FAITH WORTH FINDING

My First Sermon entitled "Acting Our Spiritual Age"

2010-04-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

My first sermon. After listening to it and even during preparation I realized how difficult it is to title a specific message because so much is covered. If I had to redo this message I probably would have gave it a different title. But oh well. So if you have 15 minutes, check it out.

God Bless

BIBLICAL FAITH Part II

2007-10-08T21:34:00.000-07:00

In the first section, I argued that that true biblical faith is not mere hope, wishful thinking or believing what you know isn’t so. One huge reason is my opinion has to do with definition of faith we find in scripture. This definition entails concepts such as assurance and evidence which run contrary to the notions and ideas of mere hopes and wishful thinking. According to the scriptures, faith revolves around the very things (i.e. assurance/evidence) that most people will confidently proclaim have nothing whatsoever to do with faith. Assurance cannot be extracted from a mere hope and when we consciously characterize faith as such, we should pause and re-think.

Where does this assurance come from? It seems the second half of Hebrews 11:1 referred to in part I provides some insight. We find the phrases: “conviction of things unseen” (NASB) and “evidence of things unseen” (KJV). I would like to suggest that our assurance comes from the “conviction” and/or “evidences”. In other words, we gain assurance from the evidence. Is it really biblical to suggest such a thing……that evidence, maybe even proof is related to faith as opposed to more of a “jump off a cliff” approach? Let’s look at the scriptures.

Exodus Chapter 4:1-5
Then Moses said, "What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, 'The LORD has not appeared to you.' "
The LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" And he said, "A staff."
Then He said, "Throw it on the ground." So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it.
But the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand and grasp {it} by its tail"--so he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand--
"that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you."

It’s unmistakable in this passage; God is providing Moses with DIRECT PROOF for the very purpose that they (Israelites) may believe (Ex 4:5). Evidence…… then…….trust.

Exodus 4:28-31
Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD with which He had sent him, and all the signs that He had commanded him {to do.}
Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the sons of Israel;
and Aaron spoke all the words which the LORD had spoken to Moses. He then performed the signs in the sight of the people.
So the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD was concerned about the sons of Israel and that He had seen their affliction, then they bowed low and worshiped.

Once again, unmistakable……WHAT came first, trust or evidence?

Exodus 14:26-31
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen."
So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state at daybreak, while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it; then the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.
The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even Pharaoh's entire army that had gone into the sea after them; not even one of them remained.
But the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea, and the waters {were like} a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
When Israel saw the great power which the LORD had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in His servant Moses.

John 20:30-31
Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;
but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

In addition, faith couldn’t possibly be something that requires us to “check out our brains at the door” because according to Mark 12:29-30, when Jesus was asked by one of the scribes “What commandment is the foremost of all?”, Jesus reply was as follows:
“The foremost is, 'HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.'

In least in matters concerning Him, God didn’t leave open the option of using or NOT using our minds. We are actually commanded to love God with not only some but ALL of our minds. Unfortunately, for some Christians, this isn’t appealing because punting to faith serves as a nice escape hatch to thinking critically.

In summary, from a biblical perspective it seems warranted and justified to hold the position that faith is built upon evidences and/or “good reasons”. A few passages seemed to indicate that God’s intervention with the Israelites was for the very purpose that people would believe. God proved himself to the Israelites in the Old Testament and God has proved himself to all of mankind through Jesus’ Christ proving his authority through the Resurrection. If the New Testament and Old Testament are true accounts, then there is no reason to suggest or believe that our hope is a “long shot” rather it is a hope buttressed with nearly irrefutable evidences and compelling reasons.

