Tonight I’m in the midst of what is becoming a long and interesting conversation with a mate about ultimate reality, faith and meaning. We have agreed that we will be happy to allow for robust argumentation and that we will not be ‘arguing for a win’ but for truth. Below is a small excerpt from the conversation …
‘This is probably not what you are saying, but we need to be clear that it’s inappropriate for a person to attempt to ‘go and get faith’ so that they can then have meaning. Better to remain honest and without faith and meaning than to have a faith that’s what has been called a ‘noble lie’. For example, the person who says, ‘I wish I could have faith’ is totally misunderstanding how it works—and I have heard Christians talk about it this way, which to me seems rather oxymoronic.
The fact is that—contrary to what some educated believers might suggest—faith is not normally the outcome of reading a series of good books and then reaching some tidy logical conclusions, it’s something that normally happens after an extended time of shy information-gathering via pain at home, love affairs and arguments, book-readings, tragedies and/or joys, and maybe a war or two thrown in along with a stunning concert, and then—at some moment of curiosity, desperation or mischief when no one’s looking (along with a dash of courage and/or stupidity)—we quietly open a spooky little door and get an interesting surprise!
It’s not always a happy surprise, but at that moment we are in no doubt that there is such a thing as the mystery of a personal being called God, and if we wish for anything after that it’s likely to be either that we had never opened that little door (cause you now have this inconvenient problem of being convinced and are stuck with this dreadful and captivating presence who you can’t get enough of, but who also kind of frightens you and at the same time seems to demand and expect things of you. And weirdly—seems to be the one who has found you. On the other hand, it might be that you wish desperately for more and more of this amazing being of grace and life and joy—but either way you suspect that from here on your life is going to be more dangerous, more interesting and definitely much less under your control—damn it!/bless it!
As far as what happens after that: some believers seem to reach this place and never move away from it, others move away and never come back, and others seem to have to come back to it again and again. Some have a clear memory of the first time this happened and others say that they have always been there as long as they can remember.’
[these thoughts owe much to my own personal experience, the New testament, GK Chesterton, George MacDonald and CS Lewis]
I sometimes wonder if we over intellectualize the Gospel with the gleanings of human methods and anecdotes. Where faith is concerned you can debate or try to find a meaningful method of dialogue steeped in apologetic strategy. You may win the debate and you may shut your opponent down. However at the end of the day where faith is concerned you either have to accept Ephesians 2:8-9 and its explicit stand that faith is the gift of God that no one can earn and that it is supernaturally given over and above human reason or you have to dismiss it. If Cornerstone taught me anything all those years ago its that you can’t argue or reason someone into the Kingdom of God. Would you agree that faith and salvation are the work of God Pete?
Thinking more about it Chris, I don’t think I do agree. I believe that when Paul talks of ‘not your own doing’ he is talking about the ‘being saved’ bit, which is of course the business of the rescuer:God. Faith itself is something that goes on between us and God and to suggest that our will is simply over-ridden and that faith is then ‘given to us’ is to make nonsense of all those references to God pleading with us to come to him. It’s there all through the bible, cause there are some things that God cannot do unless he does them through us.
In retrospect Chris, I would add that there are three ‘movements’ in faith (as summed up below) and ——rather than debating about whether it is ‘all of God or not’——they speak to us about what we know, and that is the business of being called into a partnership with God as co-workers with Him in the harvest of redemption.
• After-thought about faith. Faith is …
#1 Letting Go: CH Dodd says, ‘There is a deep and powerful generative moment in faith that is ‘the negation of all activity, a moment of passivity out of which strength for action comes, because in it God acts.’ (Dodd CH. p.15 Romans 1:16,17 Hodder & Stoughton 1947). The trouble is that we western, activistic people of faith have frequently been guilty of killing or even skipping that ‘moment of passivity out of which strength for action comes’ and hence not allowing God to act at all. Instead of opening a door, our so-called faith closes the door on God’s power and gives ‘faith’ a bad name.
#2. Holding On: Having said that, CS Lewis fills out another aspect of faith when he says, ‘Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding onto things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. For moods will change, whatever view your reason takes.’ (Business of heaven March 17).
#3 Approaching/Wrestling: Tozer says, ‘Lord how excellent are your ways and how dark and devious are the ways of man. Show us how to die that we may rise again to newness of life. Tear the veil of our self-life from the top down as you did tear the veil in the temple. We would draw near in full assurance of faith. We would dwell with you in daily experience here on this earth so that we may be accustomed to see the glory when we enter your heaven to live with you there. In Jesus name, amen.’ (A.W. Tozer – The Pursuit of God)