By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé
As you, the readers of this blog know, Michael chooses each week’s new topic. We were discussing what would be both timely for our present hour and timeless for the ages, when Michael answered this question by saying, “This week, let’s write about the subject of faith.” Doesn’t this topic deeply resonate with all of us? There are probably few moments during the course of our lives now and of our lives to come, when we have needed or more earnestly desired peace-producing faith.
In the past, I have heard a number of pastors preach that everyone is just finishing a time of trial, in one now or about to enter such a period of trouble. Today, what we’re hearing from the pulpit is quite different. Pastors are saying something more like “I’m not sure about your previous or future storms, but I am certain that, right now, you and all of us are in a season of tribulation that is testing us as we’ve never been tested before. Michael and I agree with this, and, thus, his decision for us to turn to the subject of faith, perhaps, our most necessary attribute in order to victoriously navigate this pandemic and its assault on both our physical and spiritual health.
In thinking of the subject of faith, Scripturally, of course, our minds went immediately to the unrivaled, seminal chapter which best explains it – Hebrews, Chapter 11. While there are different scholarly opinions with regard to the author of this New Testament treasure, the Book of Hebrews, there is no controversy at all that it is one of the most important Books in the Bible and that Chapter 11 is its heart as far as the subject of faith is concerned.
Hebrews’ relevance as a Biblical Book itself, rests on the fact that it was written to people who, like us, were living in the midst of dangerous, troubling times. Also, the dangers they were facing attacked them, as with us today, both physically and spiritually. While not in a pandemic of disease, there was, at that time, a pandemic of persecution from various fronts, with sweeping oppression against the Jewish or Hebrew Christians. It was an era when this same faith that is needed today was as difficult to achieve as it can be for us. What they were seeing play out around them, in the adversity they were experiencing, caused them to wonder, “Where are God and Jesus?” And “How can I continue to have faith when everything is so horrific?”
After two years of Covid, these questions have crossed the minds of many at one time or another. For some, they have become almost a mantra. Hebrews, Chapter 11 and, in particular, verse one, are the Scriptural antidotes to the disease of doubt which is, even as we speak, threatening to wear us down and even to erode our faith. Truly, Michael has been led by the Holy Spirit in looking around today’s world and its skeptical worldviews and then saying, “If we are to be relevant and encouraging we need to confront what’s on many minds and hearts; we need to write about faith.”
Hebrews Chapter 11 begins in power with its opening verse which defines what faith actually is and which will be, in its richness and wisdom, the entire Scriptural basis for this week’s blog. As to this verse, many excellent Biblical translations exist, but we greatly prefer the King James Version for possessing both power and poetry and, with this, to be extraordinarily compelling:
“Now FAITH is the SUBSTANCE of things HOPED for, the EVIDENCE of things NOT SEEN.”
(Hebrews 11:1) KJV
As a lawyer, I am drawn to the use of the word EVIDENCE. In a courtroom, it is EVIDENCE that carries the day by determining the proof or lack of proof of any issue before a judge or a jury. EVIDENCE may include, for example, the testimony of witnesses, various records or documents or, among other things, even objects. When credible, EVIDENCE is SOLID in the sense that you can have FAITH in it, can depend on it. As stated before, it proves the truth, genuineness and authenticity of a given fact that was at issue in the minds of those to whom it is being presented. It is real and of SUBSTANCE.
How then, we might ask, is the author of Hebrews 11:1, KJV, using these boldened words in the very same breath and sentence as HOPE, something not yet realized, and, of all seeming contradictions, of “things NOT SEEN.” Let’s review this verse once more:
“Now FAITH is the SUBSTANCE of things HOPED for, the EVIDENCE of things NOT SEEN.”
Upon a quick, first glimpse, it would seem that the words in bold amount to a complete contradiction in terms. A closer look will show us something quite different. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the author of Hebrews 11:1, is, instead, saying that, in showing faith, we are looking ahead to events NOW UNKNOWN, but that we are to do so based on a PRESENT knowledge on which we can completely rely. As Michael so wisely says, “Faith involves a trust, a reliance that is well placed.”