BIBLICAL FAITH

2007-08-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

Is it fair to assume that the best definition and characterization of true biblical faith can probably be found in the Bible? If you think so, hopefully you will find this discussion profitable and spiritually enriching.
"Take a leap of faith." "Who cares if it doesn't' make sense, you just have to have faith." We hear statements like this all the time and to my dismay, much of the time it is from Christians. To be honest, we've probably made some the statements ourselves. A student once asked a Christian apologist after a debate, "if there really are all of these good reasons for believing in Christianity, WHERE IS THE ROOM FOR FAITH?" In short, this student is suggesting that faith and rationale are at two opposite ends of the spectrum. This characterizatin of faith makes "the absence of evidence or good reasons" a necessary component of faith. This students question reveals an all too common and fundamental misunderstanding of biblical faith. Faith is not creative thinking, it's not imaginary thinking and it's not wishful thinking. Faith is also not a force similar to gravity. Faith is not a natural or scientific law. One of the most accurate synonyms for biblical faith would probably be "trust." The book of Hebrews tells us that it is impossible to please God without faith, so its vital that we have a proper understanding. Let's take a look at the Bibles definition of faith which can be found also in the book of Hebrews. It states "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."(NASB) The King James translates it as such, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Please take special note of the bold words that you just read. If faith is nothing more than mere hope, not only can there be no assurance but there can also be no convictions or evidence. Given the modern view of faith, to even associate or insinuate that faith has anything to do with things such as evidence or assurance is seen as foolishness. Nevertheless, this is precisely what the scriptures reveal to us. I hope that one can see that even a cursory examination of probably the most concise definition of faith found within the scriptures leads us to the inescapable truth. Biblical faith has alot to do with evidence and assurance.
Think about it for a moment. It strikes me as naïve and ultimately futile to believe that you can squeeze any measure of assurance out of a mere hope. Maybe it can be done if you hope really hard? Maybe if you hope really really hard? Okay, if you aren't sold on the notion that you cannot squeeze assurance out of hope, let's try an analogy. Please do the following:
1) Withdraw all the cash you have, emptying your bank account
2) Place all of the cash in a suitcase
3) NOW, Hope with all the might, strength that you have ever hoped or ever could hope and then
4) Go to the neareast convenience store and play the powerball lottery
If hope alone can muster or generate assurance then we don't have to worry about losing our money…right? We can obtain and secure assurance by hoping mightily.....right? The truth is that hope alone is unable to provide assurance. You can hope against common sense, reason and even truth (i.e. Atheist) but you will never have assurance. So, if we can't hope ourselves to assurance, where do we get it? This will be discussed in--BIBLCALLY DERIVED DEFINITION OF FAITH? Part II

God Keep You,

RELIGIOUS PLURALISM

2007-04-06T20:46:00.000-07:00

You've heard it or maybe you believe it. "All religions are true" or "All religions are basically the same." This idea is promoted by many in an attempt to sound tolerant and accepting of various different beliefs. While sounding respectful and nice, there are some problematic and more directly insurmountable philisophical obstacles inherit in this worldview.
1) This perspective ignores one of the most fundamental principles of logic, the law of non-contradiction. Take for example the following truth claims:
Judaism - Jesus is not the Son of God, Christianity - Jesus IS the Son of God
Now, who in their right mind can rationally affirm the truthfulness of BOTH of these statements? Can both of these statements be true at the same time? Logic tells us no and any intellectually honest individual will agree. This principle permeates the most basic forms of personal interaction and apprehension of knowledge. If a man asked his wife if she were pregnant and she responded as such, "Yes......and No", the man would demand she come clean with the truth! There are no compelling reasons to ignore this fact when it comes to comparing the truthfulness of religious claims.

2) Some might see this as a noble attempt to unify all belief systems. The tragedy is that it comes at the cost of sacrificing all common sense. It's interesting to note how often Christians are pummeled with the charge of being "irrational" and just having "FAITH". The intentional blind eye to the blatant contradictions stem from the inability to think "critically". This view suggests that since there are some similarities they must ultimately be the same or express the same ideas. The operative word here is some. Religious pluralism is like a vacuum that sucks up all competing belief systems and spits out the incompatible teachings. The problem is that, through the pluralistic lens, the religions in comparison are stripped of their original content and whats left is nothing more than a caricature of the belief system but not the real mcoy. It's like saying the US Government and Islamic Government are basically the same because they both are in favor of punishing criminals and upholding justice. The truth is, it's not the similarities that matter but the differences. No one would say that a dog and brontosaurus are basically the same thing because they both have 4 legs, 2 eyes and a tail. Why not? Again because its the differences that matter. When comparing 2 or more belief systems the acknowledgement of similar characteristics can indeed show us where they are similar but thats it! Their differences must enter the equation before we can come to any final conclusions as to what the very essence of each belief system is or teaches. For these reasons, religous pluralism therefore is false.
God Bless,SC†