The Paper September 2013 –
Faith In ???
When I come home on a dark night, put my hand in
through the door and flick the switch, I expect that the light will go on. When I go across a high bridge in the car and
look down at the water below I feel safe.
When I sit in a train as it travels quickly along the lines I don’t
worry about safety, and when I am sitting in my seat on an aeroplane 10 kilometres
up in the sky I have confidence I will safely land on earth again. In all these “potentially uncertain”
situations I accept the circumstances and expect a particular outcome even
though they are all far beyond my personal ability to control! I have never visited a Power station, I was
not there when the bridge was built, I know nothing about how to make 360
tonnes of metal and plastic ascend into the air like a bird, but yet I have
confidence that those who do will make it work on my behalf. Perhaps the fact that I have been in these
situations before is able to help me to accept, but how do I know that it will
work next time?
What gives me confidence to be able to accept that
these things will continue to work in the way I expect? The answer, I guess, is that through
experience and over time I have developed faith in systems in the world around
me, things that exist and support me. Now
these examples cited are all from an engineering-built environment that we can inspect,
handle or see if we want to - not that we would be able to understand the
theory, design and construction of them even if we tried - but because we are
“physical”, and these things are “physical”, we develop and accept a level of
trust that allows us to have confidence, or faith, in things we use so
frequently.
Whilst it is demonstrably true that we are
“physical” beings, I believe it is also imminently observable that we are more
than just physical – we also have a part of our being which exists beyond the
physical, or in what we might call a “spiritual” realm. I see this in the world around me – in
feelings, emotional responses, acceptance of basic life-principles and in showing
of concern for those in need. I
experience it in my own life as well as through the experiences of others which
they share with me.
I believe that the World was created by a non-physical,
or an aphysical Power I call God, and as a Christian I also believe that this
God has manifested Himself to us through one Jesus Christ who lived on the
Earth in a different generation. Through
study and observation I have come to believe that He was able to link the world
beyond to the physical world around us. Whilst
my human experience of God is not physical, it is none the less just as true to
me as is the assured certainty of turning on the light, safely crossing a
bridge or flying in an aeroplane. I can
logically worship my God through a faith that is within me.
The issue of
putting faith in something we cannot see is not a new topic. The Apostle Paul in the New Testament, when
speaking to people in Athens, ‘reasoned’ with them about a God who is findable
if anyone seeks him, for “he is not far from any one of us”. (See
the Bible book of Acts, Chapter 17 verses 16 to 32 for a more detailed report
of Paul’s encounter.)
However, unlike the faith we have in the physical world around us, Faith
in God is not some-thing that we can manufacture or ‘try’ to have, but is given
us of God. It is strengthened with
experience. Rather than being passive,
faith in God leads to an active life aligned with what the Bible teaches. Faith sees the mystery of God and his grace,
and seeks to know and become obedient to Him. To a Christian, faith is not static but causes
one to want to learn more of God and grow; its origin is in what God has done in
history, and its presence in what God is doing in lives today.
Many think that having
‘faith’ in God and Jesus Christ is fideism, that is a faith that is independent
of reason. However, when we consider the
situation, we find that there are reliable reasons to place our faith and trust
in the claims of the Bible and specifically in the person and work of Jesus
Christ.
We would like to invite you to visit us, or a Church in your local
Community, to talk about how you can develop a certainty about “spiritual” things
of God in a physical world. See Church
Notices in this Paper for times of Meetings at the Christian Israelite Church
at 196 Campbell Street – we have been there since 1853 - 160 years.