Before we consider this in the religious sense of having faith in God, let’s think about an example of how we have faith based on this same Hebrews 11:1 KJV paradigm but apply it to secular matters. For instance, everyday we make plans for the following day – write an appointment in our calendar, lay out our clothes, put gas in our car – despite the fact that we have not yet seen the sun rise on that day. The next day is UNSEEN by us, yet we have enough FAITH that it will come to pass that we live consistent with that FAITH. We prepare. Why? It is because there has been a PATTERN OF CREDIBLE EVIDENCE that we have observed OVER TIME, i.e. the sun rising on another day, over and over, so that we find it to be convincing that, right on schedule, it will rise tomorrow. Our faith, so developed, is based on HOPE, yes, but it is not some tenuous hope. Like that described in Hebrews 11:1, that HOPE is a matter of SUBSTANCE. No one aware that we possess such a hope is going to look at us and impugn our faith as irrational or mere wishful thinking. In fact, it is just the opposite. What would be viewed by another as irrational, is if one observed another hold the opinion that, despite the compelling evidence of the sun rising daily for eons, a person thought it unlikely that there would be a sunrise the following day. It is REASON and EVIDENCE that compels us to believe – NOT some blind faith on which no one wants to establish their lives.
Now, to transition to the religious implications of all this. How many times have we all heard the criticism of faith in God assailed as requiring blind faith, a clearly pejorative term, and, quite frankly, something, if it were true, would not recommend, in any intelligent way, a belief in Him.
Once again, we’ve all heard some people, sadly those unfamiliar with Hebrews 11:1, say, “Well, we’ll just have to take that on blind faith” Our friends, this is not Biblical, in that it flies in the face of this verse. Jesus, himself, said that a wise man builds his house upon a ROCK, NOT SAND. (Matthew 7:24-27) NIV. Jesus further said that he would build his Church upon a ROCK and that it would be so SOLID that “The gates of hell would not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18) KJV. Why then, would Jesus or God the Father or the Holy Spirit Whose inspiration produced Hebrews 11:1, ask us to have as important a state of mind as exists in Scripture, FAITH, based on a blind anything! They wouldn’t! This verse defines FAITH as a matter of SUBSTANCE and based on unrivaled EVIDENCE itself. How sad that God and the Trinity, are sometimes criticized as demanding that we blindly accept them because “We said so!” That’s bad parenting in the human realm and in the divine as well.
Now, let’s take all of what we’ve discussed and apply it, not to our FAITH in the Secular but, instead, to GOD and having FAITH in Him. God’s clear and reasonable expectation is to simply have us use the same standard that we apply everyday in our secular lives to decide whether it is sound reason to have FAITH in Him. That is:
WHAT IS THE PATTERN OF CREDIBLE EVIDENCE THAT WE HAVE OBSERVED OVER TIME WITH REGARD TO GOD?
First, we need a caveat. The above question is specifically with regard to GOD and the TRINITY themselves. We are purposely excluding some of the people who have, over the ages, represented themselves as speaking FOR God. It has been said, and correctly so, that immeasurable harm has resulted from fallible mankind misinterpreting and misrepresenting God. We are all too familiar with this.
Scripture and events over time have well documented GOD’S CHARACTER AND TRUSTWORTHINESS. Many books have been written covering this topic. Michael and I must necessarily be succinct. You recall, that we wrote earlier in this blog, that there are several forms of admissible EVIDENCE allowed in court. What, therefore, is the admissible and CREDIBLE EVIDENCE in support of GOD’S CHARACTER AND ACTIVITIES THROUGHOUT TIME? And based on these, do we have SOLID REASON to maintain FAITH IN GOD?
Three kinds of EVIDENCE ARE COMPELLING to establish a REASONABLE basis for FAITH IN GOD:
The TESTIMONY OF INNUMERABLE, CREDIBLE WITNESSES throughout Scripture give unimpeachable evidence for the truth of His existence. With regard to Jesus and the power of God to raise him from the dead, eleven of the twelve apostles were martyred. They gave their lives rather than recant that they had been with the resurrected Jesus. There can be no more persuasive testimony of God’s power to restore life than this.
The RECORD OF SCRIPTURE ITSELF AND ITS DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE OF A PATTERN OF FORGIVENESS AND RESTORATION, in general, give us solid reasons for FAITH in a long-suffering God who can be trusted to always find a way to restore mankind.
OBJECTS are often powerful pieces of evidence. With regard to the character of God and the substantive reasons for FAITH in Him, there is one object that says it all: THE CROSS. If there is ever any doubt of the love of this GOD Who will do ANYTHING to rescue us and is, therefore, worthy of our FAITH in Him, it is that He sent His Son to Earth to die in order to save us. There can be no more COMPELLING EVIDENCE for FAITH.
When the author of Hebrews 11:1 penned these words – one sentence – He did so during a time when faith was being challenged by tough life circumstances. Today, it is the same. We are so weary of this pandemic and its effects on every aspect of our lives. This brilliant Bible writer’s voice still resonates down the centuries. His message? Hold onto your faith in God. The verdict of TRUSTWORTHY is based on the EVIDENCE OF THE AGES. He will deliver us both in this world and in the one to come. Remember the Cross and all the other evidence and be at peace. Our reasons for Faith are rock solid.
Very good, counselor!