that betrays instead a fundamental confusion about faith, both inside and outside Christianity?

The contemporary attack on Christianity by critics from outside in fact has less to do with the lobbing of embarrassing facts into our yard than it does with relegating faith to the realm of mere feelings and the irrational.  Note, for example, Stephen J. Gould’s Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life. (Ballantine, 1999), p.22; and also Joseph Campbell’s conversation with a Catholic priest, in The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers.  (Anchor, 1991), p.266; to name just a few.  Yet non-Christians are only part of the problem!  In my twenty plus years as a pastor I have often been confronted by Christians (and non-Christians as well) who were offended at my attempts to “defend” our faith.  And two personal friends of mine were recently asked to leave their positions as pastors of a large Christian congregation because they sought to equip their church with the skills for defending Christianity in our secular climate.  It seems that the challenge of proclaiming the Gospel in our day demands not merely the defending of the Gospel, but also defending its defense!

We must recover a sense of faith that includes the rational because the Bible itself points us in that direction.  While we are not called to understand God’s ways in an exhaustive way (Job, Isaiah 55:9), and while it is true that we often “see in a mirror dimly” (1 Corinthians 13:12), the Bible does lead us to believe it is reasonable to trust Him.  Nowhere in Scripture (Matthew 18:3 notwithstanding) is it ever hinted that we must deny our intelligence in order to trust in Him.  To the contrary readers are commanded to love the Lord your God with “all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).  Indeed, the prophets urged their hearers to rethink the folly of idolatry (Isaiah 44:9).  Paul writes that our refusal to think will be one of the standards of judgment against sinners (Romans 1:18).  The Psalm writer urges us to consider (a rational act) the reality of God (Psalm 8:3).

 Quite apart from the Bible, the word “faith” is consistent with a reasonable act.  When you say, “I have faith in you, John,” do you mumble under your breath, “so I’ll throw my caution to the wind.”?  Of course not!  Rather, you are effectively saying, “Your track record of the past gives me confidence in you for the future!”  The denial of rationality in the act of faith demeans the person we say we are trusting.  Faith is rationally-based confidence, on the other hand, that alone crowns its object with dignity. 

 
And the message of Christianity is indeed worthy of your faith in the sense in which we have been describing faith.  It is not within the scope of this essay to lay out the broad range of supporting evidence for the truth of the God of the Bible.  Reasons to Believe (www.reasons.org) offers a host of articles and books to that end.  You may also download my essay, “Hoax? Myth? or Literally True?” at www.christianityontheoffense.com  My point here, however, is to invite you to consider the truth of the God of the Bible with your mind.  Discover for yourself that trusting Him is not nonsense, but the smartest choice among alternatives.