First Comment!
Hooray for my first reader comment!
I want to encourage interaction at my blog, so I’ll reproduce the comment and my response:
A friend asked:
“What does ‘faith’ mean in this context? To come later?”
He wanted to know what I mean by faith. I wrote back:
“Here faith means trusting God. It means believing that God has spoken, and believing God’s promises. Faith comes at the conclusion of a reasoning process–not as the presupposition to it.”
Always have a ready defense for the hope within you, says 1 Peter 3:15. What is that defense?
Some Christians will tell you they believe God’s Word, and he is God, and that settles it. But this kind of argument is no defense. It isn’t even logical. It presupposes the very thing it sets out to defend.
Growing up in a variety of churches, I had the chance to hear diverse perspectives. What is faith? Why should we have faith? Some people told me it was wrong to ask too many questions or to have doubts. Others said questions and doubts were part of the process of taking an idea seriously. It’s not bad to doubt, if you work through that doubt and find the truth.
Faith comes at the conclusion of a reasoning process—not as the presupposition to it. Let’s look at the disciples for a demonstration.
The disciples saw Jesus heal the sick and bring the dead to life. They saw him walk on water and calm a storm. These facts convinced them to have faith in Jesus, believing him to be the Son of God (Matt 16:16).
