THE FAITH OF FOOLISHNESS: GOD IS DEAD!
I believe that one of
the most profound teachings in Christianity is about faith. Many of us have tried to write or preach
about the subject, but so often, we are tempted to present one part of a
many-sided story. We present one aspect
of a whole as if it were the whole and miss the total picture.
A number of years ago
when I first went to Southern Africa School of Theology in Rustenburg, South Africa, every
senior class would build a makeshift stage on the platform at Bethany
Chapel. This was always done in
preparation for the choir to sit on as ready for performance when called upon
during the graduation ceremony. We took
bricks, put them underneath long flat timber, and covered them with white
sheet. In one such exercise, a student
overlooked putting bricks under the timber.
Fortunately, the principal picked it up and called out, “Put some bricks
under those planks, otherwise you will have to sit on faith!” By implication faith was sitting on
“nothing.”
Come to think of it, the
first act of faith proceeded from “nothing.”
The Genesis account begins with the words “In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth.” God did not
make the heavens and the earth He created them.
Which means until then, the heavens and the earth did not exist. There is a difference between the words
“made” and “created.” If you make a
chair, you need the required tools and wood to complete the project. Creating a chair would on the other hand mean
that you have nothing to work with, except a “picture” in your mind. God began with a vision of a desired state,
with no physical means to put it all together, because nothing existed but
Himself. He was the physical means. Right from the beginning God created what
became out of what never was. He created
the existing out of the non-existing (Hebrews 11:13).
The conflict between
faith and reason begins right here.
Reasonably, how do you “create?”
A fundamental axiom in basic science is that we can only move from a
known to an unknown. Therefore any form
of “creation” must start with a known premise or assumption. Faith turns that whole story around, moving
from a known to an unknown is not a “creation,” it is an innovation. Only God creates. He moves from non-existent to existent.
In Hebrews 11, the
author presents what I consider to be the best definition of faith. “Faith
is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen, it gives us
assurance about things we cannot see.”NLT
In this definition some
key words stand out, i.e. confidence, and hope. Perhaps a little unpacking of these words can
help us grasp the meaning of these key words.
“Confident” means being sure, certain, doubtless, definite, resolute in
belief, persuaded, and convinced. “Hope”
on the other hand is a combination of wish and anticipation, looking forward to
something with trust and optimism.
So, faith is being
doubtless and trusting that we will receive what we look forward to, not only
because we dare to dream, but also because God has the inexhaustible capacity
to make His and therefore our wildest dreams come true. When God’s dreams for us are actualized, they
become our achievement of faith. The
journey of faith is not about what we do with God, it is what God does with and
through us as part of His greater purpose for humanity.
Faith is seeing the
unseen through the unseen. It is believing
that God will come through for us as an oasis in the middle of the driest
wilderness. It is not an appeal to
reason or intellectual analysis, but to God.
It is an expression of a person’s unwavering belief and confidence in
the existence and power of the unknown and unseen God.
THE FOOLISHNESS OF FAITH: NIETZSCHE!
The apostle Paul’s
ministry was surrounded by a world infatuated with philosophy. The most admired philosophers were those who
had the ability to argue fluently and to put their case across in grandiloquent
terms. In this context, Paul did not
argue for the “intelligence” of the faith, but precisely for the opposite. By his own admission, he was not an eloquent
speaker; his whole ministry was an emphatic defense that “God chose the
foolish things of the world to shame the wise.”[1]
The appeal of faith is
the essence for faith. “And without
faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must
believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”[2]
Faith is being convinced that there
is a God, and that knowing Him is not limited to, and goes beyond the five
senses of touch, feeling tasting, smelling, and seeing. Christians accept that there is God. They cannot prove it, but neither can anybody
prove otherwise. The Psalmist said, “A fool
saith in his heart there is no God.” It’s like reading the same writing
differently. Some read, “God is
nowhere,” when others read, “God is now here.”
Rev. Nicholas Bhengu was
once confronted by a university professor, “What would you say Reverend, if
after preaching for so many years you suddenly woke up to the fact that there
is no God?” Bhengu replied, “I would be
disappointed, but my life would have been worth living.' He reversed the question to the learned man,
“What would you say professor, if after denying God for so many years you
suddenly woke up to the fact that there is a God.” The professor was dumbfounded. It takes an act of faith to believe or not to
believe in the existence of God. One’s
doom or glory depends on the response.
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